Bleacke's Geek (Bleacke Shifters) (21 page)

Once his mind hooked onto the thought, it wouldn’t let go. In the pictures of her he’d seen around the house, she always wore something baggy, form-hiding. Well, okay, she wore shorts and work-out clothes, and she obviously had no problems with body image as far as shucking her clothes to shift into a wolf. And she brimmed with easy self-confidence.

So why not dress the part of the sexy woman she is?

He finally located the shirt he wanted and buttoned it, still deep in thought.

The knock on the bedroom door startled him. When he stuck his head out of the closet, he saw Beck standing there.

The shifter didn’t look comfortable or happy. “Dewi called a while ago. She’s running late. She asked me to take you to work.”

“Is she okay?”

“Oh, yeah, she’s fine. Wreck on I-75 held her up. She’s still down around Venice.” His gaze skipped over Ken before he looked away. “I’m ready to leave whenever you are.”

Guilt washed through him. “Listen, I don’t mind driving myself. I’m sure Badger will loan me…something.”

“Badger’s not here. He left to run errands. And everything here is a stick shift. Except for Dewi’s motorcycle.”

“Um, okay.” Ken had never driven a stick before.

Beck snorted. “You ever drive a stick shift before?”

Ken tried for bravado. “How hard can it be?”

Beck snorted again. He sounded even more like a wolf than Dewi when he did that. “I don’t think you want to deal with Badger if you burn out the clutch in one of the cars. Seriously, I don’t mind driving you.”

Knowing that arguing would only rub salt in Beck’s wounds, Ken nodded. “Give me five. I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”

With a nod, Beck left.

Maybe that was his answer. He could talk to Beck on the ride in to work, find out more about Dewi that way.

No expression seeped through Beck’s mirrored sunglasses. Ken snuck glances at him from the passenger seat.

“Just say it,” he said, startling Ken.

“Say what?”

“Whatever it is on your mind that you’re dying to say and haven’t said yet.”

“It’s more a question.”

“Fine. Ask.” They pulled through the gate and onto the road. It was a comfort that Beck appeared more at ease driving within the posted speed limits than Dewi.

“What’s with Dewi and the baggy clothes?”

Beck flinched before he looked at him. “What?”

“Come on, you can’t tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about. The oversized shirts, the baggy tees, like she’s hiding her body.”

“She wears jeans and stuff.”

“You’ve known her all her life.”

Ken waited Beck out. Beck’s jaw tensed and clenched, working, nervous. Before they reached I-75, he looked at Ken. “How much has she told you about her parents?”

“All I know is what you guys told me last weekend. And Badger told me they were murdered. We haven’t done much talking about it since then.” It was hard to talk when you were too busy fucking.

Beck waited until he merged with traffic on I-75 to continue. “Whoever the fucker was that killed her parents, he’s still out there. He had to be a shifter. No way a human could have got the jump on Charlie like that. He kept them alive for a while. Tortured him and Chelsea.”

Ken felt his gut roll. “How do you know that?”

“Because we found Charlie tied up. And Chelsea had been raped before he killed her. The killer made Charlie watch while he raped her. Probably told them he’d kill Dewi if they fought him. Our best guess is that he killed her and hurt Dewi before killing Charlie.”

Ken swallowed back the bile. “Does she know that?” he whispered.

Beck slowly nodded. “Some of it. Not all of it. She’s never asked for the details, and we never volunteered them. But I know she must have picked up some of it from our thoughts, you know?”

“Did whoever killed them…” He couldn’t say it.

He didn’t have to. Beck shook his head. “No, she wasn’t molested, but her skull was fractured, like he’d kicked her, or threw her. Bruises all over her body like she’d been beaten. We found her under the couch, crying. We don’t know if he meant to let her live, or thought she wouldn’t live, or maybe he forgot about her in his hurry to get out of there. Peyton, Trent, and I went over to check on them and we…found them. Charlie and Chelsea were late getting to a pack dinner that he’d ordered, and they weren’t answering their phones.” Ken heard his audible sigh. “We went looking for them.”

Once Ken’s nausea over the revelation abated a little, he was back to being confused. “What does that have to do with her wearing baggy clothes most of the time?”

“I told you that a twelve-year-old Prime Alpha wolf is a lot like a twenty-year-old human, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, a six-month-old wolf shifter baby mentally ages much more rapidly than a human. It’s the wolf in them. She was old enough to have some memories of the attack, even though she doesn’t know who it was.”

Nope, back to queasy.
“You think she witnessed her mother get raped, and both of her parents get murdered, and maybe she has memories of it?”

Beck changed lanes. “I’d be willing to bet money on it. But she’s always refused to talk about it and Peyton and Trent didn’t want to force her.” He glanced at Ken. “You know why I’m not trying to rip your head off?”

“You’re scared of Dewi killing you?”

Beck laughed. “Besides that.”

Ken shook his head.

“She was a gorgeous baby. Smiling and laughing and cooing from when she was a week old.” His expression darkened. “Until
that
day.”

