Bear Me Away (Alpha Werebear Paranormal Romance) (A Jamesburg Shifter Romance)

by Lynn Red

  The fur lining his arms grew thicker and covered him when he swallowed again, and on the third choking gulp, he was finished. As much as he hated it, there was no question about the results: his arms and legs flared to life like he’d been asleep and just shot out of bed. He inhaled a lungful of air through his nose. Smells all around him caught his attention.

  It was like he’d been half asleep, half dead, and then got shocked in the chest.

  He slumped to the floor, taken by his transformation, and then slammed a massive paw-fist into the ground. The entire house shuddered with the impact. Two dolls fell off their shelves, one of them shattering and the other bouncing, but West had no room for concern about the dolls.

  The board underneath him split when he punched again, and then splintered.

  A grim smile crept across he bear’s face as he pounded the floor again, busting through a subfloor. All the sound beneath him had stopped, and probably for a real, real, good reason.

  *

  “What the hell is that?” Petunia asked, paused an inch away from where she was about to sink her teeth.

  Elena thrashed, knocking her aside momentarily, swooshing her hip into the side of Petunia’s head. “I told you that you weren’t gonna get away with this,” she hissed. “You coulda stopped with the gardens, you coulda stopped with destroying the Cannery, and you would have gotten away with everything. Why the hell don’t criminals ever realize that as long as they stop while they’re ahead, they’ll never get caught?”

  “I’m not caught yet!”

  The ceiling burst open, light streamed through, and then something else – something much larger and hairier – fell to the concrete floor with a grunt.

  West hopped to his feet, shook his massive head, and looked at Elena for a second, with the kindest, gentlest, dark blue eyes. Even though she’d kept her cool, more or less, that gaze calmed her through and through. With a swipe of his paw, what she then saw was a length of electrical cord binding her to the ceiling, broke, and she fell to the floor.

  “You don’t get to do this! You don’t get to ruin me!” Petunia squealed, as she leapt onto West’s back and sank her dentures into his thickly muscled neck. West roared in pain and tried to swat at her, but the tiny rabbit woman flattened herself against him, let go of her bite, and dug in again, this time on the side of his head.

  He howled again, and slung his head side to side, finally dislodging his nasty little passenger. Petunia hit the wall with a thump, and a grunt, and then rolled to the side, jumping right back on.

  From where she was on the floor, Elena was able to wrap her bare feet around part of the flooring that fell through the cellar ceiling with West, and started sawing at the band around her ankles. Every back and forth motion bit in deep, bringing pain and blood to the surface, but she knew her bear couldn’t handle that rabbit.

  She might not do much damage to him, but he’d never get her off. Eventually, she’d wear him down.

  Petunia screeched again, gnawing into the side of West’s face, drawing blood that soaked into the patterned fur around his eyes. He thrashed his head again, and almost threw her off, but that time she dug in her curling fingernails, and just bit down harder.

  “Why are you doing this?” Elena asked, trying to distract the were-bunny as she also kept right on sawing those bonds. The one between her ankles grew thin and then snapped.

  The answer from Petunia was just a feral squawk. When West fell still for a moment, she let go of him, moved around to the front, and sunk those horrifying dentures, along with her growing buckteeth, into the bear’s bottom jaw. He was bleeding, and badly, but nothing he could do would dislodge the damned rabbit.

  West tried slamming his head into the floor to crush her, but she just scrambled out of the way at the last moment, around to the back of his head, and took a chunk out of his ear.

  Elena contorted into something resembling a pretzel, and lifted the piece of sharp concrete between her feet, sawing hard at the plastic between her wrists. There wasn’t enough room to really make much headway, so really it was more like she was grinding away at the plastic that lay on her wrist.

  She bit her lip to stave off her screams as the concrete dug hard into her flesh.

  West was wobbling. Somehow, impossibly, Petunia had drawn enough blood, had punctured him enough times that the blood loss was staring to affect him.

