Shifted Temptations

by Black, C. E.

  The birth was one of the hardest things I had ever done, but worth every excruciating moment. I had been lucky that I was able to get an epidural, which was heaven for the contractions. As far as the actual birth, I was not so sure it worked. I had felt everything.

  I looked out the window, remembering the day with perfect clarity. Bear had freaked out a bit when my water broke, but thankfully, Liz was there to calm us all down. She helped me change my clothes while Bear got my overnight bag.

  Once we arrived at the hospital, the anesthesiologist administered the epidural and then it became a waiting game. Bear had been a little uncomfortable being in the room, but I had begged him to stay. I knew it was odd, wanting someone who was a stranger to me only weeks before, watch the birth of my baby. However, during the time we spent together, we had become great friends. And with him there, I felt closer to Jordan and Alex somehow.

  Bear held one of my hands and Liz held the other as the doctor and two nurses prepared for little Ava’s arrival. Doctor Reynolds was an older man, with short gray hair. He had a lean face with gold wire rimmed glasses perched on his nose. He was a sweet man with warm blue eyes and friendly smile.

  “Okay, Sam. I want you to take a deep breath and push. Ready?” The doctor asked.

  I nodded and did as he said. I whimpered, it burned so bad, but I kept going as everyone called out encouragements.

  “That’s good Sam, real good. Now, wait until you feel the pressure and do it again.”

  I panted as I felt the pressure building again. I took a deep breath and leaned forward, pushing with everything I had.

  It continued like that for a while, maybe an hour or two before finally Doctor Reynolds informed us he could see the baby’s head.

  I was so excited and tired at the same time. I tightened my grip on my friends’ hands and pushed one more time. There was an increase in pressure and the pain become almost unbearable. Nevertheless, I pushed through, until finally the pressure went away.

  “Don’t push now. Just wait while we clean the baby’s airway.”

  As I tried to catch my breath, I looked down to see the nurse handing the doctor a bulb syringe. Bear’s hand suddenly loosened and I looked up at him for the first time since I started pushing. His face had paled as his eye fixated between my legs.

  I pulled on his arm, concerned as he swayed. “Bear, are you alright?”

  He looked down at me, his eyes wide and fearful.

  “Bear?” I asked again.

  Then big tough Bear did the unthinkable. His hazel eyes rolled back and he fell over like a tree crashing in the forest.

  The young nurses shrieked as I stared at him shocked. Liz snorted beside me and I glanced at her. She was trying not to laugh, but I could see her eyes sparkling. I smiled at her and turned back to what was happening with Bear.

  The nurses had revived him and he was sitting in the chair, sucking in deep breaths. The nurses were fretting over him, but he gently swatted their hands away.

  “I’m alright,” he said gruffly.

  Liz giggled and Bear’s head snapped her way. He narrowed his eyes and she could not hold back. Liz doubled over laughing. I would have to, but the doctor was ready for me to push again.

  Ava was perfect. She was all red and screaming her head off, letting everyone know her lungs worked just fine. I smiled in amazement as the nurse placed her on my breast. She snuggled against my chest as tears began sliding down my cheeks.

  “She’s beautiful,” Liz whispered in awe as she gently rubbed the soft blonde wisps of hair on top of Ava’s head.

  “Just perfect, Sam. You did an amazing job,” Bear said as he walked back over to my side. He looked much better and color flooded his cheeks as I smiled at him.

  We all were entranced with Ava. She was such a gift and I had wished with all my heart that her fathers could have been there to witness her stunning birth.

  A knock at the door brought me back to the moment. I stood from the rocking chair and walked over to the crib, laying Ava down on the firm mattress. She was swaddled tightly and she whimpered only once before settling back to sleep.

  I could hear deep voices coming from the living room and I swiftly left the room, closing the door gently behind me. I walked into to the other room and froze at the sight of Paul.

  “What are you trying to say?” Bear growled.

