by Haley Weir
“Why? Because you said so?”
“Because I know so,” he snapped. “He works at the fire station with Brock. His spare time is spent pawning his daughter off on her grandmother while he drinks and gambles away the insurance money he got when his wife died.”
“I know.”
“And you’re still going to date him?”
“Derek is in sobriety classes and Aria is staying with her grandmother until he’s sure that he won’t relapse in the early stages of his program,” Tilly said with an air of boredom. “He realizes that he made mistakes in the past and is doing his best to fix them. That’s what people do, Michael. And even if he weren’t struggling with a drinking problem, I wouldn’t date him. I don’t date the parents of my students.”
“Did you sleep with him?”
She spun on her heels and nearly fell in the shower. Michael’s instincts had him by her side in a split second. He caught her before she could fall and held her stead. Tilly glared at him through heavy lidded eyes. The anger he saw in their depths made him hard instantly. She felt his erection and shoved his chest, but she didn’t push him out of the shower like he expected. Tilly climbed his body like tree and latched on to his mouth in a punishing kiss. “You really think so little of me?” she asked.
“Yeah...I do.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want you catching feelings.” She began clawing at his clothes, but a strange noise tore its way through the thick fog of lust that coiled around them. Tilly reached over to answer her phone as Michael kissed her neck. The animalistic urge inside called for him to lift her up higher and sheath himself in her body, but the sound of another man’s voice caused him to set her down entirely. He moved out of the shower and went outside to get his overnight bag from the trunk.
Michael didn’t care that he tracked water through her house. He disappeared into the guest room and changed quickly. She opened the door and looked at him as though he owed her some sort of explanation. “Seriously? You’re leaving?”
“I wasn’t invited, remember?” Michael stomped back toward the door in his sneakers, but Tilly blocked his path. She pushed herself between him and the door, sliding the lock in place. “By the way, it’s my job to remind you that it’s against the rules for you to communicate with matches without the agency’s consent. Move.”
“Not until you tell me what the hell is going on with you.”
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
“I do have to worry if it causes you to overreact about one date,” she countered. “You...haven’t been feeling anything for me. Have you? We only hooked up once and it was nothing serious. Right?”
He laughed rudely and set her aside. “Don’t flatter yourself, princess.”
Tilly punched him in the arm and flew up the stairs as he slammed the door behind him. Michael called Corey the second he drove down the street. “I’m sorry I left like that. I shouldn’t have tried to say anything to her about it…Corey?”
A loud roar came through the phone before Logan’s voice broke through the static. “Come to the grove where the old hunter’s camp used to be. Come alone. If you don’t, then we kill him and send our condolences to his sister and your brother.”
“If you touch a single hair on his head—” The line cut out and Michael pressed the accelerator to the floor. He raced through the streets of Haden Springs and down the road that lead to the mountain path. Michael turned the engine off and dashed through the trees toward the secret grove Corey’s team once used as their base of operations. He ran and ran until he came upon the river that separated him from the camp. Michael stared across the rushing water where Corey knelt in the mud.
His face was marred with bruises and cuts, but he was alive. The mercenaries lowered a makeshift survivor’s bridge and Michael crossed the river with ease. He stood toe to toe with Logan and the others. “Let me guess, your boss wants to talk?”
“No, actually. He wants you to submit.”
Logan and the others clearly hadn’t been the ones that got the jump on Corey. There wasn’t a scratch or speck of dirt on them despite being deep in the mountains. The mercenaries stepped aside to reveal the hulking figure of a man he had never met. No...not a man, but something else entirely. Michael glanced over at Corey. So, this was Alexander Collier’s monster? The thing was hideous. It looked like a cross between something from the planet of the apes, one of the creepy first batch Gremlins, and a Thunder cat. “Alexander wants me to submit? Why?”
“You are not permitted to speak his name.”
Woah, Michael thought. If the face wasn’t creepy enough, the voice had his teeth on edge. Everything about the creature just seemed wrong. “Who are you?”
