by Celia Kyle
And fuck her, it ran toward her.
Parker took one step and then another, coming nearer. Mia stepped between her and the tiny ball of death.
“Parker, no. We talked about this.”
They’d talked about it? Talked about it? As in the woman knew her kid going batshit was a possibility?
The kid darted around Mia and Lauren spun away, hunting for a place to hide. Her head whipped side to side as she sought a safe haven and found nothing. A big assed bathroom and Van couldn’t have bothered to install a damned linen closet?
The only area with a door was the glass shower. Perfect. She darted for the enclosure, wrenching the door wide, and then tugging it closed behind her. It wouldn’t stop a fifty pound bear, but it’d at least slow it until animal control could tranquilize the thing.
“Mia get help!” she yelled to the other woman who simply stood by while yelling at Parker.
“Darn it all, Parker. Your pop is gonna be angry at you.”
“Angry at him? Angry? Are you fucking kidding me here, Mia?”
The woman spared her a glance. “Language.” She looked to Parker once again. “Parker, you’re being bad. No cookies from Gigi if you don’t stop right this second.”
The kid did not care. The cub threw himself against the glass, banging and shaking the entire enclosure. “The kid doesn’t care about cookies, Mia. Get this science experiment gone wrong away from me.”
The boy-bear snarled and jumped at the door again.
“Crap on a cracker.” Mia disappeared, she bolted out the door, and Lauren heard the rapid thump of her feet striking the ground as she fled.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” The cub paced in front of the shower, snarling now and again as he passed the glass door. “Look, kid. Whatever I did, I’m sorry. Please don’t eat me, okay?” He flashed a fang at her. “Fuck. Me.”
She usually tried to keep her language clean around little ears, but she figured she could be forgiven when the kid in question was trying to eat her.
The pound of feet on carpet overrode Parker’s snarls and Mia slid back into view, a phone clutched in her hand. “Do you see this Parker Abrams, I’m calling your pop right this second.”
Lauren pressed harder against the tiled wall at her back, trying her best to get as far away from the bear as possible. She must have made some sort of sound, or—she’d admit it—whined, because suddenly the kid threw his body against the door again. The glass cracked, a single line bisecting the large sheet.
“Oh shit, oh fuck, oh shit, oh fuck…”
“Language.” Mia pressed the phone to her ear spoke, but Lauren couldn’t hear a word.
Not when the cub threw himself at the door again. Or when the thing shattered against the newest strike. Or when she screamed.
A ball of fur flew toward her, his front legs outstretched, mouth open wide. Distantly, she recognized Mia’s answering yell as well as the woman racing forward.
“Keen!” Mia screamed for one of the other Abrams brothers. What the hell was he gonna do if he wasn’t here?
Another movement near the door caught her attention and a person was on the move. Okay, maybe Keen was nearby.
He soared through the space. One blink and he went from twenty feet away to in front of her. He wrapped one arm around the cub’s middle while he shoved his forearm between Parker’s teeth, giving the kid something to gnaw on.
Fuck, the bear was biting down on Keen’s arm, sinking his small bear teeth into the man’s flesh and blood was everywhere and…
Keen’s eyes met hers. Dark, dangerous, black eyes. Eyes that looked a lot like Parker’s.
“Oh, shit.”
The man wrestled the cub from the room, fighting with it as they finally left the destroyed space. Mia lingered near the sinks, a phone pressed to her ear while she gave Lauren a wide-eyed stare.
A splash of red caught her eye. No, several splashes. The trail of blood from Keen’s wound stained the pale tiles, reminding her of what’d occurred.
“I’m gonna be sick. Or pass out.” Lauren’s stomach churned, making its unhappiness known. “Maybe both.”
Her vision narrowed, the edges dimming, and the full weight of the last few minutes crashed in on her. A boy, who was a bear, and Keen, who had boy-bear’s eyes.
Here. In real life.
She looked to Mia. “I’m passing out first.”
Lauren felt her consciousness flee, the darkness closing in on her.
“You should get here. Fast.”
Lauren wondered who Mia was speaking to. Van? Ty? Martin?
