by T. S. Ryder
With shifters, there weren't many other options.
Joshua was silent as they continued walking. Eventually, the stores faded away to residential buildings, and then even these became more spread out until they reached the edge of the forest.
"Why did we walk here? Is it part of the ceremony?"
Her Bear gave her a cocky grin. "No. I was just showing you off. Now let's go."
He quickly stripped off his clothes, clearly not bothered by the fact that the people in the nearby houses would be able to see him. Naomi certainly didn't mind. She fingered the zipper on the parka, admiring his form. Nudity was common among the Wolves like it was among all shifters, but she rarely had to opportunity to ogle a man without earning herself a lecture from her father.
"Like what you see?" Joshua asked, facing her.
Heat crept into her cheeks, but she nodded as she traced her eyes down the perfect V his abs formed. "You're nicely put together."
"Thank you. Now let's see you."
Naomi continued to toy with her zipper, considering. She had never deliberately bared herself to anybody before. It happened, of course, when she shifted in public, but taking off her clothes in front of another person was strange.
Maybe this was part of the ceremony, showing each other their bodies. She took a deep breath and stripped, shivering as the cold winter air brushed against her skin, causing goosebumps to break out everywhere. Joshua cast an appraising glance at her and nodded in satisfaction.
"You're as pretty as I thought you would be. I think I'm going to enjoy mating you very much."
The heat in her cheeks increased. The cool air didn't seem as cold anymore as something clenched inside her, heat flooding that area thoroughly. She was going to enjoy mating him, too. She only hoped that she knew enough from her readings to know how to please him.
"What do you want to hunt?" he asked.
Naomi shrugged. "A pine tree? I'm a vegetarian. I don't eat meat and hunting… I don't. Actually, I should say I won't."
"You're a Wolf and you don't eat meat?"
Naomi shrugged. "Go ahead and laugh. Everybody does. But my mother was a vegetarian also, and she was a strong Alpha."
Joshua frowned a moment, then nodded. "We can just run together, then. The point of this is to help one another, and I would not be helping you if I tried to force my lifestyle on you."
He smiled at her and shifted smoothly. Naomi was shocked for a moment that he'd be so understanding before she shook herself off and shifted as well. Joshua's Beast form was huge, with a cream-colored fur that was darker on his paws and over his shoulders. His head was vaguely polar-bear-shaped, but his shoulders had the distinctive grizzly hump. A grolar bear then?
She was the first to dash into the trees, yipping at him to chase her. He followed her, and they ran through the trees. Naomi's eyes brightened as she breathed in the clean air, feeling full of life and vitality. The drifts of snow weren't big enough to really slow progress yet, and she dashed through them joyfully.
Until a thin wail reached her ears.
Naomi came to an abrupt stop. She swiveled her head from side to side. The wail came again. A baby? What was a baby doing out here in the woods? Joshua grunted at her. Didn't he hear what she was hearing?
When the cry came again, Naomi turned on her paws and flew towards the sound. The deep drifts slowed her but she ploughed through them.
The baby was in a car seat, bundled up tightly in a thick blanket. There were even hot water bottles tucked in beside it. Naomi Shifted again and quickly pulled the baby out of the car seat. The hot water bottles were cold, although the baby's tiny hands and face weren't too chill. She held it close to her chest as Joshua joined them.
He sniffed the car seat before shifting. "Wolf. We get babies like this sometimes. Best we can figure is they're abandoned because they can't shift. But that they're left so close to the Bear town, we figure the parents don't want them to die."
Naomi wished she could say that shocked her, but the truth was it wasn't surprising in the least. "My father," she snarled.
Joshua put a surprisingly gentle hand on her shoulder. "We'll take it to the humans. They'll find a good home to adopt it."
Her heart jolted at the thought. A feeling of steel crept into her spine and she stood and faced her mate.
"No."
"Excuse me?"
