Bear My Heir: BBW Werebear Navy SEAL Second Chance Forbidden Pregnancy Romance (Shifter Squad Nine Book 1)

by Anya Nowlan

They didn’t care. And the only thing they’d give her were canned answers, promising and denying nothing.

  “We’ll look into it,” the shorter guy said, dark haired and gray-eyed, as they came to a stop in front of the door that was hiding her ‘home’ behind it.

  Three locks were undone, two digital and one mechanical, with one of the digital locks requiring a thumb print from the guards. When the door clicked open, she was shoved forward unceremoniously and before she could regain her footing, the heavy latches were rolling shut once more.

  Meredith stood in the middle of the small square room, windowless, with only a dim light bulb burning in the ceiling, covered by mesh, that would be automatically shut off in about an hour after she was escorted back. There was enough room for four thin mattresses at each corner, one for every one of the women there, and that was it. They weren’t even allowed a toilet, told to ‘hold it’ until they were taken off to do their jobs in the mornings.

  Sya and Amina were already there, waiting for her as they always were. Maria would be brought in about ten minutes later. The routine was as mind-numbing as it was certain. Nothing ever changed.

  Meredith stalked over to her bed immediately, sinking down onto it with a groan that seemed to leave her lips every evening that she returned ‘home.’ Amina gave her a commiserating look and they nodded to one another.

  “Anything new?” she asked.

  “Nothing at all. I’m getting close though. I might already be there but I can’t test on mice and rabbits forever, you know.”

  “They don’t trust you with live subjects?”

  “Maybe. I don’t know,” Meredith said, shrugging with a modicum of annoyance.

  It was a surprise that she could feel that emotion. At one point, she’d been certain that the only things she could feel were dread and worry.

  “Could they be doing your testing somewhere else, off-site?” Sya asked, her head resting against the hard stone wall, blue eyes seemingly devoid of any other emotion than pain.

  Meredith figured she looked much the same.

  “I doubt it,” she said, leaving the details to herself.

  They, meaning The Arctics, couldn’t do the testing without her help. She’d made sure of that. The formulas for the drug she was building were close enough, but not quite right. It was missing a key ingredient that though perhaps someone could surmise it from the notes she took and the video footage that was saved of her daily work, she doubted that they could tie all the ends together to make sense of what she was doing down to that level of detail.

  Dropping her forehead to her knees, pulled up to her chest as they were, Meredith took a few deep breaths. Everything had been going so well, or at least as well as one could assume, given that she was the hostage of a terrorist cell hell-bent on taking over the world, or at least making werewolves the dominant force on the globe.

  After she’d left Peru, she’d been flown into Mexico City to talk about her research, though it had mostly turned into a prolonged interrogation after what had happened at both of the bases. She clung to her story throughout it, that she’d been driven from the home base to the airport, put on a plane and all she knew was that she saw a few explosions as they flew off.

  To her, nothing had seemed off and the only reason she’d arrived at the airport in the morning instead of during the night was some technical trouble on the road, which had been radioed in during the evening.

  Of course, no one could check her words regarding the radio transmission as both the pilot and the guards that were with her were not on communications duty that day. For lack of a better option, they’d believed her, though it was clear to see that after that incident, she’d been kept a much closer eye on. The trust was gone.

  For a few months, everything had been going smoothly. In an attempt to find a good fit for her, she’d been cycled through a few of The Arctics’ labs, giving her an opportunity to learn about the work they were doing and to become increasingly more ill at ease with the direction they were headed.

  Her own research picked up speed as well and everything seemed to be promising, with thoughts of one day soon escaping the clutches of the wolves keeping her pushing forward. Dice was constantly in the back of her mind.

  But then the nausea had started. And the mood swings. And then she’d started showing. One blood test later and it became obvious that she’d been lying the whole time.

  No one could get pregnant with a werebear baby in a compound with only werewolves, after all.

