by Bec Adams
“I love you,” Gideon said, his hands stroking gently over Brigden’s skin. “Even if we never get a chance like his again, I want you to know that I will always love you.”
Misery swelled in Brigden’s throat as tears welled behind his eyelids. What if they never got this chance again?
Gideon stroked a hand over Brigden’s face. “Get some rest,” he said as his cock slowly slid from Brigden’s ass, the inevitable separation bringing only despair.
“I love you,” Brigden said in a rough voice, his emotions overwhelming him, his anger at their pack’s narrow-minded views like a knife in the heart.
“I know,” Gideon said in a sad voice.
Chapter Three
Suzanne woke surrounded by fur, and felt entirely too comfortable to care.
But as the events of what happened earlier replayed in her mind, she gasped and reached a hand to her stomach. She felt nothing but soft, warm, undamaged flesh. She laughed softly to herself, still half asleep as she tried to remember the details of her kooky dream.
Perhaps it was a reaction to stress, or maybe symbolic of the way she now viewed her “career,” but she was very glad to have only dreamed a child who turned into a bear cub and ripped the flesh on her abdomen, leaving her for dead in the middle of nowhere.
She caressed her hands higher, her stomach feeling strangely numb. She found a few sore spots and wondered where they’d come from and why she’d incorporated them into her dream. She was still trying to explain the mild pain when she finally realized she was naked from the waist up. She usually slept in pajamas, even on hot, sultry nights, so the lack of clothing was a little confusing. She didn’t drink, so she had no excuse in that respect.
Was she sick perhaps? It had been a long time since she’d had a serious case of the flu, but she still remembered similar feelings of confusion and memory loss from one particularly bad dose.
She felt much better now, not sick at all, so perhaps whatever had made her ill had now passed. She was still trying to remember details when a soft groan sounded behind her.
Immediately she sat bolt upright.
Her eyes adjusted quickly, the very tiny amount of light somehow magnified so that she could easily see the wolves that slept either side of her. One was a pale blonde color, probably a little large for a wolf in this area, but the other was silver and nearly twice its size.
Panic drilled through her chest, her breathing coming in terrified gulps.
The smaller of the two wolves slept soundly, but the larger one, the one lying between her and freedom watched her steadily. She had no idea how she’d come to be here or even why she was still alive. Sleeping in a wolves’ den surrounded by the wolves themselves seemed like a recipe for suicide. But she had no memory… No, that wasn’t entirely true. She remembered grabbing the child and it somehow turning out to be a bear cub in her arms. She felt her abdomen again. Still no sign of real injury.
If she hadn’t been injured, then how did she end up here?
* * * *
Gideon watched the woman warily. He hadn’t expected her to wake so quickly. Had the change healed her wounds completely? Was she still injured? Had he failed to change her correctly? He wanted to move closer, but he had no idea how she might react to that.
They both jumped slightly when her radio crackled to life and a male voice demanded a woman named Suzanne answer his call.
Brigden woke and quickly turned back into his human form. “You need to answer him.”
“Where the hell?” the woman asked, her gaze bouncing between Brigden and the last place she’d seen him in wolf form.
“It’s okay. We’ll explain everything, but if you don’t answer your boss, they’re liable to send out a search team. We can’t afford that.” He hesitated, glancing at the faintly purple tint of her skin in this strange light. “You can’t afford that.”
“Meaning what?” she asked suspiciously. “Am I a prisoner?”
“No, Suzanne, you’re not a prisoner,” Brigden said, looking beseechingly at Gideon for help. “But you were badly injured and well, the way we healed you was…unconventional. Please just tell your boss that you’re okay and heading back to your vehicle. I promise we’ll explain everything.”
“We?” she asked, glancing at Gideon nervously. “Somehow I doubt he’ll be explaining very much at all.”
But maybe the woman knew there was something different about her now, or maybe she just figured she was dreaming, because she took the two-way radio, depressed the button, and responded to the man in a calm voice. Thankfully she told him enough to put him off sending out a search party for at least the next fifteen minutes.
Gideon couldn’t help but smile at her tactic. She’d done what Brigden had asked but put a time limit on her cooperation.
Suzanne gave him a wary look. “Wow, Grandma, those are some awfully big teeth.”
“We won’t hurt you,” Brigden said, easily stopping her move backward. “But we do have a lot of explaining to do.”
“No kidding?” she asked with a nervous half laugh. “You can start with how I ended up here.”
“Gideon carried you,” Brigden said with a nod in his direction.
“The wolf carried me?” she asked disbelievingly. “What? In his teeth?”
“No, in his arms,” Brigden said quietly. “Gideon, it’s probably just easiest to show her.”
* * * *
“Easiest to show me what?”
There was no doubt that this was the strangest experience Suzanne had ever had, but by far and wide the kookiest part was that she felt like she needed to stay here and understand. Underneath the fear and confusion was the weird feeling that she somehow belonged here.
Perhaps the mild case of depression she’d self-diagnosed had turned into a full-blown psychotic break. She’d been lonely for a long time. Maybe this was her brain’s strange way of telling her she needed to move back to the big city and spend some time with actual people.
