Fugitive: A Werebear + BBW Paranormal Romance (Beast Warriors Book 1)

by Bliss Devlin

  Rafe waited until she'd eaten most of her dessert before he leaned forward and put his elbows on the table. "Shannon, if you're not a shapeshifter, then why did WSS want you?"

  Chapter 4 – Desired

  Rafe's grey eyes were serious now, and Shannon fought the urge to squirm under his regard.

  How much should she tell him? Granda had warned her that she would be in danger if too many people knew the truth…and yet this man had had fought and killed the wolf shifters trying to capture her.

  But if Rafe was really a fugitive from WSS, then what was he doing holding lands and cattle, the owner of a home richer and more luxurious than any she'd ever been in?

  Hoping against hope that her powers hadn't let her down and that Rafe was really who he said he was, Shannon took a deep breath and answered his question with one of her own. "Mr. Magnusson, are you a Beast Warrior?"

  His eyes widened. "I haven't heard that term in a long time. And please, call me Rafe."

  Her heart sank at the confirmation that he knew about the Beast Warriors. Which meant he had been one of them.

  "Is that why WSS is in the area? To hunt us down?" he continued, all warmth gone from his expression now.

  "So Granda's stories are true? You and the other bear shifters deserted Kristine Amabilis' service?"

  "We didn't desert her," Rafe snapped.

  Shannon shrank back under the sudden anger that radiated from him.

  His voice sounded bitter as he continued. "She was our commanding officer when we joined WSS. Then she apparently tired of the job and moved up to the executive suite. And then she hired Colonel Perry to take her place…and he proved unworthy." Rafe gave a short, humorless laugh. "And unworthy doesn't begin to describe it. The things he ordered us to do…"

  "I know," whispered Shannon, putting down her spoon, her enjoyment in the delicious confection gone now. "Granda told me a little bit about his time with WSS."

  Rafe leaned back, still looking grim. "So you've never met the colonel?"

  The warm, smiling man of earlier had become someone cold and very intimidating. She could easily picture this man as one of the colonel's fearsome Beast Warriors, and she had the memory of his earlier attack on the wolf shifters to add color to her imagining.

  Shannon shook her head. Should she tell Rafe the truth?

  She studied him. She had only known him for a few hours, but her instinct urged her to trust him, and until now, he had behaved like a man of honor.

  Here in America, she had no friends, no kin and—she glanced down at the robe she wore—not even any real clothing. Furthermore, she had no maps, no auto, and no money.

  She didn't even know exactly where in Idaho she was at this very moment.

  She would have to trust Rafe. She had no other choice…and somehow, she knew he wouldn't betray her.

  "No, I haven't met Colonel Perry. But I've heard all about him. That's why I ran as soon as I could."

  Rafe considered this. "If you've never met Perry and you’re not a shifter, then why did he kidnap you? Send the wolf shifters after you?" he asked skeptically.

  Shannon took a deep breath, aware that she was about to reveal a close-held family secret, if not the most important part of that secret. "My grandfather used to work for WSS. We—my family, that is—we have a special gift, and it's something that interests Whitepine Security Services."

  She paused, wondering if he would believe the next part.

  Then again, she told herself, the man turned into a bear. Surely her own small secret would not be so unbelievable, now, would it?

  "Go on," Rafe said neutrally.

  "We can heal even grievous wounds with the laying-on of hands," Shannon said. "Well, there's more to it than that, but that's what it looks like to outsiders. And we have a talent for sensing the emotions of others. We can tell if someone is lying to us or if they are sincere."

  Rafe looked thoughtful. "I can see how those things might be useful to WSS."

  Shannon nodded. "When my Granda left WSS, he changed his name and went to live on the island, which was the remotest place he knew, and our ancestral home, besides. I went to live with him when I was six, after my parents were killed in an automobile accident."

  "I'm sorry," Rafe said, his tone gentle now.

  Shannon shrugged, pushing down an old pain. "I can scarcely remember them now, and that seems worse than the grief. Anyhow, my Granda raised me, and he warned me to never, never tell anyone about my abilities as a healer. And I didn't…not until this past Easter."

