The priest was ready to get the rehearsal going, so Beth held off on pressing her even further. Behind Cheryl stood the doctor, Zoe, then Emma, with Addy bringing up the rear. Behind Clive stood Derrick, Russ, Jace, and Marcus. She didn't know the other shifters real well, though they all seemed extremely friendly, something she wouldn't have expected from men of their stature. The line of men opposite the women was a stark contrast: each man was huge, heavily muscled, and… something else. Something bestial. Something primal. Something… sexy.
The run through of the next day was quick and relatively painless. Throughout the whole mock ceremony, Cheryl kept catching glances of Derrick looking at her. She couldn't exactly make out the feelings on his face. At times, it was longing. Other times, lust. Looks of puzzlement, deep thought, and happiness flashed across his face for split seconds. Cheryl found herself wondering just what he was thinking about. Could it be her? She wasn't sure, but she found herself wanting it to be.
After the rehearsal was done, the others drifted off in pairs, leaving Cheryl alone with Derrick. Clive had made them promise to join them for dinner afterward. They had ran off to go get changed for dinner, leaving Cheryl and Derrick sitting in silence. Cheryl wanted Derrick to come up to her and sweep her off her feet, something she'd been imagining throughout the rehearsal. Instead, he sat there, pointedly making an effort to look the other direction.
She decided she would have to be the one to speak up. “So what were you thinking about during the rehearsal? I caught you stealing a few glances towards my way.” Direct, and to the point. She'd learned that sometimes, that was the best strategy.
He gave a noticeable jump and didn't answer right away. “Just thinking of...”
“Of?”
“The future.”
“Well, let's hear it.”
“You sure? It probably won't fit your idea of a stereotypical shifter.”
Intrigued, Cheryl nodded for Derrick to continue.
“Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely happy for my brother. Clive's been more than just a brother to me. He took care of me when I was younger, back when things weren't good for us. He's done a lot for me. And now, his life is going great. A beautiful fiancé, being promoted to second in command for our Clan, and a new house. His life is going good.”
“And?”
“It's not that I'm jealous. But when does it begin for me? I'm not respected in my Clan. They say I'm too young to be trusted with important jobs. Every time I have a chance to prove myself, Clive steps in and makes me step down. He says it's to keep me safe, but I don't know.”
Sounds a lot like me, Cheryl thought. “I guess we have more in common than I thought. I love Beth like a sister. But that's how her life has been, too. She's always been the lucky one, the one that got into the best school, had the best job, and now she's marrying your brother. Maybe one day, I'll get that lucky.”
“Hey, at least we don't have to do it alone,” Derrick offered, chuckling. Cheryl let out a small laugh, as well. At least they had something in common, after all. “What's taking them so long? Clive!”
There was no answer from deeper in the church, though Derrick's voice would have easily carried through the silent church. Cheryl had lost herself in conversation with Derrick, though when she thought about it, Clive and Beth had been gone for much longer than necessary.
“Maybe… they're… uh...” Cheryl offered, embarrassed to say it out loud.
“Yeah, maybe,” Derrick said, laughing again. “Still, it's not like Clive to not answer.”
“Well, let's check it out,” was Cheryl's idea. “We'll be sure to knock.”
They walked through the church, eerie silence enveloping them. Cheryl couldn't remember the last time she'd been in a completely silent church, and she found that it unnerved her. She looked over at Derrick, but if he was uneasy, he gave no sign of it. They reached the door to the changing room, and Derrick knocked softly.
No answer.
Derrick looked over at Cheryl, but didn't say anything. He waited a few more seconds before knocking again, this time a little louder. When there was no answer this time, he tried the door.
“Locked,” he muttered. He twisted again, the veins in his arms straining at trying to twist the doorknob. When he couldn't get it open, he took a few steps backwards. “You might want to stand back.”
“What are you going to do?” Cheryl asked. “Wait! You can't do that in a church!”
In answer, he lifted his foot, and Cheryl scrambled away. Derrick's foot crushed the door next to the door handle, splintering the door. It flew open, banging against the far way and revealing the carnage inside. Cheryl gasped, going weak at the knees and almost falling to the floor. Derrick was in the door within a split second, shifting.
Cheryl had never seen a shifter change between their human and bear forms before, and for the few seconds that it occurred, she found her mind only focused on the shifter in front of her. He hadn't bothered to take off his clothes, so his growing form split through them with ease. Within seconds, almost before Cheryl could blink, a fully grown bear was standing in the room, sniffing and snorting.
And the room finally caught up with Cheryl.
