He was handsome, sexy, and fun, but I just never could picture us together and I valued his friendship too much to take that gamble. I thought he understood that but apparently, I was totally wrong on this. I hated that I had caused him pain. That was the last thing I ever wanted to do.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I just don’t have those feelings for you.”
"Well, that is just great," Derek said. "Don't worry, I'm not going to tell on you. I wouldn't want to wreck my family's Christmas." With that, Derek started walking back towards the cabin.
***
The body was found in a grove of trees in the woods about a hundred yards beyond the edge of the lawn of a cabin three units down from the one we were staying in. Her name was Theresa Woods. She was a college student up at Mountainside Ski Resort with her best friends for Christmas. She was only twenty-one years old.
They were saying that she had been attacked by an animal of some sort. The idea was that a pack of coyotes or maybe even a black bear had wandered down from the mountains and stumbled upon Theresa when she was taking her early morning jog.
No one had heard her scream. No one had seen anything. It was the first murder in Mountainside history and the first murder in any of the neighboring towns for the past twenty years.
I decided not to go out to look at the scene. There was a crowd of onlookers like there always was when atrocities befell human beings, all looking and gasping trying to see if what was there was worse than their worst nightmares. I could attest that it probably was.
It was such a vicious attack. And so meaningless.
I could not believe that such an innocent life had just been destroyed on Christmas Eve. This was a day that most people woke up happy. They looked forward to spending the day and the night with family, friends, and loved ones. They drink eggnog and warm themselves by an open fire while they unwrap presents and listen to Christmas music or watch Christmas movies all day.
How could it start off like this?
“There is something not right about it,” Derek said. He’d just arrived back at our cabin after going out to investigate. I wanted to ask him why he went out there. He didn’t strike me as the type of person who had such a morbid curiosity.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I mean they say that an animal attacked her, but there was just something about it that doesn’t sit well with me. It’s almost as if there was planning involved in it. Nothing about it seems random like they are saying.”
“I’m sure it was just a wild animal,” I replied, but I was really hoping to convince myself more than him. What if it wasn’t just an animal? What if it was a… shifter?
The thought made my blood turn ice cold. I felt nausea. Was it possible that Tony might have done this? No, it couldn't be. There was no way. I refused to believe it.
“You aren’t so sure either are you?” Derek asked.
"What? Of course, I am," I replied, my voice full of doubt.
“Any idea if Tony slept in his room all night or not?”
“Of course he was, I suppose. I mean how should I know? I haven’t spent the night with him.”
“You didn’t see it out there. This girl’s body did not look like it had been attacked by just an animal. I mean a lot of the cuts were straight, not jagged like claw marks would be. Maybe someone did not want to get themselves too messy…” Derek said.
I couldn’t believe what he was saying but I could not deny that he might have been right. What if Tony had killed this girl? No, the idea was preposterous.
“You are scaring me,” I said.
"I've terrified myself. Maybe we all should be. If a shifter did this then there is going to be human evidence left behind. We don't have animal DNA. On a basic molecular level, we are human beings. The shift is more of a supernatural nature, not a physical one.”
“Well, what makes you think that there will be human evidence?”
“I was listening to the forensics team down there. They weren’t letting people too close, but with my extra sensory hearing I was able to listen to them mumbling amongst each other. They found something. I saw them pick up a torn piece of red fabric from a sweatshirt or sweatpants not belonging to the victim, and they found some human hair samples. They could tell they were human by the texture and by holding them up to the light apparently. For now, they are telling the public it was animal related so as not to panic people and mess up the town’s major business of this ski resort.”
“Where is Tony?” I asked.
“I think he went into town for something. Why?”
A few minutes later we were Tony’s room looking through all of his clothes. I felt like a creep, but I had to be sure. Derek had a way of working his way into my head to make me paranoid like him sometimes.
But he wasn’t paranoid this time. I found a red hooded sweatshirt with a hole in it folded up neatly in the drawer. I could smell that it had been freshly washed.
“We’re leaving,” I said.
Chapter Ten
I tossed my phone on the bed and lay down beside it trying to close my eyes to get some sleep. I had just read Tony’s fifth text that day begging me to talk to him.
It had been two days since the dead body had been found at the ski resort and I was just starting to get myself together enough to start the job search once again. I was trying to reevaluate and decide what path I wanted to go.
Tony had put two and two together and he knew that we suspected him in Theresa’s murder. Derek’s family had even asked him to leave the cabin right after we left when they found out.
The evidence was all right there; he killed Theresa Woods. Of course, no one was going to say anything about it. I doubted that Tony had any police record so his DNA was probably not on file with any databases and it was unlikely that he would ever be questioned in Theresa's death.
The local police seemed to be pretty content to rule it an animal-related death, but the DNA evidence had not come back yet. Even still they would have to pull in a suspect to connect it to.