  Before Paul could answer, he caught sight of me and turned. His dark eyes bore into mine. At first his expression was blank, emotionless, but then I saw regret flash across his face.

  I gasped and stepped back until I hit the wall. No.

  Paul swallowed before saying, “I’m sorry, Sam.”

  “No,” I whispered as tears streamed down my face. “No.”

  Paul held his hand up and stepped towards me, but I shook my head. He stopped and furrowed his eyebrows in concern.

  “Sam, I...”

  “No!” I screamed louder.

  This could not be happening, I thought. Jordan and Alex could not be gone for good. I slid down the wall and hugged myself tightly.

  Liz came running from the kitchen. “What’s going on? Sam?”

  She rushed over and wrapped me in her arms as I rocked back and forth, whispering ‘no’ over and over. I just wanted to close my eyes and go to sleep. Then maybe when I woke, it would have all been a dream.

  As I looked into Paul’s regretful eyes, I knew it was no dream. The men I loved were dead.

  ~ 33 ~

  Bear

  “No...No...”

  Sam was sobbing into Liz’s chest and I thought my heart was breaking right along with hers. No woman should be in so much pain.

  “What are you doing, man? You’re scaring her,” I growled at Paul. Because of him, Sam was thinking the worst.

  “I am sorry, but it’s true,” Paul said.

  What? No, Paul was mistaken, had to be.

  “Where did you hear this? No one had gotten in touch with me about this. If something had happened to Jordan or Alex, Teij would have contacted me.”

  “Teij has left to take care of the bastards that did this. I was sent here to tell you...and Sam.”

  I bowed my head, grabbed the sides of my hair and pulled hard. “Shit, shit, shit,” I murmured.

  I could not believe what Paul was telling me. Jordan and Alex had been good friends to me since the first time we met almost ten years ago. They were great soldiers and I was having a hard time wrapping my head around them being taken down so easily.

  “Damn it!” I said as I looked over at Sam.

  I could not stand to see her in such pain. I walked over, pulled her away from Liz and lifted her into my arms. I held tightly to her small frame as she clung to the front of my shirt. She was so small in comparison to me and she felt so fragile.

  I buried my nose in her hair and whispered soothing words. I promised myself that I would never allow her to raise that child alone. I would be there for them both. At only a week old, that baby had lodged herself into my heart along with her mother.

  Sam was a wonderful woman. She was sexy, smart and sweet as candy. If she were mine, I could have never shared her as Jordan and Alex had.

  I rather understood them though. They had a connection with each other that was closer than the average friendship. Those men did most everything together and I guessed it should not have been a surprise when they fell in love with the same woman.

  I knew Sam was only a friend and if it stayed that way, I would be fine. As long as I was there for her, I would be happy. She deserved so much more than what life had just thrown at her and I would gladly take care of her for as long as she needed.

  I sat on the couch and held Sam in my lap as we mourned Jordan and Alex together. Rocking back and forth, I soothed her as best I could by rubbing her back gently. I never paid attention to what Liz or Paul were doing. My sole focus was on the woman in my arms.

  Sam’s body began to relax and it was not long before she drifted off into an exhausted sleep. I c
arried her to her room and laid her down gently on the bed. I tucked her under the covers, kissed her head and left the room. She needed to rest for a few hours before she had to deal with anything else.

  “How is she?” Liz asked as I came back into the living room.

  “She’s resting.”

  Liz nodded and pinched the bridge of her nose. The whole screwed up situation was getting to all of us.

  “I cannot believe this is happening,” she remarked as she looked back at me with sad eyes.

  “I know, but we will be here for her and that little baby.”

  Our eyes met and I let her know how serious I was about taking care of them. Liz gave me a small smile and nodded once.

  “We will be here,” she agreed.

  We both cleared our throats trying to diffuse the intense atmosphere and heavy emotions. I glanced over and saw Paul sitting on the couch, watching us. I had forgotten he was still there.

