Shifters Forever The Boxed Set Books 1 - 6 (28 page)

“
L
et her go
,” Teague told Tanner.

“I’m worried about her driving home.”

“She did this many times before you got to town. She’s fine. And she doesn’t want to be crowded right now. Why don’t you talk to her at the wedding? Well, after the wedding would be better. That way there’s no drama, just in case.”

“She’s not one for drama. She’d run away before she’d do drama. I can tell that about her.”

“Running away during a wedding would be drama.” Teague opened the door to the B&B. “She’ll make it home just fine, and you’ll see her tomorrow.”

But whose arms would she be in tonight? Tanner wondered, and the pain chipped at his heart with the ferocity of an ice pick wielded by a psychopath.

T
anner got no sleep
. And here it was, the day of the wedding. He was happy for Grant and Chelsea, but deep down, there was an anchor of desolation that pulled at him. He knew it came from his bear, but it wasn’t all in his bear; it was in him too.

Chelsea looked stunning in her white dress. The Bed & Breakfast that Kelsey was running was the perfect setting. The open-air pavilion was decorated with lilies and orchids, all white.

Chelsea, Grant, and the preacher were in the gazebo between the pavilion and the brook at the far end.

Marti and Joe were each other’s plus-ones, just like she wanted. Joe was the best man, though, so he had to be up near Grant and Chelsea, which left Marti alone.

She stood across from Tanner at the other end of the pavilion. Her dress was a deep red color that emphasized the heightened red in her cheeks and the deep red lipstick she’d put on the pouty lips he couldn’t get out of his mind.

The dress hugged her curves in ways that were sinfully delicious and pushed the limits of his control. His hands curled into fists that he stuffed into his pockets to keep anyone from noticing. He knew he loved her the way he had never loved anyone else and would never love anyone else. But it wasn’t enough, was it? Or maybe it was too late, because she already had someone. He had noticed his dark glances in the mirror early that morning, so he fought to keep the emotions at bay. His and his bear’s emotions. He reined it all in and let a numbing dullness seep throughout him.

He wouldn’t remember much of this day, that much he knew. He stood at the edge of the pavilion, near the brook that would normally be able to provide a lullaby for him.

The period antiques that he and Marti had brought in and arranged were splendidly displayed in the foyer, and some in the covered pavilion. There were a lot of people from town here, he noticed: a couple of Mae’s hairdressers, the sheriff, a deputy, a volunteer firefighter, the staff from the local diner.

Everyone cheered.

They must have been pronounced, he guess. The deed must be done. He clapped, let out a whistle, made a smile appear on his face, and wondered if it looked more like a snarling grimace.

Just like the night before, more music, more dancing. Would this ever end? He wasn’t going to stay. He’d changed his mind: he was leaving for New Mexico tonight. He could sulk at home just as well as he could here. And at least there, he could work and get his mind off of Marti.

Everyone was dancing except for him, Marti, Joe, Mae, and Doc.

Just a great big happy family. Tanner swallowed his bad attitude down. He was really being an A-hole. He’d better make sure he kept it hidden.

“Time for the bouquet,” someone yelled.

Everyone moved out of the way, and all the single ladies made a crowd that looked like a beehive of activity. Marti stood at the end of the gathered single women, at the very back. Next to her, Mae pulled Marti in closer, making a tight huddle.

Chelsea turned her back, raised the bouquet in front of her like a sacrificial small animal at an ancient festival, then catapulted the bouquet over her head, backward into the crowd.

Petals flew, scattering among the women, drifting like large white raindrops. The damned thing flew high and hit the pavilion’s ceiling. Tanner bit back laughter as a beam stopped its progress with a thunk. He wasn’t laughing quite so hard when it looked like it was going to land in Marti’s arms.

Marti looked up, a horrified look on her face. She mouthed the word
no
and sidestepped.

What the fuck?
Tanner stared at the white concoction of flowers.

Mae sidestepped too, snatching the bouquet that was going to fall into no one’s arms. All the guests roared with laughter.

All but Marti.

And Tanner.

She looked at him, caught him watching her. The red kiss of a blush rose to her cheeks, coloring them in a delectable way. She looked away, fumbling with her purse as if she were looking for keys, or maybe a tissue to wipe away tears?

Tanner tried to keep an eye on her, but she was shuffled off with the crowd of women who were oohing and ahhing over Mae’s catch.

“Our turn!” one of the townspeople yelled. “Garter time!”

Hell to the no.
Tanner wasn’t sticking around for that shit. He turned, getting ready to pretend that he was looking for the restroom, but a steely grip wrapped around his forearm. He looked at the offending hand, then at the man attached to it.

“Where’re you going?” Teague smiled a knowing look at him. “If I gotta do this, then you gotta do this. You’re not going to leave your brother hanging, are you?”

“You’re the one who has a—” Tanner was going to say
woman
. He was going to say a lot of things that he knew he’d regret.

