Bear with Me (Half-breed Shifter Series) (2 page)

Sitting up with a groan, he
rubbed the side of his sore neck.

“Sorry for knocking you out
back there,” A male voice from the driver’s seat said. “It was the only way I
could think to get you out of the house alive and not blow my cover.”

Realizing it was the
official-looking dude who’d needled his ass, Brick scowled at him. “In that
case, I’d say thanks for saving my life. But I don’t feel very thankful at the
moment. What the hell is going on?”

“Well...” The man blew out a
long breath. “I can probably answer most of your questions, but I’m not sure
where to start. What exactly do you know about what you are?”

“What I
am
?” Brick
shook his head. “I’m a teenage boy who attends Jasper Middle School. And I woke
up this morning as a fucking
bear
...which I know isn’t possible. But it
happened and...and...I don’t know. Did my mom seriously want you guys to kill
me?”

The man didn’t answer the
last question. Actually, he was silent for far too long. Growing impatient,
Brick clutched the back of the front seat. “I thought you said you had answers.
And where’d that other guy who was with you go?”

“I told him I’d take care of
you myself, so he went back to wherever it is he came from.”

Ice flooded Brick’s veins.
“So...you’re still going to kill me?” Though he was scared enough to piss his
pants, he snorted. “I’d like to see you try. Did you forget about the part
where I can turn into a
bear
?”

“Yeah, I heard that. But it
doesn’t concern me. I’ve dealt with plenty of bears before.”

Well, that didn’t sound
reassuring. Brick glanced toward the doors of the car, wondering how much it’d
hurt if he bailed at fifty-five miles per hour?

“You don’t have to be
scared,” the man finally told him. “My wife and children are half-breeds as
well. I won’t be killing you today, Brick.”

“You...” That
today
part worried him some, but the word half-breed had him more curious. “What’s
a...half-breed?”

“You are, apparently. Since
your mother’s reaction to what you are was so severe, I’m guessing she’s one
hundred percent, pure human. That would mean all your shape-shifter comes from
your father’s side...making you half. But you must be pretty diluted if you
couldn’t even shift until you hit puberty.”

Brick shivered at the word
shape-shifter. He’d read about them and seen plenty of movies, sure,
but...those things weren’t real.

Were they?

“I never met my dad,” he
mumbled, not sure why that even mattered, but the rest of what he was learning
was so mind-blowing, it was easier to focus on the easy, understandable parts.
But what the fuck had his dear ol’, nameless father passed on to him?

“I’m not surprised. If he
knew your mother was as opposed to shifters as she seems to be, I can’t blame
him for taking off. But leaving you with her is a little more puzzling...unless
he never learned you existed.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Brick
shook his hands, needing to blot out all the confusion filling him. “You’re
saying I’m seriously a shape-shifter.”

“Yes. A half-breed
shape-shifter.”

“And...and I had to have
inherited it from my dad? I didn’t get bitten by a radioactive spider or
anything to turn into this?”

In the rearview mirror, he
saw the man’s mouth twitch with humor. “Wouldn’t you shift into a
spider
instead of a bear if a spider and turned you?”

“Well, I think I would’ve
noticed if I’d been bitten by any bears recently.”

This time, the man chuckled.
“Good point. Not that any of it matters. You can’t be ‘turned’ into this kind
of shifter. It’s purely hereditary.”

Brick chewed on his bottom
lip, thinking that through. It was easier to think about this than the fact
that his mother had just—yeah, lots easier to think about this.

Shit, he still couldn’t
believe his mother had not only disowned him, but she’d actually begged
complete strangers to—

And yep, still not going to
think about that. His bottom lip started to tremble. Damn it, he did not want
to start crying again.

“So, you’re one too, right?”
he asked, ducking his face to swipe the back of his hand across his eyes.
“You’re a shape-shifter who works undercover for that Hunter gang to...to save
kids like me?”

“You’re half right. I do work
undercover for the Hunters. I go in and try to foil their plans without getting
caught. But I’m one hundred percent human.”

“But your wife...?”

“Yes. My wife’s half jaguar.
Our three children are a fourth shifter. They’re about your age, actually.”

