by Moxie North
“Wouldn’t telling her I love her and want to spend the rest of my life with her be a good thing? Isn’t that what chicks want?”
“First, do yourself a favor, and don’t call her a chick. It’s immature, and whenever you start to say something, pause and think would my brother and cousins do this? And when the answer is no, do the opposite.”
“Thanks for making it easy, asshole.”
“I’m here for you. I really am. This is a big deal, man. You don’t get another shot at this. Your bear needs this, and so do you. Make it happen.”
Angel knew his brother wasn’t being a jerk. He was trying to make it sink in that Angel couldn’t float his way through this one.
“Can I call you?”
“Anytime, you know that. Just if it’s after nine, text. The kids are in bed, and that’s my alone time with my mate, if you know what I mean.”
“Dude, gross. I don’t need to know that.”
“Hah, see how much you care what other people think of you after you’ve bonded,” Eddie said.
Angel wanted that. He wanted it badly. The twisting in his stomach was irritating him and his bear. He needed to do something to soothe his animal.
“Alright, I’m off to see if Tanner knows about her.” Jumping up, Angel offered his hand to his brother. He saw Eddie’s eyebrow raise then he shook Angel’s hand.
“Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
Angel knew he needed more than luck.
Chapter 19
There was a chance that if she could make it to a phone, Becca would be able to hire a hitman to put her out of her misery. That was if she could take the excruciating pain of the light coming from the phone’s screen. There was no end in sight to the pain. She couldn’t tell how long it had been. She was afraid to even look at the clock on her nightstand. It was a red LED that she’d purposely purchased because it didn’t reflect into the room. There was a chance she had only been laying there for an hour, but she could also have been lying there all night.
Time didn’t matter when you felt like your brain was on fire. She recalled at some point crawling to the bathroom to throw up. With the empty stomach, she took a chance and took a Valium hoping to relax the knot of muscles at the back of her neck. Sometimes, the tension kept the pain train rolling.
She thought she fell asleep for some period of time, and when she woke up, the knifing pain had moved from behind her eye to the middle of her skull. That usually meant she could count on it being another twenty-four hours of working through the hurt.
Becca kept her eyes closed and felt around for her phone. Taking a deep breath, she chose to hit speed dial and put the phone to her ear instead of attempting to stare at the bright screen in the dark room.
The phone rang, and she winced. She fucking hated her headaches. Besides wanting a man in her life that loved and adored her, the number to a large winning lottery jackpot, and a slightly smaller ass, she wanted her headaches gone.
Her doctor had run her through all the tests; she’d visited a neurologist and even had a CAT scan when she landed in the hospital after one of them lasted three days. There was no reason they could find for the cause of her headaches. Becca had never wanted anything in her life more than she wanted them to find a tumor or cluster of fucked up veins. Something to explain why she had to suffer.
“Honey?” Alicia’s groggy voice answered told Becca it was the middle of the night.
“Hey,” she whispered back and saw colors behind her eyelids as the sound came out of her mouth. There was no holding back the moan that came out.
“Oh, sweetie. Is it bad?” Alicia whispered. She’d been through this with Becca before.
“So bad. Won’t be in tomorrow. You call?” She knew her words weren’t coming out like they should. But the fewer words she spoke, the less pain she had to go through.
“I’m on it. Text if you need me for anything.”
“Mmm—kay”
Stabbing at the phone screen, she hoped it hung up and then tried to find the closest spot on the nightstand for it. Her normally sunny disposition always tanked when she was in the middle of a headache. Calling it a headache didn’t even seem fair. Her whole body was involved. As the hours progressed, the nerve endings in her body all started to get involved. The tension started in her neck with her muscles contracting against the pain. That would travel down her back until she’d realize her thighs were flexing in anticipation. That’s when she would resort to the Valium.
Knowing that she didn’t need to have an uncomfortable conversation with her boss the next day took a little pressure off. Her boss was nice about her situation. He knew that she always made up her work and only called in when it was desperate.
Now that she didn’t need to set her alarm or worry about how she was going to drive herself to work with her eyes closed, she fell back into a medicated pseudo-sleep.
After he had left Eddie, Angel had sat for a while and thought about what his brother said and how he should proceed. Delicately was the word that kept coming to mind. Angel assumed it was his bear’s input, so he took it to heart.
Angel drove to the Sheriff’s station to see if Tanner was working.
“You really aren’t going to help me out with this?”
“Man, we all have to trudge through the mating dance on our own. Why should you get any extra help?”
“Because you’re a cop, it’s your job.”
“My job was to try and keep you out of trouble most of your life. Now my job is to sit back and watch my deputies do all the heavy lifting for me so I can relax a bit.”
“As a clan mate, shouldn’t you be ensuring my happiness?”
Tanner snorted. “I’m under no obligation to ensure your happiness. You have your mate, well almost. That should be enough.”
“I don’t have her yet, that’s why I’m here.”
