She fought the urge to laugh. Was he serious? If he believed this shit, he was far more insane that she thought.
“It’s already starting.”
“What is?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“The transformation. You’re temperature is running high. You’re hot. Your arm is healing too fast. Your ankle is getting better rapidly. It’s not as swollen. You aren’t favoring it as much.”
He was right about that. Coincidence? Of course. She couldn’t think what to say. As long as he held her down, she was trapped. As long as he was talking, he wasn’t raping or killing her. “Go on.”
He eyed her skeptically and then continued. “No one can tell me for sure how long it will take for you to transform. I don’t have the answers I wish I had for you. It’s unprecedented. Might be hours, a day, a week. I don’t know. But it seems like it’s coming sooner rather than later.”
“I see.”
He rolled his eyes. “You aren’t going to use some sort of psychological trick to get me to release you, Heather. So just continue listening.” He squeezed her hands to make a point that he was stronger.
If she ever had the chance, she would kick him hard in the dick for being such a prick.
“Here’s the problem we’re facing. Well, actually we have multiple problems, but let me start with the men out front. There are four of them. They came from the Arcadian Council the moment they heard a human had been clawed and blood had been drawn.”
The story he wove was extremely intricate.
“They’re here to clean up the mess.”
“What’s the Arcadian Council and what mess are you referring to?”
“The Arcadians are our governing body, and you’re the mess. Bear shifters are not out to the world. To humans. No one knows about us. And we like to keep it that way. The Arcadians think you’re a liability. They’d like to take you in and do whatever they need to make sure you don’t tell anyone.”
She tried to swallow. Jesus. His insane tale was getting to her.
“My mother would have preferred I let you stay with her so she could help you through the change. But I wanted you alone with me. Safer. Not altruistic. I knew from the moment I stuck my head into your car to catch your scent you were mine.”
She shuddered.
“Hey, don’t let that part freak you out. It’s as weird for me as it is for you. And don’t deny you feel the same pull. We aren’t a species who believe in Fated matings. We tend to meet our mates, fall in love, and then claim each other in a permanent binding.
“The wolves… Those dudes are weird. They know their mates in one whiff and instantly fall for each other, bound for eternity.”
“Wolves? Isaiah, listen to yourself.” How was she ever going to get through to him? He was way past insane.
“Don’t worry about the wolves. Forget I said anything. Not important. I strayed from the point. The point is that I’m as stunned as you to find such an intense mutual attraction that seems to defy reason. We don’t know each other at all, and yet I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.”
“I’m not an object, Isaiah,” she tried to reason. “I’m a human. You can’t just keep me because you’re attracted to me.”
He sighed. “Attracted doesn’t begin to cover it, and you know it. What we feel is far deeper. Also unprecedented. I can’t explain why it happened to us that way, but it did.”
If he was so sure they were fated or whatever, why the hell didn’t he fuck her earlier when she was begging him to?
He hung his head. “God, I would give anything for you to stop looking at me like that. It’s going to be a long night.”
“If you get off me and let me go, you won’t have to see my face.” Shit. She was taunting him. Not a good idea.
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because I know in my heart you’re mine, and it would kill me to lose you.”
She forced herself to remain calm. “If you’re so sure we’re meant to be together, then it shouldn’t change anything for you to stop pinning me to the bed.”
He shook his head. “You have no idea the danger you’re in or what I’m protecting you from. Those guys out front won’t hesitate to take you with them. I doubt I would ever see you again.”
“The bears? The two bears out front?”
“There are four of them, but yes.”
“What are they doing? Guarding your home?”
“No. They’re not keeping anyone out, baby. They’re making sure you don’t leave. I made a deal with them to give me some time to help you shift. The only reason they probably agreed was because none of them want to deal with an independent shifter in the back of their car on a trip north.”
“An independent shifter?” She felt like a parrot. And why the hell was she bothering to continue this ridiculous conversation?
“As in not having a pack. Alone. When you transform, you’ll automatically be a free agent, so to speak. A shifter without a pack. You’ll be able to choose your own pack. I’m hoping you’ll choose mine, but I can’t stop you from choosing whatever you want. You have your own free will.”
Progress. He admitted she had free will. That had to be worth something.
He kept speaking, his tale growing by the minute. “A scratch that draws blood forces a human into the change. If Jack had bitten you, his bite would have forced you to become a member of his pack without consent. And finally…a bite with the right secretions from his saliva would have bound you to him for life as his mate.”
She tried to focus on his words, but they were so preposterous.
He leaned closer, his face inches away. “I want the man that bites you and binds you to be me.”
“I see.” She saw nothing but a pile of insanity. She also shivered and tipped her head to one side, thinking about the spot where he’d set his teeth on her earlier and then licked.
“You don’t, but you will.”
She was so hot. The inside of his damn house was a furnace. It might be worth racing out the front door just to cool off. She’d take her chances with the bears out front, whom Isaiah believed to be half human. “What if I want to go with the bears out front?”
“If you still want to go with them after you change and understand the implications fully, I won’t stop you, but for now, you’re humoring me with extreme skepticism. I can’t blame you, but I also won’t let you put yourself in danger.”
