Leah snatched the phone from the mattress and got underneath the bed. Zero bars, all she had was the Wifi. So much for that plan. She opened Whatsapp again.
“There’s someone in the house,” she messaged. “I don’t have a network. Call for help.” Her bedroom door creaked open just after she managed to send the final message. She tightly pressed the phone against her chest and held her breath. Her heart was beating so hard it was all she could hear.
Maybe they won’t find her. Maybe…
She let out a short shriek when a hand closed around her ankle and pulled her backward.
Matt stared at his phone for a second. Call for help? Was this some kind of weird joke?
He didn’t get much time to analyze the situation. A distant scream pierced through his entire being. It wasn’t loud, and he doubted any other neighbor would have heard it. Her voice. This was real. Shit.
His body sprang into action before his mind did, and the transformation was over within a fraction of a second, leaving his clothes on the floor in tatters. It didn’t matter what shape he was supposedly in; he knew he had to step up. There was no way he’d let her down.
Although he’d never been in any sort of scenario like this, instinct kicked in. If he charged in there without a strategy, this whole thing could end badly for the both of them. Instead, he opted for stealth.
He checked through the kitchen window, looking for any sign of activity. All seemed quiet now, except for a shadowy figure, loitering around Leah’s front steps. There was no way he could get in without tipping this person off.
Matt headed for the backyard instead, opening his back door as quietly as he possibly could and listening for movement on the other side of the fence. Nothing. A quick check through the wooden slats suggested all was clear. This was to be his entry point.
With swift movements, he picked up his heavy wooden picnic table and placed it beside the boundary, before climbing on top and jumping over the top of the six-foot-tall fence, landing in the soft grass and crouching down immediately for cover.
There was no way anyone could have heard him unless they had the same super sensitive hearing he had. Looking down, the sight of massive furry paws where his hands should have been was distracting, but not enough to throw him off track. It’s just a trick of the mind.
Some light filtered through the gap in the curtains, revealing two silhouettes standing across from one another. They seemed to be arguing, but he couldn’t make out the words, so he crawled ahead and crouched underneath the window.
“She’s just a human. We can’t do this!” a younger sounding male voice whispered.
“She said this was the place. You’ve got to learn to follow orders, soldier!” this voice sounded older, more authoritative.
“But…”
“Decide quickly where your loyalties lie. With the Sons or the scum we’re hunting. Because if you’re not with me now, I’m going to take it very personally.”
“Fine. Let’s do this.”
Shit, what exactly is it they’re planning on doing with Leah? This didn’t seem to be a regular break-in. For whatever reason, these people targeted Leah’s house on purpose. But why?
“All right missy, you’re coming with us,” the younger guy barked.
Leah let out a muffled squeal.
“If you behave, we can take the gag off. Understand?”
She didn’t react, or at least, she wasn’t vocal about it. There was a pause.
“What do you want from me?” Leah whispered at last.
“Don’t play dumb. You must have known this could happen - that we could turn up.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Leah argued.
“Stop it, or I’ll gag you again.”
What the hell was all this about? Had Leah been hiding something? Perhaps there was a reason she’d abruptly moved out of the city and into this house. Not that it mattered, of course, Matt owed it to her, as well as himself to do something about this.
He got up just far enough to be able to see inside. Luckily, the darkness gave him a good amount of cover so the intruders inside wouldn’t be able to spot him.
The two men stood off to one side, again discussing something or other, then the older one headed out the bedroom door, leaving behind his uncertain companion, and Leah, of course.
This was Matt’s chance.
He got up and checked the window. He could just about get one of his claws underneath the bottom edge. It would give; he was sure of it.
Given the element of surprise was on his side, he could make it. He had to make it.
Matt gave it his all, pulling at the window, which opened up even more easily than he’d foreseen and jumped into Leah’s bedroom in one swift move. The man swung around; his face turning white as a sheet when he saw Matt.
“Fu-” he exclaimed, but Matt didn’t give him the chance to finish, instead disabling him with a strong blow to the chest.
Then he turned to check on Leah, who looked equally shocked. She was even more beautiful close up than he had dared to imagine. If only the circumstances of their first proper meeting had been better.
“Please…” she whispered, her voice completely choked with fear. “Shit.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep you safe,” Matt said, but it was no use. He could tell from Leah’s expression that his words weren’t getting through to her at all. In fact, she’d started trembling all over. Seeing her this way cut right into his core.
He wanted to console her, to convince her that everything would be fine now. But there was no time to worry about that, because the door swung open, revealing the guy who’d seemed to be in charge of the strange operation.
“I knew it! This is the right house,” he said only partly triumphantly, while holding up both his hands as if surrendering and backing out of the doorway into the hallway. His right hand twitched subtly before reaching for something. Matt didn’t want to find out what, instead charging for the guy and pinning him down onto the ground.
The second kidnapper hit the floor so fast it knocked him out instantly.
Two down, one to go.
But Matt never got the chance to take care of the third guy. Instead, he was faced with the last thing he ever expected to see: Another great big brown bear, flanked by a smaller, blackish one. What the hell?
