My Hero Bear (Paranormal Shifter Romance) (Haven Book 2)

by Stella Night

“That’s bullshit.”

  “Dude, the Society’s looking for her. She’s wanted for murder.”

  Chapter 10

  “Tell me everything you know, right now,” Dylan said.

  A sick feeling twisted in his guts. If anyone but Xander had told him this news, Dylan would’ve shrugged it off as bullshit. And he might have punched the messenger in the face for good measure.

  He knew Aurora, and she was no murderer. The girl was strong-willed and fearless, but she would never turn on her own family. Especially after Hunter died. She took her brother’s death so hard, Dylan couldn’t imagine she would take her father’s death any better. There was just no way what Xander said was true.

  “It’s bad, brother,” Xander said. “I don’t know what she told you, but everything I’ve heard leads me to believe she’s guilty.”

  “Yeah, well I don’t believe it. No fucking way.”

  “I get it man. You’re into her. But facts are facts.”

  “And what are the facts?”

  Xander sighed and ran his hand through his messy dark hair. “Well look, I wasn’t there, but I talked to the Peacekeeper who went to investigate. Riley Raines. You know him, right?”

  Dylan thought about it for second. “Yeah, Mason’s oldest son. Good guy.”

  “Yeah, and I trust him. And he’s no dummy. He talked to several eyewitnesses and they all said the same thing. She did it.”

  “Did what exactly?”

  “Rory’s father was hosting a dinner for some of the prominent families in the Stone Bear Clan. Lots of people around. People who have no reason to lie.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  “I mean, this is according to Riley. But like I said, the man does good work. He told me Rory’s father was well-loved. Everyone in the clan supported him. So yeah, it’s possible he had some enemies he didn’t know about, but there is no reason for all of them to lie. Understand?”

  “Yeah, gotcha. So what exactly did they see?”

  “They saw Rory present her father with a bottle of expensive scotch. Her father took a drink and bam! Dead.”

  “That’s insane. Are they sure it was the liquor that had been poisoned? Couldn’t it have been the food?”

  “It couldn’t have been the food. Nobody had eaten yet. This was before dinner.”

  “Fine, but what about the liquor? How can they be sure it was that?”

  “Well, apparently the reaction was immediate. Right after he drank, it was clear something was wrong. And from what I understand, it wasn’t pretty.”

  Dylan growled in frustration. Nothing his brother was telling him made any sense. The evidence pointed one way, but Dylan’s experience with Aurora went another. He was sure this was bullshit. But he was having trouble convincing himself in the face of so much evidence.

  “How did Aurora react? Did anyone say she acted suspicious?”

  “She reacted like you would expect. She was torn up by the whole thing. But how else would she act?”

  “And Bishop? Was he there?”

  Xander nodded. “He was, actually.”

  “Well, there you go. Aurora said he was the one who killed her father. Clearly he did something. Clearly he was behind this.”

  “It’s possible. Bishop was always a slippery son of a bitch. But nobody else seems to suspect him.”

  “That doesn’t mean he wasn’t involved.”

  “I hear that. But I mean, did Rory tell you how he was involved?”

  Dylan shook his head. “She didn’t. All she said was that Bishop poisoned her father. Nothing else.”

  “So I take it she didn’t tell you she was the main suspect?”

  “No, she didn’t.”

  “Well, whatever the hell is going on, she’s clearly hiding something.”

  “I trust her.”

  “Well, I don’t,” Xander said. “Maybe it was Bishop. Maybe it was her. Hell, maybe it was both of them. All I know is what Riley told me.”

  “No, there’s no way she’d be working with that bastard. The night she showed up here, she had two of Bishop’s boys chasing her.”

  “Could it have been a set up? Maybe it was some kind trick.”

  “I guess anything is possible, but I don’t think so. One of them is still out there, buried under a log. That’s a pretty hefty price to pay for a trick.”

  “Fair enough. But something is going on, and Rory lied to you about it.”

  “Why didn’t they arrest her? Take her into custody?”

  “That’s the other thing. Right after her father died, Rory disappeared. When people went looking for her the next morning, she was gone. Sounds pretty guilty to me.”

  It was a lot to take in. Dylan’s mind was racing, a swirling hurricane of mixed emotions. He believed Rory had been telling him the truth about everything. But then again, maybe he just wanted to believe her.

  If any of the things she’d told him was a lie, then he couldn’t trust anything she’d told him. Aurora had forgiven him for her brother’s death. She’d told him that it was okay for Dylan and her to be in love. And there was the other thing, maybe the most important of all. She said she loved him.

  If that was a lie, Dylan felt like his whole world would crumble around him.

