Chasing His Bunny

by Golden Angel

  ******

  "So we can kill him now, right?"

  This was the fifth time that Steele had asked that question in as many days.

  Ever since Eli's men had picked up Dr. Montgomery, Steele had asked that question once a day after Eli had called him about the information they'd gotten from the doctor. The answer had always been no. Granted, Eli was doing a pretty good job of gathering information from the man, but the protective, vengeful side of Steele wouldn't feel comfortable until the man was dead and no longer a threat to his mate or her sister.

  Worse, he couldn't tell Bethany that her ordeal was fully over yet... because Dr. Montgomery was still alive. Not only that, but the only people he would give any information to were her brothers; which meant that her siblings were coming in contact with their tormentor every day. It was obvious that his real interest was in the females though, especially Bailey. He always asked about them, although he seemed to understand that he wouldn't get the chance to see them.

  Even if the fucker asked to see the women, and Eli somehow agreed, Steele would say no. He didn't care if they didn't get another word out of the man after that. It would just be one more excuse to go ahead and turn him into wormfeed.

  Eli rubbed his hand over his face, including the scruff that he'd allowed to grow on his cheeks, which was very unlike him, and Steele growled, already knowing he wasn't going to get the answer he wanted.

  "No."

  Banging his fist on his desk, Steele glared at Eli's face on his computer screen. The polar bear shifter averted his eyes. Not a good sign.

  "How much longer does this asshole get to live?"

  Silence.

  Eli continued to look away from the screen, his expression growing guilty.

  Oh hell no.

  "We're letting him live?!"

  "We don't have a choice," Eli said quietly, finally looking back at the screen and meeting Steele's eyes by the power of the internet. His green eyes were tired and... kind of sick looking actually, as if he were disgusted with himself or ashamed. "We need him and his research."

  "You mean the research he conducted by experimenting on my mate and her siblings." The wood of Steele's desk creaked ominously as his fingers dug into it.

  "I'm not saying what he did was right. We all know it wasn't... but we need his results," Eli said steadily. He sounded like he was repeating something he'd learned by rote, something that he'd had to say over and over again - to others and to himself.

  The creaking of Steele's desk was getting louder and then an explosive crash echoed through his office as dust, drywall, and pieces of metal went flying everywhere and high pitched shrieks pieced his ears. Eli's voice, shouting and asking what was happening and if they were under attack threaded through it all.

  The air was thick with white, chalky dust of the broken drywall as Steele pulled himself back up from where he'd instinctively ducked underneath his desk, gun from his drawer in hand. The fluffy mass of fur now sitting in the middle of his office sneezed, bunny ears pressed against its back and shoulders rounded, looking ashamed of itself as Steele sighed and brought himself up to a standing position.

  "It's fine, Eli, I'm fine, everything's fine," he said, picking up his computer and turning it so that Eli could see the giant bunny now sitting in the middle of the office. If bunnies could blush, this one would. A small coughing noise and then Bailey suddenly appeared beside the big bunny, using her sister's puffy, dust-covered fur to cover some of her nudity. Steele felt a headache coming on. He sighed. "Say hello girls."

  "Hi," said Bailey with a little finger wave and a weak smile. Bethany's nose twitched.

  Putting the lap top back down, Steele grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair and tossed it to Bailey, before stripping off his shirt and offering it to the larger bunny. Bethany immediately transformed, shrinking down and grabbing his shirt from him. Neither of the Bunson sisters were really all that comfortable with nudity, although they tried to pretend otherwise. Steele found himself amused and aroused by it, since it meant seeing Bethany naked was something special... tantalizing... and definitely not where his mind needed to go right now.

  Looking up at the hole in his ceiling, he closed his eyes, pinching his fingers over the bridge of his nose where a headache was definitely forming. The fucking air vents - meant to be an escape route if it became necessary for the office to be evacuated and the normal exits were unavailable, and, of course, his mate and her sister were using them to spy. He could only guess that they'd overheard enough of what he and Eli were talking about to piss Bethany off enough to shift, and the ceiling couldn't handle the weight of a giant, armored bunny.

  "Um, sorry." Bethany's voice was small and a tiny bit of anxious fear pulsed through their bond, which Steele reacted to immediately.

  His eyes popped open as he held open his arms, and she immediately ran into them for a hug and reassurance that he wasn't really mad. Looking around at his office, which looked like it was covered in a very light layer of snow, he could only shake his head. It didn't matter how much chaos his mate created, it didn't change his feelings about her one bit. Even if he was going to take it out on her ass later.

  Apparently reassured, Bethany pushed away from him a little and looked at the computer screen where Eli was watching with an expression of bemusement on his face.

  "So, what's this about needing Dr. Montgomery?"

  ******

  Nothing like losing control of her anger and crashing through the ceiling. She'd been doing so well at hiding her emotions from Mr. Hiding-Things-From-His-Mate up until that point too. Unfortunately just the thought of Dr. Montgomery's research being used had pretty much thrown her into a blind rage and she'd shifted, and her and Bailey's stealth operation had literally come crashing down around them, leaving her clothes shredded and Steele's office a chaotic mess.

