Unbearable Curves (The Grizzly Next Door 1)

by Aya Morningstar

  Effie tried to stop him, but he insisted. “If we both have marker on our faces, it will look cool.”

  And then, in the first few months of middle school, Abel moved away. He was gone, just like that.

  “Hey,” Jake said, pulling Effie back to the present, “we’re really sorry if that happened. You look really great though...you’ve really grown up. Maybe have a dance with me and forget that dumb stuff that happened? We were all just kids, you know?”

  Effie brushed his hand off her arm and said, “Sorry, Jake, I think I see someone else I recognize. Someone I was actually friends with.”

  She got up with her beer in hand and walked away, her heart slamming hot and fast against her chest. She didn’t dare look back. If they really had grown up from what she remembered, they’d take her rejection in stride, reflect on what huge jerks they had been in school, and maybe offer her a real apology the next time they saw her. She just wasn’t ready to deal with them right now.

  But damn did it feel good to tell those bastards off. She was back in Oakgate, but it wouldn’t be like before. She was going to take charge of things. Walk with confidence. Abel was long gone, but Effie could stand up for herself now.

  Effie had actually spotted someone else she knew: Jessica Desoto. They had both had some classes together, and Effie was still friends with Jessica on Facebook, but it had been years since they’d spoken. Still, Effie had seen her life spool by over the years in the form of status updates and uploaded pictures.

  “Hey, Jessica,” Effie said, smiling.

  “Hey…” Jessica started, clearly not recognizing Effie at first. “Oh! Effie! Holy shit! You’re uh, back for, um, your mom?”

  “The funeral is over already,” Effie said, “I’m actually back for good. I’m taking over the Bed and Breakfast.”

  “Woah,” Jessica said, “that’s great. I was worried it would get sold and turned into something heartless. Something without character. You know?”

  Effie smiled, glad that Jessica thought of her as someone who could give the place character. “Yeah…I couldn’t stand to see it turn into some insurance agent’s office.”

  Jessica grinned. “Exactly.”

  “Hey,” Effie said, “about those three guys. They were kind of creeping me out, should I be worried?”

  Jessica looked over at them—all three hitting on another woman now—with a knowing scowl. “Did you stand up for yourself?”

  “Yeah,” Effie said. “Usually I wouldn’t have, but I was just tired of taking shit from life. My mom just died, you know? It was like, I don’t have the energy left to deal with those creeps, so I just told them off.”

  Jessica drew in a breath and winced. “Hm, that usually works, but I’ve seen them get pretty worked up over a rejection before.”

  “I’m willing to risk that,” Effie said. “I don’t think they’re going to pin me down and draw all over my face. As long as they don’t get physical, I can defend myself.”

  “Oh my God,” Jessica said, laughing, “I remember the marker thing! You and Abel both had smeared marker all over your faces for the rest of the day, and Ms. Copeland got so mad at both of you. She must have thought you both just did it for fun.”

  Effie smiled, then took a long swig of her beer.

  “You should remind Abel about that, he’d probably think it’s hilarious.”

  “Remind him?” Effie asked. “Are you still in contact with him? On Facebook?”

  “Hm,” Jessica said, “I don’t think he has Facebook, but he moved back a year or two ago. He’s a cop.”

  Abel, as a cop. It suited him for sure, but she couldn’t imagine what he’d look like now. Maybe he’d be kind of chubby and have a fondness for donuts, but still he’d stick up for anyone who needed help. He had always been a bit chubby, but he carried it well, and he never got made fun of for it. Something about him—even when he was just a little kid—was commanding, and even the older bullies shied away from picking on him.

  “Hm,” Effie said, “maybe I’ll run across him sometime.”

  She was curious to know what he was like now, but it had been so long. It would probably just be awkward to run into him again. Would they even recognize each other?

  “Hey,” Jessica said, “those three are eyeing you. Want to get out of here?”

  “Um,” Effie said, feeling trapped. She didn’t think Jake, Nick and Danny were any real danger while they were in the bar. As long as she stayed put, surrounded by so many people, she’d feel safer than if she left. If she left, even together with Jessica, she’d feel exposed to any of the three men, or to the serial killer.

  “I’d rather stay here,” Effie said.

  “Ah,” Jessica smiled, “I guess you’ve been watching the news.”

  “Yeah,” Effie said, blushing and feeling embarrassed.

  “Well,” Jessica said, “don’t worry. I’ll cover you. I don’t take shit from these guys. And I won’t let them mess with you. Though I doubt I can defend you from the serial killer!”

  Effie let out a nervous laugh.

  Jake sauntered up toward Effie and Jessica, the other two were just behind him. Jake pulled up a stool beside Effie.

  “Come on, Effie,” Jake said, “I’ve struck out with every woman here. I mean, all the ones worth bothering with.” He hiccuped and swayed atop his stool.

  “So I’m your last choice then?” Effie said, face turning red with anger. “I’m the last woman here on the totem pole, the lowest one worth bothering with?”

  Jake’s face scrunched up and he said, “Ah, now you’re putting words in my mouth. I didn’t say none of that! I’m just saying...since you are back in town with a fresh start, you’re someone I don’t got any history with. Someone I can start new with? You know?”

