Bear's Surrogate

by Sky Winters

  Adelaide watched Bulk as he lay still on the floor, looking like a truck had just slammed into him. Eventually, a few of his friends arrived and, with a team effort, heaved him from the ground and dragged him out of the bar. Adelaide's heart raced, and she put her hand on the side of the bar to steady herself.

  "You OK?" asked the man.

  As Adelaide took in the sight of her savior, her heart picked up even more than before.

  Holy fuck, she thought, this guy's goddamn gorgeous.

  "Um, I think so," said Adelaide.

  The man reached forward and took one of Adelaide's hands into his. The feeling of his skin against hers was like nothing she'd ever felt before. It was chemistry in the purest sense.

  "Your hands are shaking," he said. "You need a minute. You alone here?"

  "I'm here with my friends, but they're a little, uh, distracted at the moment."

  "Name's Thorne," said the man.

  "Adelaide," she replied.

  "Adelaide," he said, as if trying the name on for size. "Now, that's a pretty name. Like something from another time."

  "I'm sure an old-fashioned guy like you appreciates it, then."

  One side of Thorne's mouth pulled up into a smile, which had to be the most charming smile Adelaide had ever seen in her life.

  "You'd be right about that."

  "A real gentleman, too," said Adelaide, taking one of the drinks that Bulk had bought her and placing it in front of Thorne. "Here, I think you've earned this. That is, unless you're too old-fashioned to let a girl buy a drink for you."

  "Well, to be accurate, you didn't buy it for me. That brick wall of a gentleman currently being loaded into the back of a car did."

  "Maybe you should go out and thank him," said Adelaide.

  "I think he and I have done all the conversing we need to do for one night. Who knows – maybe this'll be the start of a beautiful friendship."

  Adelaide smiled. Thorne was…something else. He had an easy confidence in him, as well as charm. And after a few moments of them talking, she realized she already felt safer, more at ease.

  "You from here, Mr. Old-Fashioned?" asked Adelaide, taking a sip of her drink.

  "Nope," he said, shaking his head slowly. "Here from New York. In town on business."

  "Business, huh? What kind of business is that?"

  "The kind that if I told you, I'd have to kill you."

  He flashed her another sexy little grin.

  "New York, huh?" said Adelaide. "And you're here all the way down in humble New Orleans. Must be quite the change of pace."

  "Maybe a little less than you'd think," said Thorne. "Drunken bar assholes are still drunken bar assholes. But the girls…I might have to reevaluate which city has the most beautiful women after meeting you."

  Adelaide felt a hot rush of blood run up her neck. Between the alcohol and the attraction she felt for Thorne, she was beginning to feel overwhelmed, like she was about to make a decision that she almost didn't have any control over.

  "Hey!" said the bartender, approaching Adelaide. "You know those two girls?"

  The bartender gestured into the crowd, toward Maddie and Kate.

  "Oh, fuck," said Adelaide.

  Maddie and Kate looked like they were having a little too much fun. A drink in each of their hands, the two girls stumbled here and there, bumping into tables, and sending glasses crashing to the ground.

  "Friends of yours?" asked Thorne.

  "Yup," said Adelaide. "Friends who can't hold their damn alcohol."

  "Well," said Thorne. "I'll leave you to play grown-up."

  And just like that, Thorne got up to leave.

  "Wait!" said Adelaide. "Um, you, uh, come here often?"

  She couldn't believe what she'd just said. But it was the only thing she could think to say.

  "Good night, Adelaide," he said. "Maybe we'll meet again."

  With that, he headed out of the bar, Adelaide's eyes on him the entire time. She felt as though she was watching someone very important walk out of her life.

  But another crash ringing out behind her brought her back to reality. Adelaide hurried into the crowd and pulled out her friends.

  "H-hey, girl," slurred Maddie. "You get any good biker dick?"

  "Good lord," said Adelaide, taking one of her friends in each arm and leading them out of the bar.

