Mating Fever (Morgan Clan Bears, Book 3)

by Theresa Hissong

  “Have a seat, calm down, and I’ll fill you in,” she promised and relaxed in her chair for the first time since the bullets had started flying in her diner.

  Chapter 8

  Anna Claire paced as she waited to hear from her mate. Ransom was across the room, rolling his eyes at her. Tessa had been sorting through the package Tulley had delivered half an hour ago, and Ada was watching the two cubs play on the living room floor.

  “No news is good news,” Tessa reminded her. “If anything happened to Gaia, Drake would’ve called already.”

  “I guess you’re right,” she replied and pressed a hand to her stomach. The thought of someone shooting up her diner made Anna Claire sick. “Do you think it’s the hunters?”

  “At this point, I’m sure it was.” Tessa sighed and dropped the packets of seeds on the table. “The sheriff is working to find out who the hacker is, and I’m positive he’s also trying to get the information taken off the internet.”

  Anna Claire bit her finger as she thought. The dark web was accessible, but what would they search for to find the information the hacker was releasing to the public? She really wished she had more knowledge on computers. Her father had outlawed them, and since she was homeschooled, he limited her time to only looking up recipes from approved sites.

  Since moving to the Morgan clan, Tessa and Ada had shown her how to access stores on the internet to purchase clothes and supplies. Gunnar had set her up with a cell phone and taught her how to use the browser to do the same thing. As far as the dark web was concerned, she was as clueless as the day she’d first sat down behind a screen.

  “Can any of you find this dark web?” she blurted.

  “I have no idea,” Ada said with a shrug. Anna Claire knew her friend had been as sheltered as she was when it came to technology. Ransom was no different. The only person in the house that might have any knowledge was Tessa.

  “I might know a thing or two about it,” she hedged. “Drake would kill me, though, if I accessed it from the house.”

  “Well, damn,” Anna Claire whispered. “We need to find out what’s going on.”

  “Don’t you ladies be getting into any trouble,” Ransom interrupted. “If you dare even breathe toward the dark web, the authorities will know it and they could possibly show up here.”

  “He’s right,” Ada scowled. “The brothers would go feral if that happened.”

  Anna Claire walked over and picked up the seeds, sorting them for Tessa while she stepped away to make some food for Aria, her cub. She glanced over at the female, then over toward Ada, who was nursing her cub, Thane. Her sisters-in-law had a sparkle in their eyes, and she had a feeling Tessa knew a way to access the information without the males getting involved.

  “Let’s get these seeds planted after the cubs are down for their naps,” Tessa announced, jutting her chin out at the back of Ransom’s head. “Maybe Ransom can help us pour out all the bags of soil.”

  “I’d be honored to help,” he chimed in, but never took his eyes off the television. He was watching a show about old muscle cars and basically ignoring them.

  “I have a way,” Tessa whispered as she passed to take her daughter to their quarters. “I’ll be right back.”

  Tessa and Ada spent time putting their cubs down for a nap. Ransom was so engrossed in the show he was watching, Anna Claire was able to finish sorting out the seeds. Once she placed them in stacks to represent each row of their garden, Tessa returned with her hand deep in her pocket.

  “Ransom,” she called out. “Could you be a dear and get the bags of soil cut open for us?” Anna Claire held back a chuckle at the sweetness of Tessa’s voice. She knew the males would do anything for the females of the clan, and they were betting on Ransom leaving the house for a good ten minutes.

  “Sure,” he groaned and stood from his spot.

  Tessa and Anna Claire made themselves look busy and not at all guilty of what they were about to do. The moment he walked out the back door, Tessa pulled a cell phone from her pocket. “Drake is paranoid. So, he has this burner phone and I can access the internet on it.”

  “Go, go!” Anna Claire peeked over Tessa’s shoulder as the female got down to work. Ransom was hauling four of the twelve bags they’d ordered from Tulley. “We don’t have much time.”

