"You didn't tell her about us?" he snapped at Max. "It's bad enough you bring a human into Gallandrien, but you don't even try to explain what you're getting her into?"
"I told her about the Ursallin," Max said defensively. "Mostly. Give her a break, Arcan. She hasn't had time to process everything yet."
The bear man, Arcan, snuffed the air loudly through his nose. "She had time to have sex with you. Seems she's had lots of time."
“Actually, was only a quick tumble, two minutes at most.” She said, unable to help herself.
Max gave her a look before stepping forward, raising a hand into a fist. "I said, give her a break. She was attacked by Shifts. I brought her here for her own safety."
"Then just happened to have sex with her?" Arcan stared at Nicki. "What would Shifts want with you? Were they hungry?"
He said it with a straight face and no hint that he was joking. Nicki definitely did not like how he said that.
"They weren't trying to eat her," Max answered Arcan. "They were trying to kill her."
"And use me." Nicki mumbled.
"Kill her?" Arcan kept talking like Nicki hadn't said anything. "That's nothing new for Shifts. How exactly does that make her special?"
"She fought them off until I could get to her." Max said. "There were four of them."
Arcan's expression became thoughtful. "By herself?"
Max nodded. Nicki looked from Arcane to Max and back again, knowing there was something she was missing. "Do one of you big boys want to tell me what's going on here?"
Arcan's dark eyes measured Nicki completely, and then he nodded. "Bring her. She can stay with us Ursallins for now until the Council decides what to do about her."
"Do we have to get the Council involved?" Max asked, shifting from foot to foot like the very thought of it made him nervous.
"Yes," Arcan snapped. "You brought her here. You've got to answer for it."
Nicki couldn't imagine anything making a man as big and strong as Max nervous. What was this Council all about? Hell, for that matter, what was any of this all about?
Something Arcan had said finally registered in her mind.
"Wait. You and Max are both…you and he are…" She rounded on Max, fear and anger mixing together in her chest, hot and volatile. "You're both Ursalings?"
Max managed to look more nervous still. "Ursallin. But that was good, you almost said it right that time."
Her mouth dropped open. "You're a bear?"
He blinked at her. "I'm not a bear. I'm a shape shifter. The bear is just one side of me. One part of the whole. Mostly, I'm as human as you."
Behind her she heard Arcan bust out into howls of laughter. "Oh, dear Maker, Maximillian! You didn't even tell her what you were? That's too rich! That's incredible. Oh, I don't believe this. You didn't think she should know that before you laid her here on the ground!"
"We didn't get to it yet," Max muttered. "There were too many other things to explain."
Nicki felt sick. "I just had sex with a bear."
Arcan laughed so hard he snorted. "You know how it is. Once you go bear, you never go back."
She turned her anger on him. "Very funny. Whatever. Look, I just want to go back home. I want to go back to my house and get someone to fix up what got broke and then soak in my shower for a week. It's not like I wasn't having a bad enough day as it was before you got involved. Already got suspended from work for looking into that damned Ursa Initiative file when I wasn't supposed to. Now I'm in a different universe having bear sex!"
Max and Arcan were looking at each other so intently that Nicki could believe they were having a whole conversation without ever speaking a word. Little twitches at the corner of their mouths were the only signs that told her they hadn't turned to stone.
"Did he tell you about that?" Arcan asked her so suddenly that she jumped. He was pointing at Max.
"Did he tell me about what?"
"No, of course not." He said, pursing his lips, resting his hands on his naked hips. "He wouldn't have any reason to tell you. Which means you know too much."
"I can assure you," she said to him, still angry and not liking his tone at all, "I do not know too much. I don't know anything about what's going on here. Anything at all. Will you please, God, put some clothes on?"
"What?" He looked at her like she was stupid. "Why? Never mind. Maximillian, if she saw something about the Ursa Initiative we need to know about it."
"It would explain why the Shifts were after her," Max said, speaking over her head, literally and figuratively. "She's in danger, Arcan."
"Not my problem. The Council needs to—"
Max took two steps past Nicki, gently pulling her behind him in a protective way. "It's not your problem. It's my problem. I won't just abandon her back to her world if the Shifts are after her, no matter what the Council says."
Arcan glared, and the muscles of his wiry body flexed. Max stood his ground like he was her personal bodyguard. Finally, Arcan snarled and shook his head and took two steps back. "As you wish. Don't think this won't reach the ears of the Council, though."
"Of course it will," Max rumbled. "I figure you'll run to them with your tail tucked into your ass as soon as we leave."
"Leave?" Nicki asked, liking the sound of that word. "We're leaving?"
"Right now." Max confirmed, with a hard glare for Arcan. "Whether the Council likes it or not."
