Bear's Heart: BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance (Bear Heat Book 5) (9 page)

As she began to put her
brother's laundry into the washing machine, Baxter called from the
living room, “You shouldn't mother him, Jade. Let him do his
own chores! Don't spoil the boy.”

“But this place is a
mess,” she answered as she poured in the laundry detergent and
switched on the washing machine.

“Let him live in his
own mess!”

Jade came out to the living
room to see Baxter sitting on the sofa with his feet on the coffee
table. He was watching a rerun of a daytime soap opera and seemed
very interested in knowing who the tycoon's wife was having an affair
with. “Do you think it's the poolboy or the nextdoor
neighbor?” Baxter asked, his eyes riveted to the screen.

“I think it's the
butler,” she said.

“They don't have a
butler,” Baxter answered automatically before his lips quirked
in a crooked smile. He cocked his head at her and smiled. “You're
a lot like Dylan. You have the same kind of wry humor.”

Jade laughed and turned away
to hide her blush.

She left Baxter to his
daytime soap and went to look out the window. Luke's apartment was
on the tenth floor and she could see the street quite clearly.

She caught sight of Dylan's
car turning into the street. The car stopped a short distance away
and Luke bounded out of the car bearing three pizza boxes.

Dylan's car moved off in the
direction of the car park and Luke jogged merrily towards the
building. She watched her brother, noting how broad and muscular he
had grown. Luke had always been fit and athletic, but now his build
was solid and powerful.

Her baby brother had really
grown up. He had grown into such a handsome, honorable, brave man.
She felt so proud of him.

As she gazed at her brother,
she caught a movement at the corner of her eye.

She saw a white-haired man in
a cap shuffling along with a rolled-up newspaper under his arm. He
was hunched and looked elderly and frail. But inexplicably she felt
goose pimples erupt all over her skin. She felt so cold, and she
felt the tightening in her chest, as though a fist was squeezing her
heart viciously.

“It's him,” she
wheezed. “Rickson...”

He had bleached his hair
white, and he had gotten rid of the beard and the scar. But it was
him. She remembered his frame and his height. And the determined
way he hurried forward.

He had a mission. He had
murder on his mind.

Rickson held the newspaper up
and pointed it at Luke, who was still walking towards the building.
Luke looked like he was whistling as he spun one of the pizza boxes
on his finger. He was always doing that to his textbooks as a
teenager, spinning them expertly on the tip of his finger, throwing
them in the air and catching them neatly on his finger again.

Jade's scream was lodged in
her throat as Rickson took aim with the newspaper. She knew there
was a gun hidden under that rolled-up newspaper.

While everyone was protecting
her, thinking that Rickson was coming for her, he had been training
his murderous sights on another target.

In his mind, she had caused
him to lose something that should have been his.

He wanted her to feel the
same devastating loss. And he wanted her to suffer for a long time.

Killing her wouldn't prolong
her pain.

But killing her brother
would.

They had protected her,
guarded her round the clocking, thinking she was the target.

But the real target was Luke.

“No!” she
screamed as the gun went off.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE

Dylan was out of his car and
running hard for Luke. When he dropped Luke off, he had seen the man
with the newspaper. The man's face was hidden under his cap so only
the tips of his wispy white hair could be seen. His shoulders were
hunched but the way he moved told Dylan that the man wasn't old.

Instead of driving off to the
car park, Dylan pulled his car to a stop just behind a tree. Just
when he opened his car door silently, he saw the man raise his
newspaper at Luke. In a heartbeat, Dylan was off like an arrow,
flying straight for the shooter.

He leaped on the man just as
he fired. The shot went wild, and Luke spun round, miraculously
still keeping all the pizza boxes balanced.

Dylan rolled on the ground
and pinned the man down. The man tried to turn the gun on Dylan but
Dylan knocked the gun out of his hand and smashed his fist into the
man's jaw.

The man's head lolled and he
went limp. Luke ran up and yanked the man's cap away.

“He doesn't look
anything like Rickson Moore,” Luke said, staring at the man in
disbelief. “He looked like a harmless old man. I didn't pay
any attention to him. Shit!”

“I made the same
mistake when I was a rookie,” Dylan answered, still holding the
man down. “Appearances are deceptive, and I was deceived good
and proper.” Dylan glared at the man's wrinkled face and
muttered, “He really is a master of disguise. Almost fooled
me.”

The man seemed to have lost
consciousness, and Dylan loosened his grip for a second to tap at his
watch.

A second was all it took.

Rickson's eyes flew open and
there was a flash of silver.

Dylan roared with pain and
staggered back. There was a deep wound in his abdomen.

Rickson had scrambled up, and
he was holding a dripping dagger in his hand.

Dylan pressed his hand to his
wound but the wound wasn't healing. He had been stabbed with a pure
silver blade, and the blood wouldn't stop flowing.

Rickson crouched and smiled
as he stared at Dylan's bubbling, pouring wound. There was a
vicious, demented glint of triumph in his eyes as he lunged towards
Dylan, his dagger raised high.

Luke rushed forward, his
claws out, but Dylan pushed him away. Dylan raised his arm to block
the blow, but the searing pain threw him off balance. He couldn't
see quite so clearly and his reflexes were slower than usual.

The blade sliced across his
forearm and face, and Dylan fell back. Rickson kept charging and
attacking like a deranged animal, that sinister smile frozen on his
face.

When Dylan stumbled, Rickson
bared his teeth in a victorious smile and plunged his dagger down.
Luke barreled forward to protect Dylan.

The silver blade was arcing
towards Luke's chest, towards his heart.

