by Terra Wolf
Undercover Bear
Grady
Terra Wolf
Contents
Copyright
1. Grady
2. Ava
3. Grady
4. Ava
5. Grady
6. Ava
7. Grady
8. Ava
9. Grady
10. Ava
11. Grady
12. Ava
13. Grady
14. Ava
15. Grady
16. Ava
17. Grady
18. Ava
19. Grady
From the Authors
Undercover Tiger: Sarge
About Terra Wolf
About Meredith Clarke
©2016 Terra Wolf
Undercover Bear: Grady
All Rights Reserved worldwide.
No part of this book may be reproduced, uploaded to the Internet, or copied without permission from the author. The author respectfully asks that you please support artistic expression and help promote anti-piracy efforts by purchasing a copy of this book at the authorized online outlets.
This is a work of fiction intended for mature audiences only. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Some may be used for parody purposes. Any resemblance to events, locales, business establishments, or actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is purely coincidental.
All sexual activities depicted occur between consenting characters 18 years or older who are not blood related.
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NEWSLETTER SIGNUP
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1
Grady
The stale smell of beer rushed into my nostrils the moment I entered The Crooked Crow. Since I started working with the undercover shifter unit in an elite sector in the Seattle Police Department, I ended up back at this bar every evening. Not because I was a drinker—alcohol didn’t have much of an effect on me as it did on a normal human. My bear genes tended to dampen the effects. I just liked the atmosphere. It was a place for me to unwind and not think about the stress that came with the job.
I smiled when I looked around the bar and saw several groups of women. Ever since I was in college, I always liked to play a game with my buddies to see who could bring the hottest piece of ass home with them. It turned into a rather competitive game between my best friend Trevor and I. I chuckled at the memory. Even now, fresh out of the academy, I still got a kick out of the game, even if I was all by myself.
I sat at my usual spot at the bar.
“Hi, Grady,” Samantha the bartender said. “What can I get you?”
I smiled brightly at her. Samantha was in her late forties. She was certainly a cougar in more ways than one, and while she was tempting, I knew better than to try and tame that beast. Besides, I enjoyed her company. I wasn’t about to wreck our friendship by treating her like some of the girls I had brought home from here in the past.
“The usual, Sam.”
Samantha smiled and grabbed a whiskey bottle off the shelf and poured me a glass. “You done for the night?”
“Fuck, I hope so. Everything is just so messed up right now.” Sam gave me a small smile. She knew all about the murders. Hell, every shifter did. Our unit had informed all shifters in the area to remain on alert. We wanted everyone to be aware of what was going on. Especially after we lost our case against Purest.
Our fight with them had been going on for what felt like months now. Sarge and the rest of my unit had thought that we had Purest by the balls once Harrison got his girl out of there, but apparently that had only angered the beast that was Purest, Inc. Everything started to unravel when the district attorney wasn’t able to get the indictment from Tasha’s case. Now Tasha and Gavin were on the run, and Purest was getting stronger every day. We had to do something to stop them, and soon. I hated that Gavin was out there on his own without any protection.
I was the newest member of Seattle’s undercover shifter unit. I was fresh out of the academy, and once they figured out my abilities, I got placed with Sarge. The whole unit was bear shifters, with the exception of Sarge. He was the odd man out that shifted into a tiger. Because of our abilities, we were a pretty unique unit at the department, and the higher ups mostly left us alone. Sarge liked to think that it was because we always got the job done. I thought it was because they were slightly afraid of us and wanted us all in one place.
In the few short months that I had started working with the guys, the unit had become my family. Which surprised the hell out of me, because I normally didn’t let anyone in. I hated people getting close and seeing the real me. Sure, I could be the life of the party and act like I was carefree, but deep down, I had demons that I wanted to stay hidden. My past was something that I wanted to stay buried, and I did not want to risk anyone getting close and asking about it. The guys in the unit had slowly started to pick away at the hard wall that I had built around myself. They never pushed on the subject of my past, which I was thankful for, and probably why I allowed them to get close. I was willing to do whatever I could to protect each of them.
I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I set the whiskey down and ran my hands through my chocolate brown hair. Shit, this better not be another body, I thought. Or something worse. I grabbed my phone, swiped it, and opened the message. It was from Sarge.
Another shifter’s body was found. Meet at the office in twenty.
Fuck. I let out a long sigh and downed the rest of my whiskey. Since there was no indictment from Tasha’s case, it seemed that Purest was leaving more bodies around the city. No matter how hard we tried, we could never fully prove that the bodies came from that dammed corporation, but we all knew that they did. Each victim revealed the same MO. Each of them was a shifter that was out in the open about their abilities. The bodies were always dumped near known shifter hangouts and they were always mutilated in similar ways. While some had different limbs cut, they all had their blood drained from their bodies. I shuddered thinking about what they were doing with all of that blood.
