by T. S. Joyce
She skittered back a few steps and perked her ears. Perhaps she’d heard wrong or misunderstood.
“Change back,” he repeated in a stern voice.
That word sounded familiar as it brushed across her ears. Familiar and terrifying.
“You aren’t just a fox, and deep down, you know it. You’re human, too.”
Vera snarled at that insult.
“Can’t you feel her? You aren’t my mate, fox. Your human side is.”
She huffed at the stabbing pain in her chest. Not his mate? She was clever and brave and would defend him. She had brought him two rabbits already as a gift, and he’d been happy. He’d smiled. His eyes had lit up at how well she’d done. She was worthy, so why was he saying she wasn’t enough? Human side…Vera narrowed her eyes at him. He was the one hurting her now. She was no fucking human. Humans were horrid creatures with dark hearts. But not Tobias…
Confused, she backed toward the brush. “Please,” a weak voice whispered. Vera made a panicked sound and turned around, scanning the woods for the woman who’d said that. “Let me out.”
Vera bolted for the woods. This wasn’t happening. It wasn’t true! Tobias had messed with her head. She was a fox. Fox, fox, fox, nothing more because she didn’t need to be anything more. She was enough!
Anger blazed through her that he’d done this. Her mate had rejected petting her, rejected that she was his mate. Rejected her! After everything! She’d gotten rid of that weak human side for him! So she could be good enough and strong enough for a mate like Tobias. Share? Share herself? Share her skin?
He was asking her to tuck herself back, to suppress herself so the mewling human she had finally ridded herself of could come back. It wasn’t fair.
Churning emotion washed over her in dark waves as she fled. Fled the cabin, fled Wolfland, fled him.
How could Tobias ask her to do something so painful? Vera wanted to please him and take care of him, but this was too much. She would hunt a rabbit for him, and he would smile again and remember how important she was, just like this.
****
Tobias chucked his mud-covered boot into the woods. “Fuck!” he barked out.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He’d never imagined Vera’s fox would take over completely. She had an entirely different personality than Vera, as if they’d been broken apart. Or maybe that’s what happened to Turned shifters. Turning humans had been against the law until Clayton thought he was above the rules and had a fox put in Vera.
Her fox was loyal and strong, ferocious, and would attack anyone or anything no matter how dangerous they were. Hell, Link had been bitten a hundred times at least that first week she lived here, and he was a freaking half-crazed werewolf, three times her size when he was Changed. She was brave like Vera, but that was where their similarities ended.
He lay on the cot inside the shed every night, trying to imagine how it was for her. One person with two beings battling for one body. He and his bear were separate but compromise was easy. They could both see the advantage of being both human and animal. Vera’s fox was denying her human side completely.
Link sauntered out of the cabin in front of him, pulling on a threadbare gray sweater. “Anything?”
Tobias gritted his teeth and shook his head. “She won’t respond to me being harsh. She runs as soon as the conversation goes there.”
“Maybe lock her inside until she Changes.”
“She’ll shred your place.”
Link’s chuckle morphed into a snarl, then dipped to a chuckle again. Crazy. “She’ll shred my shed. That’s funny right there.”
Tobias let off a warning growl and snapped a twig in half between his fingers. Nothing was funny right now. “Link, what am I supposed to do? I didn’t know it would be like this. I miss her so fucking bad, and I know it doesn’t make sense because she was only human with me for a day, but fuck it all, I’m burning, man. Every night is worse than the last.”
Link crouched and subtly turned his chin, exposing his neck. Tobias swallowed hard and stifled the growl he hadn’t realized he was still emitting.
“I hear it’s different when you claim a woman. Every time I visit Ian and Elyse, you can almost see their bond. And I saw Lena and Jenner together at my old cabin. Their bond is the same damn way. They ache when they’re apart, you understand? It’s normal.”
Tobias huffed a humorless laugh and glared off into the woods where Vera had disappeared. She was stuck as an animal, hibernation was six weeks away, Link was going mad, Ian was going to have to put him down, and Tobias’s own damned father was running experiments on Perl Island on shifters he’d sworn to protect. “Nothing about this is normal.”