The main thing that stood out to her was all of the blood. It was splashed everywhere: the floor, the ceiling, over all of the racks of clothes hanging up. She wasn't sure who it belonged to, but she feared the worst. She didn't see any sign of Clive or Beth.
“Where are they?” Cheryl yelled, moving into the room, suddenly uncaring of the carnage she was stepping into. She placed a hand on Derrick's back, feeling his warm, thick fur. He grunted at her, moving through the room, smelling as he went. In seconds, they were out the back door of the room and moving down a hallway. There were blood trails along the floor, as if someone had been dragged.
The hallway lead to an exit door. Around the back of the church, Derrick stopped. Whatever he had been following was gone. The trail had run cold.
Cheryl took a step back from Derrick as he shifted back into his human form. Standing naked in front of her, Cheryl had to focus all of her attention on meeting Derrick's eyes. She could see his toned chest, his abs, and something large between his legs, but now wasn't the time.
“They've been kidnapped,” was all he said.
“Are they alive? There was so much blood.”
“The blood was from other shifters. The kidnappers. Clive wounded them pretty good. There was a lot going on in that room, but I could smell at least four other shifters beside Clive. One of them was Mikhael Ramsey,” Derrick bit off, spitting out a curse. Cheryl thought if there had been a wall in his reach, Derrick would have struck it. She took a few careful steps back. “I knew we should have killed him when we had the chance. He's hurt us so much.”
And then suddenly Derrick didn't look so threatening. He looked hurt. Cheryl moved back to him, uncertainly wrapping an arm around the shifter. She held him close, comforting him. “We're going to get to the bottom of this,” she whispered, trying to sound certain, though she didn't feel it. “Let's get you inside and get you some clothes.”
Ten minutes later, Cheryl was seated next to Derrick in his truck. In the time that it had taken Derrick to find a clean change of clothes and get out to his truck, he'd summed up everything that had happened. Everything was so new to Cheryl, but she thought she understood.
Mikhael Ramsey had been a problem for Derrick's Clan for as long as he could remember. Only recently, however, had the stakes really got dangerous. He'd attacked their Clan headquarters, killing clients and members of the Clan. Somehow after that, he convinced the leader of the Clan to join his cause, and had fled when his plan had fallen apart. Apparently, he despised shifters who worked with humans, believing shifters to be the superior race.
And now it had gotten her best friend and Derrick's brother kidnapped, or worse. Cheryl tried not to think of what could have happened to them. And now, Derrick was calling everyone on their cell phones, but there was no answer. Even
the line to the headquarters was dead.
“This is bad, Cheryl,” Derrick said. Jace's house was the closest to the church, so they swung down his road. The sky was darkening, though a warm breeze was still flowing through the air. Cheryl didn't know what she had gotten herself into.
Derrick put the truck into park as they pulled up. Even in the deepening gloom, Cheryl could see that the front door had been busted in. Derrick told Cheryl to wait in the car, but she couldn't bear the thought of sitting alone, waiting to find out what happened, terror surrounding her. When Derrick noticed her behind him, he gave her a reassuring smile.
“I'm glad you decided to join me. I don't want to do this all alone,” he admitted, leading the way.
“Don't ruin another set of clothes,” Cheryl advised, as Derrick poked his head in the door. He gave a few sniffs, then moved inside. Cheryl followed him, keeping close. Inside, it was clear a fight had occurred, but there were no bodies and the damage wasn't as extensive as at the church.
“They got them all,” Derrick said, moving back out of Jace's house. “I'm sure of it. But we've got a few more houses to check. Maybe someone's hurt and needs our help.”
Derrick was nearly running to the car, and to Cheryl's credit, she kept up with his long strides. Before she had even closed the door, they were tearing out of Jace's neighborhood, racing through the darkness. It wasn't a far drive to Russ's house, but they found the same results. Marcus's house was empty, though they found no signs of struggle. However, the front door had been broken open.
“They must have got him before he got home,” Derrick muttered as they were on their way to the headquarters. Cheryl didn't know what to expect there, but she didn't have high hopes.
As they neared, Cheryl found the pit in her stomach growing. Black smoke was rising on the horizon. In the passenger seat, Cheryl watched Derrick's eyes flicker back and forth from the road to the smoke every few seconds, but he didn't say anything. Both of them knew what it meant.
As they pulled up to the building, her bad feeling had been right. The building, or what was left of it, was engulfed in flames. Firefighters crowded around fire trucks, spraying water, but the damage had been done. Whoever had attacked the Clan headquarters had executed their job perfectly. Derrick scanned the crowd of people milling around the building, but he didn't see anything he was looking for. They drove off without a word.
