Southern Shifters: Bearing the Ink (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Black & White Book 3) (7 page)

Chapter Seven

“You shouldn’t have come here.”

“That’s an understatement,” Luke muttered from the edge of the front room. “Come to see if the wolves your father shot are dead?”

Beck turned his head to the side in an effort to address Luke. Bex could see the move was a struggle for him. “I know nothing about that.”

“Pardon me if I don’t believe you.”

“Stop.” Bex’s voice was solid, strong, full of an authority she didn’t feel. Beck caught her off guard by showing up at her house and she didn’t know what to make of it. If his father followed him to Dandridge, there was no telling what would happen. “Do you want me dead?” she asked Beck.

“What?” Beck shifted his head around again to face her.

“Do you want me dead? Is that why you’re here? Are you hoping your father trails you and comes in with guns blazing? Because you being here puts all of us in more danger than we were already in.”

“No. I don’t want you dead. You were almost my daughter. You were
her
daughter. I meant what I said. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about you since you left. And if anyone put you in danger, it was you by coming to see me.”

“It wasn’t you. We didn’t know you were there. All these years, no one knew you were alive. We were there to talk to your father.”

“He’s not going to tolerate conversation with you. He doesn’t want to talk to you, to any of you. He’ll be unreasonable simply because you’re different. You’re the epitome of loss, all of you. What I lost. What he lost because of it. It’s become his mission, his obsession. So, whatever you hoped to gain by talking to him won’t do you any good.”

Bex believed him. “Do you know he came to see my mother from time to time while I was growing up? She always sent me out of the room. It angered him to see me, but sometimes I hid in the hall, listening.”

“He did? He never told me. What did they talk about?”

“Most of the conversations were about the bear and what she remembered, if she’d remembered anything new, if he ever said anything that would help your father find the rest of the shifter family. She always told him no. I don’t know if that was the truth or not, but she always told him no.”

“Did you have a good life? Did she?”

“She was ostracized for the most part after the rape. Some thought it was because of the inn, because there were so many strangers during tourist season, and she was a pretty woman alone when you were away on business.”

“I… I never meant…” Beck visibly swallowed and his hand tightened on his cane until his knuckles were white with strain.

“You don’t see it, do you?”

Beck looked up with his good eye as Gus stepped in and sat next to Bex. She was grateful for his nearness. He took her hand, and Beck’s eye settled on that move, then focused on Gus’s face. “See what?”

“She looks like you, too.”

“She can’t. She looks like him.”

“She’s got Rex’s eyes, yes. But she’s got your nose and the hair color is what I imagine was once yours when you were younger.”

Bex and the damaged man across from her stared at one another. Gus was right. She and Beck had done this same staring thing earlier in the day, but she hadn’t seen it. “That’s what you saw, wasn’t it?” she asked him.

“I didn’t trust that it was possible. I thought it was a trick of my mind.”

“But it’s not.”

“I don’t understand. How could I be the child of three people?”

“I don’t know. It can’t be possible. It shouldn’t be possible.”

“One thing we know, that we all don’t quite understand, is that shifter DNA is not easily explained. It has to mask itself in some way to keep the human at the forefront. Some are stronger than others. Some are terribly weak. The strain from the bear shifter that Bex has is very strong.”

“I want to know about your mother. I don’t care right now about anything else. I want to know about her. I missed her so very much all these years.”

Heartache and sadness filled Beck’s good eye and pulled at the working corner of his mouth. If she looked at the undamaged side of his face long enough, she could see the man her mother had loved. “She missed you, too. Every day. Even to the end. Especially then. She talked about the plans you’d had together.”

“I was surprised she kept the inn.”

“Your father tried to talk her into selling it, told her that he would buy it, but she wouldn’t let it go. She said it was the last thing that the two of you had done together and that she was going to keep it for that reason.”

“He wanted her to leave.”

“I kind of thought that. Maybe he was afraid she’d find out about you being alive. It amazes me that he was able to keep it quiet all these years. That no one knew.”