“Maybe we should tell your brothers about Clayton,” Link said low, as if he could read the train of Tobias’s thoughts.
“What would that solve? They already know our dad is an asshole, and that would lead to more questions. And with Vera Changed, possibly permanently, there is no guarantee we can even get our hands on the medicine. I need more time before I involve them.”
“That’s not how family works, Silver. They could help you through this.”
“Link, you come from a family of psychopaths. You have no gauge on normal family dynamics. No offense.”
“None taken.”
“And I get what you’re saying, man, I really do, but what’s broken between me and my brothers won’t be fixed with a phone call.”
“Well, what will it take to fix it?”
“The cure. If I can do this for them, they can forgive me for all the shit.”
“And you can forgive yourself.”
Tobias inhaled deeply and sat back in the creaking chair, gaze steady on Link. “Yeah. That too.”
“Well,” Link said, standing, “I don’t know what to tell you. Vera seems like a hard-headed vixen, and if she doesn’t respond to you ordering the Change, then it’s got to be her decision.”
“And if she decides never to go human again?”
Link lifted one shoulder with a sympathetic look in his eyes. “Then get used to the ache.” Link turned and strode for his cabin. “I’m going into town. You’re on shift with Vera.”
“Work?”
“Not this time. I caught some fish, and I’m going to repay a debt.”
He was onto Link. He had been replacing the food his brothers had stolen from the good people of Galena when they’d been alive. “You know,” Tobias said to his back, “you don’t have to make up for every wrong thing your brothers did.”
“I’ll leave this world easier if I do,” he called over his shoulder. Just before Link disappeared around the corner of the house, he skidded to a stop on the loose fallen leaves and lifted his chin. His nostrils flared as his eyes zeroed in on the woods. “Tobias,” he whispered, warning in his voice.
At that moment, the wind shifted and Tobias smelled it, too. Fur and man and a scent that he would never forget in this lifetime or the next.
Clayton.
Tobias pulled his shirt over his head as he jogged toward Link, who was doing the same. Together, they bolted around to the front of the cabin just in time to see Tobias’s father slip silently from the woods.
He wore only a pair of loose, black sweatpants. His hair shone silver in the fading sunlight, matching the silver sheen of the scars on his face. Scars he’d gotten when he was an enforcer many years ago, before Tobias and his brothers took over the family business.
“Clayton,” Tobias ground out.
“Ah, you have figured it out then.” He had the same deep gravelly voice Tobias remembered, same careless tone.
“Why have you called yourself Clayton Reed all these years when your name is David Silver? Or is that just what you told us it was? You weren’t very good with sharing details.”
“The Clayton is a high ranking position, not a name. Someday, a long time from now, I’ll retire as the head of Shifter Enforcement, and one of you will take over as the Clayton. And then your name will no lo
nger matter either.”
His torso was gnarled with muscle and crisscrossed with scars, and if there was any doubt about why Clayton was here, well, his lack of clothes put those questions to rest.
Tobias wanted to hear him say it out loud, though. Wanted to hear the betrayal with his own ears. “What are you doing here?”
Clayton canted his head. His narrowed eyes were the exact same color of Tobias’s, a fact that he hated every time he looked in the mirror. “I’m here for her. I told you if you didn’t bring her back, I’d issue a kill order.”
Link snarled behind him, but Tobias shook his head, then leaned against the side of the log cabin. “She’s not here.”
Dad came to a stop ten yards away. “Of course she is. I can smell her scent on everything. She’s saturated this place.”
Tobias shrugged. “Even so, she’s gone so you’re shit out of luck. What did you think would happen? Did you plan on coming out here and fighting your own son to put down the shifter you created?”
“I didn’t want to put her down, Tobias,” Clayton yelled, eyes darkening. The smell of apex predator wafted from his skin. “You disobeyed my orders and brought an out-of-control shifter within spitting distance of Galena. I wanted her back on Perl to find a solution to the McCall’s broken genetics.”
“She tried and failed, Clayton! Eustice died, and now she has to live with that. She’s not cold like you.”