It was true he didn’t seem mad. Just frustrated. She bit her lower lip to keep from saying more.
“You’re burning up with fever, baby.” His words were far gentler. “Our body temp runs a bit higher than humans, but the fever is from your body fighting off the need to shift as if it were a virus. When the bear wins, you will shift, and the fever will disappear.”
She struggled to follow his logic. “You think I’m going to become a bear soon?”
“I know you are.”
“And you intend to help me.”
“All the way.”
Chapter Seven
Dammit. This was so fucked up. Isaiah wanted to scream out in frustration. Hell, he wanted to growl. He wanted to shift, tip his head back, and roar at the sky. But that would scare the daylights out of Heather, and it would give her the opportunity to run.
She needed to see someone shift, though. That would help her believe it.
“Joselyn, where are you?” His sister would be the perfect person to help. She was female, so, less daunting, and one of the sweetest people he knew. He could also sense she wasn’t far away.
“On my way to your house. Be there in a few. I know you told Mom and Dad you wanted to be alone, but I was hoping I could at least meet this woman. Maybe help? You don’t exactly have a feminine touch.” She chuckled into his head.
“I was about to suggest the same thing. Thanks, Jos. I could use some help here.”
“Did you tell her?”
“Yep.”
“How’d she
take it?”
“I’ve literally got her pinned to my bed with my body to keep her from running, that’s how she took it.”
Joselyn groaned. “Isaiah…”
“Hey, when you come up with a better plan that doesn’t get her killed, I’m all ears.”
“Hang tight. Be there in five.”
Heather’s voice broke into his mind. “What are you doing? You get this far-away look as if you’re in a trance sometimes.” She tugged at her arms, but he didn’t release her.
“Talking to my sister. She’s on her way.”
She frowned.
Fuck, this was hard. “We can communicate through our minds. You’ll be able to also.”
“Uh huh.”
Isaiah sighed. He hated holding her down like this, but risking her running out the door was worse.
“So how does this telepathy work?”
He wished she was asking so many questions because she was curious to learn about his species. Instead, he knew she was trying anything and everything to get him to let her go, as if she had some sort of hostage-negotiation skills.
He answered her question with a question. “Do they teach you how-to-evade-an-attacker psychology in self-defense classes?”
She almost smiled. “Of course.”
“I see. To answer your question, there’s no real way to explain it. We just reach out to one another and think whatever thoughts we want to express. Engaging anyone telepathically isn’t a problem. Learning how to block them out so they don’t know your every thought is the real problem.
“When you first shift, you probably won’t be able to block anyone. I imagine it’s a learned tactic, and your brain will initially be filled with chatter until you figure out how to turn it down.”
She stared at him in semi-horror. Could he blame her? She didn’t even comment anymore. In fact, she drew her lips between her teeth.
“You’ll see.” What else could he say?
The front door opened, and a flutter of movement behind him indicated Joselyn had arrived. Not that he couldn’t scent her and feel her presence also.
“Hey,” she said softly as she entered the room. She eased up to the side of the bed. “I come at a bad time?” she teased lightheartedly.
Isaiah didn’t look her direction or respond. He watched Heather instead as she tilted her face to the side to meet his sister’s gaze. She still didn’t speak.
“I’m Joselyn. Call me Jos.” She held out a hand and then nudged Isaiah with her elbow. “I think you can let her go now.”
Isaiah wasn’t as confident, but at least with his sister present, there were two of them to keep her from running. He released her hands, sitting back, but still trapping her torso.
Heather didn’t take Jos’s offered hand, though she did lower hers and rub her wrists as if he’d held her too tight.
He winced. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her.
“Please tell me you don’t believe all this shit your brother is spouting about bears guarding the house who want to take me into custody. If your brother escaped from an institution, you really need to call and have him recommitted.”
Jos laughed. She tipped her head back and laughed harder than Isaiah had ever heard. She had to wipe the tears from her eyes when she finally glanced at him. “I love her.”
Heather squirmed, attempting to wiggle out from between his legs, but all that did was make his damn cock harder. Even though she was seriously pissed at him and might never let him touch her sexually again, he couldn’t control his body’s reaction to her. “Get off me, Isaiah. Now. I’m tired of asking.”
“Will you stay here? Listen to Jos?”
She rolled her eyes. “If it makes you happy and speeds up the process of getting you back into the loony bin, I’d be happy to speak with your sister.”
He sighed, but he lifted his leg over her, leaving her trapped between him and Joselyn. Jos was tall and fast. She also had the advantage of standing. He knew she wouldn’t let Heather run off. “She’s a flight risk, Jos. Watch out.”
“I’ve got this.” She cleared her throat and dove right in without hesitation. “I think it would help if I shift for you. If you see it live and in person, you’ll understand better.”
“Shift,” Heather stated flatly. “Great. You too. Fine. Let me see.” Sarcasm oozed from her lips. She hauled herself back against the headboard, tugged her knees up to her chest, and wrapped her arms around them in a protective stance. It was better than her running across the room, forcing him to have to tackle her again.
