Wild Fate: A Shifting Destinies Bear Shifter Romance (Black Claw Ranch Book 4)

by Cecilia Lane

  “Are we being followed?” she asked, twisting in her seat to look behind them.

  “No,” he answered, much too fast and gruff. The hair on the back of Liv’s neck rose. “Just making sure we won’t have any interlopers. Tansey threatened to join us.”

  She relaxed with a huffed laugh. “Threatened, huh? And the big, bad bear is worried about that?”

  He slashed a stern look in her direction. “Don’t let her fool you. She’s not as sweet as she seems.”

  “So she’s yelled at you for being an asshole?”

  Alex scowled into the rearview mirror.

  Liv laughed again as he made another turn into a park area. She sat up as the road turned to gravel. A sign advertised different hiking trails and a waterfall with convenient arrows pointing sightseers in the right direction.

  A blast for fresh air hit all her senses as soon as she hopped out of the truck. Alex narrowed his eyes halfway around the hood, but she just shrugged. She could open doors herself. Besides, he made up for it by hauling the picnic basket.

  Alex glanced over his shoulder, then back to her. His scowl immediately changed to a crooked smile. “Ready?”

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” She scuffed a foot in the gravel. He’d used Tansey as an excuse, but his mind still seemed elsewhere. “We can do this another time. Or go back to my place and just watch a movie.”

  “No.” He shook his head forcefully. “I can’t stay cooped up today. I need to burn off some energy.”

  “Is that you or your bear talking?”

  She meant it as a joke, but he turned stone cold serious. “We’re one and the same, Liv. You need to understand that.”

  “I do. As much as someone can who’s standing on the outside.” The statement wasn’t one she expected from someone who’d signed up to possibly rid himself of his inner animal.

  She stashed that bit of information away as he twined their fingers together and led her down one trail.

  Nature had always been Alex’s element. Even when they first met, he was outside every chance he got. Hiking and camping, playing pickup games of dumb sports with other guys on campus, even choosing to study under natural light and inhaling fresh air. Liv expected Alex to relax as they walked further down the trail. Instead, he grew more distracted.

  Worry churned in her stomach every time he glanced elsewhere. Something had him agitated. The regular looks over his shoulders and hard stares into the trees made him seem anxious to get away from her and their little trip. No matter how many times she tried to pull him into conversation, he let silence wash back over them.

  “And bingo was his name-o.”

  “Mhm,” Alex answered.

  Liv gave up. She stopped in her tracks and planted her hands on her hips. “Alex. You’re not listening to me.”

  “I am, I promise.”

  “Then tell me what I just said.”

  The gears turned in his head and his eyebrows drew together in a rough scowl when he couldn’t come up with anything.

  “Fine,” he growled. “Just a little preoccupied.”

  “With whatever happened last night?”

  A pit grew in her stomach as silence dragged on between them. All the imagined reasons why he left her in the first place came tumbling back, fresh as ever. There was someone else. He was just stringing her along. He liked the chase more than the real thing.

  Maybe they were pushing things too soon. Maybe she’d made a mistake getting close to him again.

  Working to keep her voice steady, she squared up to him and put her cards on the table. “I need you to be in this, or I’m out. I’m not going down this path where I’m suddenly dropped all over again.”

  “It’s not you,” Alex sighed heavily. “It’s me.”

  Liv threw her hands in the air. “You expect me to just trust that? The same could be said of last time.”

  “This isn’t like last time. It’s—” He cut himself off with a growl and shifted his look somewhere over her shoulder. He ran a hand down his face and met her eyes again. “I’m sorry, okay? There’s just something heavy on my mind.”

  “Then let me in. I can’t do anything but worry if you won’t tell me what’s wrong.” She softened her tone and reached a hand out to him. Warmth spread up her arm as soon as her palm touched his arm. “I don’t want a repeat of before. I want to know what has you looking over your shoulder every thirty seconds and avoiding the conversation.”