  She had wondered, over and over, what she could have done differently that day. And had never found a satisfactory answer.

  "What happened?"

  "It wasn't my fault!" she blurted. "I had to do something!" She took a deep breath.

  "It was the Easter break and a spell of lovely weather, so a lot of mainlanders were visiting the island. I own my own shop—herbs and traditional medicines—but I also serve as a local guide during tourist season. There was a family, Dubliners, who asked me to show them St. Colmcille’s Monastery. It dates from the sixth century, and a lot of people visit it. Anyhow, they had a ten-year-old boy, who darted off while I was showing his parents some of the carved reliefs in the chapel ruins. The next thing we knew, he'd fallen while trying to climb one of the old walls."

  "And he got hurt?" Rafe asked.

  Shannon nodded. "Badly. It was all a tumbled heap of stones, and scarcely a soft place between them to land. His mother was crying, his father white as a sheet, and I knew that the air ambulance would never arrive in time. His injuries were…" She swallowed hard, remembering the sight of exposed bone. "I'd never seen anyone hurt so badly. So I healed him using my powers, despite what Granda had told me, because I couldn't simply stand aside and let a boy die when I might save him."

  Rafe nodded, his gray eyes softening. "I can understand that."

  "Well, and I hoped that might be the end of it," she continued. "But it's a very small island, and a child getting hurt—and a visitor, at that—well, I should have known that the local newspaper would run a story about the incident, especially with the boy's parents telling everyone they'd witnessed a miracle." Shannon sighed and shook her head. "Oh, and Granda was so angry with me. He said that WSS would find us, sooner or later, but I was hoping with all my heart that no one outside the island would ever see that story. But when it hit the Internet, and I started getting interview requests from all the mainland television stations and the tabloid papers, well, I knew there'd be trouble."

  In fact, she had spent the weeks after the incident living with a queasy sort of terror roiling her stomach.

  "And did you give any interviews?"

  Shannon sighed. "They wouldn't leave me alone. I tried to ignore the emails and the calls, but then the reporters came to the island. They besieged the house, so I finally gave in, just to make them go away. I tried not to tell them anything. 'I'm only a tour guide,' I said, 'with a little first aid training.' I told them that the incident was my fault, that I should have been watching more carefully when I was guiding the family around the monastery ruins. And I said that I didn't think the boy's injuries had been so bad, after all." She sighed again. "I could tell they didn't believe me…or didn't want to believe me. A miracle healing of a child on the brink of death is more much exciting, you know, and the boy's parents swearing up and down that they'd seen blood and bones and God knows what else."

  "And then WSS came for you."

  "Up until the night that Colonel Perry's soldiers showed up at our house, I prayed he wouldn't hear about the healing I'd done," Shannon said.

  "I don't know how long they were watching us or whether they recognized Granda—I hope they didn't—but they waited until he'd gone on a weekend trip to the mainland before they took me." She shuddered at the memory of a hand over her mouth and the cold press of a pistol barrel to her forehead. "I was in the middle of replacing the spark plugs in my old VW when they came up behind me. They had guns."


  "So no one knows what happened to you?" Rafe demanded.

  Shannon bowed her head. "I went with the soldiers quietly, as not to rouse the neighbors, because I didn't want anyone to get hurt trying to help me. But I swore that I'd find some way to get away. After the plane went down, I found a map and a compass…"

  "…and decided you'd hike cross-country across the Bitterroot wilderness?" Rafe interjected. He shook his head, looking incredulous.

  Shannon shrugged, a little embarrassed, and spread her hands. "Well, and I was hoping I might come across a real road somewhere and that maybe I might hitch a ride, though I've heard it's not safe here in America if you're a woman."

  "It's probably all right in these parts, but I wouldn't try it in other parts of the country," Rafe said. He sighed. "I can understand your feeling, though. When things at WSS got…bad…under Colonel Perry, Hal Sigurdsson asked the bear shifters under his command if we were willing to risk everything on a long, hard journey towards an unknown fate rather than stay and serve a man who knew no honor or justice."

