by Anya Nowlan
Chasing for Cubs
Shifter Squad Nine
Anya Nowlan
Contents
A Little Taste…
Copyright
Prologue
1. Thor
2. Nia
3. Thor
4. Nia
5. Nia
6. Nia
7. Nia
8. Thor
9. Nia
10. Thor
11. Thor
12. Thor
13. Nia
14. Nia
15. Thor
16. Nia
17. Thor
18. Nia
19. Thor
20. Thor
21. Thor
22. Thor
23. Thor
24. Nia
Epilogue
Twice the Pups Excerpt
Want More?
About the Author
Thank you for reading!
A Little Taste…
Nia relaxed a little. If he could laugh about his somewhat murderous existence, maybe it wasn’t too bad?
“So how come you’re not with the Navy anymore?” she asked, willing the conversation to keep going.
“I was with the SEALs for a few years. Got dishonorably discharged,” Thor explained, his expression turning dangerously neutral again. “Anger management problems,” he said, smiling again as if nothing had happened.
You keep hanging on his every word! Stop it!
She wasn’t going to stop it.
“Would have never guessed,” she teased, and Thor squeezed her hand at that.
“Liar.”
“Only when it suits all parties involved,” Nia quipped back.
Thor smirked at that but he didn’t continue on with his little confession. Nia figured that she was lucky to have heard as much as she had and she didn’t press on, choosing to bask in the knowing that this particularly fascinating man had found it in his best interest to share information with her. Despite the fact that they’d been sneaking through the jungle together, half-expecting to get shot or apprehended at any moment, the day had been the most fun Nia had had in a long, long time.
“I think we could try taking off the mask now,” she said softly after a while, when the light had dimmed completely outside and they were only illuminated by the soft glow of the torch and its reflection off the curtain of water to Nia’s right.
“Guess we can be disappointed now just as well as later,” Thor agreed with a shrug, making Nia stifle a slight groan.
Non-believer!
“This might be a little bit uncomfortable,” she warned as she started peeling the green goop off of his face and eyes.
It came off as one long strip, pulling the skin slightly with it. Nia had to put her fingertips gently on his eyelids to keep from having the delicate skin there get bruised. The area around his eyes was still irritated and red, with minor cuts and bruises showing through as well.
When the last of the mask had come off and Nia had rolled it into a ball and tossed it in the other corner of the cave, on top of previous other more or less successful attempts, she took a deep breath and leaned back on her haunches. Watching Thor with tentative expectation, she cleared her voice before speaking.
What if this works and he doesn’t like what he sees?
The thought was sudden and uncomfortable.
“Can I open my eyes now, doc?” he asked, putting some of that Texas swagger in his tone again and arching a brow.
Despite her girlish worries, Nia had to laugh.
“Sure, give it a go.”
Slowly, Thor opened his eyes. He had the most beautiful green eyes Nia had ever seen and she realized that she hadn’t gotten to stare at them half as much as she would have liked to. The depths were clear and without the haziness that had been in them before. He stared intently at Nia while she scrutinized the whites of his eyes and his pupils from several angles, trying to focus on the problem rather than the handsomeness of her ‘patient.’
“Nothing?” she asked after a while, realizing that Thor hadn’t said a word since he’d opened his eyes.
When she pulled back a little with a worried frown creasing her brow, she noticed that Thor looked positively flabbergasted, his expression one of blank shock. It only made her scowl deepen.
“Thor? Are you okay?” she asked, a small tremor entering her voice.
“Never been better,” he said gruffly.
The next thing Nia knew, she was enveloped in a tight, warm, possessive embrace and Thor kissed her like she was the only oxygen he knew.
Copyright © 2016 Anya Nowlan
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Chasing for Cubs
Shifter Squad Nine
All rights reserved.
No part of this work may be used, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means by anyone but the purchaser for their own personal use. This book may not be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of Anya Nowlan. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material is prohibited without the express written permission of the author.
Cover © Jack of Covers
Prologue
Thor
Eight years ago…
Thor could feel the cold sweat slowly rolling down his neck, burrowing under the collar of his shirt as he stood nearly motionless in the hospital corridor. His hands were clammy and his jaw was set, green eyes staring into nothingness as he ticked the seconds down in his head, feeling completely helpless.
Somewhere in the distance, he could hear screaming and he wasn’t sure if it was Ashley or someone else, but it kicked him out of his trance. Life flooded back into those deep green pools of his and he clicked into motion as if someone had flipped a switch, inhaling sharply like a man coming up from almost drowning.
It wasn’t too far from the truth. He felt like he was being pushed beneath tons of water, gasping in mouthfuls of it with every lungful of air he tried to take.
It can’t end like this, he thought, the notion echoing through him and reverbing endlessly. It can’t.