  “Listen, I want to take a few days off to be here with Sam, but I need to take some files I had at home back to the office and get clearance for leave. I will only be gone an hour at the most. Do you think you can watch Sam and the baby while I am gone?”

  I turned back to Liz as she spoke. “Of course, go ahead. We’ll be fine.”

  She left the room and when she came back, she had a stack of files. “Thank you.” She grabbed her purse off the table that stood by the front door. “I’ll be back soon,” she said over her shoulder as she left.

  I slumped onto the couch beside Paul and rested my head in my hands. Things were so screwed up. I needed to contact my team and find out exactly what happened. Why had they not said anything to me?

  I lifted my head and looked at Paul. “What happened?”

  He shook his head and grimaced. “I don’t know. They wouldn’t tell me much, only to come deliver the news.” He shrugged “You know how it is. If you aren’t part of the mission, you don’t get many facts.”

  “But you were on that mission.”

  “Not the recovery mission. They didn’t send me to find Jordan or Alex.”

  “That doesn’t make sense. Why would they not use you? They needed every man they could get their hands on.”

  “I don’t know. Things have been weird lately.”

  I rubbed my face roughly and looked around the quiet room. “Damn, I need a drink.”

  I went to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of scotch from the top cabinet above the fridge and a glass from the drying rack by the sink. I poured an almost full glass and went back into the living room.

  “I am so glad those ladies decided to keep the good stuff around for guests,” I said.

  “That does look good. I think I’ll have one myself.”

  Paul made as if he was going to get up, but I put my hand out to stop him. “I’ll get it.”

  “Thank you,” he said as he leaned back against the couch and crossed his leg over his knee.

  I placed my glass on the coffee table and went back into the kitchen to fix Paul his scotch. I poured his a little less full than mine and after putting the decanter of exquisite brown liquid away, I brought the glass to him.

  He took it with a nod and I sat down with a sigh. Lifting my glass, I sniffed the liquid. Pulling back with a frown, I leaned in again and sniffed.

  “Smells a little different.”

  Paul took a sniff and nodded, his brows pulled together. “It does. Maybe a residue from the dishwasher?”

  “Probably, I hate that shit.”

  I shrugged and down the full glass in one shot. I swallowed and sucked my teeth at the bad aftertaste.

  “Damn, it tastes funny too.”

  Paul was sipping his and he made a face. “Yeah, maybe I don’t want a drink after all.”

  I laughed at how he could throw a joke out and still have such a serious face. Paul was the strangest person I had ever met. It would have been nice to get to know him a little better, but he seemed to have too many walls up.

  “Man, you have got to lighten up. I think you do need that drink to loosen up and smile once in awhile.”

  “Na, I’m good.”

  I glanced at him and shook my head then stilled as the room began to spin. I closed my eyes tightly to steady myself, but when I opened them, the room was blurring. Damn, alcohol had never affected me like that. That shit must have been strong, I thought, shaking my head again. Bad decision, because the room spun more violently.

  I looked down at my empty glass and blinked a few times to clear my vision. What I saw made me curse. A white residue clung to the bottom of the glass. What in the hell?

  “Sorry, Bear.”

  “Huh?”

  I turned towards Paul’s voice a little too fast and swayed to the side.

  “That was thoughtful of you to offer the drinks before I could. I had to give you a shit load of that tranquilizer just to get it to work.” Paul stood and faced me. “But don’t worry, as a shifter, it will only affect you for a little while. Only a few minutes actually, but that will be enough time for me.”

  “What are you talking about?” My speech slurred as I fell to the side, landing face first into the couch where Paul had just been sitting.

  I never heard his answer as the room continued to spin. “S-s-s,” I tried calling out to Sam, but it was useless. I closed my heavy eyes and succumbed to unconsciousness.

  ~ ~ ~

  A loud persistent noise had me groaning as I rubbed my pounding head. I slowly sat up and opened my eyes. I blinked at the bright sunlight coming through the windows and looked around the empty room. Had I fallen asleep on the couch?

