Bearing the Hunger (Shifters of Yellowstone Book 2)

by Dominique Eastwick

  Bearing the Hunger

  Shifters of Yellowstone Book 2

  Dominique Eastwick

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  Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Editor Wizards in Publishing

  Cover photographer - Marcus J. Ranum

  Cover Art Design Fantasia Frog

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  About the Author

  Also by Dominique Eastwick

  If Grant had his way, humans and their stupidity would be banned from Yellowstone, leaving the shifters who knew the land to live and take care of it. Until he meets human geologist Morgan Jenkins, who is only working in Yellowstone until winter comes. Suddenly, the one shifter in the park who most wanted all humans gone finds he wants one human to stay forever.

  Special thanks to Nickie Graham who helped me with some names, Merryn Dexter for being so very supportive, and as always Nadine for kicking me in the ass.

  Dedicated to the men and women who work tirelessly to keep the national parks open and safe for all to experience.

  Chapter One

  Grant stomped into the cavernous greeting room of the grizzly honeycomb-like den. He roared before he shifted to human form and started cursing the air blue. The receptionist, Hoss, a guardian on light duty since a tree landed on him in the last big storm, simply raised an eyebrow before going back to reading the paperback mystery in his hand.

  “Is there an issue, Grant?” His alpha’s deep voice rumbled through the entry hall. Grant turned to see the almost seven-foot-tall man leaning against the wall.

  “Stupid humans.”

  “I would like to remind you, our beta is human.” Though his voice didn’t change, Brutus’s words held bite.

  He eyed the closed door of the beta’s room. “She doesn’t count.”

  Now Brutus did step forward. “I would argue she counts very much.”

  He was making a mess of this and was likely to invoke the alpha’s anger. “Never mind. Forget I said anything. I’ll just head out again and do another round.”

  “What worries you matters, and I’m unlikely to forget my top scout is so angry he was ready to tear the walls down.” He stepped back and indicated the open door. “Come inside.”

  There was no way out of it. His alpha had spoken. He moved into the room and sat in the chair farthest from the double door connecting the alpha’s room, currently used as an office, and the beta’s room, which housed the couple. A few short months ago, this room, though acting as his office, also housed a bed instead of the large desk now in the corner. The room next door had lain empty and in wait for too many years. Everything changed when Ranger Quinn Tatum came into the park.

  Brutus took his usual seat, the one closest to his beta’s room. “Now, tell me what bothers you. But do try and keep it down. Quinn is resting.”

  “Resting?” Concern filled him. Though human, their beta had proven up to the task and then some. She continued to work as a ranger while taking on her responsibilities as the alpha’s softer side. She eased the squabbles. Helped the omegas when they felt they weren’t being heard. Hell, she even got Hoss to sit down and rest, a monumental feat for anyone, let alone a five-foot-eight human. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing is wrong.” Brutus eased back in his chair. “I promise she isn’t ill.”

  “She hasn’t slept in since your first branding. And she argues with everyone about keeping her job. So it would take a serious illness to lay her low.”

  “I repeat, she isn’t sick. She is simply tired.”

  “Well, then, with all due respect, I think you might want to give her some room at night. I appreciate that you have finally found your mate, but your hand is a viable option, sometimes.”

  Brutus leaned forward and motioned for his scout to do the same. “I’ll keep that in mind when she awakens me at 2:00 a.m. with needs only I can satisfy. I promise you it is not I keeping us up at night. Shauna confirmed this morning my wife is about to become a mother.”

  “Already?”

  “You doubt my ability?”

  Crap on a cracker, he’d stepped in it again. “No, but there are plenty of couples together for decades who still haven’t produced a single cub.”

  Brutus waved toward the closed door. “She is human. They ovulate far more frequently than our shifting sisters. Perhaps that is why the fates sent her. She isn’t ready to tell anyone yet, so keep the news to yourself.”

  “Of course.”

  “Now, tell me what had you spitting angry.”

  He had quite forgotten why he had been called into the office. “Stupid Yellowstone tourists.”

  “I heard a man fell into the geyser.” Concern etched the other man’s face.

  “It’s as if they are getting stupider. Selfies with bison and bears. Another attack today with another bison. Lars says he is taking his gang into the hills for fear his calves will get hurt. Now that is a shifter species with no trouble whatsoever breeding.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “I’m so tired of trying to protect the dumb.”

  “What is the other option?”

  “Let nature take its course.”

  “I think that is what our people used to do. But do remember we were hunted to near extinction…”

  “Exactly, so why should we care about the humans who care nothing for this planet, or for the rules of coexistence?”

  “Because most of them come here to learn.” The soft voice of the beta filled the room. “They come to Yellowstone for the beauty, bring their children with them, and a great majority leave determined to protect it.”