  “You have a lot of history with me,” Effie said. “You forgot that again already?”

  “Ah,” Jake said, “I mean more recent stuff.”

  “If it’s recent, then it’s not really history, dumbass,” Jessica said, standing up and putting herself between Jake and Effie. She pressed one finger right into the center of his chest and started pushing, and slowly Jake lost balance.

  If he had been sober, he’d have planted a foot onto the ground and recovered. But drunk as he was, he started to topple over, and his legs got tangled up in the legs of the stool. Danny and Nick’s eyes bulged and they stared in horror, but neither made any actual move to catch their friend. It looked like it happened in slow motion, but Effie knew it was really just a second or two, and then Jake’s stool finally tipped right over, and he crashed right into the ground.

  Danny and Nick’s mouths dropped open.

  Effie started laughing uncontrollably, and Jessica cackled.

  “Can you three fuck off?” Jessica said. “You’re making us uncomfortable.”

  Danny reached out a hand and helped pull Jake up, and Jake wavered back and forth. Nick had to grab his shoulders to hold him upright.

  Jake’s face hardened and turned blood red, and he hissed at Effie, drool dripping down his mouth.

  “Not here!” Nick urged, but Jake seemed to be overtaken by a crimson wave of fury, all directed at Effie.

  She was terrified and couldn’t move, and she found herself clutching Jessica’s arm. But Jessica felt cold, and Effie could feel her trembling too.

  And just when she thought Jake would somehow bite right into her, she felt something change. It was as if the room had been super pressurized with sticky and humid air, but suddenly something had changed, and all the pressure had seeped out. It was like a cool breeze had swept across the room, and she could find no reason to feel relieved, with Jake baring his teeth right in her face.

  She felt a need to look toward the door, and when she did, she saw the single most stunning man she had ever laid eyes on. As soon as she saw him, she realized how she had felt this man’s presence without even looking at him: everything about him was massive. He had to tilt his head to the side to even fit in the door,
and his shoulders were so wide they nearly scraped the doorframe. He had dark black hair, long enough to be slicked back to reveal his strong forehead, but short enough to not look at all sloppy. He wore a tight black shirt, but then Effie realized that the shirt probably wasn’t even that tight; this man’s frame was just so huge that it dwarfed the shirt. His biceps bulged out of the sleeves, and Effie could even see from this distance that his forearms were full of bulging veins. His eyes were brown as chocolate, and he had eyebrows that could look sympathetic one moment, and fierce the next. His nose had a tall bridge and was strong like the rest of him. His face was covered in a beard that skirted the line between ‘rugged’ and ‘neatly trimmed.’

  And then, most amazing of all, even as Effie felt Jake’s hot breath approaching her, of all the women in the bar, the giant of a man’s eyes locked right onto Effie’s. And suddenly she knew everything was going to be okay.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Abel

  “Bjornson! Whaddaya got?” Chief Pierce shouted at Abel as soon as he walked back into the station. Damn. He knew he shouldn’t have bothered to come in. He wasn’t going to catch this guy while sitting at his desk.

  “I’ve got some leads,” Abel said.

  “There you go being all cryptic again,” Pierce said. “What leads?”

  “Hunches,” Abel grunted, “solid ones though.”

  Pierce rolled his eyes and scoffed.

  Abel couldn’t exactly tell Pierce what he really knew, or how he knew it. Abel was the only shifter on the force, and Abel knew that the ‘killer’ was a panther. His hunch was really just a scent that he’d gotten a whiff of at each crime scene, though it wasn’t any panther he’d come across before. That was no surprise though, because the panthers all lived outside of town in cabins, trailers, or sometimes just in the woods. He’d come across some that started shit with humans, but never had he seen a shifter that was sociopathic. Sure, shifters were prone to get angry and snap, but he’d never seen or even heard rumors of a shifter that acted like a cold and creepy serial killer.

  He knew this was a shifter up to something weird, but not a serial killer. But he was in a pinch: he couldn’t prove anything he knew without outing himself as a shifter.

  “Look chief,” Abel said, “I’m making solid progress. How many times am I full of shit when I tell you I’m on to something? How often are my hunches right?”

  Pierce crossed his arms across his chest huffed out a throaty laugh. “I’m tired of this lone wolf shit, Bjornson. The first time your hunch turns out to be bullshit, I’m strapping you with a partner. Got it?”

  Bear. Lone Bear. Well, that didn’t have much of a ring to it.

  “Don’t worry, Chief,” Abel said, “I’m going to find this fucker.”

  “Good!” Pierce shouted, “now, get the fuck out of here and find some solid evidence.”

  “Sure thing, Chief,” Abel said, “first I want to grab one of those donuts though.”

  Pierce shook his head and looked down at Abel’s cut stomach, and then at his own bulging gut.

  “You come all the way to the station,” Pierce said, “and risk me chewing your ass out, all just to grab a free donut? And how the hell are you eating so many of those things while still looking like that?”

