Southern Shifters: Bearing the Ink (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Black & White Book 3) (8 page)

Chapter Nine

“So, you’re saying Rex shifted in front of him? That’s how he knew Rex wasn’t just a bear? Damn…”

“But even with just that one instance, how does the Mayor know there are others like him? How does he know the difference between shifters and full blood animals? Or does he just kill at random?”

“This is fucked.”

“I don’t see how it changes things, though. I mean, what plan did we have anyway? Were we planning to kill them? All the hunters? How does that make us any different than them if we do?”

“I don’t know.”

Bex watched and listened to the exchange between Gus, his father, Blake, and Blake’s uncle. She knew Beck would leave soon and she couldn’t help but wonder how his father would react when he returned home. How angry would he be? Would he feel betrayed by Beck? Was there anything she could do to help? Was there anything she could do to protect him? “Where’s Luke?”

“I put him to work.” At Gus’s words, Bex lifted a brow in question. “He and a couple of his wolves are out front working on the porch railing.”

“You left them there?”

“They’ll warn of us danger and it’ll keep Blake here from tearing Luke up. They’ve come close twice this morning already.”

Bex just shook her head.
Men
. Or
Shifters
. Or… Too much testosterone. Too much tension. Too much of everything that was ready to blow. “How do we stop them if we don’t know how they target? And how do we keep from turning into just another version of them? The hunted becoming the hunters?”

“That’s the million dollar question. It’s not as if the Mayor and his friends are going to just lay down their weapons because we want them to, or because we drew them out. Not like they’re going to apologize just because we put a human face to what they’re doing.”

“Not even Bex will sway them?” Blake asked. “I thought someone said she’s actually part daughter to the head honcho’s son.”

“No one is really sure what or whose daughter I am. I look like this person, can shift like that animal, was raised by that woman. I’m a freak of nature.”

“Pretty girl…” Gus’s eyes were full of sympathy and anger, his voice full of warning. The anger seemed to be winning out the longer she stared at him. It was the first time she’d seen him angry at her. It was the first time she’d taken a dig at herself.

She smiled, but it didn’t do any good. “That’s what I am, Gus. I’m a freak. I’m human. But I’m a shifter. I have mixed up DNA that is a perpetual three-way. I will always be different. I knew it as I was growing up, I just didn’t know to what extent back then. I know now. And it doesn’t change the facts. Nothing changes anything at this point. Knowledge so far doesn’t feel like power. It feels more like a burden, more like an anchor dragging me down.”

The last of her long winded statement ended on a sob. Not of sadness, but of anger, equal to what looked back at her from Gus. She’d stood and she didn’t even remember doing so. Gus stood too. “So, what? You want to give up? Run away? What, Bex? What do you want to do because whatever it is, you can’t escape who you are.”

“I’m not a who, Gus. Don’t you get it? I’m not a who. I’m a what.”

“We’re all a what if you want to put it that way. We’re all a mix of species and we’re all a what compared to full blood, purebred humans and animals.”

“We’re also a dying breed if we can’t figure out a way to bring new blood in,” Luke said from the front door. “That’s all I wanted. I didn’t want to bring a war to your house. I wanted to bring new blood, fresh blood into my pack so they could be strong again. We’re weak as shit. Humans will help us achieve that, but none are moving to the area as much as just dropping in from time to time.”

“Well, you did a good job at bringing the fight, Wolf. Whether you meant to or not. The question is, how do we fight it and are you going to stick around to the end?”

“Do you really think humans can help you survive and become strong again?” All eyes turned to find Beck standing just inside the room.

“Yes,” Luke replied. “There aren’t enough shifters to mate with. New blood always needs to be introduced in order to bolster the numbers, the immunity, the genes. We can’t keep breeding the way we are. Some of us don’t breed at all, don’t ever mate. If we keep going along that path, we’ll die out. But there are territories that are locked down for only those of pure shifter breeding. We need access to new lands, new places. We need safety.”

“I see.”

“This is hard for you, I know,” Bex said, going to Beck. “Not all are like Rex. Not all are crazed or unstable. Not all are violent in that way.” She touched the scarred part of his face and they both tried not to flinch at the contact. “You should probably go.”

“Are you going to kill my father?”

“I don’t have those answers, Beck. I can’t answer for anyone else here. I can’t say they won’t. He’s taken something from them same as Rex took something from you.”

“He…” Beck inclined his head toward Gus. “He said he would keep you safe.”

Even with Gus mad at her, she had every bit of faith in him. “He did and he will.”

“I’d like to stay. I couldn’t help your mom… All these years and… I want to stay. It might help you if I do.”

“Well, giddy up, y’all. We’re about to find out.”

Bex turned away from Beck. Outside the window, she watched as a black SUV parked along the curb. Doors opened and the vehicle emptied of grown men, one of whom had his hand wrapped in the black hair of a battered and bloodied woman. “Maxine,” Bex breathed.

“I don’t see Michael.” Gus’s father sounded angry and Bex couldn’t blame him. So many things could go sideways with goons walking around the side of her house. They were smarter than she wanted to give them credit for. No one lived on that side of the property. No prying eyes.

Bex took one step forward. Then another. Before anyone could stop her, she was out the door and around the porch. She had no idea what she was going to say or what she was going to do, but adrenaline propelled her into action. She came to a halt when a shotgun was leveled at her.

“Not so brave now are you, little girl? You wanted to talk to me. Here I am.”

The Mayor.

“Not with a gun in my face and not with you holding her like that.” When this was all over, if she was still alive, Bex was going to have to have a talk with herself. She didn’t talk to men with guns. She didn’t talk to men with guns. She didn’t negotiate with men with guns. She didn’t take her life and the lives of her family into her own hands. She wasn’t reckless.