Brick nodded, but shivered
because the thought of wives and children—family—only made him feel more
abandoned. Rubbing his arms, he stared out the front window at the lonely
stretch of road ahead of them. “Are you taking me there, then? To your family?”

The man shook his head. “No.
Not quite. We live in a half-breed community, however. Don’t worry, you won’t
have to learn to sleep in caves or chew on tree bark for dinner, unless you
just want to. It’s exactly like the human town you left...but occasionally
people will turn a little furrier. There’s an old widow there named Fern who
agreed to take you in and let you live with her.”

Again, the teen nodded,
soaking this in. He was relieved someone was willing to accept him. But knowing
it was a complete stranger, and not his mother—the woman who’d given birth to
him and promised to love and shelter him always, who’d read him bedtime stories
and fed him chicken noodle soup when he was sick—didn’t really make him feel
all that optimistic.

“So, what do I call you?” he
asked the man.

“Shaw,” the man answered. “My
name is Shaw Griffin.”

Chapter One

Nineteen Years Later

Rhea Griffin trembled as she
paced the length of her old childhood bedroom. Sticking her pinkie nail between
her teeth, she began to chew with a nervous habit she’d never been able to
break. But her mating heat was coming. If there was ever a time to be nervous,
it was now.

She was only a fourth
shape-shifter, so she’d been hopeful the mating heat trait would pass right
over her, and she’d never have to deal with it. It had hit her mother—a half
shifter—when her mother was in her early twenties. And both Rhea and her twin
sister Brynn had passed by the twenties with nary a sweat due to the legendary
mating heat.

But now,
now
...her new
brother-in-law had told her it was coming. Soon. Rhea had to say, she didn’t
feel any different. She didn’t look any different. If Gannon’s instincts
weren’t so animalistic and spot-on, she would’ve dismissed his claim out right.
But Gannon was from the absolute pure-blood Mulhikari wolf pack, and they could
sense things—things like a female shifter’s mating heat—way before a normal
shifter could, much less a half-breed like her.

Still. It didn’t seem
possible that this was going to happen to
her
. Female shifters under the
mating heat were supposed to want sex constantly, like lots of it and in all
different positions, with all different partners, and not necessarily one at a
time.

And Rhea just...no. She
wasn’t exactly a sexual fiend. Sure, she’d always wanted to meet a strong,
handsome guy to come in and sweep her off her feet and carry her off into the
sunset. But kinky, hard-core lust had never afflicted her before.

Apparently, it was about to,
though. And the idea that it would totally freaked her out.

Good news was that technology
had turned all badass since the days when her mother and all the female
generations before her had gone through the same thing. Now, if a female wanted
to bypass her heat, she could take a couple injections and just chill for a few
weeks until the time for her heat to pass was over. Or if a female preferred to
get freaky and spend that time fucking the brains out of any male willing to
have her, she could do that too. It was all about free will in this day and
age; and God bless it.

Since Rhea currently didn’t
have a special someone to share her heat with, and she wasn’t into free-love
orgies, she’d chosen to take the path of less sex and more injections. She
hated needles, but the idea of fucking a line of strangers for two weeks in a row
scared the hell out of her.

Still...knowing a mating heat
was coming did not sit well, even if she was going to drug up and numb herself
out through the whole ordeal. To her, it was like having minor surgery. And she
wanted her best friend by her side as she went through it.

Actually, to be honest, her
best friend was her sister Brynn. But since Brynn was also about to go through
her heat and she had Gannon the super wolf to fuck through it, Brynn had taken
the path of more sex.

So had Dane, Brynn and Rhea’s
brother, who happened to be Rhea’s second choice of person to hold her hand
while she lived through this era. But, alas, Dane’s mate, Ari, was also going
through her mating heat.

It was like a mating
heat-palooza out there, which sucked for Rhea since it took her two best
friends out of the equation for the next couple weeks. And so she had only one
true friend left she knew she could always count on.

She swiped up her phone and
dialed a number she knew by heart. When an answer came within three rings, her
heart thumped hard in her chest. It was really going to happen. She was really
about to experience her first mating heat. And she was scared out of her mind.