“Matthew Argyle, I presume?” the first bear seemed to say. How ludicrous. Bears can’t talk. And how would he know his name anyway? This wasn’t even Matt’s house.
“Uhh…” That was all Matt could utter. What in the world was going on? Had he finally lost his mind completely?
“Looks like we got here just in time,” the smaller one, a female, remarked. Her snippy tone rubbed Matt the wrong way, no matter how bizarre the situation was.
“I had it under control,” Matt stammered.
“I can see that,” the female responded.
“Please come with us,” the bigger male said. He had an inherent authority hanging around him, but Matt wasn’t so easily deterred.
“I’ve got to check on Leah,” Matt explained as if that would make these two figments of his imagination vanish into thin air, allowing him to focus once more on the task at hand.
But they didn’t vanish. Instead, they exchanged a look and almost instantly morphed into humans. Very naked humans.
The man snipped his fingers, and, from the other end of the hallway, someone flung a couple of bundles of clothes at them, which they swiftly put on.
Jeez, how many of them were there?
“You’re just going to stay like this, are you?” the woman, who looked a lot less distracting now that she was wearing a pair of cargo pants and a black pullover, asked.
“Who are you people exactly? And why are you here?” Matt responded, ignoring her odd question.
“I guess a thank you was too much to ask. Be glad we came when we did, or these clowns-” The woman nodded at the kidnapper who was still lying at Matt’s paws. “Would have t
aken you and the human woman as soon as their backup arrived.”
Backup? What the hell was she talking about?
“Oh, you didn’t think it was just the two of them and another standing guard, did you?” she asked.
“That’s enough. Matthew. You’ll have questions. We’ll answer them to the best of our knowledge, but only once we get back to base. Margaret here will ensure your lady friend is all taken care of. All right?” the man took over.
“Okay…” Matt frowned. Margaret, eh? That name really didn’t suit her; it seemed too old fashioned.
“I’m Henry, by the way. Let’s go then.”
The black-haired woman, Margaret, resolutely marched off into Leah’s bedroom, and soon the two of them could be heard talking. Perhaps these guys were real then, not imagined.
Matt finally gave in and allowed himself to be escorted through the hallway and lounge and out of the house, where a bunch of dejected looking skinheads stood around with their wrists tied together, surrounded by even more big men and a couple of women wearing black commando gear.
Every single head turned in Matt’s direction when he stepped out into the street. It was nightmarish, and hair-no, fur-raising.
“That’s really him, isn’t it?” someone whispered behind Matt.
“Yeah. He’s been missing for so long everyone thought he was dead.”
Were they talking about him? How did these people even know anything about him? He needed to find out exactly the how and whys of today’s events; that was the only reason he was going along with these people. And Leah… he couldn’t wait to come back and talk to her. In person.
Chapter Six
It had to have been a dream. A crazy, surreal, impossible dream.
Leah kept watching the woman-she’d introduced herself as Margaret - as she spoke, but her words weren’t getting through to her at all.
One moment, Leah had been remotely watching a movie with Matt, the next all hell had broken loose. Who the hell were the two men who had come into her house and tried to take her? What possible reason could they have had? They seemed to know something she didn’t.
And who were the people who intervened, including this Margaret woman who had stayed back to talk to her? She’d introduced herself as being from some kind of covert police task force, but Leah found that hard to believe.
“It’s strange, how our mind tries to trick us, isn’t it?” Margaret asked.
“What? Oh, yeah, very strange,” Leah mumbled, averting her gaze from Margaret’s prying eyes.
Margaret continued to speak, and Leah made sure to nod and voice her agreement in all the right places. She was being handled, just like her supervisor in her old job used to do when she wanted Leah to take on more work for the same pay. Much like her supervisor, Leah could tell Margaret wasn’t used to having someone disagree with her either, so it would be easier - and quicker - to just agree to anything she said while letting her own thoughts run rampant inside her head.
If the entire home invasion part of tonight wasn’t bad enough, Leah couldn’t get one particular image out of her head. The bear.
She’d been terrified when the bear came in - after all, who wouldn’t be - but there was also something strangely familiar about it. She could swear there was something familiar in its eyes, something that had had a calming effect on her…But how could that be? She’d never seen a bear before, well, not outside of a zoo anyway, so how could she possibly have recognized it?
And then, if that wasn’t weird enough, the bear hadn’t attacked her. Instead, it had gone straight for the intruders in her house. As though it was trying to protect her. That wasn’t possible either, though, was it?
After what felt like hours of nodding her head like a bobblehead to all sorts of explanations of stress induced hallucinations, Margaret finally left Leah to be alone with her thoughts.
Still shaky with the after-effects of her insane ordeal, Leah headed straight for the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea. No, better yet, something a bit stronger. The morning was early enough that it still counted as night, or at least, that’s what she told herself. Propriety be damned; she needed a drink.
As she poured herself a stiff one - Scotch that had been in her possession for much too long, she realized there was something else she needed as much, if not more. Her phone.
