Hercules looked back to make sure Adam wasn’t causing trouble, but he was still out cold. He saw Hera and her family watching from the broken window, but he didn’t care what they thought of him.
These bears had tried to claim his mate. Tried to force his mate. He couldn’t think of anything until they were down for the count.
He snarled and took Bentley by the throat as the bear stumbled toward him, still unwilling to give up. He wrestled the other bear down, swiping at him with powerful claws until he was bloody and raw, barely able to struggle. Then he held his teeth over Bentley’s throat, letting him know he was ready to give the final blow. He looked into Bentley’s eyes, waiting for any sign of surrender. But the other bear still looked stubborn and wild.
Hercules stared at the bear. Despite everything that had happened, he still felt no urge to kill him. He took a step back from him, letting him rise slightly in front of the tree trunk.
Then, as Bentley’s bear tried to stumble forward, Hercules pulled back his paw into a fist and sent it flying forward into Bentley’s face, knocking him back into the tree with a loud crack that resounded through the air around them.
Bentley fell to the side, finally out.
Hercules stepped back, adrenaline still thrumming through him. He surveyed the grounds around him. Bentley down. Adam down. Hera safe. Family staring. Broken window.
Ugh. His triumph came crashing down around him as he realized what they’d all seen. He’d torn off his own door, cracked their marble, torn off her door.
And looking at her, holding her robe together and staring at him as she climbed down over the window ledge to run over to him, he knew he’d do it all over again in a second.
She ran to him, and he transformed as he fell into her arms. Not caring that he was naked, but not wanting his claws and his bear near her now soft, human form.
She put her arms around him as he sank to the ground. He wasn’t tired from the fight, just the adrenaline. The worry of something happening to her. The absolute deathly fear when he’d seen someone sneaking into her room.
He put his hand in his hair and felt himself shaking as he put the other arm around her.
But she was safe. That was all that mattered. As long as that was true, anything else could be worked out.
He heard the others approach and couldn’t even look up. Her dad was probably furious. He’d probably say a sane person would have been able to stop the bad guys without breaking the house. But Hercules didn’t care. He could say what he wanted.
But when the group got to them, he was surprised to see Rob simply drop a robe over Hercules’s shoulders and then step back without saying anything.
Everyone was quiet for a moment, not knowing what to say. Then Rob looked at Bentley and Adam and turned into his bear, a large, dark, shaggy grizzly. “Time to clean up,” he said. “Dear, will you help me get them into the shed so we can call the authorities… and their parents?”
May nodded and shifted, too. True to full-blood bears, they were both large and regal, and together, they started dragging the unconscious bears to a nearby shed.
Dean was still standing there, watching everything. Hercules looked up at him with tired eyes.
“Thanks for the help,” he said.
“Not like you needed it,” Dean retorted.
“I meant with keeping the others out of the way,” Hercules said, waving a hand. He kept Hera against him with the other. He didn’t think he could ever let go after this.
Her blond hair was mussed from the fight, her blue eyes concerned as she checked him over to make sure he was all right. She was safe. That feeling was the best in the world. He was just glad he’d been here.
“I’m sorry, girl,” he said. “But I think you’re stuck with me. I may be some messed-up experiment. I may be some kind of monster. But the more I think about it, the more I think this monster is meant to be with you. To protect you. I have to protect you.” He put her hand over his heart. “See what you do to me?”
She nodded and laughed. “I see.” She shook her head as her parents approached again, wearing robes they must have gotten in the shed after shifting back into humans. “You destroyed my family’s house trying to get to me.”
He nodded. “I’d destroy a city if I needed to.”
She brushed his hair back with a grin. “I believe you.”
“He could probably do it, too,” Dean said, matter-of-fact.
Hera and Hercules turned to face him. “Just what makes you so confident in me?” Hercules snapped. “I’m getting a little tired of you acting like you know things about me, but not saying what they are or how you know them.”
Rob took a step forward, folding his arms. “I’ve been feeling there was something weird about you, too.” Then he looked down at Hercules. “And what’s this about being an experiment? Will someone tell me what’s going on?”
Hera looked at Hercules. She was giving him permission to say or not say what he wanted. But Hercules thought of Bronson’s advice. That secrets only have power in the dark. Time to burn them in the light.
“Just what I said. I’m an experiment. Made in a lab. No history to speak of. And when I was freed, I went into the military. It was a good fit for my… talents. But I have no idea who I am. I have nothing to offer your daughter in the way of good breeding. I don’t even know what I am.”
He stroked Hera’s hair back. “Except in love with your daughter. I’ll do what I have to in order to keep her safe. But I’m not leaving her side again.”
Hera hugged him. “That’s all I wanted.”
He felt relief move over him. It was even better than he’d imagined. And now that the secret was out, it didn’t have any power over him. He didn’t care what people said. What people knew. It was like breaking out from under an icy lake and out into the fresh air.
He could breathe out here.
He held his mate. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to mate,” he said. “But if we need to use protection, so be it. I’ll keep you safe. I’ll do more to find out what I am. Somehow, it’ll work out.”