“Only those who worked for us knew and they were bound my confidentiality agreements. And I… This is the first time I’ve been out of the house without him, without a nurse, without guards, without the cover of darkness in twenty years. That’s how important this was to me.” He looked to Gus again. “You love her?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe, man.”

“Can you keep her safe? He’ll come for her. She’s the prize. He doesn’t think I know and I didn’t want to believe it, but she is.”

“Why?”

“Because you weren’t mine.”

“But she is yours. None of us know the first thing about the intricacies of DNA, but for paternity tests to be so inconclusive, for her to have not only her mother’s features, but those of two men. I don’t know and I don’t understand, but she is yours too.”

“Your father… He sent those tests all over the world. He wanted definitive proof one way or another. He kept coming back to mom. Each time looking for more answers when the scientists and the doctors couldn’t give them.”

“Can you keep her safe?” Beck asked again.

Gus nodded. “I can keep her safe.”

“I should go.”

“It’s late. You can stay.”

“No.”

Bex looked up at Luke, who’d thankfully been silent for a time. “This isn’t your house. It’s mine and he can stay.”

“He’ll lead his father here.”

“Then the Mayor will show up that much sooner, but he stays.”

“Then he hands over his phone and whatever else he has that could compromise us more than it already has.”

“He’s right,” Beck said softly. “I’ve compromised you enough.”

“You shouldn’t have driven here and in the darkness, I can’t let you go back. My mother would never forgive me if something more happened to you. As odd as it may seem, you are safe here. No one will hurt you.”

* * * * *

“We can’t trust him,” Luke hissed.

“Like we couldn’t trust you in the beginning? Like you still don’t trust us now?” Gus hissed back.

“That’s different.”

“The hell it is. And she’s right. This is her house. All of us are guests here and at any moment she could order us all out. Even me.” He didn’t believe that. Gus knew Bex wouldn’t toss him out on his ass. She could. But she wouldn’t.

“So we’re all supposed to just sleep the night away while who knows how many hunters are bearing down on us?”

“No. We’re supposed to take turns watching, standing look out, prowling. We’re hunters, too. We’re not without our own strengths.”

Luke scrubbed his hands over his face and Gus could sympathize with the gesture of frustration and exhaustion.

Gus stood against the fence while Luke plopped down on the back steps, looking weary. “All I wanted when I came to you, was new space to seek out mates, to find others, to bolster my pack’s numbers and health. I didn’t want a fucking war with humans.”

“None of us wants that, but what did you think would happen when you brought this to us? When you came with pasts and histories and theories?”

“I know. You’re right, I know. And it’s here, isn’t it? We’re going to do this?”

Gus nodded, as weary as Luke. “We don’t have a choice. You brought us this information, too. You wanted to new land to roam, but you brought us answers, too. You’ve forced me to see things I didn’t want to see, forced me to stay when I’d have run from the attachments and entanglements. I just wanted her. I didn’t want all this other shit. I just wanted her.”

“But I couldn’t leave well enough alone, could I?”

“Nope.” And while Luke had opened the doors to a lot of questions and given Gus’s adoptive family some closure, however reluctantly and selfishly it had been given, he’d also given Gus more reasons to stay. “Do you want first watch or second?”

“First.”

Gus didn’t argue. “I’ll spot you in four hours.”

“I can take it longer.”

“Not if there’s a fight coming to our door. We need to be as sharp as possible. Can you send a couple of your wolves out to patrol the edges of the city?”

“Yes. Will other bears be coming?”

“Yes.”

Gus glanced up to see his mother standing at the back door. “Who?”

“Your father is coming with others he’s known for many years.”

“When?”

“They’ll be here in the next few hours. Blake is coming from Roanoke. His uncle is coming from a small area south of Asheville”

“Who’s Blake?”

Gus groaned. “He’s a son of a bitch. Grumpiest fucking bear alive.”

“Not anymore, Gus and you know it. He runs a summer campground and his uncle runs a winter ski resort. Blake’s parents were killed when he was young like Gus.”

“Why aren’t they killing the young? If they’re killing the parents, why not the cubs too?”

“Maybe they figure the cubs would die on their own without a mother.”