She could feel the baby searching for something to drink from. Poor thing must be starving. "You're a Bear, I'm a Wolf. Doesn't it make sense for our first child not to be a shifter?"
Joshua stared at her. "You want to adopt it?"
"Yes."
"But… but you just found it. And we just met. Don't you want to try for our own before resorting to adoption?"
"Adoption is not the lesser option. This baby needs parents. Why not us?"
So much for waiting to see if she actually wanted to be his mate. Her father always said that her stubborn streak was going to cause her trouble. Well, maybe this would be when it did, but she found herself unable to control her temper as she glowered at her bear.
"When I decide on something, I do it. Just because this baby isn't a shifter doesn't mean that it doesn't deserve to be brought up in a community of shifters. They still have our instincts. It's not fair to them!"
Joshua held up his hands. "We'll discuss this back in town. Right now that baby need to get to a hospital, to make sure it's okay. I'm going to shift, you can ride me on the way back."
Naomi opened her mouth to keep arguing, but he was right. She nodded. Joshua shifted again and the Wolf scrambled onto his back awkwardly, holding the baby with one arm. Its cries actually grew louder as Joshua ran, which Naomi thought was a good sign.
They were almost to the tree line when a shot rang out.
Joshua roared in pain, his whole body twisting. Naomi lost her grip on him and fell. She wrapped her body around the baby as she came crashing down. Her head swiveled and finally saw a man with a hunting rifle pointed at them.
No. Not them. Joshua.
The Alpha roared and charged. The hunter let off another bullet, then ran. Naomi scrambled to her feet, heart in her throat. She held the baby tightly against her chest as her Bear disappeared through the trees again.
What have I gotten myself into?
Chapter Three – Joshua
His shoulder burned as the bullet grated against his bone, but Joshua ignored it, focused on the man that was fleeing through the woods. Nobody took shots at him and got away with it. Certainly not cowards who turned and fled the scene the moment he realized that his rifle wasn't going to do the trick.
All of Joshua's instincts roared at him to tear apart the man that tried to kill him, but his good head prevailed. Best to know why the man shot at him and then hand him over to the human authorities.
For all Joshua knew, it could be the father of the baby in the woods, and he was trying to protect his child.
When he was within range, Joshua pushed his muscles hard for one final leap. With a swipe from his giant paws, he knocked the man's feet out from under him. The rifle went flying. Joshua ran over the man and grabbed the gun in his jaws, just in case. He crushed the metal barrel in his teeth and tossed it aside. The would-be assassin backed away from him, eyes wide. Joshua grunted and slapped the ground.
The man scrambled to his feet, but Joshua was on him again. The Bear grabbed him by the shoulder, careful not to so much as break skin, and firmly pushed him back down the ground. He backed up then and shifted, scowling fiercely.
"Who are you?" Joshua demanded.
Blood pumped from his shoulder, hot and sticky. He could feel his flesh knitting back around the foreign object and resisted the urge to punch the man. This had earned him a trip to the hospital. He didn't have time for this. There was so much he had to do…
His mind briefly flashed to Naomi. When she first said they were keeping the baby, his automatic reaction was to agree. It was insane, though. A baby would take up so much time, and t
o introduce a child this early in their relationship… He put those thoughts aside.
The man was still staring at him, and the Bear growled. He advanced. "I asked you a question. Who are you, and what exactly did you hope to accomplish by shooting me?"
The man shifted slightly, putting a hand to his ribs. The fear in his eyes was gradually turning to anger. "You Bears think that you are so mighty, so powerful."
An anti-shifter zealot?
"I am a freedom fighter, and I'm not the only one! We are going to take back the lands that you stole from us, and we will avenge our Alpha's honor, which you sullied by stealing his eldest daughter."
A wolf. Joshua's nostrils flared as he inhaled deeply. Of course he was a wolf. If the Alpha hadn't been so concentrated on the fact he was bleeding, he would have known that already. The thick dog scent was all over him. Another step forward had the Wolf cringing.
