Chasing His Bunny (18 page)

Kasim had really stepped up
to the plate when it came to helping Bailey out while Bethany was
busy... Vivian was like a shark scenting blood when it came to
pushing the two of them together.  Lacy whispered to Bethany
that Vivian and her husband Arthur had never had children so Vivian
took it upon herself to mother
everyone
.  And she considered
herself the resident matchmaker.  So far neither Bailey nor
Kasim seemed to be interested in doing more than flirting, but that
was okay. He wasn’t the only one Bailey was flirting with either,
but he didn’t seem to mind, so it wasn’t like they were fated mates
or anything. Besides, they would have known right away if they
were, the way Steele had known with Bethany.

Despite Vivian's pushy personality,
she and Bethany got along incredibly well.  It helped that
Vivian was balanced out by gossipy, flaky, friendly Edith, and shy,
sweet Lacy.  

Everything would be perfect... except
that she knew her mate was hiding something from her.
 

Whenever she went to visit
Mr. Too-Good-To-Be-True? at work, he would come rushing out to meet
her outside his office door - which he always closed behind
him.  As if he didn't want her to even be able to look in
there.  Which, considering how fucking awesome Bethany was
being about meeting his ex-lovers, she was pretty ticked
about.  Just what was so bad that he didn't want her to know
about it?

There were also the occasional phone
calls that he always took outside.  Or in his home office,
which was soundproofed, much to her dismay.  Not that she'd
tried to listen in.  Well, she hadn't tried really hard,
anyway.

Even Bailey agreed that he was being
kind of sketchy, although she insisted that he would have a
perfectly logical reason for his behavior, if Bailey would just
talk to him about it.  But Bailey also worshiped the ground
Steele walked on, and she just didn't understand how hard it was
for Bethany to talk to Steele about this.

Anything else - hell
yeah.  They talked about anything and everything.  He
told her about his sisters - Violet, Iris, Rose, Lily and Pansy -
and the way his parents spoiled them.  They talked about how
his father had taught him to be both an alpha and a wolf, and why
he'd eventually started his own pack without actually meaning
to.  It had just kind of happened when he'd created the town
and then his soldiers had started wanting their mates to live with
them, and they'd all needed basic services, and it had just
eventually become a small town, filled with all sorts of
shifters.  That was, in part, because Steele was happy to
accept any kind of shifter into his pack - which was probably why
they all accepted the Bunsons so easily.  There were all sorts
of shifters, from Jacqueline the honey-badger to Walt the camel to
Brian the manatee (who was, strangely enough, afraid of
water).  It was the only place a bear-sized bunny could
possibly hope to fit in.

Which was why she was so
afraid to talk to Steele.  She didn't want to lose what she
and Bailey had here... whatever he was hiding, it had to be
bad.  He'd told her pretty much everything else about his life
and his work, no matter how embarrassing or awful it
was.

The man had even admitted
that his real name was Stephanotis.  Yeah, that's right, like
the flower.  Just like his sisters.  He'd trusted Bethany
with that - after swearing her to secrecy, she couldn't even tell
Bailey - so what did he feel he had to hide from
her?

She didn't think he was
cheating on her or anything like that.  They had sex in every
position imaginable, at all times of the day, and (if that weren't
enough reassurance) she was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to
block that through the bond.  And yes, he was definitely
blocking something from her, but all she was able to pick up a low
level of consternation and a tiny bit of guilt. 

It was driving her fucking
insane.

So really, it was nobody's fault but
his that she did something a little crazy.

"Ouch."

"Shhh," Bethany
hissed. 

"These vents are too fucking small,"
Bailey mumbled.

"Shhhh!"

Bethany was regretting bringing her
sister along, even though she'd wanted Bailey there for moral
support. 