  When she realized what had happened, it made her work twice as hard. Maybe it was that or that the results had been promising, with increase healing of thirty percent in some tests on mice, but she’d been allowed to carry the baby to term. It was then, after the delivery, that she had been moved to a facility with tighter regulations, less freedom and a lot less friendly guards.

  Since then, she hadn’t known where she was.

  And two months ago, when she had been moved here, to her newest form of hell, they’d taken Dean from her. Ever since, she’d been slowly fraying at the edges. When it had just been her she had to worry about, and to a smaller extent her sister, it had been manageable. Every day had been a struggle, but Dice was the promising light at the end of the tunnel for her. Now, everything had changed.

  She wrung her wrists nervously, a bad habit she’d picked up.

  I bet I would start smoking if I had the chance, she thought, and then discarded the idea quickly.

  No, she wouldn’t. Even if she couldn’t see her child, that didn’t mean she’d risk her own health – as long as there was hope that she could get him back and win freedom for both of them, she’d have to keep going.

  Her thoughts were sharply interrupted as sounds forced their way into the small, cold and dark room the three women sat huddled in. Meredith frowned, hearing a distinct kind of wailing, scraping at her ears like nails on glass. Her eyes went wide as she realized who it was.

  “Maria,” she whispered, scrambling up on her feet along with Sya and Amina as the door was flung open.

  Maria was tossed inside and the door was closed behind her with a shallow thud, the locks clicking and clattering as they closed. The woman collapsed on the ground, scraping her knees on the concrete floor but obviously not being able to pay any attention to that. Her hands were clutching her face and the small blonde was shaking violently, her screams sorrowful and heart wrenching.

  “Maria! What is it?” Amina asked, enveloping her in a soft hug and pulling the diminutive scientist against her.

  “What happened, honey?” Meredith urged, getting down on her haunches and trying to catch a glimpse of Maria’s brown eyes, usually so warm and soulful.

  Now, she could see nothing but emptiness behind them.

  “They… They killed my baby… They killed Josiah,” she said, locking eyes with Meredith. “They… I… I saw him. His little lifeless body. His cold skin… They killed my baby!”

  The three women stilled, deathly silence falling among them, save for the sobs of Maria. Sya looked to be on the verge of tears herself but Meredith simply hovered in place, incapable of moving, incapable of doing anything, really.

  For weeks, they’d been worried about Maria. Her research had not been going well and there was some trepidation that The Arctics would somehow punish her for it. None of them had ever imagined that their punishment could be something so… brutal.

  While not all of the women in the compound were mothers, several were. Some had been abused by The Arctics themselves and then punished for their pregnancies, some had been abducted along with their children and now having their kids being held as leverage to make the mothers work harder. Down in the belly of The Arctics’ machine, nothing was beyond possibility. No cruelty was off limits.

  I have to get out of here. I have to get Dean. I have to… Oh Dice, where are you? Meredith thought, pressing her lips into a thin line and closing her eyes, trying to fend off the panic wanting to rise forth in her.

&nb
sp; All she knew was that she couldn’t let what happened to Maria and Josiah happen to her. Whatever it took, she was going to get out of there.

  Ten

  Dice

  “Holy shit! This place is swanky as hell,” Price whistled, the whine of the microphone splitting in Dice’s ear as the helicopter was slowly brought down.

  The heat was already unbearable, especially for a werebear like Dice, but the two lion shifters seemed to be more than pleased with the ambiance. Dice’s hand was locked around his gear bag and his gaze steely as he stared out of the small window, taking in the sights of Abu Dhabi, with The Landmark and the Etihad Towers looming above everything else.

  She has to be here, Dice thought, his fist getting so tight around the straps of his bag that the nylon bit into his palm.

  “We must have done good to be let out of the jungles,” Rio noted with a chuckle as the doors were swung open and everybody threw off their headsets and scrambled to get their stuff.

