Bayou Shifters: Chase

by Kira Stone

The other men laughed as the first lash struck Chase’s skin. “Ow! Sheriff, aren’t you going to stop him?”

  “I protect people,” O’Grady said, amused. “You need someone from PETA to save your sorry hide. Not that it would do any good. Ain’t no law on the books about huntin’ and killin’ demon spawn.”

  The belt-whip cracked again, and this time Chase’s response was a low growl that sounded a little too real.

  Stay calm, Chase. Trust me.

  “Bastards! This is illegal. You can’t do this!” Chase protested.

  “Maybe you’d like to make a deal instead,” O’Grady offered.

  “What kind of deal?”

  “See, freak of nature or not, it’s not you I’m really interested in. I know that black mutt of yours is around here somewhere. If you turn him over to me, I’ll let you go free. How does that sound?”

  “Like a fucking trap that’ll snare both of us,” Chase replied. “No deal.”

  “Markum, change his mind.”

  The blows came heavy and often. Casper was close enough to smell the blood that now streaked Chase’s thighs, chest and back. Being naked, he had no protection at all from the sting of the leather, and Markum was damn good with his weapon. Casper longed to rip the man’s throat out, but he couldn’t. Not yet. Maybe if he could take out one of the other men, O’Grady would be willing to trade…

  Chase hurled curses as he took the abuse, but he couldn’t hold out forever. The wolf in him was clawing to break free, to fight and protect. The same things Casper was feeling as he listened to his lover suffer. So as soon as he saw an opening, Casper leapt from the woods, hitting the larger of the two sidekicks square in the chest. Together they toppled off the back of the pontoon boat and sank into the black murky water.

  Bullets zipped through the water as Casper swam to shore with the leg of his thrashing victim clenched in his jaws. Behind him, a slew of phrases were hurled at him.

  “Casper, no! Run!” Chase shouted.

  “Damn, water’s too dark to see him,” Markum complained.

  O’Grady said, “Stop shooting. I want him alive.”

  “Danny! Danny!” his buddy wailed.

  Casper shifted to human form as he climbed out, dragging his bounty up on shore behind him. The man was hardly fighting him at all now, and it only took a single glance to tell him why. One of Markum’s bullets had found a home, in the guy’s chest. Blood pumped out in thick rivulets and a red froth was forming around his mouth. Danny wouldn’t be breathing much longer.

  “Casper, get out of here!”

  “Shut up, you worthless mutt,” Markum said, kicking Chase in the head.

  The man-pup grunted and fell silent. Casper vowed to make the man pay for that.

  “I’ll offer you the same terms I gave your pathetic pet. Your life for his,” O’Grady said to Casper, his gray eyes now steel cold.

  “He’s not even trained yet. Hardly a worthy trade,” Casper replied as he tried to marshal his hate and fear into productive thought. Without a hostage to barter with, he was in as much trouble as Chase.

  “Danny! Oh, Danny. You’ve killed him,” Danny’s buddy cried.

  “Stop his bitching, would you?” O’Grady ordered.

  Markum nodded, a grin splitting his face to show two rows of yellow, crooked teeth. “My pleasure, boss.”

  Two shots were all it took, one to ensure Danny wasn’t going to rise from the dead and another to make sure his buddy couldn’t complain about it. Markum kicked the second corpse off the boat into the water. “Gators are going to eat good tonight.”

  Casper kept his eyes locked on O’Grady. They were now two against two. Then again, Chase could be unconscious — or worse — from that blow to the head. Casper decided to act as if he were on his own.

  The sheriff had taken a point near the controls of his boat. No doubt his service weapon was stashed nearby. “Now, where were we? Oh yes, negotiating a trade. I think I’ve changed my mind. We’ll take both of you.”

  “Why bother with him when it’s me you really want?” Casper asked, hoping there was still a chance he could keep Chase out of it.

  “He’s important to you. I might find that useful.”

  “The pup means nothing to me. Hell, he’s barely housetrained.”

  “Seen you fuckin’.” Markum grabbed his own balls in a crude gesture. “Fucking faggots.”