"They won't like it at all." Arcan said with a shrug, like suddenly the whole thing was beneath him. "So run along with your new piece back to the hard world and try not to get torn limb from limb this time."
His face rippled as he turned to Nicki with a smile that stretched his mouth into a thin line from ear to ear. His voice distorted as his body started to change. Naked flesh sprouted hair all over and swelled to the shape and size of a bear again. He snarled at her, then turned to drop onto all fours and lumber away.
"I am no one's piece!" She shouted after him, so angry now she could see red at the corners of her vision. She realized she was yelling at someone with the power to turn into a massive animal with claws and sharp teeth and soulless eyes, and that was the only thing that kept her from charging after him to kick his ass.
When she looked up at Max, he was smiling at her.
"What?" she demanded. "You think something is funny?"
"Not funny." He said, scratching at his neck. "You just impress me, that's all."
"Oh, don't think I've forgotten about you, Mister Riddle Man. You screwed me over good. In more ways than one."
He shook his head as his eyes kept smiling at her. "I seem to remember you wanting me. Didn't you lock your legs behind me, or something?"
She bit her lip at the memory and tried to ignore the way her most intimate parts quivered and tingled. "Never you mind that. We're going back? Like, to my home back?"
"Yes." he said, serious again. "You saw something about the Ursa Initiative. I need to know what you saw."
"Why?"
"Because," he told her, "it could mean the survival or the extinction of my people."
***
She wouldn't have cared if there were a hundred Shifts waiting for them in her apartment. For the chance to finally put clothes on again she would have kissed each one of them on the lips. Well, no, but it did feel good to put jeans and her favorite dark green t-shirt on. Not that she hadn't enjoyed his eyes on her. The moment with him in the woods of that Gallandrien place, where he had filled her and excited little spots deep inside of her that most men never found, had meant a lot more to her than she let on. It surprised her, just how deeply he had moved her. Their sex had started out as something simple, just a way for her to know she wasn't hallucinating, to know what she was experiencing was real.
By her third orgasm it had become something more; something that she would carry with her for the rest of her life. Sex, better than any sex she'd had in a long time. Possibly better than she'd ever had, even that first time with Jaron Navarro.
&nb
sp; Even if it was sex with a bear? Her troublesome inner voice asked.
"Stop it." she told her reflection in the bathroom mirror. "He wasn't a bear. Not when we did it, I mean." She sighed in frustration and flipped her mirror image the middle finger.
Scrubbing her face one more time, she stepped out of the bathroom and into the war zone.
Her furniture had been torn apart and broken into pieces. The window that had been torn from the wall still lay on the floor but it had been buried in shredded books and shattered knickknacks. The city breeze blew through the hole in the side of the building and rustled little bits of things. Her kitchen hadn't fared any better. The contents of the refrigerator—mostly Styrofoam takeout containers—were spread all over the floor and the door left open. Every drawer had been pulled out and dumped. Doors on cabinets were torn off their hinges.
In short, the place had been ransacked.
"Well. Guess there's no way I'm getting my security deposit back."
The view through the hole in her wall showed her night had fallen at some point while she'd been gone. Had it really taken them that long to go from here to there and back again? Or had her Mister Riddle Man made their encounter last for hours?
Max stood in the middle of it all, examining everything like he was going to try to put it all back together. He turned to her now and shrugged. "I don't know what a security deposit is but I think you're lucky to be alive. The Shifts would have done the same thing to you."
She picked up a photograph of her mom and dad that used to hang on the wall. The frame had been bent, the picture torn nearly in two. "Think they did this because they were mad you and I got away from them?"
"No. They were looking for something."
"What? I don't have anything here worth looking for."
His eyes slid south of her face and it looked like he was going to argue about what she had that was worth looking at, but he cleared his throat instead. "They were looking for information on the Ursa Initiative. They thought you knew something. They were hoping to find whatever it was."
Nicki's blood chilled. The damage that was done to her place could have been done to her. In more ways than one. "Why would they think I had anything here on that Ursa thing?"
"That's the question right there, isn't it?" He wiped a hand back over his bald head, then tapped his hand against the back of his neck. "Why do they think you know anything? You said you saw something at work. I think that's what led them to you. The question is, how? How would they know you saw anything at work?" His eyes widened as some thought filled his mind. "Where do you work? What do you do for a living?"
"I'm a lawyer, thank you very much." She told him. "And if I can sue the asses off of these Shifts, I think I might just do that."
"You're a lawyer?"
"What?" She said, annoyed with him all over again. "You don't think a Black woman can do the job?"
"Don't be stupid. Of course a Black woman can be a lawyer. Or a banker or a world leader or a garbage collector if she wants to."
"Oh," was all she could think to say. Good looking, smart, amazing lover and not a prejudiced bone in his body. Where had this man been all her life? Right. Living in the woods.
