by M. L. Briers
“Okie-Dokey.”
Curtis forced himself to take one long step back from her; when all he wanted to do was wrap her in his arms and make her his.
“I should go,” he knew he was repeating himself, but it was more for his benefit than for hers. Except, there was still that small hope that she’d change her mind.
“Ok,” June gave a little nod of her head.
“I’m leaving,” Curtis said, giving a small grunt with each step that he took towards the door.
“I noticed that,” June offered back.
“I won’t be far,” he said and saw a frown start to etch onto her forehead. “If you should need me for anything.” He rushed out.
“Giant man-eating spiders beware the girlie screams of a poor helpless female without a slipper,” she offered back as amusement played at the corners of her lips.
“I’m good with spiders,” Curtis nodded.
“Me too,” June offered back. “But, I’m sure one look at you and they run for the hills.”
She could see how much he didn’t want to leave, and she could feel that same need for him to stay pulling inside of her. Just the sight of him heading toward the door felt as if she was losing something important.
“A bit like you?” he asked in all seriousness.
“I’m not running,” June shot back.
“Good, because running would be very, very bad.” Curtis needed her to know that, even if she did already look like she’d read it on one of those internet sites that she’d been quoting from all through dinner.
“How about walking real fast?” She couldn’t help but tease him. She found that she liked to watch his expressive eyebrows try to meet and knit together above his nose.
“Huh? Nooo,” he shook his head but stopped at the sound of her giggles.
“I’m just pulling your leg,” she offered back.
“Sweetheart, you can pull anything of mine that you want,” Curtis said, but it wasn’t necessarily what he’d said, but the way in which he’d said it, making it sound dirty, that made her ears prick up and listen as her cheeks colored again.
“Maybe…” she stopped and swallowed down hard. “I’ll get back to you on that.”
“I’ll be waiting,” Curtis informed her, and he hated the fact that his shoulder hit the door frame because he had nowhere else to go but outside.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
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Every now and again, June peeked out through the windows just to see if he was still outside. She’d had to limit herself to the number of times that she looked because the urge to keep doing it was clawing inside of her like she had a wild beast of her very own.
She’d put the radio on for something to do and to try to ease the pent up tension within her, and yet, she wasn’t even listening to it. Most of the time it was just background noise. That was until the local news came on and the word, storm, was mentioned. That got her full attention.
Well, that’s not good.
That’s the first I’ve heard of a damn storm. Stupid weather people. Might as well go and stick my wet finger in the air, I’d have better results.
If I’d known earlier, I could have taken care of the greenhouse. Shut the sky lights, closed the windows and sealed the doors. Now, I’ll have to do it in the damn dark.
June made her way to the wet room, yanked on her wellies, and grabbed the solar lamp that sat on a ledge in front of the window. Then she pulled open the side door to the garden and started down the path that would bring her out on the other side of the greenhouse.
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“I guess the wooing isn’t going as well as could be expected,” Justin announced from the dark shadows inside a particularly dense patch of trees, and Curtis was somewhat startled by the appearance of the vampire who had been extra stealthy and had stayed downwind of his bear senses.
“If I weren't busy right now then I’d chase your vampire butt all over these damn woods until I had something of you to sink my fangs into,” Curtis grumbled back.
“Keep telling yourself that you can catch me,” Justin chuckled.
“Damn it, vampire, one of these days I will,” Curtis warned him before he turned his attention back towards June’s house and the windows that shone with the artificial lights from inside the property.
“Promises – promises,” he teased back. Then he craned his head to look around the big man at the woman’s house. “Hmm, not tucked up in bed yet? No chance to shift into your beast. Must be trying.”
“Can you not?”
“Not what?”
“Annoy me?” Just to make his point Curtis allowed a small growl to rumble through his chest.
“I don’t know, can I?” Justin tossed back, but when the shifter turned his head and glared at him; he got the message. “Oh, fine! Boring. But fine.”
“Sorry that I’m not here for your entertainment,” Curtis grumbled.
“And yet, you do so anyway,” Justin chuckled, and that sound made Curtis’ fur bristle just under his skin.
The vampire was right about one thing – shifting. His bear had wanted out for a while.
It had a need to roam the property and scent the area for anything untoward. The problem was that the man wanted to keep a hold on his human form, just in case his mate came out and needed him.
A mad scramble to get back to his clothes, shift into his human form, get dressed, and then go to her aid would have been time wasted. But once the lights went out, well, then he’d allow the change. Maybe he’d even welcome it on some level.
“Please go away.” Curtis wasn’t known for his manners, but he’d been told that a please never hurt anyone, and he had a need to be alone with his thoughts. Thoughts that were full of his mate.
“I hate to disappoint, especially when you were so nice about it,” Justin offered back.