There had to be a way that we could finally nail these bastards.
I pulled out my wallet and left Sam a twenty on the bar. As I stood up to leave, a rail thin blonde sitting across from me caught my eye and winked. I let my eyes trail her frame momentarily, and when I saw how low cut her shirt was, I stifled a laugh. She would have been so easy to take to the bathroom and fuck. Any other night I would have done just that, as it was a great way of letting out some steam, but stopping Purest was more important. Besides, I liked women with some more meat on their bones. I would have snapped this girl in half. I gave the blonde a tight smile and walked out of the bar.
Twenty minutes later, I was surrounded by all of my boys. The tension in the room was so thick, it was palpable. I could easily tell that everyone’s bear, like my own, was on edge, itching for a fight. The unit had been working around the clock since Tasha and Gavin left, and so far, it seemed there was no end in sight to all of this madness. We were left with no proof that Purest was involved, while more drained shifter bodies showed up all around the city.
I sat down at my desk and looked over at Harrison. The man was a wreck. He looked like he had aged a few years since this whole shit storm had started. Penny and their baby had been moved to another safe house that only he knew the location of. I couldn’t blame him for being protective. I didn’t blame Gavin for running off with Tasha either. If it were my mate being hunted, I w
ould have wanted her as far away as possible so I could keep her safe. But that would never happen, because I doubted I would ever take a mate. I could never let a woman in that close.
Sarge cleared his throat and the whole unit fell silent.
“We got another body from Purest.”
“Are you sure it’s them?” Harrison asked.
“It’s them. It was another shifter mutilated and drained. He even had the same puncture wounds from testing that we saw on the other one last week. It’s almost as if they aren’t even trying to be careful anymore. They think that they’re untouchable.”
Harrison let out a low growl. I could see muscles tense as he held back his shift. Fuck, I felt his pain. I wanted these assholes to stop what they were doing. Seeing people murdered because they were shifters hit too close to home for me.
“So what’s our plan, Sarge?” Buchannan asked.
Sarge let out a long sigh. “We need to find some solid evidence that it’s Purest that’s dumping these bodies.”
The room erupted in protests and growls. “But we had strong evidence last time, Sarge,” Harrison yelled above the rest. “Tasha’s testimony was solid. The only reason why the case was dropped was because those fuckers somehow got the jury rigged.”
Harrison was right. Purest was somehow able to convince the jury to become deadlocked, or they had someone on the inside doing their business for them. If we found more evidence and tried to take this case to trial again, it would be the same outcome. Purest had too much pull in the system.
“I agree with you, Harrison.” Sarge said. “But we haven’t been able to find the dirty jury member or any other ties to Purest. Everyone that we’ve looked into has come up clean.”
Those fucking bastards had their claws in so deep, which made it hard for our unit to even find anything on them. Hell, we couldn’t even figure out who the CEO of the damn corporation was. Everything was blocked with red tape.
I looked down at the crime scene photos of the mutilated body. My bear bristled with anger that someone was out there hurting shifters. I shut my mind from the memories that tried to flood back in. The screams of my parents echoed in my ears and I squeezed my eyes closed to snap myself out of it. I took a deep breath and looked up, my eyes falling back on Harrison. I couldn’t save my family, but I’d be damned if I couldn’t save my unit.
I hated to see my brothers hurting. The moment Purest had taken Penny, it became personal to our squad. More importantly, it became personal to me. I had to do something. I was not the type of person to stand by and let an enemy destroy us.
Harrison looked at me with sadness in his eyes. He had so much to lose by going against Purest. My thoughts went to Gavin, and I realized he had a lot to lose now as well, now that Tasha was his mate. I refused to let either of them take that risk and put their mates in danger again.
My eyes trailed around the room at the rest of the unit, and I realized that they all had families and loved ones of their own to worry about. All of them were at risk by going against this evil giant. Purest would go after each one of their family members. I was the only one that had nothing left to lose. I had no one waiting at home for me, and no family to worry about me if I disappeared. I was the only one that could actually end this. But how?
Sarge continued to talk about the body and any new leads that we might have. I zoned out as I racked my brain on what I could do. Purest had power, which meant that any case we brought against them, they would shut down. Going after them the legal way would never work. We somehow needed to take them down where it counted. Purest’s mission was to find out ways to stop shifters from taking over the human race. Their most prized possession wasn’t money or politics; it would be the information that they gained from all of the experiments they were conducting. A light bulb suddenly clicked on in my head. I would need to somehow destroy their research. Without their research, they would be nothing. The only way to destroy their research would be from the inside.
I cleared my throat and stood up. “I know how to take them down. And I know that none of you are going to like it.”
