Mating Instinct (Morgan Clan Bears, Book 2)

by Theresa Hissong

  Hopefully, Drake was there working with the sheriff. They couldn’t involve the law, even if the clan was dealing in illegal arms. There was no way shifter law could be dealt out with them present. When they did take out the clan, and guns were found, they’d have to rely on Garrett Lynch to assist them.

  This is so fucked up.

  Ada’s bear turned its head, the sun glinting off her golden fur. Rex’s beast was momentarily struck by how beautiful she was in her animal form. He had to push at the bear to focus. They couldn’t speak in this form, and body language was everything when they were shifted. He knew his mate was ready to return home with the young female.

  Gunnar huffed as he stopped, sitting down on his hind end. It made him look less threatening to the female, but Anna Claire’s beast made a wide arc around him as she passed to return to the house.

  When they arrived, the shifters returned to their human selves, pulling on their discarded clothes. Tessa was there with a robe to swaddle Anna Claire, rushing her inside. He didn’t know which room they’d be using for her to clean up, so Rex walked over to the kitchen and grabbed a few beers from the fridge, handing one off to his baby brother.

  “Sit, Gunnar,” he ordered, pointing toward the living room where the sheriff and healer were waiting with Drake.

  “I’m in a bind, Rex,” Sheriff Lynch admitted. “I need to get those guns, or what’s left of them, out of the hands of Robert O’Kelly, but if I send in a team to get them, he will be arrested and put in prison.”

  “I know,” Rex growled. “We need a plan.”

  “I say we kill them tonight and then the police can go in and seize the guns.” Gunnar scowled and took a long pull from his beer bottle. “Without a body, there will be no trial.”

  “So, you’re going to kill the entire clan?” Drake huffed. “From my understanding, there are innocents still living there.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Gunnar bellowed. “Did you see what they did to that female?”

  “I don’t think it was a clan effort,” Rex interrupted. “Anna Claire said so herself. It was one male, most likely on the order from Robert O’Kelly.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Gunnar huffed, slashing his hand through the air. “If we don’t go in as a clan tonight, I will go in alone.”

  “The hell you will!” Drake burst from his seat in a rare show of emotion. “You are not yourself right now. After scenting that female, your bear is in a rage, and even if she is your female, going off all half-cocked into an unknown territory is insane.”

  “She deserves to be avenged,” Gunnar reminded everyone.

  “She deserves to be healed in mind and body,” Rex stated, coming to Gunnar’s side. “That female will need a long time to recover from the things we believe were done to her. You must put aside your bloodlust to see that. If she is your true mate, she will need you to be strong for her.”

  “It’s killing me inside, Rex,” Gunnar admitted. Defeat marred his baby brother’s features, and the dullness to his brown eyes proved they had a long way to go.

  “We will avenge Ada and Anna Claire,” Rex promised, holding up his hand when Gunnar began to speak. “From what Ada has told me, there are two mated couples, the elders, who are good and are too old to fight Robert for his leadership.”

  “So, we go in and take out Robert O’Kelly and his two thugs and leave the elders to care for the clan?” Drake asked, his nose scrunching up at the idea.

  Rex already knew what the sheriff was going to say before he even opened his mouth, but his statement needed to be heard. “If there are others who will be staying on that land, I can’t send in the law to seize the guns without them being taken in and charged.”

  “Fuck,” Drake drawled, running his hand through his hair. “This changes things.”

  “It does,” Rex agreed, not really knowing what they were going to do with the elders and possibly two males who were away from the land, still on the lookout for Ada.

  Chapter 13

  Ada left her room, closing the door softly after Anna Claire had fallen fast asleep on the couch in the small, attached living room. She’d promised the female she was safe, and had even directed her to where Ada would be when the female woke up.

  It was a sad day. Anna Claire could’ve been killed, and no one would’ve found her. It was only a coincidence the males had parked in the same wooded area where Anna Claire had been caught and strung up like a sacrifice.