“She failed once! There are a hundred other McCalls to—”
“Don’t you fucking say ‘experiment on,’ old man.”
Link smelled like wolf behind him, and the soft sound of snapping bones echoed through the clearing.
Tobias offered Clayton a dead smile. “Link doesn’t appreciate you talking about his family like that.”
“I should’ve known you would befriend a McCall. You were always the weakest out of my sons. Ian and Jenner…now they are Clayton material, but you? Not even close.”
“Thank you,” Tobias said. He didn’t want to be anything like the asshole standing in front of him.
Movement in the brush caught his eye, and he jerked his attention to Vera, standing much too close to Clayton for comfort and holding a limp rabbit in her jaws. Her gold eyes danced from Clayton to him and back before a spark of recognition took her.
She skittered away as Clayton lunged for her, and Tobias’s inner monster roared to be released. As his neck snapped back and his form began to reshape, he hoped he would be enough to keep Vera and Link safe from the clutches of his father—the most brutal enforcer in the long history of grizzly shifters.
Chapter Eleven
Vera dropped the rabbit and scampered out of reach of that awful man. Clayton. The vile name whispered across her mind.
Don’t let him catch you.
She bolted for safety, ran for the men who had been watching over her, but Tobias and Link were breaking apart. Misshapen forms with elongating snouts, curving teeth, claws ripping from their hands and fur sprouting across their skin. She watched in horror as Tobias’s shredded pants fell like snow around him as he stood on his hind legs, a massive grizzly bear with murder in his eyes. She bore her teeth, confused. Should she attack him? Should she attack the wolf behind him? No, they were animals now, too, but they were with her. A malformed little pack. She’d found the misfits again. Misfits. Confusion swirled around in her head as she dared a look behind her. Clayton was shaking off the last of his Change, dark fur trembling as he landed on all fours. A roar bellowed from him, frightening the birds from the trees behind him.
Terror kept her frozen into place as the two bruin bears charged each other and crashed hard enough to shake the earth beneath her paws.
The bears fought with such raw violence that, for a moment, she was awestruck. It wasn’t until Link attacked Clayton as a gray wolf with his jaws open and his eyes blazing almost white, that she realized what this was.
Clayton was here for her, and Link and Tobias were standing in between her and that devil of a man. When Link went sailing through the air and struck the trunk of a tree with a sharp whimper, crimson rage boiled her blood. Red sprayed the ground where the titan bears fought. Clayton was hurting them. With a snarl of fury, she bolted and latched onto the hump of muscle between Clayton’s shoulder blades. He roared and bucked, his attention caught between her and Tobias’s ripping, shredding attack.
She sank her teeth deeper, clawing just to bleed him. Clayton jerked to the side and slammed his side against a tree, pinning her leg and shocking her into letting go. The earth was unforgiving as she slammed into it with a yip. Tobias was pulling the fight away from her, drawing Clayton’s attention while she scrambled up. Link was on him again, biting and scratching with that constant growl. She’d been wrong about him. Link was good. Link was strong and loyal like her Tobias.
Digging her claws into the soil, she launched herself at Clayton again, this time latching on to the tender skin under his arm, only to be tossed a second later. He was streaming blood from where she’d gotten him, but was undeterred as he fought with the fury of a tornado. Tobias’s fur was matted and dark now, and pink slices crisscrossed his skin.
No, no, no. She wasn’t enough to help him. Couldn’t defend her mate from a damned grizzly.
Let me out. We can do this together.
A snarl rattled her chest. Fucking human.
Fox! You can’t save him alone. We need one of Link’s rifles. Change back! Let me out! We have to help him. Love him. Love him. Love our mate. Help him. Please.
Fuck.
With another second of hesitation behind her, she ran for a clear space between two pines and closed her eyes, then imagined that puny, weak, hairless human body she used to be trapped in.
Pain rippled up her spine, and she groaned at the agony of her bones snapping and her muscles reshaping. God, how could anything hurt this badly? The snarl in her throat turned to a scream of agony as her nails retracted and turned blunt.
