Southern Shifters: Inked By The Bear (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Black & White Series Book 2) (4 page)

BOOK: Southern Shifters: Inked By The Bear (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Black & White Series Book 2)
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Humans didn’t normally react that way toward him. They were wary, but motorcycle clubs usually intimidated people. But this was different. She reacted as though they were enemies and that would only occur if she was a shifter.

I'll decide in the morning.

Luke closed his eyes. He’d decide a lot in the morning. For now, he needed sleep.

 

 

 

Chapter Four

 

 

Bex closed her eyes and smiled into the breeze. Gus was back at the house with Luke Blackwood, explaining that in the middle of the night, Gus decided that they wouldn’t be traveling to Gatlinburg. He was explaining that didn’t trust the wolf or his pack enough to lead them anywhere near his family. Explaining that he felt safe in Dandridge, on fairly neutral territory and that Gus’s family would be traveling to them.

She understood his position. She even agreed with it.

Of course, it also meant more shifters in her house.

When Gus told her his plan to bring his family into their home, her nerves got the best of her and she’d walked out of the house. She’d needed to breathe. She’d needed to think. Too many new things and new situations had encroached on her life and the plans she’d made for herself.

Until a few weeks ago, she hadn’t ever been on a motorcycle. Now, other than walking, it was the only way she went anywhere.

And she’d have liked to get on the back of Gus’s bike right then, and disappear into the mountains. She didn’t want anything else to alter in her universe. And aside from Gus, she’d be happy to go back to the way things had been before. At least, then she’d known who she was and where she came from.

She had no answers of her own now. She had only her past and what she remembered of it. She had the memory of her mother’s smile and the smell of apple pie in Autumn. She had stories that people told of their travels and the nights sitting on the back porch roasting marshmallows over an open fire.

It had been home and in times of uncertainty, she was homesick and missing her mother more than she could stand.

Cooler weather was starting to descend on the Tennessee mountains and Bex caught herself before she shivered. Even with the sun shining down on her, warming her face, the breeze kept her cooler than she normally liked.

She stood and stared out at the water for a moment longer. She —

“Bex,” Gus called her name softly from behind her. Funny, he could sneak up on her and she wouldn’t know it, but the wolf? Blackwood? She knew. What the hell did that mean?

She turned and came face to face with a woman. Whatever she might have said or thought to have said vanished from her mind.

Looking at the woman was like looking in a mirror, only an aged one.

“Oh my God,” the woman breathed, as one of her hands floated up to her chest and gripped the fabric of her shirt, directly over her heart. “She’s Rex’s girl.”

“Who?” Gus asked.

“R-Rex. He was my son.” The woman took a step toward Bex whose instinct was to back away, but she held her ground and tentatively took the hand that was extended toward her.

“Hi. My name is Rebecca,” Bex said, introducing herself.

“Hello, Rebecca. My name is Mary. Just look at you. What a beautiful, precious young woman you are and I am so sorry for what son did. I am so, so sorry for you and your mother. I…” Mary’s words trailed off as she stared earnestly, intensly at Bex.

Bex didn’t know what to say. She looked to Gus, who seemed to be looking anywhere except at her. She returned her gaze to Mary. “Thank you. I’m sorry too. Are you… Are you like Gus?”

Mary’s lips tilted in a small smile. “A shifter? Yes.”

“Does that mean I am, too?”

“It seems pretty likely, but we’ll discuss it more. Come,” she gestured. “My brother is anxious to meet you.”

“Your brother?”

Mary nodded and looped her arm through Gus’s, then took Bex’s hand. “My brother is who took Gus in when he was a cub.”

“Oh.”

So, what Luke Blackwood had supposed was actually true. Gus’s adopted family was her family because the man who raped Bex’s mother was part of that family, too.

It was going to be hard enough for her to process, but from the looks of it, it was fucking with Gus. His expression was inscrutable. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking or feeling and it left her feeling like the odd man out and alone. She didn’t like it. Not one bit.

She could handle all that was happening. She didn’t know how, but deep inside she knew she could. She also knew that without his help, his comfort and strength and support, it would be much harder to manage.

She didn’t want to have to do it alone.

Mary left them standing on the porch as she went into the house, presumably to get her brother. Bex stood in front of Gus, gazing up at him, daring him to continue ignoring her.

She tapped her toe on the wooden floorboards until he finally glanced down. “I don’t know what to say to you right now, pretty girl, but I’m thinkin’ if you keep tapping on the boards like that, you’ll tap a hole right through them.”

“Well, that’s a start,” she said, stepping into his personal space and leaning her forehead against his chest.

“I didn’t want it to be true, for your sake. I thought it was probably true, but I didn’t want it to be.”

“I know. I didn’t know what I wanted.” She sighed. “No, that’s not right. I just wanted things to go back the way they were two days ago when it was just you and me. When we were working on the house and you were working on bikes and I was happy, and blissfully ignorant.” She wrapped her arms around him and breathed easier when his arms folded her close. “Please don't shut me out, Gus.”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” he whispered into her hair. Then, kissed the top of her head. “Change is here and we can’t do anything but meet it head on.”

“But, Gus, even you have to admit, things just got a whole lot more complicated and a whole lot weirder.”

“I know. I’m not going anywhere, baby. I wasn’t sure how you’d take the confirmation though, that the people who raised me also raised the man who fathered you.”

It was like some twisted, dark fairy tale. “It has nothing to do with you.” Truth was, she hadn’t known how she’d take it either. It wasn’t Gus’s fault, but if she hadn’t met him, if they hadn’t been attracted to each other,
if if if
. The second Mary told her, Bex knew that it didn’t change how she felt about Gus at all. Might have even strengthened her feelings.