“I think I can help with that,” Dean said, stepping forward with a card in his hand.
Hercules blinked up at him in shock. He’d almost forgotten the other man was there, despite his beef with him. He took the card and looked down.
The name of a private investigator and an agency was on it.
“What the hell is this?” Hercules asked.
Dean folded his arms. “Maybe we should talk in private.” He gave Hercules a meaningful stare. “It’s about your family.”
Chapter 16
Hercules gaped at the man in front of him. How the hell would he have info even the dragons hadn’t been able to give him?
“I’m afraid I can’t say it here,” Dean said. “The level of information I’m giving could be dangerous. If anything, the only person you’ll ever be able to share it with is a mate. The people this involves have a vested interest in nobody knowing.”
“This is my mate and her family,” Hercules said. “I’m tired of secrets. Anything I can know, they can know.”
Rob put his hands up. “If we can’t know, we can’t know,” he said. “Honestly, I don’t care if you were born in a test tube. I don’t care if you’re descended from a snail. Anyone willing to go that far for my daughter, anyone who can fight that hard for her, is fine in my book.” He put a hand on Hercules’s shoulder and looked him hard in the eye. “Now don’t go and screw it up.”
He put an arm around May. “We’re going inside to make some calls. When you’re ready, we can talk.” He gave Hercules an apologetic look. “And I’m sorry for misjudging you. After yesterday, seeing Valerie in the pond… I overreacted. I hope I can make it up to you.”
Hercules shrugged. “Forgive me for destroying your house and we’re square.”
“Done,” Rob said. “Nothing matters compared to Valerie.”
Hera, for her part, looked happy. Her parents disappeared into the
house, leaving the three of them alone
The night was quiet around them, and Dean put his hands in his pockets. “You want to talk out here?” he asked.
Hercules shook his head. “Let’s go up to my room.”
He pulled the robe Rob had given him fully on and tied the belt, then took Hera by the hand to follow Dean into the house. She raised an eyebrow at the dent in the marble and then the broken bannister and then the door that had nearly come off the hinges on Hercules’s guest room.
Dean sighed. “That’s all going to make a lot more sense in a moment.”
Hera shook her head. “These doors were made extra strong and reinforced for shifters so we couldn’t carelessly yank them off hinges.” She raised an eyebrow at Hercules. “You are abnormal.” When he ruffled at that, she grinned. “Perfectly so.”
He just shrugged and gently pushed her into the room ahead of him. His heart was pounding just wondering what Dean was going to say. He’d long given up on finding anything out about himself. The dragons had said if they couldn’t identify it, no one could. That it was something he shouldn’t even try to mess in.
“I’m just a bear shifter, like you,” Dean said, sitting on the windowsill to face them as Hercules sat on the bed with his mate. “But I was hired by a family to find you. A family I know through my mother, who was involved with them at one point.” He handed Hercules a photo of a woman with gorgeous, thick brown hair, somewhat like Hercules’s. Hercules felt his throat tighten.
“You do have two types of blood in you,” Dean said. “But you weren’t an experiment. You were used in experiments, but you were born in a normal way.”
Hercules just stared at him. How was that possible? If that was true, why had he grown up in a dark cell in some scientist’s basement?
“My mother was never supposed to be involved with the man she was involved with. Shifters like him, they stay to their own. She was never supposed to get pregnant. When she did, she feared what would happen and ran from him.” Dean handed him a picture of the same woman, glowing and pregnant. “You’re part of a mystery I’ve been trying to solve all my life. Where my missing half-brother went.”
“Then what is my other half?” Hercules asked. “Do you know my father?”
Dean shook his head. “But I know your other half-brothers now. You do as well, though you may not know it. But I’m not allowed to disclose their identities yet.”
“So what happened to me, then?” he asked.
“Your dad eventually tracked down your mother. When he found out she was pregnant, he was worried about the implications of what would happen when you were born. As I said, they were never meant to be together. They sought out scientists who could help at the birth. But because they had to hide it from those in charge, they sought out shady ones.”
Hercules put a hand to his head. He didn’t like where this was going.
“The scientists insisted on being at the birth, just in case. Even though everything went fine and the birth was easy. But they convinced your mom and dad to give you up for adoption. They said you’d put both of them in danger and eventually, the wrong people would come for you. Both of them were naive and young, and they truly didn’t believe anything would happen to you. I know my mother always believed you’d been adopted by a caring family.” Dean frowned. “I’m glad she died without knowing what really happened. The scientists had found a fake family that they never used. As you know, you ended up in a lab.”
“So they didn’t stay together?” Hercules asked.
“No,” Dean said. “Your father went back to his world so they would never find out he’d broken a rule.”
“So what am I?” Hercules asked impatiently.
“I’m getting there,” Dean said.
“I don’t see why I couldn’t just have been told this when you got here.”
