Bourbon and Bears: Book Three: Shifters and Sins

by Lane, Cecilia

  Her bear whipped through her, pressing at her with sendings of that night. Reds, blacks, blues. Flashing lights and sour bile churning in her stomach. A high keen echoed through her head with her inner beast’s pain.

  No. No, she couldn’t remember. Didn’t want to turn over those details. She already felt as if she’d been the one stabbed. She wanted to remember Helena upright and upbeat, not broken by the man who was supposed to love her unconditionally.

  Helena had been more than just a sister. She’d been her twin. They’d shared a freaking womb and stayed best friends throughout the ups and downs of childhood and adulthood. Hell, they’d stuck together all through Esme’s birth because the no-good assface males of their clan couldn’t ever be bothered to stick around for ‘female stuff.’

  Mate bonds weren’t happiness. They were shackles.

  They didn’t promise anyone safety. Security was a joke. Maylee had been forced to watch Helena slowly disappear as Dustin wore her down to nothing until her twin disappeared forever.

  Esme screeched again and knocked Maylee out of the past. Trouble there, trouble ahead of her. She wished there was somewhere peaceful she could go. They didn’t have a place to call home. Not anymore. Not when everyone in the clan sided with Dustin and ignored the bloody facts and red flags waving in their faces.

  She shouldn’t have been surprised. A man’s word was worth more than a mewling girl’s.

  With a growl, she shoved open the creaking car door. The back door lodged a similar complaint when she slid in next to Esme’s car seat and moved the diaper bag aside to maneuver open the small cooler. She poured a bit of milk from the thermos into a fresh sippy cup and tried to tempt the screaming baby with a drink, but Esme twisted her face from side to side in refusal.

  Well, the baby guidebook said the transition from bottle to sippy cup would be problematic.

  “No? What about a diaper change? Is that what you need?”

  Thankfully, her voice distracted the little one out of her red-faced squalling and down to a manageable glare.

  Skies above, the look was pure Helena.

  Maylee settled the sippy cup back into the cooler and rummaged through the diaper bag, trying to keep Esme entertained with funny faces even as she felt like breaking down. They were almost out of diapers. The snacks in the cooler were running low. Six grueling months on the road, keeping her head low and face averted, left little means for support.

  As if agreeing, her stomach rumbled. Maylee frowned. She’d last eaten… half a sandwich the night before? Diapers and baby food were more important, but she needed to figure out a way to earn money for both.

  Human cities were out of the question. She’d been easy to find and track there, even among the sheer number of bodies. The earthy scent of a bear shifter was identifiable when surrounded by unnatural odors of steel, concrete, gas, and trash. Dustin had almost nabbed her and Esme after their first week on the road.

  Though she loathed getting near her own kind, she couldn’t deny she blended in better with others also having furry sides. The enclaves were out after another close call. Too many faces and potential connections to her old clan kept her from stepping foot in any other famed shifter town.

  But somewhere off the map? She felt like Goldilocks, and Redwater, Wyoming was her potential just-right serving of porridge. The blended town of shifters and humans was small enough to hopefully avoid anyone from her past. She wanted to turn over a new leaf and start fresh.

  Or, at the very least, catch her damn breath before running again.

  Maylee tightened her hands around the diaper bag strap to ward off the wave of despair that threatened to drag her under. That savage emotion snuck up on her when she least needed it, always kicking her when she was down.

  There’d be no running when the engine seized and she was down to her last few dollars. No feeding a baby on nothing. No keeping herself moving, either, on a slice of bread with hardly anything in the middle.

  She twisted her eyes up to the sign she’d parked under. Dark Horse.

  Yeah, she could use an unexpected win.

  She had to keep going. For Esme’s sake, and Helena’s last wish to protect the baby.

  Maylee allowed herself another minute of self-pity before straightening. The bar was busy. She didn’t like what she was about to do, but anything was better than nothing.

  She was out of the car and had Esme slung against her hip after a quick diaper check. The baby even gurgled happily. Maybe they both just needed some fresh air.

