by Golden Angel
Thankfully for his sanity, his wolf was intrigued by their mate's strange behavior and had gone into stalking mode. He was the hunter, and Bethany was his tasty, tasty prey, whom he planned on having for dessert.
Despite her initial reluctance to engage in any kind of real conversation, he'd managed to draw her out a bit. She was fascinated by hearing about his family and especially his sisters and how they'd humiliated him constantly while he was growing up. Steele was willing to let go of a little pride in order to make Bethany more comfortable with him.
A few glasses of wine and a couple of stories about how his sisters had liked to practice hair and make-up on him, and Bethany had completely lost her edginess. Even though she was finishing the last few bites of her meal, she didn't seem interested in leaving anymore, which was just fine with Steele.
"So then Pansy cried, because she was the only one who'd never gotten to see me dressed up as a girl, so what else could I do?" he asked, shrugging his shoulders. "She was the only one younger than me, and I didn't want her childhood to be deprived in any way."
"I can't believe you fell for that," Bethany said, her eyes sparkling with amusement. "I thought it was just my brothers who caved at the mere hint of tears."
"Oh, none of my older sisters can get away with that," he said, shaking his head. "Just Pansy. She's not just the baby, she's the nicest... and I guess I felt a little bad because it's pretty obvious she was the 'accident' baby too. My parents thought they were done after me."
"I can only imagine," Bethany said dryly. She shook her head as she lifted her wine glass to her lips again. "She got the worst name too. I mean, couldn't they cut her a break? They didn't really need to name all of your sisters after flowers, did they?"
"My mom really likes gardening," he said with a shrug. "Pansy's not so bad."
"Flowers for the girls and Steele for you," she said thoughtfully, tapping her finger against her chin. "Kind of an odd combination."
Steele coughed, hiding his immediate discomfort. "Uh yeah, well that's my parents. It's not really any worse than someone naming all of their children with the same first initial."
"Yeah." The wistful smile on Bethany's face as her cornflower eyes unfocused, seeing a memory rather than looking at him, made his heart break a little for her. Dammit, he shouldn't have reminded her of her parents. He hadn't wanted to bring up any subjects that might distress her. At least she didn't seem to be too upset, just nostalgic and a little sad. That sadness made his chest hurt though. "I think they just thought it was funny since they were Bruce and Brenda Bunson, so they wanted to keep the B theme going. They used to tease us that if we continued the tradition, eventually we'd have to get really creative with the names."
Since she seemed willing to share, Steele figured it was okay to keep the conversation going. After all, he'd opened up to her in a way that he never had to anyone else; if he could get the same from her, he would be one step closer to his goal. "They sound like fun."
That same sad little smile stayed on Bethany's face as she told him about her parents and growing up as the only girl until Bailey came along. Which, of course, made her wildly jealous at first because she'd always been spoiled as the only little girl, until she'd realized that she could use Bailey as her own personal doll. None of her brothers had ever let her put make-up on them, although they'd occasionally let her play dolls with them as long as they could use their G.I. Joes to be Barbie's boyfriend instead of Ken. Barbie was usually the mastermind who stayed back at "base" (a pillow fort) while the Joes carried out the missions Barbie had planned.
Steele couldn't help but grin, listening to how different Bethany's upbringing had been from his own. Even though she'd been the only girl for quite some time, her parents hadn’t spoiled her the way his parents had spoiled his sisters. She'd also been determined to keep up with her brothers, and he had no trouble recognizing that the way she and her brothers had played now carried over to their real lives. Bethany was back on "base" while her brothers trained, but he had no doubt that they would go where she pointed. She was a natural alpha and leader, even when surrounded by other alphas.
No wonder his wolf had taken one look at her and fallen straight into mating heat.
The ringing of Steele's house phone made both of them jump. Concern immediately shot through him - everyone knew that Bethany was having dinner with him, which meant that anyone calling him was doing so for a true emergency.
"I'm sorry, I have to get that," he said apologetically as he jumped up.