  Ada stopped halfway up the hallway leading out of her and Rex’s quarters to lean against the wall and calm herself. The things Anna Claire had told her made her sick. She’d run to the bathroom and retched up any food she’d had stored in her belly.

  Dwayne Knobs was on her hit list. Should she ever have the chance to see the male face to face again, she would rip him to shreds with her bear claws. He deserved so much more for the things he’d done, and Robert O’Kelly, Anna Claire’s own father, should perish to the lowest parts of hell for his approval.

  My gods, how had the poor female survived?

  “Sweetheart?” Rex called out softly as he came to her side. The tears came out faster, causing Ada to hiccup with the pain in her heart. “You need to tell me what’s going on.”

  “I…I can’t,” she cried harder. “It’s not my story to tell.”

  “Fuck,” Rex growled under his breath. “Come, let me take you outside for some fresh air.”

  Ada didn’t complain. She needed to let out all of the pain, but being in a house full of males wasn’t going to be where she broke down. Thankfully, when they cut through the kitchen to the side door, no one was around. When they reached the back porch, Rex took a seat on the top step leading down to the yard, pulling her onto his lap. The moment her face made contact with his chest, she broke.

  The sun was high in the sky, and the temperature was warm enough, she didn’t need anything other than the warmth from her mate. She barely knew him, but their short time together had transformed her from a scared young female into a strong woman. Without Rex, she would’ve been dead.

  “Thank you for saving me,” she sniffled and rubbed her head against his chest.

  “I will always save you, Ada,” he replied and tightened his hold. “I know you don’t want to tell me what Anna Claire said to you in private, but I need to know if she needs other medical attention.”

  “No,” she answered, shaking her head. “I don’t think so. She seems to be fine after her shifts.”

  “That’s a start,” he replied and held her until she’d cried herself out.

  “I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what to do. I feel responsible for everything that has happened.” Ada wiped at her eyes, making them turn red.

  “Ada, look at me,” Rex urged, using his crooked finger to tilt her chin up. “What happened to Anna Claire wasn’t anyone’s fault but her father’s.”

  “And the males who worship him,” she growled, feeling her beast pace in the back of her mind.

  “They will be punished,” he promised.

  “What’s going to happened to the elders?” Ada asked as she sat up straighter. The long cry had done her body some good. Sometimes you just had to work through the despair, and once it was gone, it was important you moved on.

  “We are working on a plan to keep the innocents safe and out of the human’s view,” he replied, not breaking his gaze as the back door opened. It wasn’t until Ada looked behind him that Rex finally turned.

  “We have a problem,” Drake announced.

  Gaia refilled the cups of the two males who’d sat down only minutes before. It was obvious they were shifters. The scent they carried proved they were bears, but neither one of them were a part of the Morgan clan.

  She’d done everything she could with the weather to stop the Morgan clan from going to Hickory Flat to kill the leader of the O’Kelly clan, but with the presence of the two males at her table, she may have made a terrible mistake.

  “Gaia?” Drake asked as a form of a
greeting. Gaia pretended not to watch the males, wiping down the counters as she wedged the phone between her ear and shoulder.

  “I have two bears in my diner who don’t belong to you,” she mumbled, praying the voices in the dining area would drown out anything she said to the male.

  “Are they causing problems?” he asked. Gaia was the one who watched over the Morgan clan, but she also knew if she had problems, those males would be on her doorstep within minutes.

  “No,” she said, shaking her head, even though the eldest Morgan brother couldn’t see her. She cursed when a salt shaker tumbled to the ground. “Just having coffee.”

  Gaia bent over to pick it up, but a big, beefy hand swiped it before she could touch the cool glass. When she looked up, one of the males was standing there, holding it out.

  “Um, thank you, sir,” she said in her sweetest voice.

  “Gaia?” Drake rumbled through the phone. “Is everything okay?”

  “Can I help you? Do you need some more coffee?” Gaia asked as she shifted her phone to her other side. “Hold on, Drake.”

