Mate Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire 3) (13 page)

“Jenner’s on a guided hunt out in the bush right now. He and the Dawsons took a big group of frat boys out, and there is only so much bro-time I can handle before I want to duck out. Elyse and I are planning the wedding.” Her dark eyes went wide as she looked at Vera. “You’ll have to come.”

Vera grinned and got so excited she couldn’t breathe. Years on Perl, and now this. A real life wedding invitation from her future sister-in-law?

“It’ll be out at Silver Summit Outfitters lodge.”

“Oh,” Vera said as she realized how impossible that would be.

“What’s wrong?”

Tobias stepped in and saved her from fumbling. “Vera isn’t safe around humans yet. Her animal is a biter, and she’s capable of Turning people. We can’t put you two at risk. She’s docked at Link’s place until she can manage better.”

Lena let off a shocked noise. “That sounds awful.”

“I’ll be there if it’s safe,” Vera promised hopefully.

“Well, can we talk to you on the radio while you’re in seclusion?” Elyse asked. “I talk to Link that way.”

“Yes!” she said too loud.

Tobias chuckled beside her, and the others grinned.

“So,” Elyse drawled, “do you think it’s okay to have dinner together, or do you have to go back to Link’s right away?”

Vera wanted to say yes. She truly did, but she didn’t have enough control over her Changes yet to feel confident about spending hours eating and chatting with Elyse and Lena. They were human, and if she bit them, it wouldn’t matter if it was an accident. She would never forgive herself. “It won’t be like this forever,” she apologized. “I’m working really hard to get better at this.”

Ian had been quiet, but at her admission, he spoke up. “Vera, are you a born shifter?”

She shook her head slowly.

“Turned?” he asked, his eyebrows arching high.

She nodded.

“Did you choose to be Turned?”

Another shake of her head.

Ian looked and smelled furious as he swung his gaze to Tobias. “Did you kill the sonofabitch who did this to her?”

Tobias’s eyes had lost their humor and had gone cold and empty instead. “I did.”

“Good,” Ian said darkly. He turned to Vera. “I’m sorry for what’s been done. If you need anything, you ask, okay?”

“Okay,” she whispered.

Elyse squeezed her hand. “You tell us when it’s safe to visit you.”

Vera smiled brightly. “I will. I can make us beer and moonshine.”

“You know how to make moonshine?” Lena asked.

“Yes! The blueberry kind. I’m a bit of a chemist.” She frowned at how close she was getting to the secret of the cure. “I can send a jar of it with Link when he visits if you want.”

“We want,” Elyse said through a grin. “And someday, you can teach us how to make it. Winters around the homestead sure get long.” Elyse’s smile faded, and she looked up at Ian, her heart in her eyes as he hugged her to his ribs.

If only Vera could tell them she was going to try to fix that, but Tobias was right. If for some reason the cure didn’t work on grizzlies, she couldn’t get their hopes up. She liked Lena and Elyse too much to hurt them like that. “It was really nice to meet you.”

“You, too,” Lena said. “Hey, Vera?”

“Yes?”

“Would you mind if I took your picture?”

“Really?” she asked, patting her wild hair.

Lena nodded, then lifted her camera in front of her face and aimed it.

When Tobias slid his hands gently around her waist from behind, she was warmed to her core that he was willing to take a picture with her. This would be their first together. She snuggled her face against his cheek as he leaned forward and cheesed for the camera. After Lena clicked a picture, Tobias kissed her on the cheek. Damn, what that man could do to her insides.

“You have the strangest color eyes,” Lena said, canting her head with a frown. “Gold in the middle and blue on the outside. In the sunlight, they look otherworldly.”

Tobias waved to his family and Link did the same, and as she started to back away from Lena and Elyse, she admitted low, “That’s because I’m a fox.”

As she turned away from Lena and Elyse’s shocked smiles, her heartbeat raced, and inside her fox made that soft satisfied humming sound she had the other night.

For the first time ever, Vera was proud to claim her animal out loud.

Tobias could see how tired his mate was becoming. How drained she was with everything she had to balance. His woman was strong, but at what point should he intervene?

Vera and Link worked relentlessly over the long table of vials, jars, flasks, clamps, microscopes, burners, beakers, funnels, and test tubes. Link’s usually clutter-free cabin was now ground zero for organized chaos.

It had been six weeks since she’d met Elyse and Lena, and while their relationship over the radio had flourished, Vera had missed Jenner and Lena’s wedding because she was stuck as a fox at the time. That had done something terrible to her. It had snowed for the first time while Tobias was out at the lodge, standing for his brother in a suit and tie, and Vera had been here at Link’s place alone, panicking over the shift in weather.