She was so busy wondering how she would find her way back to sanity that she almost missed the giant wolf somehow change into a giant man.
She opened her mouth to swear, but nothing came out. She just stood there gaping at the huge naked man standing where a silver wolf had once been.
“It’s okay, baby girl,” the man said, reaching over to touch a warm hand to her face. “You’re safe here.”
“Uh-huh,” she said in a noncommittal tone as she glanced over her shoulder at the first man. “And I’m supposed to believe that because…?”
The smaller man shrugged, apparently uncertain how to respond to her sarcastic question, but the man in front of her—Gideon—smiled instead.
“How much do you remember about the child you found playing alone in the forest?”
“The kid,” she said on a panicked gasp. “I grabbed the wrong one. The little boy is still out there.”
Not really considering her actions, Suzanne took a step toward the only source of light in the room on the assumption that the exit was in the same direction. But Gideon moved to block her path, his warm hands reaching for her when she lost her footing on the loose dirt.
“Suzanne, it’s okay,” the other man said as she stared at Gideon and wondered again why she wasn’t screaming her head off. She was half undressed, wrapped in the embrace of a naked stranger, and yet somehow felt safe, very safe.
And very, very strange.
“The child you picked up is from a clan of bear-shifters who live deeper in the mountains,” Gideon said as he urged her to rest her face against his solid chest.
“He was in human form when you gathered him up,” the other man said as he stepped closer, “but he panicked and changed into his black bear shape when he thought you were going to hurt him.”
“I would never—” she began, but her protest was quickly cut off.
“We know,” Gideon said, stroking a hand through her hair in a very soothing way. “What you did was very brave. You risked your own life to save a c
hild you thought was in danger.”
“Technically, he probably was,” the other man said as he stepped up behind her and placed a warm hand on her shoulder. “Black bear-shifters tend to be smaller than their wild look-alikes. If the bear cub’s mother had discovered him, we’re not entirely certain what she would have done. Whichever way you look at it, you saved his life.”
“Thank you,” she said as tears filled her eyes. It had all happened so quickly that she really hadn’t had time to consider what might have happened if she’d reacted differently. Knowing that her effort to help hadn’t been in vain made her feel infinitely better about having been clawed so painfully.
Except…
“I…um…I remember being injured. How long have I been here?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized it was a stupid question. She hadn’t been gone long enough for work to really miss her so there was no way she’d been gone long enough to heal from such horrific wounds.
“It’s been less than an hour,” Gideon said.
“Then I wasn’t injured?”
“Oh, you were injured, quite badly in fact,” the man behind her said. “Gideon turned you into a werewolf. That’s why you’re healed now.”
“Mostly healed,” Gideon said, moving her slightly away from the warmth of his chest. “You need more rest, Suzanne. I want you to lie down with Brigden while I go check with the alpha.”
“What?” she asked, feeling slightly dazed. “Lie down?” But then the previous sentence sank into her tired brain. “Werewolf? As in werewolf werewolf? As in fictional, mythological creature? That kind of werewolf?”
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” the man behind her—Brigden—said in a soothing tone of voice. “We’re nothing like the stories you know.”
“And what the hell would you know about what I know? You know nothing about me!”
Okay, the word “irrational” came to mind, but seriously how could they even think she’d just calmly stand here and listen after being told something so ridiculous. Werewolves? As if!
“You know it’s true,” Gideon said with a soft shake of his head and a half smile on his lips. His smug assumption was infuriating.
“Fuck you,” she said as the realization also skittered through her mind. Something was different, she felt different, but she was quite within her rights as an adult to ignore as much evidence as she wanted. Just because what they said was true, it didn’t mean she had to accept it.
When Gideon started to laugh, she actually wanted to punch him. Good heavens she wasn’t the violent type, but the urge to wipe the arrogant smile off the big man’s face was very, very tempting. Either that or she was going to lift onto her toes and kiss the smirk from his lips. Hell that seemed far more appealing. She was halfway there when she realized what she was doing. Holy shit!
“What the fuck is wrong with me?”
“Nothing,” Brigden said, his hand tracing soothing circles on her lower back now. “I think the change messes with your hormones for a while.”
“You think?” she asked incredulously.
“Calm down, baby girl.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down, you big…big, ah, flea-bitten puppy! If I want to react to the werewolf version of PMS, I fucking will.”
Gideon laughed, pulled her into his embrace, and pressed his lips over hers. She fought him with everything she had in her. How dare he try to kiss her when she was desperately trying to avoid kissing him herself? He let her go, seeming surprised by her reaction. Fabulous. Dumb-ass alpha males came in a werewolf version, too. Fucking brilliant.
“Suzanne,” Brigden said, sounding very concerned now, “neither of us has ever done this before, so we’re not entirely certain what to expect.” He sounded tired, concerned, and perhaps a little overwrought himself. “I know we’re not explaining it very well, but please just try to understand that we did what we thought was best at the time.”
“You thought it was best to make me a werewolf?” she asked just a little more calmly.