Luke shook his head as though trying to make sense of it all. Gus understood. He’d been trying to make sense of it all for more years than he could count back from. “I’m going to have a look around.”

“If something happens…” Gus started the sentence, but knew he didn’t need to finish it. Luke stood from the steps and slipped out the gate to the street. “Where’s Bex?” Gus asked, closing the door to the kitchen behind him. He’d lock it, but Luke was out there. No one would get in without the wolves knowing.

“She’s upstairs. She’s got that young man settled into a room. He’s in pain and there’s nothing we can really do, but she got him some of what we gave the injured wolves earlier. She’s a good one, Gus. She’s a real good one.”

“I know.” He pulled his mother close and kissed the top of her head. He didn’t know what he’d do if anything happened to her. He loved her and she’d loved him from the moment she took him home with her when he was just a lost, orphaned cub. “You’re a good one, too.”

“To put up with you and Michael bickering all these years, yes I am. Get some rest, Gus. Hold that girl tight.”

He watched as she went into one of the rooms that they’d yet to tackle in the renovations. Nothing had been in days. Week? Hell, Gus had lost count of the last time they’d done anything to the house. Michael had helped some, but shit just kept getting pushed aside.

He found Bex in the bedroom they shared. She was curled on the bed, facing the far wall, still dressed in shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt. “Pretty girl?”

“I’m awake.”

“You okay?”

“Tired. Tired of wondering when life will get back to normal. Tired of there being surprises every time we turn around. I’m just so damn tired.” It was the most honest answer he could have hoped for and it was the answer that pissed him off the most because she shouldn’t have to wonder and wish for the normal life. She should already have it.

“How’s your leg?” he asked, moving toward her and kneeling on the floor to look into her face. He brushed hair from her cheek. He’d do anything for her. He hoped to hell she knew that.

“It itches some, but it’s fine. I like it.”

“Good. Let me tend to it and then we’ll get some sleep.”

“I can do it if you’ll show me how.”

“I know you can, but I want to do it. I want to take care of you.”

“You do.” She cupped his cheek in a mirror of how he cupped hers. “You do, Gus. I’m not going to break though.”

“No. You’re not. You’re strong and capable. But it’s okay to lean on me.”

“I have and I will.”

“Good girl.”

Chapter Eight

It was the smell of bacon that woke her. It should’ve been the fact that it was later than eight in the morning. It should’ve been the inherent danger they were in that woke her. But no, it was the smell of bacon.

Part of her wanted to stay in the bed and another part of her wanted to get up and get something to eat, particularly some bacon, before all the food was gone, before the arguing started, before the reality of danger set in again.

She slid out of bed, padded to the bathroom for a quick shower. Standing naked, waiting for the water to heat up, she looked down at the ink on her thigh. The surrounding skin was still red and a little sore, but the trail of paw prints from the outside of her knee traveling up her thigh in a sort of meandering pattern made her smile.

How had she been so lucky to meet someone like Gus? How had she been so lucky to walk out of the bank several months ago, broken hearted and seeing nothing but gray all around her, and to have found every speck of color in the world in Gus?

Her life had changed in the blink of an eye. Okay, in the blink of several eyes. And it continued to change. All. The. Time.

Hot water cascaded down her body and she couldn’t stop the moan when she shampooed her hair.

Her mother used to say sometimes that nothing felt better than being able to wash one’s hair. It had made her feel more put together, better able to tackle all the shit at hand. That one simple act made her feel better in the midst of whatever crisis was currently happening around her.

Bex couldn’t disagree with that at the moment. In fact, under the spray of the shower, she didn’t wash her hair once, but twice and when she stepped out onto the towel at the base of the tub, she did feel decidedly better. Clean. Composed. And ready to tackle a plate of bacon.

Grown men littered the downstairs.

And there were at least two she didn’t recognize at all. But they zeroed in on her and before she could speak, she was blindsided by a woman she didn’t recognize, but who wrapped her in a tight, unrelenting hug.

“Leah, you might want to let the girl breathe now,” said the large man prowling Bex’s future front parlor.

