Big Strong Bear (6 page)

T
he next morning
, things were more than a little awkward. Cassie had cereal while Hades busied himself in the living room with his laptop.

She was getting used to the way he seemed to need to keep an eye on her while trying not to be too intrusive about it.

But all she could think about was what had happened last night. The love they’d made, how awesome it had been, how it seemed to transcend all their troubles, and then it came crashing down on them when he lied about being only with her.

Well, she couldn’t prove he’d been with the woman during those weeks, but what else were they doing together? And why would he never address it, but hide it from her completely?

Still, all she could remember was the feel of his hands on her skin, the way he held her down, the pleasure he gave her. It was enough to make a girl keep forgiving when she should be doing her best to stay angry.

“So when is this thing going to be resolved?” she asked.

He shut the laptop and appraised her with cold gray eyes. Usually they were smoky, smoldering. Today, they looked like the sky before a winter storm.

A muscle ticked in his taut jaw, and she swallowed nervously.

“That depends on you,” he said.

“What do you mean? I came here with you.”

He nodded, standing and putting the laptop down, gesturing for her to take the couch. She did, blushing at his dominance. Like it or not, she was at his mercy right now. She’d gotten in bad trouble and brought it to his door, and not once had he made her feel guilty for it.

He sat in a chair and leaned forward, tenting together his long, tanned fingers thoughtfully. “I’ve decided the best thing is for me to try and make a payment attempt. They said no to you, but they won’t to me. At least I don’t think so.”

She nodded hopefully. “Maybe.”

“Most loan sharks just want to scare you, get your friends and family to chip in and help you pay far more than the initial amount or even the interest. Thus, the personal threats.”

“Could be,” she said.

“However, it’s a substantial amount. I had a guy go to their office and check into it.”

“How did you do that?” she asked.

“I know people,” he said. He knew hackers. Ones who could get into other people’s books. “So if they accepted, could you pay it?”

Shame rushed through her as she shook her head. “No. I could have if it hadn’t gone this long. But at this point, no, I can’t.”

“I see,” he said, folding his arms, buff muscles flexing. “Do you want me to pay it for you?”

“No,” she said. “I never expected that. I know how hard you work for your money.”

“Okay,” he said. “But just so you know, I can. Easily.”

She sighed. “I don’t know. If you did, if you have to, I’d pay you back. I promise. I can take care of normal loans, just not this kind of interest.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw again, and anger tightened his face, made his cold eyes even colder. “Of course I wouldn’t have you pay me back. For Pete’s sake, Cassie. Everything I did was to build a life for you. I’d only be giving you what I meant for you anyway. Besides, I’m quite wealthy.”

She looked up at him. “The army pays that well?”

“No, but having a friend who’s an expert in investing does. And yeah, you don’t use that much as a soldier.” He ran his hands through his hair. “I should have told you before. That way you never would’ve had to feel this was necessary.”

“I still would have,” she said. “I take care of myself. You know that.”

“I want to take care of you.”

She blinked, putting her hands up helplessly. “Well, here you go, your chance. But do you think we can just talk them back to the amount I can pay? Because if they hadn’t stopped me from paying, I would have been able to—”

He shook his head. “It’s past that. I’ll be lucky if they don’t double what you could probably pay.” He straightened his shirt collar a little. “But I don’t know. Maybe my reputation precedes me. That might get us better terms.”

“I really appreciate this,” she said. “But what happens after that?”

He looked to the side, resignation plain on his face. “I don’t know. I guess that’s up to you. I sense you’re angry about something, but you won’t give me a chance to defend myself.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said.

He snapped his gaze to hers. “So you’ll just let everything go, a lifetime of what we had last night, because you don’t want to talk about it?”

She put a hand over her heart, nursing the sharp ache. “Some things are too painful to talk about.”

“You think I was unfaithful,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “Just what made you think that? How could you believe that of me? Years and years in the army, you were all I thought about. My mate. I showed you that last night. How I feel about you. I gave you all of me, and I gave you the truth. Why don’t you trust me?”