  She couldn't believe how drunk they'd gotten, and how irresponsible they were being for getting so out of control in a place like that. Adelaide led the two girls to Maddie's car and got them both into the back seat. Soon, she was behind the steering wheel and driving out of the parking lot.

  The girls passed out as soon as they were in the back, and Adelaide spent the rest of the drive in silence, her mind locked onto Thorne. She still couldn't get over just how attracted to him she was; the pull was so sudden and intense, and like nothing else she'd ever experienced. But he was gone, without even so much as leaving her his number.

  She did her best to put all of that out of her mind as she drove through the darkened roads of rural New Orleans. After a time, she arrived at Maddie's and dropped the two girls off. She considered crashing there, but after everything that had happened that day, the only thing Adelaide wanted was to go home and crash in her own bed, and wake up in the silence of her now-empty apartment. Nursing two hungover girls in the morning didn't sound like her idea of a good time.

  Adelaide's place was a little ways off, about a twenty-minute walk through the college neighborhood where she and her friends lived. She spent the walk thinking more about the day, wondering if she'd made the right call in ditching Marcus.

  The more she thought about it, the more she realized she had.

  It's Thorne, she thought. He was older, sure, but he was…just a real man. He was handsome, carried himself like a damned grown-up and didn't look like the kind of man to ask his girlfriend to cover rent.

  The image of Thorne fresh in her mind, she wondered how she could ever go back to dating immature boys like Marcus. The mere thought was almost enough to turn her stomach.

  But as she walked, a strange feeling of dread began to dawn on her. She could've sworn that she was seeing things out of the corner of her eye, figures moving among the shadows. The hair on the back of her neck began to stand on end, and she felt her stomach tighten. A branch let out a sharp, wooden crack as something, or someone, stepped on it.

  It's nothing, she thought, pulling her jacket tight.

  As much as she wanted to convince herself otherwise, however, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched. Adelaide stopped in her tracks and looked around. But there was nothing but the low howl of the wind. The houses lining the lonely street were all dark, and only a few streetlamps illuminated her way.

  Just hurry up and get home, she thought to herself. You're being one of those paranoid women who thinks there's a rapist in every bush and behind every tree.

  Despite her scolding, Adelaide found the pace of her steps increase. She hurried to the nearest block and turned down an alley that cut across to her street.

  Almost there, she thought, almost there.

  But little did she know, it wasn't merely one person watching her, but several. All of whom had no intention of letting her come home.

  CHAPTER 3

  "What's the situation, boss?"

  The voice of Corvo piped into Thorne's ear. Thorne was positioned far behind the target, but close enough he could keep an eye on her as she made her way down the sidewalk.

  "She's picked up the pace," said Thorne, keeping his voice low. "She knows something's up."

  Thorne was alone for this op, the rest of the crew back in New York and keeping a close eye on the situation from Siler Talon HQ. They weren't happy to be stuck in the city while Thorne did the in-person work, but Thorne had his reasons.

  "I don't like this, boss," said Jace. "This op has ‘fucking weird' written all over it. And you're thousands of miles away all by yourself."

  "Swe
et of you to care," said Thorne, his tone sardonic, "but I can handle myself. And as much as I just love you all's company, I don't think having five shifters down here for a pick-up operation is all that necessary."

  "But what if I was looking forward to seeing the sights?" said Hoxson jokingly. "Eat some crawfish, take in some New Orleans jazz…"

  "Then you'll have to tell Mick you've got a place in mind when you're deciding on where to go for your honeymoon," said Jace.

  "Fuck you!" said Mick and Hoxson in unison.

  "Keep the chatter down," said Thorne, his tone stern despite the smile pulling up one of the corners of his mouth.

  As the team had their back and forth, Thorne couldn't help but notice that Aurelius was being very quiet. Sure, he wasn't normally the type to join in on the usual team banter, but he seemed even more focused than usual. Thorne put the thought out of his head, not wanting to distract himself with pointless speculation.

