by Dakota West
Copyright © 2018 by Dakota West
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Epilogue
Shifter Country Bears
Shifter Country Wolves
Copper Mesa Eagles
Contemporary Romance Novels
EXCERPT: A Bear’s Mercy, Chapter One
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About the Author
A Bear’s Nemesis
Shifter Country Bears, Book Two
Dakota West
Chapter One
Julius
Sitting in the back seat of the car, Julius looked out the tinted window at the courthouse steps. The crowd of people had been getting bigger every day this week. By today, five days into the trial, it threatened to spill out of the confines of the police tape and into the street.
After all, closing arguments were today. Julius’s stomach knotted. He hadn’t managed to eat breakfast.
Between the two throngs of protestors was a narrow lane, leading up the steps and to the massive doors of the courthouse. Julius watched as his clients ascended the steps: two male shifters and their female human mate.
One of the shifters hoisted an adorable, smiling two-year-old girl onto his shoulders, and the kid waved enthusiastically at all the people screaming at them from the sidelines.
Julius couldn’t help but smile. That’s exactly what we’re fighting for, he thought. For that kid’s parents to get married, even if there’s three of them. It seemed so simple.
He’d been awake for half the night, prepping his final arguments, but nothing got him quite like watching a happy triad, but even as he did, his heart twisted in his chest. He loved Hudson, his mate, more than anything. But lately, both of them had been feeling the urge to complete their triad.
Without their third, there was just something missing.
Julius took a deep breath and opened the back door of the Town Car. He wasn’t used to being driven around, but this was by far the highest-profile case he’d ever been involved in, and there were security concerns.
The moment he stepped out, the crowds on either side of the courthouse steps went nuts.
On his left were the humans who’d come out to protest shifters. They held up signs with slogans like LOVE MEANS TWO and NO TRIAD MARRIAGE and TRIAD? MORE LIKE TRY-BAD!
Julius thought that last one was particularly stupid.
Not that he was surprised. In the past few weeks he’d had to deal with his fair share of humans who really hated shifters, and most of them hadn’t been the brightest bulbs.
On his right, as he began the walk up the courthouse steps, were both shifters and humans, the people who’d come out to protest the protesters and show their support for triad marriage. Their signs said things like LOVE IS LOVE and LET LOVE BE THREE and MORE LOVE TO GO AROUND.
Among them, Julius quickly found Hudson, in the very front, holding up a sign that said LEGALIZE LOVE. He was wearing his usual outfit — a tight black t-shirt that showed his beefy physique and blue jeans — and Julius smiled at him.
Just having his mate there made him feel better, even as his stomach tightened again.
If he lost this case, he’d be letting Hudson down. Not just Hudson — most of the shifters in Cascadia.
Hudson smiled back, waving his sign. Then he put his hand to his lips and blew Julius a kiss, and Julius laughed. It was almost ridiculous, watching this six-foot-six, buff-as-hell mechanic blow a kiss, but that simple action made Julius feel better in a way that nothing else could.
He walked on past Hudson, keeping his target in his sights. The courthouse doors. As he walked all the yelling intensified, and even though he tried to keep his eyes on the doors and not look at the protestors, he couldn’t help it. Julius was always curious about them.
What kind of person dedicates their lives to hate? he had to wonder.
As his eyes skipped along them, face after face twisting in rage, he saw her.
She had nearly black, shoulder-length hair and killer curves. Even though she was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, just looking at her made Julius’s mouth go dry, and he nearly missed the next step, just barely catching himself in time.
Even though she was holding a sign that said TRIAD PERVERTS, her mind was clearly anywhere but there. She stared off into the distance, not shouting or taunting.
He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the girl. Something deep inside called to him.
Something primal and urgent, his bear waking up all at once.
It growled.
No, he thought, desperately, still unable to tear his eyes away from her. Not here. Not now.
It was too late. His bear was completely awake and full-on roaring with lust.
Julius’s hands broke out in a sweat, and he gritted his teeth together, determined to keep himself in check.
Then the girl’s bored gaze slid over to look at him, and for just a moment, they locked eyes.
He drew even with her on the steps, eyes still locked.
For the first time in years, Julius thought his bear might get the better of him.
Then there was a loud, world-shattering bang.
Julius whirled around. For a split second, he thought that something huge and metal had crashed to the ground. Everyone looked half confused and half panicked.
Then there was another one, and another, each sounding louder and sharper than the first.
Then, Julius realized they were gunshots. He leapt for the girl, tackling her full-on, the sign smacking him in the face as he covered her body with his.
There was one more gunshot, this one amid a mess of growling and yowling. The unmistakable roar of a grizzly, the growl of a wolf, and a mountain lion’s bloodcurdling shriek.
