Southern Shifters: Inked By The Bear (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Black & White Series Book 2) (2 page)

“Hunters?”

“Maybe.”

“You think something more?” Luke was doing his damnedest to keep the bear talking, but it was like being stuck between shifts. It was slow and painful, trying to wait, to be patient for the full shift to take place.

“Not sure.”

“Poachers?”

“Could’ve been. Seems to be a serious problem in some areas around the South.”

“Not just here. I’ve heard tell of other areas of the country where poaching is a growing business. Bear skins are being sold at a high rate. Trophies. Maybe one of the reasons I move around so much. If I wasn’t stationary, they couldn’t kill me.”

“Have there been attempts on your life?”

“Not that I know of. But shifters like you and me, like those all over the mountains… We’re all targets. If not among ourselves, then to the outside. I travel. I hear things. I see things. I’m always on guard and I never shift unless I’m in complete isolation from any other animal, pure or half-breed.”

“Which is why survival is crucial. For whatever reason the survival is necessary, it’s crucial we find a way to make it happen. Our female wolves aren’t strong enough anymore. The bloodline is too weak. It needs new blood, stronger blood not weakened by the breeding of wolf to wolf.”

Gus chuckled. “Watch out there, Wolf. You’re baring all your secrets.”

Inwardly, Luke shrugged. Outwardly, he didn’t move a muscle. “Doesn’t matter much. Most know what I’m about, what I’m trying to do.”

“Ensure the survival of your pack. I get that. I still don’t see what that has to do with Bex or what happened to her mother. It was a bear, not a wolf.”

“I know. But you’re a bear.”

The needles stopped moving on his shoulder and the generator stopped its constant hum. Gus wiped at the excess ink, then rolled around on his stool. Bear eyes looked into wolf eyes. “What exactly are you saying, Blackwood?”

“I don’t know. Not yet. Not until I talk to her, hear what she knows. When I was a pup, there was a rumor of a rogue wolf and a rogue bear roaming the woods, stealing into small towns, raping. They weren’t young, but they weren’t elders or leaders either. They teamed up.”

“And you think…?”

“Yeah, I think. I don’t know, but yeah, I think. It’s why I need to talk to her.”

“Was the wolf from your pack?”

Luke didn’t flinch at the question. In some strange way, he even welcomed it. “Yes.”

Chapter Two

The first thing Bex noticed when she got close to the house were the motorcycles. Six more than what would normally be parked there. Was Gus part of a motorcycle club? He’d never said anything and she’d never asked. She’d only assumed he wasn’t because there were no colors or cuts that she’d seen.

She waited, uncertain whether she wanted to cross the street, or turn around and go back to the restaurant. She didn’t see anyone outside, but when she looked up to the attic window, she saw Gus in front of it, looking down at her.

He made it better. With just his gaze meeting hers, he made it better. It astonished her, the comfort she found with him, the warmth she felt when she was with him, the desire for him that filled her every time she looked at him.

She crossed at the corner. He’d keep her safe.

In her backyard, she found five sleeping wolves spread under two oak trees. Why were there wolves in her yard and Wwy wasn’t she more than a little concerned? Was it because of the bear upstairs? Was it because she knew he’d come to her aid if something happened and she was attacked? Then again, it could just be because they were sleeping.

“There’s a really good explanation for all them being here,” Gus said from behind her. Bex turned.

“Are they our first guests?”
Our
. The word struck her in the center of the chest. For so long there hadn’t been an
our
or even the thought of an
our
, not since her mother passed away. And even when she met Gus, she hadn’t thought in terms of them, not in a together sense.

Now, when she looked at him, woke up next to him, made love with him, together was all she wanted. Them. She and Gus.

“In a loose, roundabout way, I guess.”

“Who are they and how did they find us? What do they want?”

“They don’t want anything. It’s their sergeant at arms who does.” Gus stepped closer and something in his voice changed. It set Bex on edge. He was worried. His tone, his eyes… The tension in his body when he looped his hands around the back of her neck. All of it, even when he used his thumbs to lift her chin and kissed her soundly on the lips, she felt the tension.”

“Gus?”

“He wants to talk to you.”

“About what?”

“Your mother and the circumstances surrounding, ah…” Gus shook his head.

“Surrounding her pregnancy with me?”

“Yeah.”

“What if I don’t want to talk to him? What if none of that is his business? Because it’s not. My life is not his business.”

“I know.”

