Releasing the Bear: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (The Callaghan Clan Book 2)

by Meredith Clarke

  “For alpha?”

  He nodded.

  “Soon. I’m actually surprised it hasn’t happened yet.” I bounced up and down as the bed shook with Brennan’s laugh. “What’s so funny?” I asked.

  He studied my face for a few seconds. “You really don’t realize, do you?” When I said nothing, he continued. “No one has challenged your uncle because they don’t want to challenge you.”

  “But that’s not how it works. I can’t interfere with their fight.”

  “No, but if someone bests your uncle for alpha, they will have to deal with you next. Right?”

  I thought about that and realized he had a point. “I guess.”

  “And no one can beat you.” Brennan said that with so much pride, I felt the tears building again. Damn him for making me an emotional woman.

  “No, they can’t,” I admitted.

  “You should be alpha.”

  “What?” I wrinkled up my face. “But I’m a woman.”

  He laughed again and then squeezed my breasts. “You certainly are.”

  I slapped his hands away. “We’ve never had a woman leader in our pack,” I said with frustration, like he had no clue how things worked in my world.

  “Maybe so, but now they have an alpha female with a bad ass grizzly as her mate.”

  This time I was the one who giggled. “Like that’s going to help my case.”

  “Do you have an omega female?”

  “Sure.”

  “And omega male?”

  “Yes.”

  “So there, problem solved.” Brennan grinned with pride. “You can do your alpha duties, but they can be the mated wolf pair.”

  I thought about Seth, who was our omega and wondered how he’d feel about that. Snuggling up against Brennan again, I wiggled my way onto his chest until he wrapped his arm around me. “Enough politics for tonight.”

  He kissed my head and started rubbing his fingers over my back. Shivers erupted on my skin and I pressed myself even closer to him. Tomorrow, when we got home, I would deal with my pack and my alpha. But for tonight, I simply wanted to enjoy the feel of Brennan against me. I wanted to love him and be loved in a way that might only last for tonight.

  I wanted to be with my mate.

  Something made me wake up in the middle of the night. I didn’t know if it was a sound or a smell, but some signal had me jolting out of bed at three in the morning. It took a second for me to remember where I was, so when I searched the bed for Scarlett, a rush of dread slammed into my chest when I didn’t see her.

  She must be in the bathroom, the sensible side of me said. My bear didn’t agree, but he allowed me a chance to look. “Scarlett?” I called out. Something was wrong. I just knew it. “Scarlett!” I slammed into the bathroom door so hard, it bounced off the wall and hit me in the shoulder.

  Scarlett wasn’t in the bathroom.

  Her clothes were still spread on the floor near the bed where I’d taken them off. Her duffle still sat on the loveseat, opened but not looking any different than it had before. Where the fuck was she?

  My skin prickled with the impending change. The bear inside clawed at the surface, begging to come out. But shifting into my grizzly wouldn’t help me get out of this hotel room to find her. Dropping to the floor, I sniffed the carpet until I found what I was looking for—her scent. The sweet cinnamon smell mixed with wolf and fresh grass. Following the most recent trail first led me to the dry bar and then toward the room door. So what was missing?

  I stood and studied the bar. Two champagne glasses, one metal chilling container, the ice bucket! She’d grabbed the ice bucket and went outside. Okay, maybe she was still there. But while I tried to convince myself of that, instincts told me otherwise. And while I was arguing internally, I’d thrown on my jeans, shirt, and boots and grabbed my phone.

  The hallway was silent. Too silent. “Scarlett?” I didn’t need to speak loud, she would be able to hear me if she were nearby. But there was no response. I jogged to the end of the hallway where the ice and vending machines were. The incessant hum nearly drove my bear mad, but when I saw the ice bucket spilled all over the ground, the human in me roared.

  Dropping to my knees, I scented the small room. Scarlett had been here. That was our ice bucket. That was her smell. There’d been three others here as well. All men. All human. And yet there was one other scent. Something that set off my animal instincts as well as my human ones. Sniffing the air, I allowed more of my bear to come to the surface. I need your help, I told him.