People ran everywhere, slipping on the stone steps, some falling, their protest signs flailing everywhere.
Julius’s bear was half out, his hands clenched into tight fists and his face in a snarl as he covered the girl with his body.
I’ll fucking kill anyone who tries to so much as touch her, he thought. He could smell panic, blood, and a little bit of pee.
Where’s Hudson?
Underneath him, her chest rose and fell and her face was flushed. The shots had stopped, and for a split second, he watched her chest heave, his bear savoring the delicious swell.
Where’s Hudson?
Julius tried his best not to panic. The girl, whoever she was, seemed okay, and that was important but where was Hudson?
Fifty feet away, at the bottom of the stone stairs, a human was sprawled on the ground, surrounded by a lion, a wolf and a grizzly, a gun a few feet away on the pavement. The lion had one paw on his back, wicked claws fully extended, and was quietly growling in the man’s ear.
Julius felt an involuntary chill snake down his spine. Lions gave him the creeps.
Ash Spencer, his cousin-in-law, ran up, his own gun in one hand, and pointed it at the human. He started shouting, too, but now Julius could tell that everything was under control.
“Are you okay?” he asked the girl.
Her brown eyes were the size of saucers and she was still breathing hard, but s
he nodded. He gave her one more long, searching look, and then stood. She rolled over, grabbed her sign, and scampered off.
I have to find Hudson and then I have to find out who that was, Julius thought. His best suit, the custom-fit one he’d spent half a month’s salary on, was filthy and probably ruined, but that didn’t matter right now.
Stay calm and you’ll find him, he thought. He stood up straight and searched the pandemonium for his mate — even though the six-foot-six blond behemoth stood out in most crowds, he blended in pretty well with a bunch of grizzly shifters. Julius let his eye skip from person to person, but there was no sign of the other man yet.
It felt like there was a hand around his heart, and it was starting to squeeze.
Julius started walking down the steps and into the crowd, doing his best to act calm, but his mate wasn’t there. He imagined Hudson bleeding on the ground while he had been protecting some girl he didn’t even know. He imagined someone else holding Hudson’s hand as the blood stain spread across the flagstones.
The hand around Julius’s heart gripped tighter, and he could feel sweat trickle down the back of his neck.
He can take care of himself, Julius thought. He was in the Lost Souls for ten years before you even met him. He knows how to handle gunfire.
Julius took a deep breath, his eyes frantically flicking from person to person, none of them his mate.
How could I possibly live without him?
“Hudson!” Julius shouted, finally losing control. “HUDSON!”
Then, the crowd parted for a moment and there he was, kneeling on the ground, his back to Julius, but Julius would have known his mate anywhere. He ran to him, pushing aside humans and shifters alike, until he finally reached his mate, collapsing to his knees beside him.
He was covered in blood.
“It’s hers,” Hudson said, seeing the alarm on his mate’s face.
Julius realized that they were in front of a woman, her face nearly gray, lying on her back. Hudson had her jacket balled up and pressed against her shoulder.
“Shooter winged her,” Hudson said, his low, gravelly voice calm and collected. “She’s lost a lot of blood but she’ll be okay.”
The woman opened her eyes slightly, looked at Hudson, and closed them again.
As if on cue, Julius heard the wail of sirens, pulling around the corner.
“They got the shooter,” Julius said, trying to reassure the woman. “He’s not going anywhere.”
She nodded, faintly. He didn’t recognize her, but she was some sort of shifter — wolf or coyote, it smelled like. Sometimes he had a hard time telling the canines apart, especially in this much pandemonium.
Then two EMTs were there, Hudson was calmly telling them what had happened and what he’d done, and they were nodding and telling him they’d take it from there.
Hudson nodded once and let go. The woman moaned softly, and then the EMTs got to work.
The moment that Hudson’s hands were free of her, Julius wrapped his arms around the other man, holding him close.
“I’m covered in blood,” Hudson murmured in his ear.
“I don’t care,” Julius murmured back.
He felt Hudson’s arms wrap around him too, holding him tight, and he inhaled deeply, smelling his mate’s scent: leather and musk and a the faint but ever-present smell of engine grease.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” Hudson said.
Then he pulled back just enough for Julius to kiss him, hard.
Julius could still feel the adrenaline jolting through his veins as he pressed his lips against Hudson’s, snaking his hand around the other man’s jaw, holding him tight as Hudson parted his lips to let Julius’s tongue in, wrestling with his own.
Then they broke apart, both still breathing hard. Julius closed his eyes and rested his forehead against his mate’s, letting himself be thankful for just a moment that they were both okay.
From behind him, he heard a woman’s acid voice.
“At least there’s only two of them,” she said. She sounded as if she was watching a dog take a dump on her favorite shoes. “They can’t reproduce.”