“Right. Sorry. I’m Leah.”

Bex tried for a friendly smile. “Rebecca. Everyone just calls me Bex, though. I’m sorry, but who are you?”

“I’m Blake’s mate. He’s the one that won’t stop pacing. We’re from Roanoke. Blake’s uncle is a friend of Martin. He thought you could use some friendly faces.”

Bex eased her stance a little. They were bears. Leah was a beautiful, short and curvy red head and Bex wondered if her fur would be red too when she shifted. Blake was the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome. They made an interesting looking pair, but when their eyes connected, Bex saw it all over Blake’s face. He’d kill anyone who harmed the red haired female shifter. He’d kill them and not think twice about it. “Nice to meet you both. You wouldn’t happen to know where Gus is at the moment, would you?”

“Give it a second and you’ll be able to follow the yelling out front.”

Leah giggled beside her. “Blake had been out there, too, but he kept wanting to tear into that one wolf, ummm… Luke, I think is his name.”

Bex nodded. “Ah yes. He’s such an endearing creature. Please excuse me.”

Instead of the front porch, though, Bex walked into the kitchen. Meryl and Mary stood, one at the sink and one at the stove. Gus’s mom turned her head and smiled. “Good morning, sleepyhead,” she greeted Bex.

“Morning. I’m sorry about that. Gus should’ve woken me.”

“He was up hours ago taking the second watch.”

“Second watch?”

“He and Luke took turns last night keeping an eye on things. With the human here, we couldn’t be too careful about things.”

Bex nodded. She felt foolish. She should’ve realized they would do something like that. She should have been up and involved. It was her house. It was her responsibility.

“Hey,” Mary said. “Don’t worry yourself over it. I heard you shifted for the first time yesterday. That’s a big thing and it’s only natural that you’d be exhausted. That kind of thing isn’t easy to get used to. We’ve got everything handled around here.”

“She’s right. You’re part of a family now, honey. You’re not alone.”

“I know, but…”

“But nothing.”

Bex snapped her lips shut. The two older women weren’t going to let her win the argument. “When did you get here, Mary?”

“Earlier with Blake and Leah.”

“Oh.” Was she supposed to call her Grandma or something? Bex didn’t know, but she didn’t want to offend the older woman, either. She’d have to worry about it later. “Where’s Beck?”

“He’s on the swing. He’s been out there all morning.”

Bex snagged a few pieces of bacon from a plate on the counter and walked outside. From the backyard, she could hear yelling coming from the front of the house. Great. More things for her neighbors to dislike her over.

Beck sat on the wooden seat, pushing himself with his good leg. His face was tilted to the sky and his eyes were closed. Bex didn’t want to disturb him and she thought about turning and heading around to the front of the house, but he suddenly opened his eyes and lowered his head to look at her. “Good morning.”

“Good morning. I’m sure the bed wasn’t at all what you’re used to at home, but I hope you slept all right.”

“I didn’t sleep at all. I rarely do. I opened a window and listened to the night sounds.”

“Were you in a lot of pain?”

“Nothing more than I couldn’t handle. It was the first time I’ve cared for myself this much since… I have had a full time nurse all these years. I had forgotten what freedom felt like.”

“I’m sorry.” She didn’t know what else to say and those two words seemed wholly inadequate.”

“Don’t be. It’s funny what twenty-four hours can do, isn’t it?”

“It is, yes.”

“You have bacon.”

“Yes, do you want some? There’s so much food.”

“I haven’t had bacon since the last time I took your mother out to the diner that used to be in Bryson City. She loved their chili bacon cheeseburgers. Loved everything about their chili fries, too.”

Bex walked closer and held a piece of bacon out to him. Slowly, he took it and for the longest time, he simply inhaled the scent of it. She couldn’t blame him. She loved the smell of it, too. How much would her diet change now that she knew she was a bear? Would it change at all? She’d been part bear her whole life, just hadn’t known. How much time would it take to figure everything out when it came to the side of her that shifted into a full-fledged animal?

Beck took a small bite, moaned, then took a bigger one. Bex grinned at the pleasure she could see on his face, even through the horrible scarring. “Why haven’t you had bacon since then?”