“Oh, my God,” Vera whispered, her voice hoarse from disuse as she watched the battle of the brown bears in front of her. They were going to kill each other.
Off-balance, she scrambled upward and stumbled toward the house. She’d been in Link’s cabin the first day Tobias brought her here. She’d torn up his couch, and as Tobias had dragged her out of there, she’d noticed the rifles near the front door.
Walking upright felt strange after so long as a fox, and she fell on the stairs, slamming her bare shin against a porch stair. Biting her lip at the pain, she forced herself up and through the door. She stumbled inside and lurched for the trio of guns leaned against the wall. The .30-06 was the one she wanted.
Vera checked the load, slammed a bullet into the chamber, and staggered outside into the waning evening light. Pointing the gun into the air, she pulled the trigger. Boom!
She slammed another bullet in the chamber and continued her trek to the brawling bears. Link had pulled off and bolted at the sound of the gun, but Tobias and Clayton hadn’t paid attention.
Boom! Another round into the air and Clayton hesitated as she lowered the barrel to the vicinity of his face. “Back the fuck off my mate or I’ll blow a hole right through you, asshole.”
Clayton apparently thought she was playing because he sank his teeth into Tobias’s shoulder. Furious, she aimed the barrel at his leg, held her breath to hold the rifle steady, then pulled the trigger.
“Change back or you won’t live another day, Clayton. Do it now.”
Tobias swung around and positioned himself in front of her as Clayton arched his furious gaze to hers.
“I said Change back!” she screamed, shoving another bullet into the chamber with the crack of metal on metal.
Another rifle cocked behind her, but it was Link she smelled on the wind. “Do as she says,” he demanded in a low, gravelly voice.
Her chest heaved and her arms shook, but she was pissed at the scent of Tobias’s blood in the air, and her patience was as thin as soggy paper right now.
> Eyes narrowed at Link over her shoulder, Clayton slowly retreated to the edge of the clearing, then began to Change back to his human form.
Tobias paced in front of her as if he couldn’t make himself give up the grizzly. He let off a short roar, and the scent of his fury smelled bitter against the oversensitive lining of her nose.
Clayton stood with his weight on his good leg, human, clawed up, wet with blood, and naked.
“Well, this is awkward, future dad-in-law. I can see your dick.”
Clayton’s eyes tightened, and he opened his mouth to say something, but Tobias paced in front of her and blocked her view completely.
Keeping the gun angled away from him, she shoved his furry side with her elbow. “I’m okay. Move.” He did by inches, so she aimed her rifle in Clayton’s direction again and said, “Here is how this is going to go down. I’m not coming with you. I’m never going back to Perl, and if you’re here on a kill mission, well, you’re shit out of luck on that one, too.”
“You’re dangerous out here on your own.”
“I’m not on my own.” She twitched her head toward Tobias and Link. “I have them watching out for me. And I’m not leaving here until I have full control over my Changes and my animal, so all of your arguments won’t hold up here. You want me to do your dirty work and discover your cure? I can’t do anything about the McCalls, and I’m tired of using my medicine on shifters who don’t want it.”
“The misfits need to be contained—”
“Says you, you controlling freak! Despite you withholding supplies, they’ve done just fine on Perl for the last month without being medicated. And I can tell you right now, suppressing animals for too long will make them unmanageable.”
“You’re going to ruin my boys.”
“You ruined your boys, Mr. Silver. You did. You raised them poorly. My decision to help them avoid hibernation won’t ruin them. Their baggage is on you being a shit father. I mean, look at you. Look! You are here to hurt your son’s mate. How do you think he’ll feel when you take me away or hurt me? Have you thought about him at all? On your journey here, did you ever once stop and think about what it would do to your son to have to fight his father to keep his mate safe? You’ve dug yourself into a hole that is deep and dark, mister. Hurt me, and you’ll drag your son into that same fate. I’m no threat to you or any other humans. I’m here rehabilitating, you unobservant taint-bucket. I didn’t escape Perl to terrorize the humans. I escaped to try and build a life. Now, be a good father for once in your miserable life and let Tobias be happy.”