by T. S. Joyce
MATE FUR HIRE
(BEARS FUR HIRE, BOOK 3)
By T. S. JOYCE
Other Books in This Series
This book was not written as a standalone.
The author recommends to read these stories in order for optimal reader enjoyment.
Husband Fur Hire (Book 1)
Bear Fur Hire (Book 2)
Mate Fur Hire
Copyright © 2015 by T. S. Joyce
Copyright © 2015, T. S. Joyce
First electronic publication: November 2015
T. S. Joyce
www.tsjoycewrites.wordpress.com
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s permission.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.
Published in the United States of America
Chapter One
Tobias Silver threw open the door of the Galena Post Office and wiped his muddy boots on the mat inside. July in Alaska meant warm weather and sunshine, but it also meant the main drag in town was often a swamp thanks to the summer rains.
The scent of werewolf hit his nose immediately, and he threw a suspicious glance over at a bench along the wall. Half-shadowed by a full coat rack, Lincoln McCall sat there, one leg stretched out as though he’d been waiting a while. His blazing gray eyes followed Tobias to the front desk.
“What the fuck do you want?” Tobias asked in a barely audible voice the humans waiting in line couldn’t hear but Link would pick up just fine.
“Hello to you, too,” Link growled out, striding toward Tobias, his boots echoing across the wooden floor. “Took you long enough to come pick up this package.”
Tobias tossed him a withering look as the tall man stood beside him with his arms crossed. “I have shit to do, dog. Back-to-back deliveries mean I can’t just drop everything to make a trip out here for a single package.”
“I’ve been waiting for two days.”
“What? Why? You should’ve just called me if you wanted something.”
“On the radio?” Link’s dark eyebrows shot up, and his eyes blazed brighter. “That’s what you must mean since you never pick up your damned phone. I know because I called it a dozen times, and what I have to say shouldn’t be talked about over the radio waves.”
Mickey Gunderson, the postmaster, waved him forward as a little old lady shuffled off with a package in her hands. “Tobias Silver, this package is a fragile one.”
When he disappeared into the back room, Tobias leaned heavily on the countertop angled away from Link, who was standing too damned close.
“You’ll want to hear what I have to say,” Link murmured. “It could possibly save your family a lot of grief.”
“What do you care about my family?”
“Are you kidding me right now? I’d do anything for Elyse. Anything for Ian. Hell, if Jenner asked me for a favor, I’d do it.” A long growl rattled Link’s throat, and he shook his head hard to stifle the sound. Crazy wolf.
Tobias narrowed his eyes at him. Link had spoken each word with such conviction he had to be telling the truth. Because of his heightened shifter senses, Tobias could tell a lie. “Why, Link? I honestly want to know why you care about them so much. You remember what happened to your brother, don’t you?”
Link’s face went blank, and red crept up the sides of his neck. “Yeah, I know what happened to Cole, and he accepted it, you snarky asshole. You think he wanted to be hurting people? Ian did him a favor, just like he’ll do for me someday. And I’ll die with honor because Ian is my friend.” Link turned to leave but circled back and lowered his voice. “You don’t even know how lucky you are, Silver.” Link’s glowing gaze locked on his for a moment more before he strode outside, slamming the door after him.
Huh. Tobias twirled a pen between his fingers and frowned. Link had abandoned his pack the day they went after Elyse. The day they scarred up her face and tried to kill Ian when he was mid-hibernation. Link had fought his own family to protect them. Tobias had never understood his reasons, but he did know one thing. Werewolves didn’t do well rogue. They needed packs, and from the way Link talked about Ian and Elyse, it dawned on Tobias. Link wasn’t rogue. He’d just chosen a different pack, albeit a broken one. With a bear shifter and a human, this make-shift pack was one that shouldn’t work by any means, but apparently they were all Link had now, and he was going to stick with them until he went mad, just like every other McCall had done since the beginning of their lineage.
Regret slashed through Tobias’s chest. He didn’t hate Link. In fact, he actually liked the idiot, but someday, Ian was going to be called on to kill his friend, and the unfairness of that was a mighty blow. Tobias might not get along with his brothers much, but that didn’t mean he wanted them hurt. And killing Link was going to hurt Ian.
Tobias muttered a curse and scrubbed a hand down his face. This right here was why he had stalled coming to Galena. Ian and Elyse, and even Link, lived too close. They brought up all these emotions he didn’t know what to do with, pain he didn’t understand, and now his inner bear was writhing in his middle, snarling to be released.
You don’t even know how lucky you are.
Link was so wrong.
“Here it is,” Mickey said, grunting under the heavy weight of an oversize box that had masking tape wrapped around it several dozen times. “I think Ian was meant to take it, but he’s swamped with deliveries right now, and he and Elyse are talking about driving their cattle back early, and they are fighting a war with the mice near their garden, and one of their goats just had twins but she won’t feed one of them—”
“Mickey!” Damn, he knew this was a small town, but did everyone know everything about everyone?
