When Harley squeezed his hand back, Benny felt a rush of calm and excitement at the same time, and his heart beat in his chest with adolescent nervousness.
It was like dating his childhood crush, with all of the awkward ups and downs and anticipation waiting for the next thing.
Well, it was dating his childhood crush.
Maaaaaate, Benny heard a sinister voice rumble in the back of his skull, a voice only he knew and only he recognized.
And that he despised with all his being.
“So what do you think so far?” Benny asked, trying to distract himself from the stirring of his beast deep within him.
“It’s… nice,” Harley said, looking around at the aged but well-kept surroundings. “I’ve known about this place for years but never had the guts to go on my own. I guess it was something that was always hopefully a you-and-me thing. Does that make sense?”
Benny nodded. “Yeah, I get that.”
But the sense of warm satisfaction that felt like a lamplight in his soul was pierced by the sudden feeling of something, someone watching him.
Watching them.
Instinctively, Benny looked over one shoulder then the other, searching quickly while still trying to appear subtle.
The only thing that looked back was a toucan, who cocked his head side to side, then flitted off to the other side of its enclosure.
“Everything okay over there, big guy?” Harley asked, blinking up at him.
“Yeah, just making sure I didn’t make a wrong turn back there,” he replied, trying to hide the nervous feeling crawling under his skin.
“No biggie. As small as this place is, we’re bound to run into it eventually, even if we walk around in circles.”
Benny tried to just relax, soaking in the cool spring sun and doing his best to not take too many glances over at Harley. Man, just the sight of her made him want to do more things like they’d done last night. He wanted to taste her skin on his lips, run his fingers through her hair, press her body into his…
Then he felt it again. Like someone was standing right behind him, staring into the back of his head. Benny glanced as quickly as he could, trying to not alert Harley, trying to find some explanation for the uncanny sensation.
But again, nothing.
“Well, here we are!” Harley said, gesturing with her free arm as they passed under a big wooden sign.
A sign pointed to the right, indicating the wolf and cougar enclosures. To the left, black and grizzly bears.
Benny knew which way Harley wanted to go.
Ever since he’d told her he was a shifter, back when they were children, Harley had been completely fascinated with anything and everything bear-related.
It wasn’t until later that he’d found out it was incredibly taboo to tell a human about such things unless they were mated, but Harley, true to form, had maintained her unfailing integrity and kept it to herself.
“We should get a place like this where we can throw any assholes who act out at the club,” Harley said, coming up to the cement railing that overlooked the grizzly’s pen. Thankfully, the area was nice and large, with plenty of shade, though the big brown bear was availing himself of the sun, napping on a grassy patch at the center.
“His name is Boss. It says here he was a rescue from a circus act a while ago. Looks like he’s enjoying himself,” Benny said, reading the descriptive placard as he sidled up alongside Harley. And when her shoulder nestled into his side, allowing him to wrap his arm around her, Benny could swear he’d died and gone to heaven.
For several minutes, they just rested, enjoying the moment of physical contact, and Benny wondered what it would be like to be a bear not too unlike this one here. To just be a normal shifter who could live a normal life, find a mate, have a family.
Instead of having an evil monster living inside him that had a tendency to ruin things, his hopes and dreams included.
Suddenly, a half-eaten soft pretzel flew into the enclosure, bumping the grizzly on the nose and waking him from his slumber.
“Wake up, dumb bear!” someone exclaimed off to their right, disturbing the relative silence Benny, Harley, and Boss had just been enjoying.
Benny looked over and saw three adolescents, basically kids, who couldn’t be more than eighteen or nineteen. One of them lobbed a can of something at the bear, and Benny could smell the booze on them even from this distance.
Was life so inane that getting drunk in the middle of the day and bugging zoo animals was the only way to have fun? Benny didn’t think so.
Boss was now pacing on all fours, growling in annoyance as the youths attempted to egg him on, and Benny debated intervening or if he should tell someone and let the park managers handle it.
“Be less boring!” another one said, pulling something off a heavy keychain. This time when they tossed it, it knocked poor Boss near the eye, and he scratched at it, getting angrier by the moment.
“Hey, cut that out,” Harley called at them from across the semicircular enclosure.
“Shut up, ginger,” the one girl of the group shouted back, clearly half drunk.
By now, Benny—and Boss too—had had enough. He turned on the tiny trio, stomping toward them, not waiting to see what other insults they had in mind for Harley.
In childhood, Harley had caught more than enough shit to last several lifetimes. He wasn’t going to let anyone insult her, even if they were barely adults.
Like fruit flies, they dispersed in an inebriated retreat, tripping over themselves and scattering snacks as they went, and Benny ceased his advance, satisfied that at least the point was made but angered for the many times he’d seen insults given but never answered.
“Oh, look at that, a wild pack of hyenas running at the slightest sign of danger,” Harley said, coming up to Benny from behind, and he turned back to face her.
“I wasn’t going to hurt them,” Benny clarified, pulling her into a hug, loving the way her soft body enmeshed with his. The whole thing made him uneasy, made him feel a little off-kilter. But having Harley by his side made all the difference.
