Ready to Bear (12 page)

“Do we have enough time to swing by my hotel?” Billy asked. He looked down at himself and grimaced. “I wouldn’t mind a quick shower and change of clothes.”

“Of course,” Thea said. Billy held the door open for her as she got into the car. He felt the weight of the invisible eyes on them again. He couldn’t wait to get out of the city.

Thea was quiet as she and Billy watched the buildings slide by through the windows. She wasn’t sure what to think or believe. She was completely out of her element, and she was well aware of her shortcomings when it came to anything resembling shifter business. She was getting a life lesson in just a few hours, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about it.

She also wasn’t sure how she felt about the man sitting just inches away from her. He was nothing like anyone she’d met before. He had managed himself admirably considering it sounded like he had been handed a death sentence. He was strong yet mysterious. She wondered what it would be like to feel his hands on her skin in a much more intimate way.

As if her thoughts had attracted his attention, his face swung to hers. “I didn’t have a chance to thank you again for what you’re doing.”

“I wanted to help,” she said.

“When we get to the park, you should go. Eric can help me, hopefully, track down the shifter who clawed me. There’s no need for you to concern yourself with this anymore.”

“I may not be a shifter, but I’m not going to ditch you just because I don’t have a nose for tracking,” Thea said.

Billy’s finger reached out and touched the tip of her nose before his hand slid to cup her face. For a moment, she forgot to breathe as she stared into his eyes. He seemed to be struggling to say something, but then his hand fell away.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m being quite forward.”

“I don’t mind,” she said quickly.

She thought she caught the whisper of a smile on his face before his expression turned serious. “You don’t know me, Thea. While I would love the chance to get to know you better, it’s dangerous to be around me. Especially now. You saw what happened back there. If the medication wears off before we find the shifter who did this to me, I don’t know what will happen. I can’t control the bear. If he decides he wants out, and he finds a way to grab the upper hand, I can’t protect you.”

“I’m not afraid of you or your bear,” Thea said. “I don’t think you are giving yourself enough credit, Sheriff.”

There was something in his face that told her his warning went much deeper than the situation that happened at Dr. Clarkson’s office. She remembered what Eric had said to her that morning. There was something in Billy’s past that was causing him to say those things. She thought that he wanted her as much as she wanted him. She felt it tangibly in the air.

“You should be,” was what he followed with.

The words hung between them. The right thing to do was to walk away. Thea knew that. But something about him had caught her up in its embrace. Thea slid closer to him instead. She touched his arm right below his injury. Dr. Clarkson had cleaned it up and bandaged it, but she still saw Billy’s slight wince.

She let her fingertips dance down his bicep. She caught his hiss as she continued to explore his skin. Her fingers drifted across to his stomach and started to rise up his abs. He didn’t stop her, which encouraged her to keep going. His abs felt as tight beneath her fingers as she expected. He was all hard, lean muscle. Billy caught her wrist and held it up in the air between them. It was a challenge, and one she didn’t back away from.

Time seemed to stand still, and then Billy pulled her forward so that he could grip the base of her neck. His mouth crossed the distance between them before she even had a chance to fully grasp his intention.

When his lips found hers, they were hungry and searching. Her whole body responded. It was as if someone had thrown a match on a pile of dried kindling. Every nerve, every sensory part of her body came alive instantly. She wound her arms around his neck as his tongue traced the contours of her lips. She opened her mouth willingly, and his tongue delved inside meeting hers.

She heard his small groan as she wound her fingers through his hair. She didn’t want him to have any doubt that she was willing to take whatever he wanted to give to her. She wasn’t the reckless, wild sort, but Billy set something inside of her askew. She didn’t want to conform to the old norms of how she acted and behaved. Billy wasn’t like any other man she had ever been with, and she wanted to explore all of these new feelings with him.

His hands caressed the hollow of her back as they dropped to her hips. He slid a hand down the side of her thigh, and she sighed in pleasure. Billy’s tongue hadn’t stopped the onslaught of her mouth, and she found herself panting as she tried everything she could to pull him closer to her.

When his mouth pulled away, she stared at him. She could see the heavy waves of desire on his face. “You are amazing,” he said. “And while I’d love nothing more but to continue this, we’re here.”

Thea blinked. Then she looked out the window over Billy’s shoulder and saw the bellhop approaching Billy’s door. She squeaked just as the door was pulled open. She saw Billy’s wink at her.

“You going to wait here?” he asked. His voice was low and husky. “Or did you want to come up and wait in my room?”

She should say that she’d wait in the car, but she nodded. “I’ll come up. Somebody’s gotta keep an eye on you.”

“I like the idea of having my own private nurse,” he said, and Thea flushed as she caught the innuendo.

He moved out of the car and then held a hand back for her. As soon as she was out of the car, she moved to straighten her hair. She wondered if she looked as if she had been thoroughly kissed. Judging by the look on Cal’s face when he came around to close the door behind them, she did.

“We’ll be back down in twenty minutes,” she said to him.

Cal didn’t look too certain about that, which almost caused Thea to laugh. As much as she’d like for her and Billy to spend the next twenty minutes getting to know each other a whole lot better, she knew that they had more important things to be concerned with. Like finding his cure.

His hand slid into hers as they walked through the glass doors into the lobby. Thea knew they had crossed a threshold in their relationship in the car. It was wildly exciting. She felt as if she was doing something naughty, but she was an adult for Pete’s sake. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t ever been with a guy or in a relationship before. It was just all of those had felt ultimately boring in the end. Thea was searching for something different, and that was what she thought she might have found with Billy.

She didn’t want to question it or make too much of it. She just wanted to enjoy it. After getting a new room key from the front desk, they moved to the elevator. Once they stepped inside, Billy’s arm slipped around her as he pulled her in. She was surprised when she felt him rest his chin against the top of her head.