To her, snow meant hibernation, and by the time he’d come back, she had Changed back to her human self and was working through the nights on the cure.

Link had become an assistant for her since Tobias couldn’t pick up on the science of it all. All he heard was long, barely pronounceable names and experiments he didn’t understand, but Link was a good student and had even done a few tasks while Vera was a fox. Nothing big, mostly storage, but at least Link had been good for something. Tobias felt helpless to ease her worries.

Vera was fighting time, and from the constant wide-eyed panic on her face, she’d already lost.

“Not too hot,” she murmured as she held a test tube of blue liquid over an open flame. “Slow heat.”

Tobias crossed his arms and leaned against the kitchen counter, then stared at the full plate on the table that had gone cold long ago. Getting Vera to take a break long enough to eat was a challenge these days. He couldn’t even recall the last time she’d slept for more than an hour, and last night he’d woken up to her crying. She had tried to be quiet about it, but the sound of her soft weeping had broken something inside of him.

Avoiding hibernation wasn’t worth this. It wasn’t worth watching her deteriorate.

A small explosion of shattering glass sounded.

“Shit!” Vera yelled, holding half of the jagged vial in her tongs.

Link backed away and sank down into a chair, hands running through his hair in a steady rhythm. He hadn’t been sleeping much either.

When Vera looked back at Tobias, her face had crumpled and her eyes were rimmed with tears. “I need more of your blood.”

“Okay,” he murmured. “Whatever you need.”

Her shoulders shook with her quiet sobbing as she set the broken vial on the table. She pulled off her safety glasses and latex gloves as tears dripped from her jaw to the white lab coat she wore.

Vera strode for the door and threw it open, but just before she disappeared into the night, she turned and said, “I need you!”

The door slammed so hard it rattled the small cabin.

“She can’t keep going like this,” Link said, voice hoarse. “You’re eating so much now, Tobias. I know what that means. You’re getting close. Too close.” He lifted tired eyes to him and leaned back in the chair. “We’re too late, aren’t we?”

“Yeah. Too late. Listen, when I go down to hibernate, you can’t follow me, Link. You can’t wake me up. I’m not like my brothers. I turn Winter Bear and go crazy. I almost killed Jenner that first hibernation, and there is a reason I den out on Kodiak Island with the rest of the monsters. I’ve been woken up twice since then, and I had no control over my bear. If she suggests waking me up, you have to stop her. You have to keep her safe from me. Swear it.”

Link’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. He looked ill. “I swear I won’t let her wake you up. Now, let me get the blood sample so you can go check on her.”

Tobias sat at the table in the same chair where they always did blood draws. He rested his elbow on the smooth wood and clenched his fist, and within a few minutes, Link had two vials of his blood. As Link withdrew the needle, Tobias said, “You won’t need those. She won’t have time to do anything with them.”

Link’s gray eyes went wide. “That soon?”

“Yeah.” He gave Link a sad smile, then stood and left to find his mate.

Vera’s scent was easy to follow. Fur, salty tears, peppermint moisturizer, rose hips, and mango body wash led him through Link’s quiet woods to a clearing. His chest constricted as he saw her leaning against a tree, knees drawn up like a shield, head on her arms. Her body shook like a leaf in the wind, and no wonder. It was freezing out here.

“I think you should let me hibernate,” he said low. She would hear him, even over the whipping wind.

“I can’t,” she said thickly.

“You can. I’m telling you, you can. We’ll try again next year.”

“You don’t understand!”

“Are you scared of Clayton? He won’t bother you anymore, and besides, he’ll be going down for winter at the same time as me and my brothers. Jonathan’s gone, and Link will be here if you need anything. You’re safe, Vera.”

She lifted her devastated gaze to his. “Can’t you see?” she whispered brokenly. “I can’t live without you anymore. I’m not strong like Elyse and Lena. I never mentally prepared for this. I went into this pairing knowing you would always be with me.” She slammed her back against the tree and let off another sob. “When you go down for hibernation, you are going to take the best parts of me, the ones I’ve worked so hard to find again.”

Her words cut him like an ax blade. “Maybe you need to Change again.”

“I don’t! My fox doesn’t even want my body now. She’s as desperate as me to finish this cure in time.” Vera’s tawny hair whipped around her shoulders, and she looked so frail in the moonlight. So thin. He’d noticed the changes over the past weeks, but now, even the blue in her eyes had dulled with exhaustion. He’d done that. She was pushing herself to the brink for him.

He loved her for the effort, but he hated himself for her pain.

