Dancing Bearback (BBW Shifter Cowboy Western Romance) (Bear Ranchers Book 3)

by Becca Fanning

  Linnie glared at Martin, and he grew quiet under her withering stare.

  Parker spoke up. “So who are you guys?” he asked, gesturing towards the three men in dark suits that had entered with Martin. “You ain’t cops.”

  Martin half-turned. “Because of the…high-profile nature of this prosecution, and the unknown nature of this leak, we’ve been able to access some, uh, unconventional resources. These gentlemen are…third-party experts with regards to witness protection. They’re going to be taking over Linnie’s care, to ensure she stays safe. This is Cain DuMont, Linnie, and he-”

  Linnie shook her head in disbelief. “You people. So, I’m supposed to go with …”

  The man Martin called Cain interrupted Linnie’s sentence, interjecting to say, “Ms. Foster, I understand your concerns, and we definitely should discuss it. But now is absolutely not the right time.” Cain stepped, reaching out to take Linnie’s hand. Like a warm vice, his grip was strong and somehow comforting.

  Martin opened his mouth to say something, but a firm look from Cain cut him off.

  “Now” Cain continued “...is time for you and I to leave.”

  Linnie looked at her hand, held in Cain’s. His hands were wide and steady, and the feeling of him holding her hand reassured Linnie. She felt safe, or at least safer, with Cain holding her hand. And those eyes…God, those eyes!

  After a pause, she nodded, and Cain motioned towards the door with his head. He then turned, saying, “Clive, you’ll…?”

  “We’ll get everything squared away,” Clive answered, while Linnie and Cain headed out the door.

  A few wordless minutes later, Cain was pulling his black SUV away from the parking lot, with Linnie seated beside him. He moved methodically, practiced training making everything he did automatic.

  Linnie wondered if that was some kind of soldier training? Or maybe because he was a Shifter? She glanced out the windshield at the lights of the city. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been home. Is there any chance we could stop off at my place? I need some clothes, and…”

  Wordlessly, Cain shook his head no.

  “There’s things I need there! Shirts, maybe some…underwear,” Linnie said.

  Cain adjusted his grip on the steering wheel, and seemed to ignore the question. He licked his lips and kept his eyes on the traffic. Not just the cars and where they were. He was looking at the people in the cars. Some cars he would just glance past. But any car that held a group of men earned his stare.

  Quietly, she added, “There’s photos. Of my mother. Earrings, from my grandmother. Christmas…things.” She drifted into silence, and sighed. She felt her lower lip tremble, so she turned to look out the window and away from Cain. “I didn’t know it would be like this!”

  A quiet moment filled the car. Cain broke the silence by asking, “Your place is just off 10th Avenue?”

  Linnie nodded, as she felt tears run down her cheeks, and felt the corners of her mouth twitching. Cain sighed, and said, “Five minutes. Less. Just what you…need. Personal things. In and out. This is not a packing opportunity. This is a grabbing opportunity.”

  Linnie wiped at her cheeks with her cuffs. “Thank you.”

  “Deviate from the plan, and there will likely be a price. Let’s hope we don’t have to pay it tonight.”

  Linnie’s suitcase sat open on the bed, and she was doing her best to prioritize the contents of her apartment. She set in a photo album from when she was a kid; her grandmother’s earrings; she made sure Cain wasn’t looking to put in her teddy bear. Her sister’s favorite Christmas tree decoration...

  Cain waited in the other room, but Linnie could feel his impatience through the wall. She had just a few minutes to pack her life into a bag, and here he was pressing her for time.

  “I thought I was clear. We have to move,” Cain said through the door, interrupting Linnie’s efforts to get her shirts and pants rolled up to take up as little room as possible.

  “I know, I know!” she called. “I get it, okay. I’m rushing as fast as I…”

  The door to Linnie’s bedroom was flung open, and she shrieked.

  Cain stormed in and took one look at the suitcase. “Zip up the bag. We’re done. We have to go. Now.”

  “Just a damn second,” Linnie snarled back. “This is my fucking life I’m packing into this …”

  A loud knock came on the front door. “Utilities!” demanded a deep voice. “We’ve got a gas leak in the building!”

  Cain’s hand flew to Linnie’s shoulder, and he pushed her to the ground. He was immensely strong, and his hands wide; she nominally attempted to resist, but realized she wouldn’t be able to. Once Cain had her kneeling, he murmured, “Stay down…”

  “But the gas-” Linnie murmured, sniffing the air.

  “There’s no gas leak. If things go bad, run and don’t look back,” Cain said, standing and heading out the door of the bedroom.

  She didn’t have very long to think about it, though, before she heard a crash from her living room. She heard the sound of wood splintering, and then two male voices, grunting. She crawled across to the door of her bedroom so she could look around the doorframe to see what was happening.

