Scottish Werebear: A New Beginning: A BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Scottish Werebears Book 4) (8 page)

The sensation subsided, so he opened his eyes again, just in time to see Jamie's other gloved fist fly at his face. That did it. Matt's body twisted and morphed, and within a split second, he was no longer the half-naked man, shivering against the cold of his cell, but a magnificent beast, towering over Jamie's still human self.

"Enough!" Matt growled, his right paw raised in the air as though he was about to strike.

Jamie lifted his gloves up in defeat. "Fine. How about we take a break, huh?"

Almost instantly, Matt's limbs and torso contracted again, and the fur made way for smooth skin once more.

"I gotta tell you, if you keep going through clothes like that, we're going to run out," Jamie remarked, nodding down at the pile of torn fabric on the floor.

Damn
. Matt averted his gaze. He just wasn't getting it. He knew it was just practice. He knew his brother posed no real threat, and yet his body refused to believe it.

"Tell me again how long it took you to get the hang of this?" Matt asked.

"Pfft... I don't know. It's been a while."

"Do you remember when it first happened? The change, I mean."

"I think I was about fifteen. Dad had just started training me a couple of months earlier. I couldn't wait to finally shift. It seemed like the most exciting thing in the world to me. To finally grow up," Jamie said, a wistful smile playing on his lips.

"Oh yeah? I can tell you it freaked me the hell out when it first happened to me."

"That's just because you didn't know."

"Yeah, and it hurt like hell too," Matt added.

"Well, that's there. Those early days were pretty painful."

Jamie handed him another pair of track pants, which Matt accepted with a nod. He put them on and sat down on the floor resting his head in his hands. It just wasn't right. He was in there, being held essentially against his will, and in trying to fight the exact thing he'd been suppressing for all of his adult life, he'd shifted more often in the past forty-eight hours than he had done in years.

And meanwhile, he couldn't get one specific image out of his head.

Leah's expression when she'd seen him in her bedroom. The sheer terror in her eyes. It hurt, knowing he'd added to her ordeal by bursting in there looking like a big furry monster. He had to fix it somehow. But how could he do that while he was stuck in here?

"Anyway, how long? How long do you think it'll be before I can go back home?" Matt asked.

Jamie frowned at him, his head cocked to one side just like he used to do when they were kids, and Matt said something stupid. Just that look made him want to transform all over again and roar.

"You're not ready."

"Fine, I'm not ready, but you gotta gimme something! I've got responsibilities, and I'm losing my mind here," Matt argued.

"Bullshit, you've got a human girlfriend who is under close watch by Margaret and the rest of the team ever since you recklessly exposed the existence of our entire race to her," Jamie retorted.

"How was I supposed to know what I could and couldn't expose when nobody bloody told me what I was, huh?"

They stared each other down, two grown men who were bickering pretty much like how they used to fifteen years ago. In the end, it was Jamie who backed down.

"Look, I can understand the situation you're in, but you've got to understand that these people-" Jamie gestured at the door of Matt's cell; the main Alliance workspace was just on the other side. "Are scrutinizing your and her every move. If you make contact, you'll both be in trouble. You don't want that, do you?"

Matt sighed. No, he didn't want that at all. But he had to make sure Leah was all right.

"How about you focus on your training," Jamie insisted. "And I'll check in on Margaret every so often to figure out what's happening with your human."

Matt nodded. Okay. That was a fair compromise, for now.

Although he'd been at the base and interacted a bit with members of his own species for days now, it was still weird to hear Jamie talk about humans like they were so different.

Matt, who had grown up around only humans, was, of course, painfully aware of how badly he'd fitted in with them, but he still couldn't consider them the
other
. To him, it was Henry, Margaret, the rest of the team - even Jamie - who still seemed alien.

"And how about this. I've finally received the green light from the Alliance Council to let Mom and Dad know you've been found. They're thrilled, obviously, and can't wait for us all to get together once Blacke signs off on it."

Matt felt his heartbeat speed up. The revelation that his, no,
their
parents were still alive after all these years had been a good one, obviously, but he couldn't shake the worry that meeting him would be more of a disappointment to them than a joyous reunion.

He hadn't exactly grown into the sort of person - bear - they would have wanted him to.

"What's up? you don't look too happy to hear that?" Jamie asked.

"Nah, I am," Matt said, but realized immediately he'd failed to hide the doubt in his tone. "I just don't think I'm all that, if you know what I mean."

"Shit, are you kidding me? You're alive, which is pretty much all they've wanted all these years. And finally, I can show face at home again as well."

Matt had to grin. "Yeah, after over a decade of being the son who lost their other son?"

"Something like that." Jamie shot him a wry smile.

It was a rare thing, to recognize weakness in Jamie. He put on a hard front, but this little glimpse made Matt wonder if perhaps he wasn't the only Argyle boy who had grown up a little messed up.

"So. Ready to get back to your training? The sooner you get the hang of this, the sooner we can all get back to our normal lives," Jamie said.

"Sure, just one more thing. Is that why you go by Abbot?"

"I didn't want to have to go through the same story over and over again. In these circles, everyone has heard of the Argyle abduction case..."