Here in the dark, as her shoulders sagged in defeat, he couldn’t help but regret the time they’d wasted avoiding his hibernation. Now it wouldn’t matter. He would sleep until April, and he’d missed all of that bonding time with her while she’d juggled lab work and constant Changes into her animal.

“Come to town with me?”

“What?” she asked.

“I want to take you on a date. A real one.”

“I don’t have time, Tobias.”

“You do. Vera, I have to leave soon.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m not safe when I hibernate, and I can’t go to sleep around here. Not around people. You know how your fox used to be dangerous around humans? That’s how my bear gets in winter. I have to fly out to Kodiak Island soon, and I don’t want to waste our remaining time together watching you drive yourself into the ground to avoid the inevitable. I want to be with you.”

“Tobias, no,” she cried, tears streaming down her face. “You can’t leave me. You can’t.”

He was to her in three long strides. He fell to his knees in the dirt beside her and pulled her hard to his chest. “Listen to me, Vera. You are strong. Look what you’ve done! You compromised with your fox, and you’re present every time you Change. You have control, Vera. I can see it. And I’m so fucking proud of you. You will get through this winter, and hopefully it’ll be our first and last apart. I can’t watch you wither anymore, though. Do you understand? It’s not worth it to me. I’m going to sleep this winter, and that’s okay.”

“But your family—”

“
Our
family will hold another winter. You know why?”

She shook her head against his chest. “Why?”

“Because Lena and Elyse are strong just like you. Go on a date with me, woman. I want to talk about wedding planning and girly shit.”

Vera laughed a surprised sound and wrapped her arms around his neck. Then with a heartbroken sigh, she said, “Okay, McBeefcake. Take me somewhere fancy.”

The relief Tobias felt at hearing that nickname after so long was almost as tangible as the soft breeze through the trees. He would take her out, and they would have a good night, and in the morning, he would leave to fight the bears on Kodiak Island for his den. He didn’t tell her how close he was to hibernation but the first tendrils of sleepiness had already begun, and his time was out.

He had one last night to spend with the woman he loved before he left her alone, and he wanted to give her a night she would remember. This date would have to keep her warm for the next six snowy months.

Tonight would be the memory Vera would have to draw on when things got hard because as much as he hated it, come tomorrow morning, he wouldn’t be here for her anymore.

Vera was nervous, but for no good reason. There was a shift in the air between her and Tobias. Over the last couple of months, she’d grown to adore him. To love him. But there had always been this underlying feeling of panic. From the day she’d met him, she was losing time and had been helpless to stop it. She’d never suppressed an animal as big as a grizzly bear, and it had been a brutal awakening. If her serum wasn’t strong enough, it could hurt Tobias. It had been much easier figuring out how to suppress her own animal. If she died, or got sicker, who would care? Not her at the time. She had been half-dead inside already.

But Tobias was hers to protect, and his life meant everything.

As she’d dressed for their date, he’d asked her to do one thing, just for tonight. “Let time go. Just be with me.”

As hard as it was to flip that switch from sheer panic to letting something so important go, she had to accept she hadn’t made the cure in time. And she had to give him this—his last request before hibernation. She had to spend time with him while she could.

Tonight, she wouldn’t cry or fight what was happening anymore.

Tonight she would show him how loved he was so he wouldn’t go into the inevitable winter slumber upset and worried about her.

Tonight, she would be the strong mate he deserved.

Tobias looked over at her from the driver’s side of the Bronco. His arm was hooked over the steering wheel, relaxed as he drove them into Galena. And despite their impending separation, his smile was smooth, easily transforming his face to a thing of beauty. He hadn’t shaved in a couple of days, and his jaw sported that designer scruff she found so damned sexy on him. A soft ballad played at low volume. Tobias lifted her hand, kissed her knuckles, then intertwined their fingers as he settled their hands on top of her leg.

Vera had dressed in her favorite dark gray, body-clinging sweater dress, tights, and black snow boots. Her hair was loose on her shoulders because Tobias liked to play with it. He did it absently, when he was thinking or when he was hugging her. He played with it late at night when they stayed up talking on their palette on the floor.

He’d voiced his regret they had spent the summer living rough in Link’s outbuilding, but he didn’t see what she did. She had no regrets. This had been the best summer of her life. She had Tobias, and with his patience, she was gaining control of her animal in ways she never imagined possible. And she’d found an unexpected friend in Link. Compared to Perl Island, Wolfland, as Fox called it, was comparable to heaven.

“Tell me more about your brother,” Tobias said as he turned onto the main drag in Galena.

