Chapter 14
“Let’s go as bears,” Grayson told Kendra. “We can follow the bear thief’s scent. Most everyone is inside, busy with dinner and other indoor activities.”
“I agree. What do you plan to do to him?”
“Show him in no uncertain terms that he won’t steal meals from people's porches. What does he think? He’s Yogi Bear?”
Kendra shook her head. “I’m sure he thinks it’s funny that people order meals and he steals them to eat. But no one would know who he is because he is wearing his bear coat. And he probably believes he is giving them a thrill on their security cameras.”
“But what if someone shoots him? Afraid for their lives? He’s a grizzly bear, so it’s illegal to hunt them, but in a case like this, where people fear he will hurt someone, he could very easily be shot,” Grayson said.
“Like us too?”
“We’ll find him and stop him from doing this ever again. While he gets away with it, he thinks he’ll never get caught.”
They both removed their clothes, shifted, stepped outside, and ran toward the home where the bear had stolen the homeowner's dinner.
Woods surrounded all the homes, which was a good thing. They saw a man walking his German shepherd, and they hid in the woods, though the dog sensed something was wrong and kept trying to find them.
“Come on, Thor. Do your business, and we can go home, then I’ll feed you.”
But the dog was so distracted, Grayson didn’t think his owner would ever get him to leave the area and do what he was supposed to do. Then the man pulled a treat out of his pocket, and the dog finally went with him to get his liver treat.
Saved by the doggy treat.
Then Thor finally did what he was supposed to do, and the two of them headed back the way they had come. But the dog started sniffing the same area again.
“Come on, Thor. Enough.” But the owner didn’t move either. Then he frowned. “There’s not a dead body in there, is there?”
Hell. Grayson nudged Kendra to move through the woods.
The dog might still try to follow them, but if they were farther away, the owner could get his dog under control and go home.
If he took the dog into the woods where the dog had indicated something was there, he wouldn’t find any dead body, at least.
Then the man and his dog walked into the woods where Grayson and Kendra had been. They continued to move off, hoping the dog didn’t pull his owner in pursuit of them. They didn’t want to scare the owner into calling someone to deal with the grizzly threat.
“It was probably a deer or rabbit or something. No dead body. Come on, Thor.” Then the owner dragged him out of the woods because the dog was stubbornly determined to find the bears.
The man and his dog finally reached their home and went inside. That was the end of that threat. Grayson and Kendra continued to move past the wooded homes until they smelled the scent of a bear. Grayson glanced at Kendra since she knew the guy. She nodded.
Okay, they were on the right track and ready to have some fun, and make a point that he hoped would deter the shifter from doing this further.
What he didn’t expect was to run into four gray wolves.
He paused with Kendra. She shifted to his surprise.
“Hey, Paul Cunningham and his mate, Lori, and Allan Rappaport and his mate, Debbie. This is Grayson, another grizzly bear shifter. He’s also a bounty hunter.
We’re looking for a bear shifter who is stealing delivered meals to residences.
” Then she shifted back, and Paul shifted.
He motioned to the east. “Back that way, we saw a grizzly bear. We figured he wasn’t wild since he didn’t act threatening in any way, and he smelled like fried chicken and french fries.”
Yeah, someone’s stolen dinner. Kendra and Grayson inclined their heads.
Paul shifted, and the wolves continued on their way while the bears took off for their prey.
Grayson hoped that when he confronted the guy, he wouldn’t decide to fight him.
He’d had enough fighting for now, but he had to stop the bear from stealing meals before he got all the other shifters in trouble.
Grayson was curious about the gray wolves though. Did they live at the lake also?
Dogs started barking in someone’s fenced-in backyard. Like the other dog, Thor, they smelled bears that threatened their territory.
A woman came out to see what the problem was, but she didn’t see the grizzly shifters in the dark woods. “Come on, puppies, let’s go.”
They went back into the house while Grayson and Kendra continued following the scent of the shifter.
Grayson wondered if the guy lived around here, too.
He must, or he wouldn’t be so close to the homes on the lake to steal the meals.
Unless his vehicle was out there also. And then Kendra paused at a pickup truck, and Grayson joined her, smelled the driver’s door handle, and was certain this was the shifter’s truck.
Then Grayson had a thought. Rather than confronting the shifter, he slashed at his truck, leaving wicked cuts through the paint to the metal.
Kendra slashed at one of his tires. Grayson bit into another, making the truck tilt towards the left while the tires sank against the pavement.
They moved around the other side of the truck and tore up the shifter’s other tires.
Kendra decorated the other side of Ivan’s truck with her long claws.
The shifter would smell their scents and know that Kendra was one. He would know that she wouldn’t be running with a wild bear and now know Grayson’s scent. And since they had come from Kendra’s house, he could track them back there.
Grayson felt they had made their point, but what if he didn’t get it? Well, if he came to Kendra’s house, Grayson would speak to him and make it clear to him.
Kendra must have thought the same thing, and she bumped into him with her head, indicating that she wanted to return home.
He just hoped the guy didn’t try to damage her home.
Then they moved into the woods again and hurried to Kendra’s home. He didn’t feel bad about tearing up the guy’s truck because he was going to cause trouble for all bear shifters.
When they reached her home, they shifted, grabbed their clothes, and headed inside.
“He’s going to come here and confront us, don’t you think?” Grayson was ready to deal with him.