“Then don’t,” Curtis growled.
“And miss all the fun?”
“There’s no fun,” Curtis grumbled. “She’s in there, and I’m out here.”
“And that sucks the big one, doesn’t it?”
Curtis twisted his head on his neck and eyed the man with pure disbelief. He could see the vampire through the darkness now, and the man just annoyed him further when he shrugged his shoulders and offered him a smirk.
“I really want to wrap my hand around your throat and squeeze until your eyeballs pop out onto your cheeks…”
“My, what a lovely picture you paint,” Justin tossed back. “Tell me, does your mate realize that you have these murderous episodes?”
“You can’t murder a dead man.”
“True, sort of-ish, but still…”
“June knows that I would never hurt her.”
Curtis growled a warning to the man to stop. His bear was getting riled up within him at the vampire’s accusations, and that wouldn’t be good for any of them.
Mine… His beast felt the need to make its feelings clear.
“I know, but you get this little twitch just under your right eye…”
“Go the hell away, Justin, before I do something that we might both regret.” Curtis snapped back, turning his glare on the vampire once more.
“Easy there big guy.”
Justin didn’t want to send the man over the edge, but he did like to yank his chain once in a while, well, quite a lot. He guessed the shifter had reached his limit.
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June stalked into the darkness of the greenhouse and tilted her head back to eye the windows in the roof. She sighed inwardly, knowing that she’d opened practically all of them to allow the place to breathe, and had been distracted by her visitor into not closing the majority of them before nightfall.
There was the low rumble of thunder that echoed through the glass building and warned her that she needed to get a move on if she was going to seal the building before the storm came.
With the lamp in hand, she started for the mechanisms
that were on the furthest side of the greenhouse, eager to get the job completed before that storm hit.
The only problem was; there was no thunder in the night sky, at least, not yet.
CHAPTER TWENTY
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Justin spotted something off to the right of where his friend stood, facing him down like he wanted to rip his head off his body and hand it back to him. Which, Curtis probably did, and it was probably deserved, but right then; he was more concerned with the fact that there was what appeared to be an intermediate light flashing from inside the greenhouse.
“Tell me, did you notice a light on in the greenhouse?” Justin only had to say the words to cause Curtis to spin on his heels and eye the building across the garden.
“No,” Curtis was already on the move. His long legs were eating up the distance with the vampire following on behind him.
“It’s probably something on a timer,” Justin offered, but still, he knew that the bear wouldn’t be doing his mate-ly job if he didn’t check it out.
“Probably,” Curtis grumbled back, but his beast was more than ready to burst out from within him at the first sign of trouble, it was positively clawing to be set free.
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June felt a rush of unease as she strolled through the vegetation that usually felt like home. Something felt off. Something just didn’t sit right inside of her, and the fine hairs on her skin rose to attention on a shiver that ran down her spine.
She felt as if she had eyes on her. Someone watching her every move, or maybe it was something.
June had to wonder if Curtis was still in the area, and maybe if he was, then he might have changed into his bear. That gave her pause for thought.
A bear. How weird was that?
It wasn’t as if she was used to those kinds of beasts roaming freely around her gardens. Hell, she’d seen squirrels, rabbits, and a few foxes, but a bear?
Another rumble of thunder alerted her to get a move on. She tried to dismiss the thought of Curtis and his bear as she went about closing the first window, but something told her that neither man nor beast could be dismissed that easily.
She was right.
The sudden movement off to her right caused her to turn her head in that direction, and she felt her heart hit her ribs at the giant shadow that loomed in the semi darkness.
June snatched up the lamp and thrust it outward, toward what she thought she saw – what she hoped was her mind playing tricks on her – but the sight that came out of the shadows made that hope die inside of her.
“Curtis?” June’s voice was barely a whisper. But when the beast’s lips pulled back and exposed his razor sharp fangs, she knew deep within her soul that wasn’t her mate.
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The light might have gone out in the greenhouse, but that didn’t stop Curtis from the task at hand. Find out exactly what that light was for, and check the area for anything that posed a risk to his mate.
The sound of a muted scream hit his ears first and cut like a knife into his heart a second later. He was off and running as fast as his powerful legs could carrying him before the sound of something crashing inside the greenhouse had the vampire shoot by him at the kind of speed that he could only wish that he had at that moment in time.
Curtis picked up on the sound a snarl as he listened hard for what was happening inside those glass walls, and he was certain that his heart was in his throat at the thought of his mate being anywhere near a bear that wasn’t a part of him.
It was the not knowing. The not seeing what was happening that angered him the most. But it was not being right there with his mate, fighting to defend and protect her that killed his very soul.
He had a good mind to know what bear was in there with his mate, and he promised himself one thing; tonight that bear shifter was going to die.