“What?” Teague’s eyes were turning amber. His bear was ready to take issue with Tanner’s bear, which was nothing unusual. Their bears scuffled on occasion; they always had. It made for an interesting brotherly relationship peppered with rivalry.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Tanner told Teague, though in reality, it was Tanner’s bear putting Teague’s bear on notice.

Tanner strode toward the cluster of single men, making sure he didn’t get in the middle of the throng.

A beaming Chelsea stood at the end of the pavilion, a chair next to her. Grant held her hand for balance as she propped one leg on the chair and he removed her garter.

Tanner thought it was amusing and cute that Grant pretended to guard her from leering eyes by standing in front of her. He made no great show of pulling the garter off, then promptly dropped her dress into place.

Grant twirled the garter around his finger, holding it above his head while the men all around Tanner hooted and hollered.

Just get it over with.
He was ready to get on the road. Of course, he hadn’t told Teague and Mae yet, so he’d have to deal with their resistance, he was sure. He might get away with sneaking out and not saying anything to Teague, but Mae would never let him get away with that. So he’d wait until he could have a moment alone with them. Maybe after Grant and Chelsea had driven off…

He was so absorbed in his thoughts he barely noticed that Grant was treating Chelsea’s garter like a rubber band. It was perched on one index finger and his other hand was pulling it back, just like they’d done when they were kids.

He looked away from Grant for a second to see if Mae was nearby so he could catch a moment with her.

Thwack!

He raised his hand to rub at his cheekbone and found Chelsea’s garter tangled in his fingers.

“Fat chance,” he muttered under his breath. “That ain’t happening.”

He looked up from the garter and found Marti staring at him, then looking at Mae and the bouquet in Mae’s hand.

Hell, no. This wasn’t prophetic. Marti had it all wrong. Tanner’s little teenage crush on Mae was so far in the past that she could be his sister now. The fact was, he regarded her as a sister. He opened his mouth, thinking he should go set things straight with Marti, but brought himself up short.

She has someone, moron. She has someone at home waiting for her.
He blew out a breath. She couldn’t care less that he had caught the garter and Mae had caught the bouquet.

He was going to talk to Mae right now. He had to excuse himself and get out of Dodge. Sure, he felt like an overreacting baby, but he hoped someone would understand, one day, when he bothered to explain it. Right now, he planned to tell Mae he had a pressing project at work.

He caught Mae’s eye and made quick, long strides in her direction.

M
arti couldn’t believe it
. Tanner had caught the garter, and Mae got the bouquet. Marti wasn’t superstitious, but if that wasn’t a sign of things to come, she didn’t know what was.

She bit her lip as hard as she could stand it to keep from giving in to the tears.

She needed to get home anyway. She’d missed Dominic a lot the last few days. She’d been working way too much on this job. Maybe she should rethink the idea of taking any more projects on in Bear Canyon Valley. When she added the drive time in, she lost almost an extra two hours with him. She could have sworn he was growing up and she was missing it all, even though she’d only been on this job for three weeks.

She turned toward the back of the pavilion. She could sneak out and no one would be the wiser. She could lie later on if they asked, and say she was sick. She was at her car in less than thirty seconds, fishing the keys out of her purse as she walked.

Once in her car, she started it and headed out without a backward glance, not even in her rearview mirror.

S
he bathed
Dominic and tucked him into her bed, a habit that he was getting way too accustomed to. She’d have to break him of it.

Why? It’s not like it matters. Who else is in my bed?

She shoved the thought aside, disgusted with herself and the idea that she would always be alone.

Marti kissed her sleeping son and wondered if she wanted to read or watch TV tonight. After shoving her hair into a ponytail, she threw on a tank and a pair of shorts. She clicked the nightlight on in her bedroom, flipped the overhead light off and went into the living room.

She’d just decided that it would be TV and had picked up the remote when a knock on the door made her pause.

Had Heather forgotten something? Marti glanced around, didn’t see anything, shrugged and opened the door.

“Tanner.”

He stood in her doorway, almost as wide as the door itself, arms folded over his big chest. “Couldn’t wait to get away, could you?”

“I… well, I…” What the hell was she supposed to say?
Sure, I want to sit by and watch you hook up with Mae. That’s my heart’s desire.

Fury welled up in her chest at the insensitivity of his question. Couldn’t he tell how she felt about him? Did he have no fucking clue? She lost it. Both palms on his chest, she shoved him. It pissed her off that it didn’t make him budge, not even an inch.

“You’re a bastard, you know that?”

He had the audacity to look shocked. “Me? I’m not the one who has a boyfriend at home waiting for me while I’m making out with someone else, am I?”

“What?” Shit. She hadn’t meant to screech it out.

“Momma?” Dominic peeked his head out from around the corner of her bedroom.

Oh, no. Damn. No.

Tanner turned around.

She could see the questions crossing his face, even though she didn’t know exactly what words he was using.

