Southern Shifters: Bearing the Ink (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Black & White Book 3) (9 page)

“That’s not who they really are and I’ll see them all dead before it’s over.”

“Then, you’ll have to kill me too. I’ll protect her as best I can.”

“Beckham, I’m your father. I’m ordering you…”

“And she’s partly mine, she’s the only remaining link to the woman I loved. If you won’t stop and call off your men, I have no choice but to stay.”

“So be it. Maybe I should have let you die.”

Beck’s hurt traveled from the porch and filled Bex with rage, all without him saying a word. Then again, maybe it was her hurt that fueled the rage, piggybacking off the pain that she knew Beck had to feel. “Get off my property.”

“You bought this place with my money, money I paid for the sale of the other one. I own you. And I’ll enjoy killing you.”

The growling from over her shoulder caused goose bumps to form on her skin. It was the first time she’d actually felt protected. She knew she was, had been told she was, but to feel it? That was different and made her stand up just a little bit taller, filled her with pride and confidence.

“You heard the woman and I’d listen if I were you,” Luke drawled. “See, she’s a new shifter and unpredictable. She gets all riled and growly. It’s not pretty. Then again, if you’d like to stick around, I’m sure you’d make for a tasty meal.”

Bex hid the smile and the eye roll that Luke’s words brought to the surface. He was being reckless and out of the corner of her eye, she caught the ripple of his skin. Was he going to shift? They might be somewhat secluded from neighbors, but Luke shifting in broad daylight? They couldn’t afford for him to do that.

“She doesn’t scare me. None of you scare me.”

Luke snorted. “Of course we do. How many people have you shared your knowledge of shifters with? How many people have you ratted us out to?”

“More than I’ll ever tell.”

“Sorry, dude. Your pops has to go.”

“Dad… Just leave.” Beck’s voice carried, filled with panic. “Please. I don’t think he’s bluffing and I don’t think he’ll care who sees. A fight on the lawn isn’t what anyone wants.”

The Mayor stared at his son and Bex could only imagine that Beck stared back. She wasn’t going to chance a look over her shoulder. She wasn’t going to take her eyes off the men and weapons in front of her. She’d never been close to a gun and having more than one leveled at her set her nerves on edge.

Gus’s hand settled on her hip, held her steady. Could he feel the blood thrumming through her body? Could he feel her fear, her uncertainty, her revulsion for the Mayor when the man’s eyes settled on her again.

Where they’d been filled with pain and sadness and regret as he’d stared at Beck, when he looked at her, there was nothing but hate and traces of the fear Luke had alluded to.

“Get off her property,” Gus gritted out. “As you warned her, if you ever take a step in her direction, I’ll rip you limb from limb.”

“Animal,” the Mayor spat. “You’ll be hearing from me. Before I go…

Two men who’d stood beside the Mayor’s car, opened the back door and pulled a man from the seat. They tossed him to the ground and flung Maxine on top of him, pulling groans of pain from both. Bex flinched, but didn’t make a sound, tried not to betray anything with her facial expressions.

“Her brother.” The Mayor looked up from crumpled couple. “Consider it a peace offering. The one and only that you’ll get from me. Remember what I said. If I see you again, I’ll kill you.”

* * * * *

Gus and Blake lifted Maxine’s brother from the ground. The young man was breathing, but barely. “He needs a hospital,” Blake muttered, only loud enough for Gus to hear.

“I know. But I don’t know that we can risk it.”

“He hasn’t shifted…”

“But the blood work alone would cause questions.”

“This is some shit.”

“Yes.”

When they got in the door, Michael, who’d picked Maxine up and carried her inside, knelt on the floor beside the pallet that had been laid out. Gus had to assume his mother and Mary had prepared the different pallets of blankets lying around the downstairs rooms. They’d prepared for casualties.

Gus swallowed against the lump in his throat. He never wanted this. Not for himself and not for Bex.

She’d turned out of his arms the second the Mayor and his men had driven off. She’d started shutting down. The shock to her mind and to her emotions wasn’t anything he knew how to deal with. So, he’d let her go, assuring her that he and his brother would take care of their new wolf guests.

He and Blake gently set Maxine’s brother on a pallet where she could see him. Michael brushed her hair back from her face, pain and anger etched lines across his brow and in the thin set of his lips.

