Greyriver Shifters

by Kristina Weaver

  Hannah barks out a laugh and everyone else is in their own different states of amusement while Banner himself just stares at me like I grew another boob or something.

  “What?”

  “Christ, you are so strange,” he says reverently, smiling when I grin and shrug my shoulders.

  First time that I’ve heard that in a while.

  Hey. I said you were cool.

  Didn’t sound like you meant it. But in your defense, I can be a total geek.

  “Uh, so this whole sick from the essence thing…is it a huge deal? Not that I want to be difficult or anything, but it occurs to me that it could be a problem. Is this because of the bite? Darn it, I should have gone to the hospital.” I sigh, shaking my head. “Oh well, I’m sure the doctor will figure it out. Come on Lync, if Banner is gonna be a baby about this and get grossed out by me because I have some essence virus, at least you still like me. I think I’ll make you some cookies when we get to your place.”

  Lync bares his teeth, his version of a smile and throws Banner a superior look when I pull him out behind me while trying to keep my ass covered by the hospital gown.

  Honestly, one little essence illness and the man gets squeamish. What will he say when I push babies out of my hoohah?

  Humming, I let Lync pick me up when he insists and starts walking back towards Banner’s house. Not that I want to go there, but come on, I don’t wanna be alone when I have essence disease.

  Looking over his big hairy shoulder, I catch sight of Banner running out of the clinic, followed by the others who are obviously still laughing at him. Poor Banner, I bet he never thought that I’d fall into his life and bring chaos with me.

  I keep peering over Lync’s shoulder until I see everyone else walk in the opposite direction or to their cars, and then I lean back down and collapse against Lync with a sigh.

  “Better?”

  I look up at Lync, seeing his eyes flashing down at me and smile.

  “Eh, it’s not that bad anymore. Just feels like a really gross period. So are you hungry? I could make ribs and potatoes or pasta! I love pasta. With bacon. Remember the bacon?” I trill, feeling great as the wind washes over me and gets rid of the last cobwebs clogging my brain.

  Lync grunts, probably his version of confusion, and I lean my head down against his shoulder and sigh, letting him bear all my weigh without guilt.

  How freaking awesome is this? I get to not care about being heavy. Ever. I can eat cupcakes without guilt and not care that I gain ten pounds because hey, a man, a shifter male can pick up a loaded garbage can with one hand. Cool.

  “Bacon. Eggs,” he says after a while, and I smile, nodding my agreement.

  See, total converted from the dead rabbit. Not that I didn’t like it because it was good. It really was but the thought of him going out there to catch it and skin it…

  I prefer to live in ignorant bliss and make believe that all meat comes from the Meat Place, this magical place where they grow it like plants. It’s irrational, I know, but this way I don’t have to think about anything dying. I like meat too much to go vegetarian, but I can’t stand the thought of those adorable animals being hurt.

  We reach Banner’s house in minutes, especially when Lync runs the last few meters and he puts me down so gently I feel my heart squeeze before I open the door and enter through the front, walking to the kitchen with a spring in my step and one hand keeping my ass decent in back.

  Once there though, I know I can’t just hang around for the sake of it. I know people. Okay, well I don’t, not really, my one date with the captain of the football team proves that. I was convinced he liked me, but he was just doing it as a dare, and he ended up laughing at me and humiliating me for thinking he found me attractive.

  Poor guy. He must have been really miserable inside to find that funny. I baked him a box of his favorite oatmeal cookies the day after that and told him in front of the whole school that I forgave him.

  What? That’s just who I am. Brad still hits me up on Facebook sometimes—before I started running—and I am glad to report that he’s now married with a little boy on the way. See, people can change.

  “Hey Lync, would you run down to the basement and grab me a pair of pants or something. I’m kind hanging out in the breeze. A lot. There’s a lot of me for the breeze to blow on.”

  He huffs and sprints down to the basement where I left a full basket of un-ironed laundry just as Banner walks in, his face a mask of stone. And worry.