“Oh, right. They’re your family. You already know all this.”
Actually he didn’t, and now he felt even shittier, thank you, Galena.
Mickey hoisted the box onto the counter with a great groan, then said, “You ever delivered to Perl Island before?”
And there it was. The final rub of this shit-tastic trip. Perl Island, one of the most dangerous places on earth. The Alaskan weather liked to dump all of her violence right over the island. If he was lucky enough to land safely, then he would have to deal with the natives. That strip of land was known in his world as the Island of Misfit Shifters.
“Yes, I have.” Once, and it didn’t go well.
“Well, good luck to you.”
Tobias grunted his thanks and pulled the package off the counter. It was light as a feather to him, but he’d learned long ago that people don’t like seeing his shifter strength. It made humans uncomfortable. So he acted like it was heavy, gave Mickey Gunderson a polite smile, and made his way out the door.
Link was waiting outside, leaned up against the log wall of the post office. “I’m going with you.”
“What? No.” Tobias sauntered right past him and down the porch stairs.
“The lady you’re delivering that to…she’s a witch.”
Tobias barely resisted
the urge to growl at him as he turned right onto the main road that led out of town toward the landing strip where his bush plane was waiting. He walked faster, but Link lengthened his stride and kept up.
“Why do you think Perl Island works so well for the misfits? Huh? Think about it. Clayton hasn’t given you a kill order on any of them, and they’re all crazy.”
“Not McCall-level crazy.”
“Maybe not, but maybe so.”
Tobias cast him a quick glance. He hadn’t thought about it before, but Link was right. Clayton Reed, his handler, had never sent him out there to even punish a shifter for stepping out of line. And to his knowledge, Ian and Jenner hadn’t been given orders on Perl Island either. “Tell me what you’re talking about quick before I lose my patience.”
“There’s a lady on the island who has them all in line. They don’t need outside intervention because she’s managing every one of those crazy shifters. All of them, Tobias.” Link gave him a significant look. “How is one woman doing all that?”
“Hell if I know.”
“She’s suppressing their animals.”
“Oh, come on, Link. That’s just a rumor. That shit has been flying around for years. She isn’t a witch, and she’s not suppressing animals. The misfits are just staying in line so people stay off their land and leave them alone.”
“I thought so, too, but then something changed.”
“What changed?”
“I found her.” Link’s voice was growing more and more excited. “I tracked her down—her name and how I could reach her—and I made a call. Tobias, I talked to her, and you know what she told me when I asked her if she could help shifters with out-of-control animals?”
Fine, out of curiosity, he would play along. “What did she say?”
“She said she won’t talk to anyone but you, but that I wasn’t wrong.”
“Me? I don’t know anyone on Perl Island. What does she want with me?”
“To hire you. She said she needs you for an important job.”
“Fuck, Link! You’re getting sucked into this elaborate hoax, man!”
Link jerked Tobias’s arm and squared up to him, eyes sparking. “If you were me and you had a shelf life because your animal was taking over. If you knew you were going to die at the claws of one of your friends. If you knew you would want to hurt people because you’re going mad, wouldn’t you try? I need this, Tobias. I need to make sure I tried everything before I just give up and give in. And I know that sounds selfish, but I didn’t just contact the witch for me. You weren’t there when Elyse was bleeding and standing over Ian’s body. Your brother’s body! I could see it in her eyes. She knew she was going to die, and still, she popped round after round into my pack to protect him. That should’ve never happened. You Silvers shouldn’t be hibernating. You want to know why I really care about your family? Elyse is good, Tobias. I mean really good to her marrow, and I’m lucky enough to get to be around someone like that. And Ian is a match for her. I’ll stay saner longer just for knowing them. I was part of the pack that hunted her. Hunted. Her. And then she took me in, gave me a place to live on her property, fed me when food got low at the end of winter, and she told me I’m good. No one has ever said that to me! I’m not just asking you to go meet with this woman because I want to live. I’m asking so we can rule out any chance of Ian staying awake this winter so Elyse doesn’t have to be alone. Because when I die, and oh, I can feel the madness coming—when I go, who will watch her while Ian sleeps?”
Tobias shook his head over and over in denial of what Link was saying because it did Link no good for Tobias to build up his hope. There wasn’t a cure. It didn’t exist, but Link was staring at him with such desperation and, dammit, Tobias owed him since he’d been a part of saving Elyse and Ian last winter. Link had talked about how good Elyse was, but Link had kept her safe, patrolling her property all winter to make sure the remaining McCalls didn’t come back for her and her mate’s hibernating body. Elyse was right. Link was good, or as good as a half-crazed werewolf could be.
“Fuck,” he muttered. “What’s this lady’s name?”
“Vera Masterson.”