He might not be willing to admit it, but Gus’s brother was sweet on the she wolf. Wasn’t that going to be a hoot when Michael realized it?

“Gus…”

He looked up at Luke, who stood in the same exact spot, just inside the front door, where he’d been when the Mayor arrived.

Gus walked over to him. “What are you planning?”

“Can I see you outside?” Gus nodded and followed Luke back out to the porch. “I don’t say this. Ever. So, listen and listen good.”

“Okay.”

“I'm sorry,” Luke said in a rush, his words hard and full of regret. “I’m sorry I brought all this on you and Bex. Especially her.”

“It needed to come out. The past is never easy and it’s never truly the past if we don’t have all the answers.”

“I almost raped a woman. I almost did what Rex did do. I almost did… Today was hard on Bex. This whole thing has been hard on her. It’s been an awakening for me.”

“She’d kill you herself if you told her.”

“Probably. The wolves wanted to.”

“Who? Who did you almost rape?”

“A human. Believing she would be strong enough to… I have no excuses. I was pulled off her before I could…”

“That’s why you’re after new lands, or at least land that’s not already heavily populated. You really do believe it’s possible.”

“Bex is proof. There are others who are proof as well. But I needed to show you, show your family that it is possible. That humans are strong enough to carry cubs and pups. I also… Bringing all this to light is my way of trying, my small way of trying to make amends for what I did.”

“You’re just always full of surprises. Why are you telling me this? Now? Why are you…?”

“I’m going hunting. I’m leaving Tip and Ben here to recover and help out where you need them. I’d ask you to come, but I know you can’t leave her.”

Luke was right about that. Gus wouldn’t be leaving Bex for any reason. “You have unfinished ink on your back.”

“And I’ll let you finish when I return.”

“I gotcha. Stay safe, Blackwood. The Mayor will be gunning for you.”

“I know. If I can keep him and his fellow assholes out of Deal’s Gap, I’ll sleep a little more sound. I owe them that for not killing me when they should have. Too many shifters live there, roam those woods. I have to keep them safe.”

“You’re sentimental,” he teased, but found some respect for the Wolf, too. Teasing him also allowed Gus to keep his worry, his concern for Luke to himself.

Luke rolled his eyes. “Take care, Bear. I’ll see you soon.”

“You better bring donuts back with you.”

“Man…" Luke stomped off the porch. “What the fuck is it with you and donuts?”

Gus laughed and watched Luke’s shadow fade into the brush across the street. He heard a howl, and nodded, though no one could see. Would he see Luke Blackwood again? As unlikely and unwilling as he was to go so far as to call it friendship, Gus hoped like hell the werewolf came back uninjured and alive.

Chapter Ten

“You’ve been really quiet the last few hours.”

“Not much to say.”

“Bullshit, Bex.”

“Okay. I’ll give you that. What do you want me to say? Tell me what’s appropriate for this situation and I’ll say it.”

“Anything?” He didn’t like her defeated tone, the way she lay so silent on the massage table while he worked some more on her tattoo. “We’ve all got targets on our backs. Your mother’s lover is here, in your house and taking your side over his father.”

“And Luke is gone.”

Gus stiffened. “Yes.” Jealousy wasn’t something he was familiar with and he wasn’t sure it was jealousy he felt, but something connected Luke and Bex, had since they met. He hadn’t been able to figure out what it was. He wasn’t even sure he wanted to know. He didn’t doubt her feelings, her devotion to him, but he wished to hell he knew what her tie to the werewolf meant.

“What do you think is going to happen?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you think he’s gone after the Mayor?”

“Yes. I think he has. I think he’s gone back to Deal’s Gap to gather some more of his pack and will go after the Mayor.”

“Should we go, too?”

“No. My job is to keep you safe. He said he’d kill you on sight if he ever saw you again. I can’t let that happen, Bex. I can’t lose you like that.”

“I know. All I wanted was a new start, in a new place. I just don’t understand how all this happened. I was supposed to lead a normal life. A normal, human life.”

“I wish I knew what to say.” Words had never been his strong suit. His size, yes. His ink, too. Both often spoke for him. He showed up, did his job, rode away. Until Bex, speaking wasn’t something he did too much of, neither was getting close. Bex changed all that for him in the blink of an eye.