  “It’s not—”

  “I swear to all that’s holy, I’ll kick you in the balls right now if that sentence finishes with ‘not your concern.’“

  “I was going to say ‘not something for you to worry about,’ but have at it.” Alex tossed her an infuriating smirk and gestured at his crotch.

  Liv ground her teeth together, but didn’t take the bait. “That’s some mighty fine deflection there. And if that’s how you want to play it, I’ll just turn back around right now.”

  Alex watched Liv’s face harden. Her expression shuttered and locked him out. Prickly anger scented the air and irritated his nose.

  Fuck, he’d wanted to avoid that.

  Dammit. She was right. He wasn’t in his right mind. Hadn’t been since the day before when he found her picture stuck to his door. His monster lurked somewhere and he couldn’t even trust his own damn senses to pinpoint the danger. Bastard had a way of hiding himself until he wanted to be found. Too quick, too stealthy, he appeared and disappeared before anyone knew he was there.

  And Liv wanted to know everything when he could hardly even think about the incident without wanting to shift and tear into the entire fucking world.

  The basket bumped against his leg and he growled in irritation. Stupid fucking basket. He dropped it to the ground and paced, not even caring about the bottles that rattled inside. Bringing her anywhere out in the open had been an idiot idea in the first place.

  Alex growled and shoved his hands in his hair. “Have you gotten any other threats at work?”

  “What does that have to do—”

  “Liv, just answer. Please.”

  “No. Nothing recently.” She pressed her lips in a thin line. “Are you still going on about that? I told you, we all get them.”

  “Not like this, you don’t.” His bear shoved forward, ready to make the world run red. He swallowed hard and worked to form the words. “It came from my maker.”

  Liv raised a hand to her throat. The hardness in her eyes dropped immediately and shock entered her scent. “You’re sure?” she asked softly. “But how— Why?”

  “To fuck with me, I’m sure.” His laugh sounded hollow to his own ears. Liv grimaced. “Maybe it was just a huge fucking coincidence and I led him right to you. But now? Liv, he pinned your picture to my front door with a damn knife!”

  “Holy shit.” Her face paled, and she stumbled back until she rested against a tree trunk. “You’re sure? What am I saying, of course you’re sure. You’re the one with the nose.”

  Alex stepped closer and landed his hands on her hips. He twitched up the hem of her shirt and stroked his thumbs against her skin. Heat flared to life and spread through him, but he doused it quickly.

  He couldn’t keep her. It was selfish to think he could. She needed someone better. Someone with a future.

  “I’m so sorry.” He shut his eyes. He couldn’t see plain blossom there again. “You should leave.”

  Liv dismissed the idea with a rude noise that snapped his eyes open. “Don’t be stupid. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “It isn’t safe for you here,” he insisted. “I can’t give you the life you deserve. I don’t have a future. Not with him around.”

  “Okay, so we take precautions. The research facility is practically in lockdown. I’ll be safe during work hours. We can get Sloan involved. Surely she has resources with the SEA.”

  She already had a thousand different possible solutions. He loved that her mind never stopped working.

  Too bad they were ideas he’d
discarded as not good enough. Hell, even sticking to her side all day, every day wasn’t enough. For his bear, yes. The beast wanted nothing else. But for practicalities? Her safety? She needed to be locked inside a bunker deep in the mountains with the armies of ten nations surrounding her before he’d relax in the slightest.

  She cupped his cheek. “Stop. I can see all those doubts running wild in your eyes.”

  “I’m dangerous, Liv.”

  “You shifted around me just fine.”

  “After almost biting you.” His throat bobbed with a hard swallow. “The threats to me extend to you.”

  “Did you bring me out here to get me day drunk or break up with me?”

  Alex blinked at the sudden switch of subject. “Implying we’re dating?”

  She threw him a crooked smile. “You can order me to leave or even abandon me in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t come to Bearden for you, Alex. I’m sure as hell not leaving, either.”

  “You really know how to make a man feel wanted.”

  “I know my worth, is all.” She leaned up and pressed her lips to his. “We have to be careful. Noted. I’m not leaving. So either bust out those mimosas or say the words. You’re not getting off easy this time.”