  “You should be resting, not making breakfast, or lunch as is the case.”

  “Oh, chill out. I feel fine. I can’t just languish in bed waiting for it to hit me. I need to live a normal life and things will get better. I have faith. Besides, it’s not as if I can trust you to keep this place clean,” I say gently, smiling when he flushes. “Sit. Lync’s getting me some pants from your laundry and I really do want to make food. I’m starving.”

  Banner grunts, his scowl darkening his handsome face, and sits at the table, keeping me in his line of sight. Lync comes back seconds later carrying a pair of boxers that I am ashamed to say stay on because of my ass. The waist is big, but the butt area is tight, so it stays on enough to cover me where the gown splits open in the back.

  I don’t sweat it though since Banner seems to like the size of my trailer, and I hop into them before going to grab stuff from the now clean and stocked fridge. I am so good at this housekeeping stuff. I wonder if Banner and the kids will appreciate it someday.

  Humming, I go about making French toast and bacon. Breakfast just isn’t breakfast without bacon even if it is—I peer at the microwave clock—two in the afternoon.

  When I’m done, after shooing Banner away three times because he hovered, I sit down and attack my food with little-to-no shame. Big girls like to eat. And right now, I feel as if I haven’t eaten in a decade. The hunger is a clawing ache in my gut that feels unnatural, but not something that I am willing to focus on right now. Now I just want to eat and watch my two guys relax and take care of them for caring about me.

  Aaaw, gosh I feel flattered.

  Lync, as is Lync’s custom, grunts and attacks his food too though I notice he pauses for a second to bow his head.

  Sorry God! Thank you for the food. And not letting me die. But mostly for the food because you know how I feel about pork.

  “You need to rest. Come on, you can sleep in a guest room,” Banner says once I’ve finished my food and I’m sipping a glass of water.

  Whew, I am thirsty. I wonder if this is a part of the whole essence poisoning thing. I’ll have to talk to Althea and ask her. Later. For now, I just like looking at Banner and seeing the big man try to be bossy while not losing his temper when I dawdle.

  I pout when Banner stands and do the same. Lync grunts and takes the dishes from my hands, his trek to the sink instead of the dishwasher making me giggle and promise to teach him how to use it.

  “Guest bedroom?” I ask with a pout, sticking out my lip playfully.

  I wanna sleep in his bed, but hey, at least I’m staying. No wait. The plan was to remain an independent woman and go home—

  Oh, who am I kidding? I’m willing to take shameless advantage if he makes it easy for me. I can’t exactly seduce him from all the way over there, now can I?

  “Guest bedroom. You need to rest, and Althea says I need to make sure it’s not me who’s making your body react in this way,” he growls.

  I highly doubt that, but I am no doctor, so I’ll have to consider that angle. Maybe. I refuse to believe that Banner is making me sick.

  Following him upstairs, I let him fuss and tuck me into bed. Er, okay so he holds the covers open for me, lets me slide in and then drops them and moves away like I just carried in the plague. Still, he put me to bed. How sweet.

  I hum when he looks down at me for long silent seconds, and then laugh when he turns on his heel, wordlessly, and leaves the room.

  Oh Banner. Your babies are gonna be so cute and grumpy.


  Snuggling down into the mattress, I take a few minutes to flop around, finally getting comfortable on my stomach so I can look out of the window where I see mountains in the distance.

  I should stay awake and think about things. I should definitely be more afraid and freaked out about some werewolf—sorry, shifter—biting me because the bite has me getting sick and passing out from agonizing pain.

  I smile instead because—in a funny way—I don’t regret one moment of it. If Gregor hadn’t tried to bite me, and well, do other stuff. Really objectionable stuff that I am still blocking out to avoid trauma. I wouldn’t have fled my home and come all the way out here to a little town near Whitefish that isn’t even on the map.

  I would have stayed in my job, kept living a mediocre life, and never known what was out here, just waiting for me to discover. I think things have worked out really well for me so far, and I have faith that I will find the answers and get well, and if I’m really lucky, I’ll get more sex, some love from the most perfect man I have ever met, and finally name those babies.