  The trace got stronger. A chemical. No. A sedative. The kind used on large animals. I knew that from my days of working on my uncle’s ranch during the summer many years ago. God damn it. They drugged her! They drugged her and took her away from me. My mate. My other half.

  A roar escaped my lips as the gravity of the situation sunk in. With trembling muscles and my bear on the verge of appearing, I stomped out of the hotel, much to the displeased looks of the workers. When the fresh night air hit me, it helped clear my head—a tiny bit. My hands shook. My jaw hurt from grinding my teeth together so hard. I heard my phone crack under the pressure of my hand.

  My phone. Should I call someone. Change. Find her. My bear demanded. But just like a grizzly in the hotel wouldn’t go over well, a grizzly walking through the city wouldn’t get me very far either. The thoughts raced, no one idea outshining the rest and before I even knew it, I’d dialed Brandt.

  “Hello?” He’d answered on the first ring but I could tell from his gravelly voice that I’d woken him up.

  “They took her.”

  “Brennan? What…what time is it? What are you talking about?”

  “They fucking took Scarlett. She’s gone!”

  “Is this some kind of a joke?”

  Angry that he would even ask, I growled and screamed into the phone at the same time. I heard another crack and tried to rein myself in.

  “Brennan, calm down.” The alpha power in his voice forced my bear to submit. “Now, where are you? Tell me exactly what happened.”

  “We’re still in Anchorage.” After I told him what had occurred since I woke, he sucked in a long breath and took his time figuring out what the next step was.

  “I’m calling Major.”

  Not what I was expecting. “The tiger? Why?”

  Brandt said something to Emma before returning to the phone. “Because he’s in the city for his flight out in the morning and it will be more than four hours before any of us can get there. You can’t do this alone. You know that, right?”

  “Sure,” I grumbled.

  “Brennan,” the alpha voice was back. “I’m serious. Take Major as backup.”

  “Fine.” Brandt didn’t need to know that I had no intentions of working with a tiger shifter who helped get us into this mess in the first place.

  “Let him help.” When I sighed, Brandt continued. “I’ll tell him to meet you at the hotel. Don’t lose control, Brennan. Bo and I will be there as soon as we can.”

  “Thank you,” I said just as he was hanging up the phone. What should I do? Scarlett was in trouble. Sure, she was strong but she’d been drugged. There’s no way she’d be able to take care of herself without having her full abilities. And what if she turned? What if she changed in front of those humans? We’d be right back to where we were twenty-four hours ago and Scarlett wouldn’t be safe.

  “Fuck!” I screamed into the air. “Fuck!”

  “Hey man, is everything okay?” A trucker who’d just arrived at the hotel started to make his way toward me.

  I turned on him, teeth bared and a deep growl rumbling from my chest. He paled, raised his hands and practically tripped over himself trying to get inside. I almost chased. Both me and my bear wanting to take some action now. But I should wait and listen to Brandt’s orders. He was my alpha and he knew best. Right?

  No, fuck him.

  I spun on my heels and started to run into the night when a car door slammed shut and someone called
out to me. It took him several times of shouting my name before it registered in my brain.

  “Brennan Callaghan,” the accented voice said. “Wait for me.”

  The tiger had arrived.

  I stopped, looked up into the sky, and cursed the world. Then I thought of Scarlett. My sweet, sweet Scarlett with that black hair and smoking hot body. My Scarlett who’d shared more with me in the last few days than anyone else in my lifetime. My mate.

  “Brennan?” Major asked, standing somewhere beside me, but not too close.

  “They took her,” I said.

  “I know, Brandt told me.” He put a hand on my shoulder and then immediately removed it when my body trembled with a growl. “We’re going to find her.”

  My throat was so tight I couldn’t speak, so I gave him a nod.

  “Now, have you picked up the trail outside?”

  I turned to look at the tiger and was again awed but unimpressed at the same time. Major Patel had nothing on my size. But I could see the muscles under his shirt. Built like a MMA fighter, I hoped his tiger side helped make him a fierce partner for our goals tonight.