Bethany waved her hand at him and his wolf grumped as a guarded look slowly fell over her face, as if she realized just how much she'd relaxed and opened up to him. The phone had more than interrupted their conversation, it had reminded her of the outside world.
"What?" he barked into the phone, doing his best not to snarl.
Since it was Doc, and nothing fazed her, his aggressive tone didn't matter anyway. "Bailey needs Bethany. Now." She hung up on him before he could respond.
Double dammit!
******
When Steele's phone first rang, Bethany had been annoyed at the interruption - which then made her glad it had happened. She hadn't realized how relaxed she'd become in Steele's presence. She'd been enjoying herself, enjoying the conversation, and it had started to feel like a real date. The thing inside of her had been completely silent, but its contentment had seeped through her like a drug, until the phone rang and it had been like an alarm clock to her brain. Being with him, in his company, had felt too easy... too comfortable... too right.
Of course, all of that was set aside for panic as soon as Steele told her that Bailey needed her.
As Steele rushed her over to the clinic, Bethany felt like the worst sister in the world. Sure, she'd spent all day with Bailey after the boys had left, but had indulging her hormones really been so important that she'd been okay with leaving her little sister completely alone so soon? Granted, Bethany hadn't meant to be gone for more than a couple of hours, and Bailey had encouraged her, but that was no excuse. The urge to see Steele had been so strong - not that it was anything like that mating call she'd been told about, she wasn't going to admit anything like that - but she couldn't let her own selfish desires outweigh what was really important again. And Bailey was the most important thing in the world. It didn't matter how good Steele smelled or that she'd stupidly started to consider spending the whole night with him, or how much just being in his presence felt right, Bailey came first.
Rushing into the clinic, she couldn't help but scowl as Steele rushed into Bailey's room first, demanding to know what was wrong.
"Bethy!" Bailey cried out, reaching for her sister, like a child reaching for a hug. Bethany went to her immediately, her eyes scanning Bailey, but other than a panicked look in her eyes, Bailey looked just like Bethany had left her earlier.
Wrapping her arms around her little sister, Bethany patted her back as Bailey buried her in face in Bethany's stomach. "It's okay, sweetie, I'm here now," she crooned comfortingly, stroking Bailey's dark hair. "I'm here, I'm sorry I left you, I'm here now."
"She was fine up until a few minutes ago," said an unfamiliar male voice. Bethany turned to see a man wearing a white lab coat standing next to Steele. Obviously another doctor. Her instinctive negative reaction was tempered by the fact that the man looked like Santa Claus. He had pure white hair that curled around his head and a full, thick white beard, blue eyes twinkled above rosy cheeks, and if he'd been chubby he would have made the perfect Saint Nick. Instead he was compactly built and lacking the belly like a bowl full of jelly. Still, he wasn't someone she could feel intimidated by or scared of, despite the white lab coat. There was too much friendliness in his eyes and Christmas had always been her favorite holiday. "Then she started screaming that she needed Bethany, so I sent Harley to call you."
"Bethany, this is Dr. Philip Mansfield," Steele said, his voice gentle. "He's officially retired, but he spends most of his time here helping out Doc."
>
"Hello," Bethany said tightly, more focused on the way Bailey was trembling against her, wondering why her sister had been screaming for her but was now remaining silent. "Um, do you mind giving me a moment alone with Bailey?"
"Of course," the doctor said, pushing at Steele's shoulder. Mr. Too-Big-To-Actually-Push-Around frowned, but allowed the doctor to steer him out of the door. It wasn't until Bailey tugged on Bethany's arm that she realized she was staring after him, even as the door closed.
Clearing her throat, Bethany refocused on her sister. "I'm sorry, sweetie, what's wrong?"
"No, I'm sorry," Bailey said, her voice high and tight. "I'm sorry I interrupted your date... I just..." Her voice trailed off, her dark eyes looking even more fevered. She clung tighter to Bethany.
