Bear Apparent (BBW Shifter Romance) (Stone Claw Clan Book 1) (13 page)

Garrett looked to the councilman who nodded then took out a bag of chips, and started eating as if he were watching a boring movie. She gaped, but her attention was quickly stolen by Lazaran as he stepped forward. They circled each other a few times, Lazaran snarling like a rabid animal and Garrett watching him closely. She wondered if they were going to fight as bear, or—her breath was stolen as the men crashed into each other, the force of their bodies colliding echoing against the rafters.

As they wrestled, Dahlia got the gist of what was going on. It was a show of strength, one Garrett didn’t seem to be losing, but not winning either. His body shimmered with a sheen of sweat, and his skin stretched over corded muscle. Silently, she cheered him on. Lazaran seemed momentarily surprised, and threw Dahlia an accusatory look. She grinned back at him.
Don’t like to pick on people your own size, huh?

The excitement quickly died as Lazaran’s claws extended, the long, black blades slicing across Garrett’s shoulder. He growled and backed away, his face a mask of anger. His own claws elongated, and his fangs protruded from his mouth, his eyes ablaze. Dahlia watched in horror as the men traded blows, their skin splitting. Blood began to dribble down their bodies. She tried to keep her eyes in front of her, if only to give Garrett encouragement, but she buried her face against Bruin’s shirt.

“They’re just flesh wounds,” he whispered against her ear. “He’s doing fine.”

She shook her head against him, unable to believe that. Still, she forced herself to look on. If Garrett turned to her in search of strength, she wanted him to see her confidence in his abilities, not her cowering like a scared little girl—her mate was a powerful bear, capable of tearing Lazaran to shreds, and she was damned well going to let him see that. Cheers started circulating, some urging Lazaran to stop playing with him, others shouting unfamiliar words.

Things quickly escalated, both contenders showing signs of weariness. Garrett’s clan huddled around her as if they needed reassurance, and she weaved her fingers in Marcus’s hand. With every blow, her body jerked as if Garrett’s pain were being transferred to her.

Connecting a jarring fist to Garrett’s jaw, Lazaran teased, “I don’t even have to go bear to beat you.”

Garrett answered his taunt with a charge. They connected and he banged his fist into the man’s sides. Lazaran jammed his elbow into Garrett’s back, and Garrett lost his footing, crashing to the ground. Dahlia was aware she had let out a desperate scream as Lazaran pounded her man over and over.

“No,” Bruin whispered harshly, his grip tightening around her wrist. She hadn’t even realize she had reached for the dagger.

Everything seemed to slow down. Garrett got up, but was repeatedly pummeled until he crumpled to the blood-stained ground. The area looked more like a slaughter house than a barn as the straw began to turn red. Lazaran never forgot to taunt Dahlia with a wicked smirk as he beat on Garrett. Lazaran dug his fingers into Garrett’s hair, and pulled him to his feet then wrapped Garrett into a choke hold.

Dahlia stared in horror as the man she loved looked at her with tragic eyes, but he seemed content with his fate. She shook her head in denial. The sound of squeaking wheel’s caught her attention. She slid her eyes to the side to find Vance next to her, his knuckles white as he clutched his chair, his eyes like fire as he tracked Garrett.

He is going to do it,
she thought. Vance was going to kill Garrett, and there wasn’t anything she could do to prevent it from happening. In this moment, she hated the world she had been thrust into. The magical place full of knights in bear’s clothes died a painful death.

His eyes flickered from her to Vance before Lazaran spun him around, and delivered a clawed swipe that sent Garrett collapsing to the ground, blood dribbling from his lips. He stayed there on his knees, though as if he were determined to go out with dignity.

“Now Vance,” Bruin hissed then turned her away.

She tried to beat on the man, but he held her tightly, the sorrow ravaging her body leaving her weak. He attempted to console her with gentle words, but she wanted to be the last thing Garrett saw. Her head swelled, and she couldn’t breathe, surprised by how much Garrett had come to mean to her in such a short time frame. They should be relaxing in her yard, enjoying a barbeque with the twins splashing in the pool and Marcus rocking her apron… not watching Garrett die because Lazaran needed to prove he didn’t have a small dick.

She prepared herself for it, Garrett’s final grunt of pain as Vance came out of nowhere and delivered the killing blow… the silence descending over the crowd…. At least, Vance would kill Lazaran…

All she heard was her accelerated heartbeat as Bruin’s grasp loosened around her. Out of the silence came a shrill feminine scream, a sound of pure denial. For a brief moment, she thought she’d made that noise. Her throat dry, she turned in Bruin’s arms, and joined everyone in gaping in disbelief. Garrett was on his knees, while Lazaran stood over him, his body frozen, and his face locked in stunned disbelief. The man choked, blood spilling from is lips, and he swooned on his feet. As he took a step back, Garrett’s fingers slid out of Lazaran’s body, just under his ribs. Garrett’s long claws dripped with gore and it was obvious he’d hit something vital.