“Yes, Suzanne, we did,” Brigden said as she turned around to face him. “You were badly injured. With human medical intervention you probably would have survived, but it would have been a long, painful road to recovery.”
“We also couldn’t risk you telling anyone about a child that could turn into a bear cub,” Gideon added. He seemed distant now. His hands by his side. His voice carefully neutral.
“I doubt anyone would have believed me,” she said, frowning at the strange sensation of being both attracted to and annoyed by Gideon at the same time. He took another step back, almost as if he could feel her confusion and wanted nothing to do with it. “Okay, well, um, thank you for healing me, but I really should get back to base. My boss sounded pretty annoyed.”
Brigden glanced worriedly at Gideon and Suzanne got the distinct impression that she already knew what they were about to say.
“Suzanne, you can’t go home, not now, not ever.”
“Why not?” she asked, striving to stay rational. “You already said werewolves are nothing like in the movies. I’m not likely to go munching on the villagers.” Even as she said the words out loud she somehow knew they were true. “And I promise not to mention anything about the child. What did you call him? A bear-shifter? The woman who reported seeing him was obviously doing drugs. She’s not even sure she saw what she thought she saw. It’ll be okay. I won’t reveal your secrets. I promise.”
It all seemed very reasonable in her head, so when Gideon rolled his eyes in dismissal, her anger flared once more. But before she could start using some of the more colorful language she’d learned from having three older brothers, Brigden stepped in between them, gave her his shirt and helped her pull it on, and then threaded his fingers through hers.
“I need to show you something,” he said as he led her out of the enclosed space they’d been in. It opened into an even smaller cave that looked a lot like a wolves’ den and then into the bright sunlight of midday. She shielded her eyes, surprised by the strength of the sun. “Look at me, sweetheart.” Brigden’s tone was surprisingly affectionate.
“See anything that might make you and Brig stand out from the crowd?” Gideon asked in an impatient tone of voice.
Stung a little by his sarcasm, Suzanne concentrated her attention on Brigden. The purple hue of his skin had her blinking more than once. She’d ignored it inside the cave, but out here in the open she couldn’t put it down to a strange source of light.
“Oh, that would make it a little hard to hide.” She was halfway through babbling a few more platitudes when she finally glanced at her own skin. She, too, had the strange purple hue. “I take it that’s a side effect of making me a werewolf.” Did she really just say that word out loud? Werewolf? She wanted to write it off as imaginary bullshit but the evidence was starting to stack up.
She took a deep breath, pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to think rationally.
“Why aren’t you purple, too?” she asked Gideon, trying to make sense of too many things at once.
“Just genetics,” he said with a shrug. “Unfortunately, a made wolf will always have the same purple-toned skin as the rest of our pack.”
“It’ll be okay,” Brigden said, lifting her hand back into his own. It was maybe a little silly, but it felt nice to have someone to hold on to. Weirdly, she also wanted Gideon to hold her hand. Considering how annoying the man was being at the moment, she wasn’t quite sure where the thought was coming from.
The fact that Gideon chose that moment to lean over, grab her hand, and press a kiss to her palm just rattled her even more.
“You need more rest,” he said, holding her hand against his warm chest. “Please just stay here with Brigden while I go sort a few things out.”
“A few things…like what?”
Gideon breathed out heavily, gave her an exasperated look, and turned to Brigden for assistance. “The sooner I contact our alpha, the better it will be for all of us.”
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“Use the video chat on the laptop,” Brigden said very seriously. “It’ll be easier to gauge the alpha’s reaction if you can see his face.”
Gideon nodded, pressed a kiss to Suzanne’s forehead, and then sort of melted into a wolf and loped away on four paws. For the second time in five minutes Suzanne stood watching him with her mouth open.
“Come on,” Brigden said, gently tugging her hand and moving back toward the cave they’d just exited. “It could take a while. He’ll need to report to the alpha of the Dry Creek pack as well.”
“What’s a Dry Creek pack?” she asked, again before she could really think the question through. A group of wolves was called a pack. It was most likely a group of werewolves would call themselves the same thing.
Was the whole, out-of-character blurting of poorly thought-out questions a side effect of the change as well? She was usually very rational. The person she was at the moment seemed both familiar and new and strangely, rather appealing. She’d been a timid mouse for too long. Maybe it was time she said what was on her mind. But Brigden seemed so sweet. She couldn’t sass him the way she’d been doing with Gideon.
“The Dry Creek pack is the pack Gideon and I are visiting at the moment. We’re here to help them set up electronic surveillance so that when something like this happens they’ll be able to quickly pinpoint anyone—human or shifter—in an area they shouldn’t be.”
“Oh,” she said as she let Brigden lead her back into the strange little room at the back of what seemed to be a large wolves’ den. Her thoughts swirled as she tried to imagine how everything that had happened so far was going to affect her career. It was probably really stupid considering how disillusioned she’d felt these past few months, but it seemed like something she should consider. “So your pack is elsewhere?”
“Gideon and I were both born into the Shy River pack. As long as we can keep the surveillance project on schedule we should be able to introduce you to our alpha in the next few weeks.”