“I guess there’s nothing really
too
say, is there? So much has changed. Nothing will ever be as it was before. I lost my mother to an illness no one can control. I sold my home to a madman. I fell in love.”

Gus’s heart stopped. His gut tightened. His cock hardened. Everything he never knew he wanted was given voice in those four words. I fell in love. She fell in love. With him.

His hands shook at the gravity, the seriousness, the humbling effect she had on him. He’d never expected to feel or have someone, anyone feel that way about him. He never expected to be part of a family, part of… At all. He never expected to want to until he met Bex. Now it was all he did want. A life with her.

She was the mate he shouldn’t have had.

He laid a gentle kiss to her hip, above where his hand held her steady. “And that you’re a shifter?”

“Nothing in life could have prepared me for that.”

And that’s where he faltered, where he felt the most guilt. “You weren’t prepared for me, either.”

“No.”

“You know, if it hadn’t been for me…”

Her hand cradled his cheek, and her thumb traced the line of his lips. More than anything, he craved her touch, her gentleness, her goodness, her heart of gold. “I don’t regret you or leaving Bryson City with you. Stopping in Deal’s Gap for coffee, maybe…”

Gus smiled and licked the pad of her thumb that hadn’t left his lips. “Nah, you can’t regret that,” he said softly. “Donuts, pretty girl. Donuts.”

She laughed. Exactly as he’d hoped. He hated the shadows in her eyes and he’d seen and witnessed far too many of them these last weeks. “I’ve never known anyone so in love with donuts.”

He shrugged. “They’re really good donuts.”

“We’re going to be okay, aren’t we? I feel like I ask that question a lot, but every time you assure me that we are, something else happens or blows up, I’m left reeling again and wondering what the hell happened to my life. Nothing is ever as it seems anymore.”

“No. But when we get to the other side of it, you won’t be wondering that anymore.”

“I like the sound of that.”

“What do you think about Beck being here?”

“It’s weird. I know he’s doing it because of my mother. He loved her that much. I thought that kind of love was only in fairy tales and movies.”

“I think he’s doing it for more reasons than that. I think he wants to know you, Bex. A man doesn’t defy everything he’s ever known, the only family he’s ever known, because of sentiment. He’s still here because of you. He came all this way for you. Not for her. Sure, maybe he feels he owes her something, but he’s here for you. I don’t think I’m the only one who’d take a bullet for you.”

“I’d rather no one did. He really wanted me dead, didn’t he? Beck’s father. He hates me.”

“He hates something he doesn’t understand.”

“No. He hates
me
. He blames
me
. If my mother had terminated —”

“Don’t…” Gus had to bite his tongue to keep from roaring like an animal. When he’d heard the Mayor say that to Bex, tell her that he’d paid her mother to end her pregnancy; he’d wanted to tear the man limb from limb. “She didn’t. And that wouldn’t have solved shit, pretty girl. He’d have still been angry. He’d have still been out searching, hunting, killing. So, don’t do that to yourself. Please don’t do that to yourself.”

“Don’t you do it to yourself?” Bex sat up on the massage table and shifted to look him in the eye. “Don’t you ever think that if you’d died instead of your mother, or father that —”

“That what? That I’d have been better off? That at least one of them would have been able to go on? Yes. Yes, god fucking dammit, I do. I do think about that. It’s why I travel, why I don’t set down roots, why I avoid all the entanglements. It keeps those I love safe. It keeps Michael alive. It keeps them all alive. Shit, Bex…”

“Do you want to leave?”

God, the heartache in her voice… “No. I don’t want to leave you. I will never want to leave you. You’re the one reason in the world that makes me want to be anywhere. My real parents will never be coming back. No matter what I might wish or hope, they’re never coming back. Someone killed them. Someone left me alive and took my parents. It makes me angry. It makes me hurt so deep down inside that I couldn’t breathe for a long damn time.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around her midsection, rocking slightly back and forth. She was hurting inside and he had no words to make it better.

“Don’t be sorry. We’ve talked about why I tattoo, why I ride? Because it’s how I deal with the pain. It’s how I express how I feel, what I think. It’s how I keep myself safe.”

“But if you don’t leave…”

“I’m not ever leaving, so stop thinking anything about it. Things are different now.” He smiled at her. “Things were different the minute I saw you in the middle of the street.”