Lazaran stumbled back, but he stayed on his feet and wheezed.

“Finish him!” Vance snarled.

Garrett managed to get to his feet, his balance off, and Dahlia was sure he was holding himself up on sheer will. He looked to them, and she nodded her approval. Lazaran was an evil creature, one that deserved to die. She felt no remorse for him. Regarding the councilman, Garrett said, “I request… incarceration for his crimes.”

The dark-haired shape-changer set his bag of chips down, and looked at Lazaran who slumped to his knees, his breath increasingly hard to come. He looked completely confused as to what was happening. Judging by the gurgle, Dahlia was sure Garrett had punctured his lung.

“It is the confident man that falls the hardest,” Nex said, his dead gaze falling on Lazaran. “And incarceration is granted… if he survives. Let this be a lesson to all that our laws will not be bent. The council will not tolerate being manipulated to serve as lubrication for ego stroking. Garrett Stone Claw, you are declared victor.”

Garrett took a deep breath that was obviously pained, and Dahlia wanted to go to him, but Bruin held her back. He turned his attention to Lazaran’s clan who were busy trying to hold the woman with overdone makeup back, her mascara running down her cheeks. “I’m giving you one hour to vacate my territory. Take the female with you. If I find you on my property, I won’t be as forgiving as my father.”

Lazaran growled and struggled to his feet, his face a monstrous thing. Garrett regarded him coolly, but Dahlia was worried the man would retaliate. He barked harsh curses, and made idle promises to hurt everyone Garrett cared for. Something dark and sinister fell over Garrett’s face like a curtain and he brandished his claws—

Lazaran suddenly jerked forward, and the sound of ripping flesh froze Garrett in his tracks. The splintered edge of a wooden beam cut through Lazaran’s chest and he looked at it, pure shock making his eyes go wide. He fell to his knees then face planted in the straw and didn’t move.

“Well, guess we won’t have to worry about dragging his ass back to headquarters,” Nex said to his white-haired assistant.

Everyone blinked at the unassuming man that stood before Lazaran’s body, his hands stained with blood. He looked to Nex then to Garrett before scrambling for the exit.

The councilman sighed, and slouched in his seat. “This was far more boring than I thought it would be. Everyone is dismissed. Now get the fuck out.”

Dahlia wiggled her way out of Bruin’s grasp and rushed to Garrett’s side. The moment they connected, he collapsed against her. She wrapped her arms around him. She cherished the feeling of his breath across his neck and the weight against her body. The rest of the clan surrounded him, hands from every direction steadying him on his feet. They were all smiles, and positive energy swirled around them. Garrett’s palm came up to her cheek, and she leaned into the touch.

“I knew you could kick his ass,” she whispered.

“Figured, he’d get sloppy… let him get close to me,” he ground out, smiling slantedly. “Didn’t know what hit him.”

A screech cut through the air, and they watched blankly as the woman was dragged out of the bar by Lazaran’s clan, her screams slowly fading. When the barn was emptied except for the shape-changer council man and his assistant, Garrett erected his spine, and stepped forward. It was clear he was about to pass out, but seemed to think he needed to save face in front of him.

Popping a potato chip in his mouth, Nex said, “I’m glad you didn’t die. I was sure you were a goner, but—” he tapped his noggin. “Brain over body, eh?”

Garrett didn’t seem to know what to make of that. “Am I wrong to assume we can go on our way?”

The man shrugged, and made a dismissive motion with his hand. “Take care of that dagger.”

When those shark eyes settled on Dahlia, she muttered an affirmative, then looked to Garrett who gathered her in his arms. “Come on, beefy. Let’s get out of here.”

He offered her another one of those weary smiles, but the corner of his eyes crinkled. On their way out, she glanced back to find Lazaran’s lifeless body lying where he had fallen. She’d never seen a dead body before, but oddly, seeing that monster lying lifelessly a few feet from her didn’t bother her as much as it should have. She couldn’t help the sense of pride that filled her—Garrett had protected his family and her.

Wanting to put the whole ordeal behind them, she held him tight against her as his clan helped them toward the car. She knew her life would never be the same after this, but all that mattered was that Garrett was with her.

