by Martha Woods
The Bear Shifter’s Game
Black Oak Shifters
Martha Woods
Contents
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BLACK OAK SHIFTERS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
More From Martha Woods
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© 2019 Romance Books 4 U
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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BLACK OAK SHIFTERS
This is book two of the Black Oat Shifters series. All my books are stand-alones and can be read independently, but this book may reference events in the previous books and some of my favorite characters.
The order the series may be most enjoyed:
The Bear Shifter’s Promise (Book 1)
The Bear Shifter’s Desires (Book 2)
The Bear Shifter’s Game (Book 3)
Chapter 1
Even so late in the year, it couldn’t be denied that the Florida heat was something potent enough to make you want to peel your own skin off and turn it into a fan for the rest of yourself. The sun constantly beat you down, but the humidity… Jamie had been living here for years now, and in that time he’d come to understand perfectly why Florida had such a reputation for producing such… eccentric individuals. If he’d been born and raised in this heat he’d sure have at least a few screws, that was for sure.
At that moment it was six in the morning, just as sweltering as the rest of the day but somehow worse because of the expectation that you were supposed to sleep in mild warmth at most. He’d been tossing and turning in his bed for going on three hours at this point, sleep broken from the countless nightmares that he’d weathered many times before, but somehow still had an ability to ambush him just when he thought he was able to deal with them properly. At least he hadn’t woken up any of his neighbors in the dorm, that had been an embarrassing experience in his first week sleeping here, but it had at least let to something approaching a friendship.
He wasn’t certain that it was an ideal way to introduce yourself to someone however.
“Come on…” He groaned to himself, stopping his shuffling to kick off the covers and stare up at the ceiling, mind focused on knots and nails rather than the other things that had been running through his head, few of them good. His alarm hadn’t sounded yet, it wouldn’t for at least another hour, but he was experienced enough in this little routine by now that he knew there was no real point in falling asleep again. It was just going to be interrupted again by the actual alarm to get up, and he would only end up feeling even more tired as a result. So it was with no shortage of frustration that he sat up and placed his feet on the ground, only a second’s hesitation in which he thought someone was going to grab them before he stood completely, warm breeze blowing against the sweat on his torso.
Jamie wasn’t built, not in the same way that some of the other people who roomed at the dormitory were, though if you saw him walking around the hallways covered up with his hoodies and his long sleeve shirts, you’d be surprised to see him pull them off only to be confronted with a body that was clearly chiseled in a way that wouldn’t make sense if you looked between his face and his chest. He’d always said that he was the least fit of his siblings, his brother Shane having all the muscle in the family, and even his sister Megan capable of crushing a skull underneath her arm, an extremely specific example that had garnered laughter first from his audience and from him, after a second of nervous hesitation of course.
He hadn’t told anyone what he’d done before he’d come to the university to get such a body, but the few that had seen it before had all made their own theories, theories that they would never voice to anyone except themselves, but theories nonetheless.
Some thought that he’d been a secret bodybuilder, or at least in training before something happened to stop him in his tracks. They looked at his nervous demeanor and his skittish attitude to anyone new and figured that maybe it had been rehab, or a bad experience with a trainer.
Others saw how self-sufficient he was, as well as the scars underneath his ribs and along his back, and with a great deal of sympathy they’d figured that he’d run away from home, probably from a broken home that hadn’t wanted him, or had perhaps wanted him too much. Those that thought this wouldn’t dare voice their suspicions, both out of fear that they were wrong and fear of bringing back awful memories if they were right, so they had focused on forgetting about theorizing and focused on the man that he was now.
He was only twenty years old, that certainly seemed like the age of an adult but out here in the big wide world, with all those responsibilities on his shoulders… Jamie had to admit that it didn’t feel very much like being an adult, in fact with every week that went by he was starting to feel more and more like a little child, more and more things piling up as finals were starting to approach. And he was tired, God was he tired, what he wouldn’t give for just one night of unbroken sleep, it had been so long since he’d even had more than four hours.
A gust of wind blew across Jamie’s face, and he realized that he’d been standing in the middle of his room for the past five minutes, shaking his head and moving over towards his desk where his laptop was waiting next to his trusty lamp, his sole companion for the past few nights and days of staying locked up in his room to study. He supposed that it wouldn’t hurt too much to just have a little early time with them both, it would let him take a break later on if he was feeling too down to go on. At least that was his plan, he couldn’t remember the last time that he’d stopped working when he’d started hating it.
