Chapter 3 #3
“Um. Yeah. Okay. Is, um, is there someone else I could speak to?”
“Sure there is. Here’s Sargent Mummert. Say something reassuring to the scared mom, will you, Hal?”
A moment later, Hal’s deep voice came on the line.
He said all the right things, an echo of everything Dot had said.
None of it helped. He could see the despair grow on Becca’s face the longer they went on.
In the end, she thanked them politely and thumbed off her phone. Then she looked him hard in the eyes.
“You’ve convinced them all.”
“Didn’t have to convince them. Dot’s got three shifter kids and has been right where you are now waiting for them to come through the First Change.
Hal’s not a shifter, but he was born and raised here.
He’s seen it enough to know.” He leaned forward.
“You’re not alone, Becca. We’re not here to hurt you.
In fact, it’s the opposite. We’re trying to help. ”
“By knocking me out and dragging me—”
“To where Theo is going to come. I promise, Becca, it’s a natural part of being a shifter.”
She swallowed and looked away. He knew she was fighting tears but was too terrified to let them fall. He sat there looking at her, desperately searching for a way to make this better. He came up empty, so he decided that retreat was the better part of valor.
“Tonya’s going to be here in a moment. That’s Officer Kappes. You’ll probably want to get a little more together before then. I’ll be right out here.”
“Am I a prisoner?”
He sighed. “The bathroom’s through there.” She looked toward the bathroom and he took the opportunity to lift the phone out of her hand. “And, yes, I suppose you’re trapped here for the night. We’re too short-handed waiting for Theo and Justin. No one can drive you back to Kalamazoo.”
“I’ll take a cab.”
His grizzly growled at her stubbornness.
According to it, she was here in his den and that made her his.
He even felt his shoulder blades tingle as the shift started to gather.
Damn it, she had no idea what defying him did to his sanity.
In the end, he managed to force out a curt sentence. “You can’t leave yet.”
Her chin rose an inch at that, and he could tell she was about to challenge him. Normally, he could control his reaction to defiance, but after their wrestling match, he was on the edge. One more challenge from her, and his grizzly was going to dominate her completely and damn the consequences.
“Listen carefully, Becca. This is real. We’re grizzly bear shifters. We’ll show you, but you have to calm down.”
She frowned. “You’re going to change into a bear? Right in front of me?” Thankfully her tone was less of a challenge and more like confused questions.
“Yes.”
“And you think that’s going to reassure me?”
Well, okay, she had a point. “It’s not my job to reassure you. It’s my job to keep Theo safe.”
“Because you’re his father.”
“Because I’m— What?” Jesus, she was keeping him on his toes. Throwing things at him left and right, trying to catch him off guard.
“I’m not stupid, though I should have seen it earlier.
” She climbed slowly off the bed. His grizzly tracked every nuance of her movement, ready to take her down at the first show of disobedience.
“Your frame and his are similar. The eyes are different, but not the jaw. You’ve got the same belief that you’re right and the rest of the world is wrong. ”
“I don’t think—”
“And that would explain your obsession with him. To the point that you planted Amy next door to us.”
A logical train of thought, though completely incorrect. “Amy was a lucky coincidence. And I’m not his father.” He frowned. “Though I think we’re third cousins or something. Once removed.”
“No wonder Nancy didn’t want you involved in Theo’s life. She said you were insane.”
He growled, deep and low in his throat. It wasn’t a sound he liked making, but he couldn’t stop it, either.
It just happened and it drew her up short.
“I’m not Theo’s father. Frank died ten years ago.
” Probably not the best time to mention that Carl was directly responsible for that death.
The man had gone feral and there’d been no choice.
Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t know what kind of sick game you’re playing, but it’s not going to work on me.”
“I don’t see this as any kind of game.” Don’t challenge me. Don’t challenge me. The man in him was all but begging her to stay back. The grizzly was busily envisioning all the ways he’d force her to submit.
“Then believe this.” She dropped her voice to a low growl and advanced menacingly on him. “If you hurt Theo in any way, I will see you dead.” And with that, she spun on her heel and stomped into the bathroom, shutting the door with a solid thud.
Carl gripped the desk rather than pursue her.
In his mind, his grizzly roared the demand to possess her while the man held him back with every ounce of sanity he possessed.
And all the while, he kept replaying her words in his mind, seeing the fire that had burned through her pale blue eyes.
No shifter could be fiercer. No she-bear could be more protective of her young.
And no woman—shifter or not—could have hit him so clearly between the eyes.
She was magnificent. And she was his Maxima.
It didn’t seem to matter that she wasn’t a shifter and didn’t even believe in them.
Logic didn’t hold sway here. He was the Gladwin Max, and she was his mate.
And she’d just threatened to kill him, which—now that he thought about it—was a grizzly bear mating ritual.