  From her vantage point, she could see that Cain was pinned to the ground by a shorter, thick-built man. Their glittering eyes were locked on each other and their hands interlocked, as they each struggled for an advantage against the other. She heard Cain growl as he heaved, flinging the shorter man off him, and hurling him across the room. Half a second after he disappeared from Linnie’s line of sight, she heard the sound of her television crashing to the ground.

  Cain seized the moment to roll back onto his feet, glancing to Linnie and catching her eye. “Go! Now!” Cain bellowed, pointing to the open door, as he turned back to face the rest of her apartment.

  Linnie didn’t need to be told twice. She darted down the hallway, and through the living room where the brawl was taking place, then behind Cain towards the splintered remnants of the door out of her apartment. As she slipped out, she glanced over her shoulder, only to see that, where there had once been a squat man lying in the rubble of her entertainment center, a strange creature was rolling to standing on his cloven hooves.

  His face was now projected forward, and his hair straight upwards; his nose curled up with his pronounced nostrils flaring, tusks jutting out the sides of his mouth. The monster’s mouth opened, and it squealed; it was a terrible, high-pitched sound that carried through the air and tore at Linnie’s eardrums. Cain glanced over his shoulder, and saw Linnie still standing there.

  “Get out! Run for the car!” Cain shouted as he was tackled to the ground, a long furry snout buried in his midsection.

  Linnie saw them both go flying back, disappearing into her kitchen, and Linnie heard the sound of her shelves and cabinets breaking, her ceramic plates shattering. She ran, but not like she did back in high school. She ran like her primitive ancestors ran, the ones who ran away fast enough to escape tooth and claw.

  She fled down the stairs, taking them two at a time. Linnie could feel her heart thumping and her blood pumping; she couldn’t believe this was happening, couldn’t believe she’d gotten up to her eyeballs in this. She pushed through the fire door in the stairwell, exiting into an alleyway. She paused, glancing in both directions. From above her, she could hear the high-pitched, menacing squeals of the terrible half-hog creature that was in her apartment. Linnie bit her lip, trying to focus, and started to head down the alley towards the back of the building where Cain had parked. From behind her, Linnie heard a yell. She looked back, and saw two men pointing at her and launching into a pursuit. Linnie swore loudly and turned to run.

  At that moment, there was a loud crash above her, accompanied by the sound of smashing bricks. Linnie looked up, and skidded to a stop as saw the side of the building giving way. Coming through the wall four stories above her head was a massive, hulking form, nearly nine foot to the shoulder and covered in short black fu
r. As the creature crashed to the ground, Linnie could see that it resembled an immense bear; a bear the size of a mid-sized truck. Linnie could make out the beaten and broken form of a hog-man beneath the bear’s right paw, now crushed into the asphalt. The bear raised his head and gave a roar that echoed through the alleyway and made the ground shudder, and Linnie screamed.

  She stumbled and collapsed, falling onto her rear. She didn’t know where to run. Her legs didn’t remember how to run. This was it. A calmness ran through her, some kind of chemical gift from her brain moments before her death. A final goodbye.

  The bear stepped over Linnie, keeping her safely beneath it as it pulled itself up on on it’s hind legs to confront the men that were charging towards them. The bear’s massive paw lashed out, and slammed the first of their attackers against the wall. The bricks shattered with the force of the impact, crumbling to dust from the force of the blow. The other man snarled, and his body twisted before Linnie’s eyes. She saw tusks dig their way out of the man’s mouth, and watched his face extend and his nose upturn as he shrieked, the sound became a high-pitched squeal as the transformation went on.

  When the squeal ended, the bear brought his face down, hovering it just inches from the upturned snout of the third hog-man. His head swayed side to side. Then the bear roared, a resounding, territorial roar, that was powerful enough to cause the hog-man’s hair billow out behind him from the intensity of the bear’s deep bellow.

  The hog squealed and leapt at the bear, long tusks aimed for the bear’s long neck. White foamy spit gathered at the edges of it’s mouth and stretched out behind it in long ropes. Sickly bloodshot yellow eyes narrowed as the hog Shifter flew through the air with surprising speed.

  The bear snarled and batted the hog away with it’s massive paw.

  Linnie felt a hand wrap around her wrist, yanking her to her feet, but the hand felt wrong. It wasn’t like Cain’s earlier. Sharp bristly hairs bit into her flesh and a rancid porcine face let out a high pitched squeal as it began to drag her backwards. Linnie screamed again, her throat rough and raw, and her voice filled with fear.

  And then, the hog’s hand was pulled from her wrist, as he was slammed against the wall, producing a loud crunch of snapping bones. Linnie took a step back, and then stumbled forward, again, when she felt a massive, powerful hand, covered in fur and tipped with dark claws, rest for a moment on her back. When she glanced to her side, Cain was stepping up to be standing alongside her. His shirt was torn and his pants shredded, his skin covered in short dark fur that was rapidly receding beneath his skin. “Move!”