“Oh he’s a total dipshit. And I love him. He and my parents think I landed some big job in a lab in the lower forty-eight. They think I can’t visit because the airfare is too expensive. I’ve only talked to them a few times since…you know.”

“You can visit them now. You’ve come a long way, and I think you’re safe around people now.”

“Really?” Hope bloomed in her chest.

“Yeah. You should spend the holidays with them. Reconnect. And then next April, we’ll make a trip up to Anchorage together, and I’ll ask your dad for his blessing. I thought about calling him before I asked you, but some things just don’t feel right over the phone.”

Vera’s face stretched in a grin, and she pulled his arm over her shoulder, snuggled her face against his bicep. “He will love you. My mom, too. They didn’t like Jonathan much. I don’t even think they could figure out why. He just never sat well with their instincts. You’re a good man, though. Good to me. I can’t wait for them to meet you.”

“Will you ever tell them?”

“About Fox?”

Tobias nodded and pulled into a parking spot right in front of the only diner in town.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. I have changed so much since my family saw me last that I think it’ll be a lot already. Plus Elyse told me over the radio that there are laws on who we can tell.”

“Well, Clayton lays down the laws, and me and my brothers enforce them. You can do whatever the fuck you want, and I’ll back you.” His voice sounded deadly and dangerous, and she believed him. This was the advantage to pairing with the biggest, baddest predator shifter in existence. The fear factor diminished considerably at the top of the food chain.

“Wait there,” he murmured, cutting the engine. Tobias jogged around the front of the Bronco and opened her door for her, then pulled her hand to the crook of his arm as he led her across an icy patch and into the diner.

He wore a navy sweater that clung to his wide shoulders and dark jeans that sat just right on his tapered hips. Her mate cut a striking silhouette, but it was his eyes as he turned and graced her with a smile over his shoulder that held her. He used word “love” sparingly, but his eyes always revealed his feelings. It was enough.

As they waited for a table, Tobias held her hand as she rested her cheek against his arm.

The hunchbacked woman with an easy smile said, “You two make a beautiful couple. How long have you been married?”

“We’re getting married next spring,” Vera said as another wash of excitement zinged through her. Sometimes she forgot how heavy the meaning of Tobias’s ring on her finger was.

“It feels like I’ve always been with her, though,” Tobias said.

Vera looked up at him in surprise. Usually when they came to town for short visits and supply runs, Tobias didn’t talk to anyone. He was a quiet man, and it was usually up to her to carry on conversations. Her mate smiled down at her and kissed the top of her head.

“How long have you been married?” she asked the woman, whose husband was leaning against her shoulder, staring vacantly out the window.

“Fifty-three years,” she said proudly. “I’ve loved every one.”

“Silver,” the host called.

“Oh, that’s us. It was nice talking to you,” Vera said, waving to the woman.

“You too, dear. Good luck with wedding planning.”

“Thanks.” The fact that she could very well be planning this wedding on her own while her mate hibernated suddenly felt like another hundred pounds added to the already substantial weight on her shoulders.

No, tonight was going to be a good night. She wouldn’t think about her failures. Not right now.

The host led them to a booth in the corner and set their menus on opposite sides of the table. With a polite smile, Tobias slid in next to Vera and dragged his menu to him. She understood. She didn’t want to be away from him for even a minute, even if only a table separated them.

And when the waiter showed up and Tobias had ordered enough food to feed a small army, her mate leaned in closer and told the server that he wanted to pay for the meal of the couple sitting at the table across the room. Vera looked over his shoulder and grinned at the older couple they’d talked to who were settling into a small two-seat table near the opposite wall. Sweet Tobias.

After a beer and a glass of cheap red wine were delivered to their table, Tobias sat back, draped his arm around Vera’s shoulders and said, “I ordered a karaoke machine.”

“You did not!”

“I did. It’ll be delivered to the Galena post office in a couple weeks.”

“Oh, my gosh!” she crowed in disbelief. “Well now it’s going to be a party.”

“Hell yeah, it will be. I can’t wait to see you get up there and do your thing.”

“You’ll be singing with me.”

“I will not. My voice is shit.”

“Perfection isn’t the point of karaoke, McBeefcake. Fun is.”

“Mmm, well maybe if I get enough moonshine in me, I’ll consider it. As a wedding present.”

She took a long sip of her wine and shook her head. “Uh-uh, I want sausage for my wedding present.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Werebear sausage.”

Tobias nearly choked on his beer. He cast a quick look around and lowered his voice. “Stop it right now, or you’ll get some of that werebear sausage up against the sink in the bathroom.”