That reminded her about Anna. Lauren hoped the bear didn’t eat her. That would really suck.
* * *
Van didn’t wait for the SUV to stop. Ty had barely tapped the brakes before he burst from the vehicle and raced across the grass. He hit the front porch at a dead run, only slowing to open the door rather than tearing it off its hinges.
The moment he entered his home, he scented blood. The coppery stench overwhelmed him, slamming into him like a bat. Oh, god. Had Parker bitten her? Another bear could live through a werebear bite, but if he got a hold of a human… They took so long to heal.
He drew in another deep breath and sighed in relief. No, it wasn’t Lauren or even Anna. It seemed like his brother Keen took the brunt of the boy’s attack.
Van took a moment to look at the space. There were a few blood stains on the wood, dried droplets. But one thing snared and capture his attention—Keen held a quietly sobbing Parker on his lap. The boy was covered in a blanket, his clothes probably shredded during his shift. Keen’s right arm was a mass of bright pink lines, showing how deep and hard Parker had gone after Lauren.
A shudder overtook him, the feeling of worry and outright fear assaulted him in one overwhelming wave. That could have been Lauren. If Keen hadn’t been there…
“Lauren?” He didn’t disguise his anxiety.
“Your room.” Yelling came from that direction. “With guns from what I hear. Or she’s bluffing.”
Van grimaced. “She’s not bluffing.”
After the trouble with Mia and Parker, he’d added a few firearms to his collection. He hadn’t gotten around to asking Keen to install them throughout the house yet, but it’d been in his plans.
The rapid pounding of Ty’s feet on wood announced his brother’s approach. “Parker? Mia?”
Keen quickly supplied the answers. “Here and back by Van’s bedroom. Lauren’s having difficulty with things and, uh, has a few guns.”
Ty grumbled and growled, fur pushing through his pores and the bones in his face snapping and reforming. The overwhelming urge to drop to his knees and prove his submission nearly did Van in. The bear was torn between placating his Itan and going to his mate.
Thankfully, Keen was quick to defuse the situation. “She thinks she’s protecting Mia while protecting herself from Mia. The point is, Mia is probably safe, but you are not. At all.”
Okay, that wasn’t exactly a diffusion.
“Ty, I’ll get her.” Van fought to remain standing, demanding his bear reject their Itan’s dominance this one time.
Ty snarled, baring his half-shifted fangs at him. “Mine.”
“I’ll send Mia out. Gimme a sec to talk to Lauren.” He didn’t want Ty getting anywhere near his human.
The Itan growled, but a low whimper from Parker silenced that in an instant. The man’s half-shift was upon him, but it didn’t advance. It froze in place and never budged while Ty moved through the room and scooped Parker into his arms.
Ty nuzzled the boy and Parker clung to him. “Send Mia out and decide what we’re going to do about Lauren.” The Itan looked at him, his gaze weighing heavily on Van’s shoulders. “She’s human and she’s not mated to one of us.”
The rest of the law didn’t need to be voiced.
So she must mate or be eliminated.
Nice word for murder.
Brushing aside his Itan’s veiled order, Van moved to the ha
llway, quietly padding down the length and toward the bedrooms.
The whispers hit him first, the low, frantic mumblings from Lauren softly answered by Anna and Mia’s frustrated murmurings.
“Get. Over. Here. I can’t protect you if you’re across the hall.”
Anna, in the room to his right, sighed. She sat in the doorway, her purpled face the only thing destroying the peaceful look. “What are you protecting me from?”
“The bears. They’re people and then they’re bears and they bite people. Rawr, rawr. Get. Over. Here.” Lauren hissed that last bit.
“Lauren, hon, they’re not dangerous.”
Yes, listen to your friend.
“And how would you know anything about them, oh best friend of mine? The one person who I share everything with. The person who knows my soul. How do you know they’re not dangerous?” If Anna didn’t get Lauren’s sarcasm, Van definitely scented the emotion.
“Well… you see… Martin is…”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Lauren wasn’t even trying to whisper. “He’s a bear, too? How fucking many of them are there?”
