by Riley Storm
“Seriously?” But she walked over and grabbed the stool, the entire time acting completely unimpressed. “I’m not going to faint just because you take your boxers off. I swear, if this is how you normally get women, you need to work on your technique because one day it’s going to get you in a lot of trouble.”
“Contrary to whatever is going on in your mind, I do think about more than just sex,” Kincaid fired back. “Now hold on.”
She didn’t have time to fire back a reply before the man in front of her stripped completely naked—with a level of ease to it that was noticeable, even with her distracted vision. Haley was swiftly brought back to reality by what happened next.
It started as a shiver that ran from his head to his toes. Then his skin started to lose its color, growing paler by the nanosecond, until it was nearly tundra-white. After that, the real changes started, as thick white fur sprouted, starting at his neck, elbows, knees, and abdomen before spreading across his body.
His rapidly growing body.
“What the fuck,” she gasped.
Sickening snaps followed as Kincaid jerked slightly a few times as his joints rearranged themselves, allowing him to rest naturally on all fours. Finally, she watched as his face shifted and jutted forward, huge teeth filling in the gaps.
“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck,” she repeated, slowly slipping from the stool as Kincaid kept growing, rendering him bigger than any bear she’d ever seen, his presence filling the entire room until it felt like the walls should be bulging to accommodate him.
Then the bear sat down, its mass enough to send a tiny tremor through the warehouse floor. It chuffed quietly, then rolled onto its back, casually pushing the nearest workstation away to create the space necessary. She kept backing away, even as it seemed to lounge happily in a completely non-threatening manner.
Except for its sheer size, muscular nature, and fearsome visage. Oh, and the fact it used to be Kincaid!
At some point, the bear became aware of her slow retreat deeper into the warehouse. She’d miscalculated in her disbelief, choosing simply to back away instead of heading for one of the exits, and now she was trapped as it got to its feet and meandered toward her.
“Stay back!” she shouted, her voice cracking.
The bear stopped.
“Did you just…can…did you just roll your eyes at me?”
The bear nodded, its massive jowls bouncing up and down. Then it shook its head and the creature shrank. A handful of seconds later, she was confronted with the once-again naked Kincaid. The impressively naked Kincaid.
Grow up. The dude just changed into a bear, and all you can do is stare at his huge cock? There are, pardon the phrasing, bigger things to worry about right now.
“Now you know our secret,” Kincaid said quietly, his words filtering out into the warehouse. “Do you understand now?”
She gaped at him. “What? Of course, I don’t understand! How stupid are you that you think this answers my questions? It just brings up a million more!” She tossed her hands into the air, resting them on her skull as she shuffled around, eventually turning in a circle. “And why are you still naked? Put that thing away!”
Kincaid bit his lip, nodding a few times as he walked over and got dressed. Haley definitely did not stare as he did that. A peek here, that was it. Okay, and there. He had a nice rear as well…
“Well, that went differently than I expected,” he said, pulling his shirt over his head, the material stretching over muscles every bit as impressive as they’d looked when covered up.
“Just how did you expect that to go?” she asked, starting to pace. “Is this something you do to a lot of girls? Do they all get so distracted by your massive dick that they just ignore the part where you changed into a bear?”
Kincaid grinned. “So, you did notice.”
“Lord save me from his arrogance,” she groaned. “Your sexual reproductive organ is not what we’re going to spend our time talking about.”
The big man just shrugged. “You’re the one who keeps bringing it up.”
Sputtering at his complete twisting of her words she turned and stormed off. This time, she did head right for one of the doors.
Kincaid, of course, beat her there, blocking the way. “We need to talk about all this.”
She paused. His voice was different now. More serious. Concerned. Like he was done joking around at last.
“Okay, fine. Let’s talk.”
“You first. You’re the one with the questions.”
She didn’t need any time to think of her first one. “Was that real?”
“Yes. Completely. I can do it again if you want to come touch it—the bear, I mean—and get tangible proof.” He didn’t look overly enthused about that prospect.
“You don’t seem happy about that option.”
Kincaid worked his jaw. “It’s…not the most pain-free process in the world. I would be just as happy not to have to do it again in such a short timeframe. Plus, then I’d have to strip, and we’d have to listen to you bitch and moan about seeing me naked again.”
“Got that right. Nobody wants to see that.” She smothered the smile threatening to break free. “Why show me that though? I’m sure you could have come up with any of a dozen other explanations for what I saw.”
“Possibly,” he agreed, relaxing a little now that it was clear she wasn’t going to freak out and run away. “But then I’d be lying to you. I’m out here trying to clear my name, to show you I’m not lying. If I started now and you found out later, well, that wouldn’t go so well for getting you on my side of this.”
“I’m still not on your side.” She crossed her arms as if that made it clear.
“Yeah.” He looked away. “But you know the truth about me. You know I didn’t attempt to hide anything. Now when I tell you that this is a frame job, you’re going to start wondering if maybe I am telling the truth. And that’s all I want. What I need.”
“Maybe.”