They were breaking into Steele's
office.  He thought they were at the florist's, learning about
flowers from Edith's daughter Maybelle, but Maybelle was covering
for them.  She was a sweetheart, just like her mom, although
much less flaky than Edith was.  Of course, Edith was retired
and Maybelle was running a shop, so that might have something to do
with it.  It was easy to be flaky when you didn't have any
responsibilities.

Unfortunately, moving through the
vents in Steele's building wasn't as easy as anticipated. 
Bailey was taller and had longer limbs than Bethany did, and so she
was having much more trouble moving along.  

"Ouch!"

"You should shift,"
Bethany whispered, poking Bailey’s ankle.

"What?"

"Shift!"

"Oh... why didn't I think of that?"
 

A couple seconds later, Bailey's
clothes crumpled, empty, and the little white bunny nosed its way
out of the cloth.  Bethany sighed.  Great, now she was
going to have to drag Bailey's clothing along as she moved. 
Bailey twitched her nose, like she had come to the same realization
and was laughing inside.

The good news was, they moved a heck
of a lot better now, even with Bethany having to drag Bailey's
clothes.  They'd both dressed in identical black pants and
t-shirts - not that anyone could see them, but it just seemed like
the right outfit for sneaking.  She'd even put a black knit
hat over her blonde hair.  It made her feel very
ninja.

Of course, none of that mattered now
with Bailey's fluffy white ass hopping through the vents.  She
was moving a lot faster than Bethany, being careful to stay as
quiet as she could.  When she slowed down, Bethany knew that
they must be getting close to Steele's office.

Her heart pounded as Bailey stopped
and she drew closer.  Part of her wondered if she really
wanted to know what was going on... but she knew that if she didn't
find out soon, she was going to explode all over her mate and not
in a good way.

******

"So we can kill him now,
right?"

This was the fifth time that Steele
had asked that question in as many days.

Ever since Eli's men had picked up Dr.
Montgomery, Steele had asked that question once a day after Eli had
called him about the information they'd gotten from the
doctor.  The answer had always been no.  Granted, Eli was
doing a pretty good job of gathering information from the man, but
the protective, vengeful side of Steele wouldn't feel comfortable
until the man was dead and no longer a threat to his mate or her
sister.

Worse, he couldn't tell
Bethany that her ordeal was fully over yet... because Dr.
Montgomery was still alive.  Not only that, but the only
people he would give any information to were her brothers; which
meant that her siblings were coming in contact with their tormentor
every day.  It was obvious that his real interest was in the
females though, especially Bailey.  He always asked about
them, although he seemed to understand that he wouldn't get the
chance to see them.

Even if the fucker asked
to see the women, and Eli somehow agreed, Steele would say
no.  He didn't care if they didn't get another word out of the
man after that.  It would just be one more excuse to go ahead
and turn him into wormfeed.

Eli rubbed his hand over his face,
including the scruff that he'd allowed to grow on his cheeks, which
was very unlike him, and Steele growled, already knowing he wasn't
going to get the answer he wanted.

"No."

Banging his fist on his desk, Steele
glared at Eli's face on his computer screen.  The polar bear
shifter averted his eyes.  Not a good sign.

"How much longer does this asshole get
to live?"

Silence.

Eli continued to look away from the
screen, his expression growing guilty.

Oh hell no.  

"
We're letting him live?!
"

"We don't have a choice," Eli said
quietly, finally looking back at the screen and meeting Steele's
eyes by the power of the internet.  His green eyes were tired
and... kind of sick looking actually, as if he were disgusted with
himself or ashamed.  "We need him and his
research."

"You mean the research he conducted by
experimenting on my mate and her siblings."  The wood of
Steele's desk creaked ominously as his fingers dug into it.
 

"I'm not saying what he did was
right.  We all know it wasn't... but we need his results," Eli
said steadily.  He sounded like he was repeating something
he'd learned by rote, something that he'd had to say over and over
again - to others and to himself. 