“Of course not. But I don’t think they meant any harm. I mean, we were young once too.” Around them, people from different areas came up to the bear enclosure, brought in probably by the commotion and the fact that the bear was now awake.
“Not like that, we weren’t,” he said, looking back over his shoulder at the last glimpse of the kids as they disappeared around a corner. “Besides, I’m only thirty, and you make it sound like our golden years are already behind us.”
“You know what I mean. Young young.”
Suddenly, a loud roar rent the air, and they both looked down to see Boss glaring up at them.
No, glaring up at Benny.
Instantly, all the hairs on Benny’s neck stood on end, his muscles tensing in his arms and legs. Boss snarled, pacing furiously as his big black claws dug into the soft earth beneath him.
But Boss wasn’t the only thing pacing back and forth. Something inside Benny was awake as well.
“We should probably go,” he said nervously. It was like Boss could sense another apex predator on his turf as he huffed, his big black eyes wide with anger. He didn’t even blink, eyes locked directly on Benny.
And like a dumb, violent idiot, Benny’s inner dire bear didn’t know when to just call it quits and chill.
“You all right?” Harley asked, sensing Benny’s sudden change in mood.
But when he looked to their side, a wall of tourists pressed closer to surround them, snapping photos and taking videos, everyone excited to see the formerly lazy bear suddenly up and at ‘em for no reason.
Well, Benny knew the reason.
He was the reason.
Dammit, they needed to get out of here before he got too close to shifting. Panicked, Benny looked past the group of onlookers crowding him and Harley.
It was only then that he could make out a form, incredibly tall, standing beyond the crowd, wearing all black
with a hood that covered his features from view. The man (or at least he gave the impression of a man) just stood there, arms folded, watching from afar, only further riling the beast inside Benny.
When he turned back to the enclosure, to his dismay, he saw a small door swing open and a young, khaki-clad man stepping inside with the bear, swinging a pail of what looked like fish with him. But as he did, Boss looked over at him, and instantly, the young man knew something was wrong.
Out of nowhere, Boss charged at him before he could get back to the safety of where he’d come in from. The guy abandoned the food and leapt, rolling into the grass as Boss overturned the pail, ignoring it completely.
The big bear, hackles raised and saliva pouring from between his fangs as he bared them at the cornered man, looked ready to pounce at any second.
And then, as if sensing Benny’s eyes back on him, he stepped back, roaring again as if Benny had been doing the same thing back at him.
“We’ve got to do something,” Harley said. “We can’t let him die in there.”
Off to their side, another zoo worker pushed through the crowd, a young woman with black hair, and she gasped as she looked down at the tableau.
“Rick, what’s going on?” she called out. The crowd around them murmured, some of them calling 9-1-1 but most of them locked on their cameras, recording.
“Get Harry. Something’s wrong with Boss. Tell him to bring the tranqs,” poor Rick shouted back, panicked. A second later, the woman disappeared, fighting her way through the crowd.
But it wouldn’t be fast enough. At the sound of Rick’s voice, Boss was bearing down on him again, certain that his caretaker was a threat that needed to be dealt with.
Benny’s heart was slamming against his ribcage, pulsing with fast, heavy beats. There was only one solution, and it was a risky one.
“Whatever happens, don’t follow me. Promise?” Benny said, turning to Harley.
“I promise, but follow you where?” Harley replied, confusion in her beautiful green eyes.
But before she could even fully finish her sentence, Benny leapt over the cement railing, landing at the end of the enclosure into a shallow, artificial stream. His shifter strength made the fifteen-foot drop easy, but it was taking every ounce of energy he had just to keep from shifting at this point.
Unlike regular shifters who could change shape at will, Benny’s dire was like a tidal wave, ready to crash through his consciousness and seize control of his entire being to become a reckless, unstoppable force of destruction.
There was a reason he’d only shifted once in his life. And he intended to keep it that way.
Rick’s eyes widened with shock as he looked past the bear to Benny, and Boss’s eyes followed a split second after, fastening onto Benny’s gaze.
Good bear. Just watch me.
The earth rumbled as Boss whirled around to face Benny, baring gigantic teeth. But Benny just slowly walked forward, not breaking eye contact. One hand was stretched forward, hoping to distract the bear, while his other hand desperately clutched one of Fifi’s pills he’d pulled from his wallet in his back pocket.
He couldn’t shift here. Not just to protect the world from knowledge of shifters, but more importantly, for the safety of all these people, especially Harley.
For a moment, Boss didn’t move. But as Benny came closer, he roared so loud that someone dropped their phone into the enclosure. But neither Benny nor Boss looked over at it.
An answering roar rung in Benny’s mind, so loud it was deafening, even though he knew no other person present could have heard it. It felt like something was crawling under his skin, trying to force its way out in order to protect Benny’s life from the threat of imminent danger.
But he pressed forward, feeling Harley and dozens of other people’s gazes on him. He wanted to look up at her, tell her he had everything under control, but the truth was he wasn’t sure if he did.
