“Yep. I read a bunch of Eve Langlais and some other folks with catchy titles like Bearly There. Billionaire bears, alpha bears. You name it, I read it. That’s where I started and it went from there. Tons of reading material, tons of different takes on bear shifting. Some not so far off the mark, if what you say is true.”
Now she really laughed. “Promise me something?”
“What’s that?”
“Never ever tell a single soul how you learned how to shift. Ever.”
“Will they laugh me out of the clan?”
“You could lose your man cred. And it’s the sleuth. We have sleuths they’ll laugh you out of, not clans.”
“Oh, right. A group of us are called sleuths. Don’t think I ever came across that term.”
“It’s kinda old school. So the first shift—how horrible was that?”
He blew out a breath. “The scariest shit I’ve ever experienced in my whole life, bar none. Even Stas and his thugs don’t compare to that.”
“I’m sorry, Cormac. How awful to have gone through that all alone.”
“I’ll never forget seeing myself in a mirror after that first shift. Jesus…” he muttered.
She couldn’t even imagine it. It had been hard enough as a cub with plenty of parental support, but all alone? It had to be terrifying. “The shift is a big deal in our circles, just so you know. Had anyone known, there would have been a ceremony, blessings, all sorts of good things.”
“Kind of like a Bar Mitzvah only with honey and salmon?”
“And a big disco ball for dancing after all the rituals are complete.”
Cormac laughed again. “I’m damned put out that I missed doing the Chicken Dance. But somehow I managed. It turned out all right.”
Cormac had to have some kind of will to survive, doing that all on his own. His determination spoke to his character and it made her toes tingle.
“But to not understand what was happening to your body, to wonder if you’d always be like this? Not knowing any of the things involved with a shift—not to mention our lifestyles, what we need to survive. That we don’t hibernate like non-shifter bears. The details of being a shifter that you have no idea about. That sucks. On behalf of all of my fellow bear shifters, I apologize.”
“I will say this, once I got past the whole similarities to Teen Wolf, it was a little cool. But there was a long period of time where I went through the ‘I’m a freak’ stage.”
Her heart clenched in sympathy, making her hands tighten around the sheets. “So how did you end up at that cabin? It’s so far out of the way of everything. Like really deep into the forest.”
“I got damn lucky. I don’t know who it belonged to before me or how long it’s been there, but it was there like a mirage in a sandy desert. I watched for days before I got up the guts to move in. After that, I pieced the kitchen and bedroom together by Dumpster diving at night in the nearest town.”
“And Lenny? I love Lenny Kravitz. So he was a stray?”
Cormac’s voice warmed the darkness surrounding them. “I found him half frozen on one of my treks around the perimeter of the cabin. Poor little guy, I didn’t think he’d make it. But I wasn’t giving up. He was the first contact I had with anything other than the typical animals in the forest.”
“And his name—how’d that happen?”
“Have you seen my cat’s swagger? He’s the epitome of cool. Just like Lenny. But now look at him. One can of salmon from Nina and he’s sleeping with her on her California king. Traitor.”
Teddy chuckled, closing her eyes. “She does have an uncanny way with animals, and situations like Carl’s, where her need to nurture is probably some of the best mothering I’ve ever seen.”
“Did you catch her reading to him? It was pretty great. I’d have never guessed she was as patient as she was until she and Carl sat down before dinner to read, of all things, Jane Austen. It’s incredible.”
“They’re all pretty incredible.” Every last one of them. She liked them far more than she’d ever liked anyone in just a couple of days’ worth of time spent together. She liked their vibe, their interaction, their loyalty and even their bickering.
“I’m coming to see that. I think they’re the most selfless people I’ve ever met. They’re balls to the wall, all in. I’m beyond grateful Toni had them.”
Something she’d wondered about since she found out everything began in Jersey made her ask, “How did you get to Colorado all the way from Jersey? Especially after being bitten?”
“This will sound weird, but after I was bitten, I staggered around for probably a week, sleeping in rest areas and trying to conserve the cash I still had on me.”