“Niko.”
“Well, Niko. If you don’t mind, I’ll just be taking Corey and leaving.” Michael extended his claws and summoned the bear strength, not shifting entirely, but enough to double his already impressive height. He stood equal to the monster and didn’t back down an inch. Niko’s smile twisted into a sinister grin. Before Michael could gauge his motives, Niko struck out and punched Michael in the sternum. Bone cracked upon impact and he fell to one knee, forced to bow to a superior alpha.
But he didn’t stay down. Michael landed an uppercut on the underside of the creature’s jaw. Niko barely stumbled, but it was enough to put fear into the eyes of the mercenaries. Michael roared and Corey began to shift. They stood back to back as the others circled them. Niko licked the blood from his lips and dropped into a crouch. Michael watched in awe as the creature began to shift with a control that rivaled his own.
Even the mercenaries looked shaken. Logan pressed the intercom in his ear. “Be on high alert incase Niko goes rampage.”
So the creature could shift on command, but he couldn’t pull himself back? Michael used Logan’s distraction to his advantage and tore through Victor like wet paper. The mercenary screamed with his last breath as Michael shifted completely. No one attempted to kill his family and lived. No one.
Niko’s other form was terrifying. The genetic perversion of multiple shape shifters looked like something out of mythology, another sign that Hydra was too deep into the world of the supernatural without his feet planted in reality. Niko didn’t just attack Corey and Michael; the creature attacked anything with a heartbeat. Logan and what remained of his team open fired on the monster.
Michael headed for the bridge, but Corey triggered one of his old pressure mines, causing an explosion that rocked the mountain. He was caught in the blast. Michael shifted back and tossed the jaguar over his shoulder and ran as fast as his legs could carry them. Shouts of alarm ricocheted off the trees. The noise drew Anders and the others. Brock took Corey from his arm. “Alexander’s monster is here,” he rasped. “The damn thing is ugly, but he’s stronger than any of us...even me.”
He saw the unease on their faces. Michael was the strongest and he was no match for Alexander Collier’s creation. War had come to Haden Springs once again, but this time...the end was uncertain. Corey groaned in pain as Brock laid him out on the backseat of his truck. Anders checked Michael over; gasping when his shirt was parted and the state of his chest was revealed. “Mikey…this is bad.”
“Just get me to the loft. I’ll heal in a few hours.”
“No you won’t. You’ve already moved too much,” Aiden said. “Part of the bone is entirely crushed. If a piece damages your lungs or heart, there’s no healing from that.”
Michael was lifted off of his feet and carried to the bed of his brother’s truck. “No. Get Corey some help. He was caught in the b...blast.” He gritted his teeth through the pain. Black spots danced around his vision until he fell unconscious. Michael hadn’t stepped foot inside of a hospital since his mother died, but Anders didn’t know that as he instructed Brock to escort them to the clinic.
CHAPTER NINE
Tilly hadn’t heard from Michael in two weeks. She called several times, but he ignored each one. Her end of the bargain had been fulfilled and t
he deadline for the fundraiser plans was approaching. Though she had no intentions of stopping her membership with the agency, Tilly at least expected him to honor their arrangement. She sat across from yet another date as she tugged on the hem of her skirt to keep it in place. Brett or Brandon—honestly she didn’t remember—pushed foot around his plate.
“So, what do you do for a living?”
“I’m a teacher,” she replied. “I used to help inner city children, but when I moved to town, I became a second grade homeroom teacher. It’s messy and most days I’m covered in glitter, but it’s worth it. I’m head of the fundraiser committee.”
“Oh.”
Oh? Tilly set her fork down. “You don’t like children?”
“I’m sorry,” he said sheepishly. “I don’t. You must think I’m a terrible person, but I just don’t know how to handle them. And why are they always so sticky?” Brad shivered as though the thought of a sticky child was comparable to the zombie apocalypse. Tilly suffered through the rest of the date wondering whether the dating algorithm was glitching at Kodiak Dating Agency because there was no way she was compatible with a man who hated children. She walked home and called Lori.