  He staggered left, and then right, in long, loopy steps. For a moment he stumbled to the ground, and then pushed himself back up, once again trying to slam her into the wall but completely failing to do anything effective except for cracking his own head, and then roaring out in confused pain.

  His eyes were hot with rage, but they were also clouded, confused, turned around and perplexed.

  In the distance, sirens sounded.

  “Hear that, Petunia?” Elena said, still painfully grinding her wrist with the concrete. “You hear that? You’re not getting out of this. Hyenas are coming, and they’re not gonna leave without you.”

  She was making a wild assumption. How would they have known to come here? Who would ever have made the call? It didn’t make any sense, but then again, neither did her predicament. One minute, they’d been running through the forest, doing a little stupid lovey-dovey playing, and the next she was in this room being bit by an angry rabbit.

  West slumped again, shoulder butting the wall. This time though, the ceiling let out a pained creak and a shower of dust. All at once it hit her.

  “You’re gonna bring down the whole house!”

  “For a private dick,” Petunia said in between bites, “you catch on kinda slow.”

  West roared in pain again, flailing around, and bashed into the same place on the wall.

  More dust, more creaking.

  The sirens grew louder, but nowhere near enough.

  The plastic broke on Elena’s hand, freeing her but nowhere near soon enough.

  Petunia bit down again. West howled in pain, lurched again, and slammed face first into the wall. Elena got her claws around the rabbit’s neck, wrenching Petunia off West’s back, and hurling her violently to the floor. The rabbit yelped and looked up, her face covered in blood streaming down from her nose.

  Elena saw her smile, a ghastly, horrific grin of metal dental mechanics, false teeth, and red streaks. Petunia let out a bellowing, absurd laugh

  The next crack was the biggest. The next shower of dust was the heaviest.

  “None of us are getting out of here, fox,” Petunia shouted as the world collapsed. “None of us!”

  Forgetting about the rabbit, Elena leapt to cover her unconscious mate, for what little good her tiny body would do, she wasn’t going to just give up. Whatever it took, she told herself she’d keep him safe. Whatever pain it caused... she didn’t care.

  Elena decided a second before the world fell in, that she was going to see this through to the very end.

  Petunia howled in laughter.

  West breathed, barely.

  Elena braced for impact.

  A tiny chunk hit her first, then a bigger one.

  She wrapped her arms tight around West, closed her eyes and bit her lip. His hand closed around hers, and in the last moment before she was knocked out by falling concrete, Elena saw her mate open his eyes, stare into hers, and smile.

  I love you, he mouthed.

  The world went black, but at least, in that one moment, she had him.

  She had her West.

  -15-

  “That was probably, no, definitely, worse than a hangover.”

  -Elena

  A cough wracked her body that came out with a fine mist of blood.

  Elena opened her eyes and sucked wind, expecting to find her ribs broken, her lungs punctured, but when she did, she realized that the blood was just from a busted lip. She sucked a deep breath, tasting a mouthful of concrete dust, and when she closed her teeth the grit scraped in a way that made her wince.

  “Jesus H!” Paul’s voice reached Elena�
��s ears. He rushed to her side and pushed a chunk of masonry off of her back.

  She coughed again, but that time, no blood came, just a cloud of dust.

  “I’m either still alive, or in hell,” Elena whispered.

  “Don’t think so,” Paul said, moving more stones. “What makes you say that? No wait, let me guess – because I’m here?”

  “Because... you’re here,” Elena said, twisting her broken lips into a smile. “How’s your head?”

  “Mine’s a lot better than yours, probably. Can you move? Is anything broken?”

  She twisted her head around to look up, and at exactly the same time, saw West’s huge, muscled arm around her back, badly bruised, and also felt him curl a finger against her skin. She turned back to his face to see him smiling up at her. Tiny cuts from concrete shards marked both of them, and stung like absolute hell, but nothing major, somehow, had mushed either of them into fox goo or bear jelly.