Her eyes flashed as she tried to swallow back the emotion. She couldn’t do this now. Not after all these months. Not after last night. Not while her future was in his hands.

Why had she ever talked to that loan shark? Why did she ever think she could solve it on her own? Still, perhaps it was better that she hadn’t taken so much from John, because then she’d just be in debt to him, adding to their complicated relationship.

“Don’t pull away from me,” he said. “I’m sick of it.”

“I can’t help it,” she said softly. “You hurt me.”

“I know,” he said. “But you have to tell me what I did.”

She swallowed. “Are you going to pay my debt or not? If you are, then we won’t have to deal with each other much longer, and you don’t have to worry about my anger. If you aren’t, then I need to look into other venues. Because I can’t just stay here with you forever.”

His brow lowered. “Why not?” He stood and crossed to the couch, putting a hand on either side of her head and caging her in. “Why can’t you stay forever? Just tell me what’s wrong and we’ll deal with it.”

She bit her lip. It was the worst possible situation. And now his pheromones were overwhelming her again, making it impossible to think.

So she pushed him off of her and ran out of the cabin, slamming the door behind her.

She looked back and saw he wasn’t following, and she sighed in relief as she ran down the dirt path through the woods. She needed to be alone. She needed to think. What was she even supposed to say to him?

I was still coming by your place even after I said I wouldn’t anymore. And I saw a girl staying there. I saw you hug her when she left in the morning. And you only came back to me after she was gone.

Contrary to what he thought, that wasn’t something you could just work through.

She eyed the woods around her. There were streams of sunlight flooding the forest, making beautiful stripes on the mulch-covered ground around her. There were little green plants between the large brown trunks of trees.

She felt free here. It had been a long time since she felt free and alone. So she kept running, through the woods, along a path that seemed to wind down the mountain that led up to the cabin without ever touching the main road.

There were little white and purple wildflowers here and there. The scent of fresh, alive mountain air was invigorating. And she finally had no one around to bother her. No Hades to drive her nuts with lust, no Richard the loan shark to make her afraid. Just her and the forest.

The bear in her growled with joy, ready to shift. A part of her knew she was being reckless. But another part felt she deserved some time alone.

She wasn’t as powerful or an alpha like Hades, but she still had animal senses.

And she just couldn’t resist the shift as it happened, as fur flowed over her body, claws extended from her paws, and her gait became a heavy gallop as she turned into a black bear and sighed with happiness.

She was several hundred yards from the cabin when she finally turned and looked back. She didn’t scent Hades anywhere near. She’d half expected him to follow her, given how close he’d been sticking.

But he hadn’t. It was oddly exhilarating and oddly disappointing at the same time. It was good he was giving her space, but was he really not worried?

He did say he had someone watching back home to see if the loan sharks were going to make a move. And it was so remote up here; she didn’t see how anyone would be anywhere around her.

Her bear didn’t sense anything.

Not until it was too late anyway.

She heard the whir of a motor and then another and another and peered through the sparse trees to see a group of motorcycles speeding down the main road. One of them looked up and made eye contact with her, and she quickly looked away and started to run back to the cabin.

But she heard the screech of brakes, heard the man on the motorcycle yell to his friends. She skidded to a halt in the dirt as she saw them heading up the path, drawing weapons.

They were mean-looking men, dressed in leather, with bandanas, dirty and scruffy.

There were three of them in the lead, two getting off their bikes in the meantime. She was glad to be in her bear form, until the one in front, a tall, burly man with huge arms, grinned over at her.

“Well, well, well. A female bear shifter. In Bearstone Village. Who’da thunk?”

She took a few hesitant steps back, but the man tsked and aimed a pistol at her.

“Now, now, don’t go running off. We were just gonna pass though. But the scent of a female bear is hard to resist.”