Before Grayson dressed, she checked his wounds. “He might be afraid to hassle us because there are two of us. And he has no idea what kind of fighter you are. I wish I had a video of you fighting with the wild bear.”
Grayson smiled and pulled on his boxer briefs while she dressed.
“It was scary to see you getting hurt, but you were amazing too. Your injuries are really healing up fast.”
“You were amazing too, but I was really worried about you.” Grayson glanced at his wounds. “No more bandages needed.” He grabbed his T-shirt.
She pulled it away from him and set it aside on the couch. “You do need bandages for the stitched-up wounds.” She got some out of her bathroom and applied the bandages before he finished dressing.
He poured them glasses of water, then cleaned up the dishes. “I bet that wild bear was confused when you attacked him.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I’m sure of it too. “Do you want to watch a movie? I don’t want to go to bed yet, just in case Ivan shows up.”
“Absolutely.”
They settled down on the couch together, cuddling, watching a reality challenge show where the final winner would receive a quarter million dollars, while waiting for someone to approach the house if Ivan did.
They sat through the three-hour series to the end to see who won.
“It was rigged,” Kendra said at the end.
“Yeah. I think a lot of those shows are. The wheel spins for the drama, and you’ve got a person with seven chances out of eighteen to lose, some have four chances to lose, others two, and some with one, so who loses?”
“The person with one. And it happens enough that it’s for the drama, like you just know the person everyone has voted off will lose, but then someone who wasn’t voted off at all, just lost a challenge, is the one who loses?
Yeah, it’s rigged.” Kendra ran her hand through her hair.
“And the words that people had to spell to win the one challenge? Knife? Adventure? I mean, all were so easy that a young kid could have spelled them, and they misspell them?”
“Right. Which means they were trying to lose on purpose so they would look like they weren’t as smart, or as capable in some of the physical activities,” Grayson said.
“I watch some of those teams play reality shows sometimes, but they’re the same way.
They don’t show all the time that is really spent on the activities, so you wonder if the person they say won, did. ”
“Exactly. And they pick contestants who make a lot of drama. If everyone were really nice to each other, no one would want to watch them.” She turned to look at the door.
Grayson was on his feet in an instant and headed for the door.
Kendra was glad Grayson was with her and was sure Ivan would retaliate for what they had done to his truck. But she suspected that trying to talk to the hardheaded bear wouldn’t have made him change his mind without being more aggressive.
A violent pounding on the door came next, and Kendra got her taser out, just in case. She just hoped Ivan didn’t have a real gun.
Grayson yanked the door open and stared the man down. Ivan was blond, brown-eyed, and bearded, and stepped back on the porch when he saw Grayson, who appeared a lot more muscled and ready to take him down.
“You’re Ivan?” Grayson asked. He didn’t wait for an answer and stalked forward, grabbed Ivan’s arm, and hauled him into the house, to Kendra’s surprise. He forced him onto one of the recliners and towered over him, his hands on his hips.
Kendra shut her front door.
Ivan’s tanned face drained of all its color.
“I’ve had to nearly kill a wild grizzly bear, so give me a reason to deal with you in the same manner,” Grayson said.
Kendra’s heart and Ivan’s were pounding like crazy.
“I…I…” Ivan gulped, his eyes wide. He had better not pee on her chair.
“You won’t be stealing any more delivered meals on homeowners’ porches.”
“Uh…”
“You. Won’t.” Grayson practically growled the words.
“You didn’t have to wreck my tires and truck. It took me hours to get the tires changed out. And the claw marks?”
“You can show them off to a girlfriend who might be impressed that you lived to tell the tale.”
Kendra loved how gruff and no-nonsense Grayson was. She didn’t figure she would have sounded quite so in charge if she had been the one who had chewed Ivan out.
“You got it?”
“Yeah.” Ivan was frowning like crazy, but his heart was still beating out of control, sweat pouring down his brow.
Kendra figured he hadn’t expected to meet up with a male grizzly shifter who could eat him for lunch.
“We can fight as grizzlies if you want me to prove my point. You don’t come around Kendra’s place, mess with her vehicle, mine, or her property. I don’t have any qualms about taking you down a notch like I did the wild grizzly.”
“Over a restaurant order at some random house?”
“Several grizzlies live on the lake. A pack of gray wolves too,” Kendra said, in warning.
“I know. Do you think I would be stupid enough to hit up a shifter house?”
“I think you’re stupid enough to hit up anyone’s house as a shifter, get shot, and out us all!” Grayson said.
Grayson had a point, and Kendra was thinking the same thing. A grizzly bear is killed on a man’s front porch, the homeowner calls the police, and learns the grizzly was just a naked man instead. That would go over big.
“I will be reporting this to the leader of our sleuth,” Kendra said. “Just in case Grayson hasn’t made his point with you.”
“No, I got it. I got it. You don’t have to tell him. Can I go now?”
But she would, and Maximilian would take him to task as well. All of them had to live by certain rules to keep the others safe.
“Go,” Grayson said. “And no more stealing anything anywhere.”
Ivan hurried to get up from the recliner and moved quickly to the door, looking like he was afraid Grayson would change his mind and get physical with him. He left the house, shut the door, and rushed off to his truck.
They watched him through the window, and he was gone.
“Do you think he’ll get a new paint job?” Grayson asked.
“Maybe. He might just want to leave it as you suggested and make up a story about a wild grizzly bear tearing up his truck. Well, two of them since our claw marks will be different from each other.”