Kincaid shrugged and walked through the door, back into the offices and pulled open the front door. “I am innocent. I don’t want to be imprisoned. Or worse. I need you to believe me. This is a big step toward that.”
She followed him outside, pausing as he pulled the broken door back into place.
“You probably won’t go to jail over this. It’s not enough proof for that. Not yet at least. Once the police get involved though, who knows what their digging will find.”
He snorted and they started walking back to the SUV together. “The police aren’t going to be involved at all, Haley.”
“But you said imprisoned.”
“Yes. My House will see to the punishment. They’ll toss me in jail if they don’t just kill me.”
“What?!” she exclaimed loudly, before closing her mouth and looking around to see if anyone had heard.
“They don’t take this sort of thing lightly, Haley. There’s a lot of bad blood between the wolves and bears, and if they think I’m in league with them, that I helped them by hurting my House…”
Haley was too overwhelmed by everything she was hearing, and what she’d just seen. Her brain was trying to turn itself off, protesting at any new information, even as she made the connection between House Canis and wolves, and House Ursa and bears.
“You’re not the only one who can do…who can do…” She waved her hands around, uncertain of the word.
“Shapeshift? No. We usually just call it shifting. But most members of any of the Houses can do it.”
“Right. Of course.” She rubbed at her face. “This just makes so much sense now. Thank you for completely destroying my world.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
She just waved him off. “Take me back to my office, please. Now. I need to think. A lot.”
Kincaid unlocked the car as they got close. “Are you going to be okay? Do I have to worry about you?”
“How the hell am I supposed to know?”
12
&nbs
p; Haley was freaking out.
He watched her from his seat in one of the chairs in her office. So far, he hadn’t said anything except to answer any questions she’d had, but the last one of those had been twenty minutes earlier. Now she was just staring at her computer, but even her fingers had stopped typing.
There were no outward signs, no loud hysterics. It wasn’t that sort of breakdown. What she was doing was all internal, as she struggled to adapt her worldview to accommodate what she’d learned with him. It was a lot to ask of someone who had been told their entire life that these sorts of things were impossible, that nobody could actually do something like that. Then to see it happen in front of you, it could mess a person up.
Kincaid knew he needed to step in, to do something, but he wasn’t sure how to go about it. What would be the best method for snapping her out of it, without screwing things up worse? In the end, he decided to try and focus her emotions the easiest way he knew how.
“You’re welcome, you know,” he said dryly, putting as much sarcasm and arrogance into his voice as he could.
Haley’s eyes snapped into focus, glaring daggers at him. “For what? What the hell did you do that I should be saying thank you?”
“How about saving your life?”
“Saving my life…” She frowned at him. “And just how did you do that again? Was it by breaking into the office after I expressly told you not to? Or was it by starting a fight with the security guard instead of surrendering peacefully? Or the part where you involved me in the middle of a freaking war between shapeshifters?!”
By the end of it, she was yelling at him near at the top of her lungs. The massive door was shut, and he hoped it at least muffled the words enough that the people in the rest of the office wouldn’t understand just what she’d said.
“All of the above.” Now that he had her attention, he dropped the attitude. “I’m sorry, Haley. I didn’t intend for it to go that way. I wouldn’t have broken in if I’d thought it would put you in danger. That’s the honest truth.”
It was. He would have sent her away first, if he’d had any inkling that Canis had assets in the area, guarding a shell company.
“Yeah, I bet you would have.”
Kincaid sat up straight in his chair, dropping both feet to the ground as he uncrossed his legs. “You didn’t get hurt at all, did you? Anything that I didn’t see?”
She inhaled, ready to tear another strip off him, but almost at once she sagged wearily. “No, Kincaid. I didn’t get hurt. Just…shook up. This is a lot to process, to believe. Shapeshifters? I know I saw it. Twice. But still...”
He watched as she slumped forward, resting her elbows on the desk and her head in her hands.
“Then the spy part of this. That’s not me, you know? I like sitting behind my desk. On the computer. Working with numbers. That’s me, that’s what I do. This sneaking around, breaking in, trying to unravel a mystery like a sleuth? Not my deal.”
“Does that mean you believe me now? That I am being framed?”
“No.”
He covered up his frustration at her response.
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Something?” he said, pushing just a little bit harder.
Haley shrugged, an awkward-looking gesture because of her position. “It’s weird. I’ll give you that.”
Kincaid smiled faintly. “I’ll take it, I guess. It’s better than you being totally convinced I’m a traitorous piece of shit.”
“Now I know the reason for the animosity between you and these Canis people, it lends a bit more credibility to the fact that there might be something more going on. But it doesn’t mean you aren’t a part of it either.”
“I understand.” She was just saying that to cover her tracks, he was pretty positive.
“What do we do now?”
“First, I see what else I need to do, to ensure that you understand the need to keep my secret quiet. That you aren’t going to suddenly blurt it out or go tell anyone you shouldn’t.”
“Is that a threat? That I’d better keep quiet, or else?”
