chapter 43

“I’m glad you were finally able to bring her back and to her senses,” Caleb said.

David paused in the kitchen, watching as one by one, the men from his pack entered. Caleb was their alpha, and Reese and Brian were as yet unmated. They also had Heather’s uncle and her sister Mika living on the premises, but they weren’t there.

David closed the fridge and turned toward his family, his pack. “I don’t know if I’ve gotten her,” he said.

“She’s in your bed, isn’t she?” Reese asked. “I’d say that means she’s willing to accept this mating. Come the next full moon, you’re going to have yourself a she-wolf all to yourself.”

“What’s up?” Caleb asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve just got a bad feeling.”

Reese and Brian tensed up. “A bad feeling? How?”

He shrugged. “Like something bad is going to happen.”

They were all silent. None of them had talked about the bear attack. It wasn’t like they’d given each other much time to talk about it. The moment he’d healed enough, he’d chased after Heather. Every second she was with him, he didn’t want his pack around to see how fucking crazy he was for her.

Never in all of his life had a woman driven him crazy like this. Heather was a constant push and pull. He got it. She’d suffered and was at times quite unwell, but that didn’t stop his need for her. His desire. It never faded. Not even a little bit.

Running a hand down his face, he tried to squash this bad feeling.

“Are you sure you don’t need to go … you know … like to the toilet?” Brian asked.

He glared at him. “Fuck off, Brian.”

Brian held his hands up. “Sorry. I don’t think we should worry about every single bad feeling we have.”

“We’re wolves. It’s part of our survival,” Caleb said.

“But he could be mixing it up with his feelings for Heather. She hasn’t been the easiest woman to fall for. She’s suffered greatly this year and what he’s sensing is something like that.” Reese had a point.

David shook his head. “No, it’s not that.”

“How do you know that?” Reese asked.

“Because I had time after the mating heat where we avoided each other. This has nothing to do with Heather. This has to do with the bear attack.”

“You think it was a shifter?” Caleb asked.

“I know it was a shifter.”

“How about you were hoping it was a shifter rather than getting your ass handed to you by a bear?” Brian asked.

“Are you on my side or not?” he asked. He wasn’t in the mood to play games.

“Wow, mating is supposed to make you happy, like Christmas. Not put you in a bad mood like you just learned there wasn’t a sale on chocolate but that was the reason you went into the store,” Reese said.

David folded his arms and glared at his pack, his brothers. He would die for these men. Both Reese and Brian held their hands up as if they were surrendering once again.

“Personally, I think we should ban David from mating. He’s turning into a pain in the ass who’s not any fun, and believe me, no one wants that.”

He tried not to smile. Mating. Mated. That was him.

“Wow, a smile. It was about time you cracked one,” Reese said.

“Shut up,” he said.

He wasn’t in the mood to argue with them. “Let’s stay on track of the shifter. You have got to trust me on this. It was a shifter. I can sniff out a bear. The scent of this one was all off. I got the sense that it was hungry or something.”

“What?” Caleb asked, his frown back in place.

“This bear wanted to eat me. I’m talking carnivore. It was fucking messed up.”

“Are you saying the slash marks were designed to what? Tenderize you like a steak?” Reese asked.

He rolled his eyes. “I may have been the instigator, but there was a difference to this attack. Like the person was hungry.”

“And for dinner, it wanted to eat on human flesh?” Brian asked.

“No, wolf flesh,” David said.

“Creepy. I’m not the only one thinking that am I?” Reese asked. “That is super creepy.”

They all agreed.

“I’ll reach out to Joe. See what he makes of it. You’re sure it was a bear?”

“Positive. I know a fucking bear when I see one. It’s kind of hard to mistake.”

“He’s going to be pissed. I prefer him to keep his distance,” Caleb said. They had an odd friendship with their buddy Joe. Bethany, Caleb’s mate, used to work for him at the café he owned. They’d been through a lot together. For a shifter, Joe spent way too much time around humans.

David knew he couldn’t spend a lot of time in town as he had no trust when it came to them. They were the enemy.

“I don’t think anyone should go out alone. Especially not into the forest. I’m going to keep an eye on Heather. I’m not going to let her out of my sight.”

“You can’t keep her locked up because of this,” Caleb said.

“I won’t. I just … nothing can happen to her. You understand?”

Reese snorted. “Of course he understands. He has a mate of his own. We all understand. Just because we’ve got no mates doesn’t mean we don’t know how to protect one. We all do.”

“Thanks, guys,” he said.

“Anything you need. You know we’re always here for you.”

He knew they would have his back. There was no doubt in his mind about it. Reese and Brian left and he turned back to the fridge, intent on making Heather a sandwich. He wanted to take care of his vegan mate and that meant feeding her right. He already researched extensively the food she could eat and much to his surprise, there was a great deal of vegan alternatives for her to enjoy.

Caleb was still in the kitchen. With some vegan cheese and meats, along with tomatoes and lettuce, he turned around. “What’s up, Caleb?”

“I want you to tell me every single detail of the attack,” he said.

“Why?”

“I need to know. If I’ve got to warn Joe about a possible rogue bear again. You know he’s going to want to come out here and interrogate you.”

“Then don’t tell him.”

“It’s not my call. You know that.”

David sighed. He told him every detail. He wished he’d never fucked around with that shifter. He’d been in a dark place since Heather gave him the silent treatment again. It was like he had a death wish, picking different fights for weeks. The bear was different. From the moment he stood in the forest, to the sound of a twig snapping. How he tried to stop the bear from eating him.

“It wasn’t trying to kill me, at least I don’t think it was. What do you think?”

“Possibly a new bear? Untrained? It could be a shifter that has no idea who or what they are.”

“Like a child?”

“A teenager maybe? It’s rare for a teenager to not know what they’re going to become but it does happen.”

“How?”

Caleb expelled a breath. “Parents die in a tragic accident. One they don’t have enough time to heal from. The kid gets taken, put through the system, hello, enter teenage years, and all the hormones and magical poof, you’re a wolf or a bear, or whatever kind of shifter you happen to be.”

“Fuck, that sucks. At least we all knew we were going to turn.”

“I’ll put a call out to Joe. Maybe we can combine forces once again and come up with a plan. If it is a kid, or a new shifter, they would be freaking out. It would sure as hell be better than a fucking cannibal bear in our woods.”

David groaned. “It means we’ve got to go out there and talk to people, doesn’t it?”

“I’ll ask around. It might be good for Heather’s uncle to do this one,” Caleb said.

“Why?”

“He’s new in town. Makes sense for a new guy to be asking questions. We start showing an interest, it will make people curious, and we don’t want people to be that way, do we?”

“No, we don’t.”

Caleb nodded. “I’ll go make the call.”

His alpha was near the door when David called his name. “What is it?” Caleb asked.

“The kids. The ones that don’t know they’re shifters.”

“What about them?”

“Do they make it or does it … is it too much for them to handle?”

Caleb clicked his tongue. “They … it’s difficult, but I haven’t heard of a case where they’ve been able to live very long lives. The shock of everything is too much for their systems to cope with. I would have to put out more feelers to find out more info. You know?”

David nodded.

His alpha left.

Maybe he should have told his alpha that the bear who’d attacked him got spooked and turned back into a human, and he happened to recognize a human female leg.