She blinked, frozen by fear. She had good healing abilities, could probably take a couple shots, but she had no idea what other weapons they had or how many of them could shift.

“Perhaps we should introduce ourselves,” the leader said. “See, my brother ran a gang out here. The Red Devils. Maybe you’ve heard of ‘em.”

She shook her head instinctively, stepping back.

He grinned lasciviously.

“Anyway, a while ago, some of your kind ran them out. And killed my brother.” He cocked his head, making his lank brown hair fall out of his bandana. “I came to check out the town where it happened.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “I’m guessing you’re not up here alone. Maybe you want to tell me something about the fucking bear that killed my brother?”

Her mouth opened in shock. She had no idea what he was talking about. Not in the slightest. It seemed in escaping the loan sharks, she’d gotten caught up in something much worse.

“Hey, why don’t you shift?” he said, folding his arms tighter. “I’d like to see what’s under all that fur.” He grinned. “I hear bear females are pretty hot… for how rare they are.” He cracked his knuckles. “I’ve always been good with humans, but a curvy little bear might be good too.”

She swallowed, her mouth dry. Just when was Hades going to show up? Was he really okay with her alone out here this long? Did he really care so little? Was he done with her because she kept running away when there was conflict? She was only human, mostly. She could only take so much.

She crouched to the ground, covering her head with her paws, thinking over what to do and protecting her face at the same time.

She heard the click of a gun being cocked. The leader had a pistol trained on her.

“I said shift, bitch,” he growled in a low voice.

The next moment, all hell broke loose. With a booming pop, the gun in his hand flew into the air and then landed in the trees. The men with him looked around in shock as gunfire sounded through the clearing, removing each of the men’s guns. They swore and gawked around wildly, hands bleeding, trying to deduce where the shots had come from.

Hadn’t Hades been a sniper in the war, amongst other things? She didn’t take time to think about it. She just launched to her feet and ran, gasping as she hurtled through the trees in the direction of the cabin, swearing as she heard them behind her.

More gunshots rang out around her, and she winced before realizing they weren’t aimed at her. Behind her, she heard men stumble and shout.

“Where the fuck is that coming from? There’s no one for a hundred yards!” one shouted.

“I don’t know. Fuck!”

She looked back to see one stagger, shot in the foot.

“Fall back,” the leader said. “Stop chasing! We’ll get the bitch later!”

She ran as hard and fast as she could, not caring to look back and see if they’d followed directions. She could see the cabin up in the distance, and she gasped for breath as she sprinted for it. Just as she was nearly there, she felt herself tackled from behind by a huge bear. One of them must have ignored the leader and transformed.

They rolled in a pile over the mulch, and she shrieked and bit into his shoulder. But he was a grizzly, a much larger bear, and he soon had her by the scruff of the neck, pinned to the ground. The gunshots stopped, and the men in the woods looked around curiously before a loud roar echoed through the forest.

The next moment, a gigantic black bear, the size of a grizzly but with pitch-black fur, launched into the woods, knocking the bear off Cassie.

She gasped in relief as the bear turned to her with a low growl. “Get out of here. Run to the cabin.” It was Hades. She did as he said but turned back, unable to leave without knowing he had things under control.

Boy, did he.

He had the other bear by the scruff and threw him through the woods, knocking him hard into a tree, right next to his friends, who were standing with their hands up in surrender. Their eyes were wide as they stared at the huge black monster, glittering in the morning sun.

“Get the fuck away from my mate,” Hades growled, echoing through the woods. “And don’t come back.”

The leader gave a resentful glare but took only a moment to grab his unconscious friend, who’d shifted back, and with the help of his other men, all of whom who were bloody and wounded, dragged him back to their motorcycles.

Quickly, they were gone.

Cassie held the shift until she was sure the sound of their bikes had faded in the distance. Then she let go and fell to the ground, naked and soft and exhausted.

She couldn’t face Hades as he came up to check on her. She felt stupid for going outside, even if she couldn’t have known there was a motorcycle gang around.