by Kim Fox
Rhett sighed as he thought about it. Did he really want to be a cop? The three of them had been in a position of power before and look how it had turned out.
He turned his head and saw a machete sticking out of the kitchen counter like an ax on a chopping block. It had peanut butter smeared all over it. They didn’t own any knives so they just used that.
“Alright,” he said, reaching over to shake Kylee’s hand. “I’m in.”
two
“Wow,” Rhett whispered as a smile crept over his lips. His own car. He ran his shaking hand over the spotless dashboard as a warm shiver shot down his back.
It was his first day as a shifter cop and he was ready. More shifters were arriving every day and Kylee didn’t have time to give Rhett and the Chevy brothers more than just the most basic of training. Her child was due any day now and she was just trying to get everything ready before she was tied up with dirty diapers and an insatiable baby.
She put Rhett in charge of the Chevy brothers and his first order of duty was to pair up Nathan and Emry together. The two brothers would be partners, sharing the same car, while Rhett worked alone. The only problem was that he didn’t know if they’d be worse together or apart.
“See ya, sucker!” Emry yelled out the car window as Nathan took off, squealing the tires of the police cruiser on the way out of the parking lot.
Yup. Definitely worse together.
A raven landed on the hood of Rhett’s car with a thud. The bird tilted its head as it stared at him curiously.
“What do you want?” he said, glaring at the bird. Just as he finished the sentence, two more landed beside him and then he heard the thunk, thunk, thunk of his feathered friends landing on the roof of the car.
He laughed as he turned on the car, revving the engine and sending the birds scattering to the sky. “Keep up with this,” he said, slamming on the gas. He peeled out of the driveway and turned onto the street, leaving the ravens cawing angrily at him.
The day started off exciting but after an hour of driving around, Rhett was starting to get bored. Just as he was about to stop out of boredom for his third coffee, the police radio crackled on.
“Rhett,” the police radio operator, Loretta said. “We got a call from the steakhouse in town. There’s a girl causing a scene. It sounds like a shifter from the description.”
Rhett’s heart started pounding with excitement as he reached for the handset of the radio. “Copy that,” he said with a grin.
“Copy what?” Loretta answered. “You need me to make photocopies of something?”
“No,” Rhett said, tightening his seatbelt. “I’ll be right over.”
“You’ll be over here?” Loretta asked, sounding confused. “I need you to go to the restaurant.”
“I’ll go to the restaurant,” he said slowly, careful not to confuse her further. Kylee had warned him about Loretta’s lack of intelligence but holy shit.
“See if you can bring me back some bread sticks,” she said, starting to ramble. “And the sauce! They have this spicy-”
Rhett clicked off the radio. It was his first call and he needed to get ready. He looked at his dark eyes in the rearview mirror, trying to psyche himself up. “You got this,” he whispered.
He flicked the lights and siren on the hood of his car and hit the gas. He wanted to handle this just right for Kylee. It wasn’t just for the paycheck, though. He wanted a job that carried importance and gave him some respect.
He wasn’t going to fuck this job up.
Rhett flicked off the lights and siren as he pulled onto the main street in Colwood. It really was a beautiful Montana town with the stunning snow-capped Absaroka mountains jutting into the clear afternoon sky in the distance. It was springtime and the air was crisp and clean, and the leaves on the trees lining the cobblestone sidewalks were just starting to bud.
Rhett stepped out of the car and took a deep breath of the mountain air. He smiled as he looked up at the sky. Not a raven in sight. He lost his entourage of birds many miles back when their small wings couldn’t keep up with the police cruiser’s fast engine.
A crash erupted from inside the steakhouse and Rhett rolled his shoulders and hurried over. He could already feel the animal’s energy. It was a dominant grizzly bear shifter inside, and he was out of control.
Rhett opened the door and gasped when he stepped inside. The dominant grizzly bear shifter was a girl.
And she was beautiful.
His pulse started racing as he stared at her with wide eyes. She had long brown hair that was wild and unkempt. It was messy but it looked good on her, giving her a crazed look that somehow made her that much more stunning. Her nose was way too cute for her angry face and hard amber eyes that shone unnaturally bright.
She was petite with a small frame and perky little breasts that were hidden under her torn up shirt. Her tight jeans looked like Frankenstein’s skin with all of the sewn up patches and cuts.
Rhett couldn’t get over her. It wasn’t just her beauty, though. He could feel her intense energy pattern radiating around her. She was the most dominant grizzly that he had ever come across and she was trying to contain the ferocious beast in such a small body. No wonder she looked like a drug addict with her trembling hands and with the crazed look on her face.
“Are you the cops?” the chef asked, marching around the tables to get to Rhett. His apron was splattered with blood and Rhett was really hoping that it was from the meat in the back and not from something that the girl had done.
“I am,” Rhett answered with a gulp. He straightened the badge that was pinned to his black polo shirt.
“Good,” he said, pointing angrily at the girl. She was crouched in a fighting position by the bar, her top lip curling over her teeth.
“Get her out of here,” the chef snapped. “She’s on drugs!”
“I’m not on drugsss,” she said, the last word coming out in a low growl.