  “Sorry we woke you.” Brutus pulled her into his lap and nuzzled her neck. “Did you eat the crackers Shauna left on the end table?”

  A slight green tinted her cheeks, but she nodded.

  “You couldn’t keep them down?”

  She shook her head.

  “Oh, my poor love. What can we get you?”

  “Ginger ale?”

  “I think we can accommodate that simple request.” He rubbed her arms up and down.

  “I’ll run out and get it for you,” Grant volunteered, gaining his feet.

  “Wait first.” She reached for him as he passed. “The humans, I understand them. They aren’t bad, and I don’t think their behavior is any worse than it’s ever been. I get you don’t believe me, and granted the selfie thing is new, but people have always been victims of accidents, and I would bet there were a great many we never heard about.”

  Brutus picked up where Quinn, who laid her head on her mate’s shoulder, out of steam, left off. “In the age of cell phones, everyone videos everything. News travels where it didn’t before.”

  “And maybe Grant is right and there is something in the water. People act more disrespectful than before,” she murmured thoughtfully. “Entitled.”

  Quinn made Grant feel as if his worries had merit. She didn’t brush him aside. Not to say
Brutus did, but he had to play the company line—the only way to protect Yellowstone was for as many people as possible to see its beauty. “I think it’s more of a lack of understanding of the dangers.”

  He caught Brutus’s nod of approval before Quinn, greener around the edges, jumped to her feet and ran for the other suite and her mate followed. “Ginger ale would be wonderful. Perhaps a case,” Brutus said, standing in the doorway between the two rooms.

  Curious as to why he didn’t rush the rest of the way to her side but unwilling to say so, Grant looked between his alpha and the sounds of retching.

  “She doesn’t like me to see her like this. As if I’m not the cause of her state at the moment or anything could dim her in my heart.”

  “Humans need longer to feel comfortable, I guess.” His alpha had found his mate in early spring. Though he had watched her from afar, they had been together only days when they completed their mating bond. Normal for bears, not so for humans. Quinn still had so much to adjust to. Hadn’t he been privy to their private conversation about her fears of the upcoming months? Fears brought on by the first areas of the parks closing for the season. Her mate would have to hibernate leaving her without him for weeks in the middle of the winter when the snow would be at its deepest. She wasn’t supposed to still be in the park come November, so explaining her presence to other rangers would be troublesome, leaving her a lone human in a shifter world. The only Internet and line to the outside remained at the inn, and that building would be closed tight in a few weeks.

  The sound of wood cracking brought his attention to the left hand of his alpha. On the outside, he remained so very calm, but he gripped the doorframe with such force, it foretold his need to be with his mate and the fight to acquiesce to her wishes. But, at the creak of the bathroom door opening, his alpha darted off, leaving Grant to stare at the splintered wood. Perhaps fetching ginger ale should move to the top of his to-do list.

  Walking out into the communal hall, he turned to Hoss, still sitting reading his mystery book. “Might want to send one of the carpenters in to fix the doorframe.”

  Hoss nodded but didn’t respond. The bear, who wasn’t talkative on the best of days, walked to the hall closet and pulled out some trim and a tool belt then headed into the alpha’s office. Guessing this wasn’t the first time nor the last, and the bears in charge of maintenance were well on it, Grant took a set of keys from a hook and headed out to the general stores to locate some ginger ale. He would ask a human while he was out what else they recommended for morning sickness. Dressed in his park attire, he could tell them it was for a guest he was helping out. That should raise no eyebrows. Though, to be smart, he should head to the bison’s area because they didn’t gossip. The same couldn’t be said for the bears or the wolves. And although the elk, with their prolific reproduction, would likely be the most knowledgeable of the shifters when it came to morning sickness, it would be a four-hour round trip, and he had no reason to be up Mammoth way. So, Old Faithful it was, with the hordes of tourists, but, for his queen, he would endure them.

  Geologist Morgan Jenkins lowered the thermometer into the thermal pool, careful to stay a safe distance away. She preferred to partner when doing risky work. This wasn’t a usual assignment for her, and she never worked Yellowstone. But when your mentor and friend called begging you to complete his data to avoid a year’s research going down the drain, you packed a bag and made the trip. With the exception of being out here on her own, the last three weeks had been a geologist’s dream come true. The park had everything any scientist could want, in her opinion.

  Including a good heap of danger.

  The ground might appear solid, but, in fact, she stood on a thin crust. One wrong step and she could easily find herself boiled alive. Park rangers knew where she was, and, if she didn’t check in, they would come searching. That offered little in the way of relief or reassurance as there would likely be no rescue, only a recovery mission.

  Even the animals skirted the area today. Meaning a number of things. This late in the season, the bears would be searching for food, but this area offered little for them. The bison sometimes came this way and lay near the steam ports, but, today, they were somewhere else. How could their absence be such a relief and concern at the same time? Animals sensed things well before humans did. Perhaps they knew something she didn’t. She would finish this one reading and head back. The rest could wait a day or two, at least until the feeling of dread passed.