“Hey, I found my mate when she didn’t even know who she was. Remember the whole mate in a coma ordeal? I think I may win most complicated mate courtship. You just need to do a little legwork. So why don’t you go sniff her out. I’m not giving you any personal information about her so stop asking.”
Angel attempted to glare at his cousin to make him change his mind. When that didn’t work he decided to try and wait him out, but Tanner found other ways to hold his ground.
Tanner occasionally looked up from his phone to stare at Angel and shake his head. From the goofy smiles on Tanner’s face, he was talking to his mate Brooke. He’d occasionally laugh to himself before typing something back.
He hoped that Tanner would get called away so that he could sneak a peek on his cousin’s computer. He propped his feet up on the desk which got him a serious glare from the Sheriff, then pretended to be checking his messages. Then he moved on to checking his online farm to kill a little more time.
Happily, Apex was not a town that was in need of an overly active police force. It was quiet unless it was tourist season. That was when the town got a good chunk of its revenue from speeding tickets. Tanner had moved from chatting on his phone to dozing off in his chair.
That gave Angel an idea. He started searching through Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram to see if he could get lucky. A Rebecca that lived in Apex should narrow it down.
He did get lucky. He found her picture and title under the county’s website. Rebecca Kelly. The picture looked to be a number of years old; she looked like someone that was starting a new job. Nervous smile, a little too big and bright shining eyes staring at the camera.
Through Facebook, he found her profile page, but it was locked down tight from prying eyes. There was a picture of her house she’d made her profile picture a few years ago. It was a small cottage with, what looked like to him, an overgrown yard. It was all flowers and large bushes. He wasn’t someone who knew if what he was looking at was good or a project she was working on.
What he did know was that the house looked familiar. It was in a part of town where the houses we
re cookie cutter. Built in the nineteen fifties, they were the first round of houses built by loggers that weren’t just single guys living in the woods. They had families that needed something other than tents in the trees.
He had a picture of her house. Did he dare show up knocking at her door? Would it end up with Tanner taking him away in handcuffs? Not that Tanner normally would do that, but he might to make a human feel better.
Angel didn’t know what he would say if he did knock on her door. She wasn’t feeling good and probably wasn’t in a mood to have a conversation with him.
Standing up, Angel saw Tanner open one eye at him. He gave Tanner a salute and left without another word. He decided to take the work truck back to the base camp and pick up his truck. His cousin Cash sold him his old Chevy after he had to get a family car to fit his mate and new twin cubs.
It wasn’t flashy, and it wasn’t fast. It just got Angel from one place to another. Now he understood why Cash gave it up, even though Angel thought it was a great truck. It wasn’t safe enough for a mate or cubs. There were no airbags, and it barely had seatbelts, just lap belts. He was going to have to get something better.
That would mean working hard and saving up. He’d always have a job with the family, but what if he had gone to school? He’d be on a better track for a career that paid better. Not that his family didn’t pay all the workers a fair wage. But now thinking long term, Angel’s space above his parents’ garage was not something he could bring a mate too.
It had worked for him for years. He had it set up bachelor pad style with a big TV, a mini fridge and a bed that sat on a low frame. He was using cinderblocks and spare wood as shelves. The only thing worth anything in the room was the musical equipment. His Gibson was on a stand next to his Marshall amplifier. His Yamaha drumset was in the corner. He knew if he ever got good at it, he’d upgrade that set. He also had a Yamaha keyboard set up, and there were various brass instruments strewn around the room that he’d tried out. There was a week where he’d thought a trombone would be fun. It wasn’t. Any money he had ever earned went into the items in one corner of his room.
Now he thought he should have invested in towels and plates. Or sheets that weren’t hand-me-down.
“Classy, dickhead,” he moaned. Things needed to change.
Chapter 20
The drive back to the base camp had him debating turning around and trying to track down Becks’ house. It was late, and he’d killed a lot of time with Eddie and Tanner. It was definitely too late to be knocking on someone’s door that might not be happy to see you. He’d love to ask Cage about what he should do, but it was late, and Cage would already be at home.
He would tell him the same thing that Eddie had. So the time it would take to talk to his Alpha was time wasted.
“You are going home alone tonight; deal with it.” And now he was talking to himself.
Pulling up to the camp, he jumped out of the truck and tossed the keys into a drop box in the office door. His truck was parked in the lot. He got in and let the poor thing warm up a bit before leaving. Deciding he needed to have a serious conversation with someone that had a non-mated perspective, he texted his bros.
While he waited for a reply, his hand involuntarily went to the chain around his neck. He usually kept it hidden because they had gotten a lot of shit when they started wearing them.
Rainier and Finley had been his best friends for so long he couldn’t remember a time he didn’t know them. They were more than cousins; they were friends and as close as brothers. Rain was fourteen months older than Finley. They looked so much alike people often mistook them for twins.
When Angel and Rain graduated high school, they had to leave Fin behind. Finley was one year behind them and was melancholy about being left on his own. He knew that with his best friends moving on, there was a chance they would find new friends. Rain was headed off to college, and Angel basically had no plans, but Fin wouldn’t see him every day like he was used to.