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June didn’t know what else to do than to lob things into the bear’s path. The beast was already finding it difficult to navigate its huge frame around the rows of workbenches and the areas of the narrowest pathways, knocking things aside as it came for her, and she chose her route wisely to avoid wide open areas where the beast might gain some speed and close the distance between them.
When she came to a dead end she had a choice to make; she could either make a run for it through the large area that she used for deliveries, and give the damn bear an open playing field; or she could hightail it over the workbench in front of her and start back the other way towards the front of the greenhouse.
She wasn’t entirely sure if she actually heard the sound of the bear breathing down her neck, or if it was the sound of the blood coursing through her veins. But that sound made up her mind for her, and she took a running jump for the top of the workbench and made plans to jump down on the other side and head back up the narrow aisle towards the door.
Things didn’t go as she’d planned. The bear used his meaty body to slam into the workbench, dislodging it from the floor, and tipping it upwards with her still on the top.
June tried her damnedest to run in place against the pitch of the wood beneath her feet, but the slippery, muddy surface, coupled with the rows of freshly planted seedling trays made it almost impossible for the thick soles of her boots to gain any purchase.
She could feel her world tipping, and she knew what came next – almost.
June had never known pain like it in her life before. For one long moment that she couldn’t quite understand; she felt a hard thud against her back, and then lightning burning across her skin. She screamed out against the agony, at the same time as her body spun in the air and she started to fall.
June hit the ground hard. The roar from the bear echoed within her very soul.
She’d heard something crack inside her body, more pain, and what little thought that she could muster through the pain acknowledged that it was bone snapping.
She couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. She just wanted the pain to be over.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
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Justin knew one thing; that his friend was hard on his heels and whatever choices he would need to make, he had to be sure, he had to be fast, and he had to be right.
He heard the sound of a bear tearing things up inside the greenhouse, and he headed right for the action. He wasn’t on a watch and see mission, but, he also couldn’t be entirely sure what the hell he was going to do when he got to where he was going.
If June were in immediate danger from the bear, then he’d take the beast down and to hell with Curtis’ ideas of right and wrong, honor and duty to fight for his mate. He’d rather have one live mate, and his friend pissed off at him for the next decade or so, than watch his friend go crazy and have to kill him because he’d let his mate die.
If he could rescue the woman and leave the bear to Curtis, even better, everyone would be happy – well, Curtis would be pissed off afterward that he’d had his hands on his mate, but that was neither here nor there.
The main priority was June. Human, weak, easily broken, June, and making sure that nothing happened to her that couldn’t be undone.
That was his plan. But, what he found was so much more complicated.
June was lying beneath a workbench that had been tossed onto its side on top of her body. The bear, Goran’s bear, was about ready to go in for the final attack on the helpless woman, and he could already scent her blood in the air.
Justin had never hesitated in his life before, but he did then.
As the bear lunged towards her, paw lifted, razor sharp claws ready to strike down and finish her off, Justin’s brain kicked his backside into gear and he started towards the bear, meaning to get the beast as far away from the woman as possible.
The trouble with that plan was; he could also hear that she was barely breathing. He might not have time left to save her life.
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June felt – strange.
It felt like; one moment she was burning up with the agony that was screaming through every nerve ending within her body, and the next; there was nothing. No pain. No fear. Just the sound of her heart pounding within her ears getting slower, and slower, weaker and weaker.
She’d fought for air. Panicked when she couldn’t seem to get enough into her lungs, but now that need was gone as well.
She felt strangely light. Strangely at peace with what was happening, and she was okay with it.
The thought of Curtis hit her mind and gave her a long moment’s clarity. She knew that she’d never get to trace her fingertips down over his muscles, knew that she’d never get to feel his hard body against hers, skin to skin as they mated, and she wouldn’t get her Mr. Forever.
A single tear escaped over her lower lashes and ran down her right cheek, and it was full of regret. She didn’t have many regrets in her life, but that one hit her with such clarity.
She couldn’t move a muscle, but her eyes only needed to see one thing; that big, fierce bear with the anger in his eyes coming for her. She didn’t want to see death coming – she closed her eyes and pictured her sexy mate grinning at her.
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Justin pulled up short, turned on a dime, and headed back towards June the instant that Curtis’ bear took Goran head on under his crushing weight and knocked the both of them sideways away from the human.
Justin dropped to his knees on the mat, reaching out with one hand to lift and toss the workbench away from her, while biting down into the palm of his other hand with his fangs, tearing at his flesh, and getting the strong scent of his blood that mixed with the scent of hers in the air around him.
He could smell shifter blood too, as the bears locked into a ferocious battle not far from where he was forcing his blood into June’s mouth while keeping an eye out for what those beasts were going to do next.