  He kept a careful eye on Adelaide, moving silently from vantage point to vantage point as she made her way down the sidewalk.

  Then, suddenly, she stopped in place and look around.

  "What is it?" asked Corvo, apparently noticing that Thorne had stayed in place for a prolonged period of time.

  "She stopped," said Thorne. "She's looking around like she's noticed something."

  "You think she's on to you?" asked Mick?

  "No way," said Thorne. "I'm a good distance from her, and she's not a shifter so there's no way she can pick up on my scent."

  Thorne watched as Adelaide tilted her head up slightly, as if taking in something from the air. He'd just said that she wasn't able to smell him, but she was sure acting like she'd noticed something strange. It all struck Thorne as very, very odd.

  "I'm getting in closer," said Thorne. "Something's weird."

  "Be careful, boss," said Corvo.

  Thorne made a quick dash to a waist-high fence closer to Adelaide and took cover behind it. From his closer vantage point, he had a clearer view of the target. Despite himself, his heart skipped a beat as he laid eyes on her.

  She was, after all, beyond beautiful.

  Thorne's eyes lingered on Adelaide's profile, taking in her slim, pert nose, her full, ripe lips, and her narrow, cat-like eyes. Then his gaze drifted down slowly, moving eagerly along the curves of her body, spending extra time on her breasts and ass.

  Girl looking like that wandering around at night, thought Thorne. What the hell is she thinking?

  He focused on the safety aspect of Adelaide, but deep down, he knew there was something more to why he was focusing so intently on her looks. There was something special about this girl, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.

  She's hot as fuck is what it is, thought Thorne. But that's nothing to get distracted over.

  Right as the thought faded from his mind, however, Thorne caught the scent of something on the wind. He held fast for a moment, taking a long, slow sniff of the air. The scent was a strange combination of metal and lilacs.

  Thorne recognized it immediately as that of another shifter.

  "We got another dragon nearby," said Thorne, his heartbeat picking up to a steady thud in his chest.

  He kept his eyes on Adelaide and saw that she'd started moving again. But now she moved at a quick pace, making her way down the sidewalk as though she wanted to get away as fast as possible.

  Did she smell that same scent? thought Thorne. No, there's no way – humans can't detect dragons unless we're fuckin' fully shifted and standing right in front of them.

  "What?" shot out Jace, her voice worried. "Are you serious? Another fucking shifter?"

  Thorne took another long sniff of the air. There was no mistaking the scent.

  Fuck, fuck, he thought, wondering if his decision to go this op alone was the wisest.

  "Boss, I'm detecting something through the satellite feed," said Aurelius, his prim voice coming clear through the comms. "Movement about a hundred meters to your left, in that abandoned lot."

  Thorne's eyes shot in that direction. Sure enough, among the unkempt grass and thick-trunked trees, Thorne spotted something moving. He realized that whoever it was, it was no coincidence that some other dragon happened to be here – they were likely after the same target that he was.

  A good chance they wouldn't be too thrilled to see another dragon here, too, thought Thorne.

  Turning his attention back to Adelaide, he hurried down the length of the sidewalk, trying to keep pace with her. According to his information, her place was only a couple more miles from where they were currently located. He knew he had to get her before she got home – turning this op into a breaking and entering sort of affair would draw far more attention than he wanted.

  There was still the matter of the second shifter, however.

  "He's on the move, boss," said Hoxson, his voice tinged with worry. "He's close enough that we can detect him with your sensors."

  Thorne shot a quick glance to Adelaide, then to the approaching shifter. He had to make a decision fast – to either swoop in on Adelaide and get her before she arrived back at her place, or to confront the new shifter.

  "Boss, you gotta do something," said Hoxson.