  Tessa frantically typed away on the phone’s browser. She chewed on her lip for a few minutes and laughed when she dropped the phone on the table like it’d burned her. “Found it!”

  “How did you…oh, never mind,” Anna Claire said as she peeked at the screen.

  The website she’d found looked relatively harmless, but upon further inspection, Anna Claire noticed the words “bear shifter” and “abomination” across several headlines. “What are these?”

  “Message boards,” Tessa replied as Ada joined them. All three women were crowded together as they stared at the phone. “People post a message and other users can comment under the post.”

  “Click on that one.” Ada’s voice held a bit of awe as Tessa tapped the screen. “I want to know what they’re saying about us.”

  A bubble of laughter fell from Anna Claire’s lips as they read through the comments regarding the grizzly shifters. “They think we are witches.”

  “That’s funny,” Ada giggled.

  “What’s so funny?” Gunnar asked from somewhere behind them.

  The three women yelped and spun. Tessa grabbed the phone and tucked it in her back pocket. Gunnar’s eyes narrowed on the three of them, and Anna Claire felt fear race through her veins.

  “Oh, hi,” Ada said, trying to get Gunnar to look away from Tessa.

  “What were you three up to?” he asked, suspicious.

  “Nothing,” they replied in unison.

  “The fact that all three of you look guilty as hell, and I can scent a lie a mile away, proves to me that you females are up to something,” he said, holding out his hand. “Hand over whatever you just put in your pocket, Tessa.”

  “Ah,” she hedged.

  “Now,” he snarled in warning. “Your safety is our first priority, and if you are hiding something that might put you in danger, I, and my brothers, will want to be privy to the information.”

  “Wow,” Ada breathed. “I feel scolded.”

  “You’ll be spanked if you don’t hand it over,” Drake growled as he walked into the kitchen. Tessa cursed under her breath, but a bright red blush painted the tops of her cheeks. Anna Claire looked away because she didn’t want to even know what that was all about.

  “Ada,” Rex’s voice rumbled as he followed the oldest Morgan brother.

  “We wanted to look for the hunters on the dark web,” Tessa blurted as she produced the burner cell phone, handing it over to her mate. “I’m sorry, Drake. We wanted to research them and help out in some way.”

  Oh, Tessa was good.

  Drake took the phone and looked at the screen. He glanced at his mate through his long, corkscrew hair. There was a bit of disappointment in his golden gaze. He nodded and slid the phone into his pocket. “This is dangerous.”

  “I know,” she replied.

  “The feds could come for you for even accessing the dark web, Tessa,” he reminded her.

  “That’s why she used the burner phone,” Anna Claire blurted, wanting to stand beside her friend and sister-in-law. All three of the females were at fault, and she wasn’t going to let Tessa take the fall for it. “We really were just looking for clues and gathering information.”

  “I’m not saying what you did was wrong, because the sheriff is supposed to be looking into this group of hunters. Apparently, the government is working to shut the site down and find the hacker who leaked the information about our species.” Drake was frustrated, and Anna Claire felt a little bad for going behind his back, but the females wanted information, too.

  “We need to be kept in the loop on these things,” Anna Claire began, nibbling on her thumb. “We have cubs, and I’m with young. If these hunters ar
e coming, we need to be ready, and having the information up front will keep us safer than being physically protected by you.”

  She saw Ada smirk from the corner of her eye. Tessa gave her a wink over Drake’s shoulder. All the men stood there in shock at her independent thinking. It was true, though. They needed to be prepared and being informed was a key part of that.

  “Maybe I should set up a meeting with the sheriff,” Drake mumbled.

  “That would be wise,” Ada replied, coming to stand next to Anna Claire. Tessa joined them and the males finally relaxed after Drake made the call to Garrett Lynch.