Finley, being the sensitive and a bit flighty one in their trio, had matching bear necklaces made for each of them. Angel gave him a rash about it but was secretly happy that it wasn’t a charm bracelet.
In a clan of bears, a gentle soul like Finley was a bit of an oddity. He was loved especially because he was the balance to his tougher brother Rain. People would say they are another set of matched souls, keeping the balance. So when Fin presented them with the necklaces engraved on the back, they gave him crap about it for all of fifteen seconds until they realized it hadn’t been a gag gift.
Nope, Finley wanted to make sure neither of them moved on without him. He’d engraved the back with three capital B’s.
“It stands for Best Bear Buds, so you don’t get new friends while I’m still in high school. You have to wait for me.”
Angel had to bite his tongue because Rain was giving him a hard look. Rain always stood up for Fin and was already worried his brother wasn’t going to have a great senior year.
“Thanks, man, if anyone asks I’m going to say mine stands for Big Beautiful Babes, you’ll know the truth, though,” Angel told him.
“I can handle that,” Finley said, smiling at his friends.
Rain wrapped his arm around his brother’s shoulders then put him in a friendly headlock. “Well, I’m gonna say it stands for Bears Before Bros. No matter who I meet at school, my bears come first.”
That night had touched Angel, not because of the questionable jewelry, but that he wasn’t going to be seeing his friends as often. Sure there were phone calls and texts and holidays home. But they were going their separate ways.
Tonight, he wished his boys were here so he could shoot the shit with them. Share a few beers, talk girls.
What would they think about the fact he’d found his mate? Would they be jealous? Or just grateful it wasn’t them yet that had to deal with this so young?
Angel’s phone vibrated and he saw a response from Rain.
What’s up?
Can you talk?
Yeah give me a minute then I’ll call.
Angel turned off the engine on the truck so he could talk to his friend without running out of gas.
The phone rang with the chicken clucking noise he had loaded for Rain. Turned out Rain didn’t like heights, and once he had chickened out of jumping off a high rock into the river like the rest of the kids. He never lived it down.
“Hey, man. Thanks for calling so quick.”
“Well it’s a Thursday night, and you don’t usually ask for late night chats. Means there is a reason you wanted to talk. I’m surprised you didn’t try Fin first. You know he loves long talks and romantic strolls on the beach.”
Rain was right. Fin would love this shit.
“Well, you responded first, so you’re the lucky one.”
“Goody me. How’s it hangin’?”
“A little to the left, but that’s usual. So—I have some news.”
“Finally lost your virginity? Congratulations, man, I knew this day would come.”
“Hahhah, dickhead. I did get some last night, though.”
“Wow, what’s it been, two years?”
Angel hadn’t met anyone he wanted to hook up with in a number of years. Not from lack of opportunity, but his bear always told him that it was a waste of time. Sure, he had messed around as a teenager, but it didn’t seem to be worth the effort recently.
“No. Only like eighteen months,” Angel said annoyed. His dry spell had been unintentional he’d thought. Now he knew his bear was preparing him for finding his mate. His bear must have known that their time was growing shorter, and there was no need to keep looking.
“Well then, good for you. Who was she?”
Angel felt nervous saying the words to his best friend. “She was my mate.”
There was silence on the other end of the line. It dragged on longer than Angel expected.
“You still there?”
“Uh yeah, man. Sorry, I just don’t know what the hell
to say. Are you sure?” Rain’s tone indicated he wasn’t sure if Angel knew what he was talking about.
“You know how all the mated guys say when you know you know? They weren’t lying. There is no easier truth in the world than when you see her.”
“So you met her, and you guys got together the same night? Wow, is she a shifter too?”
“No, human. I didn’t know she was my mate until I saw her earlier today.”
There was another long pause.
“You slept with her but didn’t know she was your mate? How does that work?”
“Dark bars, lots of beer, followed up with a dark motel room. I would have thought it wasn’t possible either, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t experience it today.”
“Only you would have sex with a woman and never look her in the eye.”
Angel really couldn’t deny that. Even Rain knew that he kept human women at a distance for a reason. His momma always said he was a magnet for trouble. It seemed he was also a magnet for impossible situations.
“I was drunk, and so was she. I looked at her, just not above the neck.” Even saying it out loud sounded as bad as it was.
“Wow, sorry. I’m just trying to process this. I mean it’s amazing! You found your mate. Your bear must be thrilled. How is he doing? Have you told her about you?”
“Well, my bear wanted to see her again, but I didn’t know how to find her. I accidently ran into her for work. I didn’t run into her actually. I smelled her and waited for her to get off work.”
“You smelled her?”
“Yeah, it was like coconuts and girl. It is crazy and drives my bear nuts. She wasn’t too thrilled to see me. Then she got mad and said she had to go. I froze, man. I kissed her, and I’m surprised she didn’t slap me. Then she drove off with me standing in the parking lot.”