  Whatever the case, Dylan knew he had to talk to Aurora. Dylan had made a mistake once of not talking to her when he should have. Four years ago, when he’d come home, he should have talked to her about everything. Instead, he just told her they couldn’t be together. Then, he bailed before he could change his mind.

  He felt that same urge to run away now. Dylan would never run from a fight, but this was different. This was harder somehow. He could stand up to any enemy he could wrap his hands around. But all the physical strength in the world didn’t matter when it came to emotional crap.

  But Dylan wasn’t going to run this time.

  He would talk to her and give her a chance to explain herself. She might be lying to him about something or about a lot of things, including when she said she loved him. But Dylan hadn’t been lying. He loved Aurora, and because of that, she deserved a chance to make things right between them.

  “I’ll talk to her,” Dylan said. “I’ll get to the bottom of this one way or another."

  Xander nodded. “I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation, brother. It’ll be fine.”

  Xander’s weak attempt at reassurance did nothing to make a Dylan feel better. If Xander had made a joke about the whole thing, then Dylan would have believed everything was going to be fine. But when Xander got all serious and reassuring, that’s when Dylan really began to worry.

  Xander clapped him on the shoulder. “I’m going to take a walk and make some calls. Give you two a chance to sort this out. Holler if you need me.”

  Dylan nodded, preparing himself for the most terrifying battle of his life.

  ***

  Dylan was waiting in the guest bedroom when Rory emerged from the bathroom, wrapped in her towel. She smiled at him.

  “I missed you too, but don’t you think your brother will hear us?”

  She was hoping for a smile. Instead, Dylan’s face darkened.

  “Get dressed,” he said. “We need to talk.”

  He walked out of the room without another word, slamming the door behind him. Rory looked at the closed door, puzzled, and wondered what the hell was going on with the man on the other side of it.

  Things had been so good between them. So good, in fact, Dylan had almost taken her as his mate. But something had changed in the short time it took for her to shower.

  The only thing she could think of was Xander.

  Then it hit her. Dylan’s brother also worked for the Society as a Peacekeeper. He must have told Dylan everything. All the things Rory had desperately tried to keep Dylan from knowing.

  It was the reason she had tried so hard to convince him not to contact the Society in the first place. Rory never wanted Dylan to find out what part she had played in her father’s dea
th. And if he had to know, she wanted to be the one to tell him. Now it was too late.

  She felt lightheaded and her knees were weak. She sank down on the bed before she collapsed.

  Everything had been ruined. She could tell Dylan the truth about things, but there was no guarantee he would believe what she said. Dylan wasn’t exactly the trusting type. She had a feeling that once she broke his trust, there was no getting it back.

  Her stomach churned uneasily. Why the hell did his brother have to show up? Why couldn’t they have had a little more time together?

  Rory’s hands trembled as she got dressed. She took her time. The conversation she was about to have with Dylan was not something she looked forward to. At least, she thought, if he throws me out, I’ll be dressed in more than a towel.

  The thought did little to comfort her as she stepped out of the bedroom, steeling herself for the argument to come.

  Dylan was standing outside in the hallway, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his massive chest. He eyed her warily as she stood frozen in the door frame.

  “You lied to me,” he said simply.

  His eyes bored into hers, daring her to tell him he was wrong. The look on his face hurt as much as all the terrible things she’d suffered in the past few days combined.

  There was no getting around it. No more hiding from the truth. It was time to come clean.

  “I did, and I’m sorry Dylan.”

  “You’re sorry? Sorry for lying to me or sorry because you got caught?”

  “For lying to you. I was going to tell you the truth, but I wanted to figure out how.”

  “I’d like to believe that,” he said. “But I don’t know if I can ever believe you again.”

  Rory inhaled sharply, stung deeply by his words. “Please don’t say that. I should have told you everything from day one, okay? I know that now. I’m so sorry.”

  “Save your apologies. The only thing I want to hear from you right now is the truth.”

  Rory bit her lower lip, unsure how to begin. It was difficult to think under Dylan’s burning gaze. In all the years she’d known him, he had never once looked at her like that. The rage in his eyes said everything. He wasn’t looking at her like the woman he loved, but as an enemy.

  Despair sapped the strength from her. Suddenly, she was very tired. Tired of all the running, and the lying, and the tragedy. Rory had lost everyone who had ever been important to her, and now she was losing Dylan too.

  It was bad enough when she lost him four years ago. But somehow this was worse. Maybe because she’d been filled with hope about the future. Now that was all gone.

  Sure, there was a chance she could say something to make Dylan forgive her. But she could tell from the look in his eyes it would take a lot to repair the damage. Rory had no idea what she could say to fix it.

  So she decided to just tell the truth.

