Romance: In Love With A Beast (Paranormal BBW Panther Shifter Romance) (Shapeshifter Mystery Alpha Werebear Romance Short Stories) (45 page)

She looked around. The sun was high in the sky. Taking a deep breath she sat up, her heart pounding in her chest. There were men in her house.

“You’re awake.” One of them stood in the door. He wore a green muscle shirt, and boy did he have muscles, with a pair of dirt jeans. He had a soft face, though she couldn’t see much behind his beard. His short black hair was slicked back and he carried a plate of food. “We figured you’d be up soon.” He paced into the room and sat down on the bed in front of her, he refused to look at her though.

Paige’s cheeks burned as she realized why.
I’m naked.
She looked down at her body; sure enough she had been right. A gasp escaped her as she pulled the sheet over her body.

As soon as she had covered herself the man looked at her. “Here,” He handed her the plate of food.

Paige took it cautiously. One hand still holding the blanket in place she lifted the plate to her nose and took a deep breath. If there were anything poisonous in this she couldn’t detect it.

“May I check on your neck?” he asked. Paige scowled but didn’t say anything. “Come on, please. We’ve had to change it two times in the past four hours. You don’t really want to start bleeding all over the place, do you?” his voice was kind.

“Fine.” Paige relented.

The man stood up with a smile. She was perfectly still as he moved to her side. She could tell he was trying to stay in her line of sight, not that it made her feel any more at ease but she did appreciate him trying.

“See, it’s a good thing you let me. When you woke up you must have got yourself bleeding again.” She heard him say as tended to her wound. She took a deep breath closing her eyes. He lay a bandage on the wound. She heard him peel the tape and rip it before she felt him put it on her. “There, good as new. Now try not to bleed too much, would you?” He turned on his heel and padded to the door. “I’ll leave you alone to eat. If you need anything just call me. My name’s Markus by the way.”

“Paige.”she answered gruffly.

Markus nodded as he walked out of the room.

Paige stared after him. He was one of the hunters she’d run into last night. Last night… she hardly remembered any of it. She remembered the zombies, and she remembered the hunters shooting them after she’ been bitten, and she kind of remembered making her way home… but that was it. She took a deep breath, the bacon and pancakes Markus had made her filling her lungs. She stared down at them for another few seconds before tentatively picking a piece of bacon up. She took a small bite, chewed and swallowed. Before long the plate was empty.

Paige contemplated calling Markus to come get it.
You’re a grown woman. You can do it yourself.
She told herself, carefully pushing up from bed. She looked down at her belly. It had been cut last night as well. She blushed as she looked down at the bandage on her stomach.
They touched me while I was naked
. She felt so embarrassed. She looked down at her body. There was another bandage on her leg. She put a little weight on the leg, it felt fine.

She ripped the bandage off with a small wince and left the garbage on the ground as she reached for her robe.

She grabbed her silk robe and slipped it on, making sure she was covered completely before slowly making her way to the door. In the doorway she steadied herself before stepping into the kitchen. Markus looked up, along with another man. This one was just as muscular and didn’t wear a shirt. Paige could see a scar from his left rib to his right pectoral. She swallowed dryly. He had long black hair and piercing green eyes. Paige felt her heart jump into her throat as she stopped in her tracks. He was gorgeous.

He looked up at her.

“You should have called me.” Markus jumped to his feet and took the plate from her hand.

“I’m fine.”

“No you’re not. I can already see the blood on your neck wound.” He chided her. “Now sit down before you overdo yourself.”

The guy at the table smirked as he took the last bite of his pancakes. “He’s always like this, don’t take it personally.” He looked her up and down. “How do you feel?”

“I… I’m fine.”

He snorted. “You look like hell.”

“Gee, thanks.” Paige snapped.

“Don’t irritate her, Ben. She needs to rest, not be annoyed.” Markus sighed Ben.

“My apologies.” Ben smiled as he stood, his plate in his hand. “Are you full, I can make you more if you need more?”

“No, but… thanks.” Paige managed a smile.

She watched as he put his plate in the sink. In the other sink were a load of clean dishes.

“How long was I out?” Paige scowled. She knew she hadn’t done those dishes.

