Chapter 9
Erick
My bear is driving me fucking crazy. While he was relatively chill last night, as soon as we disconnected the call he wouldn’t shut up.
Mate.
Mate.
MATE!
Not only can I not shut him up but I’ve been rock hard for eight hours.
Coming doesn’t help. I’ve jerked off half a dozen times this morning alone.
It’s not just an overwhelming need to claim her, it’s the scent I passed in the woods last night.
I forgot to ask Kade about it but my bear is unsettled, which makes no sense.
Those aren’t my woods, so all the scents are foreign and I picked up on dozens of wolf and cougar shifters that didn’t bother him one bit.
But this one male bear has him agitated, so much so that I’m tempted to head back to investigate.
Picking up my phone, I text Kade, even though I had every intention of avoiding him today.
Today is about me and Kylian figuring out what there is between us.
Can I help her shift, or is she destined to be human forever and therefore kept as far away from me as possible?
Can we be together without her shifting?
According to Sly, the answer is no.
Me: Are there any other bear shifters in Fortune Falls besides you and yours?
Kade: Not that live here. Why?
Me: I scented one last night between the cabin and the house.
Kade: I’ll ask the boys if there have been any visitors lately. How fresh was it?
Me: Pretty fucking fresh but I only picked him up in one area thick with trees. Not an area a full-grown bear would run through. He was there for a reason.
Kade: Mature male? Was it Perry or Peter?
Me: Yes mature and no, I’ve met your cousins and know their scent.
Kade: Fuck. Okay, I’ll check it out. Thanks for the heads up.
Thankfully, he doesn’t ask about his sister or my plans for the day. No matter how cool he is being, I doubt he would react well to Sly’s suggestion of threatening her life or fucking the bear out of her.
Sweet Fates! What a mess.
I finish making my bed and cleaning the kitchen before glancing down at my watch. I've got twenty minutes before Kylian arrives at Bearclaw Ammo. I thought it was better to have her come to the shop versus my home because I'm not sure I'll be able to control myself with a bed in view.
Mate. My bear growls again, my cock kicking against the zipper of my jeans.
She’s on her way, asshole, and if you don’t chill out you’re going to scare her.
MATE!
Now I know why rejected shifters go mad in such a short period of time. It’s been less than twenty-four hours and I already want to put my head through a wall. There is no way I’d survive two full moon cycles like this.
I hop on my motorcycle and drive the seven miles from my cabin north of town to the shop, less than pleased to see Cricket’s truck and Wiley’s Jeep in the parking lot. It’s Sunday and we’re closed. So why the fuck are they here?
One big fat guess.
I walk through the back door and find Wiley, Geneva, Bo, Cricket, and Doralee hanging out in the children’s Nerf shooting range, a round of coffee and donuts sitting on the table next to them.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I bark telepathically, attempting not to cuss in front of their mates or a small child.
Cricket swings around with the biggest smile on his face. “Come on, Bossman, you know we have to meet her.”
“How did you know she’s meeting me here?” I give up sparing their mates my temper, especially since I’m not really mad. Honestly, I shouldn’t expect anything less.
“Because you’re a gentleman and you wouldn’t ask Kade’s little sister to meet you at your home on your first unchaperoned date.” Wiley hands Bo, his mate’s five-year-old son, the reloaded Nerf gun.
“Who told you?” I narrow my eyes. It had to be Sly because I can’t see Kade telling them unless he was trying to cock block me, which he wouldn’t do. At least not like this. If he didn’t want me near his sister, we would’ve had it out last night.
“I called Sly this morning to check on Kash. He told us the whole story. Man—it’s a fucking miracle,” Cricket says.
“Ohhh! You said a bad word.” Bo giggles, completely unfazed by our filthy mouths.
Honestly, I think the only reason he calls us on it is because he always gets a treat or a dollar or something else as recompense.
At the rate we’re going, we’ll have his college tuition fully funded before he graduates high school.
“It was a sight to see, that I can confirm,” I say.
“How’s he doing? Really?” Wiley asks.
I shrug. “He’s skinny, malnourished, and quiet but before I took off last night he communicated our way, so I think he’s going to be fine.”
“Thank fu… Fates.” Cricket side-eyes Bo, who watches him with a devilish gleam in his eye. “That one doesn’t count, Bo Bo the Bear. Dang extortionist.”
“How are you, Erick?” Geneva gives me a small smile.