“But you think I should.”

Gus’s discomfort and uncertainty cautioned her more than any other words could. He was troubled. Bex took a deep breath and let it out in a loud exhale. “So, you left a wolf inside our house?” she asked, seeking a smile from her lover. “Did you at least lock the freezer before you came outside? Will there be any meat left?” She winked and when he finally grinned at her, she forced herself to relax. Gus would take care of her.

“I hid it all.”

“He won’t eat me for dinner, will he?”

“Nah.” Gus swatted her on the ass when she passed him on her way to the porch. “But I’ll eat you for dessert.”

“Fair enough.” Their banter and her forward motion stopped when she came face to face with the dark eyed wolf shifter. He was the same one she’d seen with Gus outside the donut shop in Deal’s Gap.

Gus’s hands gripped her hips and held her steady, the front of his body pressed tight to the back of hers. Even in this precarious situation, even while he was there to support and protect her, he was aroused. What had gotten into him? More and more, lately, he was aroused and hungry for her. She didn’t find fault with it, but it was curious and she wanted to know what was going on with him. Right then, was not the time, though.

She also wanted to know what was wrong with her because her thoughts became just as inappropriate.

The wolf bared his teeth and his nostrils flared. His eyes scorched her as he raked her body with his gaze.. She wiggled back into Gus, as far as she could get. His arms wrapped around her and he grunted low in his throat.

“She wants sex,” the wolf snarled.

“But not with you,” Gus retorted.

Bex’s blood heated and her pulse kicked into high gear. She was warm all over, her nipples and breasts tight and full in her bra, her panties damp. She did want sex. A lot of it. And not just sex, but dirty sex. Hard sex. On the floor sex. Ripped clothing sex.

She wouldn’t care who watched either.

This wasn’t like her and the feeling frightened her. “Gus?” She managed to get his name out between parched lips.

“I’m right here, pretty girl.”

“Please…” It was all she could think to say and she hoped he got the message.

The wolf took a step in her direction, but Gus propelled her around behind his back. “No,” he growled. “You walk away, Blackwood. You walk away now. She’s mine.”

Wolf and bear faced off. Bex caught her breath, her face against Gus’s back, but peeking around his side. His muscles twitched. He would shift if provoked, they both would, in broad daylight, in her quiet little area of town. That wouldn’t be a good thing. Not for anyone.

She took Gus by the hand and started to back them toward the front door. “C’mon,” she said softly. “I need you.” It was true. She’d never been as sexually needy as she was right then. She’d never felt the tug as sharp as it was. She wanted sex. She wanted to fuck.

“Gus, please…”

She didn’t know why the wolf had triggered her like that, why the wolf had affected her the way he had. She didn’t want him. She wanted Gus. She didn’t understand what was happening, but when she finally coaxed Gus into the house and slammed the door, leaving the wolf on the porch, she could breathe easier. And she was all over Gus.

“Bex?” Gus was breathing easier, too.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on with me,” she huffed out, stripping out of her jeans and throwing her T-shirt off over her head. “But I need you. I need this.”

“Okay. Far be it from me to argue with a horny woman.
My
horny woman.” He leaned back against the wall, planted his feet and unfastened his jeans. “Come and get me.”

She did. She removed her bra and shimmied her panties down her hips by the time he had his cock out. He stroked himself until she stepped up to him. She was ready to climb him like a ladder, but didn’t have to. He lifted her as though she weighed nothing, and flipped them around until she was the one pressed to the wall. Gus was inside her in one hard, upward thrust.

Bex wrapped her arms and legs around her lover and held on tight as Gus pounded and ravaged her. His mouth grazed her throat, his tongue licked at her pulse and up over her jaw. She met his lips in an open mouthed kiss that stole what was left of her sanity.

She felt whole when she was with Gus, but this time, the animalistic element was new and all encompassing. It was primal and more than lust. It was more, just … more.

Hunger and desire flooded her and her nails scraped his shoulders under his shirt. He’d never had the chance to get completely naked before she was impaled on him. But damn, it felt good. She was full of him, stretched around him, riding a wave of pleasure so keen she saw stars.

“You’re so hot, pretty girl. Come for me, Bex. I know you want to… Just a little more. Fuck me just a little more…”

His words set her on fire. He’d never talked dirty to her like that. They bantered, joked, played, and teased. But she needed his words to send her over the edge.