  Frustrated and not wanting to deal with any distractions, Thorne turned off his comms and started across the street to confront the shifter. He realized that if he was going to take out this shifter, he had to do it while he was still in the abandoned lot, away from any potential witnesses. Thorne rushed across the street, the scent of the shifter becoming more powerful with each step. He came to a stop at the edge of the lot and swept the expanse over with a look.

  "Who the fuck is here?" he growled. "Get up and show yourself."

  For a moment, there was no movement but the wind through the overgrown grass and the dangling branches. Then, a shrouded figure stood up in the distance.

  "Thorne Lewis?" asked the figure, his voice high and inquisitive.

  "Who the fuck are you?" demanded Thorne. "Tell me who you are and what the hell you're doing here!"

  But the figure stayed statue-still. After a few moments, however, the man stepped forward through the grass, out of the shadows and into the silver light of the moon overhead. Whoever this man was, he was dressed sharply in a slick suit, his frame slender and menacing. His face was tall and thin and all hard angles. His eyes were green slivers, and his hair was as blonde as straw. His slim mouth was twisted into a devious expression.

  Thorne knew right away that whoever this man was, he wasn't here to chat.

  "You have no idea what you're getting yourself into, do you?" asked the man, stepped slowly toward Thorne. "You simply took the job, came down here, and aren't giving the matter a second thought beyond what you're going to buy with your payday?"

  Thorne narrowed his eyes and balled his hands into tight fists.

  "Personally, I don't give a fuck who you are and what you have to say. As far as I can tell, you're just some asshole shifter standing between me and getting the job done."

  The man only chuckled.

  "Exactly what I was expecting to hear," he said. "Thorne Lewis – one of the best mercs in the business, doesn't give a damn about anything but getting the job done. Anything for money."

  Thorne was getting more impatient by the moment. He knew that each second that passed was another step the target took toward getting home and out of his reach.

  "You here to bore me to death or what?" demanded Thorne. "Because if you're just gonna talk your fucking head off then I'm gonna get the hell out of here and do my goddamn job."

  The man held up his hand.

  "That's where you're wrong, Mr. Lewis. You see, you and I have the same assignment. That girl, this Ms. Wilson, you're not the only merc who's after her."

  "What?" shot out Thorne. "What the hell are you talking about? Actually, you know what? I don't give a shit."

  The man shook his head as if disappointed.

  "You know," he said, "one day, you mig
ht find that your policy of only caring about getting paid wasn't the wisest call to make. You just might find yourself in the middle of situations you don't understand."

  The man's smirk then turned into an even more sinister smile.

  "And that day could very well be today."

  With that, the man darted from his position with lightning speed, cutting the distance between him and Thorne.

  Goddamn, he's fast, thought Thorne, struggling to keep tabs on where the man was going. I need to m-urk!

  The thud of a fist into Thorne's gut cut him off mid-thought. The impact felt to Thorne like a small semi-truck driving right into his breadbasket at full speed. He staggered backward, struggling to catch the air that'd been blown out of his lungs by the punch. Then, another blow landed, this time on Thorne's upper back. The force dropped Thorne to his hands and knees, and he struggled to regain his bearings. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the sleek, polished shoes of the man as he moved through the grass just to Thorne's right. Thorne was being circled slowly by a predator who was prepared to move in for the kill.

  "You know," said the shifter, "when I learned that the great Thorne Lewis was going to be my adversary on this mission, I was a bit worried for a moment. I thought that I might have a little bit of trouble on my hands. After all, you're one of the most ruthless men in the game. How disappointed I am to see you on your hands and knees like this, struggling for breath."

  Keep talking, asshole, thought Thorne.

  "Oh well," the man continued. "So much the better for me. Farewell, Mr. Lewis."

  With that, the man raised his fist in the air, preparing to bring it down hard on the back of Thorne's neck.

  But he wasn't quick enough.

  As the fist came down, Thorne moved, with expert fluidity, out of the way, the fist crashing down onto the ground so hard that vibrations rippled through the earth. Thorne saw a shocked expression appear on the man's face, his green eyes now wide with surprise.