“I think she’s been hit,” Brock said. He sat Gia on the floor and crouched over her. The wound was obvious, a tear in her jacket sleeve that was seeping red.
With extreme care, Brock helped her out of her jacket. Someone behind him said, “I have first aid. I can …”
“So do I,” Brock said.
“The blood …”
“I’m fine,” Brock growled.
The helpful young staffer backed off, hands up. When he was far enough back, Brock took his eyes off him and went back to Gia’s wounds.
Her shirt was ruined too, but he left it on her for decency. Instead, he tore the sleeve off. He could buy her another. And another jacket too. He would do that for her. It was a graze wound, an ugly tear in the skin of her arm. “It doesn’t look too deep.”
“It hurts,” she hissed between clenched teeth.
“It’s going to hurt for a while,” he said.
“Do you want an ambulance?”
“No,” Brock said. “We don’t know how well armed they are. They may be waiting for an ambulance to pull up. I need bandages and pain killers.”
He wrapped the wound securely and offered her the pills and a glass of water. She took them and then leaned back against the wall. Feeling suddenly helpless, he settled himself beside her. The stone wall was surprisingly cool.
There’s nothing you can do to help her, he thought. Just focus on your self-control.
The minutes ticked by. Around him people talked, but he didn’t focus on the words.
“You’re sweating.”
He smiled at the sound of her voice, but his eyes stayed closed. “It’s hot.”
“City Hall is air conditioned.”
“Then I’ll cool down soon.”
“Your skin looks clammy, like you’re the one who got shot.”
“If I had gotten shot, I’d know it. You’re feeling better, I take it?”
“Hurts like a bitch,” she said, “but my head is clearing. I’m getting better and you’re getting worse.”
He wanted to say, ‘I’m fine,’ but he knew it to be a lie, and if he wanted her to trust him he couldn’t lie to her, not about this.
“It’s the stress,” he said, “Seeing you hurt, seeing those men trying to hurt people, I’m just trying to calm down. I have to keep this under control.”
“Is it working?”
“No.”
“Is it safe for you to shift here?”
He thought of the people huddled around, waiting for something to happen, the security officers with their guns, the Human Order outside with their guns. He shook his head. “No.”
“Then you need to get out of here.”
“There’s no sign of people out back,” someone said. “Security ordered us all to stay inside until the police give the all clear, but I’m sure in this case …”
Brock understood. The parking lot was out back. He nodded and climbed to his feet, fishing car keys out of his pocket. He finally opened his eyes. “I need to go,” he said. He could see everyone in the room staring at him. They were nervous, frightened. A few were on their phones.
“I’m going to a safe house to shift. Once the bear is certain that he is safe—that I am safe—he will calm down and I’ll be able to shift back. Stay safe, all of you.”
“Sir, given the circumstances, someone from security should go with you.”
He shook his head. “The bear doesn’t always recognize the difference between a defender and an attacker, especially when guns are involved. It wouldn’t be safe.”
“I’ll go,” Gia said, pulling herself to her feet.
“You’ve been shot. You need a hospital as soon as it’s safe to get you to one. You need to stay here. The police will get you help faster than I can.”
“You said it yourself, it’s not too deep. As soon as you’re human again you can take me. You said you’d shift for me, right?”
He forgot about everyone else in the room. “Not like this, Gia. Not while the beast is raging.”
She raised her chin. “I’m going.” She took the car keys from his trembling hands. “I’ll drive. Just tell me where to go.”
It was mostly the pain killers that had given her enough false bravado to talk the car keys out of Brock’s hands. Now that Gia was alone in the car with him, pushing her way through the crowded streets of New Orleans, she couldn’t help but wonder if she’d end up with a full grown black bear in the back seat of the car before they reached this mysterious safe house. She also wondered how more shifters didn’t explode into wolves or bears just driving. Traffic was awful, but then again, it was rush hour and there was an emergency going on at City Hall.
She was afraid they’d have to drive clear across the city, or worse, to some out of the way location beyond the city limits. Instead they ended up in an old industrial area. She skidded to a halt in front of a warehouse. The building looked old and rundown, with a few boarded-over windows, but as she got out of the car she noted the state-of-the-art security key panel at the door.
She opened Brock’s door. “I hope you still know the door code,” she said.