The creaking of Steele's desk was
getting louder and then an explosive crash echoed through his
office as dust, drywall, and pieces of metal went flying everywhere
and high pitched shrieks pieced his ears.  Eli's voice,
shouting and asking what was happening and if they were under
attack threaded through it all.  

The air was thick with
white, chalky dust of the broken drywall as Steele pulled himself
back up from where he'd instinctively ducked underneath his desk,
gun from his drawer in hand.  The fluffy mass of fur now
sitting in the middle of his office sneezed, bunny ears pressed
against its back and shoulders rounded, looking ashamed of itself
as Steele sighed and brought himself up to a standing
position.

"It's fine, Eli, I'm fine,
everything's fine," he said, picking up his computer and turning it
so that Eli could see the giant bunny now sitting in the middle of
the office.  If bunnies could blush, this one would.  A
small coughing noise and then Bailey suddenly appeared beside the
big bunny, using her sister's puffy, dust-covered fur to cover some
of her nudity. Steele felt a headache coming on. He sighed.
 "Say hello girls."

"Hi," said Bailey with a little finger
wave and a weak smile.  Bethany's nose twitched.

Putting the lap top back
down, Steele grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair and
tossed it to Bailey, before stripping off his shirt and offering it
to the larger bunny.  Bethany immediately transformed,
shrinking down and grabbing his shirt from him.  Neither of
the Bunson sisters were really all that comfortable with nudity,
although they tried to pretend otherwise.  Steele found
himself amused and aroused by it, since it meant seeing Bethany
naked was something special... tantalizing... and definitely not
where his mind needed to go right now. 

Looking up at the hole
in his ceiling, he closed his eyes, pinching his fingers over
the bridge of his nose where a headache was definitely
forming.  The fucking air vents - meant to be an escape route
if it became necessary for the office to be evacuated and the
normal exits were unavailable, and, of course, his mate and her
sister were using them to spy.  He could only guess that
they'd overheard enough of what he and Eli were talking about to
piss Bethany off enough to shift, and the ceiling couldn't handle
the weight of a giant, armored bunny.

"Um, sorry."  Bethany's voice was
small and a tiny bit of anxious fear pulsed through their bond,
which Steele reacted to immediately.  

His eyes popped open as he
held open his arms, and she immediately ran into them for a hug and
reassurance that he wasn't
really
 mad.  Looking
around at his office, which looked like it was covered in a very
light layer of snow, he could only shake his head.  It didn't
matter how much chaos his mate created, it didn't change his
feelings about her one bit.  Even if he was going to take it
out on her ass later.

Apparently reassured, Bethany pushed
away from him a little and looked at the computer screen where Eli
was watching with an expression of bemusement on his face.
 

"So, what's this about needing Dr.
Montgomery?"

******

Nothing like losing control of her
anger and crashing through the ceiling.  She'd been doing so
well at hiding her emotions from Mr. Hiding-Things-From-His-Mate up
until that point too.  Unfortunately just the thought of Dr.
Montgomery's research being used had pretty much thrown her into a
blind rage and she'd shifted, and her and Bailey's stealth
operation had literally come crashing down around them, leaving her
clothes shredded and Steele's office a chaotic mess.

Now, safely wrapped in her mate's arms
(and appreciating the fact that he was just as pissed as she was),
she glared at Eli.  The admittedly attractive head of the
shifter security specialists Steele's men worked for was looking a
little worse for wear, his guilt evident on his face, but he didn't
back down either.

"We need his research and,
unfortunately, that means we need him," Eli explained, not sounding
very happy about it.  Bailey moved over to stand next to them,
Steele's jacket covering everything from her thighs up. 
Somewhere in this mess, her clothes should be fine, but that wasn't
exactly the priority right now.  "While we managed to get a
lot of information from The Company's files that we took from the
lab, and the doctor has told us as much as he knows about The
Company, when it comes to his research, he kept a lot of it in his
head.  We can't build off his results without him and that's
what we need to do."