“I know. For me, too.”

“Good. I love you, Bex. I love you so damn much. You’re mine and I’m yours. Period. Now… Smile for me.”

And she did. A small one at first, but the longer he stared at her, the bigger her smile became until she was grinning and her eyes lost some of their heavy sadness.

“So, now that you’re smiling, let’s talk about something good.”

“Okay. What do you have in mind?”

“Well, this house… Given what the Mayor said about the money, do you still plan to stay?”

“Yes.”

“Still plan to turn it into a bed and breakfast?”

“I don’t know. Do you still plan to stay?”

“I do. As long as you’ll have me.”

“Only til about forever.”

“I can live with that.”

“What do you want to do? Work on bikes? Tattoos?”

“When everything settles down, I’ll start looking into some places across the lake. I think I want a bike shop with a tats place attached.”

“Why across the lake?”

He pulled her off the table and into his lap. “I’ll be less tempted to come home at lunch for a quickie.”

“What would be wrong with a quickie?”

“I don’t think we need your guests thinking we run a brothel, if you still open it as an inn.”

“The neighbors already think we’re trouble.”

“We’ll get them sorted out. Invite them for a barbecue or something.”

“Can it work, Gus?” Her smile faded “Us? In the long run? Will we always be looking over our shoulders?”

“Most people don’t know shifters exist and those who rant publicly about us are often thought to be nuts. So, no. I don’t think we’ll always be looking over our shoulders. I think once the Mayor and his crew are taken care of, we’ll be able to live long, happy lives.”

“I’d like to get started on the happy part.”

“Me, too”

The clearing of a throat brought both their heads around to the attic door. “When the two of you are together, you seem happy already.”

“We keep trying,” Gus said. “How are you doing, Beck?”

He slowly inched into the room. “I honestly don’t know. I feel numb. I’m sorry about my father. I know that doesn’t make up for it, but that's all I’ve got. He’s been so wrong all these years. I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to see it.”

“He has to be stopped.”

“Yes.”

“You don’t have to stay here.”

“Where would I go? I… I don’t mean that to… I will need to find a nurse. And I have money of my own. I will not stay here long.”

“I don’t mean that you have to leave, but I don’t want you to feel as though you have to stay. Mom would never forgive me if I turned you out and I would never forgive me, either. In whatever way, you are part of me. You are welcome here for as long as you want.”

“Thank you. Most of your friends have been kind and as welcoming as can be expected. And it’s more than I deserve.” Beck turned away, but then turned back, a blush on his skin. “Oh, I was also told to tell you there’s food.”

Gus chuckled. “That would be my mother not knowing what to do with herself. Thank you. We’ll be down soon.”

“Are you sure you want that?” Gus asked when Beck was gone.

“Want what? Him to stay?”

“Yes. I want him to stay. Even if he leaves, his father isn’t going to stop.”

“No, you’re right. He’s not.”

“I think my mom would want me to get to know him and I would like to know him.”

“Okay, pretty girl. Then get to know him, we will.”

“You’re really with me for everything, aren’t you?”

“For everything. Through everything. Yes. I am here with you.”

Bex nodded and planted a lingering kiss to his lips, one he savored, took inside himself, to remember this moment. “We should probably get downstairs, yeah?”

“Yeah. Or my mother is going to be up here. And we don’t want that.”

“Have you ever thought about asking her to make donuts?” Bex asked when they started down the stairs.

“Nope. Maybe I should…”

“Or, maybe we should take a drive down to Sweet Retreat.”

“Mmm. And then, maybe we should stop at the pond for a little…shifting.”

Bex laughed and nudged him in the ribs with her elbow. “Maybe.”

They were going to be okay. He had to believe that. He had to make her believe that. He had to be stronger than he’d ever been before. He had to make good on his promise to himself, to her, to Beck. He would keep her safe. He would take care of her.

She was his life now. She was his reason.

And anyone who wanted to get to her, would have to go through him.

But he wasn’t going to make it easy. He wasn’t going to let her put her life on hold, either.

For the time being though… His mother had cooked enough for a small army and judging by the shifters gathered around the downstairs rooms of Bex’s house, a small army was a fitting description.

The time to join ranks had come…