“Man…” He bowed his head and scrubbed his hands through his hair, scratching the tips of his nails along his scalp and hoping the sting would take some of the edge off of his sluggishness. Padding his feet over to the closet, he leaned inside and pulled out the first shirt that he could touch, bearing the logo of some local cryptid that had supposedly been spotted around the campus every year since the thirties. If it was hanging around somewhere though he’d never met it, even after waiting up and trying to recognize the signs of it, as far as he knew it was probably just someone rummaging through their trash who was always spotted by some poor, sleep deprived teenager. He knew more than anyone that you could probably see your own mother walking towards you in that state and think it was a monster.
Pulling the shirt over his head and stretching himself with a pleasant pop, he took a glance at his laptop before picking up his wallet from beside the bed, turning to the door and pushing it open, the flood of fluorescent light from the hallway shocking him for a brief instant. If he was truly going to have no choice except to work then that was fine by him, but he was going to have to get some sor
t of liquid into him before that happened. Things may have worked slightly differently to him compared to other people, but now more than ever he just needed something to feel… normal.
Some kind of low-quality soda would do just the trick for that.
The hallway walls were covered in posters and slogans for the local sports teams, all of them having an alligator as their mascot of course, he wasn’t a native but he’d learned enough in his time here that most who lived here had a particular respect for their local wildlife. And what was there not to respect after all? A body design that hadn’t changed in millions of years, jaws that could grip and tear apart just about any creature that was unlucky enough to venture within biting distance, and an admittedly adorable face from the side that always looked like they were smiling? Jamie wasn’t usually one for the zoo, but he’d made one or two trips specifically to see the local giant alligator they had in captivity, he’d given thought to venturing out into the glades to see one for himself but… he knew better than to go into another creatures territory like that, and he’d seen more than enough to know what they could do to him if he wasn’t careful.
Better to pay the five dollars at the entrance and get to toss a chicken at Brutus, it made the other kids that were watching smile as a bonus.
Shaking his head away from the very alluring distraction of alligators and the assorted genus thereof, Jamie rounded the corner and tapped his finger along the wall, approaching the vending machine set up in the small corner of the hallway that they’d designated a ‘Break Room’, really more just a pairing of chairs in a slight recess where you could enjoy a drink between classes. For the price that he’d paid to go here, he had to admit that sometimes it felt like they might be ripping him off.
“What do I want…” He asked himself, sliding his index finger down the row of buttons starting at ginger ale and ending at root beer, and the mere thought of trying to choke down a root beer after last time was almost enough to make him lose whatever appetite he’d managed to work up. “How about a lime soda, that never fails…”
“I think you’re the only person in this whole state who likes lime soda.”
“Oh shit!” Jamie jumped back from the machine, juggling his soda in both hands before finally catching it and falling back into one of the nearby seats, glaring up at a giggling dormmate. “That was very funny, were you waiting to sneak up on me or was that just a happy accident?”
“Noooo I swear, just a happy little accident, I didn’t mean to freak you out.” Walking over, but knowingly keeping her distance from him, she sat down in the seat next to him and asked, “Seriously thought, why are you up and getting lime soda?”
“Because, Rachel, I’m… trying to study for the next test, it’s a big one, I want to make sure that I’m actually good to go for it.” He shrugged, popping the tab on his soda. “Honest.”
“Are you sure?” Rachel asked, “Because I know it’s kind of a weird time of the year for you, and if you want to talk about it…”
“I don’t… want to talk about it, really.” He smiled. “Thanks for the offer but I’m fine, seriously. Just couldn’t sleep because I’m nervous about the test I guess, no big deal. I get a few more pages done and I’ll be free as a bird, you’ll see.”
“I guess so, you are always stressing about your grades…” Rachel sighed, slumping in her seat and tapping her fingers along the arm rest, “You’d tell me if it was something serious right? Like if you were… thinking of doing something?”
“Look, Rachel,” He said, leaning over and patting the back of his hand, “I know that it’s a… pretty bad time of the year for that, and I know that I’m kind of weird enough that all of you might want to keep an eye on me, but I’m fine, I swear. Just worry about you, ok?”
“If you say so… So if you’re not super stressed out and wanting to be alone, you want to hang out tonight? I’ve got a couple shitty vampire movies that I’ve been meaning to blitz through, it’d be nice not to have to do that alone…”
“I can’t…’ He said, before leaning his head forward and sighing, “Screw it, one movie, then I’m out.”
“Yay!” Rachel got up, gathering a few more drinks from the machine before she slipped them back into her bag. Turning around to see him staring blankly at the wall, she walked over slowly and waved her hand in front of him, taking care not to startle him too badly as he jumped slightly and looked up at her, offering a smile after just a few moments of staring.