"My point," he was saying, "is that if you're an attorney…damn it. We need to get to your office. Now."
"What? Why? I'm not exactly welcomed there. I got suspended for looking at that file."
"The file is exactly why we need to get there. I need to see what you saw."
"Files." she corrected. "Plural. But I only looked into one."
"Okay, then. Files. If I'm right, this is worse that even the Council thought."
A knock at the door made Nicki jump. She didn't realize how wired up she was until that moment. She told herself to relax. It wasn't like the Shifts were going to knock politely on her door and ask to come in to rape and mutilate her. No. They preferred to break through solid walls.
"You don't have to answer that," Max told her. "I can just take us out through the window again—"
"No, thank you." She did not want to experience that jump again. No matter how strong this man was, with his hidden inner bear that she had yet to see, she did not enjoy seeing her life flash before her eyes as she fell or feeling that hard thump at the end when he managed to land on his feet. He might be damn near close to invulnerable but she wasn't.
Stepping carefully through things that used to be hers, she looked through the door's security peephole. The irony of the peephole and the three locks on her door didn't escape her. A lot of good any of her normal city girl precautions had done her so far today.
She closed her eyes and let out a breath when she saw who was there. Larry. From work. He was dressed in a relaxed polo shirt and a pair of black jeans. Dressed for their date. Was it that late already? And, wasn't he supposed to meet her down at the bar and not here at her apartment?
"Uh, hey Larry," she called through the door. "Sorry, I'm not really up for our date tonight."
The look Max gave her was priceless. She felt more embarrassed by him knowing she was supposed to see someone tonight than she had been when she'd held him down on her with her legs…Ahem. Right. "Can I take a rain check?" she asked Larry.
Through the peephole, she saw how his face fell, disappointed. "I thought maybe you got sick or something. I came over to check on you. Can I come in now that I'm here?"
"Larry…wait. How did you know where I live?"
His eyes darted left and right. "Uh, I may have gotten your address from the computer files at work."
"Larry!"
"I know, I know," His muffled voice pleaded. "But I was worried."
Max stepped up next to Nicki, pushing her aside to look through the peephole for himself. "Who is this guy?" he whispered. "He can get into the computer files? At this lawyer place where you work?"
"At my office, yes." She said, annoyed. "He's a security guard. Of course he has access to—"
Without warning, Max pulled the door open. All three tough, unbreakable security locks down the side of the frame snapped away from the wood with horrible screeching noises. It was impossible, Nicki thought, for anyone to be that strong. Strong as a bear.
As the door swung wide Larry stared in shock at the huge man bearing down on him. Max grabbed him by his shoulders, swung him into the apartment, his feet flying through the air, and then slammed him down hard on the floor. Nicki had once seen Larry escort two thugs from the lobby of their building at the same time. He was no one to mess with, and she knew it.
Now, before he could do anything more than grunt from the pain of hitting her apartment floor, Max was on top of him and hitting him across the face again and again and again until blood sprayed from his nose.
"Stop it!" Nicki finally found enough of her voice to yell at Max. "You're killing him!"
"No, I'm not," Max told her, breathing heavily. Larry lay limp under him, unconscious. His face was already bruising around his right eye and blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth. "He'll be fine."
"What! Are you insane? You just beat him to a pulp!"
"No, I didn't." He insisted, almost innocently. "Just unconscious. He needs to be able to say later on that it wasn't his fault."
"Wasn't his fault?" Nicki couldn't believe what she was seeing. She'd brought Max here. Sort of. He'd made the portal-thingy-whatever-it-was that had bridged the gap back to her beautiful city but he still wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her. Larry wouldn't be bleeding on her floor. None if this insanity would be happening if she hadn't looked into that damned folder. "What are you talking about? What isn't his fault?"
While she stood there, demanding an explanation, Max had been rifling through Larry's pants pockets. He came out with Larry's wallet and then started tossing credit cards and loyalty cards and other things out onto her floor. Finally he had one white plastic card in his hand. He smiled as he held it up.
"Now he can't say it was his fault that I took this."
The card had Larry'
s picture in the upper left hand corner and a magnetic strip across the back: his security badge from work.
"Why you taking that?" she asked, her voice raising in pitch. This was all becoming too much. "You beat him down and rob him and now I'm supposed to be okay with that?"
Max stood up and tried to walk over to her. Nicki put her hand up and glared at him and stepped away. "Don't you touch me! You stay back."
"Nicki. Think for a second. I need to see what your company has to do with the Ursa Initiative. To do that I've got to get inside." He held up the security badge and flicked it with his finger. "That's why I need this."
Simply Bears: A Ten Book Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance Collection Page 30