  “More coffee please,” the male grunted.

  “Sure, I’ll be right over,” she offered before the male disappeared into the restrooms.

  “Gaia?” Drake bellowed.

  “Sorry,” she answered, frowning at the interaction. “They’re harmless, but you should come up here before they leave. I have an office you can use to…um, speak to them.”

  “Stall them, Gaia,” Drake ordered. “We are on our way.”

  “Got it,” she replied and hung up the phone, hurrying over to the counter to start a fresh pot. It would buy some time, and hopefully, they wouldn’t be spooked and leave.

  The lunch crowd started filling in, and Gaia worked hard to keep the males full of coffee. Thankfully, they didn’t act like they were in a hurry to leave. It’d take the Morgan clan about twenty minutes to arrive, and she had a restaurant full of people to serve.

  Her plan to keep them alive wasn’t foolproof. As soon as the storms cleared, the males were on their way to Hickory Flat to kill Robert O’Kelly. The one thing she hadn’t expected was for the young female of the O’Kelly clan to pick the night before to flee her home.

  Tonight was the night she’d hoped they would’ve used to find justice for Rex’s mate. If they went now, they’d have the best chance of finding the male. Dear gods above, Gaia wished she could see the future around those males, but the gods limited her powers. She knew things, but she didn’t know all things.

  What she did know?

  Ada and Anna Claire would have a lot of healing to do over the next several months. She also knew the males would be complete soon, finding their happiness. That was Gaia’s job on earth, and because she was asked to do so by her beloved friend, she would do anything for those males. Even if that meant breaking her own rules of using her powers of the earth to pave a path for the Morgan clan’s future.

  Drake pulled away from the house as the females locked themselves inside. Rex hoped Ada could spend some time with Anna Claire. The female was broken, more so than he ever thought she’d be. His brother, Gunnar, was beside himself with worry and voiced it as soon as they hit the road heading into Olive Branch.

  “My bear is agitated,” Gunnar snarled. “I want to kill every single one of them.”

  “I’m assuming your bear feels a pull toward the female?” Drake asked, cutting his eyes to the rearview mirror. Gunnar sat in the backseat of the extended cab truck, fuming from the things they’d learned over the last few days.

  “There is no pull,” Gunnar huffed. “It’s a need I can’t even explain. My bear is demanding I touch her, but I know better.”

  “Gunnar,” Rex sighed and turned in his seat as Drake hurried toward the diner. “I need you to have patience…loads of patience, brother. There’s a lot that went down with their clan that we don’t know the extent of yet. Ada refuses to tell me everything, but she’s been crying ever since Anna Claire returned from her run in the woods. I don’t want to think the worst, but it appears to be bad, really bad.”

  Gunnar sucked in a harsh breath as his eyes glowed with the presence of his beast. Rex didn’t blame him. If Ada had been strung up and gutted, he wouldn’t have held his composure as well as Gunnar had done in that forest. He would’ve killed everyone in sight.

  “What can I do for her?” Gunnar asked, his voice breaking at the end.

  “Go easy with her, brother,” Drake offered. “She’s going to need time to heal from everything. We are going to kill her father, and that alone would fuck up anyone’s mind. It doesn’t matter if she hates him, Robert O’Kelly is still the man who sired her.”

  The female came to them broken in mind and spirit, and it was going to take a long time for her to heal from that. Rex wasn’t so sure if his younger brother was ready for that, even if Anna Claire was his true mate.

  “We need to deal with these males first,” Drake interrupted as they pulled into the lot at the diner. The white Buick was parked at the end of the building, and Drake pulled the truck right up behind it, blocking them in.

  “That’ll keep them from leaving,” Gunnar drawled, his voice less threatening than it was when they had left their home.

  The bell over the door rang, and Rex looked around, seeing Gaia immediately. She was refilling coffee for the two male bears. She turned and hardened her features, nodding as she stepped away.

  “Damn it,” one of the males growled, standing from his seat, but Drake’s hand on his shoulder pushed him back down. “We aren’t here for Ada.”