“I need you,” she said. “Can
you come?”

***

Brick parked his piece of
junk Ford Explorer at the curb in front of Shaw and Riley Griffin’s home. His
hand shook slightly as he pulled his key from the ignition, which made
absolutely no sense to him. Why was he so nervous? Rhea had only called him
over for moral support, friendly companionship, and all around boredom killer.
Since he was an awesome conversationalist, if he did say so himself, he didn’t
blame her for that. Not at all.

But when she’d told him her
heat was coming, for a brief second there he’d
thought...hoped...dreamed...maybe she wanted him for...physical reasons.
Fucking Rhea Griffin through her mating heat would’ve been—yep, he had to
shiver too hard from longing to even complete that delicious thought. That
honor was just too unheard of, which was probably why it wasn’t happening, and
he was only here in the capacity of BFF. And nothing else.

Sadly, it had never been like
that between them. Sure, he’d been in love with her since about thirty seconds
after he’d met her. Shaw had just driven him into Locks Hollow and his family
was there to welcome him home. Brick’s life had been the lowest of lows at that
point. He’d been shunned by his mother, mocked by his peers, and almost killed
by Hunters.

But then Shaw had introduced
Brick to his triplet children—Brynn, Dane, and Rhea—and somehow Rhea had seen
all the pain and fear and loneliness inside him. She’d stepped forward and
pulled him into a sympathetic hug, telling him everything was going to be
better now.

He’d drawn in her evergreen
scent and fallen flat in love with her. She’d been his best friend ever since.
If she had ever hinted that she’d wanted anything more from him, he would’ve
been all over that. He would’ve claimed her, mated her and had half a dozen
little baby shifters with her by now. But Rhea just didn’t think of him that
way.

So, when she’d asked him to
bring his Xbox over and keep him company for the next couple of weeks, he
hadn’t been surprised. Just a tad disappointed.

Still flattered that she’d
even contacted him and no one else, he whistled as he strolled up the front
walk, with his Xbox and half a dozen cables and wires stuffed in a box under
his arm.

After ringing the bell, he
turned to eye the Griffin’s immaculate lawn, remembering how many times he’d
come over here in his teen years to hang out with the triplets. It seemed like
so long ago, and here he’d heard both Dane and Brynn were mated off these days.

Behind him, the door came
open. He turned, expecting Rhea but found her father instead, giving him an odd
glance.

He and Shaw had always had a
strange relationship. Brick would be forever grateful to the human for saving
his life that fateful day years ago, but Shaw had never seemed to like Brick in
return. It was as if he knew exactly what Brick wanted to do to his baby girl.
And he most definitely did want to do it. A lot. And in all different positions
and places and—

Then again, Brick had also
gotten off on aggravating the poor man for some reason. He just couldn’t help
himself. It was so easy for him to piss Shaw Griffin off, and since Shaw was
such a stoic, unemotional guy, that felt sort of like an honor to Brick.

“Hello, Mr. Griffin, sir.”
Brick respectfully pulled his arms behind his back and treated Shaw to a tight,
formal nod, to which Shaw scowled back.

“Lowery,” he groused.
“What’re you doing here?”

Flashing the brightest grin
he could manage, Brick answered, “Rhea called.”

Face draining of color, Shaw
stared out at him a good twenty seconds before croaking. “She did? I
thought...I thought...She said she was going to do the injections.”

With a lazy shrug, Brick
said, “Meh. She must’ve changed her mind then, because I’m here to fuck your
daughter senseless for the next two weeks straight in your basement. So...if
you wouldn’t mind stepping aside, sir...” He tipped his head, motioning for the
older man to get out of his way.

Shaw just stared at him, his
jaw going hard, and eyes flint silver like daggers. “Over my dead body,” he
uttered in a deadly soft voice.

Unable to prolong the joke,
Brick threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, my God. Relax, old man. And get
your pervy head out of the gutter.” He pulled his gaming system out from behind
his back. “I’m here to keep her company while she goes through her
confinement.”