Looking around himself, he realized that he was standing in the middle of the hallway, probably blocking the whole path. At twenty-one he was already a man built like a tower – tall, strong and nearly unbreakable. Or so he had always thought, at least. It was funny how little it took to really bring a man to his knees.
He ran his hand through his chestnut and hazel hair, kept slightly long, and the sensation of touch felt oddly alien to him. A nurse skittered by, far shorter than he was at 6’4’’, and he barely noticed her pass. When she had already turned her back to him, he called out.
“Excuse me,” he started, his voice raspy as hell from the sleepless nights he’d had lately, talking through the dusk with his pregnant mate. “Can you tell me where they took Ashley Reeds? She was brought into emergency services but I was told they moved her upstairs for surgery.”
The words felt alien as he spoke them, just like everything else. Everything was off just a little, as if he had stepped into some alternate dimension when he hadn’t been looking and everything had been scrambled around just enough for him to notice, but not really be able to put his finger on what had changed.
The nurse looked at him for a moment, carrying a large pile of paperwork. She had a sweet, compassionate face, though her expression was muddled with exhaustion. He wasn’t sure what it was about him that made her take pity, bu
t she finally nodded and motioned him along as she headed toward the nurses’ station, plopping the stack of folders on the edge of it before disappearing behind the counter.
Thor stood before it a bit awkwardly, not knowing what to do with his hands or the rest of him, really.
“Ashley Reeds, you said? She’s in… oh, yes, she’s being operated on in block three. Looks like a long surgery. I think it’s best you wait here, sir,” she said, her pale blue eyes filling with a modicum of compassion.
I guess it shows there that she’s six months pregnant, he thought, the pang of guilt that hit him then knocking the breath from his lungs again.
“Thank you,” he said dumbly, breathlessly, going to sit on the crooked little chairs that she motioned toward as the nurse grabbed her armful of papers and was off again.
He fell into the chair and propped his head up in his hands, his long fingers digging into his hair. How the hell they’d ended up in a random hospital in Missouri, with Ashley bleeding out and their son fighting for his life, he’d never quite grasp. But life had brought him here and for the first time, Thor Dremmons felt completely and utterly helpless. For a panther shifter, that was something that didn’t quite come with the territory.
He was used to always being the one fixing everything. Whether it was the crooked porch swing that overlooked their messy little yard, or the gearbox of their beaten up truck, he always figured out a way to make things right. Ever since he’d met Ashley three years ago, laying eyes on her in a grocery store, he’d known that she was the one. He hadn’t let her down since and whatever it was in their life that got broken, he could put it back together.
But I can’t fix this.
His stomach clenched and the trance of nothingness fell over him again as he drifted far into the land of pleasant memories. The first time he’d met Ashley, she was eighteen and so was he. She’d been on a trip to visit her grandparents in Texas but had to return to Missouri for school in a few weeks. She had the most beautiful freckles and every time she smiled, the whole room seemed to light up.
Thor asked her out and the rest was history. They got married about half a year later and Thor hadn’t regretted a single day he’d spent with her, only wishing he’d found her sooner.
She was the one. His mate. The love of his life, the woman that he was supposed to serve, protect, pamper and love. And yet he hadn’t realized how sick she was.
I failed her.
Ashley started getting bad morning sickness from the very beginning of her pregnancy. They kept joking with one another that it was just the downsides of carrying a shifter baby as badass as Thor’s progeny would be, but things kept getting progressively worse. Though shifter pregnancies were shorter than human ones – usually just four to six months, depending on the species of shifter – then Ashley’s pregnancy seemed to be at least three times as long with how many bad things and complications happened.
Every day was a struggle and she became so weak that she couldn’t get out of bed by the fourth month. The doctors all said that it was fine, normal, to feel so weak and tired during a shifter pregnancy and being away from Thor’s family, they didn’t have a lot of options to check with people who knew better, either.
Going back was not an option. His family had made it very clear that the moment he chose his own mate instead of allowing the family to do it, as it had always been done, he had forfeited his right to love and protection from that clan. It was an easy trade – Ashley was worth his loyalty and so much more.
She was a fighter and refused all of the more invasive tests they could have done in the name of the safety of her baby. While Thor tried to convince her that he needed both of them safe and sound, she was as stubborn as she was strong and there was no convincing her. He would have been lying if he’d said that it wasn’t one of the qualities he loved most about her – her steadfast resolve in the fact that she knew better most of the time.
This time, though, he felt like he’d let her down by humoring her and believing that everything would work out.
I shouldn’t have let her convince me… I should have…
She collapsed earlier in the day, having gotten out of bed to go to the bathroom. Her due date was in a week or so and Thor had taken time off from his job at the garage to be there for her and help her with whatever she needed. She hadn’t called for him and he found her on the tiled floor of the bathroom, lying in a huge pool of dark blood maybe five minutes later, passed out and unresponsive.