“This is crazy,” he whispered. “You should be running as far and as fast away from me as you can.”

It was an unexpectedly tender gesture after the heated passion of the car, and Thea found that she was equally enthralled with it nonetheless. There was something deeper than simple lust growing between them. It was sweet and comforting.

“You think that I’m such a treat?” she scoffed. “Ask any of my exes, and they’ll tell you a whole other story.”

“I’d probably deck them,” he said.

The words carried a fierce kind of possessiveness that sent a thrill straight through her core. Thea usually didn’t go for the whole alpha male thing, but the thought of being possessed by Billy in all kinds of ways made her feel giddy.

“They’re not so bad,” Thea said. She looked up at him even as she wrapped her hands into a piece of his shirt. She felt wickedly bold. “But they just didn’t excite me.”

“I think I can help in that department,” Billy said. His hand slipped down to her butt, and he pulled her against him. There was another part of his body that greeted the closeness of their forms, and she knew without a doubt that she couldn’t wait to get to know Billy a whole lot better.

“I look forward to it,” she said with a small grin.

The doors slid open, and Thea heard a cough. She flushed as she saw the older couple standing there waiting for the elevator. Billy took her hand and pulled her out of the elevator waving at the couple with a wide grin.

“Everybody gets a turn. Enjoy it!” he called behind him.

Thea hit him on the arm. “You’re incorrigible.”

“In many ways,” he said. She chuckled as he led her to the door at the very end of the hallway. He cracked the door but stopped short just as she was ready to follow him.

“What is it?” she asked trying to peer around his arm.

He pushed her back into the hallway. Then he pulled the door shut. “We’ve got company,” he said in a hushed tone.

“What?” Thea was alarmed. All thoughts of possibly getting a little more action fell away from her mind.

Billy cursed. “I had my room key with me when I went out for my run. They must have found it.”

“Why would they be in your room?” Thea asked.

Billy looked down at her even as he propelled her urgently back toward the elevator. “It wasn’t a random attack, Thea. I think someone deliberately set it up so that they could poison me.”

“Why?”

Billy stabbed at the button to call the elevator frantically. “I have to get you out of here,” he said. “Hopefully whoever is in my room was distracted and didn’t hear the door open.”

Thea thought that was highly unlikely. That was when she saw the door at the end of the hall slowly begin to open. It was like she was watching a scene from a horror film, except this was real life. Her heart sped up as she saw two dark forms cross stealthily into the hallway.

“I don’t think so,” she said. She tried to keep her tone even. “Billy, they’re coming.”

“I know,” he said.

The shapes materialized into low slung forms. Wolves. The idea of seeing wolves moving through the hallway of one of the poshest hotels in town wasn’t clicking in her brain.

Billy turned and swept his t-shirt up over his head. He stood in front of her.

“You aren’t supposed to shift,” Thea said. “Remember what Dr. Clarkson said.”

“I know,” he said. “But I might not have any choice.”

“Billy,” she said urgently.

“What are you waiting for?” Billy called out. His voice was hard. Thea watched the ripples of the muscles down Billy’s back. She had never been up close to witness a shifter phase before. She knew that Billy would do what he felt he needed to do, but she couldn’t let him risk his life.

She pulled out her phone and stabbed a text to Eric even as she heard the warning snuffs floating down the hallway to her ears.

“This seems stupid,” Billy said. “You’ve already poisoned me. I’m already halfway dead. Why bother with the ambush? You could just go on your merry way and let me die.”

“That doesn’t seem to be nearly as much fun as this big reveal.” Thea looked up and saw a man standing in the doorway leaning against the doorframe behind the wolves. She didn’t recognize him, but by the way that Billy tensed up, she knew that Billy did. She felt certain that this was the man that Billy had come to Copper City to find.

“It’s been awhile, Joshua,” Billy said, confirming what she had suspected.

“I hear you’ve been looking for me, Sheriff,” the man said. “You and your alpha. I’d like you to stop.”

“You know that Lukas won’t do that, and neither will I,” Billy said. “You crossed too many lines with the Greyelf Clan. You have to pay for that.”

Joshua sighed a long, belabored sigh. It sounded drawn from his lungs for dramatic effect. “I had a feeling you’d say that. That was why I wanted you to know that I was serious about this. You’ve caused me a lot of annoyance over the last eighteen months. I’ve been stalked and hunted like a dog.”

“Sounds about right. Glad to hear that my efforts were effective,” Billy said.

“Well, it also required me to make some new friends along the way.”

“Friends of yours aren’t friends of ours,” Billy said.

“No. Definitely not.” Joshua chuckled as he shook his head. “I learned a lot of interesting things, as a matter of fact. It made me realize that my vision when I was with RAC was too small. I hadn’t been focusing on the right things.”

“Change of heart against the shifters, huh? How touching,” Billy said as he motioned to the two wolves who flanked Joshua. “It seems like every time I see you, you’re hanging out with the kind of people that you said you hated.”

Joshua shrugged. “I had a limited view before. But now I see.”

“What is it exactly that you see?” Billy asked. Thea could see that he rolled his shoulders forward. He was ready to phase. He was ready to fight.

“I see a man who has shown up acting like the hero who is going to have to delve into his past if he wants to live. And by doing so, I see a way to salute Lukas Kasper with a big ‘fuck you’ flag before I go after his ass next.”

“What are you talking about?” Billy snarled.

Joshua laughed again. Then he stared at Billy. Thea watched in horrified fascination as the man’s face elongated into a furry snout before snapping back into his human face again. She heard Billy’s gasp mingle with her own.

“Look familiar?”

Billy started to move, but Joshua put his hand up. “This was a courtesy call. Nothing more. I just wanted you to know who it was who will be the cause of your death today, one way or another.”