“No. I’m just trying to get ahead of any problems before they arise,” he said peacefully, spreading his hands. “I can’t really get a handle on how you’re doing over there.”
Haley sighed again. “I’m sorry. It’s just that this is tough to come to grips with. To believe something that should be impossible. I know I saw it, but a big part of me keeps asking, well what if I’m insane? What if I’m hallucinating it, and I’m slowly losing my grip on reality?”
Kincaid got up, walked around the desk and without being asked, dug his fingers into her shoulders. “I promise you, you’re not going insane. You are not hallucinating anything.”
“What are you doing? Stop that,” she said, though she made no attempt to remove his fingers from her skin.
“Just loosening some tension, so you can think straight. I don’t know where to go from here, and I need your help.”
Haley let him work for a few minutes, and he felt some of the stress leave her muscles as they relaxed, until she finally sighed and sat up straight. Taking his cue, he went and sat back down, making no mention of what had just happened. It would be easier that way.
“I’m not sure what else to do either,” she admitted. “Not unless we can somehow hack into the bank and get the records of where the money went after it left your account or the records of the holding company to do the same. Without either of those…well, we’re screwed. And that’s way beyond my skills.”
Kincaid was forced to agree. “I’m no hacker either. I don’t think we have anyone at the House who could even do that.”
The two of them were silent once more, but this time, it was different. Haley was no longer lost in her own mind. He suspected she would get through this just fine, that her brain would be able to adapt to the new world she was a part of. It would help that she worked with him and the Ursidae on the regular. He knew it would take more time for her to truly accept it, but he was no longer worried about her freaking out and telling everyone.
Despite that, he was determined to keep her safe, unharmed, and behind the desk, where she belonged, like she’d said. The fieldwork, the stuff he was most comfortable with, he would do that on his own and then bring whatever he found to her. Then they could go over it together to form conclusions. Besides, the less she knew of what he was up against, the better.
The last thing I want is for her to have to watch me kill some Canis asshole who won’t take no for an answer.
Without speaking, he stood up, preparing to leave.
“Where are you going?” she asked, looking up sharply.
“To dig into this a little deeper.”
“Where?”
“On my own.” He smiled at her. “You’re right, Haley. You don’t need to get involved. I can handle this on my own from here. If I come up with some proof or something, I’ll let you know. I’ll bring it here, we can go over it together, that sort of thing. But I don’t want you to get hurt. I’ll do this by myself. You don’t have to come.”
He spoke the truth. Though he found her irritating, especially her unwillingness to believe him, Kincaid was starting to realize he didn’t want to put her in danger. Begrudgingly so, of course, but nonetheless. It was hard to deny after the way he’d nearly lost himself in battle lust when the Canim had gone after her instead of him.
Kincaid expected that she would be grateful to him for giving her the out, so she didn’t have to bring it up herself. Although, he wasn’t interested in her gratitude, and that wasn’t why he’d done it. All he wanted was for her—and his secret—to be safe.
“Yes, I do.” Haley stood up as well, facing him across the desk. “Yes. I do. Kaelyn, your Queen, which I guess actually means something closer to that and not just a weird term for President, told me I had to work with you. That we had to work together, to figure this out. Did you forget that already?”
“Of course not. But that was before things
got complicated. They’re different now.”
“Not really. You’re still looking like a traitor to your…House? Is that the right way to use that term?”
He nodded but kept quiet.
“Right. Well, until we can prove definitively one way or another, I go with you. My ass is on the line here too. I might not be in trouble the way you are, but I want to keep the account. You guys pay really well, and the last thing I want to do is deprive myself of that. I am not losing it. Got it?”
Kincaid smiled, trying to smother the pride he felt over the backbone she was showing now. Although he approved of her fire, of the determination to see this through, the truth was that he could have moved a hell of a lot easier if she wasn’t with him. Plus, he could do things she wouldn’t approve of.
“I got it,” he said when she gestured for him to speak.
“Good.” Then she crossed her arms, still glaring at him. “The next time we do this, by the way? We’re going to obey the rules. All of them. Do I make myself clear?”
He opened his mouth to protest, to tell her just how impossible that was going to be. It would be tough for him to not break his rules, and they were vastly different than the ones she was used to, the ones that up until that morning, had governed her world.
“Those are my terms,” she said, cutting him off before he could even make a sound. “Take it or leave it. If you want my help, we do it my way.”
“You’re going to help?” he asked, feeling a little surprised.
Haley regarded him silently for a few moments. “I’m going to do my best to stay neutral. I want to find the truth, whatever that may be. I don’t care if you’re guilty or not, I just want to know what’s a lie, and what isn’t. We will find the truth in this matter, one way or another.”
She was good. Really good. But he caught it. The tiniest of hesitations before she said she didn’t care. It was enough though, to betray her as putting up a façade. She was starting to believe him, he could tell. Maybe in time, she might stop hating him, though he wasn’t about to ask for that as a Christmas present.
“How did you get into accounting?” he asked abruptly. “You’re a very good speaker.”