“I’ve been on a strict diet. It’s supposed to help keep my body in good condition, at least on the inside since I can’t exercise like a normal person can.”

“Did you have therapy?”

“All kinds. Physical, mental. You name it. My father spared no expense when it came to caring for me and making sure I had the best of everything, the best care money could buy. He had enough of it. But in the end, this is who I am and who I will always be. The one who came to the house with you. Where is he?”

“I haven’t seen him since you got here yesterday. I don’t think he came back yet.”

“You’re worried about him.”

“Yes. I have this large group of people now… A family.”

“How can you accept them?” he asked softly. “How can you let them into your life, into your home knowing who they are? Knowing what they did?”

She saw no cruelty in the question, only genuine concern and curiosity. “I wondered the same thing at first. I was already half in love with Gus when it started coming out. I wanted to hate them when I found out they’d taken Gus in when his family had been killed. I wanted to hate them when I found out they were related to the man who destroyed my mother’s happiness. I wanted to hate them. I did. But she never hated me. She had me when she could have…not. She never looked at me with anything less than unconditional love. When the paternity tests came back inconclusive, your father came time and time again and asked her to put me up for adoption. Asked her to get rid of me. Even at ages when I could understand what he was telling her to do… She never would. She always told him it wasn’t my fault that things turned out as they had. And I guess that’s why. It’s not their fault that the shifter, that Rex did what he did. It’s not his mother’s fault or his aunt’s fault. It’s not Gus’s fault or Michael’s. It’s his and only his. My mother rejected him and he stalked her. That isn’t anyone’s fault but his.”

“She wouldn’t have hated them, either, would she?”

“No, she wouldn’t have. She wasn’t like that. She hated him and what he did to her, what it was always suspected he did to you, but she never hated me and she wouldn’t have hated the people inside my house or the one’s yelling on my front porch.”

Beck smiled as best as his destroyed face would allow. “They have been yelling for a while about something. I’m not sure what. There was loud banging and sawing earlier.”

Bex shook her head. “And I slept through all of it.”

“The one who attacked me… I don’t think my father saw him as anything more than an animal.”

“Did you?”

“Yes. Afterward. I was laying on the ground, blood dripping into my one eye, and I saw him. One second he was a large full bear and the next he… He wasn’t. He was a man. I saw the rage in his face when he looked down at me. He left me there. He knew I was alive, barely, but alive. And he left me there.”

“You saw him shift?”

“Yes. Is that what you call it? Shifting?”

“Did you tell your father what you saw?”

“I had nightmares about it. I don’t remember specifically telling him, but I must’ve. I must’ve said something because he hunts creatures like that, creatures like…”

“Like me.”

“Can you? Do what he did? Change from what I see to an animal?”

“Yes. The first time was yesterday. If you had asked before yesterday, I’d have said no. I’ve only known about this part of me for a very short time.” But short or not, her words seemed to make him recoil in horror at first, but as she knelt on the ground and simply watched him, his fear began to fade.

“Sometimes, in the light of day, after hours of nightmares, I wondered if I had imagined the change between bear and man. I tried to reason with myself, rationalize that I was remembering it all wrong, but the dreams were so real, so vivid and I could see it all so clearly that… I’m sorry, Rebecca.”

“Why are you sorry? As far as I can tell you’ve done nothing wrong.”

“I’m the reason my father is hunting you.”

“No. Rex is the reason. The whole reason. The ultimate reason. Maxine said something yesterday… She said you were the one behind my money for college. Is that true?”

“Yes.”

“Why? I thought I got a scholarship.”

“I did it because you were her daughter and she couldn’t afford to send you on her own. I had no use for the money, but you did.”

“You loved her so much.”

“I will always love her that much.”

“She never dated, you know. She sacrificed everything to make the inn successful and to raise me.”

“She was a good woman. And she deserved love.”

“She had it. And she always, always believed I was yours and only yours. No matter what the paternity tests said, no matter what your father said. She always believed I was your daughter and maybe that’s what got her through it.