Matt remembered how weird it was to feel everyone's stares when he'd first been faced with the Alliance team. "Fair enough."

"You know what?" Jamie asked.

"What?"

"You and I just had an entire argument without you sprouting fur or claws. That's not bad at all." Jamie grinned at him, then, without prior warning charged at him, pushing Matt against the wall with a loud thud.

It hurt, and the concrete might as well be covered in ice, but instead of responding with aggression, Matt focused on another image. Another source of calm. The image of Leah balancing an impossible number of little parcels in her arms on the way to her car.

He had to get through this. And if Jamie indeed managed to keep an eye on what Margaret was up to, perhaps it wouldn't turn out so bad.

She was fine; she had to be. Leah was a strong woman, and once he got back home, he'd explain everything to her.

Matt saw the next blow coming from the corner of his eye and ducked out of the way, causing Jamie to hit his fist into the wall.

"Damn," Jamie growled, as he turned around.

A glimmer of something different appeared in his eyes. A fiery amber, which Matt had only seen a few times before: in his own eyes in the mirror, when he'd felt his sanity slipping away.

"Gotcha! How does it feel to be pissed off, bro? Looks like you're very close to losing control yourself now," Matt quipped.

Jamie frowned. "Very funny, just you wait 'til I get you again, little one."

Matt scoffed. Little one? Matt was at least as tall, if not taller than Jamie was. And they were both built, more so than regular humans.

He stood his ground for the next attack, both his feet planted firmly on the ground. This time, when Jamie hit him, he felt it rattle his bones despite the gloves. He wanted to turn; he wanted to retaliate so badly, but he didn't budge. Only the slightest flutter passed over his skin, its texture changing only for a moment, before morphing back into its usual, human appearance.

"Better. And again," Jamie ordered.

Matt took a deep breath, fighting with every fiber in his body against the survival instinct that had developed in their kind over thousands of years. It's common wisdom in the human world, not to suppress your emotions, and yet that's exactly what this training was about.

How stupid this whole secrecy thing was, anyway. Everyone was afraid of the unknown, so if the objective was not to create fear in humans, wouldn't it actually make sense to be transparent?

None of this would have ever happened if people had just been honest with Matt while growing up. And now he had to pay for it, in this cold, dark, horrible place, with his very own brother trying to rile him up.

Ridiculous.

Matt's jaw tightened as he withstood another one of Jamie's assaults.

"Good job. Keep this up, and we'll be able to progress to the next stage: outdoor training," Jamie remarked.

For days, Leah had been keeping too much of an eye on the house next door - Matt's house. And yet, she hadn't seen the slightest curtain twitch or sign of movement at all.

It was nerve wracking.

By Thursday, his weekly grocery delivery came and went, and his door didn't open for that either.

That was the last straw for Leah, who had started imagining all sorts of horror scenarios.

What if he hadn't been ignoring her, but something bad had happened to him? What if he was unwell or worse and unable to respond to her repeated messages - or the doorbell? What if more of the same people who had come into her house to take her, had also broken into his place and successfully abducted him before those weird black commando gear people had turned up? But to what end?

It just didn't make sense, and not knowing where Matt was or what he was up to was driving her crazy.

So finally, before the delivery van from the local supermarket had even pulled out of their road, she picked up the phone for one last message.

"If you don't respond, I'm reporting you missing with the police."

She bit her lips and waited, tears stinging in her eyes. How long she should wait for, she wasn't sure, but it was all she could think to do.

When the phone buzzed, about a minute later, she got so startled she almost dropped it to the floor.

"Don't do that. Everything will be explained in time."

From terrified, Leah reverted to being angry. So all this time he had just simply chosen not to answer her! The nerve. And what a weird, impersonal reply as well!

Fine. In that case, she didn't need to concern herself with this bullshit anymore.

Leah threw the phone onto the counter and started work on the order she should have been focusing on instead of obsessing about Matt.

Day after day went by, and Leah kept on feeling low. It was like all the joy had been sapped from her, like nothing could make her smile.

And all because of a guy she hadn't even properly met.

It wasn't that she didn't have work to do and just set idle all day. Not at all. She had plenty on her plate. It was just that after a whole day of keeping busy, she had nothing to look forward to anymore. That's what she told herself anyway.

She had never had a large friend circle, only keeping a select few people close. Over the years of working at the call center, with all those night shifts, those few friends had drifted apart as well, so she'd mainly interacted with her colleagues.

In this new place, she had nobody. She certainly wasn't about to count Carrie as a new friend, no matter how often she chose to drop by for a chat - something that had been happening every other day or so since Matt's disappearance.

Leah hadn't told Carrie much about her contact with Matt, only that she'd left him a note to say hello. But for some reason, Carrie must have been suspecting something. That was why she kept coming over, kept prying, however subtly for information about Matt.

It was weird.

Still, the days kept on passing drearily, and Leah started to get used to the emptiness left behind by the uninhabited house next door.

On the tenth night, another strange, windowless van pulled into the street. It was late, so the neighbors would probably be asleep, but not Leah. She was making herself a hot chocolate in the kitchen and happened to be looking out the window when it happened.