Until…

Until she got on the back of Gus’s bike. Until she faced down a werewolf. Until she shifted into a bear.

Until she was fucking tired of her life being turned upside down.

“No other way to do this,” the Mayor said. “She’s one of them. She smells like dog.”

“I’m one of them, too. Only I’m much bigger than a dog.”

“Oh, I know. I know all about you, Rebecca.” The sneer in his voice made hate travel up and down her spine. “You’re a filthy animal like the rest of them. I want my son.”

The hammer on multiple guns sounded in her ears. Her bear was clawing to get out, much the same way it did when Luke had shown up at her house. She was furious, feeling threatened, and scared out of her mind “Let her go.”

“Not until I get my son.”

Bex stepped off the porch and wondered what the hell she was doing. Behind her, heavy footfalls echoed. Gus. There’s no way he’d let her near the Mayor without being right there with her. “He’s not being held against his will. He came here on his own.”

“I don’t believe you. He wouldn’t want anything to do with you, with any of you. You’re the reason he’s like this now. You’re the reason his life,
my
life was ruined. No, I don’t believe you.”

“It’s true, Dad. Let Maxine go. This doesn’t concern her.”

The Mayor’s face fell, sadness entering his gaze as it settled on Beck, somewhere on the porch. Bex focused on Maxine, willing the she-wolf to do something, willing her to begin easing away. But with each step Bex took, the Mayor tightened his hold, drawing wincing pain from the helpless and battered woman.

“Dad…”

“Beckham.”

“Let her go. She’s not part of this.”

“They’re all part of this. All of them. She’s one of them. Did you know that? She’s one of them. Like that other dog.”

“She’s taken good care of me.”

“She’s been using us, using her benevolence to gain information, to spy. For them.”

“And you’ve been using me. All these years, you’ve been using me to kill, to maim. To hunt.”

“Avenging you.”

“No, Dad. That was handled years ago. It’s a vendetta now.”

“You,” the Mayor hissed, “turned my son against me. You’ll pay for this. I’ll make a trade. The nurse, for you.”

“Deal.”

“No! Bex…”

“You won’t get far with me, but if you’ll let her go, you can have me for as long as they’ll let you get away with it.”

“Bex…” Beck’s voice reached her, filled with uncertainty and fear. A feeling unfurled inside her, unusual and not exactly unwelcome. She wanted to reassure him that she was all right, but she didn’t know if she could pull it off without giving her own fear away.

“You’ll be dead before anyone can catch us.”

“You willing to bet your life on that, old man?” Michael stepped into sight from the other side of the SUV, which raised more questions.

“Your mother should’ve killed you when she had the chance.”

Bex’s heart nearly stopped beating in her chest. “What?” She asked, but didn’t want the answer.

“You don’t know, do you? Figures. Once again, I have to clean up someone else’s mess.” The Mayor sighed, shook his head, annoyed. “I paid her to have the pregnancy terminated. She was there, on the table, but turned coward at the last minute. She threw my money back at me. She said there was still a chance you could be my granddaughter, my son’s daughter, and she wouldn’t do it.”

“How could you?” Beck asked, his sadness carrying across the distance from the porch to his father. There was no

“I was trying to protect you, Beckham. Don’t you see that? I was trying to protect you from seeing and hearing about and knowing the spawn of that creature was living.”

“She is part mine. Look at her. I didn’t believe it either, but look at her…”

“He’s off his rocker, man.”

“Can we kill him and be done with it?”

“That makes us no better than him if we do.”

“Y’all may be fine to leave him breathing, but I’m not. He killed one of mine and injured two others.”

The voices swirled from behind her. Blake. Luke. Martin. Others. She felt sick, broken. She’d never known chaos. She’d lived a very boring, quiet, unassuming life. She’d give almost anything to return to those times.

Almost anything…

“How many full blood animals have you killed thinking they were something different?”

“Plenty. Survival of the fittest. Killing your kind though? That’s also about survival and if you kill me, that doesn't change anything. There are others. A network. You can't stop it.”

“I can sure as hell have fun tryin’. We know all about your network. How far it reaches.”

“Stop. Luke, please…This is all so wrong. All the talk of killing. We all live and breathe. Doesn’t life mean anything to you?” she asked the Mayor.

“My life? My son’s life? You think you’re so special? You think you have a right to live and be happy when my son is mangled and our lives ruined? You think you deserve better? You’re pathetic. Your mother…”

“You son of a bitch.”

The Mayor inclined his head and smiled, though Bex wouldn’t ever say there was anything jovial about it. “You have no idea who bought that house from you, do you, Rebecca? That one you grew up in? That one my son helped pay for?”

“No…” Her tone was full of horror. She didn’t want it confirmed. She didn’t want him to say any more about anything.

“The reason you were given the key? Me. I bought it. I own it.”

Bex refused to believe it even though everything inside her told her it was the truth. “No. A couple bought it. They’re going to keep it as an Inn. They —”

“It’s gone.”

“No…” Her knees started to buckle, but then Gus came, held her up. “What have you done? Why? Why would you do that?”

“I burned it to the ground the day after you left. I wanted no reminders of you. That’s my town. I own it. I’ve erased every part of you and if you ever set foot there again, you’ll be shot on sight. Or, we can take care of that right now.”

“Dad, please…

“Son, everything I’ve done has been for you and so what happened to you doesn’t happen to anyone else’s child.”

“It hasn’t. And it’s time for this to stop. You’re not just killing animals. You’re killing people too.”

“No, I —”

“Look at them. Look. At. Them. They’re human. Yes, they’re animals. Freaks of nature, but they’re humans, too. You’re killing humans.”