by Bear Naked
God, the magnetism that she felt with that male was like nothing she had ever experienced before, but she wanted to feel it again, and again, and again. She must be a masochist because of the things she wanted Declan to do to her. A shiver worked up her spine at the thoughts. Just looking at Declan, God, he definitely had the dominance she craved.
Her phone vibrated on the table, drawing her out of her pleasant thoughts, and when she saw it was Manny her irritation grew. She may be friends with the meerkat, and had been for years, but this shit needed to stop. She answered her phone and brought it to her ear. “Hello?” Staring out the window she waited for him to answer. This conversation needed to happen, especially after last night. There were a lot of times she could have told Manny to back off, had in fact, but she had never been in a relationship like this, never had him be so blatant before, and that was a very big eye-opener. It seemed her friend wasn’t so timid after all.
“Hi. I was hoping you’d be home.” She had been out of work for an hour already, and what she wanted to do was go see Declan, and she hoped start over where there were no awkward interruptions.
“Where else would I be?” Melissa normally wasn’t snappy like this to her friends, not being serious at least, but last night Manny had stepped over a line, and he needed to know that. Before he could say anything she started talking. “What you did last night, said to me, and how you treated Declan was wrong, Manny. I don’t know what got into you, but it wasn’t cool.” She heard him sigh, but she didn’t feel guilty about how bitchy she sounded. He was lucky she was even speaking to him again, but that would change because it was clear no amount of telling Manny how they were only friends was getting through his head.
“Yeah, about that. I’m really sorry. I just had a really stressful day at work, and I guess I just snapped and took it out on you when I saw you with that guy.” Melissa was silent for several seconds. She wasn’t going to beat around the bush, not that she did anyway, but it was time to lay it all out—again—for Manny. “Maybe we can get something to eat tonight, or I can come over and we can just talk.”
God, Melissa was exhausted. She rubbed her eyes, and took a deep breath. “Manny, you and I have been friends for a long time, right?”
“Yeah.” He seemed almost hesitant when he answered.
“Have I ever led you on, made you think there would ever be anything between us?” There was a moment of silence, but she didn’t wait for him to answer because the question had been rhetorical anyway. “We are friends, Manny. Friends. At first I tried to ignore the fact that you just didn’t understand that I don’t have feelings for you like that, but it’s clear, especially after last night, that being friends is just too hard on you, because you think there will be more.”
“We hardly see each other anymore, Melissa.” She looked at the ceiling, praying for some patience to get through this. “I didn’t mean to start anything last night, or be disrespectful. I guess I was just a little taken aback that you had found your mate. And I know that you’ve said things with us will never go anywhere, but there was always this optimistic side in me. I thought maybe the geek might actually get the gorgeous girl for once.”
God, that was the thing with Manny. He might be persistent and annoying, clingy and even desperate at times to get his point across, but he was also sweet, and hearing him talking about himself like he wasn’t worthy of finding himself a female to love broke her heart. Of course that didn’t mean she was going to excuse his behavior yesterday, or that she was going to allow this to happen again.
“You’ll find someone, Manny. I know you will. But that someone isn’t me. You’re smart and funny, sweet and caring. Any female would be lucky to have you—”
“Except the one that I want.” There was a beat of silence after he said that, but Melissa didn’t know how to respond for several seconds.
“Manny, I’ve found my mate, and being a shifter, too, you know what that means. I can’t turn my back on Declan, and want to see where this goes.”
“So you’re just going to throw our friendship away over this guy you just met?”
“Manny, he isn’t just some guy. He’s my mate, and I’m not throwing anything away. It is clear that you have very different ideas and wants on where this friendship is going, even after I’ve explained numerous times I don’t see you as anything more than a friend. I just think it’s time for us to take a breather from everything, and focus on our own lives for a little bit.”
“Yeah, a breather might be good and well for you, but I like spending time with you, and I thought you did, too.”
This was frustrating because it was clear it just wasn’t registering with him.
“I need to focus on my life right now, and trying to make this mating thing work, and I can’t be worrying about if I’m hurting you or making you uncomfortable anytime we run into each other and I’m with Declan. I am not getting any younger, and I think I deserve happiness. Don’t you want me to be happy as my friend?” He didn’t respond, so she continued. “I know you understand, because you have to know how important finding a mate is.” The line was a little too quiet and for a moment she thought he might have hung up on her, but then he exhaled.
“I mean, if that’s what you want, Melissa, but I think you’re making a big mistake.” She wasn’t going to argue with him. “I just think you’re going to get hurt when this is all said and done.”
Melissa didn’t have time to ask him what he meant by that, because he said goodbye and hung up before she had a chance to respond. She pulled the phone back and stared at the now black screen. Even though Manny had pissed her off last night, and she knew this was the right step to take, she also realized that this was just as much her fault as it was his. It didn’t matter how many times she had told him they were just friends, because Melissa had known how Manny felt about her. But they were too old for this game, and her life had taken a drastic change. It was time to try to focus on her future, and if that was something she could have with Declan.