“What the heck? Brad was terrible.”
“Brad? You mean Leo?”
“Why did I think his name started with a B?”
“Is this important?” Lori questioned. “I’m up at the hospital trying to get our system back in order. Someone hacked us. Luckily there wasn’t a break in confidential files, but Michael’s hard drive got wiped completely.”
“Why are you up at the hospital?” Tilly flopped on the couch and picked up the bag of popcorn she had been munching on before her date. When Lori didn’t answer right away, she started to worry. “Come on, don’t scare me like this. What happened?”
“Corey was attacked.”
“Oh my god! Is he okay?”
“Corey’s fine,” Lori replied. “It’s Michael who’s in the hospital. Look, this is too complicated to discuss over the phone—”
“I’m on my way.” Tilly forgot her cellphone on the table as she sprinted for the door. Nausea churned in her belly as she drove to the clinic. She didn’t know why the thought of Michael being hurt made her world feel as though it had descended into chaos. Weren’t shape shifters supposed to heal? Why hadn’t anyone called her?
Dozens of questions filtered through her mind as Tilly pulled into the visitors parking area. She cut the engine and bolted for the doors. The woman behind the reception counter looked at her outfit with disapproval evident in her gaze. Tilly pulled her skirt down further and approached the counter. “I’m here to see Michael Adair.”
“You and half the town, sweetie. You’ll have to wait your turn.”
“I’m a close friend.” It wasn’t a total lie, but it was enough to make her feel guilty for the way she treated him. Tilly hadn’t even given Michael a chance. She judged him on the rumors alone and that made her feel much worse. “Please. I need to—”
“Let her in, Janis.”
Tilly looked over her shoulder and saw Anders walking down the hall. He waved her over with a stern expression on his face. “If my wife found out that I let you in Michael’s room, she’d kill me. But I know you and him have things you need to discuss. Try not to upset him. He isn’t doing well.”
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“None of us know for sure. Corey won’t say anything and he refuses to leave Michael’s side,” Anders revealed. “If they talk to you...please let me know. We’re worried they’re in over their heads.”
Tilly walked into the room and gasped. The figure in the bed hardly looked like Michael at all. His cheeks were hollow and his skin was white as a sheet. Corey lifted his head and blinked at her in away that was so feline that it made her shiver. She slowly approached the bed, cautious of the jaguar guarding Michael’s bed from the chair in the corner. “What are you doing here? Haven’t you done enough?”
“I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Corey smirked as though he knew some sort of profound secret, but she wasn’t at the clinic for him. She was there for Michael. Tilly moved closer and brushed a lock of hair from his face. “Michael?” His eyes flew open at the sound of her voice in his ear, but he looked so weak. “I would have been here sooner, but I just found out.”
The irritable huff from the other side of the bed wasn’t helpful.
“Michael, what happened?”
“We fought something that we’ve never seen before,” he said. “I called Corey’s phone after I left your house and a mercenary that works for Destiny’s father answered instead. They took him hostage in order to lure me into the mountains.”
“Why? I thought the facility was destroyed.”
“Sector A was destroyed,” Michael confirmed. “But the man who runs it is still alive. They got me where they wanted me and that...whatever that thing was told me that Hydra sent him to make me submit. Hydra needs me for something and I don’t think he intends to stop until he gets it.”
Tilly turned towards Corey. “You’re his son. Can’t you talk to him?”
“Haven’t you been listening to a single world everyone has been saying for the past year and a half?” the jaguar shifter snarled. “My memories were wiped when I was a child. I have no memory of anything involving my childhood. Alexander Collier wouldn’t want to talk to me, he would want to turn me into his hunter again.”
