“Hyde,” Rick said warningly.
Hyde shook his head and tuned back to the cart. “All I’m saying is, the bitch better shit platinum.”
“Hyde,” Rick growled.
Annie had heard far worse on some of her best days working at the bar and had far bigger concerns.
“Aren’t you a little concerned that they’re about to get themselves killed?” she asked, jerking her head at Leo and Custer as the sound of shouting grew steadily louder.
“They’re not going to die,” the short man—Dominic?—said, “which is a damn shame because I would give up some very valuable things to watch Custer bite the dust.”
The men pushed the carts the rest of the way onto the ship and into what appeared to be a cargo hold.
“Alright, we don’t have time to tie these down right now,” Rick said, “so we’re going to strap the whole cart and hope for the best. When we’re done, Hyde, you’re backing up the captain and Custer and Dom, I need you to—oh, dammit.”
Annie jerked around to see what he was cursing at and her heart dropped as she saw the familiar uniforms pour out of the trees. One soldier barked something at Leo, who said something in reply that made the man stiffen. Annie scrambled, trying to get out of the line of sight, but it was too late. One woman saw her and pointed, shouting. The others reached for their guns. Instead of reaching for their own weapons, Leo and Custer roared at the offending soldiers and exploded outwards.
Annie blinked, trying to reconcile what she was seeing with reality. Where Leo and Custer had been were now two giant bears, one black and one honey-colored, swiping left and right. Half the soldiers were already bleeding on the ground and the other half were, like Annie, recovering from what they were seeing.
“Hyde, cover them, Dominic, engineering,” Rick snapped, running into a chrome hallway towards what Annie assumed was the pilot’s station. Dominic sprinted after them as Hyde unstrapped his blaster and put a bolt in the head of the first soldier to point a blaster at one of the bears. Between Hyde’s cover fire and the brutal assault by what were probably the captain and Custer, the soldiers were shortly dispatched and the two giant, furry creatures where lumbering towards the ship.
“Move your asses,” Hyde hollered.
The honey-colored bear shoulder checked him as he entered the cargo bay. As soon as they were both in, Hyde slammed a hand down over a button on the intercom by the door.
“All in and ready for takeoff,” he said.
“Get out of the cargo bay,” Rick’s voice answered. “I’m about to go and I don’t want any of you getting killed by a box of pain meds.”
All four of them, bear and human alike, hurried towards the hallways as the ramp lifted and the door to the outside slid down. They started into the main body of the Breakwater as the ship hummed to life around them.
“Alright, I’m going to go see if Dom needs anything,” Hyde said. “Please, for the love of any god you so choose, both of you put some pants on. Custer, that means you.”
With that, he spun on his heel and stalked off. The bears wandered off and Annie, after a moment to adjust, followed the bear she was pretty sure was Leo.
He walked down one corridor and came to a stop in front of one of the doors. Then, sitting back on his haunches, painstakingly typed in a passcode with far more care and precision than could ever look natural on his hulking, fur-covered frame. A surprised giggle burst out of Annie before she clapped one hand over her mouth. It was strange; she would have thought laughter to be beyond her two minutes ago. The bear simply sank back down on all fours and huffed at her as the door hissed open. Annie followed him as he walked inside a bedroom that reminded Annie loosely of hospital rooms, all uniform, sturdy furniture and sleek surfaces.
There was a strange sound, like a squelch combined with bones popping, as the transformation reversed. Within seconds, the bear had melted back into Leo, standing tall and proud and very, very naked.
Annie considered turning around to give the man some privacy, but from his smirk he clearly didn’t mind the eyeful she was getting and honestly after all she’d gone through, the universe owed her some compensation. She took a good, long look at his broad shoulders and sculpted abs before snapping her eyes back up to his.
“Impressive,” she said, half talking about his abilities and half talking about his physique.
“Done already? You’re allowed to go lower, you know,” he flirted.
Annie shook her head. “Maybe when you don’t still have blood on your hands. And face.”
Leo grimaced and held up one finger in a universal “wait a sec” gesture before turning and walking into what turned out to be a connected bathroom. As he entered the adjoining room, Annie allowed her eyes to dip down towards the dimple at the small of his back and then farther down. The view almost made up for having to run from a maniac with a private army.
She heard the hiss of a sonic scrubber start up and looked around the room while she waited. There was a bed with a nightstand next to it and an intercom system just above it, along with a shelf running around the room at about Annie’s eyelevel. A desk with a stationary comm unit sat against one wall with a chair pushed away from it at an angle. Annie, suddenly feeling the exhaustion of the last several hours pouring over her, figured that if Leo was willing to turn into a bear and kill her pursuers and then all but hand her an engraved invitation to look at his junk then he probably wouldn’t be overly angry at her for sitting down. Still, she sat gingerly, ready to spring back up if necessary, the memory of Strathmore striking her hard across the face for sitting without his permission at dinner her first night on the Appomattox fresh in her mind.