  “Take my mate’s name out of your mouth,” Rex snarled as he spun a chair around so he could straddle the seat, resting his arms across the back. Ada said they were good males, but Rex and his brothers would be the judge of that after a little chat. “We are going to leave this table and walk to the back room of this building. Once we are there, you are going to tell me the exact reason why you are here. After that, we will let you know if you are going to live.”

  “I want nothing to do with her, and I assure you, neither does my brother,” the older one said, glancing around the diner. “I’ll go with you and tell you everything we know.”

  The males all stood as one. Rex held his hand out for them to follow Drake, then took up the rear so they couldn’t turn and run. A look over his shoulder at Gaia told her to keep away. With a nod, she walked over to the radio she kept on at a low level for her customers and turned it up a notch.

  Gaia’s breakroom was small, but it would do for what they had come to accomplish. As long as they didn’t get into an altercation, Gaia’s business would remain intact. Should the males decide to fight their way out, then he guessed the Morgan clan would be repairing walls until sunrise so the diner could open the following morning.

  “Take a seat,” Rex said, directing them to a small table in the back corner of the room. “I want your names.”

  “I’m Luca O’Kelly,” the shorter one announced as he wiped a hand over his face. Both of the brothers looked similar; long, black hair and the obvious brown eyes of a bear shifter.

  “My name is Ransom O’Kelly,” the younger looking one stated. “My brother and I are not like our uncle. He is a monster.”

  “You have no affiliation with him?” Drake asked. Rex didn’t even need to look at his brother’s expression to tell he wasn’t very trusting of these males.

  “We wanted to overthrow him, but with the guns, he’s just too powerful,” Ransom admitted. Rex could see the frustration just from the male’s body language.

  “How often is Robert getting shipments?” Rex asked. Ada had never known of the guns, and he was shocked she’d stayed so sheltered.

  “Every six weeks,” Luca replied.

  “The sheriff is going to need details,” Drake interrupted from the door where he was perched against the frame, blocking anyone from leaving. He removed his phone and shot off a text.

  “Why are you here?” Gunnar chimed in. His eyes sti
ll hadn’t changed back to the dark-brown of his human side. He’d never seen the male that close to shifting and not give over to his beast for that long of a time.

  “Robert sent us,” he admitted. “We have been looking for Ada for the last few weeks, and every time, we return with news that we haven’t found her. Robert wants her more than he wants those guns. I know there’s a male who has paid for her, and it sickens me. That girl is too good to be sold to a monster.”

  “She won’t be sold,” Rex snarled, baring his fangs.

  “She’s your mate?” Ransom asked.

  “She is, and I will kill the entire O’Kelly clan to ensure she doesn’t have to live in fear again.”

  “There are innocents there!” Luca exploded from his seat so quickly, the Morgan brothers went on the defensive. Everyone crouched low, anticipating a fight. “Robert’s daughter being one of them. Anna Claire is an angel and should be protected.”

  “She’s not there anymore,” Gunnar stated, standing to his full height. “A male named Dwayne found her when she tried to run away and strung her up like a fresh kill in the wooded area across the highway from your lands. We found her before she died of blood loss.”

  “I’ll kill him,” Luca snarled, dropping into his seat in defeat. Resting his elbows on the tops of his knees, he wiped his hand over his face and let out a long, harsh breath. “We are expected back at the clan in two days.”

  “We are trying everything we can to not go back, but we have no source of income to head out on our own.” Ransom looked at his brother with sadness in his eyes. “I can’t provide for either of us.”

  “You aren’t required to provide for me,” Luca growled. “I can work…if I can find some.”

  “So, you’re telling me, you want out of the O’Kelly clan? Your own uncle’s clan?” Drake pushed away from the wall, walking toward the two males. They were young, as young as Gunnar. The sound of the spurs on Drake’s boots clanged, echoing in the room as he took five steps to approach Ransom O’Kelly.