He handed her his phone as he passed by her. “Call Remy.” He hit a series of buttons and the lock released. He opened the door but stopped when she moved to follow him. “No. Not safe.”
“I said I was going with you.” She was trembling, she knew it. She could hear it in her voice. She took a deep breath. “You said I had to trust you.”
“Then trust me. This isn’t the time for …” He groaned and stumbled into the room. She followed him in and shut the door behind them.
She found an out-of-the-way corner and swiped the screen on his phone. “Remy, Remy,” she muttered. “Ah, here it is.” She hit ‘dial’ and waited.
“Hello?” God, this man sounded like a bear. He had a voice like James Earl Jones, only deeper.
“Is this Remy?”
“It is. Who are you? And why are you calling me from Brock’s phone?” Of course, this would be his cell phone number she was calling, so Brock’s name would come up on his screen.
“I’m Gia, his assistant.”
“Ah, the dreaded temp. What can I do for you?”
Dreaded? Oh, she’d have words with Brock for that one later. “I’m at the safe house with Brock. He said to call you. There was a shooting at City Hall.”
“Was he injured?”
“No. But I was. He said to call you. He’s shifting.”
“Gia, go wait outside in the parking lot. I will be right there, but you do not want to be alone with that bear right now.” The line went dead.
Brock screamed, but it sounded more bear than human. Gia peered out. She had been at the airport that day a month ago, had seen the bear knocking over luggage like a child with stacking blocks throwing a tantrum in his nursery, but she hadn’t actually witnessed the change.
Brock was on the floor, his back to her, and he was naked. His back was pure muscle, right down to his very well-shaped ass. He had runner’s legs that now ended in huge black paws. She couldn’t be sure where the bear’s fur ended and his leg hair began. His legs changed then, growing thicker. He pulled himself up on all fours and she could see his arms had changed as well.
She smiled. How funny he looked, a man with the legs of a bear. His body swelled and the fur spread, hiding his nakedness. His ears moved and changed as his face rounded out. The last thing to appear was his nose, black and shiny.
He turned to look at her and there was no smiling now. He was a bear, fully and completely. She took two careful steps back.
I come to in my bear shape and everything is out of focus, sounds are muffled, lights are too bright. In those first moments, I am most likely to lash out simply because I cannot identify if the thing approaching me is friend or foe.
His words came back to her and she took another step back. Best wait until he’ll recognizes me, she thought. Wait for what? Best to just get out of here. You’ve seen him shift, now go wait in the parking
lot like you were told. And yet a part of her resisted. He wanted you to pet him, to get to know him like this. She forced her body toward the door. Later. He also said it wasn’t safe now.
She went out, not caring that she didn’t know the door code and wouldn’t be able to get back in. She went to the car and retrieved her purse, digging through it for her phone.
Two missed calls from her mother and a text message from her father. Dealing with her father would be faster, so she opened the message.
“Saw the news. You ok?”
She smiled at the phone and texted back, “Fine. I’ll call later.”
“How is the mayor?” came the reply.
“Fine too.”
“You’re certain?”
She looked over her shoulder at the warehouse and then typed, “Positive.”
She called her mother and reassured her that she was fine but that she was busy and needed to focus. Her mother was hysterical, of course, and Gia was still trying to calm her when a little two-door Toyota pulled into the lot.
“I have to go, Mom. I’ll call you as soon as I can.”
Gia was expecting a man bigger than Brock to wedge himself out of the tiny car, so when she saw the dark-haired flag pole coming toward her she hesitated. “Are you Remy?”
He nodded and held out his hand. “Yes I am. I’m Brock’s clan leader. And you must be Gia.”
“Did he really call me ‘the dreaded temp’?”
“Only before he actually met you. I can see why he stopped. Did he make it inside?”
“Yes.”
“I need to check on him. Stay out here.”
“I want to come back in.”
He shook his head. “That would be a really bad idea. He’ll recognize me as a dominant bear. He may not recognize you, and if he hurts you I have to kill him.”
“He trusts me. And I trust him. He won’t hurt me.”
“Brock won’t, you’re right, but I don’t know how much of Brock is in there right now.”
“It doesn’t matter because I know his door code,” she lied. “I’ll just follow you in.”