Teddy gasped, fighting a yawn. “Stas didn’t rob you blind? What kind of murderer is he anyway?”
“Apparently the kind who only likes removing body parts. But I wondered about that, too. I couldn’t believe my wallet was still in my back pocket; everything exactly like it was when they knocked me out and took me. I just knew I had to get somewhere safer than Jersey. I must’ve called Toni a million times from various burner cells, only to fill up her voice mail with messages. I swear, I thought she was dead. I was convinced she was dead.”
The anguish in his voice forced her to ask, “Why didn’t you go just to the police when you got away, Cormac? Report Toni missing? Surely they would have at least investigated. Tell them about how they held you hostage and chopped off your finger?”
“Because when they thought I was unconscious, I listened to them joke about all the cops and the city administrators on their payroll. I knew damn well they couldn’t be trusted.”
“Just like what Toni experienced,” Teddy whispered. Christ, what a rock and a hard place for him to land between.
“Yep,” he said on a yawn. “I became so paranoid, I started to wonder if I should trust myself.”
“And Colorado? How did you get all the way to my home state from Jersey?”
“You’ll laugh.”
“Did you read it was the place to find other bear shifters in one of your romance novels?”
“Hah! No. It was instinctual. That’s the only way to describe it. After I stumbled around, trying to figure out if Toni was dead or alive, spent day after day in one homeless shelter or another, hatching plans to find just one damn cop who wasn’t corrupt and wouldn’t think I was out of my mind, I was losing hope fast. So I did what some might consider stupid. I took out a bunch of cash advances from my credit cards, leaving a big fat trail of where I’d been. My credit is obliterated by now. But I needed cash if I hoped to get anywhere or buy technology I could use to research these nuts. Also, I don’t know if you noticed, but bears need to eat. Often. The soup kitchen wasn’t cutting it in terms of addressing my hunger.”
“Wait until you see me mow down a seventy-two ounce Porterhouse in less than twenty minutes. Then we’ll talk about appetites.”
“You’re making me all gushy and tingly,” he teased, his voice enveloping her like a warm blanket. “Anyway, Colorado just came to me one night. I was probably at my lowest point. I was cold, tired, hungry, hadn’t showered in days, and the wound from Andre’s bite had all but disappeared. So I was freaked about that, too.”
“So you still hadn’t experienced the shift?”
“Nah. That almost happened on the bus to Colorado.”
That made her eyes fly open. “Oh my God!”
Cormac groaned. “Yeah. Tell me about it. Anyway, I was low—really low. I fell asleep at some point, but sleep had become really restless, my dreams were always weird and broken. But this night, I guess it all got to me and I passed out cold at a rest area on the border of Pennsylvania. But I was startled awake by what I thought was someone yelling in my ear. All I remember was the word Colorado, clear as a bell, and from that moment on, there was this crazy drive to get there at all costs. So I bought a bus ticket, and here I am.”
“You’ll probably say this sounds nuts, but there’s a legend amongst us bears, yo
u know. One that says you’ll find where your roots should grow when the spirit of an aimless wanderer shouts it in your ear in a dream. That’s how I knew going back to Colorado after college in Utah was the right thing for my life’s path”
“If he’s aimless, how come he’s giving advice on directions?”
Rolling to her side, Teddy smiled, tucking the pillow beneath her cheek. “That’s why he’s so good. Because he spent his living years roaming aimlessly, looking for all the good spots. At least that’s what my mom told me. He’s like your personal GPS.”
“Through the entire ordeal, it was the smartest move I could have made. Going to Colorado gave me the chance to catch my breath, get my feet under me. Meet you…”
Her heart skipped at least three beats. “I darted you. You couldn’t possibly mean that.” But she hoped he did.
“Teddy?”
“Yeah?”
“If I could actually get out of this bed without feeling like I’d just polished off an entire bottle of JD, and I was sure I wasn’t going to drool all over your pretty face, I’d kiss you. I’d kiss the hell out of you.”
