Perfect Mate (2 page)

The door down the hall slammed open again, and Nell came out, this time dressed in
a sweatshirt and jeans. She still wore the combat boots, but she’d put them on the
correct feet.

Nell shoved her dark hair from her eyes and focused her glare on Eric. “You’d better
have a damn good explanation for this.”

“I do,” Eric said, his tone mild. He remained on the porch, despite the cold wind,
carefully coming no farther into Nell’s territory. “I need Cormac to be here, and
I need you to go along with it. You two mating will help me, and help you, and help
all the other bears as well.” He relaxed enough to smile, but his green eyes were
watchful. “In fact, Nell, you’ll be doing it for the good of all Shiftertown.”

On a narrow street off Charleston Boulevard, in a twenty-four-hour club that was much
more like the old, seedy Las Vegas than the slick new one, a man studied four snapshots
he’d laid out on a somewhat damp table. His beer bottle, along with another empty,
stood beside them. Across the room, a stripper—a tall, well-built Shifter woman, complete
with Collar—danced her provocative dance.

Shifter strippers were popular, because Shifter women, apparently, never minded stripping
all the way down to what was legal. They were also tall and curvaceous, with large
breasts that were all natural, and equally great asses.

Josiah Doyle—Joe to his friends—occasionally watched the stripper, but confined himself
mostly to memorizing the photos, which he’d burn tonight.

The first was of a man, Hispanic or Latino, with black hair and brown eyes. Joe’s
notes on the back of the picture said that the man was a former cop who now ran a
security company. Probably a dangerous guy to screw with. Joe was pretty dangerous
himself, but he wasn’t completely stupid.

He sipped beer and set the still-cold bottle down again. The next photo was of a gorgeous
honey of a Shifter woman, blond with light green eyes, tall and sweet like the stripper.
She was the wife—or
mate
as they called them—to the Latino. Another potentially dangerous target, because
the ex-cop Latino would protect his wife.

The third photo was another human, this one tall and thinner than the first man, with
pale skin, black hair, and eyes so dark they might as well be black too. Joe flipped
over the photo and reread what he’d written: Stuart Reid, another former cop, now
employed by DX Security—the Latino ex-cop’s firm—and living in Shiftertown.

Joe let out his breath in a slow sigh. That Shifter bear from Mexico who’d contacted
Joe had to be crazy to go after these targets. But a job was a job, money was money,
and Joe had promised himself he’d look into it.

The first three were no-goes, however. Joe didn’t kill humans, no matter how high
the price. Killing humans was murder, and murder brought with it a long prison sentence.
Joe had never gone to prison in his life, and he never intended to. He’d never even
received a speeding ticket, and all his weapons were licensed and legal.

Besides, if he stooped to murdering humans, his mother would freak. Any break in the
Ten Commandments meant a long lecture over Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner,
or Easter dinner—whichever holiday happened to be closest to the offense. For Joe,
the breach was usually taking the Lord’s name in vain or coveting something. Joe had
learned to keep his mother happy so he could eat his bird and stuffing or ham and
greens in peace.

The stripper up on the little stage was baring it gladly, and Shifter females could
bend
. His mother didn’t have to worry about Joe committing adultery with her, though,
or even coveting. She was a Shifter, for crying out loud. He might get fleas or something.

He bent to the photos again. The female Shifter in the photo was a better target,
but again, if the Latino guy and maybe even Reid, who worked with her husband, protected
her, then hunting her would be too risky. Joe might have to kill the two humans to
get to her, or kill them to defend himself if it came to it. Nope. Best stay away
from them.

Joe pushed their photos away and drew the fourth one to him. This one, now . . . This
one had potential.

The photo showed a huge male with muscle on muscle and dark hair streaked with brown.
The Collar around his neck proclaimed him Shifter, as did the look in his brown eyes.
Shifters always had a certain look, as though they really did want to knock you down
and kill you the first chance they got, never mind the Collar programmed to shock
them if they became violent.

This Shifter wasn’t married to any human, and he’d never been a cop—Shifters weren’t
allowed to join law enforcement. He wasn’t related to the Shifter woman target either.
She was a wildcat and he was a bear, and from what Joe had heard, different Shifter
species didn’t get along that well with each other.

Shifters could be killed without a stain in the eyes of God, or even in the eyes of
Joe’s mother. Shifters were animals. Sure, they walked around in human guise, but
how did that make them different from circus animals dressed up and paraded around
in front of kiddies?