“See what I mean?” the chef said, turning back to Rhett. He looked furious as he crossed his arms over his big belly.
“I just wanted to eat,” she said, her hands shaking at her side as her head twitched like a crack addict in need of a fix.
The energy surrounding her shifted and Rhett stepped forward, placing a protective arm on the chef and pulling him back. “You might want to wait outside,” Rhett warned, keeping his eyes on the wild beauty.
She really was out of control. Rhett could see by her energy pattern that her bear was about to take over. It was going to get ugly, real fast.
“This is my restaurant,” the chef complained angrily. “I’m not go-”
“Get out!” Rhett shouted, turning to him with a look that sent him shuffling out the door.
“I’m not going back to jail,” the young woman said to Rhett, her body starting to shake.
Rhett held out his palms, trying to calm her down. “I’m not going to take you anywhere you don’t want to go,” he said softly. “Just keep your bear-”
Her body began convulsing at the word bear. Her small frame shook and jerked around as her face twisted in pain and her jaw clenched shut. Long brown hairs began sprouting out of her smooth skin and in an instant, a furious grizzly bear exploded out of her body.
“Holy shit!” Rhett said, staring up at the monstrous beast. She was enormous. Much too big to fit inside of the girl.
A low growl rumbled from her throat as the last of the girl’s clothes fell off the bear’s massive body. Her jeans and shirt fell to the ground in shreds as the bear lifted its huge head and roared.
Rhett knew what to do. It was the reason why Kylee had hired him and his friends in the first place. He pulled his energy out of his body and slid it into the bear’s, channeling the angry beast.
When he opened his eyes, he was seeing through the bear’s eyes, smelling what the bear smelled, hearing what she heard. He was also feeling its pain.
Skin Shifters had the unique ability to control other animals and to guide their ene
rgy patterns. He calmed the angry bear down as he wondered what to do next. He couldn’t just leave a full grown grizzly bear in the middle of a restaurant. Even a calm bear would trash the place just from moving around.
He looked around through the bear’s eyes, wondering where to go. He saw his own body, standing up straight and unmoving with his own eyes glowing an eerie white.
That’s it.
There was a staircase that led to the roof beside the bathrooms. Rhett carefully walked the bear around the tables and up the narrow staircase. He pushed the door open with his nose and walked onto the roof, waiting until the door swung closed and locked with a click behind him.
It was a perfect location to leave the bear. The roof of the restaurant was two stories up and unless the girl knew how to fly, she would be trapped.
Rhett released his hold on the grizzly bear and when he opened his eyes, he was back down in the restaurant safe in his own body.
The chef was standing in front of him, waving his hand in front of his face.
“First shifters,” he said as Rhett smiled at him. “Now whatever the hell you are. What the hell are you anyway?”
Rhett cleared his throat. “A skin shifter.”
The chef sighed. “Tomato, tomato,” he said, shaking his bald head. “Where did she go?” he asked, looking around in a panic. “She better not be in my freezer stealing my steaks!”
For a big man, he ran surprisingly fast.
Rhett grabbed the girl’s shredded clothes off the floor and hurried out through the front door.
He ran to the sidewalk, squinting as he looked up to the roof of the restaurant. “Hey!” Rhett shouted. He could feel her energy and it was in control now that he had calmed her animal down.
The girl walked over, standing completely naked at the edge of the roof. She stared unashamedly down at Rhett, not even trying to hide her naked body.
A small groan escaped from Rhett’s throat as he took in the beautiful view. If she was going to show it, he was going to look.
“What did you do to me?” she asked, staring at him with her hands by her sides.
Rhett looked around nervously. The people on the sidewalk were starting to notice the scene. She didn’t seem to care one bit.
“Want to come down and talk?” Rhett asked.
“What did you do to me?” she repeated with her gorgeous amber eyes digging into Rhett.
He grinned at her. “Come down and I’ll tell you.”
She stared at him with a heated glare for a dozen beats of his pounding heart.
“Fine,” she finally said, her body tense. “Throw my clothes up.”
She stepped back, disappearing on the roof as Rhett bunched her clothes up into a ball getting ready to throw it. He paused when he saw her lacy pink underwear in the pile. Maybe I should keep these.
“And my underwear better be in there!” she shouted from out of view.
Damn.
Rhett tossed them up onto the roof and crossed his arms as he waited for her to come down. A minute later she burst through the front door with her torn clothes hanging off her and marched right up to him, stopping an inch from his face.
“What the hell did you do to me?” she snapped, gritting her teeth as she stared up at him.
She was less than half his size but she was not intimidated in the least. Her bear wasn’t the only dominant one.
Rhett slowed his breathing and kept his body language calm, trying not to antagonize her or her bear. “I slid my energy pattern into your grizzly,” he said, keeping his voice low and soft. Any threatening tone or actions would likely set her bear off again.
She jabbed a finger in front of his face as her nostrils flared. “You don’t slide anything into me,” she snarled. “You got that?”
Rhett swallowed hard as he watched her fingernail extend into a long black claw. “You’re not the only one who can slide things into people,” she hissed. She poked his stomach, coming dangerously close to breaking his skin.