  "I was fortunate that you were in the area when those Beast Warriors tracking me finally caught up to me." She looked up at him. "The rest of the story, you know."

  "Were there any other wolf shifters pursuing you?" Rafe asked.

  She shrugged and spread her hands. "I don't know for sure, but probably. Those two were only the first to find my scent and track me, I think."

  Rafe muttered something under his breath that sounded like an oath.

  "So they know where you went. And if any more come after the two I killed, they'll get my scent too. Great," he said, sounding glum now. "Hal isn't going to like this one bit."

  "I'm sorry," Shannon whispered. "I didn't mean to bring trouble to you."

  Rafe was silent for a long time, his expression closed. Forgotten, their desserts began to melt into pools of sweet cream and chocolate sauce, as Shannon's heart sank lower and lower in her breast.

  What would she do if he decided to hand her over to Colonel Perry after all?

  She couldn't go back! She couldn't.

  Finally, she rose and went to where he sat. Startled out of his reverie, he gave her an inquiring glance.

  She sank to her knees before him and bowed her head, abasing herself to this stranger, this bear shifter. Her Granda would have been horrified.

  But she had no other options.

  "Please, Mr. Magnusson. I beg you—please don't send me back to them. To Colonel Perry." She took a shaking breath. "I'd rather die. Kill me, if you must, and dump my body out near where you found me, if you're worried that Colonel Perry's wolf shifters will track you here, but don't—please don't give me to—" Her voice broke.

  The anger in Rafe's face was chilling to behold. "Shannon, I would never willingly hand anyone over to Perry. He's a—a—narcissistic, sociopathic sadist."

  Shannon felt a massive upwelling of relief at his words, and it dizzied her on top of her bone-deep fatigue and the warm glow from the wine she'd had with dinner.

  It felt good to know that Rafe was taking her side. She had felt so utterly alone for the past week, knowing that she was in WSS's power and that her Granda wouldn't be able to help her.

    

  Rafe growled at the sight of the beautiful Irish woman kneeling at his feet.

  She thought she needed to beg him not to send her back?

  How could she believe that he would ever willingly give her—or any other soul—over into WSS's keeping? Into Perry's keeping?

  He shoved back his chair with a loud scrape against the floor tiles and stood.

  Her gaze flew up, and he saw fear in her beautiful sapphire eyes. A deep ache moved through his chest at the realization that she was afraid of him.

  Rafe bent, grasped her shoulders, and drew her up into his embrace. She clung to him, and he could feel her shaking.

  Well, perhaps it wasn't him she feared, after all.

  He didn't want her to be afraid. He wanted her to feel safe.

  She was so soft and sweetly curved, and she smelled so good. He wanted to make her smile again. He wanted to see again that blissful expression that had crossed her face when she had taken that first bite of her dinner.

  He wanted her to stay here, with him.

  The realization unnerved him. He had known her less than a day, and he had no way of verifying most of her story.

  And he realized he didn't care. His bear could scent lies, and Shannon had been telling the truth as far as she knew it.

  She needed his help. She needed him. And her need aroused every protective instinct in his soul.

  "God as my witness, I'll protect you, Shannon," he told her, and his bear-spirit rumbled agreement. "Stay here, with me, and I'll shield you from Perry…and from anyone else who tries to hurt you."

  In response, Shannon looked up at him, her eyes wide and her cheeks softly flushed. She was so beautiful it made his breath catch…and she was wearing his clothing, which pleased his bear-spirit for some reason.

  Rafe liked how his robe clung to her curves and gaped teasingly at her neckline, revealing smooth pale skin.

  "Thank you," she breathed, and he saw relief soften her expression. "I can't tell you how grateful I am. I'll—I'll do anything to stay here. Anything."

  Her plump lips parted, pale pink and moist, as she gazed up at him.

  Rafe felt his loins stir at her implied offer. He remembered how he had responded to her earlier today and the sudden fierce lust that had swept through him when he had held her for the first time.

  That same lust was rising in him now.