Looking down at himself, he could see that his heather tee and light-wash jeans were marred with maroon, the blood having seeped into his clothing. His hands and arms were still bloody as well, splatter and grime on his skin. Absently, he rubbed at a spot on his thumb, making the dried blood curl up into rivulets that flaked off of his tanned hands.
How did we get here? he wondered, feeling like his throat was closing up.
“Mister Dremmons?” a voice called, making Thor snap back into reality.
He jumped up so fast that his head spun a little but with two feet planted firmly on the ground, he stood tall. His heart was pounding out of his chest and he noticed that his hands rolled into fists immediately. The animal within him stalked close to the surface, quiet but antsy. Taking a breath, he relaxed his fingers.
“That’s me,” he said, meeting the wise brown gaze of a man in surgical clothing.
The man looked to be in his late forties, wearing spectacles and the small tuft of hair peeking out at his temple having a few flakes of gray in it. His green surgical clothing was tinted with flecks of blood and something yellow that Thor couldn’t exactly name. He smelled of chemicals and Ashley.
“Is she okay? Can I see her? How’s the baby?” Thor asked, rattling off questions like they were bullets from a gun.
The doctor’s expression didn’t change.
“Mister Dremmons, I think we should sit down for a moment,” he said, his tone slightly terse with an edge of control to it.
Thor sunk back into his seat, his heart plummeting through his body and into his boots.
“It’s bad, isn’t it?” he asked.
“Ashley was brought in five hours ago, as you know – I presume it was you who brought her in?” the doctor – E. Johnson, as his nametag read – started, receiving a nod from Thor. “She was suffering from blood loss, low blood pressure and was unresponsive. We stabilized her and took her to surgery.
“When we operated on her, we found that she had a large mass on her liver that had spread through her body to encompass her lungs, her heart, her intestines and her uterus. We did everything we could but she didn’t make it through the surgery and the child was unfortunately lost as well.”
Thor stared at the doctor dumbly, not a single thought passing through his head for a moment. His body reacted before his mind could catch up and he had to turn away from the physician, grabbing hold of the trash can sitting next to him and throwing up. There was nothing but bile in his stomach and it tasted bitter as hell coming up.
He fell back in the chair, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and in the process tasting Ashley’s blood on his lips. Tears brimmed in his eyes and his vision blurred at the edges.
“She’s… she’s dead?” he asked, his voice sounding like it belonged to someone else.
“I’m afraid so, Mister Dremmons. Her time of death was 5:30 p.m. I am so sorry for your loss,” the man said, the edge out of his voice now.
Thor nodded blankly, his head still curiously empty. He looked down at his hands, big and strong as they were, coated in blood. He rolled them into fists again so hard that his arms shook under the stress as the first few tears rolled down his cheek.
I failed her. I failed them both.
“Can I see her?” he asked. “And it was… it was a boy, right?”
“It was. And of course. It will take a few hours. Do you have any family? Anyone we could call?” the doctor asked, sounding damn near kindly by now.
“She was all I had,”
Thor responded, closing his eyes.
All I will ever have.
One
Thor
“Where the fuck are they?” Thor growled under his breath, so quiet that the whisper of a wind would have sounded louder than the sniper shifter cooped up in his nest.
It was a hot, humid evening – as all evenings were in the Borneo rainforests, really – and he was sheltered by an endless curtain of vines and branches, hiding him from sight. He’d been patiently waiting for the past four hours now, occasionally hearing sounds of fighting coming from the south and the east, but never quite reaching him fully. Radio communications were strangled at best and the last time he’d managed to get in contact with any of the Shifter Squad Nine guys was about twenty minutes after Price dropped them down at the rendezvous spot.
It was to be expected, considering the dense foliage and the large distances they were set to cover that day, but it didn’t mean that Thor enjoyed it any. Frankly, he would have rather spent his time just about anywhere other than the goddamn jungle, where he’d found himself far too often since joining Shifter Squad Nine.
A mistake if there ever was one, he thought to himself, leaning into the scope of his rifle again and taking a look around.
He’d spotted several animals over the course of the day, from tiny little mouse deer to the predatory cats – barely the size of German Shepherds – who called the rainforest home. But what he had yet to see was anyone worthy of a bullet.
Shifter Squad Nine had been flown into Singapore and from there Sabah in Borneo for an extended mission. They had begun with clearing out an Arctics’ compound on one of the picturesque islands, finding a research facility that specialized in mutational chemistry based off of certain corals that were found in abundance in the dive areas around Borneo. The second step was to hunt down and kill the last Arctics’ agents situated in Borneo, and that had turned out to be a much bigger ordeal.