“Don’t look,” Hudson murmured, too late. Julius had already turned and searched out the speaker.
She couldn’t have been more than fifty, but the frown lines etched into her face made her look at least fifteen years older. Her hair was piled on top of her head, and she wore a plain long-sleeved shirt, a long denim skirt, and tennis shoes.
Julius recognized her immediately: Barbie Taylor, one of the most outspoken anti-shifter activists in America.
Standing next to her was the girl he’d protected. The curvy, gorgeous brunette.
Julius growled, despite himself.
“Come on,” said Hudson, his gruff voice right in Julius’s ear. “Don’t do this.”
Julius could feel his mate tense up. Hudson hated the Taylors just as much as he did.
He forced himself to stop growling, and Hudson kissed his neck, just under his ear.
Then Hudson froze. Instinctually, Julius knew he’d seen the girl. He could feel in his mate the same sudden freeze and overwhelming need he’d felt only a few minutes ago. He ran his hand over Hudson’s thick side, feeling every muscle underneath his black t-shirt, his eyes still locked with Barbie’s.
Hudson bit his earlobe, hard, and Julius gasped.
“They ought to take them all to the woods and fence them in,” Barbie said, the corners of her ugly, pink-painted mouth turned down. “Come on, Quinn.”
Quinn dipped her head, cast one final, inscrutable look at Julius and Hudson, and then followed Barbie away.
They watched her go, both barely breathing. When she finally disappeared into the crowd, Julius turned to face Hudson again, looking deep into his mate’s eyes.
For a long moment, they were both speechless.
At last, Julius spoke up.
“It’s a bad time,” he said. “This can’t happen now.”
Hudson put his thick hand gently on the side of Julius’s face and ran one thumb along his partner’s cheek.
“I’m not sure we get to decide that,” he said, quietly. “But let’s take one thing at a time.”
Julius nodded. There was still chaos all around them, people shouting, children screaming. They were both still kneeling on the stone steps, where Hudson had been when Julius found him.
“Come on, Attorney Bloom,” said Hudson, a slight smile on his lips. “Don’t let them ruin your show.”
Julius gave Hudson another quick kiss and then stood, ready to face anything.
Chapter Two
Quinn
Quinn Taylor felt like everything had just happened in slow motion. She followed her mother through the crowd, looking for their little band of protestors.
Her mother, walking ahead of her, was still spewing vitriol left and right, walking with her head high, ignoring the vicious stares of everyone she walked past.
“Disgusting,” she said. “Revolting.”
Quinn had no idea what to think. Two days ago, she’d have agreed with her mother wholeheartedly. After all, she’d been hearing both of her parents say terrible things about shifters for most of her life.
But then again, two days ago, she’d never actually met a shifter before. There were none in her little town of Eastham, Nebraska, and the news seemed to always be full of shifters doing bad things.
Now she was in Cascadia — the shifter state — and none of the terrible things she’d been waiting for had happened. She hadn’t seen anyone torn apart by an out-of-control shifter. She hadn’t been sexually assaulted by roving groups of shifter men.
Hell, she hadn’t even been hit on. At most, she’d seen triads out and about, always two men and a woman, but they always seemed so normal. Going out to dinner, running errands, carrying adorable sleeping babies.
And then, to top it off, when the gunshots had rung out, everyone in her group dove to the ground to save themselves. It had
been the shifter lawyer who’d protected her.
The hot shifter lawyer. She’d seen him on TV, but in person, there was just something about him. The way he’d just thrown himself over her without thinking twice. Later, the way he’d held his mate, both kneeling on the ground. They’d been much happier to see each other than she’d been to see her own mother.
“Quinn,” snapped her mother, jolting her from her reverie. “I asked you what was wrong with your wrist.”
Quinn looked down, doing her best to get back into reality, and realized that she was holding her left hand tightly around her right wrist, so tight that her right hand was turning purple.
“Were you shot?” shouted her father, practically diving toward her through the small throng of people standing around, still holding anti-shifter signs.
“What? No,” she said, almost rolling her eyes.
He ignored her, reached out, and grabbed her hand, yanking it toward him.
“Ow,” she said as he pulled on it, turning it over and inspecting her hand. He reminded her of a hawk sometimes. His thin face looked older than his age, fifty, and between his protruding eyebrows and sharp cheekbones, looked like a bird of prey.
“That hurt?” he asked.
“That’s why I said ‘ow,’” Quinn said, scowling.
He ignored her and flopped her wrist from side to side, watching her face.
“Ow,” she said again, pulling her wrist back. “I must have fallen on it or something.”
“It was that lawyer,” said her mother, standing next to her father, her permanent frown on her face. “He leapt on top of you like he was on fire and you were a pool of water.”