Leo sauntered back out of the bathroom and smiled at Annie.
“Alright, I’m getting me some clothes. Do you want something to change into? I don’t have anything your size, but you’re welcome to anything in my closet.”
Suddenly, Annie was more desperate than ever to get out of the dress. She nodded quickly. Leo laughed as he walked over to his closet and pulled out a shirt and a pair of pants and tossed them to Annie before rummaging for clothes he could wear.
Annie got her boots off in record time but her dress proved to be more difficult. It had taken two of the assigned guard to get her into it and do up all the little buttons on the back and tie the various laces. She cursed as she fumbled with the fabric, trying and failing to get it even a little looser.
“Allow me,” Leo said from behind her, followed by the familiar snik of a traditional metal knife snapping open. There was a tearing sound, and suddenly the dress was a lot looser. Annie crossed her arms over her chest before the fabric fell away completely. She turned to Leo and raised an eyebrow.
“You’re clearly had practice with that,” she said.
Leo shrugged. “I’m a dashing and devastatingly handsome smuggler. A little roughness adds the edge the kind of women who come after me are looking for.”
Annie uncrossed her arms, letting the dress fall away, and reached for the shirt. She didn’t miss the way Leo’s eyes ran over her body as she tugged it over her head.
“I won’t lie, in any other situation it’d work for me,” she told him as she adjusted the soft blue fabric. The shirt was long enough on her that she really didn’t need pants, but she tugged them on anyways. The material dwarfed her, making her feel like she was playing dress-up. From the amused glint in Leo’s eyes, he agreed.
“In that case, I’ll wait for any other situation to pop up and try again,” he said and winked. The gesture came across more humorous than seductive and Annie laughed.
She was slowly, to her surprise, relaxing. Hours ago she had thought even her best case scenario to be hopeless but now she was on a ship with men who could become bears. Suddenly, the impossible seemed very possible.
“So, bear shifters?” she said with a small smile. “I gotta admit, I’ve met a lot of strange folks, but I’ve never met one of your lot before. I thought you all had fancy security gigs, sh
it like that.”
“First of all, we have about the same genetic frequency as redheads, so I wouldn’t say for sure you’ve never met one of us before,” Leo said. “And obviously some of us took the low road. I tried private security for a while. It got old fast.”
“I see. And the others? All shifters?”
Leo opened his mouth to respond when a beep came from the intercom.
“Captain, letting you know we’ve broken atmo. Custer and Hyde went back to the cargo hold to secure the loose crates. Will let you know if anything else develops,” Rick said.
Leo walked over and pressed a button.
“Thank you, Rick, I appreciate it.”
He released the button and walked back towards Annie and sat on the corner of the bed.
“Sorry about that. To answer your question, yes, everyone on this crew is a bear shifter,” he told her.
Annie drew her knees to her chest.
“Can you tell me about them?” she asked. “Not anything secret, obviously, but I’m curious about who does what. You have a small crew.”
Leo nodded. “Bare bones, that’s us. We need to take on some more crew, but with our… peculiarities and our work, that’s not easy. We’d have to let anyone we hired in on our secret, and there’s a lot of money to be made in selling shifters and splices. Anyone good enough at smuggling to be hired here would be the type to jump at the opportunity.”
He sighed, chewing at his lip. “Where to start… Rick is the obvious place. He’s my second in command and the other main pilot.”
“Main pilot?” Annie asked.
“Everyone in the crew can pilot this bird by necessity,” Leo told her, “but Rick and I are the ‘official’ pilots. He’s a good man. Quiet, smart. Stubborn as all hell once he takes a stand on something, but a good friend and a good pilot. His parents were in the smuggling game so he knows what he’s doing. Both his legs are prosthetics so if you hear him hissing when he moves, don’t worry, that’s perfectly normal. Out of everyone else on this crew, he’s the one you should worry about the least.”
“I’ll admit, I’m not thrilled at the implication that I need to worry about anyone here,” Annie said.
Leo chuckled. “You can relax. They won’t do anything to you as long as they know I’m against it, but they won’t be nice. Something tells me you can handle that, though. Next is Custer. Blond, prosthetic hand. Which, by the way, is the one that he masturbates with.”
Annie blinked. “I… see.”