  Alex huffed a laugh. Just like that, she’d inserted herself into his life. His bear still paced through his head and his shoulders were still as tense as rocks, but something loosened in his chest.

  She was his.

  Maybe Ethan was right. He could make this work and keep her safe.

  He stiffened, nostrils flaring. A growl rattled in his throat even before he turned.

  Not thirty feet from them, standing between two trees, was his maker.

  “Bastard,” Alex growled. His fists clenched at his sides as white-hot rage flooded his veins. His bear surged forward. Fur pricked his arms and claws tipped his fingernails. Sendings flowed from his inner beast, each of them crimson with the blood he needed to taste.

  Years went into the response. The trauma of those first few shifts, the pain of leaving the woman once again at his side. All the fights and brawls and shifts needed to keep him as close to steady as possible.

  That bastard caused it all.

  Bright green eyes watched him with amusement before turning to Liv.

  “Alex, who’s that?” she asked with a trace of panic in her voice.

  “Run,” he ordered. His voice was thick with the shift already on him.

  His muscles tensed. There was no putting his shift on pause, no fleeing the scene. His bear snarled at the threat in front of him. The threat to his mate. The bastard had already ruined one life; he wouldn’t be allowed to get near Liv and ruin hers, too.

  His bear ripped out of him, sending Liv scrambling backward.

  Still, she didn’t run.

  Alex jumped for her and roared, intending to scare her into action. Liv gasped and jerked back, falling to the ground. Stinging fear overrode every tangy, tasty part of her scent.

  Everything except the blood.

  A line of it stretched from her hip to her knee. Red spread over her jeans from the fresh wound.

  Alex whirled and roared. Not just at the bastard in front of him, but at himself. He caused her fear and pain. He didn’t deserve her.

  But he’d sure as hell fight until his dying breath for her.

  He lunged for his bastard of a maker, rising up on hind legs to slam his paw into the bear’s face. Another blow caught him in the shoulder, then he, too, was on his back legs and swinging. Overtures complete, they settled into the intricate dance of enemies wishing to spill lifeblood in the dirt.

  Back and back. He drove the bastard away from his mate still bleeding and scared.

  Monster, monster, monster.

  Him or the bastard who changed him?

  He roared with fury at not knowing.

  He needed to be put down before he hurt her even worse.

  Just as soon as he made sure he was the only threat to her alive.

  Alex lunged again for his maker, fury driving his every blow.

  Chapter 19

  Liv sucked down breath after breath and willed her heart to stop racing. She could hardly hear over the rush in her ears and she needed to listen closely to the rustling crash of plant life around her. Somewhere, the two bears clashed. The grunts and roars of each were distinctly furious with the promise of violence.

  Too close. They were still too close for her comfort. A mile would be too close. Five. Existing on the same planet with the other one, Alex’s monster, made her skin crawl.

  And he wanted her. She’d become a target for him in his pursuit of Alex. Her stomach twisted itself in knots trying to comprehend the grotesque drive to utterly destroy someone.

  Liv looked around helplessly. Her leg ached. She pressed shaking fingers to the wound. Not too deep, luckily, but pain still blasted through her nerves. She grimaced as she forced herself to her feet. Her head spun, more because of the events than blood loss. She hoped.

  What the fucking fuck.

  Shock. She had to be in shock.

  Alone in the woods with monsters all around. She couldn’t stand still like bait. She had to move.

  Her shaking was mostly under control by the time she limped off the trail and to the parking lot. She tried the door of Alex’s truck before she remembered he’d stuffed his keys in his pocket when they first arrived. A pocket that was probably strewn about on the trail somewhere.

  She cursed herself for not thinking about keys and chewed her lower lip. The parking lot was starting to fill—the reason why Alex wanted to go so early in the morning. She crossed her arms over the edge of the pickup bed to hide her leg and look like she simply waited on someone’s arrival. She didn’t want any questions or concerns while she put her thoughts in order.

  Maybe he’d come back.

  Did she want that?

  Each blink, and the scene played out on the back of her eyelids. Her own mini movie screen and she couldn’t control the picture.