He was going to get away with it and he wanted me to listen while he pleaded his innocence to me. I wasn’t having any of it. I had listened to his voice mails and his texts and emails. I was avoiding him like the plague and just trying to move on with my life.
It was almost noon but I was exhausted after the long trip and Devon had not been sleeping well for once. I think the trip had knocked him out of sorts with the changing environments. He would settle down in a few days. I just had to wait it out.
I was almost off to sleep when my phone rang. I grabbed it off the bed to confirm that Tony was calling me yet again. He never called twice in a row, though. That was not his style. He was persistent without being whiny or needy. That was one of the things I found so sexy about him.
Or at least used to until I discovered he was a liar and a killer.
But it wasn't him. The caller ID was from NYU. I had sent them an application a long time ago and never heard from them. My heart leaped at the prospect of good news.
“Hello?” I asked.
“Yes, Miss Banks?”
“Yes.”
"This is Nigel Crawford with NYU Law School. I wanted to speak with you to discuss your application for a professorship. Are you available to come in for an interview tomorrow at two?"
“Yes, absolutely,” I replied.
When I got off the phone it was all I could do to keep from screaming with joy. I couldn’t believe it.
I had just been offered a full-time job as a professor of Constitutional Law at NYU Law School. It was just completely out of the blue and it was a dream of mine coming true.
I might not have been on my way to making the kind of money that being a partner in a large law firm would give me, but I was going to be instrumental in training future lawyers and judges. It was something to be damn proud of.
I could hardly contain my excitement when after the interview, Nigel Crawford offered me the job on the spot. He said that h
e’d been most impressed with my resume when he received it almost a year before, but they did not have any openings. The professor who was supposed to retire then decided to stay on for another year. And he was now officially retiring. I would be taking his spot.
I couldn’t believe it. By the time I left the office I was feeling a bit lightheaded. I had to remember to breathe deeply, I had been so nervous. I wanted to just run up to every person I saw and announce the news. But I was able to hold it together.
Tears were streaming down my face as I arrived back at my car. I tried to hold them back until I was out of public view and by the time I sank down behind the wheel the dam burst open and the tears began to fall. I had been so scared, so worried for so long. I was going to be able to take care of my bills and I was going to be able to take care of my baby boy. I have never felt so happy in my entire life. It was almost like a miracle had just happened right in front of me and I was having trouble distinguishing reality from a dream.
Derek was almost as happy as I was when I called and told him the great news.
“Wow, you know I have to take you out tonight to celebrate,” Derek said. “Just as friends, of course,” he added quickly.
I smiled. “What if I don’t want to go as friends?”
“What?”
“How about you pick me up for a real date tonight?” I asked.
He could not contain his excitement. “Ok, sounds great!”
And it was great. Derek took me to a nice Italian place that looked fancier and pricier than it actually was. It was pretty quaint and the food was delicious. Derek ordered the most expensive bottle of wine that they had and poured my glass pretty full for me.
“You aren’t trying to get me drunk, are you?” I teased.
“Well, the more you drink the cooler I am,” Derek replied.
Actually, as a shifter alcohol did not really have quite the same effect as it did on humans. If we drank enough we could get pretty relaxed and feel really good, but it was short-lived and it was not the extreme drunkenness that affected any of our faculties.
After we finished eating Derek invited me to join him on the dance floor over by the bar area. I obliged and we had a few slow dances together.
I was surprised at what an elegant dancer he was. I was also surprised by how much fun I was having with him.
I had surprised myself when I suggested a real date with us. But I was so overwhelmed with emotions that I decided it just felt like the right thing to do. I felt like throwing caution to the wind and giving it a shot. I still wasn’t sure I would ever develop real romantic feelings for Derek, but it was definitely something I decided I was open to exploring, albeit slowly. I thought he would understand that.
After dinner, Derek dropped me off in front of my building and we said goodnight. He did not go for the kiss, which I was relieved for. It would have been very awkward. We are such good friends that even though it was technically a date I didn't want to complicate matters by going for that. If it was meant to be it would wait.
I said goodnight and walked into my building. It had been a fun evening, but I was exhausted and it was getting late. I had to relieve my babysitter who was probably getting anxious to get home.
The second I walked through the doors I stopped dead in my tracks. Tony was sitting there in one of the chairs in the lounge area. He smiled revealing his easygoing manner and his eyes lit up showing me how glad he was to see me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Well, I was waiting for you of course,” Tony said. “You look terrific. What are you all dressed up for?”
“None of your business,” I said.
Tony got the idea. “Oh, I guess you were out for the evening. Was that Derek’s car I saw? Are you two…?”
“That is none of your business,” I said. “I don’t have anything to say to you.”
"Can we talk? Please, just talk with me outside for five minutes. After that, I'll go. Please."
I knew I was going to regret it but I relented and I followed him outside. He made sure no one else was around and then he spoke.
“I did not kill that girl. You have to believe me. I have proof,” Tony said.
“What proof?”