He sighed. “Fine. If I can’t keep you out, I’ll just have to keep you close.”
Remy tapped a few numbers on the pad and the door opened. The black bear was padding around the warehouse, sniffing things. He tucked his nose under a chair and tipped it.
“At least you’re not smashing them,” Remy said in a loud voice.
The bear’s head jerked up and it stared at them. Gia’s heart was pounding. After a long moment, the bear huffed and went back to exploring.
Remy nodded. “He’ll let us be here. We’ll just sit back now and wait.”
“He said he would change for me. He said he wanted me to pet him and get to know the bear.”
“I’m sorry, but until Brock gets enough control that he can walk calmly up to you, you aren’t touching that bear. Right now, approaching him could be asking to have your hand taken off.”
“How long will it take?”
Remy studied her a long time until she felt her cheeks heating up. “I don’t know. It depends on a lot of things. How badly were you injured?”
“Do you think that’s affecting him?”
Remy shrugged. “Just making small talk.”
They made small talk for over an hour. Weather. Sports. Recreational habits. Where did he work? Know any good seafood places? Gia had almost forgotten there was a wild animal sharing the space with them.
And then that wild animal wandered right up to them. Gia pulled back, her body going stiff.
Remy just stared down at the bear, gold eyes meeting gold. Finally, he said, “Our friend here is as safe as he can be. Remember that he is a wild animal. If he starts huffing at you or trying to make himself look bigger, it means he’s warning you off. Listen to him.”
“You’re not going to leave, are you?”
“No. I won’t go far. Just move slowly.”
Gia nodded. The bear standing before her was longer nose-to-tail than Brock was tall, but not by much, and only stood three feet at the shoulder. Still, there had to be three hundred pounds of muscle on him, and the claws on the end of his eight-inch feet were long and curved. All this added up to one very intimidating creature. But he was staring at her with Brock’s eyes.
“Okay Brock,” she said, and reached out her hand.
He sniffed it, his breath hot on her skin, and his nose felt like a dog’s, only wider. When he stopped sniffing she laid her hand on his snout and then ran it up between his eyes to the top of his head. His fur was softer than she expected and thick. She rubbed his jaw behind his ears because so many animals enjoyed that. He seemed to as well. As she moved to stroke his side, his head turned and those big golden eyes tracked her.
“You could sell tickets for this,” she said. “I know a lot of people who would love to be this close to a real bear. They wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference. Except for your eyes. Could bears wear colored contacts I wonder?”
He gave her a soft whuffle-whine and cocked his head.
“You’re right. That would be dumb. Still, you are amazing.”
He stretched like a cat and dropped his body to the floor. She sat and he put his head in her lap. She spoke softly as she stroked his cheek and neck, her fingers trailing almost idly through his fur. The words weren’t really important. Her hour with Remy had shown her that. Small talk, musings, and random thoughts were all okay, as long as she kept her voice steady and gentle. It was almost like soothing a child.
At some point the stress, pain, and pain killers took their toll on her, and she dozed off leaning against a steel pillar in the middle of a warehouse with a black bear on her lap.
When she woke up, it wasn’t bear fur wrapped around her fingers but hair. Human hair. Brock’s hair. She glanced down to see Brock was human—and very naked. She looked away, her cheeks burning, and said, “Brock.”
He stirred and sat up. “You stayed,” he said.
“Yes. Thank you for letting me meet the bear. He was marvelous. But, uh, shouldn’t you get dressed?”
“Gia, I’m sorry for what I put you through today. Of our clan, my control is second only to Remy’s. What happened at City Hall today wouldn’t have affected me, except you got hurt.”
“Why would that change things?” she asked, forgetting for a moment that he was naked as she turned to talk to him. He was closer than she expected, and they were now nose-to-nose.
In answer, he leaned forward, closing that narrow gap, and kissed her. His lips were soft and warm against hers. Her hand found its way back into his hair and she held on. He cupped her cheek as the kiss deepened from gentle and chaste to eager and full of longing. It had been a long time since she’d been kissed.
He reached for her with both arms, wrapping them around her and pulling her onto his lap. She curled there, pressed against his chest, as they continued to kiss. He caught her lower lip gently between his teeth.
Kenny (Shifter Football League Book 2) Page 24