She and Wiley haven’t been mated for long—only six months—but we welcomed her and her son into our pack the moment Wiley recognized her as his.
On the run from an abusive ex, we knew we were going to take care of them even if she didn’t accept Wiley’s mark.
Thankfully, she did.
“I’m doing okay, Geneva.”
“The better question is, how is your other personality doing?” Wiley grins. “Is he driving you crazy yet?”
“Yes.” Grumbling, I don’t have to say more because Cricket and Wiley are already laughing at me.
“This is Kade’s sister, right? Is she a shifter too?
” Doralee asks. She and Cricket only met three months ago while working a multi-agency missing children operation that ended in the deaths of several corrupt agents.
Disgusted with the corruption, she quit being an HSI agent and came to work for Colonel Packard and SpecOps Sierra as a human inter-agency liaison—whatever that is.
I hear the rumble of a diesel engine pull into our parking lot, my bear roaring his excitement.
“That’s not an easily answered question Doralee, and I’d appreciate it if nobody brings up humans versus shifters in front of her.
Also, I’d appreciate it if you introduced yourself and then got the fuck out of here. Yes Bo, I owe you a dollar.”
“Momma, what’s a shifter?” Bo asks, reminding all of us that the five-year-old doesn’t know about our world yet. Doralee forgot that vital piece of information and in the heat of the moment, so did I.
I leave the inquisitive five-year-old to Wiley and cross the store to open the front door. Kylian is halfway up the steps, her lips curling into a dazzling smile when she looks up at me.
“Hey, babygirl. I’m glad you got here safely.”
“Hi.” She blushes and chews on her bottom lip, one that I’m desperate to suck into my mouth. Fates, the things I have thought about doing to her in the last eight hours are enough to make her brothers want to kick my ass.
“Heads up, you have a welcoming party inside.” I usher her in with my hand on the small of her back and lean down to whisper in her ear, “and the little boy doesn’t know about our world yet.”
Kylian nods. “Good to know.”
Cricket and Doralee come around the aisle first, his arm wrapped around his mate’s waist. “It’s good to meet you, Kylian. I’m Cricket and this is my mate, Doralee.”
“Hi.” She shakes both of their hands. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Bo comes running from the far end of the store with a Nerf bow and arrow in his hands. He grins at Kylian with his crooked smile that’s missing its first tooth. “You’re pretty.”
I narrow my eyes and grumble, “Back off, Romeo.”
Kylian laughs. “What’s your name, cutie?”
“I’m Bo Bo the Bear. Rawr!” He gives his standard welcome, the same one he gave us the first day he walked into the store before Wiley met Geneva and learned she was his mate.
Apparently, Bo has been fascinated with bears since he saw a documentary on them a year ago.
Considering Wiley is a wolf shifter, Kade and I find Bo’s fascination immensely entertaining.
“Bo Bo the Bear? That’s interesting.” She glances at me and I shake my head, silently letting her know that is a conversation for another day.
Geneva and Wiley walk up to the group hand in hand. “Sorry, my boy has a lot of energy.”
“It’s okay.” Kylian smiles but I notice a thin bead of sweat forming at her hairline as she stands next to me.
“Why don’t you take off your coat?” I offer and reach for her bag on her shoulder.
“All right, you two. Make an excuse and get the fuck out of here.”
“Is she okay?” Wiley has a concerned medical professional look on his face, the same one Sly had last night.
“I don’t have time to explain. If I need you, I’ll call.”
Geneva, who is oblivious to our telepathic conversation, continues on and offers her hand. “I’m Geneva and this is my son Bo. I’m Wiley’s mate.”
Kylian shrugs out of her jacket and I put distance between us by walking across the room to put it and her bag on the counter. “It’s nice to meet you all. I’ve been waiting years to meet my brother’s pack—and their mates.”
“Well, we hate to greet and run but we have a movie we need to get to and we’re going to be late if we don’t hit the road.” Cricket smacks his hands together and leads Doralee toward the back door without letting her get a word in edgewise.
“Yeah, we have to go,” Wiley says as he hauls Bo up on his hip.
“We do?” Geneva furrows her brow, obviously confused by the sudden plans she knew nothing about.
“Yes, babe, we do.” He hands me the bow and arrow and grabs Geneva’s elbow. “I hope we can have dinner or something soon, Kylian. It’d be nice to have you around.”
“Yeah, that sounds amazing.” She waves as they walk out the back door.