Badger’s words Sunday morning came back to him, but he let Beck continue without interruption.

“I can sit here and honestly say yes, I love her. And while I wish like hell it was me she was mated to, you’ve done something that I never managed to do, even though I tried every day of her life since that day. I don’t give a damn that I’m a shifter and you’re not. You managed to do it, and for that I can’t ever hate you. Envy, yes. Hate, never.”

Ken had to ask. “What did I do?”

Beck changed lanes for their exit. “You’ve made her smile.” He glanced at Ken. “More importantly, you make her laugh. You make her
happy
. And this is the first time in her life we’ve ever seen her genuinely happy since her parents were murdered.”

* * * *

Ken made it through his day without unusual aggravation, although he received three more requests for teacher conferences from female students he’d barely spoken two words to during the entire semester.

Odd.

He decided not to mention that to Dewi and prayed she wouldn’t want to sit in on Thursday. He closed his office door and decided to grade papers while awaiting Dewi’s arrival to take him home.

Home.
It hadn’t taken long of him to think of Dewi’s house as home. Or of Dewi, Badger, and yes, even Beck, as family. That’s probably why when he heard the knock on his office door nearly an hour later he called, “Come in,” without thinking.

When he looked up, the smile shriveled on his mouth.

“Hello, Cliffie.” In the doorway stood his step-brother, Dave. “What? Ain’t you happy to see me?”

“What do you want?”

He snapped his fingers at him and held out his palm. “I need the key to your place. Where the fuck you been? You ain’t been home in a couple of days.”

He wanted to deck the bastard, but Dave had six inches and at least fifty pounds on him. “I’m moving.”

“Oh. Huh.” He stepped forward and plopped down in the chair across from Ken’s desk. “Then I guess I’ll wait until you’re ready to go and follow you to your new place.” He grinned. “Damn women, so fucking fickle. She said I have to be out today. Stupid cunt can’t take a fucking joke.”

“You’re not going home with me.”

Dave’s smile faded. “Cliffie, we’re family. Where else am I gonna stay but with my baby brother?” A dark look Ken knew all too well clouded Dave’s expression. “Don’t make me get tough with you.”

That was Dave’s code for “beating the shit out of you.”

“Fuck you.”

Dave leaned forward. “Now you look here,” he softly said. “You don’t want to fuck with me. Remember what happened the last time you told me no?”

“No,” Dewi’s voice spoke from the doorway. Dave’s head swiveled to look at her. “Why don’t you tell me.” She pushed the door all the way open and stepped inside.

Ken immediately stood. “Dewi, it’s okay.”

Her gaze never left Dave’s face. “Who the fuck are you, and why the fuck are you here?”

Dave stood and grinned, looking back and forth from Dewi to Ken. “Son of a bitch, you landed yourself some pussy. Nice looking pussy, too. Congratulations. I thought you was a fag.” His smile faded. “Honey, you and me are gonna get along fine if you just—”

His voice transformed into something between a grunt and a squeal of pain as Dewi, in one fluid movement nearly too fast to see, kicked the office door closed with her foot, grabbed Dave’s crotch with one hand and his throat with the other, and then slammed him onto the floor.

She placed one knee over his diaphragm. “Let me tell you something,” she said in a low, growly tone. “
No
one
calls me honey but that man over there.” She tipped her head toward Ken. “And I am anything
but
a pussy. A bitch? Oh, absolutely. Let me tell you something else, asshole. I don’t take kindly to threats.”

She twisted her hand between his legs and he let out another ineffectual squeak, which she choked off with the hand around his throat. “I
damn
sure won’t tolerate any threats against him. Oh, and another thing,” she said with a cheerful smile. “If I ever see your fucking face again, I
will
kill you.” She leaned in closer, only inches separating their noses. “If you don’t think I mean it, just try me. I’d love to see what you’d look like with your throat ripped out and your blood in a nice, large pool around your ugly-ass head.”

She stood, picking Dave up with the same two handholds she’d used to put him on the floor—throat and balls. Then she slammed him against the office door. “Do we have an understanding?” she asked.

Gasping for breath and turning an ugly shade of purple, he nodded.

“Good.” She released his balls but kept a grip on his throat. With her free hand, she opened the office door and flung him through the doorway. He slammed, back first, into the concrete block wall on the other side of the hall.

She closed the door behind him and leaned against it with a smile. “Ready to go home?”

Ken stared at her, his mouth gaping. The whole confrontation had lasted less than thirty seconds, if that, but it had felt like slow motion.

Outside in the hallway, he heard Dave coughing and gasping for air.

“Um…”

She shrugged, the smile not slipping from her face. “He picked the absolute wrong day to fuck with my mate. Not that there’s ever a good day for anyone to fuck with you, but I’m not in the best of moods to be charitable. I’m assuming that’s your step-brother?”

Ken nodded.

“I wasn’t very impressed with him. I’m guessing he’s not going to be on our wedding invitation list?”