He pulled out his phone and began playing a video. It is a video of himself getting into bed and falling asleep. There is a time lapse on the video that he has transferred over from his laptop and put on his phone. Tony was asleep during the time that the girl was killed. The camera dated and stamped the time in the bottom of the screen.
“Why did you take this video?”
"I do it every month to make sure that I did not wake up and shift. As a pure shifter, and as part of the Grizzly clan, when it is a full moon I can't control the shift. I take special pills that have been developed by ancient medicine men in my clan. They've been passed down to us for centuries. I am usually ok until after midnight when the moon is at its highest peak. At that point, I can't control the shift and I lose all of my reasoning. I basically black out during the shift and I have no idea what I do during that time. That is why I take the pills. To keep that shift from happening and to let me sleep peacefully. But even with the pills, there is still a possibility that I might shift. So that is why I record myself on the nights of the full moon every month."
“So, you really couldn’t have done it. But I saw your sweatshirt with the rip in it.”
“I ripped that playing football with my family the week before.”
I felt the tears starting up in my eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “I... I’m a fool. I don’t even know where to begin.”
“It’s ok. I saw how it looked. You couldn’t have known. I tried to explain to Derek’s family, but they wouldn’t hear me out any more than you did. I’ve been trying to tell you this since then. I had to make sure you knew I was not a murderer.”
I couldn’t help myself. I threw my arms around him and pulled him close. My lips instantly found his. He kissed me back hard. Oh, it was so perfect to have his warm embrace again.
I could not hold back the tears of joy. I had tried to deny it and avoid even thinking about it but I was so hurt by this. I didn’t even realize how in love with Tony I was until I thought he was a monster and that the man I had fallen in love with was a total lie.
Ten minutes later we were upstairs. Devon was asleep. I paid his babysitter Julia, and the second she left Tony and I were in the bedroom.
I didn't even want to take time with foreplay. I could not hold back my aggression. Much to Tony's pleasant surprise I basically attacked him with a fiery passion. I ripped his clothes off as fast as I could and as he tried to playfully resist I tapped into the bear strength and pinned his hands down with one hand.
An instant later he was deep inside of me. I loved being on top. I had so much control, so much freedom, the pleasure was intense, and I loved to see the pleasure in Tony’s eyes as I rode him to completion.
It was probably the quickest, dirtiest, and most animalistic sex I’d ever had. But I figured we had plenty of time to take things slow.
“Oh, My God!”
Tony’s voice from beside me jarred me awake. I could hear a mix of terror, confusion, and total disbelief as he sputtered those words.
I jerked up out of bed throwing off the cover of a deep sleep that I was really into to see what was going on. The bright sunshine bursting through the windows was blinding and I asked myself for the millionth time why I did not replace those curtains with darker ones.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Tony was looking at his phone. I glanced down and saw his Facebook page pulled up to a Facebook Live feed.
"If you are just joining us Beth White is being sought after in connection with that brutal murder at the Mountainside Ski Lodge in Mountainside, West Virginia. Earlier this week the body of twenty-one-year-old Theresa Woods was found viciously mauled to death in the woods near the resort. Authorities initially ruled it an animal attack,
but after a thorough investigation found traces of human DNA and other physical evidence that suggested otherwise. The DNA results came back to identify Beth Marie White as the main suspect in connection with this vicious crime."
“I don’t believe it,” I said.
“I don’t either. How could she do this?”
“I have to talk to Derek,” I said.
A half hour later I was sitting with Derek at his apartment. I was surprised he even decided to speak with me.
“Why did she do this? I just don’t understand,” I said.
“Because of Tony. She called me when she was on the run from the cops this morning. She told me that she loved me and that she was sorry if she ever did anything to hurt me or the family. She wanted me to tell mom, dad, and Keith that. I asked her why. She said she did it because she somehow found out about you and Tony. She thought that if she could make you think he was a killer then you would dump him. If she couldn’t have him then she wasn’t going to let you have him either. I can’t believe it. She has lost her mind completely. She needs help.”
“Well, do you have any idea where she is? If you know, Derek you have to contact the cops.” I said.
“No. She wouldn’t tell me. I think she is going to do something crazy. I think she might kill herself.”
“What? She wouldn’t. No matter how bad things seem—“
“You don’t know her like I do. She has lost her mind completely. I think she is going to get some silver bullets and do herself in. it’s the only way. I’m not sure where she is or where she is going. I just don’t know.”
Derek was really getting emotional now. I knew that he loved his sister, even though they were not close at all. I could tell that he still cared for her and would never be the same if something happened to her.
I just hoped the police found her in time.
“How’s he holding up?” Tony asked when I arrived at the park about two blocks away from Derek’s. Tony was sitting on the bench watching Devon who was in his stroller. I asked him to wait there with Devon because I did not think Derek could handle that Tony and I were together right now.
The Bear Shifter's Nanny (Fated Bears Book 3) Page 19