"It wasn't a date, there's no problem," Bethany reassured her baby sister. "Just tell me what's wrong."
"I need to go outside," Bailey whispered.
To someone else that wouldn't seem like an emergency, but Bethany understood immediately. Even though she and her brothers had shielded Bailey from as much as they could in the lab, Bailey knew what her siblings turned into. She'd been so worried and stressed about not knowing that it had finally been easier to tell, and then show, her. Her imagination had conjured up even worse horrors, so once she knew about the things residing inside her siblings, she'd actually been able to calm down.
However, now that she was one of them, she wouldn't want anyone else seeing when she changed. Bethany understood that completely.
"Okay," Bethany said, taking a deep breath while her mind raced. "Okay... I'm going to ask Steele if there's somewhere we can go." Bailey whimpered. "Don't worry, I won't let him come." It was a relief to be able to blame that on Bailey, even though if she was being honest with herself, she knew that she was really just afraid that Steele might reject her if he saw what she had become. The utter wrongness of it. The monster inside of her huffed in insult, but Bethany ignored the stupid thing. It had been slowly becoming more agitated ever since the door had closed between her and Steele.
Going over to the door, she ignored its happiness as she poked her head out and stared at Mr. Too-Enticing-For-My-Own-Good. The scent of him filled her nostrils almost immediately, making her nipples pucker, her pussy cream, and her resentment soar. The effect he had on her made no sense... shouldn't she be satisfied? Shouldn't she be ready to be done with him?
Instead, just looking at him gave her pure pleasure, and she had the strangest intuition that he felt the same way. Surely she was reading too much into the expression on his face.
"Is there somewhere private where Bailey and I can shift and run? Like, completely private, no one around to see us."
Dr. Mansfield and Steele exchanged a glance.
"The woods are pretty big, if she needs to go out and run; it's not hard to keep to yourself if that's what you want," Steele explained. "I can take you to a starting point that isn't used often."
"Fine," Bethany said, figuring that at least they should be able to avoid anyone else who happened to be out there. The thing inside of her seemed to think so, although it whined a bit that she included Steele in "anyone else." Dumbass thing, did it really think Steele would like it once he saw it?
******
As badly as Steele and his wolf wanted to run with Bethany, he could tell that he wouldn't be welcome in either form by either his mate or her sister. It frustrated him that she still didn't seem to trust him, although his wolf seemed to be more willing to be patient now that they were mated. Not that Bethany showed any signs of recognizing that.
He could sense her, very dimly, in his head; worry and near-panic anxiety radiating from her as she got Bailey loaded into his car. The younger Bunson sister was trembling all over, but she managed to give Steele a weak smile as she buckled herself in. The emotions coming off of Bethany were so strong that he wondered if she would even notice him inside of her head. Or maybe their mating had only worked one way?
At any rate, he could tell that right now, for Bethany, Bailey came first, and so that meant Bailey came first for him too. Whatever he needed to do to make his mate happy and prove to her that he would be a good mate. His wolf was already feeling protective of Bailey as an extension of Bethany anyway, and it approved the patient stalking of their mate and showing her what a good provider they could be.
"Are you sure you don't want me to go with you?" he couldn't help asking, as he helped Bailey out of the car. He'd taken them to the edge of the woods on the far side of the town; since most people entered the woods right near their houses (because that's what made the most sense), he doubted anyone would be nearby. Still... if he could keep watch over them...
"No, please," said Bailey, a hint of real fear in her eyes, the sharp scent biting at his nose. She'd been fairly calm in the car, but now her shaking had increased and the scent of her fear had his wolf snapping inside his head... but there was no enemy to fight here. Nothing that he could tear apart. "Just Bethany."