Joshua shook his head, disgusted. "I did not steal Naomi. She volunteered to come with me. I want peace between us, but your Alpha is doing all he can to provoke us Bears into fighting."
"Don't think that I will believe your lies, Bear. We will bring down the hand of justice on you, and none of your beloved humans will stop us this time. We will rise again, to the power that we were always born to."
Joshua was silent, letting him monologue. He even clenched his hands and growled, as if Wolf's words were getting under his skin. The truth was it was the opposite. He knew that as long as he could keep the Wolf talking, he would find out more information than the Wolf meant to divulge.
"So," the Alpha said slowly, adding a thick measure of anger into his voice to make the Wolf think he was on the brink of losing his temper and took a few steps forward. "Tucker sent you to bring his daughter back to the Wolf pack? Well, that's too bad. I asked for her, and she agreed to be mine. She is my mate and I will not let you have her."
The Wolf snarled. Why didn't he transform to run away earlier? Joshua's mask of anger slipped. Was this a trap? Or had the Wolf merely wanted him to think the assassin was a human, to separate the Bears from potential allies?
"You are not her mate!" the Wolf pushed himself off the ground, hands clenched. Both were on his ribs now, one of them inching into his jacket. Had Joshua accidently bruised them or something? "The eldest daughter of April Tucker belongs to no Bear. One day she will be our Alpha, but by that day you will be dead."
"She agreed to be with me," Joshua reminded him. "Tucker has no right to steal her away from my pack."
"Whether the Alpha orders us after her or not, we will not abandon her here. But the Alpha will yet give you Bears what you deserve. Everything you deserve."
And he had hit on it at least. Joshua tensed. The Wolf tensed as well, seeing the façade drop from the Bear.
Tucker was planning on an attack. He wasn't just satisfied with trying to provoke the Bears into attacking the Wolves, to give him an excuse to wreck violence against them. Maybe he was using Naomi as a rallying cry, maybe he was telling the Wolves that they had a chance to 'take back' the land that the Bears occupied.
Everything you deserve? The Alpha was planning an all-out war. He had often said that what Bears deserved was to be completely eradicated. Had he stumbled on a plan that would allow him to do just that without facing the Human justice system?
"When is he coming?"
The Wolf spat at him. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun–Joshua leaped forward, fist clenched to punch the weapon right out of his hand.
But before he could get there, the Wolf had tucked the gun under his own chin and pulled the trigger.
***
Joshua called Matt and Luke. They met him at the edge of the forest with a basic first aid kit to patch up his shoulder, but he couldn’t take the time to go to the hospital. Not when he knew his town, his pack, might be in danger.
"Matt, I need you to send a patrol to all the rural Pack members and make sure their homes are fortified against attack. Brings as many as will come back to the town. Luke, check the safe houses to make sure they're still in good condition and that the stockpiles of food, water, and medical supplies are full and up to date. Get Desi's team out around the town to make sure everybody is familiar with emergency protocols, and that they're ready to evacuate or hide if need be."
"What about the man that shot you?"
"A Wolf. He killed himself. Get a team out there to document everything and move the body to the morgue. The human mediators are going to want to take a look at it."
His two seconds nodded as Joshua poured rubbing alcohol into his wound. It stung like a hot poker being stabbed into him, but it would clean out any dirt and help the wound heal faster. It would also make surgery to remove the bullet easier when the time came.
"What are you going to do?" Matt asked.
"There are systems in place with the humans to take care of situations like this," Joshua replied grimly. "Hopefully they'll actually help."
His two men were on their way shortly. Joshua finished dressing his wound then pulled his clothes back on, grunting as the bullet grated.
The more he thought about it, the more logical it seemed that the wolf that had shot him was trying to disturb relations between Bear and Human. What had seemed like a poor assassination attempt at the time now was obviously purposefully missing his vital organs. It was only meant to sever his connection with the Humans that could help him.