  “I poisoned my father.”

  Chapter 11

  Rory looked up at him expectantly, her heart cracking into pieces with every agonizing second of silence. She braced herself for his reaction, knowing there was really only one way for him to respond to her admission.

  He would call her a monster, he would reject her, and he would tell her to fuck off and fend for herself. And him letting her go was the best case scenario. Dylan was a Peacekeeper, a law man. It was his duty to take her into custody and turn her in to the authorities. Getting arrested by the man she cared the most about in the entire world would be unbearable.

  She hoped he would at least allow her to run. Maybe she could disappear, away from Dylan, away from Bishop, and away from all the people who wanted to punish her for her father’s death.

  Dylan’s eyes bored into her, but they gave no indication what he was feeling.

  Finally, Dylan shook his head. “That’s bullshit.”

  Rory blinked in confusion. “What do you mean?”

  “You’re no killer. And there’s no way in hell you’d ever poison your own father. It’s bullshit. Tell me what’s really going on.”

  A tear rolled down her cheek, but it was a tear of joy. Was it possible that Dylan would believe her, when no one else in the world thought she was innocent?

  “But didn’t your brother tell you? Everyone thinks I murdered my father.”

  “Yeah, he told me. And then you told me, too, although I can’t figure out why on God’s green earth you would take responsibility for a crime you didn’t commit.”

  “Because it’s partly true and partly not. But I didn’t want you to think I was lying to you again.”

  “Aurora, all I want is the truth. Don’t tell me what you want me to hear. Just tell me the truth. I can’t abide by lies.”

  She sighed. “The truth is that everyone thinks I killed my father. I thought I had too, at first. My father was hosting his annual birthday party. All the big shots from the Clan were there.”

  “Including Bishop?”

  “Yes, although I didn’t think anything of it at the time. So we start by giving my father his gifts. I got him a really expensive bottle of scotch, his favorite. He was so excited, he popped open the wax seal on the spot, and poured himself a drink.”

  “And then?”

  Rory stopped, picturing what happened next. She could see it so vividly. Anger and sadness overwhelmed her in equal parts.

  “And then, not more than a minute later, my father was lying on the floor, dying in my arms.”

  “So you think there was poison in the bottle?” Dylan asked.

  “Yes, there had to be. Nothing else could have done that. Even though I have no idea how it got in there. The bottle had been sealed with wax at the factory. The seal was still intact.”

  “Then it had to be something else,” Dylan said, rubbing his stubbly chin thoughtfully. “So why did you think Bishop was responsible?”

  “I didn’t know what happened at first. I was just in shock. Then that night, after my father died, Bishop came to my house.”

  “He told you he did it?”

  “No, not exactly. But he was overjoyed with the fact that my father was out of the way. That’s how he described it. He said that he had taken care of my father and now we could be together. As if my father was the only obstacle to Bishop and me getting together.”

  “That’s not exactly a confession.”

  “No, but it was a start. I demanded to know what he’d done. He just smiled and dodged the question. I wasn’t sure he was capable of something so cruel as murder. But then he attacked me. He tried to force me into being his mate.”

  Dylan’s eyes blazed and a growl issued from his throat.

  “I fought him and kept him from biting me against my will. I got away and I ran before he could force me into being his mate.”

  “That’s why you ran. It makes sense.”

  “I know it just made me look guiltier. But I didn’t know what else to do.”

  “So you came to me.”

  “Yes.”

  “Because you needed someone to protect you.”

  “Absolutely. Even after everything that happened between us, I knew I could always count on you.”

  Dylan looked away, his eyes troubled. “Is that the only reason? You thought, hey, I’ll just find good old Dylan. He’s a big strong dumb bear. He’ll protect me and not ask any questions.”

  “That’s not it at all,” Rory said.

  She’d never seen Dylan like this. He’d always been more than happy to protect her. She never thought it would insult him to ask for his help.

  She placed her hands on his cheeks and gently turned his face so she could look him in the eye. “I’ve never thought of you that way. Yes, you’re big and strong, but I’ve never thought for one second you were stupid or gullible. I wasn’t trying to trick you. I knew we could figure out this problem together.”

  “Then why did you lie to me?”

  “I don’t know. I felt like I had no choice. I didn’t think you’d believe me if I told you the t
ruth.”

  He laughed bitterly. “Because you didn’t trust me.”

  Rory couldn’t meet his eyes. “No, I guess I didn’t. It had been a long time since we last saw each other. And things didn’t exactly end on the best of terms. But what’s important is that I trust you now. Do you trust me?”

  Dylan shook his head, confusion plain on his face. “I don’t know. I want to, but I can’t help but feel like you just came here to use me.”