  He moved alongside Linnie, shadowing her movements as he moved his hand from the small of her back to her shoulder. Cain kept Linnie bent over and maintaining a low profile. Once the pair arrived at Cain’s SUV, he opened the door on the passenger’s side, and practically pushed Linnie into the seat. Cain crossed the front of the vehicle, climbing into the driver’s seat.

  He shifted the SUV into drive, and pressed the gas. The vehicle peeled away from the curve.

  Linnie covered her face with her hands. No tears came. Her body was completely spent.

  “It’s fine,” he said. “Always a price to be paid. It’s fine.”

  The SUV rolled to a slow stop, and Linnie could practically hear the suspension groan in relief. About two and a half hours ago, Cain had pulled into a gas station and told Linnie to stay in the passenger’s seat of the car. He’d gotten out, walked to the back of the SUV, and pulled out a crisp, clean shirt, plus pants and a jacket from the back of the SUV. Stepping out of sight, he’d donned them quickly before climbing back into the driver’s seat and pulling back out onto the highway. An hour later, Cain had turned off the side road they’d been on, and turned up a farm-path. Nearly a dozen twists and turns later, here they were.

  Cain cut the engine and hesitated a moment. Linnie watched his face, and his golden eyes, as he studied the cabin.

  “Stay here a second.” Cain murmured.

  Linnie shook her head. “No.” Her hand shot out and grabbed his.

  Cain sighed. “I’m not asking.”

  “I’m not staying here. I’ll stay right behind you.” Linnie tried to sound firm, insistent. After a moment, she continued, more hesitant. “Please. Don’t leave me here alone.”

  Cain’s golden eyes locked with Linnie’s. Despite her desperation, she did her best to keep the well of tears from showing.

  “...okay.” Cain said, bobbing his head just a little.

  The two got out of the car together. Linnie glanced into the woods around them, and then back to the cabin; she noticed Cain rolling his shoulder, stretching his shoulder. “Do you, uhh?” she asked, flicking her ear with her finger, as she scrunched her nose.

  Cain shook his head. “No. No scent, no noise. We’re alone.”

  Cain reached into the back of the SUV, and recovered a large black duffel bag, carrying it with ease.

  Linnie joined him in crossing towards the cabin, and saw Cain’s face twitch. “What is it?” she asked again, stiffening.

  Cain looked to her, confused a moment, and then shook his head. “No. Like I said, we’re alone.” He unlocked the door of the cabin to let Linnie in.

  If she had been feeling generous, Linnie would describe the cabin as ‘rustic’ and ‘cozy’. A large moose-head hung over the fireplace. Two wide, comfortable-looking chairs and an overstuffed leather couch were arranged in a semi-circle around it. Stuffed fish were on display along the walls, and three - no, four - stuffed birds rested on furniture throughout the room. One corner of the room held a bed and a low shelf with about a dozen books on it, and in the opposite corner there was a modest kitchenette, including a fridge that looked like it was from the 1950s, and a propane stove.

  Linnie blinked. This was a far cry from what she was used to in the city. “It’s…nice.” she muttered, trying to smile. Is this how she was going to be living from now until the trial, hiding in log-cabins in the woods?

  “Your room is in the back. I’ll be sleeping on the couch.” Cain said, as he removed his jacket.

  Linnie gasped. Along his side, his white shirt had turned blood-red, and was stuck to his body by the damp blood it had absorbed. “Oh my God!” she said, before biting her lip.

  Cain shot her a glance, with an irritable look on his face. Seeing her concern, his face softened. “It’s…it’s fine. It’s…”

  “What, just a scratch?”, Linnie said, crossing towards Cain. “Sit down, let me take a look.”

  Cain opened his mouth to protest, and Linnie gave the large man her best no-bullshit expression.

  Cain sighed, and began unbuttoning his shirt. “Fine.” he murmured, sitting down on his heavy-built chair.

  Linnie gasped again, as Cain revealed torn flesh, running from about an inch and a half above his hip to about the same distance from his underarm. “How are you not screaming? You drove for hours like this? It looks like you got carved up with a butcher knife.”

  “A tusk, from that guy. He caught me off guard.” Cain said, with a grunt. “It’ll heal.”

  “Sure,” Linnie said. “Where’s your first-aid kit?”

  Cain tried to give her a dismissive look, but Linnie shook her head. “Hell no. This is happening. Bathroom?”

  Cain nodded. “Under the sink.”

  Linnie walked into the bathroom, opened the cabinet, and pulled out the black bag. “What’s with that? I thought you guys were supposed to be immune? Isn’t it only silver?”

  “You mean cowboys?” he said.