  Fresh air. Yeah. Stretched legs. Better to think of counting on the mercy of strangers as a quick jaunt through the park than begging.

  Maylee chewed her lower lip as she approached two people crossing the parking lot. “Excuse me?” she asked, ignoring the uneasy churn in her stomach. “Can you spare a dollar? My baby needs to eat.”

  The first couple ignored her entirely before slipping into the bar. The group that stumbled out after them were too far gone to even hear her. She received two dollars from one man and a snide comment about not having babies if she couldn’t afford them from another, as if the speaker knew anything about her life or Esme’s or any of the swirling shitstorm of choices that brought her to that parking lot on that night.

  But she forced a smile and turned hopeful eyes on the next group coming out of the bar. Wasting energy on someone who wanted to make her small didn’t help Esme, and Esme was her priority.

  “Maylee?”

  Maylee stiffened between one step and the next. Panic sliced through her veins. Her bear roared to the surface, ready to slash the asshole coming towards her. She didn’t need to turn to recognize the scent wafting off him.

  Greg. One of her former clan, and best buds with Dustin.

  “Holy shit, I thought that was you!”

  “You’re mistaken,” she mumbled.

  Shit, shit, shit. How the hell had he found her?

  “Nah, I know who I’m talking to. Damn, girl, how long has it been?”

  Maylee threw a glance over her shoulder to check for anyone else coming at her. She didn’t sense others lurking in the shadows, but Greg was dangerous enough. One call from him would put the others on her trail.

  “Don’t play like that, Maylee. You here looking for Vinnie and the rest?” Greg stepped closer. “Those fuckwads inside kicked them out, but I can take you to them.”

  Crap. Greg was bad enough. More of the clan in the area was a nightmare.

  “Not looking for anyone,” Maylee insisted. She sidestepped a car at her back. She wouldn’t let Greg box her in.

  “Well, they’re going to want to see you. They miss you. We all do. And who’s this with you? Be a shame if you disappeared just like your sister.”

  Fear trickled down her spine. Anger followed, bellowing through her. They wouldn’t take her back. They wouldn’t hurt Esme.

  No matter what, she’d keep the baby away from the bastards that killed Helena.

  She couldn’t stay out in the parking lot with Greg around. Couldn’t stay in Redwater, either, but the first was the more immediate threat. She needed about a thousand plans all at once.

  The bar was the easiest place to get inside, if Greg didn’t block her.

  And if he did? The next place she could get inside and maybe hide in a crowd was up the street. She didn’t want to run with the baby. A trip or a sudden pulling on her arm could drop the fragile life and last connection to her sister.

  But she’d sprint faster than a damn Olympian if it meant keeping Esme safe from her murderous father.

  Greg stepped closer. All traces of friendly demeanor dropped with a growl. “You’re coming with me.”

  Maylee beat a hasty path for the front door of the bar, ignoring the shouting behind her.

  Chapter 3

  A roar of laughter and clinking glasses swung Ellis’s attention to a new annoying group. The man in their middle continued with whatever toast that spewed out of his mouth while the others wiped away tears or c
lutched their stomachs as they laughed.

  Ellis settled back into place with a foot cocked against the wall. He rolled his shoulders, but that didn’t ease the tightness of his skin or cut the urge to shift.

  He was jumpy after seeing the bears out the door. Or maybe it was the arrival of the mates and pups. Either way, his wolf paced through the corridors in his head. Restless. Angry. Ready to run.

  As much as he hated to break his word, maybe it was time to throw in the towel and leave the Rawlins pack. He’d made his commitments to Jensen, but that was before his wolf started up with his demands. Noelle and Alanna and the pups were bittersweet reminders of the future he didn’t have. That required a level of trust he could no longer imagine.

  The door swung open to admit the latest arrival. The lone woman didn’t even glance at him. Most patrons didn’t. He was like a statue that came to life only when a fight needed to be put down.