  All eight of them.

  Seven! You said seven Cass. Come on Tiny, that is just…

  I giggle when Hannah trails off and sighs, probably accepting that I won’t change my mind. I want lots and lots of babies with golden eyes and messy blonde hair.

  You’ll get them, Tiny lady.

  I hope.

  I fall asleep to Hannah invading my head and listing off statistics about natural birth and the dangers of having babies, namely the things that happen to human women’s bodies after just one.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Banner

  “Stop looking at me like that. It’s not going to change my mind. Althea said no blooding,” I remind Lync, as I stack the dishwasher and try to ignore the fact that my Fated is laying in a bed upstairs, a bed that isn’t mine, and I can’t touch her in case I unintentionally set off that sickness again.

  I’ve been thinking about it since I spoke to Al, and it’s true what Hannah says, Cass has an attack after we’re together. Granted the first one was after she saw me at dinner and quite a while after the fact actually, but that could just be because I didn’t touch her that time and only my scent was involved, something I couldn’t control even when I fought to do it.

  This second attack was hours after I mounted her, over and over, my body pounding into hers and—

  I gulp, taking a deep breath when the need to go upstairs and repeat it becomes a craving in my blood that is pounding at my self-control. God, I want her.

  I woke this morning with the complete conviction that I could mate Cass and not hurt her because I am convinced that—with some self-control—I can take things slowly with her and blood her, which will make her stronger, just like Mika is now that she’s blooded, and I won’t have to fear her getting hurt.

  Of course, I would still have to be aware of my size and strength, but after last night and the way Cass handled me, begging for more and not balking when I gave it to her, I know she can take me and handle the ferocity of my animals constantly vying for her.

  I was so happy, finally happy because once I thought I could have her, I let it all hang out there and admitted to myself how much I care for her. She’s strangely sweet and upbeat, the opposite of what I am because usually I go off alone, so others can’t witness the conflict raging inside me.

  She’s funny in this quirky way that makes me want to laugh all the time, and she’s gorgeous. God, she is drop-dead gorgeous, and by far the most beautiful female I have ever seen.

  She’s perfect for me, my ideal female, and I want her so much it’s almost impossible to deny myself. She’s only been here a few days, and yet I feel as if she’s been with me forever.

  That should not be so, not even if we are Fated, but the weird thing is that she is exactly the kind of female I described to Hannah years ago when we were kids.

  Being the only male cub who wasn’t really popular with the other boys, with Bear and Logan hardly noticing me half the time when they were up to no good and Clarke hanging out with his own friends, it was always me and Hannah.

  Before my mom and Logan chased her off, we would spend hours playing in the sandbox in my backyard and talk. She described her ideal male with a girlish innocent that still makes me chuckle because unbeknownst to her she would always describe Logan, even when she stopped crushing on him and hated him.

  Me, I would describe a female I didn’t think could possibly exist, even then. I told Hannah that my female would be kind, the kindest person in the world, and that she wouldn’t cry a lot because she was always happy. She’d be beautiful and look like a bear female—all curves, though at the time I couldn’t articulate that properly.

  My ideal would have eyes that no one else did because at the time that’s how I felt, alone and different in appearance from anyone else. It isn’t easy being six years old and having gold eyes and a growth spurt that put me at Mom’s shoulder.

  I’ve always been different, bigger, the odd one out, so I described a female that embodied everything good in the females around me and my own personal wants.

  Kind to the point of being naïve, happy, never one to quit because I like that trait in people, fighting against the odds, it’s one I respect. Cass is all that, but she embodies so much more.

  What person tells others that she still likes a woman who won’t speak to her because she sent her son to prison for attempted murder? Everyone I know would have helped that woman, but been pissed when she blamed them and refuses to talk to them. Not Cass. No, she feels for her and holds out hope that she’ll talk to her one day, and she still wishes her well.