  Now, safely wrapped in her mate's arms (and appreciating the fact that he was just as pissed as she was), she glared at Eli. The admittedly attractive head of the shifter security specialists Steele's men worked for was looking a little worse for wear, his guilt evident on his face, but he didn't back down either.

  "We need his research and, unfortunately, that means we need him," Eli explained, not sounding very happy about it. Bailey moved over to stand next to them, Steele's jacket covering everything from her thighs up. Somewhere in this mess, her clothes should be fine, but that wasn't exactly the priority right now. "While we managed to get a lot of information from The Company's files that we took from the lab, and the doctor has told us as much as he knows about The Company, when it comes to his research, he kept a lot of it in his head. We can't build off his results without him and that's what we need to do."

  "Why?" Bethany demanded to know as Steele unwrapped one arm from around her and held it out to bring Bailey into their orbit. Her little sister snuggled in, shooting Mr. Suddenly-Sharing a look of absolute adoration, before turning a much less friendly look on Eli.

  "I'm not sure how much you know about shifters, but the prey animals are going extinct," Eli said quietly, his expression pained. Behind Bethany, Steele winced and she could feel some of his pain leaking through. "We've lost the majority of the population of smaller animal shifters over the last decade, some of them friends and family, to diseases that ravage them and barely affect the larger shifters. That's what Dr. Montgomery was researching, a way to stop that. From what we've managed to put together, his mate was a fox and when she and their kits died in the first wave of disease, he pretty much lost it. He became entirely devoted to his work and his work was entirely devoted to saving the smaller shifters. I'll be frank, he's fucking insane and he's convinced that the ends justify the means no matter how immoral the means are, but he's also brilliant and his work could save the population we have left."

  Geezus... Bethany wanted to bang her head against the wall. She could feel her mate's astonishment, his reluctance acceptance of Eli's explanations. Beside her, Bailey was chewing on her lower lip,
looking torn. And Bethany...

  "At what cost?" she asked, although she could already feel her resistance weakening. Yeah, she thought Dr. Montgomery should be held accountable for what he'd done to her and her family, but at the same time, if what they'd gone through really could help people... still, she could testify to how painful it was. And she hadn't even been a shifter to begin with. "How do we know he's not lying? We weren't shifters when he experimented on us, how do we know his work will even help?"

  "We don't. Not yet, but," Eli took a deep breath, "we have a couple of squirrels here; a young woman and her fifteen year old brother. They have the Torch. It's a slow acting disease that causes high fevers and a lot of pain, I'm told it feels like you're actually burning alive. Until now, all we've been able to do is treat the symptoms and supply patients with enough morphine to go peacefully. It's already killed their parents and their aunt, the only family they have left in the world, is starting to show signs of the disease as well.

  "We gave Dr. Montgomery access to a lab and he's spent the last forty eight hours working on something that will allow them to fight off the disease like a larger shifter would. In us, it only manifests as something similar to the human flu - a week of fever, dehydration, and some vomiting - but the larger shifters have a 98% recovery rate. It only kills the very old or the very young of our species. What he's doing might change them, but all three of them have talked to your brothers about what the change might be like, and they're willing to take the risk in order to become well. They won't be the last, I can guarantee that."

  Green eyes stared at her squarely, his doubt and shame gone, changed into a calm confidence. "I made the decision to offer him life, under guard and in our labs, with no chance of freedom or parole, in exchange for his work, in exchange for others' lives. There will be no experimenting on humans and he will be watched constantly by our own scientists and guards. If he even attempts to escape, that offer is forfeit, but I had to make it. He doesn't deserve it, but the people he could save... they do."

  Now Bethany was clinging to both her sister and Steele, trying to deal with the conflicting emotions inside of her. How could she argue with Eli when he put it like that? And at the same time, she wanted Montgomery's blood... she wanted it so badly she could taste it. Life would have been so much easier if Kasim had let Bailey kill the man.

  Then again, that would have been an automatic death sentence - and an awful death - for the squirrel shifters Eli was talking about. And he was right. They didn’t deserve that. It sounded like they’d already been through so much. Losing their parents, only each other and their aunt left of their family… of course she knew how too much of that felt.

  She stared silently back at Eli, unable to come up with any words to say. What could she say?

  The blond man looked away and then back at the screen. "Hold on a moment."

  He got up, leaving the view, and Bethany looked at her sister. Bailey's big blue eyes were filled with tears.

  "This might not be so bad," Bailey whispered, reaching out and taking Bethany's hand, leaning into Steele's shoulder. Mr. Tall-and-Protective really was pretty comfortable when it came to needing someone to lean on. "At least this way, what we went through wasn't for nothing. It might even do some good in the world."

  "That's what we thought too." The deep voice made both Bailey and Bethany perk up, happiness flooding through them as they turned their attention back to the computer screen.

  The two grinning faces had them squealing with glee. "Brock! Brice!"