  Now, they would wait for the lawman to come around and tell them what they needed to know. After that, Anna Claire would make her plans to keep everyone she loved safe. As she rubbed her flat stomach, she prayed she wasn’t bringing a child into a world where they were going to be hunted and treated like the predators the humans thought them to be. If the world started coming for the shifter population, they would succeed. There wasn’t enough of them to take on an entire army of humans with guns.

  They’d be eradicated.

  Gunnar brushed out his long, brown hair, leaving it to dry naturally. He was still trying to calm his beast from catching the females going behind their backs to search the dark web for any information they could find. Drake had confiscated the phone and told the females to let the males handle the information. It wasn’t safe to search the dark web, knowing the feds were always watching the internet and the shady things within.

  It was late, nearing midnight, when Drake texted him and Rex, planning a meeting in the barn. He wanted to wait until the females were asleep before they conducted their own search of the message boards the hunters were using.

  As he entered his bedroom, Anna Claire was fast asleep. She was on her side with her hands tucked under her chin. He traced the soft lines of her face. Her lips were slightly open as she breathed softly in her slumber.

  He’d fallen for her the moment he’d laid eyes on her in that forest. The scent of a mate was hard to deny, but he’d done it. He’d become her friend and confidant in her time of need. There wasn’t anything they couldn’t talk about, and he felt honored the female trusted him after all she’d been through.

  The door didn’t make a sound as he left his quarters. His hallway was dark, but his vision was perfect once his shifted his eyes to see his way into the main house where he found his brothers waiting in the front living room.

  Drake jerked his head to the side, indicating they should follow him. Even with their mates and cubs asleep, the males didn’t want to be overheard. There needed to be a plan in place to stop the hunters before they ever arrived on the Morgan clan lands. If they knew about them, then those human males surely knew they owned the largest corn farm in the area. That could cut into their living just as much as if they come back to take them out with bullets.

  Drake unlocked the side door to the barn and pushed it open wide, flipping on the overhead light in the process. The hum of the bulbs echoed in the metal building as Rex pulled out three stools from his workbench.

  “Have you looked at it yet?” Gunnar asked, nodding toward the phone in Drake’s hand.

  “Yeah,” he sighed. “There is a lot of information on here, but I found something that is going to shake up the community once it’s known.”

  “What’s that?” Rex inquired. His middle brother held out his hand once Drake unlocked the screen. A rumble vibrated his chest as he looked up with golden eyes. “They killed two clans.”

  “One as recently as last night,” Drake confirmed.

  Gunnar’s heart thundered in his chest as he held out his hand. “Let me see.”

  The information was right there in black and white. They’d posted photos of the dead; two in human form and six others as their bears. Bile rose in his throat as he noticed two of them were cubs. He felt anger and tears pricked at his eyes.

  “How could they!” he bellowed, backing out of the screen. “They killed cubs, Drake! What does that mean for us?”

  “It means we are going to go find them before they can harm our family,” Rex vowed.

  They all quieted as they searched for any information leading them to believe there were more hunters coming their way. The clans in Alaska were the biggest target, but the hardest to find because of how remote their homes were in relation to roads.

  Gunnar snarled as he saw the information crossed out for Anna Claire’s old clan, saying the homes had burned and there had been no sign of activity in the area for almost a year. “They’ve known about us for a while.”

  “Looks that way,” Rex huffed and pointed to the screen. “Keep scrolling.”

  Drake searched through dozens of posts, stopping to read most of them. A growl bubbled out of his throat when he found one containing information about the Morgan clan.

  Grizzlies south of Memphis, TN – Research indicates there are three brothers living in Olive Branch, MS. Their land is a short thirty-minute drive from the Memphis airport. Take the highway south of town after you cross over the state line. Drive fourteen miles and turn left at the abandoned corner store. Their land is one mile down on the right. As of this post, the clan consists of three brothers and their two female “mates”.

  Unconfirmed info: Seven new “members” arrived last spring. No more information as of this post.

  “What the fuck?” Rex snarled. “That was dated a week after Anna Claire and the others moved in.”