“Four hours, give or take.” Markus answered. “I hope you don’t mind but we made ourselves at home while you were asleep.”

Yes. She could smell her soap on them. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized she had been naked in bed. No, she couldn’t smell sex and the scent of sex lasted far longer than four hours. She studied them carefully. “Why were you following me?”

“We saw how much blood you’d lost.” Ben answered as he came back and sat down at the table. “We figured we should make sure you got home safely, which is good because you passed out on your front lawn.”

“How’d… how did we get into the house.”

“I picked the lock.” Ben replied matter-of-factly.

Paige turned to Markus. “And you were the one who held me down?”

He nodded. “Sorry about that but in my defence you were trying to bite me.”

“I… I didn’t realize you two were trying to help me.” Paige couldn’t believe it.

“It’s only natural for your animal instincts to take over.” Ben shrugged it off. “Are you the only wolf around?”

“As far as I can tell, yes I am.” Paige had moved here three years ago and ever since she moved she hadn’t been able to find another wolf for miles around. “Why are you here?” She was sure they were new here.

“We read about some odd things happening in town, figured we should check it out.”

“You mean the zombies?”

Markus nodded. “That isn’t the first time they’ve appeared, is it?”

“No,” Paige confessed. “There was a batch of them a couple weeks ago. They were a lot weaker though, I took on a dozen of them and came out of it without a scratch on my fur.”

Markus and Ben exchanged a look but neither of them said a word. Paige swallowed dryly. What was going on here?

******

Ben had known all along. This wasn’t good. He pulled his gaze away from Markus and turned to Paige instead.

She was beautiful. She had long red hair and blue eyes. Her frame was small but judging by how she had handled herself with those zombies he had no doubt she was strong. She pushed herself up from the table and steadied herself against the chair. “I’d like to go try to shower.”

“No, sorry you can’t do that. Not with your neck the way it is. You should go get some more rest, give it another day or so and you will be fine.”

She glared at him but she turned towards the bedroom instead of towards the bathroom. They both watched as she headed into the bedroom and closed the door behind her.

Ben turned his attention to Markus. “I told you.” He hissed. This was not good, not good at all.

“Yea maybe this is the kind of thing you want to gloat about?” Markus dropped his head into his hands and let out a long string of curses. “How the fuck are we going to deal with this?”

“The first thing we have to do is make sure she stays safe. And then we will have to find the witch that is doing this.” Easier said than done, Ben knew that. He sighed pushing himself to his feet. “I guess I’ll go look around to see what kind of information I can get.” The doorbell rang before he finished slipping his coat on. Ben raised an eyebrow at him. “Should we get it?” Before they could make up their mind they heard the bedroom door pull open. Paige stepped into the door way. Ben sighed. “Stay there.” He padded to the door, pulling a knife from his pocket. “I’ll get it.”

“But it will be for me.” Paige protested,

“Yes, but if it’s someone who wants to kill you then it would be better for them to deal with me.” Ben was sure she was saying something but he ignored it as he approached the door. The bell rang again as his fingers curled around the cold steel handle. His knife clutched behind his back Ben pulled the door open.

“Hi!” A short girl with bleach blonde hair and green eyes smiled at him. She tilted her head. “Is Paige around? Or…” Her eyes widened. “Is she busy? I can leave if she’s busy.”

“No, she’s not busy. Who are you?”

“I’m her friend from work.” She held her hand out. “Hanna.” Ben shook her hand. “She wasn’t at work today so I wanted to make sure she was alright. Is she sick or something?”

“Dog attack.” He heard Paige snort from behind him.

“Let her in!” Paige called.

Ben moved out of the girl’s way and let her come inside. Closing the door behind her Ben watched as she made her way to the kitchen where Paige had sat down at the table again.

“Oh god! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. It looks a lot worse than it actually feels.”

Hanna glanced from Ben to Markus and back at Paige. “Who are these guys?”

“They're my friends.” Paige said quickly. She put on a face of confusion. “Haven’t I told you about Markus and Ben? The best friends from back home? We always used to hang out back when we were in school. Everyone called us
The Three Musketeers
.” Paige heard Ben let out a snort and she shot him a look.