  She’s just so…good. Everything I want, and yet I can’t have her—even if I decided I can—because I would rather suffer than cause her one moment of hurt.

  Fuck.

  “Blood.”

  “Dammit Lync, I told you I can’t! I have to wait and see if she gets better. Find out the cause of her illness,” I grate, grabbing a beer from the fridge and stalking out to the back porch.

  He follows, surprisingly carrying a beer of his own, and I chuckle when I sit down, and he mimics me, grimacing when he tastes the beer.

  “You used to love beer before you went feral. Give it a chance, and I bet you’ll remember.”

  He takes another tentative sip, mimicking my sprawl as if trying to learn what he’s forgotten, and soon, it’s just two males lazing on the porch drinking beer.

  When we finish up, he rises silently and comes back with two six-packs Cass must have bought when she stocked the place. I’ll have to remember to reimburse her for that.

  “Blood.”

  Groaning, I take another can and lean back, sipping it slowly while searching for patience.

  “Listen buddy, here’s the deal. I get that you’re still learning, but you can’t just snarl stuff at people and expect them to do it. I cannot, can’t, won’t blood Cass right now if I don’t know what will happen. Yes, she is my Fated, my one female that is meant for me, and yes, I want her. That should be obvious to you since you hid out in the woods most of the night, so we could be alone. I can’t harm her though. You know the instinct to protect is stronger than the call, and I can’t override the instinct if I have even a chance of hurting her when I do it. It’s not about mating right now; it’s about making her better. Understand?”

  Lync cocks his head, considering my words and drinks his beer in silence until it’s finished, and he goes for another. I assume he’s done haranguing me until he growls and turns to me again.

  “Essence.”

  Dammit.

  “Yeah, Althea said she found traces of another shifter male’s essence in Cass’s blood. That is the male who attacked Cass before she came here. He wanted to claim her and tried to bite her before she whacked him over the head with a lamp and ran. He didn’t get in a solid claiming bite, but he did graze her and some of his essence went into her bloodstream. It’s that tiny amount that is hurting her.”
>
  “Blood. Heal.”

  “Maybe,” I say slowly, trying to hold on to my patience. “But it could also hurt her. It could be what’s making her sick.”

  That makes me feel sick because I’m supposed to blood my female and ensure that she’s strong and lives a long, good life, not sicken her with my very biology.

  “Kill!” He snarls after another long pause, making me tense until I realize he’s talking about that animal bastard who bit my little preza. Yeah, kill. If I ever see that idiot, I will annihilate him on sight.

  “If he comes anywhere near here, I’ll kill him, don’t you worry, big guy. For now, it’s up to you and me to look after her though. That means no heavy lifting, no overdoing it in the house, and absolutely no physical contact between us. Got it?”

  “Me. Help.”

  “I’d appreciate that Lync. I still have to go to work tomorrow, probably have to work in the shift I just blew off, so if you could keep an eye on her while I’m gone that would be great.”

  “Watch.”

  “Yes. Good. Watch her. Now finish your beer, you wild bastard, and let’s talk about something else. I’m already near the end of my tether as it is. It hurts me to deny the claim, and I don’t know how the hell I’m going to get through it, but she’s more important than my claim.”

  He grunts, lifting the beer to his lips, and lounges back, looking like a big hairy male with no cares in the world when all things considered, we’re both screwed.

  # # # #

  Cass

  Pushing away from the open window, I tiptoe back to bed and slide beneath the sheet with my heart pounding and my chest hurting in the worst way.

  Hannah is long gone, thank God, because I am really grateful that she isn’t here to have heard what I just did. Not that I meant to eavesdrop. When I first heard Banner talking to Lync and the answering grunts that followed, I was amused and got out of bed to close the window because I really didn’t want to listen to a conversation that has nothing to do with me.

  I stopped just before I reached out to close it though and sank down to the floor as silently as I could, getting as close as possible because I was unable to stop listening once I heard the words mate and Fated.