The bounty on the Shifter male was set at twenty thousand. A hundred thousand for
the four, or twenty thousand for single kills. The Shifter doing the hiring obviously
wanted to encourage Joe to go for the collection.

But then, Joe had never been greedy. An honest day’s living was better than six figures
earned by deeds on the other side of legal. If he could pay his bills, help out his
mom, and enjoy his life, he was happy.

Twenty thousand was a nice chunk of change. The target looked tough, but Joe liked
a challenge.

He turned the photo over and studied the info on the back. The bear seemed to have
only one name, but Joe had heard that the bear Shifters never took last names. Weird,
but whatever.

This bear lived in the heart of Shiftertown, with his mother and younger brother,
and his name was Shane.

***

“See, Mom?” Shane said. “You’ll be doing us all a favor.”

Cormac watched the stare down between Nell and Eric. Nell could have invited Eric
inside at any time, but she stood with her arms folded and kept him outside the door.
Cormac liked that, because the arrangement put him between the two of them, Cormac
in a good place to protect her.

“For the good of Shiftertown,” Nell repeated, ignoring Shane. “Go on, Eric. Explain
that.”

“I’ve put in for a grant,” Eric said calmly. “You know we’re still cramped for housing.
We have all the new Lupines plus the extras we can’t tell the humans about.”

Cormac didn’t know who these extras were, but the others seemed to, so he kept silent.

Eric went on. “We need more space for the Lupines alone, but the humans will pay for
only so much housing. Even with Iona—she’s my mate, Cormac—cutting costs for us at
her mom’s construction company, it’s tough to get more funding approved. Bears are
the most difficult Shifters to place. If I show I’m willing to have more bears live
here, I can qualify for a grant for more housing. So when I heard that Cormac wanted
to come here, I figured it was a good start. He can help me bring in more bears from
his clan, I can get my grant, and we solve the housing squeeze.”

Officially, he meant. Unofficially, Shifters had more room than they let on. Still,
Eric’s Shiftertown had recently had another Shiftertown-full of Lupines shoved in
with them, the humans having closed one in northern Nevada to save costs. Even with
the extra underground rooms humans didn’t know about, ten Shifters to a small house
was still a tight fit.

“Speaking of housing,” Nell said. “Tell me he’s bunking with you.” She jerked her
chin at Cormac.

Eric gave her a smile. “Nope.”

Nell’s brown eyes widened with anger. “Oh, no, you don’t, Eric. I have barely any
room as it is. Shane and Brody take up a lot of space, and I have Reid staying here.”

“Yeah, Mom, but notice Reid’s
not
here,” Shane said. “He’s spending nights down the block with his girlfriend, and
you know it. We can give Cormac Reid’s room—good incentive for Reid to move in permanently
with his sweetie. Who’s a bear,” Shane added to Cormac. “In fact, she lives with the
Shifter females we rescued from a crazy Shifter down in Mexico. Peigi is the only
bear, but I know the others must be ready to find new mates—mates who are sane, that
is. So if it doesn’t work out with my mom . . .”

“Shane,” Nell snarled. “Zip it.”

“I’m just giving the poor guy options,” Shane said, undeterred. “Since you’re not
welcoming him with open arms.”

“Cormac stays in your house, Nell,” Eric said. “It’s a good plan. Reid can move in
with Peigi and her roommates—he can help protect them against unwanted attention,
and I’m guessing I’ll be doing a mating ceremony for him and Peigi soon.” He gestured
at the torn-up kitchen. “Besides, looks like Cormac’s handy for putting up the new
cabinets.”

“Why do I even have new cabinets?” Nell asked. “Are you trying to bribe me with a
spontaneous kitchen makeover?”

“This is courtesy of Iona’s construction company,” Eric said. “Your old kitchen was
falling apart. Iona got the new cabinets and the countertops at cost. You can thank
her later.”

“I’m sure your mate and I will have a big talk later,” Nell said.

“Yeah, well, you and Cormac talk it out first.” Eric stuck his hands back into his
pockets. “Then come see us.”

Eric turned around, an alpha’s signal that the conversation was over. He walked away,
back into the growing dawn, and no one said a word or tried to stop him.

The others watched Eric, but Cormac kept his gaze on Nell. Behind the anger in her
eyes, he saw confusion and even terror. He’d have to go slowly with her, reveal the
other reasons he’d been looking for her when the time was right. The letter in his
back pocket burned him, but Nell could only take so much. The letter had been hidden
this long. What was another few hours?