  They looked good... rugged and somehow sharpened. Healthier too, with tanned skin and the blonde streaks in Brice's hair seemed to have multiplied. Both of them were wearing black tank tops that showed off their shoulders and arms, which sported a few bruises and scratches. Bethany assumed from training. It was almost weird to see Brock smiling, but it looked good on him, even if his smile wasn't as big as Brice's. Seeing her brothers looking so happy and healthy made tears spark in her eyes.

  "Where's Brady?" Bethany demanded, her eyes darting around the screen, as if the eldest Bunson might magically appear upon command.

  "He's with Jessie, the squirrel Eli was telling you about," Brice said, his grin widening. "He's got a cru-u-u-u-sh."

  Brock rolled his eyes but he didn't deny Brice's statement.

  "Wait, so he's found his mate too?" Bethany asked, excited for her brother, but now also worried for him. If whatever Dr. Montgomery did didn't work - and yes, she realized that she was now totally on board with Eli using the doctor to save the smaller shifters - then how would her brother handle it?

  "Ah, no, sweetheart," Steele rumbled behind her. "What happened with us... well that was a one in a million chance. Most people don't ever find their 'true' mate. They just fall in love and get mated."

  "Oh." Well that was kind of disappointing, but also a relief, just in case this they ended up not being able to help this Jessie.

  "So..." Brock said, raising his eyebrow and glaring over the top of Bethany's head, his blue eyes icy. "You got us out of town and mated our sister right away, huh?" The protective challenge in his voice made Bethany roll her eyes. As if she couldn't take care of herself!

  "Actually, she mated me first," Mr. Obnoxiously-Smug said, before grunting as Bethany elbowed him in the stomach. Bailey giggled. He squeezed her. "So if you've got a problem with it, take it up with her."

  "She's smiling, so no problem yet," Brock said, eyeing him. Brice smiled, nodding his head and backing up his older brother's words. "It goes without saying that if you hurt her, even Eli won't be able to find your body."

  "If it goes without saying, why did you feel the need to say it?" grumbled Bethany, glaring at her brothers. She wrapped her arms around her mate's waist, snuggling into him. Steele just grinned, obviously not at all bothered by her brothers' threat and pleased with her reaction.

  "Just making sure he knows," Brock said darkly. This time Bethany saw Bailey rolling her eyes too.

  "Okay, well enough with the family stuff," Eli said, stepping back into the picture. His model blonde good looks seemed even more streamlined and refined when placed next to the Bunson brothers' more rugged features. "Are you and Bailey going to be okay with this?" His tone became drier. "I'd rather not have to worry about guarding Dr. Montgomery's whereabouts from you as well as the rest of the world."

  The two sisters looked at each other and then Bethany looked up at Steele. He nodded, although the little lines around his eyes were tight. It bothered him to let Dr. Montgomery live but... lives could be saved. Their sacrifice could mean something. Letting out a long breath, Bethany nodded and then Bailey did too.

  "We understand," Bethany said, speaking for all of them. She turned her gaze back to the men on the screen. "Although if whatever Dr. Montgomery does to Jessie and her family doesn't work or makes them worse, I'll want to revisit this topic."

  "Agreed," growled Brock, backed up by another growl from Brice. She couldn't help but smile at her brothers' growly ways. In some ways, they were more bear than bunny.

  She wished she could have seen Brady too, but at the same time, she couldn't help but be glad he'd found someone he was actually interested in. Bethany wanted everyone in her family to find the same happiness that she had with Mr. Sexy-and-You-Know-It. She just hoped that Dr. Montgomery managed to save Jesse and the squirrel family, using the knowledge he'd gotten from experimenting on hers.

  Snuggling deeper into Steele's arms, she felt him kiss the top of her head and she smiled. Somehow, as long as she had him, everything would be okay.

  About the Author

  About me? Right… I’m a writer, I should be able to do that, right?

  I’m a happily married young woman, no kids so far, and I like tater tots, small fuzzy animals, naming my plants, hiking, reading, writing, sexy time, naked time, shirtless o’clock, anything sparkly or shiny, and weirding people out with my OCD food habits.

  I believe in Happy Endings. And fairies. And Santa Claus. Bec
ause without a little magic, what’s the point of living?

  I write because I must. I live in several different worlds at any given moment. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

  Want to know more about my other books and stories? Check out https://goldeniangel.squarespace.com/ or http://goldeniangel.blogspot.com/.

  Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed the story… and don’t forget, the best thing you can do in return for any author is to leave them feedback!

  Stay sassy.

  Titles by Golden Angel

  Bridal Discipline Series

  Philip’s Rules

  Domestic Discipline Quartet

  Birching His Bride

  Dealing With Discipline

  Punishing His Ward

  Claiming His Wife

  Venus Rising Quartet

  The Venus School

  Venus Aspiring

  Venus Desiring

  Venus Transcendent

  Stronghold Series

  Stronghold

  Taming the Tease

  On His Knees

  Mastering Lexie

  Pieces of Stronghold

  Breaking the Chain

  Poker Loser Trilogy

  Forced Bet

  Back in the Game

  Winning Hand

  Poker Loser Bundle (Three books in one!)

  Big Bad Bunnies Series

  Chasing His Bunny