Chapter Fourteen

Garrett smiled as he watched Dahlia shoo his bears out of her bedroom. After driving straight to her house from the barn, six hours later they had finally arrived. Weak and in pain, he’d needed the assistance of Bruin to make it to her chair, but now that he was here, she clearly wanted him all to herself.

No complaints. None.

He was still in shock he was alive. The whole thing felt as if he had died and gone to heaven, but the sharp pain in his body told him this was real. The mating-bond had given him the strength to stand up against Lazaran, but the male had been a seasoned warrior with decades of experience. Garrett had quickly come to realize it would take more than brawn to bring the bear down.

She came to kneel in front of him, and he wanted to scoop her into his arms, but he was hurting bad, and afraid to move. She asked, “Are you having a hard time breathing?”

“Not hard, just hurts,” he managed, taking in her perfect form, her concerned expression painfully beautiful. He couldn’t stop looking at her—his mate, his heart that kept his body going. And she was here now, caring for him.

“You might have some broken ribs. Hopefully no punctured lungs,” she said, her hands pressing against his sides as she examined him. She must have realized what she had said, because her eyes slid up to him. She shook her head, her curls bouncing. “Is it wrong of me to be angry with you for putting me through that? I really thought you were going to die…”

He reached out a hand and connected his palm to her soft cheek. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I was sure I could over power him and end it quickly, but it didn’t work out. But if it weren’t for you, I probably would be dead. As Lazaran was kicking my ass, all I could think about was how you’d come out of nowhere and turned my life upside down for the better. I knew if I was going to make it out alive and back into your arms, I’d have to come out of nowhere, too. I let him think he was winning, and gave him every hit because it blinded him. His whole agenda was to feed his massive ego.”

A smile ticked at her lips. “You sneaky bear.”

His heart soared at her praise, and he knew he’d weather anything thrown at him with Dahlia by his side. “I needed to find that weak link, that single clink in his armor. He let me get close, believing he had won and I took it. A single, well-placed hit was all I needed.”

Nodding, she ran a finger across his arm. “Vance was going to do it.”

“I know,” Garrett muttered. “I hated doing that to him. I know it’s going to take a long time for him to forgive me, but he understands why I asked. But I survived, reclaimed Stone Claw territory, the clan is safe and you—” he tugged her into his arms, urging her into his lap. His body protested, but he ignored it. He just needed to be as close to his mate as possible. “You’re with me. At least, if you’ll still have me.”

Dahlia guided his head against her breasts, and ran her fingers through his hair. “Of course I will. Just no more fight club for a while, please?”

He smiled, feeling at peace despite the ache of his wounds. “There is something I need to tell you. But first, I should take a bath. I don’t want to bleed all over you.”

“Let me run the water,” she said, and disappeared out the room. She was back in an instant, her sleeves rolled up as if she were prepared to put a little effort into it. She helped him to his feet, then peeled him out of his shredded jeans. His bears were huddled around the sofa, and they watched him with joyous eyes as she steadied him toward the bathroom. He didn’t see Vance. He knew their bond would take time to repair.

The moment he slipped into the warm water, he sighed and went limp. Dahlia was by his side. She bathed him tenderly, slowly running the washcloth over his body and around the edges of his wounds. She had given him strength and already the cuts were in the process of healing.

He started to drift off, and snapped himself back to consciousness. “I needed to tell you the truth. I didn’t remember, not until I saw you standing on the sidelines, your eyes big and green and—I remember now. I suppose on some level I wanted to forget that day. Sometimes, we can lose ourselves in between forms. We can get lost in the emotions of a human and the instinct of an animal. When that happens it’s very terrifying and dangerous. We become ruled by the instinct to survive, and don’t know what we’re doing most of the time we are in this state. I’ve heard of a few shifters having to be killed because they can’t be controlled.”

She watched him with wide eyes, the stroking motions of the cloth freezing. He didn’t want to scare her, but he wanted her to know the truth. She deserved no less even if it meant she came to fear him.

“It happened to me once. I was eighteen. It was the night I found my father dead. For the past few days, he’d been more despondent than usual and I think he knew he didn’t have much longer to live. On his body was a letter to me, telling me how much he loved me and was sorry he couldn’t stay. Into my hands, he entrusted our most prized possession—a
Sigmaht
. I became consumed with grief and anger that he had given up on me. I took the dagger, intending to thrust it into the river out of some need to hurt him. I didn’t get that far. I got lost in between forms… in a half-shift. Bruin told me I rampaged for hours, felling trees, and destroying anything in my path. He confessed he was ready to stop me in any way possible. He tracked me down, but found me unconscious and completely human.”