At the sound of her name, a strange, warm feeling unfurled in Tobias’s chest and made it hard to draw a breath. “Doesn’t sound like a witch name to me.”
“So you’ll do it?”
Tobias let off a long, irritated sigh. “On three conditions.”
“Name them.”
“I go alone. Whatever trap I’m walking into, I don’t want you involved. I’ll call you when it’s done.”
“And the other two?”
Tobias leveled him with a hard look. “You don’t tell anyone about this, and you don’t get your hopes up.”
“Why not?”
Tobias turned and strode toward the edge of town, adjusting the package in his grasp as he went. Over his shoulder, he called, “Because there is no cure.”
Chapter Two
It took Tobias way too damned long to get to Perl Island on account of having to refuel halfway there, and by the time he spotted the landing strip he’d used a couple years ago, the weather had turned.
Perl Island was all mountains, as if she were pointing daggers at the sky, daring any bush pilot to try her. Tobias had been flying a long time, though, and he knew exactly what his plane could and couldn’t do.
The churning storm clouds that hovered right above the island didn’t surprise Tobias at all. For some reason, this place got hit with the worst of Alaska’s weather. While it was a pain in the ass for him when his plane hit some serious, stomach-dipping turbulence, the storms and tsunami threats kept people off the island, and for the most part, the misfits were left alone. Which was probably the real reason he hadn’t been sent out on a kill mission to this place yet. Clayton, the head of the Shifter Enforcement Agency Tobias begrudgingly worked for, didn’t care as much about shifters warring with each other. Not unless they were drawing attention to themselves. Clayton cared if shifters were hurting humans, and since there were zero-point-zero humans crazy enough to make a home on this island, the misfits could likely do whatever they wanted without reprimand. Yeah. That sounded much better than the island was controlled by a witch.
The farther he flew away from Link, the more sure he was that Vera Masterson was just some backwoods shifter mixing herbs in the dirt, smoking copious amounts of weed, and chanting to herself because she was just as crazy as the other misfits. A shifter didn’t get exiled out here for no reason. Hell, if Clayton thought he stood any chance of keeping the crazy McCalls in one place, he’d probably cage them all here and sleep better for it.
Tobias dipped the nose of his plane slightly, lowering under the turbulence as he took a wide turn to square up to the rough landing strip. The edges were overgrown, but the center was covered with short grass, as if there had been other deliveries out this way that had kept the wild foliage from growing too high. Which made sense. He couldn’t be the only delivery here. The island wasn’t huge, and to support the twenty or so shifters, it would have to produce a lot of game, especially in the winter months.
Someone was feeding these people.
The landing was rough, but better than he’d expected. The first time he’d landed here, the runway was dotted with brambles, and he had plowed through a trio of young, knee-high alders which had almost dumped him on his butt and given him his first crash landing. But when he scanned the leftover runway out of the front window of his plane, sure enough, those alders had been trimmed with what looked like smooth machete slices. Thanks to whoever is keeping this runway viable. They’d just saved him damage to his new Cessna 185.
Tobias ripped off his headset and turned off the plane, then pulled the box out of the passenger’s seat. When he saw Vera Masterson’s name scribbled across the top, he froze. Such a strange feeling washed over him, just like when Link had said her name out loud. Déjà vu maybe or…something. Okay, so this package was for her. Maybe this was the lure. Maybe this
delivery had to do with whatever she wanted to hire him to do, which shouldn’t make him this wary because people hired him for all sorts of odd jobs and deliveries. It was a product of the kind of work he did in the summers. There was no postal service out in the bush. Just him.
Tobias followed a small deer trail through the thick woods and followed the scent of cooking beef another mile through the wilderness until he came to a clearing. It was lined with tiny cabins in different stages of disrepair, and on the farthest end was a pair of outhouses. In between the two biggest cabins, a man sat, turning a spit that supported an entire leg of beef. Where the fuck did they get a cow?
The village was abnormally quiet as he made his way over the short grass toward the man tending the food, and the hairs rose on the back of his neck. He was being watched, and when he scented the air, it was full of dominance and all different types of fur.
The man by the fire lifted his head as his nostrils flared, and his dark eyes narrowed to slits. “If he sent you to off us, it’s your unlucky day.”
“Who?”
“You know who, grizzly. Ain’t nobody causin’ trouble here.” The broad-shouldered man stood to his full height as his glance skittered to the package and back to Tobias. He snarled his lips, exposing crooked yellow teeth. “What you got there?”
“A delivery, which is the one and only reason I’m here. No one sent me but the postmaster in Galena. Can you point me to where Vera Masterson lives?”
“She’s mine.”
Tobias cocked an impatient brow and gritted his teeth. “That’s fantastic. I need her to sign for this and pay me the delivery fee, and then I’ll be on my way.”
“I know you.”
“I assure you, you don’t.”
“You’re that prick who delivered the piping to us a couple summers back. Got in a fight with Eustice if I remember correctly.”