“We know that everyone was kidnapped and not killed, so that's a start. I don't know how long Ramsey is going to let them live, or what his plan is, but it looks like we're the only ones left,” Derrick said. “We need to lay low for a while and put out some feelers into the shifter community. Something is bound to turn up.”
“We can go to my place,” Cheryl offered. “It should be safe. They'll have no idea I'm even involved.”
“Thanks, Cheryl,” was his reply. “But I don't want to pull you into this any more than you already are. I'll drop you off and head to a motel. I can do this alone.”
“You don't have to, though.”
Derrick was silent, mulling it over. “If you stay, you have to do exactly as I say. If I tell you to run, or it's time for you to leave, or anything else, you listen to me. I can't risk anyone else getting captured and hurt by Ramsey.”
“Okay. I can handle that,” Cheryl said, giving Derrick directions to her home.
Once there, Derrick scoped out the perimeter, making sure that Cheryl's place was safe. After he came back around the house and waved her inside, she stepped out of his truck and made her way to the front door of her house. Opening it, she flipped on the lights, letting Derrick step inside.
“This is my humble abode,” she said, sweeping an arm around her residence.
“I wish I was here under better circumstances,” Derrick said, following her into the kitchen.
“Maybe one day.”
Derrick smiled for the first time since everything had happened. He sat down wearily at the table. Cheryl looked him over. He suddenly looked older than before, like there was a weight on his shoulders. She came over behind him, reaching up and grabbing his large shoulders in her small hands, massaging him.
Derrick let out a relieved sigh, visibly relaxing under her grip. She continued rolling her hands and fingers, working the tension out of his muscles. After a few minutes, he reached a hand up, grabbing one of hers. He squeezed gently. “Thank you, Cheryl. We're going to get through this. And I'm certainly glad to have the help, no matter how I acted earlier. I don't want you getting too close to me, though.”
“Why not?” Cheryl responded, removing her hands and feeling somewhat hurt.
“I'm not a very good shifter. I'm not what's good for you.”
“I can make that decision myself. No matter what happens between us, I'm still going to help. I may not know much about your world, but Beth is my best friend. And your brother is her fiancé. And everyone kidnapped are their friends. I'm going to do everything I can to help you.”
“You're right.”
“Do you want some dinner?” she asked, feeling a little bit better. Was Derrick right, though? Should she take a step back from him after all of this was done? Things were certainly much more serious than she had imagined they could ever be.
“Thanks. Yeah, that sounds great,” Derrick said, getting to his feet. Before Cheryl could make her way to the cabinets though, Derrick was poking through them, opening the fridge, scouting the freezer. “How do you like lasagna?”
And he's a man who cooks? Cheryl thought. If she had an interest in him before, she was falling for him completely now, even if he didn't want her to. “Who doesn't?”
“Good. Sit down and let me work my magic,” he said, offering her another smile. It was something Cheryl could get used to seeing.
After a delicious dinner, Cheryl followed Derrick into the living room. She could tell that he was still wired, even if his calm exterior said otherwise. Cheryl flicked on the television, flipping through the channels, but finding nothing on.
They sat on opposite sides of her couch, Derrick closest to the door just in case someone found out where they were hiding out. Fortunately, the evening slipped into straight borderline boring territory. For that, Cheryl was thankful. She hadn't thought a night after everything that had happened earlier could be boring, but here it was.
“I know a few shifters around the city. Real independent type guys. A couple of them might be able to point us in the right direction tomorrow morning. I'm hoping they can help.”
Cheryl nodded her head. “I'm sure they can. I just wish there was something else I could do to help us find them. But let's worry about that in the morning. Do you want a beer?”
Another smile from Derrick. “I would love one.”
Cheryl went into the kitchen, searching through her fridge to find a bottle buried in the back. She poured herself a small glass of wine and went back into the living room. She moved past her old spot on the couch, instead deciding upon the cushion closest to Derrick. For a second, he seemed guarded, but then he smiled as she curled up next to him, handing him the beer.
“I'm nervous, Cheryl. I don't know if I'm good enough for you,” Derrick said, holding out a shaky hand. “I don't know if I'm good enough to save my brother. I don't have any real experience with this type of stuff. Whenever someone needed protection, or there was a dangerous job, whoever needed help always went to my brother. I was the guy that stayed back at headquarters and worked the bar. This is all new territory for me.”
“I still believe in you,” she replied, snuggling up closer. “I haven't known you for long, but I can tell that your brother has nothing to worry about. You're smart, you're strong, and you're brave. You're going to find your brother and if they really didn't respect you before, they will now. And I'm falling for you.”
Beck (BBW Bear Shifter Moonshiner Romance) (120 Proof Honey Book 4) Page 64