  “I…I didn’t try yet,” I finally said. Why had I not tried to pick up their scent trail yet? Jesus, what was wrong with me?

  Major sniffed the air, mouth open and looked way too much like a house cat. “Do you want to change?”

  “Seriously?” I said in shock. “You, the ISC representative and the one that forced Scarlett and I here in the first place, you want me to turn into my grizzly here? In the middle of the city?”

  “Will you understand what I say to you as a bear?”

  I gave him a look. “You are a shifter, right?” He should know that we were still connected to our humans even in animal form.

  “That’s not what I meant,” he held his hand out until I gave him my phone. “I mean you are upset. Will you be able to control him?”

  Oh. Fair enough. “I need to find my…Scarlett.”

  Major looked up at me with his orange eyes, obviously hearing my mistake. A small smile pulled at one corner of his lips. Then he tucked his dark hair behind his ears and shoved my phone in his back pocket. “Go into the shadows over there and change. I’ll try to get the scent from the lobby. Okay?”

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about him taking charge, but it actually helped me focus. Running in along the front of the hotel and then around to the side, I hid behind the pair of dumpsters. Garbage and urine overwhelmed my nose. A rat scurried across my foot. Kicking it free, I pulled off my boots and then my clothes and let my bear rip free. The pain soothed me. The pain meant I had a purpose and my bear would find his mate.

  Major whistled when he got around the corner. I stepped into the light coming from one street lamp and Major stopped cold in his tracks.

  That’s right, tiger. You’re in my territory now.

  With his gaze averted, he slowly approached me. “I found their scent. Is that a sedative?”

  I huffed my response.

  “Okay,” he said with gritted teeth. “Let’s just hope they didn’t put her in a car.” Major jogged ahead, back toward the entrance, but stopped when he realized I wasn’t following. “Come on. We have to start over here. It’s okay,” he added when I stomped my front feet, “it’s clear.”

  I flared my nostrils, taking in all of the smells. Dirt, cement, humans, dead rodents. The lovely aroma of the city. This is why my bear and I hated coming here. Major snapped his fingers and pointed to the ground. I was tempted to bite them off. I wasn’t a dog. But then I caught Scarlett’s trail and my animal senses focused only on that.

  They’d dragged her into the easement dividing the hotel’s property and the lake it over looked. She didn’t have any shoes on and I picked up a faint scent of blood. That agitated the bear and he pushed me forward into a run. Major would find us eventually.

  With nose to the ground, I followed the dirt and grass patch until it ended at a pair of railway tracks. Running over them, I continued to follow her, until I realized the scent trail had disappeared. So I backtracked, almost running into Major and giving him a low growl when he didn’t get out of my way fast enough. My bear didn’t care if he was a tiger. He’d fight anything right now.

  We ran down the tracks, the ones heading north and out of the city. Major surprised me with his stealth, as I could barely hear him keeping up behind me. When we reached another crossing, I slowed. Lifting my head, I huffed to the left.

  “That way?” Major asked.

  Another huff.

  He looked ahead and probably recognized the same thing I did. Several abandoned buildings that could have been old car lots or shipping facilities. My paws skidded in the fine gravel as I took off toward them.

  “Brennan, wait!” Major called out in a shouted whisper.

  I ignored him. Scarlett was somewhere in there. They wouldn’t have been able to get her much further than that. There hadn’t been enough time. In the very limited moonlight, I charged ahead, her scent growing stronger. I’m coming mate.

  A loud rumble of a roar behind me had me sliding to a stop. I expected to see a large tiger behind me, but Major hadn’t changed and yet had still managed to call up his animal. My bear was confused.

  “Brennan, slow down. We don’t want them to know we’re here yet.” Major jerked his chin toward the building closest to us. “Do you hear them?”

  Swinging my head back around with a grunt, I listened. Heartbeats. Laughter. Screaming. I looked at Major and showed him my teeth.

  “Do you want to change?”