She could only imagine:
A kid? What? Was that? No. No?

His mouth moved, but it was as though he couldn’t put together a coherent thought.

“You have a son? Where’s the—his fa—”

He studied Dominic as he approached. Marti tried to look at it through Tanner’s eyes.

Dominic. Eyes black as the night. Hair curly, and equally black. His skin pale like hers.

Dominic took two more steps forward.

Tanner sniffed. “He’s…”

“Don’t say it.” Marti snapped, her voice lined with stone. “Do not say it aloud. He doesn’t know.”

“How can he not know? How can you? Why do you…?”

“Sweetie, let’s get you back in bed.”

“Who’s the man, Momma?” Dominic pointed at Tanner.

She sighed. “He’s a friend, baby.”

“He’s like me,” Dominic said.

Tanner gave her a glance.

“What? What do you mean? Yes, he’s a boy, like you.”

“No. He’s a bear, like me.” Dominic’s little face began to change, his skin rippling.

Marti bit back the scream before it could release itself. Her baby boy shifted into a bear cub right in front of her.
Oh. My. God. No. This cannot not be happening.

He was a baby polar bear, his dark bear skin evident beneath his white fur.

Tears welled in her eyes as she looked at Tanner. “Are you happy now? Look at what you did. Look at this.” The tears began to pour out, unbidden and unwanted.

“How are you blaming me? Wait,” Tanner said. “He’s never shifted before?”

“No. Never.” She screamed the words out.

Dominic, in his little polar bear form, roared his unhappiness at his mother’s emotional outburst.

“Come here, baby.” She held her arms out. “Come to Momma. You need to go back to how you were. We need to make rules about when you can do this.”

“Where is his father?” Tanner asked.

“You insensitive brute,” she snapped. “Do not ask me any more questions.”

In her arms, Dominic flailed and made mewling sounds.

“What’s wrong with him? What is it?” Tears erupted from her eyes, joining sobs she couldn’t control.

“Calm down.” Tanner’s voice was completely in control. “It’s his first shift. No one has explained it to him, I’m guessing. And he doesn’t know what to do.”

Dominic snuffled, burying his bear face in her neck. “I can’t help him,” she said. “I’m not a shifter. I don’t know how to help him.”

“I can. Promise me you won’t be afraid?”

“Afraid of what?” Marti was so confused. Her baby was a shifter, and she couldn’t even help him. She hated his father now more than she’d ever hated him. She wished him dead for cursing her son this way.

“This.” With a quick motion and the sounds of bones creaking and moving, Tanner became the largest grizzly she’d ever laid eyes on. Not that she had much experience with grizzlies, or bears at all for that matter, but still…

Dominic stopped crying and mewling. He studied the larger male bear with an obsidian gaze, and reached out a little white paw. Little compared to Tanner’s, but still as large as her own hand.

Tanner put his paw out, let Dominic touch it, sniff it. Dominic crawled out of Marti’s lap and ambled his way closer to Tanner. He made a complete circle around the large bear, then tucked himself under Tanner’s body.

Tanner leaned forward. Marti had no way of understanding exactly what they were communicating, but a series of snuffles, grunts, snorts, and even something that sounded like laughter came from the two bears.

She found herself weeping with joy. She reached for a tissue from the nightstand, sat on the bed, and watched the two bears communicating. Dominic was pale against Tanner’s rich coloration.

She had no idea how much time had lapsed. It seemed like they were that way forever before Dominic left Tanner and made his way back to Marti, put his paw on her thigh, and shifted into her little boy again.

Marti swooped him into her arms, held him close, and buried her face into his chubby little neck.

When she heard the creaking sound she already knew what was happening. She found Tanner back in his own human skin.

“He’s what you have at home,” Tanner said. “Not a man.”

“No. No man.” She glanced at him suspiciously.

“That’s what Dominic said.”

She looked down at her son. He was wiped out; his dark eyes were closing. Then she looked back at the bearded sexy man. “He told you that. He talked to you.”

Tanner nodded.

She lay Dominic down on the bed and covered him with a sheet.

“You should probably…”

She whirled on Tanner, her voice a low hiss. “I should probably what?”

He put his hands up. “Whoa, Marti. You should probably talk to someone about this.” He shook his head, then his too-sexy-for-her-good lips curved into a small smile. “What did you think I was going to say?”

She shrugged, then led him to the living room and took a seat on the sofa. “I don’t know. You have no idea what this has been like for me.”

He sat next to her. “I’m a good listener.” He reached for her hand, his dark gaze with amber highlights holding hers.

Goosebumps made a quick appearance on her flesh. This man had such an effect on her. No matter what was going on in her mind or her life, he affected her.

“Yeah, well, you don’t need to hear my problems.”

“Marti. You’re raising a shifter alone. You don’t know anything about shifters, do you?”

She shook her head. How the hell could she?

“His father?”