She fought a sigh. The biggest, girliest sigh ever. “If I thought my lips would cooperate rather than feel like two rubbery worms at war with one another, I’d kiss you back,” she said, a little breathless.
“Maybe we should save it for our first date. Like official date. Nice clothes, nice restaurant with a big Porterhouse, no pressure from the kill squad. Like prom, but not.”
“I never went to prom,” slipped from her lips without warning.
God, why had she admitted that? It only made her sound pathetic.
“What? How could someone as beautiful as you miss out on a hot dress, spiked punch, a kitschy theme, and some guy with hands like an octopus, mauling you half to death?”
She giggled into her hand. “Just lucky, I guess? Though seriously, my mom died when I was just hitting my teens. My brothers don’t know prom dress from a pile of horse dung. They were young when they took on the responsibility of raising me, and back then, we didn’t have a lot of money to go around. I didn’t have the heart to ask them to spend it on a dress when it was hard enough just getting food on the table. So I skipped it. Besides, nobody asked.”
“Well, we’ll just have to see what we can do about that,” he murmured, though it was likely just empty words from Archibald’s special brew. “Date?”
As her eyes closed and sleep began to creep in, Teddy nodded. “Definitely a date.”
“Night, Teddy. Sweet dreams,” his whispered, his husky voice lazy and comforting.
“You, too…”
When she finally succumbed to sleep, she dreamt of floaty prom dresses made of tulle and sparkly things, balloons in pastel colors enveloping her and Cormac, drifting past them on a dance floor, where they clung to one another and swayed to a soft ballad.
Right in the middle of her dream, she decided it was probably the sweetest of dreams she’d ever had.
Chapter 13
“I feel like my stomach’s about to explode,” Marty complained, yanking at the hem of her ultra-short dress, which made her figure look like she’d popped right out of a magazine for curvy women.
She was stunning in the slinky black Lycra that covered her from chin to mid-thigh like a sleek glove, and if the information Toni had once given to Marty during their many conversations about Stas, she should have no problem getting his attention.
“That’s because your fat ass is warring with your gut,” Nina said on a cackle as she shoveled a freshly baked frozen pizza in her mouth next to Lenny, who was happily eating yet another can of salmon.
Marty’s lips thinned. “Shut up and mind your own P’s and Q’s. Shouldn’t you be washing your driving gloves or something, chauffer?”
Nina planted the heels of her hands on the counter of the kitchen island and leaned over, growling. “I said I’d go in. I can do more than just drive. I told you, just because I’m fucking human, doesn’t mean I can’t still handle some shit.”
“With what? Your fierce glare of death and your awkward, slower-than-an-act-of-congress ninja moves? You stay in the car where you damn well belong, Nina. You are not a vampire anymore. I repeat, not a vampire!”
Wanda dropped a red duffel bag on the island between them with a loud thunk meant to startle the two women she called friends. “Not today, girls. Hear me? We all have to focus on our jobs. No arguing over anything or I swear, I’ll personally rip your vocal chords from your creamy throats. We each have tasks. Tasks that are best suited to our abilities. We will perform said task without a peep of dissention. Now knock it off. We’re all on edge. This is it. This is our chance to finally get Cormac out from under this damn dark cloud that’s been hovering over his head and reunite him with Toni. Don’t screw it up.”
Archibald cleared his throat as he entered the kitchen and sauntered across the floor like a runway model. He wore a pinstriped suit in a deep navy blue, double breasted, coupled with a black shirt and a white tie and a matching fedora.
He was just shy of a Tommy gun and cigar.
Arch did a little twirl and winked his eye at the women, followed by a saucy smile.
Nina wolf-whistled at him. “Every girl’s crazy ’bout a sharp-dressed man, Gansgta!” she whooped.
“I take it you approve, ladies?” he asked on a bow.
Wanda gave him one of those fond smiles she was always doling out, but she shook her head in admonishment. “We’re not going after Jimmy Hoffa, Arch. They’re Russian mobsters, not The Sopranos.”