Tilly didn’t know what to say. She spent so much of her time being angry at her friends for talking about the hunters and Hydra that she didn’t have any idea what was going on in town. She only started to care now, and she suspected that was because Michael was involved. She needed to know that he wasn’t going to do something stupid or get himself hurt even more.
"Look, I tried to tell myself that all of this stuff wasn't my problem," she admitted. "I'm a teacher. I slay monsters made of paper and noodles while dodging booger-covered hands. I’ve struggled to cope with real monsters. I'm not like the others. I'm terrified of what this means. If you're real, then is everything else? It's too much."
"Looking in the other direction doesn't make the problem go away."
Tilly understood that. She pulled a second chair over and sat by the bed. Michael’s hand twitched on top of the covers before it reached out to grab her hand. "You don't have to be here. I don't expect you to be. We aren't friends."
She flinched and looked down at their clasped hands in shame. "I judged you without even knowing you, Michael. I feel like a horrible person for the way I've treated you. You might be an asshole, but you didn't deserve it."
"If I'm an asshole, then what are you? If you haven't noticed, Matilda, we both have a habit of insulting people without even knowing it."
"We'll do better," she stated with determination. "Both of us. You and I will go over the fundraiser plans while you catch me up on what's going on. We'll be friends whether we were in the beginning or not." Tilly was quite proud of herself as she gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.
Corey propped his feet up on the edge of the bed and scowled at her. Michael appeared to consider her offer. "Fine. We can be friends." His words brought out a flare of happiness within her.
"Fantastic. Let's start with you telling me what's wrong."
"Part of my sternum was crushed and Anders has been fishing pieces out each day. He's afraid to let me go home in case I puncture something."
Tilly leaned over the bed and gently lowered the neck of Michael's robe. Dark, hideous bruises littered his chest, but there were no cuts or surgical incision scars. It was comforting to know that he still healed at an inhuman rate. "So the big scary monster has to have a weakness, right? Everything does."
"We don't even know what it is. It has to be made up of at least seven different creatures mutated together. Without knowing what each of them are specifically, there's no way to calculate any weaknesses."
"Has anyone gone back to the mountain to check if anything wa
s left behind?" Tilly was shocked by how interested she was in what they had to say. Whenever she met with the ladies to discuss things, she always had to hear them gush about their husbands, but Michael and Corey were objective.
"Brock searched the camp and found nothing but muddled footprints. I'll go back once Anders finishes the last x-ray."
"Cool. I'll come with."
"What?" Both men barked in unison.
"I'm coming with. I want to help. You could use a fresh pair of eyes, I can keep lying to our friends for you, we can work on the fund raiser, and—"
"And screw each other?" Corey's smirk made Tilly want to smack him. She ignored every word out of his mouth that wasn't relevant to the conversation.
"I can defend myself."
"You can fight?" Michael asked.
"No, but I know enough self-defense to get myself out of trouble."
"That won't work on highly trained mercenaries or shape shifters."
"Then you'll teach me." Tilly shrugged and released his hand to settle into her chair more comfortably. "It's Spring Break. I've got plenty of time."
"What about your dates?"
"I'll have to talk to Lori about that. None of them except Derek seem like my type. I think the algorithm is messed up."
Michael chuckled. "Did you ask to try something new on your survey?"
Tilly frowned and nodded her head. "Totally forgot about that."
Lori stepped into the room a moment later and made a note to change Tilly's filters. Corey and Tilly sat in the corner while Lori and Michael discussed how to move forward after the attack on his computer. Everyone knew Hydra had been behind it, but no one aside from Michael knew what their enemy had been searching for.
"If you hurt him, I'll kill you."
"You know what," Tilly hissed quietly. "Did it ever occur to you guys that I might be protecting myself? I've been hurt before and I'm terrified that men like him are going to stomp all over me again."
"That's your mistake. Michael isn't a man. He's a bear shifter and if you're his mate, that means he won't stomp all over you. It means you'll have the power to hurt him in ways his enemies could only dream of." Corey crossed his arms over his chest.