  I shook my giant head.”

  “Okay, then. After you.”

  Like the hunters we were, Major and I stalked toward the northern side of the building. Silent and deadly. I couldn’t wait to tear into the men who took Scarlett.

  They had crossed the line.

  And they were going to pay.

  My ribs hurt and the thing that kept poking me in the side wasn’t helping. The muffled sounds of men shouting started to come back into focus along with my eyesight. Where was I? What the hell had happened?

  “Come on, shifter. Change!” A small man with a trucker hat and a camo jacket pushed the metal pole into the cage. He smelled like beer and piss. “Come on. Come on.”

  Wait, cage? I was in a fucking cage?

  My vision snapped into focus when that metal prod hit me again, sending an electrical shock through my system. I screamed, scrambling as far away from him as I could. My bare feet slipped on the concrete floor, my tank top sliding up and exposing my panties.

  The man reached in again, and I cowered. But someone stopped him. “Randy, enough.”

  “But she’s not changing,” Randy whined.

  “It’s because she’s been drugged, dumb ass. It takes a takes a while to wear off. Even on shifters.” This man, a tall and skinny one, wore an Iditarod sweatshirt and chewed on a toothpick. His back woods accent reminded me of places I’d visited in the south.

  “Are you sure she’ll do it, Mikey?”

  Mikey smiled. A cruel grin that cut his face in half. “Oh, she’ll do it.” His eyes traveled to my legs and my nearly exposed breasts.” She’ll do it or we’ll make her do it.”

  “Do what?” I croaked. Who were these guys?

  Two more men that looked like brothers ran over to stare into my cage when I spoke. Their eyes widened in excitement, their scent of arousal making me sick.

  “You’re going to show us your wolf, shifter.” Mikey said that last word in disgust, as though I was an abomination.

  “She’s so pretty,” one of the brothers said.

  I showed him my teeth and let a low growl escape my lips. He dropped his head but the stench of his excitement only intensified.

  “Are you sure she’s a wolf?” the other brother asked Mikey.

  “Oh, I’m sure. She was in the video and she visited Jason’s group earlier tonight with a nice little threat.”

  Jason. Man-bun? That son-of-a-bitch. He had shared the vide
o. Or someone had. And now this group of douchebags thought they could capture a shifter. I’d be sure to change their minds…

  Mikey smiled at me again. “Did you just put it all together?” he asked in a condescending tone.

  I opened my mouth to reply and then felt another jolt of electricity shoot through me when Randy prodded me again. Facing the tiny man, I growled, “I’m going to kill you.”

  He stuck his face between the bars and taunted me. “Go ahead and try.”

  The men all laughed and I had to wonder why they weren’t afraid. Had they not watched that video from our territory? I took on a full grizzly. And won. These guys were flies compared to the grizzly shifters. Flies that needed to be squashed under my foot.

  I stood and they all took a step back. “Let me out of this cage and let’s see what you’re really made of,” I said to Randy. Then, snapping my head toward Mikey, I added, “Or maybe you’d like to try.”

  He laughed and shook his head. “One step at a time, bitch. One step.”

  My skin tingled with the impending change. The wolf wanted to rip their throats out, and my human instincts were right there too. Wait! Where was Brennan? It came back to me in a rush. I’d woken up in the middle of the night smothered by his giant body. And while I loved that, it also made me hot. So I got up to get some water but I wanted ice. I grabbed the bucket, walked to the end of the hall, and…

  “What did you give me?” I asked my crowd, rubbing the spot on my neck where I’d been injected. The sedative was wearing off, but my thoughts were still buried in a haze of fog.

  “That’s not important. Now change,” Mikey said.

  “What do you want me to shift so much?”

  “Because we want you to—”

  “Because we want to see if you really are a wolf,” Mikey cut in, giving Randy a look that told him he’d said too much. Focusing back on me, the apparent leader of the humans continued, “That video has been circulating. And there’s a lot of money out there for the person who can give some vital proof of your existence.”

  “How much?” I asked, finding strength in my voice again.