Rhett groaned as she dragged the sharp claw across his abs.
“Watch it,” he said, grabbing her wrist and squeezing it.
She took a step back but Rhett yanked her back towards him. “You’re a dominant shifter.”
“I know.”
“Your bear is out of control.”
“I know that too.”
Rhett exhaled and released her wrist. “Want to go for a drive?” he asked.
She looked around his arm to the police cruiser parked across the street. It was covered in black ravens and there were more flying in.
“Is that your car?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Rhett said, sighing. Even with a three hundred horsepower engine, the birds still managed to find him.
She pushed past him, slamming her tiny shoulder into his thick bicep.
“Let’s go.”
three
“You’re pretty fast with that,” Rhett said, watching her as she sewed her clothes up. Her tiny hands were moving in a blur as she reattached a long tear in the ripped up jeans that she was wearing.
“When you shift as often as I do, you learn how to sew real good, real fast,” she said, tying the thread into a knot and starting on another tear.
Rhett turned the corner, smiling to himself as the angry flock of birds disappeared in his rearview mirror. “What’s your name?”
“What’s yours?” she snapped back. Something was telling Rhett that this girl would always be on the offensive.
“Rhett,” he answered softly. “Rhett Jones.”
She lowered her chin as she turned her eyes back to her jeans. “I’m Joan. Joan Heller.”
“Joan?” Rhett asked, turning to look at her with a smile on his lips.
“I know,” she said, piercing the needle through her jeans, “old lady name, right?”
“No,” he said with a laugh. “It’s not that. If we got married your name would be Joan Jones.”
She turned and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “Are you proposing?” she asked with a blank look on her face. “Because I can save you the trouble. You don’t want to marry a girl like me.”
But Rhett wasn’t so sure. She was spectacular and he couldn’t get the vision of her perky breasts out of his mind. That sight mixed with the sweet smell of her perfume in the car was enough to start driving him crazy.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Joan,” Rhett said, trying hard to keep his eyes on the road and not on the beautiful girl sitting beside him.
She let out a soft laugh as she sewed. “My mother named me after Joan of Arc. She thought that she was a good influence for me. She wanted me to be a strong, independent woman.” She shook her head as she stabbed her torn jeans with the needle. “I don’t think she expected me to take it this far.”
Rhett smiled as he listened. She was definitely a strong, independent woman.
“Joan of Arc got burned alive when she was nineteen-years-old,” she said, pulling out the needle. “I’m twenty-two so I guess I have her beat so far.”
“Wasn’t she declared a saint by the pope?” Rhett asked.
Joan sighed. “Well, she’s got me beat there. Nobody is ever going to call me a saint. A monster or a demon yes, but saint, no.”
Rhett squeezed the wheel as he listened. His heart went out to this girl. He wanted to help her.
“I’ve never seen anything like your bear,” he said, taking a deep breath. “Her energy just radiates dominance.”
“She does that,” Joan said, huffing out a breath. “She loves to fight. Not so good at cocktail parties but she thrives in a brawl.”
“It must be hard,” Rhett said, glancing over at her. “Living with a frustrated animal like that?”
“I’m used to it,” she said, sighing as she turned towards the window. “The loneliness is the real killer. I’ve been traveling from town to town, trying to find a home but always coming up short. I heard that Colwood, Montana is the new safe spot for shifters but I think I’m better off
alone. The more shifters around, the angrier my bear gets.”
Rhett could see that she was tired of fighting. The dark rings under her eyes, the sound of defeat in her voice. She was close to giving up and letting the animal inside take over.
He couldn’t let her give up. She was hurting and in pain, but he could tell that there was good in her too.
Rhett pulled the car over to the side of the road and put it in park. “I know it’s tough,” he said, turning in the seat to face her. “I felt your bear’s power. It must be overwhelming.”
Her chin trembled as she stared out of the windshield. “I can feel her taking over me,” she said with a shaky voice. “Even when I’m in my human form. She’s taken everything from me and now she’s trying to take the only thing I have left. My humanity.”
Rhett reached out and took her small hand in his to comfort her. To his surprise, she didn’t rip her hand away. She just squeezed his back.
“Every time that I phase,” she said, her voice low and full of fear, “she pushes me down farther and farther until I’m not sure if I can get back out.” She wiped her wet eyes with the back of her free hand. “One day she’ll take over. And I’ll be her prisoner.”
“I can help you,” Rhett said, looking into her watery eyes. “I can calm her energy, help you keep her in control.”
He reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a business card. “Here,” he said, handing it to her. “Call me anytime. If she starts to act up, I can rush over and calm her for you.”
“Okay,” she said, taking the card. “Wait a second,” she said, looking at it closely. “This says, Angela Connor, Professional Realtor.”
Rhett rubbed his goatee. “I wrote my cell phone number on the back,” he said, feeling embarrassed. “My business cards are in the mail.”
She raised an eyebrow as she looked at him with her piercing amber eyes. “How long have you been doing this?”
“It’s my first day,” he answered with a laugh.
“Really?” she said, smiling wide.
It was the first time that he saw her smile and the sight was making him lightheaded.