The yelled question was answered by a roar from Ty at the other end of the house. That was answered by Lauren racking the slide on one of his handguns. Nice.
“Lauren, honey…” That was Mia.
“Are you one too? One of them?” The panicked tone in Lauren’s words worried him.
“Lauren?” He kept his voice low, soothing. At least, he hoped. When he heard her scrambling and dropping the gun quickly followed by the snap of his bedroom door’s lock, he realized she wasn’t soothed in the slightest. “Lauren, I know you’re scared and upset, baby.”
Anna looked up at him with wide eyes and raised eyebrows as if to say “you think, dumbass.”
Yeah, well, he was working with what he had.
“Lauren, why don’t you send Mia on out. Her mate,” he coughed. “Her husband is worried about her.”
“Why?” The word was muffled by the closed door. “I’m not the fucking bear in this house.”
Mia’s whispered language immediately followed Lauren’s curse.
“Really? Faced with shapeshifting bears and you’re gonna ‘language’ me?” She fell quiet for a moment. “Wait! You’re fucking the fucking bear.”
Suddenly his bedroom door opened and Mia was shoved unceremoniously into the hallway, then the door was slammed shut once again. The Itana stumbled for a moment, catching herself on the wall, and then straightened while tugging her top into place.
Mia hissed at the now closed door. “Language.”
Van wasn’t gonna laugh. Really. “This way, Itana. Ty’s waiting for you and I think the two of you need to talk about Parker.” He stared at the door. “She’s okay?”
Annoyance immediately left Mia’s face. “She’s fine. A couple of scratches from the broken glass. Otherwise, she’s just scared.”
He nodded and stepped aside as she passed. “Thanks, Mia.”
“I could-I could talk to her?” Anna’s quiet voice drifted to him.
“Thanks, Anna, but I’ll take care of this. Why don’t you go out to the living room? I’m sure Martin will be here soon.” Van had no doubt that since the situation was under control, Ty put in a call to the other man.
“Anna? Are you leaving me?” Lauren’s voice was filled with panic. “Don’t go to the bears! It’s like Poltergeist all over again. Don’t go into the fur-lined light!”
Anna licked her lips, wincing when her tongue glanced her wound.
“Go ahead, hon.” Van stepped forward, his body blocking Anna as she tiptoed down the hall and toward the living room. The last thing he wanted was an errant shot hitting the small woman. He stopped near his bedroom door and pressed his back against the wall opposite Lauren. He eased himself down, sliding along the firm surface until he sat on the ground. “All right, baby. Let’s do this.”
The door cracked a tiny bit and one, glaring eye was revealed. “I’m not your baby and we’re not doing anything.”
With that, she disappeared from sight once again, the panel swinging closed with a low thunk.
“I’m sure you’ve got questions, huh? I could answer them…” He used a cajoling tone, trying to appeal to a human’s innate inquisitive nature. Then again, bears were a little similar when it came to hunting answers.
“No.”
“Nothing? Like maybe how we shift?”
“No. I know how you do that. You go poof furry and then try to take a chunk out of Lauren. Thank you, but no.”
Van grinned. “Baby, I’d like to shift and nibble on you, but that’s about it. Wanna know where I’d start?” He extended his legs and crossed them at the ankle. “Now, first, I’d taste those lips. Damn baby, you’re so fucking sweet.”
Lauren groaned, then growled at him. Too bad she wasn’t a werebear. It’d be so damn sexy to have her snarl around his cock.
Speaking of… Thinking of tasting her had his dick hardening within his uniform pants. Coming at her with sexual innuendo would be hell on his prick, but it was better than trying to soothe her fear.
“Do you know where I’d go next?”
“Nowhere because we’re not having this conversation. You’re gonna take your sometimes furry butt and leave me alone.”
“Well, now, you’re in my bedroom. How about this? We can be alone together.” Another growl and he went rock hard. “Baby, you need to stop or you’ll have my cock in your mouth so fast—”
The door whipped open and she glared at him. “There will be no whatchacallits in my mouth or tasting or,” she waved his gun around and he stilled, waiting to see if she’d fuck up and pull the trigger. He really didn’t feel like getting shot today. “Or anything else.” She stomped her foot and dropped her arm to her side. “At all.”