Nell had retreated into a hard shell, and Cormac would have to crack it, little by
little, to show her how warm it could be outside. But he could be patient. He’d learned
patience at an early age, because patience meant survival.

Nell didn’t look at him. “Shut the door, Brody,” she said. “It’s cold.”

She turned on her heel and walked back into her bedroom, once more slamming the door.

***

Nell was going to skin Eric, and then Cormac. Maybe even her sons, the grinning idiots.

The banging and drilling had resumed in the kitchen, Shane’s and Brody’s voices added
to Cormac’s. Since when were her two terrors so anxious for their mother to mate again?
They’d pretty much driven off any other male Nell had cast her eyes on since they’d
all moved here.

No, to be honest, Nell had driven them off. But she’d had her sons’ approval every
time.

Of course, all the males she’d tried to date had been Felines, Lupines, or even humans,
when she could meet a human tall enough. No bears, because this Shiftertown had a
shortage of unmated bears. Eric hadn’t been wrong about that.

A grant, my ass.
Eric did what he wanted and didn’t wait for humans to give him the money to do so.

Nell peered into the mirror as she brushed her unmanageable hair. At least she didn’t
have many lines on her face, in spite of having raised her sons on her own, alone
for most of that time. She didn’t look a day over a hundred.

Shifters didn’t show age much until close to the end, and many never made it that
far—at least, they hadn’t in the wild. Hunters, starvation, and death in childbirth
had taken out most Shifters before they ever reached their third century.

Nell was nearing her hundred-and-fifty-year mark, her sons both just at their first
century. Cormac was younger than she was. While Shifter bodies didn’t show age, there
were other ways to tell. Scent, body language, and the eyes.

Cormac’s eyes said he was older than Shane but not as old as Nell. About halfway in-between
probably—say a hundred and thirty. And he was mateless. She wondered if he’d had a
mate before and had lost her, but she hadn’t had time to look at him long enough to
search for traces of a broken mate bond.

Another way Shifters died in the wild was by giving up. Surviving became too much
for them, especially for a male who’d decided to forsake his clan. Young Nell had
found it romantic at first—she and Magnus hiding from humans, fighting to stay alive,
relying on each other as mates.

Bears were pretty solitary anyway, but Magnus had quarreled with his clan, and so
was completely alone. Nell had been too far from her own clan to be able to rely on
them. No good roads or airplane travel in those days, and trains came nowhere near
where Nell and Magnus hid themselves, and so they’d strived to make it on their own.

Fine until the stress and fear had wearied Magnus. And so he’d found a way to end
his pain, leaving behind a frightened female grizzly, only ten years past her Transition,
to raise two small cubs all on her own, hundreds of miles from anywhere.

Nell’s anger and grief at Magnus’s betrayal was as sharp today as it had been a hundred
and thirteen years ago. Nell remembered her wails of despair when she’d stumbled across
his body, how the bear in her had come out without her being aware that she’d shifted.
She’d howled long into the night, holding her dead mate, thinking nothing would ever
stop the pain that flooded her.

Nothing, that is, until she’d heard the terrified cries of her cubs, hunting for her,
calling for her. Brody and Shane had given Nell a reason to live, a reason to bury
her grief and get on with life.

Nell thunked down the hairbrush and scowled at herself. She was getting maudlin, and
she didn’t have time to wallow in the pain of the past.

She left the bedroom, striding down the hall again, pretending to ignore everyone
in the kitchen, even when the three stopped and silently watched her go by. She walked
out the back door into winter sunshine, the air cold but not icy, and turned her steps
down the common land that ran behind the houses, heading for Peigi’s.

She sensed as well as heard Cormac come out the back door and follow her. He didn’t
bother to be stealthy about it. Cormac’s even stride told her he was coming after
her because he wanted to, and he didn’t care if she knew it.

“Thought you were anxious to get my kitchen fixed up,” she said when he reached her.

“Plenty of time to get it done today, with your sons’ help. I wanted to see more of
Shiftertown.”

“Why? This place isn’t much different from any other Shiftertown.”

“Sure it is,” Cormac said. “The one in Austin is full of bungalows about a hundred
years old. In Wisconsin, half the Shiftertown is in thick woods. More bears and wolves
up there than Felines. All this open desert makes me crazy.”