“Sorry,” He said, “Guess I’m just kind of tired from studying huh?”
She didn’t buy it, but she wasn’t going to argue with him, there was no real good that could come out of doing that. If he wanted to talk about it, if he really wanted to be open about what was happening, he would be, she trusted him enough to believe that. So her job, as far as she was concerned, was to do her best to distract him from whatever it was that was going on in his head, whatever messed up little parade of thoughts was walking down the main street of his brain and preventing him from getting just a simple night’s rest.
Far as she could tell, there was no better way to do that other than crappy movies and subpar soda, it had always worked for her after all.
“Just take a seat on the bed, I’ll just put the rest of these in the fridge,” She said, shrugging her bag off her shoulder and popping open the door of the fridge, “You would not believe how shitty tonight was.”
“No tips?” Jamie asked, sliding backwards and letting his back rest against the soft mattress, “I thought it was good hours for that?”
“Oh the tips are just fine, I made about twenty bucks from some trucker passing through who wouldn’t stop staring down my top,” She laughed, “It’s just… wow man, the crazies really come out at night, you know?”
“What do you mean?” He asked, pushing up onto his elbow, “Is there something dangerous out there? You work at the diner until five right?”
“It’s nothing too bad, just… some weirdo was ruffling through the trash out back, and me and the cook both went out there twice to tell him to stop. The first time he just ignored me, but you know I’m not about to walk up to some weirdo in the dark alleyway at three in the morning.”
“Watching horror movies does teach you lessons it turns out.”
“Then the chef walked out, and… I dunno, he asked him to stop, and when I walked back out there he was just… staring at the chef and I. Not making a sound, not moving, I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing, it was just… you know, nothing.” Rachel shook her head, sliding the last can into the fridge and slamming the door closed. “Anyway, one of the truckers came out back and flashed a gun at him and he ran away real quick, told us that he’d stay until the next shift if we really wanted him to. We gave him a free meal and then everything was normal again.”
Jamie looked down at his shirt, before looking back up at her and laughing, “I’m sorry, you saw the trashman cryptid?”
Flicking her eyes down to the mascot on his shirt, she stamped her foot and looked up at the ceiling, uttering a disbelieving, “Oh fuck! I really saw the trashman didn’t I?”
“Kinda seems like it doesn’t it?” He laughed, “I can’t believe you actually saw a beloved local idol in the flesh and you chose to flash a gun at it…”
“I didn’t flash the gun! The trucker did! After Trashman looked at us like he was some… Night of the Living Dead extra!” Walking over and throwing herself face down on the next to him, she groaned into the sheet before resting her face on its side. “What if it turns out the Trashman is just some… weird hobo who collects human teeth?”
“Would they be teeth he gets from murdering people or just teeth that he finds?”
“I think I’d honestly be more scared if he just finds them, why would there be that many teeth just lying around for someone to pick up?”
“Maybe he lives in a bad area of town, I don’t know…” Jamie took a sip of his soda, offering the can to Rachel who only wrinkled her nose at the thought, b
efore he groaned and sat up. “Alright, are we doing this or what? I’ve got to get to work eventually, and I don’t know how much these crappy movies are going to keep my attention.”
“Oh come on, you’ll be fine, I swear, some of these are like, unironically the worst movies I’ve ever seen.” She grinned, sitting up and leaning towards him. “Unless you’re actually scared of weird, low budget vampires? Oh no, don’t pee on my bed covers Jamie!”
“Oh ha ha, at least I’m not scared of the freakin’... Trashman or whatever.”
“He was very intimidating in the dark! You didn’t see him!”
“Uh huh.” He nodded. “Go on and put the movie in, stop trying to delay it.”
Blowing her lips at him, Rachel picked up her laptop and scrolled through to one particularly atrocious cinematic crime that she’d had her eye on for the last couple of days, already delighting in his groan as he recognized the title and slid deeper into her bed. “Oh, you know this one do you?”
“I tried to watch one scene of it like… two months ago when I was bored, you really have no idea just how hard it was for me to do.”
“Well, sucks that you’re going to be watching the whole thing then, isn’t it?” Bumping her shoulder against his, she leaned back and placed the laptop in their laps, one of their legs each holding it up as they lay next to each other in dread and anticipation of what was going to be crossing the screen. But at the very least, neither of them was worrying about what they had seen, or what they were going to see in the near future. They could just… sit and relax, even if only for a few hours.