“I guess I must have just forgotten about them.” Hanna said.

“Well, they decided to come into town yesterday, of course they ended out having to take me to the hospital.” Paige gave a forced laugh.

If Ben hadn’t known it was a lie he might have actually believed it.

“Can I get you anything to drink?” Markus smiled.

“Oh no thank you, I’m fine.” Hanna smiled widely. Her eyes locked on the bandage on Paige’s neck. Ben couldn’t quite figure out the look on her face though. He glanced at Markus, their eyes locked and Markus made his way over to Ben.

“Will you be fine with the two of them?” Ben asked Markus

“I think I will be able to handle myself.” Markus smirked. “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to see if I can find someone to talk about what’s going on here. Zombies are a sure sign of a death witch, and if a death witch is around it won’t be long until they summoned Death himself, and that would result in a disaster.

“Yea, yea, I know all this already. I’ve been thinking about it too.” Markus’s lips touched Ben’s cheek for a split second. “Be careful, okay man?”

“You too. I’ll be back before night fall.”

“Just fucking text me if you’re not going to be. I worry.” With that Markus walked away. Ben laughed softly as he turned his back on his friend and pulled the door open again. He stepped out, closed the door behind him and made his way to their car that he had brought here a few hours ago.

Chapter 4

“So, when do you think you will be back at work?” Hanna asked Paige with concern in her eyes.

“I’m sure I’ll be back in a few days, a week tops.” Paige answered,

“I see.” Hanna nodded. She looked thoughtful. “Well, you have my number right? You can always call me if you need anything. Even if it's just for a little company... though it looks like you have lots of that.” Hanna grinned.

“Yea, I guess it was perfect timing for the boys to come up.” Her ability to lie to such a good friend shook her a little, but what else was she supposed to do? If she told Hanna that she was a werewolf and had been attacked by zombies, and these two random guys had come in and saved her life Hanna would think she was crazy.

“It’s just good they were able to get you to a hospital.” Hanna’s voice sounded strained as she looked at Markus who had just walked in from the kitchen. Paige lay stretched out on the couch, a blanket over her and a pillow supporting her head.

“Here you are ladies.” Markus handed them both a tea. “Are you sure there isn’t anything else I can get you?”

Paige nodded. She thought about what she had seen, him kissing Ben. She hadn’t pegged them as a couple, maybe brothers or very good friends but she hadn’t pegged them as gay. She felt a small tinge of jealously. They were both very attractive. She thought as she stared at Markus. His muscles were enough to make him attractive, but the way his hair fell into his face and the way he kept trying to take care of her… it was cute. Paige forced herself to turn back to Hanna. “So, did I miss much at work? I’m sorry I didn’t call in… Everything happened so fast….”

“Oh it’s fine,” Hanna waved her hand in the air. “Everyone is just worried about you, that’s all. I told them I would come and check in on you before I headed home today. They will be so glad to hear that you’re okay.”

Paige took a drink of the tea.

“So you work with Paige?” Markus asked as he sat down in the corner.

Hanna nodded. “Yup, we’ve been best friends since the day I met her.”

“And what do you do?”he asked.

“Oh nothing exciting,” Hanna laughed softly. “I just make sure everyone gets their mail. It’s a fun job if you like talking with others.”

“And do you?”

“That depends on the day.” She laughed again. “So you know Paige from school?”

Paige felt herself grow a little nervous. “Yes, Ben and I were very close with Paige when she lived near us. It was hard when she moved away.” She let out a silent sigh of relief. Turns out he was good at lying too.

Hanna stayed for another hour. She finally stood and said she had better get going. She insisted that Paige not worry about walking her to the door. Truthfully Paige was glad Hanna had decided to leave. She was feeling weak and like she was about to fall asleep. She pushed herself up from the couch. Her head spun as she tried to regain her balance.

“Wooh, easy there.” She felt Markus’s hands against her arm. “Come on, let’s get you to bed.” He picked her up in his arms. His hold was tight as he carried her into the bedroom. Paige let herself lay her head down on his chest, somehow she felt safe in his arms. Even though she’d just met him and he probably would have tried to kill her if she hadn’t been attacked by zombies. Markus carefully set her down on the bed. “Better?”