  “Yeah,” she said softly. “I think,” she paused to breathe for a moment. There was a jolt of pain when she filled her lungs completely, but after having had a couple tons of concrete fall on her, a cracked rib seemed like just about a best case scenario. Then again, not being dead was a pretty best-case scenario.

  Paul grabbed her wrist and eased her to her feet. She slumped over, but caught herself on her weakened, scraped knees, and managed to keep her feet underneath herself.

  “West,” Paul said, “I owe you about eighty beers. You saved my partners life, I—”

  “She’s the one on top of me,” West interrupted, wheezing a little when he breathed. “She tossed that rabbit, jumped on top of me. I just thought I was about to get lucky, so I hugged her. I may or may not have lost a lot of blood.”

  A furious blush crept down Elena’s bare neck, and then she remembered she wasn’t really wearing very much to hide the redness.

  Paul laughed out loud. “Damn, this one really came out of his shell, huh? Anyway, can you move?”

  West grunted loudly and somehow pushed himself out of the piled up rubble. When he stood, an outline of busted slate from the roof remained in his shape. “Where’s the rabbit?” he asked, dabbing at one of the numerous wounds all over his face, neck, shoulders and back.

  “Did she do that to you?” A pair of hyenas approached, one of them in uniform and the other wearing a pair of Wranglers and an undershirt. “This rabbit? Petunia Lewis? Oh sorry, I’m Lieutenant Jorgenson, JPD.”

  They all shook hands, although it took Elena a significant amount of effort to lift hers. “Yes sir,” she said. “I was investigating er... well, my client’s case. We found some evidence, and were,” she trailed off, not sure how to explain “frolicking in the woods until I got kidnapped.”

  “He knows everything,” the other man said. “After I managed to get through to him and explain everything, he’s come around to our side. Still something funny going on, but this ain’t the time for that sorta thing.”

  She recognized the voice. “Ralph? I’d hug you but I think I’d probably throw up.”

  “How’s that for a compliment?” Ralph asked, laughing and scratching at the same time.

  “I’m not sure why I’m doing this,” Jorgenson said, “but probably because you solved a case we weren’t even aware was a case.”

  “Why is that, boss?” West asked, and then corrected himself. “Lt. Jorgenson, I mean. I guess you’re not the boss if I’m not a cop.”

  “Good God, look at you.” Jorgenson took a step over and put his hands on West’s arms. “Still go by West?”

  “Yes, sir. Do you still go by sir?” The big bear smiled and stuck his hand out, shaking Jorgenson’s.

  “No need for all that,” Jorgenson said. “I’m just glad you’re doing well for yourself. Better than well, if you fell in with the Saints. They’re the best in town.”

  Paul sidled up. “We try. Although we don’t do any ghost busting, if that’s what you need.”

  “Exactly.” He was quiet for just long enough that no one knew if he was being serious or joking. There was gravity to the slow, patient way the gray-haired hyena spoke; the kind of voice that everyone leans in to listen at when they speak. “But no, you did good police work, even when we failed. My opinion isn’t exactly popular, but I think it’s good to have people like you around. You know, licensed private investigators.”

  “Yes, of course, sir,” Elena said. “He’s actually our newest hire. He’s an intern. Training. He’s going for his exam in a few weeks, so, uh,” she trailed off, not particularly sure where she was going.

  Jorgenson cracked a smile. “I wonder if Google interns regularly have buildings dropped on their heads?”

  Paul beamed. “Welcome on board, West!” he said. “You passed the test.”

  It was all Elena could do to keep from making a wildly inappropriate rhyme.

  “Oh,” the big bear said. “That’s, good, I guess. Say, where did the rabbit go?”

  “She ran,” Ralph said plainly. “We rolled up and the roof of this place was collapsing. Damn shame, too, lots of highly collectable dolls in there.” He looked around the crowd and saw West nodding in agreement, but everyone else shaking their heads. “Right, anyway, she somehow got away. She ran, but we’ve got people after her. She won’t get very far. I guess we’ll just prosecute her for, uh, reckless gardening? Well that and trying to poison a bunch of food. There’s that too.”