  “If liking a partner was a requirement for sex, you’d never get any, Markum,” Casper taunted.

  “Queer bastard, I’m gonna rip out your dick and feed it to you one bite at a time. Bet I could hardly call it a snack, eh?”

  O’Grady’s lips curled in a smirk, but he put his hand out to stop Markum’s quips. “Bind the young one and cut him down. Then we’ll see just how much Casper cares about his friend.”

  Casper didn’t dare risk trying to talk to Chase directly. Any form of contact would betray his true feelings. He was pretty sure O’Grady was just playing another game with him. After all, Casper wouldn’t have put himself in danger by trying to free him in the first place if Chase truly meant so little to him, and they both knew it. This was just another way of drawing out the game, of torturing Casper a little longer. Casper was willing to play as it bought Chase more time to recover.

  Duct tape bound Chase’s arms to his torso. Another length taped his thighs together. Then Markum used a big knife to cut the rope holding Chase aloft. They hadn’t bothered to reposition the boat. Instead of falling into it, Chase hit the corner with his shoulder and fell over the side, into the water.

  Chase! There was no way on earth Casper could have prevented that noise from escaping his throat as he watched his lover’s body sink under the murky water.

  And when it failed to rise to the surface, cold rage took control of his body.

  Chapter 12 — Some Things Are Worth Fighting For

  Chase swam under the boat, undulating his body in a porpoise kick. The water stung his fresh wounds, but not enough to slow him down. He wasn’t alone down there. Besides the man who had been executed for having the guts to care about his friend, there were a few alligators cruising by to see what all the fuss was about. He didn’t have time to worry about them. He turned his focus inward and shifted, fueling the change with his towering rage.

  Once his muzzle had formed and the tape had fallen off, he lifted his nose above the water at the back of the pontoon boat and sipped in several deep breaths. Though the water distorted the sound, he could hear Casper and the sheriff arguing.

  Announcing his freedom didn’t seem like a good idea, but getting a little revenge did. Getting his captors to join him in the water was the first step. He raked the aluminum shafts with his powerful claws, opening up big rents in the side. He came up for air under the deck of the boat, then went down again, swimming forward to the next sealed compartment of the air-filled tube.

  The noise above grew louder and bullets sizzled through the water once again, but not close enough to distract him. The damaged floats were starting to take on water though, and the boat canted. Chase hit one more section for good measure before shifting back to human form. Though his toes were precariously close to the toothy mouths of the ancient reptiles, he needed human arms to capsize the boat.

  He never got the chance. A savage growl preceded a large splash. More bullets entered the water, one of them finding a home in his thigh. He roared in pain, only to take in a mouthful of dirty water. Then the boat engine turned over and he had to dive to avoid being cut in half by the enormous rotating blades.

  Being face to face with an alligator didn’t appeal to him any better. He frantically kicked his way to the surface, each movement of his leg creating a burst of searing pain.

  Coughing to clear his lungs, he tried to make sense of the scene around him. The injured pontoon boat had been beached on the muddy shore. The sheriff had jumped onto the ground and seemed to be trying to push the boat back into the swamp. A few feet away, two men wrestled on the surface of the water. Ch
ase was torn. Did Casper need help or should he try to stop O’Grady from escaping?

  The boat deck became submerged and the sheriff disappeared into the woods. He carried his right arm at an odd angle, as if it were broken. Chase started to gather the will to change form once more — he could run much faster as a wolf — but then he heard Casper call out to him. “Chase, no. He’s mine!”

  Chase didn’t see a sign of the other man as Casper started swimming for the shore. Since he had a shorter distance to go, Chase made it there first. They both dropped to the ground to shift, but Chase collapsed as soon as he tried to stand on all four paws. Apparently while what he wore on his body, human or lupine, got left behind during a shift, what he had in his body did not. The bullet was still lodged in his thigh, and his back leg couldn’t bear his weight.

  His soft whine halted Casper in his tracks. You’re hurt?

  Go on. Get O’Grady.

  Let me see.

  Chase tried to back up, but couldn’t do more than drag himself a few inches. Casper jumped across the distance that separated them. One look at the painful hole had him howling mad. Anger made his hackles quiver.