“You are such a little shit,”
Shaw muttered, his jaw still taut though his shoulders had relaxed with relief.

Brick flashed him a
flirtatious grin. “And yet you haven’t killed me yet; so somewhere in there,
you must love me, anyway.”

“I wouldn’t count on it, kid.
I may kill you yet.”

“Dad?” the most beautiful
voice in the world called from inside the house, interrupting their
conversation. The tenor made something inside Brick stir, and his bear lifted
its head, its ears perked and anxious to hear her again. “Is that Brick I
heard?”

“Yes,” Brick answered for her
dad, learning past Shaw to holler into the house. “I’m here for you, baby.”

Shaw scowled at Brick and
shoved on his shoulder, trying to push the bear back onto the porch. But Rhea
appeared in the foyer behind him, and everything in Brick focused on her. He
didn’t even hear her father’s low warning growl.

Seriously, for a human, Shaw
Griffin had some freaky animalist qualities.

“Oh, Lord. Daddy, let him in
already. I invited him here.”

“
Him
?” Shaw turned to
arch her an incredulous glance. “You could’ve had anyone come stay with you
during the next few weeks, and you chose
him
?”

“Hell, yes she did.” Brick
nudged Shaw out of the way and stepped into the foyer. “Because the lady’s got
taste.” Sweeping her up with one arm, he pulled Rhea off her feet and hugged
her close, making her amazing tits smash against his hard chest, as he spun her
in a circle. Her familiar evergreen scent enveloped him, and he grew a little
stiffer in his pants, just as he always did when she was near.

“Hey there, sexy kitten.”
Sniffing at her neck as he set her back on the ground, he took a deep breath
and shook his head. “I don’t smell any funky pheromones yet. Are you really
about to begin your heat, or did you just want me to come over and...play?”

When he sent her a lascivious
wink, she rolled her eyes and slapped his arm, even though she grinned the
whole time. She loved it when he flirted and over exaggerated his affection for
her, but she never took it seriously. “Oh, behave. Dad really does know how to
dispose of a body.”

As she hooked her arm though
his and pulled him away, deeper into the house, Shaw growled after him. “I’d
listen to the girl, Lowery. She knows what the hell she’s talking about. Just
ask her first boyfriend...if you ever find him. Which you won’t.”

Brick merely glanced at the
human over his shoulder and blew the older man a kiss before a chuckling Rhea
yanked him around a corner and down a hall. “You just can’t help egging him on,
can you?”

“What?” Brick asked
innocently. “He loves it.”

“God. You’re thirty-two years
old, Brick Lowery. When are you ever going to grow up?”

“Whenever you admit you’re
madly in love with me,” he answered and accentuated exactly how immature he was
when he smacked her tight ass as he followed her down a staircase into the
basement den.

“Keep on dreaming, big boy.”
She laughed some more as she turned around to punch him lightly in the chest.
“And hands to yourself.”

“Hey, my fingers slipped.” He
lifted his hand in surrender only to reach out and tickle her with his free arm
that wasn’t holding his Xbox. When she screamed out yet another laugh and tried
to wiggle free, he captured her under his elbow and refused to stop tickling
her...anything to keep his hands on her. “Oh, sorry,” he kept saying. “They
slipped again.”

“Brick,” she shouted and
finally elbowed him in the gut to break free. Breathing hard from her
struggles, she shoved her messy hair out of her face and sent him a feral
glare. “You really are too much sometimes.”

He grinned and shrugged,
slipping his hand into his pockets. “But you still love me.”

“I don’t know why.” Turning
away, she strolled to the television and turned it on as if ready to set up his
gaming system that second.

But hearing her admit that
she did love him—in any capacity, even just as a friend—stirred up his bear. It
didn’t help when she bent over, messing with the wiring in back of the
entertainment system, and showed him just how nicely the back of her blue jeans
stretched over her perfect ass.

His cock hardened, and he
shifted his weight from one leg to another to readjust himself. As she straightened
and turned around, he dropped his hand from his crotch, sending her an innocent
smile.

“Ready to set this baby up
already?” he asked. “I guess now I know exactly why you called me over. You
just wanted me for my toys.”