Joselyn took a step backward away from the edge of the bed.
“Try not to break anything this time, Jos,” he muttered. “You really are more of an outdoor pet.” The last time she’d shifted in the house, she’d knocked over a vase in their parents’ cabin and then backed into a mirror on the wall. It fell to the ground and shattered. Good thing they weren’t superstitious.
Joselyn glanced at him. “Really, Isaiah? You want to go there now? Or you want me to shift for your mate?”
He winced as she said mate, hoping Heather wouldn’t freak out again.
But Heather didn’t flinch. She simply glanced back and forth between the two siblings, probably planning a way to knock them both unconscious.
Joselyn took a deep breath and let it out slowly, her eyes closing.
Isaiah jerked his gaze from his sister to Heather, who narrowed her eyes. Slight movement next to the bed told him Joselyn was in the process. It would only be a matter of moments before she stood there as a bear instead of a woman.
He glanced toward Joselyn to watch her shift, wishing he could be inside Heather’s brain to fully grasp her reaction. Jos dropped to all fours as her body filled out, her torso enlarging to take her Ursidae form.
It only took about ten seconds for Jos to shift, but it seemed longer as he imagined what Heather was thinking. Thick dark hair replaced skin and clothing as Joselyn’s face reformed, her snout taking shape. And then it was done, and Jos sat back on her haunches in slow motion.
Heather gasped. Isaiah jerked his gaze to watch her shrink back toward the wall. And then she screamed and scrambled frantically to get by Isaiah, moving toward the opposite side of the bed. “Fuck. What the hell?”
He let her clamber off the bed, even though he would rather have reached out and hauled her into his lap. While she backed up to flatten herself against the far wall, her chest heaving, he climbed off her side and slowly approached.
“Shit,” she blurted. She pointed at Joselyn. “There’s a freaking bear in your bedroom.”
“Yeah. I explained that.”
She glanced at him for a second and then back at Joselyn. “You don’t expect me to believe that’s your sister. What sort of crazy magic act do you have going on here? It’s impressive. I’ll give you that. But why did you feel the need to scare me half to death in order to show me?”
“It’s not an act, babe. It’s really Jos.”
“Uh huh. So, you practice some sort of witchcraft?”
He shook his head. There was no need to get impatient. She would catch on when she was ready. He couldn’t blame her for being skeptical.
“Fine. If you guys are so good at tricks, make her switch back.”
Isaiah sighed heavily and turned to face his sister. “Go ahead, Jos. Shift back.”
She pulled into herself, lifting up on her hind paws, and shifted back in seconds. She grimaced the moment she looked toward Heather. “Sorry, hon. I wish there was an easier way for you to understand, but this is who we are.”
Heather lowered herself to the floor, sliding down the wall until she sat on her butt with her knees drawn up and her hands threaded in her hair. “I’m totally in a coma.”
“You’re not, baby. You’re just in shock.” He kneeled about a foot away from her, but forced himself to keep his hands on his thighs.
“I’m so hot.” She plucked at her T-shirt with one hand, drawing it away from her body.
“I heard that might happen,” Joselyn stated as she climbed gingerly onto the bed and crawled closer to the other side. “How’s your ankle? Mom said it was a pretty bad sprain.”
Isaiah glanced down at her bare feet where they stuck out from under her jeans.
Heather did the same. “Hardly noticing it now.”
“Figured that would happen too,” Jos whispered. “We heal fast. You’re already taking on our characteristics.”
For several moments, none of them spoke.
Then Joselyn continued. “You want me to stay? I’m not sure what I can do, but I can provide moral support or hold your hand.”
Heather continued to stare at the floor, not speaking.
“I want you to know that my brother is one of the best men alive. You’re super lucky to have him. I know it’s hard for you to grasp right now, but I’m sure there’s a reason he lived thirty years before meeting the right woman.
“He doesn’t believe in Fate as much as I do, but I believe sometimes people are put in our paths at just the right moment in time. For you two, that was today. And though I know he hates that you were forced into this life, that too was probably how the stars were aligned to ensure you two were together.”
Isaiah watched Heather closely. She breathed more normally. Finally, she spoke. “If I wanted to leave here right now, would you let me?”
Isaiah held his breath. His chest ached, knowing she was hurting and confused and he could do nothing to stop it.
Joselyn slid to the floor and sat against the bed so her face was at the same level as Heather’s, three feet separating them. “Nobody wants you to feel trapped. But we also don’t want to see you hurt any more than you already are.
“If you walk out the door, four men will tuck you in their SUV and take you north of here to their compound in the Northwest Territory. I can’t begin to imagine how long they would keep you or if they would ever let you leave. They don’t know the answer to that yet themselves.”
Heather whimpered, tucking herself in a tighter ball.
Isaiah spoke next. “She’s right. You’re safer here. Plus, it would tear me up for you to leave. Please stay. I believe the change is coming soon. Let yourself shift for the first time with me. If you still want to leave after you have a handle on it, I won’t stand in your way.”
Grizzly Mountain (Arcadian Bears Book 1) Page 8