  I’ll be fine. You have to stop the sheriff. And the other one… what happened to him?

  Casper blurred, then stood before him naked, and sexy, and mad as hell. “Markum is dead. Ripped out his throat. O’Grady will be too, once I get my teeth in his neck.”

  Exhaustion settled on Chase like a ton of bricks. The adrenaline surge was wearing off, and as mad as he was, he couldn’t summon the energy to revert to his human body. Still, he saw no reason to hold Casper back from his mission. Go then. I’ll wait —

  “Shut. The. Fuck. Up.” He scooped Chase up in his strong arms and took off in the opposite direction from the sheriff.

  Wait —

  “Don’t argue with me or I’ll throw your carcass in the swamp and let the alligators have you for dinner too.”

  Though his arms were gentle, his tone vibrated with anger. Chase didn’t understand why Casper would be so angry with him. Okay, so maybe he should have been more aware of his surroundings. In wolf form, he probably would have avoided the simple trap. As a man, it simply didn’t occur to him to look for it.

  Since it didn’t seem like a good time to dig into Casper’s mood, he settled his muzzle in the crook of Casper’s arm and let sleep claim him.

  *

  A day later they were still not on speaking terms. Martin had removed the bullet and closed the wound. A few extra meals and the magical healing powers of a shifter helped improve his strength and hastened his healing, but Martin ordered him to confine himself to the lab for a few days. Casper had no such restrictions, and so he spent the majority of his time in the bayou, doing heaven only knew what. That gave Chase a lot of time to think and little time to ask the mountain of questions tumbling through his mind.

  Finally, he decided to approach Martin to demand some answers. He found the doctor in the lab. He had a slide under the microscope, but instead of staring at it the blank wall seemed to require his complete concentration.

  “Hey,” Chase said softly, to get his attention.

  Martin dredged up a weak smile. “Hey yourself. Feeling any better?”

  “The leg is fine, but I’d like to ask you something.”

  Martin nodded as if he’d been expecting it. “You want to know what Casper’s problem is.”

  “Yeah, I do. I thought things were going good between us, but now he won’t even spend five minutes in the same room with me.”

  “I’d say what the two of you went through yesterday was bound to change a few things.”

  “Why should it?” Most of the events after his capture were blurry. He couldn’t forget about getting shot; the ache in his leg was a constant reminder. The rest of it though, it faded in comparison to the time they’d spent making love. That’s what mattered to him. That’s what he wanted Casper to acknowledge and focus on.

  “Maybe because your actions almost got both of us killed,” Casper said, standing in the doorway.

  “I think this is my cue to leave,” Martin said, turning off the microscope. “Try not to put any more gaping holes in your hide. I’m out of sutures.” He brushed close to Casper on his way out and murmured, “Play nice.”

  Casper didn’t acknowledge him as he left. He crossed his arms over his chest and said, “You’re out of bed.”

  “So are you.” Unclothed too. The dim lighting made his sculpted body look like a golden statue. Automatically Chase’s mind kicked over into artist mode, choosing the right metals and the right curves to capture his lover’s raw beauty. Chase longed to run his hands over Casper’s magnificent form, and would have if he thought Casper wouldn’t bite him for it. Since he looked ready to rip into him, Chase restrained himself.

  “I’m not recovering from a bullet wound.”

  “Would you rather I didn’t?”

  “What?”

  “Would you be happier if I didn’t recover?”

  “Stupid question,” Casper muttered. He turned on his heel to leave the room.

  Chase hobbled after him, determined to get answers. “You won’t talk to me. Hell, you won’t even look at me most of the time. What am I supposed to think?”

  “This conversation is over.”

  Casper shifted, as if it were easier to pretend Chase didn’t exist in his lupine world. Maybe he didn’t belong there any more. But if that were the case, Chase wanted to know why. He deserved to know.

  As the black beast trotted down to the room to where they normally slept, Chase limped after him. Since Casper couldn’t close the door in his face, Chase followed him in and continued talking. “You convinced me to stay when I wanted to run off. You fought my fear of becoming a werewolf, and helped me through the transition. In the past month you’ve been my friend, my mentor and, finally, my lover. Now, you’re turning your back on me as if none of that means a thing to you and I want to know why.”

