Rough and Rugged: A Meet Me In Milwaukee Charity Anthology

Chapter Seven

Beare

“Axton, please come out. Let me explain.” Since Axton locked himself in the house, I hurried back to the camper, dressed, then rushed back to talk to him. I didn’t know how long I stood there, knocking on the door, but the stubborn man wouldn’t respond.

Honks from a distance caught my attention. As I turned, trucks and cars pulled up, each towing trailers or campers. All six of my cousins slid out of their vehicles with easy smiles on their bearded faces.

“What are you all doing here? You said Friday.”

Wolf frowned. Pike, the second eldest, shook his head. Hopper started chuckling. Anson and Robin glanced down at their phones. Ambrose pointed a finger at his watch and said, “It is Friday.”

“What?” I countered, patting my pockets for my phone before I remembered that I’d left it inside the camper.

“What do you mean what? Ambrose is right. We said we’d be here on Friday, and we’re here.” Hopper gave me a thumbs up and headed to the back of his truck. “By the way, who owns that conversion van?”

My jaw ticked. Was I out in the woods for two days? Shit. I needed to let my bear out more often.

“What’s going on?” Pike stepped onto the stoop. “Wait, I thought Aunt Frances sold the property… unless the new owner sold it back to you. Am I right?” The excitement shone in his gray eyes.

“No. Axton won’t sell it to me,” I grumbled. “But we have bigger problems.”

“What’s that?” Wolf came up, carrying a large black bag, and dropped it in the front yard.

“The human. He saw me shift.” All my cousins, except for Robin, crowded me. They all talked at once until I settled them down.

Before I got a chance to explain, the front door opened and Robin, the youngest of the cousins, was standing in the threshold. “The back door was left open.”

“Shit. He took off on me.”

“This isn’t good.” Ambrose rubbed the back of his neck.

“Of course not, Sherlock,” I bit out. “I don’t know how long he’s been gone, but we all need to look for him. If he’s injured… or he tells someone…” Axton had no clue how important he was to me. Or the gravity of the knowledge he had discovered about the supernatural world.

“We get it,” Wolf said.

“No, you don’t. There’s something else.” I wasn’t sure how to explain, so I blurted it out. “He’s my fated mate.”

“What?” All six shouted at once.

“Not possible,” Pike added.

“That can’t be right,” Anson grimaced.

“It is. I smelled him. It’s so strange. I never experienced it before on any other,” I admitted.

“Not even with Hank?” Hopper asked, his upper lip curled up.

“No, thank fucking Goddess,” I growled.

“Then we’re wasting time standing here,” Wolf announced. “We’re going on a hunt.”

“Not a hunt. Do you hear me?” My alpha power surged forth, and my cousins tilted their heads down.

“Not a hunt, Alpha,” Wolf said earnestly.

Satisfied, I said, “Go get your hiking boots and packs on. I don’t want to scare my mate any more than I already have. I want Axton to see us in human form.”

“Gotcha, Alpha,” Robin responded with a smile.

It wasn’t long before we were trudging through the woods, with me in the lead. Several hours passed, and I decided we needed to shift into our beasts and go in different directions to cover more ground.

Before I shifted into my bear, I removed my clothes and tucked them into my backpack to carry in my mouth. While my cousins took the perimeter, I headed straight to the interior, and immediately picked up Axton’s scent, along with other predators.

My mate could be in danger. I didn’t waste time. With my senses on high alert, I followed his wonky trail. It zigzagged, like he was drunk. But I knew better. Axton didn’t know where he was going.

But what surprised me, Axton’s scent led me straight to the original bear den in the center of this vast forest.

When I reached the cabin I’d used not two days earlier, I chuffed. How ironic that Axton was in there. Using my nose, I sniffed the air, making sure no other predators were around.

I didn’t want to scare Axton, so I dropped the bag, changed back to my human form and quickly put on my clothes.

When I turned the doorknob, it wouldn’t budge. I grinned, as pride surged through me at how smart my mate was.

Looking through the window, the glow of the fire revealed Axton tucked into bed. The sudden need to be with him clouded my judgement, and my bear demanded we claim him that instant.

I warned my bear that frightening our mate was bad, and crashing in the door was a terrible idea. Knocking wasn’t good either. He agreed. Instead, I jimmied the window open. Even with my tall, bulky frame, I was able to climb in. Yeah, it was a creeper thing to do, but I’d rather gently shake Axton awake than scare the crap out of him by busting in.

With slow deep breaths, I took in the sweet musk of arousal from my mate.

“Beare.”

Did he say my name? I took a few more steps toward the bed, and I heard it again.

“Please, Beare. Yes, right there.”

My Axton was dreaming… sex dreaming about me. My bear was preening, but also demanding—again, to claim our mate.

I reached out to touch him, but hesitated. Before any claiming happened, I had to talk to Axton.

A subtle noise caught my attention. I went to the door and removed the chair from under the handle. I stepped outside and saw all six of my cousins in bear form.

“He’s safe. But stay shifted, and patrol the area,” I commanded. “We have uninvited guests.”

With grunts and head nods, my cousins did my bidding. I went back into the cabin, took the chair and placed it next to the bed. Before I sat, I stoked the dim fire and placed another log on the dying embers. Then I watched my mate sleep.