Her throat shifted and she sunk down to her knees. Her lips worked silently as if she were running thoughts through her mind. Garrett grasped her hand, needing to feel her skin against his.

“I remember being lost in a haze of instinct, and the sound of a little girl’s cries invoked the hunter in me. My mind believed they were the screams of a wounded animal… an easy kill for me. I had crouched low, intending to ambush my prey, but something stopped me. Through the fog, I saw glittering gems of green and pale sunshine everywhere. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen… but there was a shadow, a darkness so evil it was about to swallow that sunshine. I don’t know how, but I managed to claim some sense of reality. I killed that man and it was the first time I’d ever hurt a human. It was so easy… just a simple snap of his neck. But he was an evil person that didn’t deserve to live.”

Garrett cautiously slid his eyes to Dahlia, afraid he might find shock and horror on her lovely face. Her brows were pulled down and her lips pursed as if she didn’t understand. She started to shake her head, but stopped, her jaw falling open.

“Wait. Are you saying you’re my knight in furry armor?” she asked in disbelief. “But…”

He let her work it out, and rested his head against the porcelain. He didn’t detect any hits of repulsion so he took her disbelief as a good sign. Biting his lip, he touched her knuckle with his hand, and she looked back to him.

“You pulled me out of that spiral, Dahlia. Bruin would have put me down, and rightfully so, but somehow, that defenseless little girl with the face of an angel reached through the darkness and the confusion to help me out of the hole.”

“You took care of me,” she whispered, her eyes distant as if she were reliving the memory. “The berries and the jackets, and I’m guessing you led the search team toward me, too.”

He nodded against the bathtub, and spanned the length of her arm with his fingers, fascinated by the way his skin slid against hers. “Does it make you think different of me knowing I was a monster?”

She scoffed. “Monster? That wasn’t what I thought at all. You saved me and helped me survive. If it weren’t for you, I might have been scarred for life or dead. Hell, I’d be stuck in some cheap massage parlor, dodging sexual advances from perverted old men. Okay, maybe that’s exaggerating a bit, but…”

He wrapped his hand behind the back of her neck, and pulled her into a kiss. She gasped, but didn’t pull away. Quite the opposite, in fact. She took over, leaving him breathless, every swipe of her tongue weakening him more than his wounds. He was totally lost to her. He was owned now, body and soul, and it felt wonderful.

She broke away, her eyes glowing with love. “It’s kind of weird, though, isn’t it? You save me, and I run into you how many years later?”

Grinning slantedly, Garrett teased, “We were made for each other.”

She cocked a playful brow at him.

He couldn’t keep the smile from splitting his face. “Take me to your bed, baby so I can fall asleep in your arms.”

She pulled the plug in an instant, and the blood-tinted water gurgled as it drained. He relied on his upper body strength to pull himself up. Wrapping a towel around his shoulders, she guided him out of the bathroom. His clan quickly scattered, and Garrett glowered at them as they pretended to be oblivious about what they had been doing. Beyond grateful they were together and safe, he let it go, and hobbled into her bedroom. The moment the door was closed behind them, he let the towel fall to the floor.

Dahlia narrowed her eyes at him, her hands going to her hips. Her gaze dropped down, and she giggled.

“Can’t help it,” he muttered as he regarded his hardening cock. “I’m in love with you, and everything you do drives me crazy in the best kind of way. Besides, I suspect someone else started this.”

She huffed, and looked away. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Sure you don’t. I’m bonded to you. That means there is nothing you can’t hide from me, including your arousal. My body was simply responding to yours,” he said, trying to hold back his laugh as they heckled each other.

“It’s my fault, is it? Who is the one that dropped his towel,” she teased right back.

He stuck his bottom lip out for effect. “I was too weak to hold it.”

She shook her head, her eyes brightening. She suddenly burst out in laughter, her expression like sunshine on a cold winter’s day. He closed the distance between them, and took her lips in a slow, passionate kiss. Her palms cradled his face, and he peered into her enchanting eyes, the same that had reached into the darkness of his grief and pulled him out. He didn’t know if their meeting was random, or the larger plan of some unseen force, but he was glad they had met.

Dahlia led him to bed, and he collapsed against the soft, cool sheets. She was next to him in an instant, her body conforming to his. Her fingers ran through his hair, and though he had never before been so desperate to mate with her, he didn’t have the strength.

“Sleep. Or hibernate. I’m not going anywhere,” she said softly.

He nodded against her breasts, her heat soaking into him and loosening his muscles. Sleep came quickly, but Dahlia followed him into the far corners of unconsciousness, and he knew without a doubt, she’d always be with him.