“I could give you a detailed record of Custer’s varied failings,” Leo explained somewhat apologetically, “but honestly that’s the fastest way to give you a general picture of what he’s like. Other than his somewhat sadistic and maniacal tendencies, he’s a spectacular fighter and something of a jack-of-all-trades. He has basic knowledge of everyone’s jobs and goes where he’s needed.”
“He sounds lovely,” Annie said.
“You get used to him,” the captain said, shrugging. “He’s a basket case, but he’s loyal and a hard worker. Next are Hyde Jones and Dominic Banner. They’re closer to each other than the rest of the crew, but again, loyal and hard-working. Hyde’s the one with the eyepatch. He works our communications array and deals with whatever programming we need to keep the ship’s computer. He’s a sarcastic shit, but he’ll only get hostile if you pose a danger to the crew. Dom is our engineer. He’s blunt, and with any luck you’ll never see him shift. Actually, try not to ask him about shifting at all.”
“Why?” Annie asked, intrigued.
“Dom is a carrier for the DAI-O gene. It’s a gene specific to shifters,” Leo said as his smile dropped and a solemnness settles over his features. “It’s also called the ‘Berserker gene,’ which should give you a pretty good idea of what it does. The specific mutation of the gene that he has leads to Rogerson disorder, which, long story short, means once he shifts it’s extremely likely he won’t be able to control himself. Obviously, having an angry, feral bear on your hands is not an ideal situation, so for the most part Dom doesn’t shift.”
“Is that common? Among shifters, I mean?” Annie asked, unsure how to feel about this new disease.
“In bear shifters, there’s one in eight thousand who have it. I know that sounds like a lot, but remember, there’s not a ton of us to start out with and we’re spread out. And that’s just the stats for bears born with the mutation. Carriers generally don’t live as long as the rest of us for a variety of reasons,” Leo said soothingly.
“Okay, so, your crew is made up of one decent man who knows what he’s doing, a man who probably has kinks that most of the population would consider cruel and unusual punishment, a sarcastic coder who almost definitely hates me, and the smallest, angriest shifter of them all,” she said just to make sure she had all her information right.
“You’re forgetting Leo Ingram, the suave, sexy captain,” Leo told her, waggling his eyebrows.
“How could I possibly neglect my savior like that?” Annie responded, letting the sarcasm gained over a lifetime of pouring drinks for some of the galaxy’s worst and dullest color her tone.
“Very impolite of you,” the captain said with a wicked grin. “But you seem to have acknowledged your mistake, so I’m willing to treat you to some of our five-star space safe cuisine in the kitchen, if you’re hungry.”
“Starving,” Annie said, standing. The captain walked to the door and pressed the door to open it, then held and arm out to her. She crossed over to him, kicking her dress aside as she passed it, and put her arm in his.
He cleared his throat as he led her out into the hallway.
“You know, if you need to talk to someone about today,” he said a bit awkwardly, “Rick’s good with that sort of thing. I mean, I’ll listen if you want, but I’ve been reliably informed I’m not the best person to talk to about trauma.”
Annie shrugged. “It’d be pretty hypocritical of me to start screaming and crying because you killed those guards, seeing as I spaced seven of them on my way out.”
Leo started. “Hold up, you said you drugged the guards.”
“I drugged my personal guards,” Annie explained. “I set the countdown on the bay door opening low when I stole the Needle and the guards who came to stop me from escaping left the ship the same time I did, only no ship.”
“Huh,” the captain said after a moment. “I mean, if you want to talk about that—”
“I don’t,” Annie cut him off. “I feel terrible about killing them, and I wish I hadn’t been in a position where I had to. But these were people who woke up every day and loyally served a monster, and worse, they were content to let me be a sacrifice to him. I am not a cruel person by nature, Captain Ingram, but I will not let people take advantage of me without my consent.”
“Without your consent?” Leo asked.
“My father is an alcoholic, which is how I ended up in this mess in the first place,” Annie said. “He lied to me, he took the money I gave him for food and bought more alcohol, and he stole from me. I knew about it, and I kept letting him do it because once upon a time he was the best father in the world. Unfortunately, it appears that letting his behavior continue is only ever going to hurt me.”
Her voice was cold, as was she. She felt her muscles tighten the way they did when the temperature dropped, but instead of shivering she was perfectly still. Her mind felt far away as she locked down on the white-hot blaze of betrayal and rage she’d felt for her father ever since he’d told her what he’d done. Being out of danger for five minutes didn’t mean she wanted to start having emotional breakdowns right and left.
Leo stopped walking.
Colby (BBW Western Bear Shifter Romance) (Rodeo Bears Book 3) Page 25