  “Keep reading,” Gunnar ordered, trying to focus on what information they had about his extended family. If they mentioned Anna Claire by name, he was going to go feral.

  Harvey Helms: Those abominations killed three of my men. I have searched their lands while they were away and found three cabins on the land, as well as the main home. I do not have a head count at this time, but I will be watching them over the next few weeks.

  “That son of a bitch was on our land a month ago!” Gunnar’s bear pushed at his skin to shift, but he held the animal back. “We searched for scents, but we missed him. The rain must’ve washed it away.”

  “Hang on, there’s more,” Rex interrupted, pointing to the phone where Drake had laid it on the workbench.

  Skipper Jones: We are not far from you, and we are willing to come help. I have two men besides myself. I will be in contact over a private message.

  Harvey replied with a generic thank you and that was all that had been said in the last few weeks. Gunnar automatically shifted his hearing, calling on the bear’s extra abilities so he could listen for sounds, but there was nothing. His paranoia was going to cause him to lose his mind again when it came to his mate.

  “We have to set up a plan tonight,” Gunnar ordered. “Right now, Drake. Someone needs to wake up the O’Kelly boys so we can start our guard immediately.”

  “I agree,” Drake replied, pulling out his personal phone. He called Ransom and waited for the male to answer. Drake filled him in on the information, telling them to come to the barn but to stay silent as to not wake the elders or the females.

  The door opened after a few minutes, revealing Ransom and Luca. They walked over to where the phone was laying on the bench and Ransom picked it up to scroll through the information. He cursed several times, and when he looked up, his gaze locked on Gunnar. “They didn’t mention Anna Claire, but they know how many of us are here.”

  “It doesn’t matter if they have an actual head count,” Drake reminded everyone. “They know our address…even gave directions to our front fucking door. This is serious, and if those fucking humans want a war, that’s exactly what we will give them.”

  “What do you propose?” Luca asked, his eyes glowing gold just like all the males’ in the barn.

  “We draw on our nature and eliminate the threat,” Drake answered, his voice deeper and darker than ever.

  All of the males turned their heads at the sound of tires on their gravel driveway. Everyone growled low in their throats as Drake hurried toward the door
. Gunnar’s brother relaxed when he noticed who had arrived.

  “It’s the sheriff,” he announced.

  The angel killed the lights and engine before he got to the house, rolling to a stop beside Drake’s truck. They waited for him to approach the barn before they spoke. No one wanted to make any unnecessary noise to wake the females or their cubs. Gunnar was worried for Anna Claire, but knew she was as safe as could be tucked away in their quarters.

  “I need to know what you’re planning,” he replied. “My visions haven’t changed, and based on the one I had earlier, it doesn’t look good.”

  “How bad?” Rex growled.

  “If something doesn’t change, it will be the total destruction of your species.”

  Chapter 9

  For the past two weeks, the Morgan clan had been on high alert. Anna Claire, Ada, and Tessa were being guarded throughout the day and night while the males kept close watch on their land.

  The crops were planted, leaving plenty of time for the males to search for the men who were coming for them in less than ten days. Anna Claire watched as Rex added hooks to the back of the new metal door to her and Gunnar’s quarters. A thick metal rod would be fit in place should the human hunters gain access to the house.

  Anna Claire had been a bit angry with her mate after she’d found out what they’d done the night the females had been found with the burner phone. They’d taken it upon themselves to get the information and come up with a plan.

  She understood their worry, and with her being pregnant, the males were fearful of the worst. Tessa had raised hell until Drake showed her the message boards he’d found pertaining to their clan. Once the females read over the messages, they started making their own plans to keep their cubs safe. It was Ada’s idea about the doors to their quarters. If the hunters did gain access to the main house, they’d have to get through the metal doors with several deadbolts and steel bars to keep them closed.

  Her cousins were busy working on making accessible basement spaces underneath all three cottages. The finishing touches were being put on Ransom and Luca’s home before stocking it with two weeks’ worth of supplies.