  Jorgenson grunted another laugh. “I think it’ll be slightly more severe than a vandalism. But, as usual in cases like this, we’ll need the private investigators involved in the case to appear in court as witnesses.” He looked down at the bagged dentures, turning them over in his hand. The headlights from the patrol cars gave him enough light to see. “Hell of a thing to wear, though judging from how torn up your intern is, they did the job.”

  “She ate with them,” Elena said, her voice hollow and distant. She made like she had more to say, but stopped herself.

  Everyone was silent for a moment until Ralph finally spoke. “You two need some rest. And by that, I mean you should get yourself to Jamesburg General and get yourselves checked out. I’ve been around Paul and West long enough to know they’ll both agree and then just never manage to get there, so I assume you’re the same way?”

  Elena grinned, but didn’t answer right away. “I’ll get there,” she said. “When I find the time.”

  The Lieutenant’s radio fuzzed to life. Someone reported having caught Petunia, and how she “really bit the shit out of my arm when we tackled her,” which got everyone chuckling.

  “Those bites are no joke,” West said, as the two hyenas left Elena, West, and Paul standing alone in the rubble.

  “I’m just glad you’re both okay,” Paul said. “And I’m glad they didn’t arrest anyone. From now on, you can keep the adventurous cases. I’ll keep staking out public toilets and waiting for creepers.”

  “Deal,” Elena said, smiling a little. “Although I dunno, there’s something vaguely appealing about waiting around to see a disheveled guy fall out of a Port-a-John.” She shrugged. “But okay, you can have that sorta fun.”

  The three of them laughed for a moment, before Paul took his leave. “You two get some rest, like Ralph said. And West?”

  West turned and looked at Paul.

  “If you really do want to get into the life, maybe you’re done with the solitary farming business? I’m happy to put another name on the sign.”

  “Just so long as mine comes first,” Elena said, with a smile, as her partner trotted to his car, and left with a wave.

  “She was all alone,” Elena finally said.

  “That’s what you were going to say earlier?”

  “Yeah. She was. All she had were the dolls and some really bad memories. She told me a whole lot in the time we were in that basement.”

  West nodded slowly. “And here I was, just thinking you were trying to get her pissed off enough to do something stupid.”

  “I was,” Elena sai
d. “But she still said a lot. You said it yourself – how sad it is that someone feels alone enough to do something like that just to have someone pay attention to them?”

  West cleared his throat. “I may know a thing or two about that. I mean, mine was self-imposed, but...”

  “Yeah,” Elena said, wrapping her arms around West’s waist as he did the same to her. “Mine too. And it’s kinda strange to say this, but there’s something else I’ve been thinking for the last couple days.”

  He looked down and kissed her forehead, making sure to avoid the bruises. “Yeah?”

  “I’ve always kinda wanted to try farming,” she said. “But we’re gonna have to do something about those Star Wars toys.”

  “Articulated statuettes,” West said with a smile that curled the left corner of his mouth. “And for you? For you, you know what I’d do?”

  “What’s that, big guy?”

  “If you wanted, I’d even sell him.” He blinked his eyes, trying to make himself look as sad as possible. “If you wanted a piano, or a car, or a new house, I’d sell a Boba Fett. Maybe even both of them.”

  “A house?” she asked, stepping up on her tip toes, and wincing a little at the pain in her ribs, and kissed West’s neck. “Those things are really worth that much?”

  “A car, maybe. Used Toyota.”

  She laughed, even though it hurt. West beamed, even though that hurt.

  With her arms around him, and his around her, the two kissed under the moonlight, his lips parting hers as he drank her in. She reached up his back, sliding her hands under the torn shirt, and felt his muscles, his shaggy hair, and his heat against her, taking her away to another place – a place she never knew existed until it was right there, in her life.

  He closed his eyes, kissed her again, deeper that time, and groaned softly.

  “I don’t care how beat up I am, or how many cuts I’ve got,” he whispered. “When I’m with you, the only thing I can feel is right.”