  Casper settled his muzzle on top of his paws and feigned sleep.

  “Was I not brave enough? Did I break some obscure code of lupine honor? Tell me, Casper, what did I do to make you so angry?”

  Leave me be, he barked out.

  “No, not until you answer me.” Chase’s leg was throbbing now but it was nothing compared to the painful ache in his chest. He really thought he had something special with Casper. What had gone so wrong? “Do you blame me for the deaths of those men? Is that what you can’t get over?”

  The wolf didn’t make a sound.

  “O’Grady escaped. Is that the problem? Are you pissed because I prevented you from hunting down your prey?”

  You broke your promise to me, Casper replied in the manner of wolves.

  That was so not the answer Chase was expecting. He could only gape at his lover.

  You have your answer. Now go.

  Chapter 13 — Love Conquers All

  Casper wished with all his heart that Chase would give up this stupid need to understand him and leave. He didn’t want to discuss the issue. He wanted Chase to heal, then get the hell out of his life. Going after O’Grady was a death wish, but Casper saw no other future for himself. Chase had been right about making O’Grady pay for his crimes. The time had finally come, even if Casper died in the process. Without Chase — and he couldn’t bear to watch the man throw himself into harm’s way time and time again — his life didn’t matter to him anymore.

  “What are you talking about?” Chase asked him.

  I’ve said enough.

  “Oh, no you haven’t. Not by a long shot.” Chase slipped off the edge of the bed and grabbed the back of Casper’s neck. “Explain what you mean by that.”

  Anger boiled inside him, and for the first time in decades, he lost control over his form. As he gained the use of his arms, he batted Chase’s hand away. “You don’t even remember, do you? You promised you wouldn’t go after the poachers on your own.” He started pacing the short length of the room. Two stride
s, turn. Two strides, turn.

  “I didn’t,” Chase protested.

  “Right. So why then were you down by the water? You knew they’d been there just a few hours before, setting traps. What did you think you were going to do? Ask them politely to go away?”

  “No, I was just —”

  “Just what? Gonna spring their traps? They aren’t boy scouts trying to earn a merit badge. They’re dangerous men. I warned you, but you wouldn’t listen.” He’d spent more time talking to Chase in the past month than he’d talked to anyone else, including Martin, in the last decade. But now that the words were flowing, he couldn’t seem to stop. “You could have died last night. And for what? So ancient predators who’d managed to survive just fine without you for centuries could continue to reproduce and thrive in a little corner of this huge swamp? Sounds like a pretty poor reason to die to me.”

  “I wasn’t —”

  “Going to live once O’Grady got his hands on you? Yes, I know. I know that very well. How do you think I got these scars?” He gestured toward the rigid, bumpy flesh that marred his face and neck. “The good sheriff knows what we are, and takes pleasure in hunting us as if we were big game. But he doesn’t just kill his prey in cold blood as he had done with those men. No, O’Grady likes to watch us suffer first. He claims he’s trying to cast out the demon spirit that gives us our power, but in reality he just likes watching things suffer.”

  “I know —”

  “You don’t know shit, Chase. You barely know enough about being a wolf to survive in the woods for a few days. You sure as hell don’t know what to do with a master predator like O’Grady. So forgive me if I don’t support your quest to challenge him on behalf of the living suitcases in the swamp. I know how that’s likely to turn out, and I’d rather not watch you die.” As if the memory had awakened all the old pain, Casper fingered the scars that marred his face. “Or worse, live with the pain of what he’s done to you.”

  “I have no —”

  “Damn right you have no —”

  “Will you please let me finish one goddamn sentence!”

  Their heavy breathing was the only sound in the small chamber for the next few minutes. Finally Chase got to his feet and put himself in Casper’s path. “I didn’t break my promise to you. I went to the water to clean up. I was so wrapped up in my feelings for you, in having your scent on my body, that I failed to notice anything else.” Chase poked Casper’s chest with his finger to emphasize his point. “I’m guilty of being in love with you, you stupid jerk. That’s all.”