And it seemed that it wasn't the only trick that Tucker had up his sleeve.
When Joshua called the local human peacekeeping office, which according to the accords that all three parties had signed were supposed to act as a mediator to settle disputes between Bears and Wolves, he learned that a complaint had already been launched.
"James Tucker claims that you kidnapped one of his girls," the human said, and from the tone of her voice, Joshua could tell that she thought him the lowest scum on earth. "Until this investigation is wrapped up, I'm afraid we can't look into any claims you make against Mr. Tucker."
"I have read the accords, that is not how it works," Joshua snarled. "You are obligated to open up an investigation into every complaint made. While you're wasting time finding out that my mate left her father willingly, they are preparing for an all-out attack."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Stewart, but your information is wrong. Goodbye."
Joshua ground his teeth as the woman hung up on him. Humans! They always believed the first story they were told, regardless of the facts. What the woman had just done was highly illegal. If he survived this, then he would be launching a formal complaint. He called back to report the assassination attempt, but there was no answer.
Great. So Tucker had already turned the humans against him. Would the Wolf wait until after the investigation before he attacked? Joshua didn't know.
In the meantime, he had to make sure the pack was ready, and he had to find out as much information as he could about the impending Wolf attack. And for that, he only had one source of potential information. Naomi had gone with him without hesitation.
Was this part of Tucker's plan all along? It hurt to think that his mate might have betrayed him, but they weren't mates yet. She was his enemy's daughter. He hadn't asked her why she had agreed to be his mate so readily.
Joshua set his jaw. Well, there was only one way to find out. He was going to have to find out exactly what Naomi know about this.
Chapter Four – Naomi
Would she be widowed before she was even mated?
Naomi's hands trembled as she fastened the little onesie that she had bought on the way back to Joshua's home from the hospital. The baby girl they had found in the woods gurgled, waving her hands and smiling. The Wolf tried to smile back, but worry twisted in her gut.
It had been hours since Joshua had gone after the man shooting at them. What had he been thinking? After the man had started running, he should have just come back to her. He didn't know if it was a trap. He should have come back to the hospital to have his wound looked a
t.
Well, he didn't, Naomi told herself. And so what if he didn't? If he gets himself killed, it will save me from having a hot-headed mate.
But as much as she wanted to pretend that she didn't care, she did. She hadn't agreed to be Joshua's mate just because he could get her away from her father. Their union was also the best chance for peace between Wolves and Bears. And even though she hadn't known him long, she knew Joshua was strong and kind. She wanted that in her life. Love wasn't something she wanted, but what Joshua could offer her was.
And yet she had heard nothing from him, even as she had the baby checked out at the hospital. The infant was perfectly fine, a little cold and a little hungry, but nothing that needed to stay at the hospital for. And so Naomi went out and bought everything she immediately needed for a baby and came back to Joshua's home, trying to distract herself from thoughts of Joshua bleeding out on the forest floor.
"There you go. Fed and clean and dry," she said, picking the little girl off the couch cushion she had put on the floor. "I think I'll call you Sapphira."
Sapphira giggled and reached for the Wolf's hair.
The door flew open. Naomi's heart jumped to her throat and a wave of relief washed over her as Joshua strode in. That relief was quickly gone when he pointed an accusing finger at her.
"What are you planning?"
Naomi got to her feet. She looked at Joshua and then down at Sapphira, who was twisting her head back and forth, little fists waving. "I know that you said you didn't want a baby, but—"
"Not the baby." Joshua stalked closer, anger flaring in his eyes. "I mean what excuse you're giving the Wolves."
Naomi shrank back, cradling the baby closer. Her father had never physically abused his daughters. Sometimes when his words became biting and tore holes in Naomi's soul he wished he would hit her instead, but he never did. Now as she stared at Joshua, she couldn't help but wonder what kind of anger he had.