“I had to confirm who you were,” Dean said. “Not only that, but you had to show evidence of being a descendent of this race before I was authorized to say anything. You see, I was at a dead end originally, unable to figure out what had happened. But then I was contacted one day by a noted celebrity. He said his dad had known my mom, and they were looking for a possible adopted half-sibling. And asked if I knew where he was.”
“But you didn’t,” Hera said, as wrapped up in the mystery as Herc was.
“No, but once I knew what the other side of your DNA was, I simply had to search records for someone like you. Someone incredible.”
“And what am I?” Hercules asked.
Dean reached out to point at Hercules’s hair. “It’s all in the mane.”
“The hell?” Hercules said, looking at it.
“But you should know, if dragons are the enforcers of the shifter world, then lions are basically the gods. And if you tell anyone about this outside of your mate and her family, there are dire repercussions.”
“Lions?” he scoffed. “There aren’t any lions. Trust me; if there were any cats like that, I’d have met them in the military.”
Dean shook his head. “They aren’t in the military. They’re in politics, or Hollywood, or anywhere high up where no one would expect a shifter. They are the ones who got me into the circles where I could meet Valerie’s dad, since I knew you two were involved. When I came here, I expected to be able to interview her. I didn’t expect you to come.”
“Lucky,” Hercules said.
“Yeah,” Dean said. “But anyway. Lions. They’re stronger than other shifters. And they’re hidden from other shifters. Even the dragons aren’t aware of them. They get orders through unseen channels that they assume are other dragons.”
“What makes a lion so different from a cougar or any other shifter cat?”
“All shifter cats are strong,” Dean said. “That’s why they can hide their scent, unlike any other shifter. But lions are in a class all their own. Extremely hidden, extremely powerful. As you just proved when you tore down half this building.”
“That’s an exaggeration,” Hercules said. But even now, it was all making sense. How easy things had been physically. How he’d always been able to do what was needed in any situation. “So am I going to meet my brothers?”
Dean nodded. “Eventually. I’ll need to get back and report to them. I should amend what I said earlier. Lions are godlike in their power, but some of them are pure assholes. Even if they are your half-brothers, you may not want to meet them.” He stood and walked in front of Hercules and extended a hand to him. “But I’m always here if you want some family.”
Hercules pulled Dean in for a quick hug. It was odd knowing he wasn’t alone. That he was connected to something.
“I’ll have more questions for you,” he told Dean as the other man pulled back.
Dean nodded, handing him another card. “Here’s my number. I’m here to talk whenever. Is it okay if I tell your family I found you?”
Hercules nodded and then thought about it. “If it’s okay, can you wait until I’m back in New York?” He looked softly at Hera. “I have other things to take care of while I’m here.”
Dean nodded.
Hera just seemed stunned into silence. She nodded mutely as Dean dismissed himself, leaving them alone in his room.
“So… you weren’t grown in a tube, then,” she said.
“No,” he said, feeling blank with shock. He was pleased, but it almost felt like a dream he was about to wake up from.
But everything made sense. How sometimes he had felt this power inside him that scared him in its unfamiliarity. How Dean had acted like he knew him.
How he’d always been strong.
“Given the lion connection, I guess it makes your name all the more ironic,” Hera said weakly, her hand lightly covering his knee.
“Yeah,” Hercules said. “Damn.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t even know what to say. Wait, I have one more question.”
He ran out of the bedroom and yelled for Dean, who was just going out the front door. “Wait!”
/> Dean turned back.
“So my mother, she was fine after the birth?”
Dean nodded. “She said you were perfect.” Then he lifted a hand and waved. “See you later.”
Hercules put a hand up weakly and then let it drop. Then he walked back in with Hera, who was sitting thoughtfully on the bed with her arms around her knees.
“I’m going to want to go back to New York,” he said, looking over at her. “I’m going to want to get into work and meet my family there.”
She nodded at him.
“And then, if you want, we can come back and run your father’s business. If you can be patient with me for a few years first.”
“Of course,” she said, jumping into his arms. “Of course I can. So does this mean…”
“Be my mate?” he asked with a grin. “I was ready to ask you from the minute I burst down that door. But now that I know there’s no danger in making it real… now that I know there’s no monster inside me…”
“Oh, there’s a monster,” she said, drawing a finger down his chest. “My monster.”
He grinned and kissed the top of her head. “Want to make that official?”
“Of course,” she said, reaching up to entwine her arms around his neck for a kiss. “As soon as possible, please.”
Hercules didn’t think anyone should be allowed to be as happy as he was in that moment.
He bent down to kiss his mate.
Chapter 17
Hera looked up into her mate’s face, seeing such a difference in his expression.
He’d always been strong, but she was amazed by how he kept growing at every moment, first by being brave enough to tell her about his past, then brave enough to save her, and then brave enough to stay.
It validated what she’d always felt in her heart. That he’d never truly be able to leave her.
She watched as he walked to the doorframe and fixed the door as best he could so it at least gave them full privacy and was in the frame. She doubted anyone but him could move it if they wanted to.
Bear-ly Human (Bear Claw Security Book 4) Page 12