Dylan gave a warning cry, but
even as his blood pumped out of him, he knew that Luke wouldn't be
able to heed his warning in time. He knew how Luke fought, and Luke
hadn't learned to fight dirty. Not yet.

Dylan used all his strength
to throw himself forward. His blood was gushing out of his abdomen
and he could feel the wound widening and tearing. But he could still
move quickly. He had to. If it was the last thing he did, he would
save Luke's life.

Dylan felt the silver burn
his skin, his flesh, his muscles as it plunged straight into his
chest.

He almost passed out from the
agony, but he forced himself to finish the fight. Lashing out, his
hand caught Rickson's wrist, and he roared to Luke, “Now!”

His strength was rapidly
fading but Dylan refused to let go. He held Rickson firmly so Luke
could make the kill.

Luke had been Rickson's
target. Luke's death would torment and break Jade. The bastard had
wanted to destroy Luke and Jade Keller, the two people who had
Dylan's heart.

He loved them. He realized
it now.

He loved Jade as his mate.
And he loved Luke as a brother.

Dylan heard a terrible roar
and opened his eyes to see Luke tear out Rickson's throat with his
claws

Dylan's hand dropped to his
chest and his fingers closed around the hilt of the dagger.

Gritting his teeth, he
wrenched the silver blade out of his body and let the bloody dagger
clatter to the ground.

Dylan closed his eyes and
listened to the muffled, gurgling sounds around him. It was no use
trying to talk. He couldn't even let out a feeble groan.

He heard what sounded like
the screech of tires and pounding footsteps. There were voices, an
endless torrent of garbled, meaningless words. He thought he
recognized some of the voices but he couldn't be sure. Caleb? Thor?
Bax? Luke? They were beginning to sound alike.

Then he heard someone crying.
And he heard her call his name.

He knew that voice. He would
know her voice anywhere.

With his failing strength,
Dylan tried to reach for her.

Jade...my brave, beautiful
Jade.

Please d
on't
cry.

He wanted to touch her face
and dry her tears.

But he couldn't feel his
hand, his arm, any part of himself. He was fading away.

Don't cry, Jade.
Don't
cry.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR

Jade shook her head and
refused to let go of Dylan's hand. “No, I'm not hungry. I'm
not leaving him!” she said angrily.

Aubrey sighed and stepped
back. She wrung her hands before smoothing them over her nurse's
uniform and looked worriedly over her shoulder at Cora, Prisha and
Lindy.

Cora stepped forward and
repeated gently, “Jade, you have to eat. And you have to rest.
You've been at his bedside for days...”

Jade didn't seem to hear her.
She just kept staring at Dylan's face and pressing his palm to her
lips as she murmured to him, begging him to wake up.

“We have very good
doctors here,” Aubrey said. “All the nurses here will
take good care of Dylan. I'll watch him and I'll call you as soon as
he wakes up, okay?”

Lindy and Prisha tried to
help Jade up, but she snarled at them and shook their hands away.

Cora motioned the others to
the door. “We'll leave now, but we'll be back with a sandwich
and a pack of milk, okay?”

The girls left quietly and
Jade heard the door close behind them. She didn't turn around. She
knew they meant well, and they were only trying to help, but no one
could help her right now.

Not the girls, not the clan,
not even her brother.

Luke had been hovering over
Dylan's hospital bed and over her shoulder, urging her to go home and
rest. She knew he was worried about Dylan as well, but she just
didn't want anyone else near Dylan right now. Sure, she would step
aside for the doctors, but once the doctors finished examining him,
she would swoop in and hold Dylan's hand again.

He was hers. No one else
would touch him.

Dylan had protected her
brother. She had seen from the window what he did. Rickson had been
gunning for Luke, but Dylan had shielded Luke. He had protected her
brother with his life.

“Dylan,” Jade
whispered. “Please wake up. Please...stay with me. I…I
need you, Dylan.”

The Black Bears had all come
and left quietly. She ignored all their well-meaning advice, and
simply pushed them away. Their alpha and beta, Ethan and Caleb, were
the only ones who didn't try to get her to leave Dylan's bedside.
Instead, she'd heard them telling the Black Bears to leave Dylan and
Jade alone. Ethan and Caleb had offered her words of encouragement,
and they seemed to understand and appreciate her stubborn refusal to
leave Dylan's side.

Jade laid her cheek on
Dylan's large palm and closed her eyes. His injuries were serious.
The silver blade had missed his heart by inches, but the silver had
inflicted grievous damage to his muscles and internal organs.

The doctors all said that he
was out of danger. But—why wouldn't he wake up?

Why wouldn't he open his
eyes? She wanted to see his beautiful, warm, intelligent eyes. She
missed the way he looked at her. She missed his smile, his voice,
his touch.

“Oh, Dylan” she
murmured.

With her eyes still closed,
she breathed in the scent of him. She couldn't bear to be away from
him. She wanted to touch him all the time, and she wanted to be here
when he woke up.

He would wake up. He
wouldn't leave her.

Jade sighed as she imagined
someone stroking her hair. The touch was soothing and tender, and
she felt safe, relaxed, happy. Exhausted, she finally drifted off,
dozing peacefully for the first time in days.

She dreamed, and she thought
she heard Dylan's voice in her dream. She heard him call her name,
and she smiled in her sleep.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE

“Jade...”

With a start, Jade jerked up
and blinked rapidly. She had fallen asleep. Shit! Just how long
had she been sleeping?

She felt Dylan's hand cover
hers and she turned.

Dylan was staring at her, a
faint smile playing on his lips. “Jade,” he said
hoarsely. “My Jade...”