  One by one, Shifter Squad Nine piled out of the helicopter, jumping on the concrete floor of a nondescript high-rise in Abu Dhabi, while countless helicopters and small private airplane whizzed over their heads in the city. It seemed like the whole place was run by private airfield aficionados because as far as the eye could see, every damn sky scraper had at least one helipad and there seemed to be no shortage of choppers taking up the spaces. Hell, they even had Uber choppers, which only went to show how ridiculous the place was as a whole.

  But Dice Alderson had no time to enjoy any of it, nor did he intend to carve out time to enjoy the lavish sight of the desert city, reaching out as far as the eye could see around him, with its gleaming glass buildings and metal beams that caught the scorching light of the sun. Bathed in warm light, the sun rays glinting off the countless windows around, Dice threw his bag on his shoulder and got out of the helicopter second to last, with only Price being left to follow.

  “Come on. We’ve got work to do,” he growled, garnering a raised eyebrow from Thor and a scoff from Ryker.

  “Lighten up, Slicey. We’ve got time. The mission isn’t until the evening, right?” Prowler said, his ghostly, pale green eyes following Dice’s troubled path to the door in a questioning way.

  Dice had been on edge lately, that much was evident. But it had gotten a hundred times worse after his conversation with Spade. While Shifter Squad Nine was far from a functioning team – at least in the sense that Dice would have wanted it to work, with trust and brotherhood being the basis of it – even his jolly crew of psychos could tell that something was off.

  I can’t tell them. They’ll only use it against me, Dice reminded himself, his brow furrowing as the thought settled within him.

  Of course they would. That was just how this group functioned. Every weakness was investigated thoroughly, picked apart until it was nothing but a rotting carcass of a concept and then used against you mercilessly. It was a small wonder that none of them had killed one another in a heated argument or brawl yet, though Dice could only assume that time wasn’t far off.

  “The mission begins now. Boots on the ground, let’s get going,” he snarled, just in time for Price to hop out of the pilot’s seat as the whir of the helicopter’s blades silenced in the background.

  “Whoa there, big bear. Calm your shit,” Ryker said, his deep, solemn voice a stark contrast to his wild eyes.

  “No. You get in line,” Dice said, spinning around on his heel before he reached the door leading into their accommodations for the day. “I say it’s time to get to work, so you get to fucking work.”

  The threatening, throaty growl that came from Price almost sealed the deal. Adrenaline pumped through Dice’s veins and he dropped his bag. Lightning-quick, he’d covered the distance between himself and the werewolf and grabbed the guy by the collar, yanking him so close their noses were almost touching. His other hand was balled into a tight, expectant fist.

  “You’ve got something to say, wolfie? I can fucking throw you off this ledge and The Firm won’t fucking bat an eye. You know why? Because if you keep making yourself expendable, I’m going to take you up on your goddamn offer one of these days, you hear me? Do I make myself clear!?”

  Dice could feel his eyes flashing the dark brown of his bear and his aggravation boiling over. It had been weeks since he talked to Spade and that one punch he’d gotten in wasn’t anywhere near enough to sate his need to just take out his anger on something, someone. Price simply happened to be the wrong goddamn wolf at the wrong time.

  “Whoa there, Dice. We get it. Time to get to work,” Thor said, his voice careful and non-confrontational.

  Dice didn’t spare him a look, though he could see from the corner of his vision how Thor stepped closer, his hands held up in a soothing way. He didn’t believe it for a second. Thor was probably the first one who’d toss him over the side of the building if given the chance.

  Price’s eyes were golden and his lips were pulled back, showing the wolf within him through a thin veneer of humanity. The rooftop was brimming with testosterone and barely restrained anger, the six members of Shifter Squad Nine caught in an unexpected standoff.

  Usually, Dice’s rational mind would have interfered and made quick work of the situation, gauging his leverage and making a plan to turn this all his way. But ever since learning that he hadn’t only failed his mate, but his firstborn child, Dice hadn’t been quite as in control of his faculties as he would have liked. The fact that he was threatening to throw his pilot to certain death while standing high above Abu Dhabi was probably a good sign of that.