Vera opened her mouth to give him a snarky retort, but the server showed up with the three appetizers Tobias had ordered, so she held her tongue.

Tobias leaned over and nipped her neck, sending her into a peel of giggles, then he began dragging cheese fries to her plate. He always did that, served her before himself. It was one of the million things she adored and respected about him.

“Who do you want me to make invitations for on your side?”

“Well you already invited my asshole father, so I’m good.”

Carefully, she asked, “Do you want me to invite your mom?” He didn’t talk about her. In fact, she knew next to nothing about the woman since Tobias skittered away from any mention of her. Even her inner animal drew up curiously at this conversation.

“No need. She wouldn’t come, and I wouldn’t want her there anyway.”

“Why not?” Vera asked nonchalantly as she pulled a long strand of cheesy goodness from a fry.

“She left when I was too young to remember her. Just bailed. Some people aren’t meant to be parents, and my dad knocked up the wrong lady. He chose her, but she didn’t choose him back. And she never even knew what we were. She’s some fancy news anchor up in Anchorage. I tracked her down when I was fifteen, right before the first hibernation. Jenner missed her, or maybe he missed the idea of her. I didn’t, but I watched my brother pine for a mother figure, and I wanted to know how she could do that to her kids. Not for me, but for my brother. I love…” Tobias swallowed hard and cast her a sideways glance. “I love my brothers in my own way. I’m protective. I wanted answers before I told Jenner who and where she was. I wanted to make sure she wouldn’t hurt him again.”

“And?”

Tobias shook his head in disgust. “She would’ve hurt him. She didn’t have any feelings about what she’d done. She was proud she’d left and got the life she wanted. Even called us an anchor around her neck. Said cutting the weight was the best thing she ever did.”

Vera exhaled slowly and leaned against his arm. “I’m sorry.”

Tobias twitched his head. “Margo Costa.”

Vera nearly choked on a french fry. “Margo Costa is your mom?”

“Yeah.”

“Holy shit, McBeefcake. Wow.” Stunned, she frowned and leaned back into the soft cushion of the bench. She’d watched Margo Costa on the news for years. “I can toilet paper her house if you want.”

With a chuckle, Tobias spooned a pair of stuffed mushrooms onto her plate. “I don’t doubt you would, protective little mate. You shot my dad defending me. I can only imagine what kind of rampage you could unleash on my mom. Let her be, though. I like her completely detached from my life.”

Around a bite of food, she admitted, “When I was a kid, I used to toilet paper houses with my brother and his friends.”

“Is he older or younger?”

“Older by three years, but way less responsible than me. I had a tendency to be really nerdy in school, and he would always remind me to ease up on life and find the happy moments.”

“You do that,” Tobias said. “That’s one of the things I love about you. Even with all of the bad shit, you still laugh and joke and make the people around you feel happy. You’re pretty damned inspiring.”

“Really?”

Tobias downed his beer and nodded. “Really. Sometimes I like to just sit back and watch you talk to people. Strangers, Link, Lena and Elyse on the radio. You have this way of making people feel better, even if they’re having a shitty day, just by talking to you. Nobody would ever guess how much you’ve gone through. You kept your sweetness when you could’ve gone the complete opposite direction. You could’ve become cold and hard. I hope our cubs inherit that.”

“Our cubs?” she said, turning mushy. He’d only ever talked about the possibility of one, but she wanted a big family with him someday.

“Yeah. And I kind of hope they turn out to be little foxes.”

“So they don’t hibernate?”

“No,” he said, eyes going completely serious. “So we have a chance of having little girls that are just like you. Plus, if you had a bear cub, you’d realize real quick what little hellions we are and stop at one.”

She snorted. “I can only imagine what you and your brothers were like as kids.”

“Little brawlers. Always fighting.”

“For play or for real?”

“Both. Instinct trumps all for grizzly shifters. I think we loved and hated each other all at once. But we would’ve done anything for each other.”

“And now?”

Tobias shrugged. “I still feel the same. Especially over the past few months. I think seeing Ian and Jenner again, witnessing how good they are to their mates and realizing my dad was wrong about how life has to be for bear shifters, makes me want some kind of relationship with my brothers. I’d do anything for them. Yeah.”

Four plates of food showed up after that, and to her shock, Tobias ate everything she couldn’t. The sheer volume of calories he was taking in told her he was getting close to hibernation.

She’d done her research, and soon he would start getting tired.

Maybe she had a week with him.

Maybe less.

Tobias paid for their dinner and the older couples’, then took her window shopping after that. Outside of a winter wear store, something cold brushed her hand. She looked down in horror to find a perfect snowflake melting against her skin.