  The baby in her arms made him frown. Dark Horse wasn’t exactly a family-friendly establishment, aside from Sienna and Atticus, who were kept in the back while they did homework or shared a quick meal with their fathers.

  His wolf stopped pacing through his head and stared.

  Blonde hair bobbed around her chin. Strong arms shifted the child from one hip to the other without breaking her stride. Her waist tapered before flaring into wide hips and thick thighs. She filled out her jeans in ways that should have been illegal and had him straining against his zipper with utter need.

  But it was her scent that grabbed him by the balls. She was sweet like candy, and he had a wicked sweet tooth.

  Ellis snorted. Corny. But he’d do anything to lick to the center of that lollipop.

  Corny, again. And not anything he could say to a woman. Especially not a… mother.

  He hadn’t missed the child she cradled on his first inspection, but reality threw a bucket of cold water in his face. She had a kid, which meant there was probably some man in her life. Even if she was alone, he had no business getting involved with a family. Hell, he didn’t do mates. Pups were out of the question.

  His wolf howled and whipped up a truckload of inappropriate sendings. Those vivid daydreams were like living two lives at once. His current state of bar food and waking up to a cold bed was at odds with the warmth of that curvy woman snuggled into his chest while the sun peeked through the window.

  Ellis kicked his wolf to the back of his head, but the beast didn’t stay away for long. The moment she shot a worried look over her shoulder and toward the door, his inner animal snarled.

  Another shifter stalked by him. Bear, too, if his nose wasn’t clouded up by the mixed crowd of the bar. He glared murder after the woman. Ellis didn’t need fighter instincts to see trouble brewing between the two.

  He slid his foot off the wall and turned his full attention to the man prowling through the crowd.

  Shit. Danger sparked off the man hard enough to send people out of his way. The woman’s getaway ran out of steam when she turned toward the bathrooms and found only walls. She’d have been better off diving through the Employees Only door and making her way through the exit in the back.

  Overhead, Ellis caught Jensen jerking his chin in the direction of the showdown. Ellis dipped his chin and crossed his arms over his chest. His alpha hadn’t missed the signs of trouble, either. Now they just had to see what unfolded. He held out hope that it was a simple family dispute, like irritation over needing a sudden bathroom break ten miles from home. That was much better than the alternatives that played through his head and raised his wolf’s hackles.

  Voices too low to hear over the music and other patrons, their body language read out like a shouting match. The woman shook her head repeatedly, eyes darting all around. The man crowded her away from others and jabbed his finger toward the door. She shook her head again, free hand protectively curling around the child in her arms.

  The man grabbed her upper arm, fingers digging into her skin hard enough to make her wince.

  Oh, fuck that.

  Ellis’s wolf surged inside him. A growl clawed up out of his throat with the overwhelming demand to protect his mate.

  Mate? No. Not his mate.

  But still a woman in trouble.

  Ellis’s long strides carried him across the bar where he landed a hard chop to the man’s wrist.

  The fucker drew back and twisted around in the same second, shock and anger flaring in his scent. “The fuck are you—”

  Ellis cut him off with a hand around his throat. He backed the fucker up until his shoulders hit the wall. White-hot anger roared to life, the complete opposite from the cold fury that had taken hold during his earlier fight. “The fuck are you doing putting your hands on a woman and child?” he snarled.

  Hands pulled at him. Pushed on his chest. Tried to pry his fingers from around the man’s throat. Red tinged his vision. Red needed to tinge reality. He didn’t give a fuck what the asshole thought had been done to him. Hurting his mate—no, that woman, not his mate—wasn’t acceptable.

  “Easy,” Jensen muttered. “Easy. Let him loose before he passes out. I don’t want his corpse stinking up the place.”

  Ellis blinked. The man’s eyes bugged out and his mouth moved with soundless words. His wolf still snarled and demanded blood, but Ellis packed the beast back inside himself and let the man loose.

  Fuck. Fuck. There he went again, letting those dark edges of his anger poke through.

  “Get him out of here,” Jensen growled.