"Just me," Bethany said sharply, practically shoving him aside as she grabbed her sister's hand. His tiny mate wasn't the least bit intimidated by his size or strength as she knocked into him, he noted with pleasure, as he allowed her to push him away. While part of him wanted to whine at the perceived rejection, he realized that - in this - he didn't really understand what the sisters were going through. Whatever shifter animals had been awoken in their genetics by Dr. Montgomery, it wasn't the same as having been born a shifter. They wanted privacy and dignity, something they hadn’t had at the compound, and something which he could give her.
It sucked being helpless, but there was one other thing he could do...
He could go check in with Eli and find out if there was any new intel on the whereabouts of Dr. Montgomery or his backers. That should make his mate happy.
"Do you want me to come back here and pick you up?" he asked, hating the plaintive note in his voice but unable to keep it out entirely.
Bethany hesitated, her blue eyes flashing to him, and his wolf panted happily inside of his head. Distantly, he felt her reluctance to let him go, a tiny speck of an emotion next to the flood of her anxiety about her sister, but it was enough to salve his ego.
"If you don't mind," she said, a bit uncertainly. "We should be ready in about an hour..." He couldn't tell why she would feel uncertain, but he could at least reassure her that he absolutely wanted to come back and pick her and Bailey up.
"I'll be here," he said firmly, stamping down on the urge to lean over and kiss her perfect lips. It was driving him a little nuts that he didn't have her full attention so soon after mating. His wolf was agitated that their mate was going on a run without them. Although he understood that Bethany was focused on her sister right now, and he wasn't hurt or anything, his instincts were driving him to want to solidify the bond.
Mouth set in a grim line, he forced himself to turn and get back into his car. It felt wrong, so wrong, to be leaving his mate. He could sense that she felt that wrongness as well, even if it was drowned out in panic and a kind of terror that he would stay, but at least some part of her wanted him there. Even if she was denying that part. It was going to be a late night.
******
Clinging to her sister, Bethany fought against the urge to go chasing after Steele. It was making her skin crawl to see him driving away, and she had the strangest sensation that she could actually feel the distance between them growing. Pure imagination, but not something she would have ever expected.
"Are you okay?" Bailey asked, her voice strained but intrigued. "What was up with you and Mr. McHottie?"
"I'll tell you later," Bethany said, turning and pushing Bailey towards the edge of the woods. The parking lot they were standing in was completely empty, to her relief, and the woods looked thick and dark. The thing in her head seemed torn between wanting to race in the direction Steele had gone and going into the woods. Fortunately, Bethany was one hundred percent focused on getting Bailey into the woods and ou
t for a run where no one could see them. She knew that Bailey couldn't wait; the urge for the first turn got more painful the longer it was put off.
She remembered exactly how much it hurt because she'd fought it on principle... and it had been such a relief when she'd finally let herself go and her body had morphed. Then she'd realized what a monster she was and the physical relief hadn't been worth it at all.
Biting her lower lip, Bethany felt a keening sense of guilt that her sister would have to go through the same thing. That she hadn't been able to protect Bailey, because she'd been unwilling to change into a monster until after it was too late to actually stop Bailey from being taken for the damned doctor's experiments. Her baby sister, who was just as petite as Bethany but even more slender and delicate, leaned against Bethany, her steps stumbling as they moved.
"It's okay," Bethany crooned reassuringly as the shadows of the trees slid over them, blocking out the light from the parking lot. Despite the darkness, Bethany could see well enough. Her eyesight in the dark wasn't perfect, but it was a lot better than it had been before the experiments. "Just relax and let it happen."
Bailey whimpered, stumbling again, and this time Bethany stopped moving forward and helped lower her sister to the ground. "It hurts."
"I know. It'll stop hurting if you just let it go," Bethany said, trying to sound calm when she was anything but. The agony on Bailey's face made it clear that her sister couldn't relax. She practically fell onto her side, curling up into a little ball.
"Bethy!" It was a cry of anguish that tore at Bethany's heart. The first time had been the worst, not just because of the pain but because of the terror as her body morphed and grew. Bethany reached for Bailey's pants, thankful that they were drawstring so that she would be able to get them off before Bailey shifted and ripped them to shreds.