Matt would have seen the commotion outside her home and be desperate for some kind of update. Leah knew she would be if she were in his place.
Drink in hand, Leah rushed back into her bedroom. Where was the damn thing? Under the bed! That’s where she had it last. She got down on all fours and found it soon after. No unread messages. Nothing.
What the hell? The last thing she sent to him was a call for help. Wasn’t he, at least, a little concerned?
Sure, their relationship - if you could call it that - wasn’t exactly traditional, but she’d felt that he cared about her at least a little. Had she been kidding herself?
Had it all been in her head? The little flirtations, the bond she’d felt toward him?
Then again, he wasn’t anything like her previous lovers. He wasn’t really normal, strictly speaking. Could she expect him to react like a normal guy would to an extra-ordinary situation like this? Perhaps not.
Leah took a deep breath, and a generous sip of the burning amber liquid she’d absentmindedly poured into a mug rather than a glass and decided to be the bigger person. She’d send him a message then.
I guess you’re wondering what went on here tonight, eh?
Send.
Leah stared down at her phone for much too long, but nothing happened. There was no response, no matter how long she tried to hypnotize it.
Goddamnit. She had moved to this place in search for a simpler life. Two weeks in, she’d been the victim of a home invasion, come face-to-face with a life-sized bear inside her own home, undergone a weird brain-washing exercise courtesy of Margaret, who mysteriously showed up just around the same time as the bear.
And, to top it off, she’d developed a one-sided crush on someone she can’t have. She had completely misread that situation. Bloody brilliant.
She threw the phone down onto the sofa in disgust and headed back into the kitchen. Through the windows, she could see that even the last one of the blacked out vans that had not too long ago been parked up outside her house had left, presumably taking Margaret with it. Good riddance.
As Leah poured herself another double, she wasn’t shaken anymore; she was furious.
An insomniac at the best of times, Leah hadn’t even tried to go to bed that night, so come 8 o’clock, she was still up. The buzz from the two shots of Scotch had worn off for the most part, and last night’s events seemed very long ago.
She began doing the one thing that usually seemed to help when she had some issues to work through in her head: cook up a new batch of product. Funny, how she hadn’t attempted to cook a meal for herself from scratch, but thought nothing of combining all these strange ingredients to produce soap.
She’d been telling herself for a while now that a new scent was required but just hadn’t found the right combination of fragrances yet. Perhaps today was the day she’d figure it out.
Leah laid out all her essential oils, pairing them up in groupings she hadn’t yet tried together, and put on a pair of gloves.
Although December had just begun, she didn’t want to do anything Christmassy, so she quickly pushed aside the spicier scents.
Something fresh, new. That’s what she was after. Like newly cut grass or the first flowers of spring. Daffodils? Why not…
She was just getting into the spirit of things when the doorbell rang and dragged her back into the real world. God. Hopefully, it wasn’t that Margaret woman again.
Leah took a deep breath and rushed out to open the door only to find her other neighbor, Carrie, waiting outside. Just great. She’d probably seen the activity outside her door at night as well.
Matt had said she was a gossip - thou
gh, screw whatever Matt had told her.
“Hi!” Leah greeted Carrie with an attempt at a wide smile.
“Hey, Leah, how’s it going?” Carrie couldn’t quite disguise her curiosity. Her eyes clearly darted back and forth between Leah and the hallway behind her, as though she was looking for something or someone.
“Yeah, not too bad, considering. I suppose you must have seen a bit of what went on here at night?” Leah said, hoping to speed things up by steering the conversation in the direction she expected Carrie wanted to head in anyway.
“I did wake up to an awful ruckus outside. Cars pulling in, people running back and forth. I hope everything is okay?”
“Someone broke in; can you believe it?”
“No way! In this neighborhood?”
“That’s what I thought. I still don’t know what they were after. It was lucky the police showed up when they did, or I don’t know what might have happened,” Leah said.
Carrie’s eyes widened at her mention of the police.
“So it was the police outside? I didn’t hear sirens or anything.”
“Standard procedure apparently, when the intruders are still in the house,” Leah explained. “I was hiding under the bed when they came in.” There was no way she was going to tell Carrie the truth, but she felt she had to give her something in order to get rid of her.
“Oh, my word! You must have been terrified!”
“Yeah, it was quite something. Say, you haven’t had issues like this before, have you?”
“No, nothing like that. This has always been a very safe area,” Carrie mumbled, obviously impressed by Leah’s version of events. “Well, do let me know if you need anything. I’d better be off making sure the kids are dressed for school…”
Good. Leah smiled and nodded at Carrie as she said her goodbyes. Hopefully, that would be the first and last time she had to tell that particular story to anyone.
Leah wrapped her arms around herself against the chill still coming through her open front door. She’d changed things a bit, but her new version of events was so much more plausible than what had actually gone down, it actually felt a bit real.
She glanced over to the left, in the direction of Matt’s place. Unbelievable that he still hasn’t made contact. After everything that had happened.
Scottish Werebear: A New Beginning: A BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Scottish Werebears Book 4) Page 4