  “Squats and deadlifts,” Abel said, patting Pierce on the shoulder with his massive hand. He walked past Pierce to get to the box on the counter, hoping there was still a chocolate-covered glaze one left over for him.

  “Ain’t never seen you in the gym, you bastard,” Pierce said under his breath.

  Because if you did, you’d call the Guinness Book of World Records.

  Abel frowned to see only regular glaze left, but he took a honey packet out of his pocket and drizzled it all on top of the donut, then slammed it down in two huge bites. Chocolate or not, it was damn good.

  He made a bit of small talk with some of the other cops, trying to shake off his ‘lone wolf’ image. If Pierce saw him eating donuts and laughing with the other cops, maybe he wouldn’t strap Abel down with a partner. A partner would be nice, but he couldn’t use his full skillset if a partner were watching him: no shifting on the job, no superhuman strength, no sniffing at evidence and following a trail.

  He made his rounds, chatted with everyone in the station, and then decided to go home and change into street clothes. He heard there were a number of shifters at The Rabbit Hole tonight, mostly those degenerate wolves, but he wanted to press them a bit. See if any of them had come across a panther in town. If there was anything shady going down in Oakgate, Jake, Danny, and Nick surely knew something. He could shake the information out of them better if he was dressed like he was off duty, though he knew it wouldn’t make much difference. They smelled cop on him. Shifters rarely became cops, so even among other bears, Abel was seen as a bit of an outcast. With wolves and other non-bear shifters, forget outcast, he was a pariah.

  When he started thinking about how other bears kept their distance from him, his inner bear started to groan. It wanted him to find a mate, and it didn’t quite seem to understand that being a cop was the only way to protect people the way he needed to. His bear just couldn’t understand why he couldn’t do both: why he couldn’t protect Oakgate and find a nice bear to settle down with. His bear was getting tired of him being a cop, because it knew that’s what kept the other bears—the potential mates—away.

  He heard his mother’s voice as he drove. Abel! We want you to find a nice bear, but if not, we’ll be happy if you find a human. We just want you to find a mate and be happy!

  Ha, a human. Those tiny little things? He tried to imagine his big hands wrapping around one of those miniature little waists, and he couldn’t help seeing it snap in half in his mind. He imagined wrapping his arms around a little human women, and he couldn’t visualize where he’d put his hands. There was no extra meat to even grab hold of. No, Abel didn’t see himself with a human, and he had no idea how he could convince another bear to look past him being a cop. Cops represented human authority, and shifters were rightly worried about that.

  He turned right at a red light. He was almost at The Rabbit Hole now, and he gripped the steering wheel and flexed his muscles. He hoped to just do some light interrogation, but with these wolves, he often needed to be...less than subtle.

  His inner bear roared, and he tried to force it down. It was imagining how Abel would look after arresting a fellow shifter, after putting him in a human jail cell. His bear flashed him an image of dozens of fertile young bear women running away from him at full speed, some even climbing up trees to get away from him.

  “Being a bit dramatic?” Abel said out loud, half sarcastically, not quite convincing himself that the fear was unfounded.

  He pulled up to The Rabbit Hole, and suddenly his bear roared with fierce panic. It urged him to bolt out of the car and into the bar, and he did. He knew when his animal instincts were right, and this was one of those times.

  Abel rushed to the entrance, charging toward the door with large, leaping steps. He shoved the door open and ducked inside, then quickly scanned the room.

  Then he saw her.

  “My mate!” His inner bear shouted. And then he saw the wolves baring their teeth at her. “Save her!”

  Abel erupted into a frenzy, and in the blink of an eye he had closed thirty or forty feet.

  He heard Jake spit out three words, full of venom, “You fucking bitch!” and he saw Jake’s body coiling up, ready to strike. Ready to strike his mate. Jesus, was she beautiful, but there was no time to think of that now.

  He grabbed Jake by the scruff of his neck and jerked him away from his mate. Abel’s eyes must have been glowing gold, and he flashed them with his full fury into Jake’s face, baring his own teeth at the sad little wolf.

  Danny and Nick flashed their own teeth, and their eyes glowed, but Abel puffed out his chest and stood to his full, massive height, towering over all of them. Nick and Danny backed down, and Abel could almost imagine see
ing their ears flatten down while they whimpered. Jake held Abel’s gaze, showing he wouldn’t back down as easily as his lackeys, and Abel’s inner bear sensed Jake’s fist tensing up.

  Abel snatched Jake’s wrist in mid strike, and he twisted the arm back—twisted it in the direction arms were not made to bend. Jake squealed and roared, and once Abel had him fully twisted around, he pressed his boot into the back of Jake’s knee, unbalancing him and forcing him down onto his knees.

  Abel brought his mouth just inches from Jake’s ear. “Don’t you ever touch her, or I’ll tear apart your whole pack limb by limb.”

  At that, Jake’s eyes turned back to their sad green, and Abel finally let go of him, but gave him a good shove with his boot to knock him down flat.

  The three reached for their keys, as if they were ready to bolt out of the bar and get on their bikes, but Abel pulled Jake back in so that the gathering crowd couldn’t hear. “Don’t you dare leave. I’ve still got some questions for you.”