Melissa took her mug to the living room and turned on the TV. She sat on the couch and flipped through the channels until she landed on the news. “BREAKING NEWS” flashed across the screen. The blonde reporter stood in a field that was at the edge of town. Melissa knew it was owned by some local farmers, but more times than not there were high school parties thrown there because it was away from everything, and getting caught was less likely. She turned it up so she could hear the reporter.
“It appears another body has been found in this tragic drug overdosing wave to hit Sweet Water. Authorities are not stating the cause of death, but it appears to be the same type of setup as the underage parties that have become popular over the past few weeks.”
Melissa shook her head at the pointless death that was happening in Sweet Water. A few weeks or so ago they had found a few young men and women in a field. The cause of those deaths had been from an OD on a drug that was new and chemically altered. But before these deaths had even occurred, or were a blip in the radar, a lot of eyes had been focused on a leopard shifter named Trent Sharpe. Although the police had never actually said it was Trent that the drugs were coming from, people knew by reputation alone. But Trent had been a nasty bastard who had nearly killed Candace and her family, including Trace’s son’s mate. Everyone from Kashton—where Trent originated from—to Sweet Water, and the towns surrounding them, had known the leopard had been behind the drugs. Trent had had his hands in all kinds of illegal activity, but after his death and the explosion of his compound-like home months ago, everyone had hopes that Kashton would get cleaned up, and the drugs that had filtered their way through their towns would cease.
And they had. For the last several months people were getting their lives back together, especially the ones living in Kashton since that was where Trent had resided and had run most of his illegal activity from, but still, it looked like the drugs had made their way back onto the scene. But Melissa didn’t think this was Trent’s doing, and not
because the leopard was dead. Surely there were people to take up were their predecessor left off, even if Trent hadn’t been one of the big “bosses”.
What Melissa thought was a more likely matter was someone had thought this was their chance to make their presence known, to be the “big shot” now that the main competition was gone, and had clearly waited to make their move. Or maybe they hadn’t, and these kids were just dumb asses for taking the shit. Hell, she didn’t know, and honestly it was probably a bit of both. It sucked this was happening, sucked even more that it had made its way into Sweet Water, but she hoped they found who was doing this and put a stop to it. There had already been enough people hurt and lives lost in the last several years to last a lifetime. She turned off the TV as the reporter started going into more detail about the drugs, the bodies found, and where the police were headed with all of this. She sat there and rested her head against the back of the couch. Sometimes she just wished that she’d fall asleep, and when she woke up she’d be living a different life.
****
Declan tapped his fingers on his thigh. He was in Trace’s office with Maverick sitting beside him. Trace was currently on the phone with his mate, Candace, and the gruffness that was normally present in polar bear’s voice was absent. But Declan could now understand how one female could change a whole lot of shit inside of a male, because fuck, he was experiencing that right now. When Trace got off the phone he looked over at Declan. He had come into the bar when Maverick had called him asking for some help.
“There seems to be a drug problem happening within Sweet Water.” Maverick didn’t waste any time as he filled Declan in on why he was here.
“Yeah, I have seen a few of the news reports, but they all said they didn’t have any leads or links to where the source was coming from, and since Sharpe isn’t on the scene any longer, the logical assumption is that it is either a new filler from that organization, or someone decided to try their hand since the major competition is gone.” Declan had only been in Sweet Water for the last six months, but this drug problem, according to the reports, had only been happening within the last few weeks. Kids overdosing wasn’t really Declan’s area of expertise.
“No, there aren’t any leads officially. But one of the kids that OD’d the other night was the daughter of one of the regulars here, and a male Trace and I consider a friend.” The sound of Trace’s chair creaking as he leaned back on it had Declan looking over at him.
“There aren’t a lot of people I consider my friends, but Link has been coming to the bar since we opened, and before that he used to work on his Harley with us at the garage. He’s a tiger shifter and has always had our backs.” Declan looked over at Maverick, who had a grave look on his face, but nodded. “Link came to us asking for help on tracking down the bastard that killed his only child. Marnie was a good girl, with plans on going to college after graduation and becoming a teacher. But then she started dating some little prick that was in the drug scene, and things went downhill really fucking fast.” Trace leaned forward again, and with one elbow propped up on the table, he used his other hand to run it over his head. “She had just turned eighteen.”
“Fuck.” Declan said that one choice word out loud even though he knew the other two males were thinking it. “What about the boyfriend? Was he the dealer?”
“It isn’t looking like he dealt, just used and got Marnie started on it.” Maverick glanced over at Trace and then looked back at Declan. He already knew what Maverick was going to say.