She held on and bucked her hips into his body, back and forth between the wall and Gus. She arched her neck and he latched onto it with his teeth, biting and sucking until she trembled against him, her muscles squeezing and fluttering around his cock. She cried out when the orgasm crested and Gus growled, his body tightening and jolting through his own release.

He held her there while she calmed. She buried her face in his neck and he wrapped her tightly in his arm, and moved them to the couch in what would become a public gathering room once the bed and breakfast opened. For now, it was the living room. He sat with her straddling his thighs, his cum leaking from between her legs. It was warm and slick and turned her on.

She lifted her head and stared into his questioning eyes. “What’s wrong with me?”

“Why do you think something is wrong with you?”

“Because that wasn’t me.”

Gus smiled and kissed her lips. “Sure as hell was you.”

Bex couldn’t help it and returned the smile. “That’s not what I mean. I want you and like sex with you, but that was completely different and you know it.”

“I do,” he agreed. “I don’t know, though. I don’t know what brought that on. I’m not complaining, though, and I hope you’re not either.”

“No. I’m not complaining. I just want to understand it.”

“Did you want him?”

“No. I didn’t. I don’t… I don’t know how to explain it. I felt… Uncertainty, then hunger. Like lust, only different. It was an almost uncontrollable desire to fuck or fight.” She blushed. The word fuck always made her blush. Turned her on, but made her blush. “It was like he was a threat, and I felt protective.” She dropped her head to Gus’s shoulder. “And really horny.”

“Horny is good.”

“Do you think he’s still out there? Do you think he heard me?”

“Yes to both.”

Bex groaned as a wave of embarrassment rolled over her. It’s disappeared quickly. “And you say he’s here to talk to me? About my mother?”

“Yes.”

“Will you stay with me while I talk to him?”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Bex gave a short nod. “I guess I should get dressed, then.”

* * * * *

“What do you know about the bear who assaulted her?”

Bex sat on the front porch next to Gus. They sat in her favorite place. The swing. Luke Blackwood sat across from them in one of the six rocking chairs Bex had bought second hand and refinished. All the rockers were mismatched, but that’s what she’d been going for. She didn’t want a place that was perfect and pretentious. She wanted warm and welcoming.

She wanted the comfort her mother had extended to her guests for so many years. A home away from home.

The wolf shifter didn’t make her feel comfortable. He made her feel twitchy and unstable. She didn’t understand it. She didn’t like it.

When she and Gus had stepped back outside, Luke had been sitting exactly where he was now.

The arousal that had assaulted her before was still there, simmering beneath the surface. What the hell was going on?

“Bex?” Gus whispered in her ear.

“Right. Sorry. I… She never talked about him much. And she never talked to me about him. She died never knowing about the conversations I overheard.”

“She told someone else about a shifter? A human?”

“Yes. After… They had talked him for years before I understood what they were saying. She was always referencing back to earlier conversations, he was always asking for more details.”

“Who? Who was asking?”

“The father of her missing fiancé. Why does any of this matter?”

Luke tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair, agitated. “Scent doesn’t usually transfer. It’s biological, in the case of shifters. We know when someone doesn’t belong and at times can even tell where someone comes from.”

“Okay. What does that have to do with me? I’m not a shifter. I’m not like you or Gus.”

“Are you sure?”

“They did tests when I was an infant.”

“Shifter DNA doesn’t always manifest itself at birth. It can mask. Cloak itself, if you will, until later in life. It’s usually around the early teen years, especially in males. I’ve known some females who didn’t shift or weren’t able to shift until, well… Until…”

Bex shook her head. Luke was clearly having trouble with his words. At least he was as uncomfortable as she was. She knew exactly what
until
meant, but nothing else was making much sense. “What are you saying?”

“I —”

“Hold on. Are you saying that you think I’m a shifter?” She heard the panic in her voice and the tightening of Gus’s fingers on her shoulder told her he heard it too. “No. No. I can’t be. I just…” She shook her head. “No.”

“I know it’s hard, but it is possible. The reaction you had before tells me something about being in the proximity of a wolf, an enemy, so to speak, changes you, makes some part of you sit up and take notice.”

“I don’t want you.”

Luke chuckled. “Believe me, I got that message loud and clear.”

“Then… What?”

“Just tell her, Blackwood.”

“Just tell me what?”

“The bear who assaulted her, wasn’t the only rogue shifter roaming the mountains back then. There was also a wolf. It’s how I got involved in all this. I wanted to know what had happened to him.”