  Maybe dread was too strong a word—apprehension might be better. She had experienced that since arriving at the park weeks ago. The closer she got to Yellowstone Lake, the more intense the butterflies in her stomach fluttered, almost as if her destiny lay in that area. She had three more days, tops, in this area before she could move up to Mammoth and, barring an early snowfall, she could get some readings in a few more isolated areas.

  A shadow the size of a grizzly fell over her. She was about to reach for her bear spray when a deep voice galvanized her. “What the hell are you doing in an area clearly labeled no trespassing? Does no one have any sense?”

  “I…” She turned to give the man a piece of her mind. Tell him she had every right, in fact permission to be out this way, and his sneaking up on her was more likely to cause her injury than her work. But when she turned to see the large burly man, her mouth went dry and she couldn’t quite remember what she’d meant to say.

  “Save it. I have heard all the excuses before. Just because that pool appears safe, trust me, it isn’t. On your feet, lady. Grab your bags, and I’ll escort you out of the park.” His large hand wrapped around her biceps, half lifting, half pulling her up.

  Only when he reached for her bag did she regain the power of speech. “Wait.”

  “What?” He growled. She could have sworn the man actually growled.

  “I have to get my readings before I go.” She reached into her blouse, pulling out the lanyard holding the badge stating who, and, more importantly, what she was. “I am a geologist taking readings in the area. I have every right to be here. More right, I dare say, than you do.”

  He huffed out his sizable chest. Reaching out to grab the lanyard, he touched the bare skin at her neckline, sending a jolt through her. She wondered if he felt it, too, as he dropped the plastic ID and backed away, rubbing at the scruff on his chin. “So it would appear. If it’s all the same to you, I would like to stay out here until you’re done.”

  “I actually would really appreciate that.” She smiled up at him, although she couldn’t really see his face with the sun sitting neatly behind his head. She turned to pull up the thermometer and made a note on her laptop with shaky fingers. “I have two more pools to check here.”

  He lifted her backpack and threw it over his shoulder. The bag appeared child-sized on him. “Lead the way.”

  She smiled and started toward the next place on her checklist. He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s take a wide berth. The crust is thin here.”

  She didn’t question him. He obviously knew the lay of the land better than she. She followed him without speaking, listening to the sounds of nature around her, wondering why her body hummed in close proximity to the large man. “I didn’t catch your name.”

  “Grant.”

  “Grant…” She waited for a last name, but he didn’t offer it. “What do you do at the park other than yell at idiot tourists?”

  “I’m a fire scout.”

  “I didn’t know there were such positions.” She paused at another pool and lowered her equipment for the next reading, set the timer on her watch, and turned to him.

  He stared at the water. “Never gets old, the vibrant yellow, turquoise, and orange in the crystal-blue clear waters. Almost like a rainbow below the surface.”

  “Huh? Oh, right, the land.” She had floated to la-la land focused on the full, curving lips nearly hidden behind a day’s growth of beard. She needed to get laid if all it took was one gorgeous man to throw her off her game. “It
’s a geologist’s playground.” She cringed. Could you sound any more nerdy?

  “So, Morgan Jenkins, I haven’t seen you around before. Are you new to the park?”

  She checked her watch. Two more minutes until she could pull up the thermometer. “I’m only here because my old college professor broke his hip and needed these last readings for his research. Perhaps you know him. Dr. Owen Mitchell?”

  “Nope, never met him. I don’t have much interaction with the scientists. Unless they are coming up with new ways to put out a fire.”

  “So what made you think I was new?” Gawd. Did she have a neon sign reading NEWB across her forehead?

  He stepped forward, and she could have sworn he was going to reach for her and pull her into his arms. Why did she sense that? Then he said, in a voice laced with heat, “If I had seen you before, I would have remembered, and so would you.”

  The beeper on her watch broke her lusty haze. She pulled out the gauge and tapped more numbers into her laptop. “Okay, how about you lead the way. I need to head to…” She pulled out the map from her sack, calculated where she was, and located north then pointed to a place behind the tree.

  “Might be a bust. That geyser erupted for the first time in thirteen years last week. It’s been spewing every couple of hours since.”

  “Is it predictable?”

  “I’m not out here enough to be sure, but I don’t think so. I can ask around if you want. There are some seismometers out here. I guess their data would let you know.”

  “I would love to see it if you can direct me to the right person?”

  He paused, running a hand over his scruffy chin. “How about this? Tell me where you’re staying, and I can get them to send over their facts tonight or early tomorrow morning.”

  “I can go and see them.”

  “The scientist in charge isn’t a big people person. Might be best for me to get it for myself. To be honest, it won’t even be me. My boss will make the contact.”