“Link had the boyfriend taken care of.” A beat of silence passed between them before Trace started talking again. “Marnie hadn’t been dating him for very long, but it had only taken that short time for the human to turn her life completely around. Her straight As dropped, her schoolwork lagged, and she started getting into trouble with local officials. He knew something was up, tried to talk some sense into her, could smell the damn drugs in her, but before he could get her the help she needed they found her body in one of those cornfields the kids have been having the parties at.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah, to say the least.” Declan looked between the two men.
“You want me to find out who is the distributor?” The two males stayed silent, and the sound of the music from the bar seemed overly loud as the weight of what was going on filled the room.
“We want you to find out who is cooking the shit,” Trace said with a low growl to his words. “But we don’t want you to take him out. Link hasn’t decided if he wants to finish this privately, or have the asshole rot in jail. Right now he is leaning toward killing whoever is behind this. We’ve tried finding out who it is, but the junkies we question don’t know anything aside from where they got it from. It’s just a long string of dealers.”
“Whoever is making the shit sends it out to the surrounding cities, where it is distributed and then makes its way back to Sweet Water. It is nearly impossible to track down the source point, at least from our side.”
“That’s where we need you to help us,” Trace said, and after he spoke there was a knock on the door. It opened, and Declan turned around to see this big fucking tiger shifter decked out in leather come into the room. A silver chain hung from his pocket, and the cut he wore stated he was part of the local motorcycle club in Sweet Water. He couldn’t have been any older than Declan, but there was a deadness to his light grey eyes. He also looked like he hadn’t slept in days. His short dark hair was a mess around his head, but under that exhaustion and the clear sorrow coming from him was a rage that could have leveled buildings. He knew this was the male that had lost his daughter even though no introductions had been made. Link stepped all the way in and shut the door behind him.
“Declan, we need your help tracking this son-of-a-bitch down.” He looked at Maverick. There was no way he was going to say no.
“It’s going to take some time, especially if he is outsourcing. Is there anyone in town that fits this kind of profile?” Link moved closer to them.
“Me and my boys roughed up a gang of wolverines that have been dealing petty shit. Mainly pot, and only at the edge of town near the industrial warehouses that line Morrisonville.” Link’s voice was harsh, like the edge of a serrated blade, and as much as he was keeping his emotions in check, Declan could easily pick up his pain.
“Any of them have any background to dealers or distributors in the area?”
He crossed his big arms over his chest and shook his head. “Nah, nothing we did got us the information we were after.” That had Declan lifting his brow, but he didn’t question their methods of persuasion. “All we got is that the leader of the pussy gang buys their weed from some pothead out of Franklin County. We checked into him, but he’s a washout, grows his shit in the basement of his farmhouse his old man left him, and is more focused by the fact the cows make noise than what in the hell he is doing most of the time.”
“It’s going to take some digging. I won’t know tomorrow or anything, so you guys will have to be patient.” The three males grunted in unison. “Okay, I’ll see what I can find.”
By the time Declan left it was going on six in the evening. He hadn’t been able to talk to Melissa since he followed her home after dinner. They had exchanged numbers at the restaurant, and at least he felt like she was still willing to give his stubborn ass a chance. Aside from a text yesterday evening and another one this morning, he felt like he was going through withdrawals. His phone vibrated in his pocket, and when he pulled it out and saw that it was Melissa his smile grew.
“Hey.” Declan felt like a damn pussy-whipped schoolboy at the thought she had actually reached out.
“Hi. I’m not bothering you, am I?” If she only knew that he could be by her every second of the day and still not get tired of her, she might actually run in the other direction from him.
“No, of course not. I meant to call you yesterday, but I figured you might want a little time to yourself.” What he didn’t saw was that he knew the way he had a
cted before they even started dinner, and how he had handled the whole meerkat situation after all that, probably hadn’t been what she was used to, nor what she deserved. Besides, he had been doing a little digging on the meerkat.
Her soft laugh had his dick twitching, and he forced the bastard to calm the fuck down. “I didn’t need any time. I actually meant to call you, but work has been a bit crazy, and then I was dealing with that Manny fiasco.” At the sound of that asshole’s name coming from her lips he growled low. She chuckled again, but he could hear the catch in her voice, and the fact she couldn’t quite hide that she liked it. “I was wondering if maybe you’d want to come over tomorrow night. Maybe I can cook you dinner and we can talk without the interruptions we had last time?”
He made his way to his SUV, and just thinking about being at her house, having his mate cook a meal for him, and having no one around to be witness to the electricity and lust that had nearly consumed the restaurant on their last date, had him getting an instant hard-on.
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat, trying to wash away the arousal that thickened his voice, because the images that were going through his head were filthy and oh so fucking good. He shouldn’t have been picturing her naked and wet for him, spread out on the bed and just waiting for his mouth and cock. But shit, being alone with her, and the fact she wanted to feed him, had this primal animalistic part of him feeling like he had just hid the jackpot. “I’d like that a lot, Melissa.”