  The high-pitched wail continued and I wondered drowsily where it was coming from. Then it hit me and I smiled. The baby was crying. She sure had a set of lungs on her. I wondered where her momma was. Maybe she needed help.

  Moaning, I began to stand up when I noticed two glasses sitting on the coffee table. One was half-full, while the other was completely empty. That was when I remembered.

  “Fuck!”

  Ignoring my pounding skull, I jumped up and raced to the nursery. The baby was crying her little head off, but otherwise she was safe in her crib. I rubbed her head and promised I would be right back. I took off towards Sam’s room.

  The bed was empty. A sheet hung half way off the bed and the lamp on the nightstand was broken on the floor. It looked like there had been quite a struggle and it was plain to see Sam had been taken.

  I roared long and loud at the ceiling. Rage radiated from my every pore. My breath heaved in and out of my lungs as my body began to jerk with the change. I was able to stop before going too far, but I had felt my shirt and jeans rip as my body and face began to morph and broaden.

  “Bear?” Liz asked and I twisted around with a growl to look at her.

  She gasped and threw her hands over her mouth in surprise. The fear in her eyes as she stepped back had me calming my racing heart enough to shift back into human form. The sharp fangs and curved claws added to my angry roar was probably a little too much for her.

  “I’m sorry, don’t be afraid.”

  She swallowed hard and stepped back into the room. “What happened?”

  I shook my head and tightened my hands into fists at my side. How could I have let this happen?

  “Bear?”

  “Sam, she’s gone.”

  “What?”

  “Paul took her. He’s a traitor.”

  Liz’s eyes widened with true fear for her friend. “What does he want with her? What are we going to do?”

  “I’m going to get her back,” I growled “And so help me, if he has laid one finger on her, I’ll kill him.”

  What I had not told Liz was that Paul was a dead man either way.

  ~ 34 ~

  Jordan

  I watched Alex pace back and forth in his cage, his hands running repeatedly through his hair. It was beginning to get annoying as hell, but it was not as if we had anything else to do.

  As usual, we were naked a
nd dirty, waiting for our next fight in the trench. I sat cross-legged on the ground with my back straight and my hands in my lap. I was trying to remain calm knowing that we would be fighting for our lives in a matter of minutes.

  In the fights before, we aimed only to incapacitate our opponents, though they had not given us the same consideration. Our next battle would be different. I was not sure who or what we were about to go against, but I knew it would be far from easy.

  My gaze automatically landed on the empty cage on the other side of Alex. Only a couple of weeks before, Mark had his first fight. He did not return. I was sad for that. He was not a friend, more like a childhood bully, but he had helped the Alpha Division and his intentions were good. I wished I could have gotten to know him as an adult.

  My attention went back to Alex and I sighed. “Alex, could you take a damn break. Your pacing is making me dizzy.”

  Alex stopped abruptly and swung around to face me. A grimace contorted his face as his hands fisted at his sides with a white knuckled grip.

  “How can you be so calm? We don’t even know what we are about to face. So far it has only been jaguars, most of which I actually recognized.” He shook his head and slumped to the floor. “I’ve tried my best not to kill them, mostly because I felt sorry for the bastards. In a way, they are as much victims in this as we are.”

  “They are, but my only priority is our survival. I will do whatever I have to in order to get both of us back to Sam. I am calm, because so far, Alexander has underestimated us and that has not changed. Whatever comes into that arena, we will be able to handle it.”

  Alex placed his head in his hands. “I miss Sam.”

  I sighed. “You’re not the only one.”

  “We’ve got to get out of here.”

  “I know. I think we are going to have to take our chances with the guards that bring us to the trench. It will not be easy, but I think it’s the only way.”

  Alex looked up, eager to hear the rest of my plan. As difficult as it would be, it was necessary. I was tired of this stink hole.