  “Gladly.” Wyatt grabbed the man in a headlock and dragged him toward the door.

  The fucker’s boots scrabbled against the floor as he tried to find his footing. The muttered protests and promises of retribution were met with taunts and laughs.

  Ellis didn’t see or hear any of it. He only had eyes for the blonde woman. He dragged her scent into his mouth and held it deep in his lungs before letting out his breath. The quick second to draw down another lungful was agony.

  “Are you okay?” he asked in a rumbling growl.

  Her eyes traveled from the floor and up his body. Sweet fuck, that slow drift felt like her hands on his frame. She dragged her touch up his legs, over his thighs. His balls clenched and his abs flexed when she reached his waist. Higher still, and flames licked up his chest and shoulders until she met his eyes.

  Clear, sky blue stared at him.

  He braced himself for her to flinch away, but she held his gaze.

  And fuck, she shook like a leaf.

  Ellis cupped the hand resting on the baby’s back with his own. “Are you okay?” he asked again.

  There it was. The telltale sign of his ruination. The spark of a spark, the flicker of a connection. Heat flared where their skin met and plowed through him like an uncontrolled semi on a strip of ice.

  Mate.

  There was no holding back his wolf or stopping the blast of sendings that raged through his head, all of them centered on the blonde woman in the throes of pleasure.

  All of them showing off the mate mark on her shoulder.

  He’d felt it before. That was how it worked. Right place, right time, right person. Only, he knew the instinct wasn’t to be trusted. He’d had it blow up in his face before. This woman with her child would be no different.

  His wolf howled a mournful denial.

  The woman blinked in shock at his hand. Then her eyes burned bright with anger and her jaw set in a hard line.

  She stepped back. “I’m fine,” she said in a low voice. “Nothing I couldn’t handle myself.”

  The sheer vitriol in her tone snapped his spine straight.

  Yeah, well, of course. He’d nearly choked out her man.

  Bile rose on his tongue and sour sat heavily in his stomach.

  Ellis shuffled aside as Noelle squeezed past. She said something to him, which he didn’t comprehend. A flicker of surprise brightened in her eyes before she turned to the woman.

  “I’m fine. Really,” she insisted.

  Her voic
e cut through the static in his head, but everyone else stayed stuck on mute.

  “Okay,” she said, reluctance in her voice. “But only until you’re sure Greg is gone.”

  Noelle nodded and added something else before lightly touching the woman’s shoulder and guiding her towards the back room.

  Ellis yanked back on his wolf before he followed. His strong reaction was an unwelcome complication to his already messy night. She was a mother with a small pup. He couldn’t get involved in that. Jensen and Wyatt were better men than him, but even so, those pups were their own blood. That woman, whoever she was, came with a total package.

  Not interested. No way.

  Not even if his wolf howled for her.

  Too bad he couldn’t get her sweet scent out of his head.

  Ellis rubbed his nose and stared after her.

  Chapter 4

  Maylee glanced over her shoulder at the big man who’d ripped Greg off her and slammed him into a wall. He rubbed his nose and stared back before shaking himself and making his way out of the bar.

  Part of her hoped he tracked down Greg again and finished the job he’d started.

  Greg. Shit. And not just him, but Vinnie, too. They were as close to Dustin’s seconds without actually holding the title. Dustin enjoyed them fighting for the scraps of second place within the clan.

  And all that was to avoid thinking about what passed between her and the big man.

  That flash of heat. The pounding of her heart. Hell, she could still feel the tingles racing up her spine and kicking the thinking, rational part of her in the shins.

  Her bear slashed at her insides, ripped open her heart, and roared with frustration at being denied another glimpse of the man. Her mate.

  Maylee threw every bit of mental strength at her inner beast to shove her way down deep and behind wrist-thick bars. No mate. Not happening. Been there, watched one kill her twin.

  She wrapped her arms tighter around Esme and followed Noelle through a door marked Employees Only.

  She made a quick inspection of the space. Second nature, now. The skill was needed to make a quick escape with a relentless clan tracking her.