Harrison looked up at me with expectant eyes, which reaffirmed my need to do this mission on my own. I couldn’t let anyone else take the risk that I was willing to take.
“I’m going to go in and take them down from the inside.”
“Grady,” Sarge said. “How the hell are you going to go in and take them down? Harrison already tried going undercover as a security guard and look where that got us.”
“I’m not going to go undercover as a guard. I will have to go in as their lab rat.”
2
Ava
I dipped my pipette into another test tube. I let out a low hiss as I felt my forearm cramp as I pushed the liquid out. I lifted my arm and moved on to the next tube. My eyes shifted over my station and saw I still had a tray and a half to finish. Only about two hundred more tubes to go.
As much as I enjoyed that I had a job, I hated some of the mundane tasks that being a lab tech entailed. The cramp in my forearm started to sting, and I lifted the pipette out of the tube and placed it on the lab desk and slowly massaged my arm. I spent the majority of my day putting liquid into these damn tubes. Occasionally, I would have larger specimens to test, but for the most part, every day at the lab was the exact same. I stretched my arms up over my head and wished I could run my fingers through my thick, long, brown hair, pulling it off my neck, but doing so might contaminate the specimens.
I picked up the pipette and quickly calculated how many more tubes I needed to fill and how long it would take me to do so. I organized everything in my life down to numbers and charts. To me, math made sense, even more so than people sometimes. In college, I double majored in biology and statistics. I thought they would lead me on the path to an exciting research career in the medical field. However, with the fluctuating economy, research positions were few and far between. With a fresh degree in my hands and student loans piling up around me, I took one of the first positions I could land as an entry-level lab technician.
It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but it was something to get my foot in the door. In my college days, I dreamed of researching infectious diseases and eventually being a part of the team that cured cancer or HIV. Now that I was actually a part of a lab, I realized that most of my day consisted of busy work, and I couldn’t figure out if it had anything to do with the laboratory’s mission.
After a few weeks of trying to analyze what us lab technicians were doing, I gave up trying to figure it out and hoped to gain quick promotions by excelling at my position. To be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure what my lab was researching or developing. When I was hired, I was told that it was for a cure of a terrible, infectious disease, but they had never stated what that infectious disease was. The subject was always changed whenever I questioned it.
Last week, a new research assistant position had opened up, and I was hoping that my last year of work here at the laboratory would help me have a shoe in for the job. Maybe if I landed that position, I would finally know what horrible disease we were trying to cure.
The silence of the lab was suddenly broken by an eerie noise from the vents. I had heard the noise before, and had questioned it, but I was told it was just the old pipes of the building pushing water through. I had never heard a pipe make a sound like that, and I shuddered slightly until the noise abruptly stopped.
I lifted my pipette again and started the mundane task of filling the tubes, when my supervisor, Michelle, walked into the lab. She was a slightly intimidating woman in her early forties and my heart rate picked up at the sight of her. God, she made me feel so nervous.
“Hi Ava, if you have a moment, I would love to speak with you in my office.”
A wave of nausea coursed through my body. Had I done something wrong? I quickly sorted through all of the tasks that I needed to complete in my mind. I had finished everything that I need to accomplish. So why did Michelle need to speak with me? I slowly no
dded and stood up to follow her back to her corner office, down the hall from my lab.
Michelle’s black heels clicked loudly down the hallway as I followed her. The hallway smelled of cleaning chemicals, which I hated because it always reminded me of a hospital wing. We passed by several windows that looked into various laboratories. At that moment, I was thankful that my lab had no windows. I hated the thought of someone being able to stand outside and watch me work. It had been a while since I had been to Michelle’s office, and I had forgotten how many other research teams there were.
We reached her office door and Michelle pushed it open and led me inside. She walked around her large mahogany desk and sat down. I remained standing awkwardly at the entrance.
“Please, have a seat, Ava.”
I nervously sat down in the leather chair across from her.
“It has been brought to my attention how well you have been excelling in your position.”
I let out a small breath that I didn’t even realize that I was holding. Good, so I wasn’t in trouble for anything.
“Our company likes to reward those that excel, and after careful consideration, we believe it is time to transfer you over to the new research assistant position.”
I bit my lip to contain my excitement. On the inside, I was jumping up and down, but on the outside, I kept my facial expression calm and neutral.
“Thank you, Michelle. I am excited to be given the opportunity.”
Michelle smiled, but the joy in her smile never fully reached her blue eyes. I found that slightly odd, but I ignored it when she continued to speak.
“Now, this research position entails animal testing. Are you comfortable with that?” I had a feeling the lab was testing on animals, but I had personally never seen it. While I didn’t particularly enjoy the idea of animal testing, I understood it was a necessary process when testing new medications or researching effects of a disease.