  What was happening to him? Why did this woman make him feel so off-balance? So hungry for her touch and for her approval?

  Rafe fought the terrible urge to lower his head and crush his lips against hers. He wanted to kiss her senseless, then pick her up and carry her to his bed, where he could explore every inch of her and find all the places that made her cry out in pleasure.

  But if he did that, he would be taking advantage of a frightened woman in a vulnerable moment. And he'd hate himself for that afterwards.

  "You don't have to do anything," he said hoarsely.

  Inside him, his bear-spirit protested with an angry yowl. It wanted to take Shannon to bed right this instant and claim her, and it didn't like being thwarted.

  Fuck you, he told his bear. We're doing this my way. Like a civilized person.

  "I offered you my hospitality, and I meant it. You're my guest, Shannon, and I take that very seriously. I'll help you. And if WSS comes for you, I'll protect you from them as best I can."

  He swallowed and told himself that he needed to put himself some distance from the temptation she posed. But he couldn't make himself let go of the sweet-smelling woman in his arms. Not yet.

  "In the morning, I'll take you into town and get you some new clothes and anything else you need. And…"

  He hesitated and felt her tense.

  "…I'll take you to Hal Sigurdsson. While you were in the shower, I called and left a message for him. He'll want to meet you."

  Rafe carefully did not say that Hal hated WSS and was likely to order Shannon to leave Elysia because of the risk she posed if wolf shifters had been set on her trail.

  He couldn't let Hal run her out of town. He would tell his former commander about Colonel Perry's interest in Shannon's powers and hope that despite Hal's rules about keeping the bear shifters' presence in Elysia a secret, he wouldn't give Shannon—or anyone else—to Lugh Perry.

  "Is Hal your commander now?" asked Shannon.

  "Yes and no. Once we parted ways with WSS, there was no more Bear Team," Rafe said. "Here in Elysia, Hal has no formal authority over us, but we still consider him our leader, and we'd do anything he asked of us."

  "I see," Shannon said soberly. "So I'll need his permission to stay here. I do hope Granda was right about the debt that Hal owed him."

  Rafe nodded. "Who is your Granda? Maybe I knew him too, back when I was part
of Bear Team."

  Shannon looked up at him, her expression apprehensive. "I—I don't know if I should tell you that. Granda wants WSS to think he's dead…"

  Rafe felt her heart pounding. "All right," he soothed. "It's okay, you don't have to tell me. But Hal will want to know."

  "I know," she said miserably. "I'm sorry, Rafe, when you've been nothing but kind to me."

  He shrugged and returned to practicalities. "If you stay in Elysia, you'll need papers, especially if you want to find a job anywhere. Hal has connections, so we'll need his help to get you established…that is, if you want to stay here," he added hastily.

  Rafe most definitely didn't want her to leave before he had a chance to get to know her better. But he couldn't exactly keep her a prisoner here…even if his bear liked the idea of keeping her all to himself.

  Down, boy.

  "Well, and I don't think I can return to my home, not now," Shannon said bleakly. "Not without exposing Granda and likely getting myself captured again."

  "I'll plead your case with Hal," he promised. "It'll be okay, Shannon."

  He felt her warm hand touch his cheek.

  "I did not expect one of the Beast Warriors to be so kind," she said softly. "Granda told me you were all a fearsome lot."

  She smiled up at him in open invitation, her touch lingering on his face.

  All the blood left his body and rushed down to his groin as he stared down at her, speechless.

  Then she stood on tiptoes and brushed her lips against his mouth in a quick, shy kiss that set all of his nerves on fire.

  "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to—" She tried to turn away.

  "No…wait," Rafe said huskily. His arms tightened around her, unwilling to release her.

  Shannon felt like a captive bird between his hands, her pulse throbbing wildly against his skin—or perhaps it was just his own heart, beating in anticipation—but she did not pull away as he bent, wanting to kiss her properly.

  He kissed her with all the skill he possessed. He kept his touch light and teasing at first, nibbling her lips despite wanting to devour her.

  God, she tasted wonderful!