  “Do you fucking understand me?!” Dice repeated, glaring at Price, who had stubbornly kept his fists by his side.

  “I understand,” Price confirmed.

  As if recoiling from one another, Dice let go of the werewolf and the two stepped away from each other.

  Dice slicked his tongue over his teeth, rolling his gaze over his ragtag team of miscreants, before turning around and heading back for his bag.

  “Come on, we need to get ready,” he said, his words tinted by the growl of the bear.

  If the human Dice was angry, then the bear was absolutely livid. It had taken endless convincing to get it to see why they needed to let Meredith go in the first place and now with Spade’s announcement about the baby, Dice had to admit that the bear had been right the whole damn time. It was a bitter pill to swallow.

  Dice scooped up his bag and pushed through the glass doors, hearing the low mutter of conversation behind him. If he had to take a guess, he’d assume that Prowler and Thor were talking Price down from promising to pilot the next helicopter he found himself and Dice in straight into the nearest mountain. Dice couldn’t blame him from wanting to do it.

  He had murder on his mind and it didn’t seem to be getting any better with time.

  The rooms afforded to the team were lavish and up to par with the city they found themselves in. It was an interesting change to the little bunkers and belowground compounds that had made up their living quarters over the last several dozen missions. Dice wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to read anything out of it, but it did seem that Spade preferred keeping the wild and barely controllable Shifter Squad Nine more in the jungles and the boondocks than anywhere near actual human habitation.

  Again, Dice couldn’t exactly find a flaw in that mode of approach. If he had to make the decision of where to allow the members of his team to be seen, he’d probably have half of them committed and the other half shoved into maximum security prison.

  You just threatened to kill one of your teammates, and you fucking meant it. You’re no better than the rest of them.

  The thought was chilling.

  The first room he saw was a big kitchen and living room, with a sunken seating area, a glass fireplace and a big bar. Dice tossed his pack on one of the ivory couches and headed straight for the alcohol, pouring himself a generous helping of the first whiskey he could find.

  “That’s more like it,” Ryk
er said with a purr, stalking in with Rio and Thor.

  Dice stepped away as the werelion went to pour himself a drink as well, keeping distance between himself and any other squadmate. He couldn’t trust himself at the moment. But he was going to have to get a grip real fast. His mate’s life depended on it.

  One by one, the team piled in, storing away their gear for the time being. Price and Prowler were the last ones to enter, the werewolf twins obviously not in the best of moods. A surge of guilt burst through Dice at the dark gaze of Price, but he swallowed it down.

  No time for remorse right now. They have to be at their best today. With this lot, it’s always been about the punishment, not the reward.

  The thought settled him slightly. Prowler closed the sliding door behind him and his brother just as the werelions found seats on the couches and Thor leaned against the marble kitchen counter. Shifter Squad Nine had never looked more out of place than they did surrounded by gold trim, expensive textiles, mahogany and marble.

  “So, do you want to tell us what this mission’s all about, boss?” Rio asked, a familiar glint of amusement shining in his eyes.

  “I do,” Dice said, taking a long, calming breath.

  This was it. He had to lay everything out and make sure it went perfectly. Every step from now on could make or break his future and while he needed the help of every man on his team, he couldn’t trust a single one of them enough to tell them the whole truth.

  Not yet. Maybe not ever.

  “Listen up.”

  It was going to be a hell of a ride.

  Eleven

  Meredith

  Meredith had been certain that no amount of cover-up could hide the dark, almost black circles she was sporting under her eyes and the ashen look of her skin. She had, of course, been proven wrong.

  The wonders of modern make-up never ceased to amaze her, though truth be told she wasn’t giving the astounding feat of making herself look human half the credit it was due. How could she, when she was surrounded by three beefy werewolves, shoved into a tiny elevator that seemed to be going up endlessly?