“Uh-huh.” He let his gaze flick to her hand and he breathed a sigh of relief. Her finger wasn’t on the trigger but resting along the side of the barrel. “But I got ya out of the room, didn’t I?” He grinned, flashing a wide smile that brought his dimple into play. He didn’t try for it often, it made him feel like a kid, but he needed every advantage he could get.
Lauren glared at him some more. “You, are dangerous.”
“To your pussy or your health?” He couldn’t help nudging her a little. “Did I mention what your moans do to me? The other night… damn, baby.”
“Oh!” She turned away and he realized she was ready to slam the door once again.
Without hesitation, he jumped from the ground and pounced, grabbing the wooden panel before she could shove it closed and lock him out. “Now, baby, don’t be like that.”
She whirled on him, trying for another one of those fierce looks, but he saw beyond her growly exterior. He noted the beginning of tears in her eyes and the way the armed hand trembled. She was pale, color absent from her face, and her breath came in shallow, rapid pants. She was scared as hell and trying not to show it.
“Lauren, come into the living room with me. Let’s sit. Talk. Nothing’s gonna happen to you, I promise.”
Her eyes filled even more. “No, Parker, he…”
A single tear trailed down her cheek.
Shit. He took a chance and reached for her, placing his hand on her shoulder and easing her forward. She resisted at first, refusing to move as he directed, and then she followed his silent command.
Van pulled her into his embrace, enfolding her in his arms as he snuggled her close. He trailed one hand down her arm and wrapped his fingers around the pistol. She released it without complaint.
“It’s not loaded,” she mumbled into his chest.
He raised an eyebrow, but she couldn’t see his expression. “You racked the slide.”
She shook her head, rubbing her cheek against him. While she was doing it to say “no,” he enjoyed the fact that she rubbed her scent on his body. “No, dropped the mag and emptied the chamber.”
Van grinned. “So you held off Keen and kept Anna and Mia captive wit
h an empty gun?”
“Uh-huh.”
He grabbed the gun by the grip and tossed it onto the bed, watching it bounce innocuously on the soft surface. He wondered how Lauren would bounce on his mattress.
And… that thought had his cock inflating once again.
Lauren wiggled against him and froze. “You get off on scaring women?” She fought his hold, giving a token protest, and he held her firm.
“No, I get off on holding you. You know I’m attracted to you. In fact, you’re gorgeous when you’re angry. In the future, I might annoy you just to see your face all flushed.” Okay, he was a liar, but he needed to needle her; get her attitude away from scared and over to annoyed.
She huffed. “So, you’re a bear?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Is there anyone here who isn’t a bear?” Her voice was so tiny, a hint of that fear still lingering.
“Anna and Mia. Well, Mia is half werebear, but she can’t shift.”
“Are they going to attack me? Like Parker?” She shuddered and Van stroked her back, rubbing along her spine in an attempt to soothe her.
“No. Parker is only four. He’s got a lot to learn. Plus, he had a rough time of it recently and he’s very attached to Mia. If he thinks she’s threatened, he attacks. Usually it’s another bear, but you’re…”
“Human.”
“Yes.” He swallowed the terror still lingering inside himself. “If he’d gotten a hold of you, Lauren.” He leaned down and buried his face against her neck, inhaling her sweet scent and allowing it to calm him. “You’d be scarred. Severely injured.”
“Van…” A fear fueled tremor filled her.
“In the last two months he’s lost his parents, his uncle attempted to kill him, and that same man nearly killed Mia and Ty. He has issues we’re all dealing with. No one else in the clan is like that, Lauren. Ty is a good Itan. Mia is a better Itana, but don’t tell her I said so. Our inner-circle is strong.”
“Itan? Itana? Inner-circle?” she murmured against him, her smooth cheek rubbing his roughened neck.
“Uh-huh.” He couldn’t resist the allure of having her so close. He scraped a fang along her throat, restraining his smile when she shivered. “Ty and Mia are in charge, our Itan and Itana. They lead the clan and their word is law.”