  Alex roaring. At her. At the other bear.

  His jaws snapping shut. His breath rushed out in a hot blast with his snarl.

  Oh, the noises. Those were as real to her as if she were back on the ground all over again. The savage sound rattling out of both bears. The slapping of huge paws against one another as they battled, one trying to push toward her and the other driving that bastard away. The crashing, thudding, banging, growling, snarling, vicious noises of a war between beasts.

  No. At that moment, all she wanted was to be back in her bed with her covers over her head and no one around to hear her cry it out.

  Liv reached in her pocket and pulled out her phone, thankful it hadn’t fallen out or been crushed when she hit the ground.

  When Alex shoved her down.

  Liv blinked back the rush of messy, complicated emotions and dialed Sloan’s number. She must have sounded shakier than she thought because Sloan agreed to pick her up right away, no questions asked.

  Still, she couldn’t help but glance over her shoulder every ten seconds. Her pulse spiked whenever a puff of air rustled the leaves, but the noise never turned out to be Alex or the other bear.

  Liv would have been dancing with anxiety if she could move easily by the time Sloan turned into the parking lot.

  The other woman’s mouth fell open as soon as Liv turned toward her Jeep. She jumped out of her seat and immediately grabbed an elbow to help Liv hobble to the other side. “What the fuck happened?”

  “‘Tis but a scratch,” Liv muttered.

  Sloan dropped her eyes to her thigh, then raised them back to Liv’s face. “Flesh wound or not, that’s some damage. Care to clue me in?”

  Liv slumped down in her seat. Tears welled in her eyes and her hands shook again. “Alex,” she muttered. “Alex shoved me down.”

  “Alex did this?” Sloan’s voice turned murderous and her hands tightened on the door.

  “He was protecting me. I think.”

  “Okay, prote
cting you or not, you need to get to a doctor.” Sloan rounded the hood and climbed back into the driver’s seat.

  Liv shook her head the whole time. “I just want to go home. Please, Sloan. Just take me home.”

  Sloan took a hard look at her thigh again. Her jaw tightened as she weighed the pros and cons. “If you’re sure,” she finally said, hesitation heavy in her voice. “But I’m calling the rest of the clan. They need to know what happened.” She typed out a quick message on her phone and fixed Liv with a serious look. “Which means you need to tell me everything.”

  Liv stared straight ahead and nodded. She drew a shaky breath and tried to figure out a starting point while Sloan twisted the key of her Jeep and started out of the parking lot. That morning? Or from the unmarked letter she’d received at work. No, Sloan already knew that happened, except not in relation to everything else.

  “It was the one that bit him,” Liv said in a near whisper. “He’s here. Alex said he’s after me. He just... flipped out as soon as the other one got close. Told me to run. I don’t know why I didn’t. I wanted to help, but what could I have done against all that?” Liv covered her mouth with her hand and bit back the shrill note of laughter that bubbled out of her.

  “Wanting to help someone else is a powerful response,” Sloan agreed without judgment.

  She’d never wished more for another side of herself. She wanted to be big and strong and powerful enough to blot out the hurt and fury in someone else. Alex needed help and she couldn’t give it to him when it mattered the most.

  “He just... was in my face. Roared. When I didn’t move, he jumped for me and I fell backward. We got tangled up, I guess, and his claw caught me on the way down. Then he bounded toward the other bear. I’ve never seen such a vicious fight.”

  “Was that your first time up close to a shifter fight?” When she nodded, Sloan sighed. “They’re rough, especially for us normies. Even seeing videos doesn’t really prepare you for it.”

  “No. They really don’t.” Liv leaned her head against the window and stared at the passing trees.

  Sloan didn’t push for anything else and Liv was thankful for the silence. Something... wicked and ugly built in her chest. She didn’t know whether she wanted to scream or cry. There was something brutally unfair about having a former relationship dropped back in her lap, letting herself think for even a moment all those unresolved issues finally had a happy ending, then seeing the curtain pulled aside to reveal something even more monstrous.