Arch scoffed at her, clicking his heels together. “It never hurts to dress the part, Lady Wanda. How could I possibly pass up a hat as smart as this one? If I’m to be in charge of keeping our former mistress of the dark on task and in our getaway car, it can only benefit me to get into character.”
Marty rolled her eyes with a chuckle and squeezed his arm. “You be careful, you hear me, Arch? Ex-Elvira’s a crafty one. She’ll pull out all the stops to stick her nose in where it doesn’t belong. Make sure she stays put in the getaway car. No varying from the plan.”
Nina ripped a piece of her pizza off and chewed, jamming her middle finger up at Marty.
Darnell strolled in then, his wide grin and big personality sweeping through the kitchen and warming Teddy. He fist-bumped with Carl before yanking the zombie into a bear hug.
“Do you have what we need, D?” Wanda asked as she pulled on a pea coat and dark knit cap, completely changing her overall appearance and air of sophistication to one of anonymity.
“Yes’m.” He drove his beefy hand into his Giants jacket and pulled out a recording device Cormac had sent him to purchase.
“And you’ve located this bar the freak hangs out in with his goons?”
“Yep, an’ I got the dude’s cell number, too. A direct hotline to the bad guy. All right up in here.” He pointed to his head.
“Up top, Demon,” Wanda said on a smile, holding her hand up in the air for him to high-five her.
As they all prepared to put into motion this sting they’d concocted while she and Cormac slept the sleep of the dead after drinking Arch’s special brew, Teddy fought the urge to scream.
Everyone was laughing and joking and chatting as though they’d done this a hundred times. Like they were role-playing or something.
But she and Cormac were going to come face-to-face with a murderer. A guy who’d shown zero remorse after annihilating another human being. He was a psychopath with an army of people just like him, and she was going to saunter into his lion’s den and offer him a free kill.
Teddy stole gulps of breath as she made her way to a quiet place outside the kitchen where she could think and hopefully calm her nerves.
She went directly for the mantle of the fireplace in the great room, gripping it, panic began to claw at her, seep into her bones, drag her deeper and deeper to its anxiety-riddled depths.
This would never work. Stas would catch them. Carmine would
catch them trying to deceive him and she’d be dead. Cormac would be dead. They were all going to die!
A shiver beginning in her toes worked its way up to her arms, violently assaulting her, leaving her body one big tremble.
But then Cormac was there, slipping his arms around her and turning her into the shelter of his body. “Just breathe, Teddy.”
She scrunched her eyes shut and gulped. “I shouldn’t be like this. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m a bounty hunter, for crap’s sake! Why am I so scared?”
“Because you don’t hunt to kill, honey. You hunt to capture. But I promise, I won’t let anything happen to you. If anyone makes a wrong move, I’ve got your back.”
Her heart began to crash hard against her ribs, panic-attack style. She’d had them after her last run-in with Dennis, she knew the signs. But now wasn’t the time.
“Tell me about why you got in on the bounty hunting.”
Her throat tightened, but telling Cormac her story helped her focus on something else. “Because of my dad. He was killed in a bar fight and the guy who did it was prosecuted and sent to jail, but he escaped. We were just kids when it happened initially, but when the guy got out, we were adults. My mom was gone by then, but we never forgot how hard life became because my dad was gone. How much she missed him, how much we all missed him. So we hunted the bastard. Tracked him and strung him up and brought him in for my father, who was the kindest man I’ve ever known. It was the beginning of what became a profitable business, for the most part. I learned from my brothers how to track when I was little. I got so much better at it than them, that now, whenever we get a bounty in the forest, I take it.”
“Which was why I ended up darted,” he chuckled, running his hands along her spine.
“If I make a million apologies, it’ll never be enough.”
“Nah. It’ll be a great story to tell our grandchildren someday, don’t you think? How Grammy and Paw-Paw met one cold winter day when Grammy was out huntin’ men.”
Teddy giggled against his flannel shirt, the tension in her back easing at the mention of a possible future.
Bearly Accidental (Accidentally Paranormal Book 12) Page 14