Boss snarled one more time, snapping his teeth, and Benny flinched imperceptibly. Not from fear of harm, but from the jolt of his dire banging against the barrier of his mind. He’d never been this close to shifting since the last time, but he wasn’t going to let it happen now.
Short Rick, seeing an opening where the bear wasn’t watching, scurried to the side from behind the bear and fled for the small door he’d come through, probably to grab tranqs.
Then gradually, Boss started to back up as Benny got closer. His snarls became less intense, and his growl slowed until it finally stopped.
“Good bear. Nothing to be afraid of here,” Benny said carefully. He just hoped that whatever animal part of Boss had seen through Benny’s façade to the beast he tried to keep hidden deep inside could look again and just see a normal human.
Or if not that, then realize that Benny’s beast had him outmatched and there was no point trying to pick a fight.
Either way, it seemed to be working.
“You go, dude!” a random person called out, and others shouted agreements.
Then as Boss finally calmed, he slumped back onto his haunches, sitting back as he appraised Benny curiously, every bit the former circus bear that people expected of him. Benny waited a second more, then finally let his hand fall to his side, grateful he’d somehow been able to prevent the worst from happening.
There was a collective cheer as people applauded the display, probably assuming it was some sort of publicity stunt by the zoo. But all Benny cared about was Harley, and he looked up to see her let out a long sigh of relief, shaking her head at him from her place above him.
But his internal relief was marred as he saw a dark form carving through the crowd. The same hooded shape he’d seen a minute ago.
Only it was heading toward Harley.
To his utter shock, the people around didn’t even seem to notice the mysterious, tall person, instead clapping and whistling like nothing was happening.
Benny opened his mouth to say something, to warn her. But just as he did, the shape reached Harley, standing right behind her. It seemed to pause for an infinitesimally short moment, then slid past her like a shadow moving across a wall, making its way past the throng and out of his view.
But as much as the sight unsettled Benny, no one else seemed to even see it. Maybe his eyes were just playing tricks on him, so he ignored it. Just then, several more zoo workers reached the enclosure, and they busied themselves with dispersing the crowd and figuring out what to do with the now-docile Boss.
And Benny just wanted to be back with Harley. He took advantage of the confusion all around him to quickly climb up out of the pit, grab Harley’s hand, and run.
Chapter 9
Harley thought her heart was going to explode as she tried to keep up with Benny, who had much longer legs and was determined to get out of the zoo as quickly as he could.
She finally stopped, hands on her knees, panting. “Sorry, you go without me. I…”
His brows lowered. Then he bent down, motioning her to get on his back.
A piggyback? That hadn’t happened in years. Still…
She grinned as she stepped forward, climbing on. “I hope I don’t weigh too much.”
He scoffed as he stood, easily slipping his arms under her legs and holding her weight as he jogged and then ran toward the entrance. “You’re weightless,” he teased.
She laughed, wrapping her arms around his neck tightly, enjoying his scent as they finally reached the exit to the park.
He set her down as they reached his truck and then helped her into the passenger’s side.
When they were both buckled in and he was pulling out of the parking lot, he let out a frustrated sigh. “I’m sorry about that. Not how I expected our zoo day to end.”
She snorted. “I mean, that didn’t seem like something you could control. That bear was… not happy. Those douchebags.” She reached over to squeeze his knee, trying not to think of the fear she’d felt when he was in that pit.
She’d tried to tell herself that he was
a shifter, that nothing would go wrong, but as much as she trusted Benny, her whole heart had felt like it was vulnerable and exposed, in that pit with him as everyone watched.
She shuddered slightly, and he took her hand. She flushed, remembering how fun it had been to walk with him, sunlight bearing down on them, people all around.
Like they were just a normal couple, when in reality, he was a man who could stare down a bear.
She frowned. “Do bears always react that way to shifters? How come I’ve never seen your bear?”
Benny frowned, keeping his eyes on the road. “Why would I show you that?”
“I don’t know,” Harley said. “Tasha said it’s hard not to shift. Do you really not shift at all?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“It’s complicated,” he said, palming the wheel as they turned into the parking lot of an ice cream place she loved.
She clapped her hands. “Oh, yay. Just what I need to calm down.” She looked at him nervously, allowing her eyes to finally check his entire body. “You sure you’re okay? You’re not hurt from the jump?”
He chuckled as he got out and came around her side to help her down. She didn’t need his help, but she loved the feel of his hands on her waist, lifting her to the ground. “It would take a lot more than a fall like that to hurt me.”
She put an arm around his waist as they walked into the ice cream shop. “Pretty durable, huh?”
He nodded. “That might be the only benefit of what I am.”
They ordered, and Harley laughed at how big Benny’s bowl was compared to hers. She couldn’t possibly eat that much.
When they sat in the booth, they both ate for a moment, letting the cool ice cream soothe them as they looked out the window at the quiet street.
“So does your bear look like Boss does?” She took a spoon of ice cream and held it out for him. His cheeks flushed slightly, but he moved forward, taking the bite.
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