The door to the house opened, the upper hinge creaking and giving away that she and Gus were no longer alone. Bex turned around.

Standing beside Mary, were two men. One younger, one older. Father and son. Both looked at her oddly, surprise in their eyes. Was it because she and Mary resembled one another so much? Or was it something else?

“Rebecca, this is my brother Martin and his son, Michael. Gus’s daddy and brother.”

“Younger brother,” Martin insisted. “She always forgets to add in the younger. Welcome to the family,” he said, tugging her out of Gus’s arms and into his own, enveloping her in a hug.

“T-thank you.” When they parted, Bex smiled. “How much younger?” she whispered.

Martin grinned and winked down at her. “Ten years.”

“And he never lets me forget it,” Mary remarked from behind her brother.

“Even though
you
conveniently try, I don’t,” he said over his shoulder at her. He turned back to Bex. “You are the spittin’ image of Rex, who was the spittin’ image of my sister.”

Michael stuck his hand in. “Hiya, cuz. As my dad said, welcome to the family.”

She’d barely shaken his hand, barely comprehended what he’d called her, when Luke’s voice carried across the porch. “What say, now that the family has been reunited, that we get down to business?”

Gus growled. “Dammit. Blackwood. I told you I’d come get you.”

“Hell, it’s not like my pack and I are a secret. Every one of you knows every one of us are out here. But I don’t have time to sit around on my ass waiting.”

“Hey, asshole, this was your party. You’re the one who started this mess.”

“Actually, I’m not. The one who fathered your woman and the rogue from my pack who trotted off with him, are the ones who started this. I’m just trying to find a solution to my pack dying out. That’s all I care about.”

Martin skirted around his son and sister, taking a a seat in one of the rocking chairs and gesturing for Luke to do the same. “I’m not clear on how one thing has to do with the other.”

Luke glanced at Gus. “You didn’t tell them?”

“Nope. You can explain it.”

“Son of a bitch,” Luke muttered. He took the seat across from Martin. He couldn’t have been oblivious to bears who wanted to rip him apart just for being there, just for being a wolf. Even Bex didn’t like him and he hadn’t done anything to her. Was it because…?

“Before this goes any further,” she started to say, figuring now was better than later to ask her question. “Am I really like all of you? A shifter? A bear? I mean, y’all say I look just like Mary here and that her son looked just like her, too, and she said down by the lake that it’s possible I am one, I just… Am I?”

“Yes,” Gus answered. Bex looked up him. His smile was soft and apologetic. “You’re like us. You are a shifter.”

Mary stepped up and cupped her cheek. Bex’s mother used to do the same thing when she needed to tell Bex something difficult, when she wanted to reassure Bex that she loved her, even if Bex had been bad and misbehaved. It was the first gesture she’d made when she told Bex about the cancer, and the last gesture she made when she told Bex that it was time to let her go.

Bex swallowed back tears and leaned against Gus for support. She wished her mother were there. She wished none of it was true. She wished so many damn things and none of them had anything to do with being part bear.

“You’re my granddaughter. You’re Martin’s niece, and Michael’s cousin. You’re Gus’s mate, too. You’re part of our family. And yes, as Gus said, you’re a bear shifter just as we are.”

“But how do you know? I have seen Gus change from a bear back to a man. I don’t change forms like that.”

“No,” Gus agreed, and went on to explain. “Your bear has likely lain dormant all these years. Different things trigger when it comes out, when it starts to take over. High stress can induce it. So can fear, the need to protect.”

“Blood sensing its mate can, too,” Mary added.

“How does blood sense anything? That doesn’t make sense to me.”

“I know it doesn’t, pretty girl. I know it doesn’t.”

“I understand it,” Luke added. “All of your new found relatives understand it. Shifter blood is different. It contains properties that regular human blood doesn’t. Humans have their guts, their hearts, their brains that they can listen to. They also have stronger doubts about other humans and good and bad and evil. Shifter blood has a separate strain of DNA and the instinct is primal. We know when a mate is close, when we’ve tasted the enemy, when we’re making a bargain with the devil. You’ve lived as a human all your life. Our environment can change who we were meant to become.”

“What are you trying to say, Wolf?” Michael ground out.

“That the damn bear found a human who was strong enough to carry a shifter baby. That it
is
possible. That he didn’t do it the right way, the honorable way, the love and roses way, notwithstanding, he did find a human woman. Maybe she can’t shift. Maybe the DNA isn’t as strong as all that, but I don’t doubt and none of you do either, that she is one. It might take a generation or two of shifter blood to build up in her strain of DNA before offspring will be able to shift, but damn… It’s possible.”

Luke was almost giddy, nearly bouncing in his seat and had Bex not seen it with her own eyes, she’d have never believed it.

“How does that help you?” Martin asked, drawing Luke’s attention back to him.

“Directly? It doesn’t. Indirectly, it gives me hope that my pack will be able to do the same with humans, that we’ll find one’s strong enough to carry pups.”

“I’m going to assume you mean without resorting to violence.”

“That goes without saying.”

“Just checking. Your pack’s reputation precedes you.”

“I’m not saying we’re angels. Hell, we’re not even on the right side of the law sometimes. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

“I’m still not sure what this has to do with all of us. We’re grateful that you stumbled onto this young lady being our kin, but I’m not sure what you get out of it.”

“Do you know what happened to Rex? That’s his name, right? Do you know what happened to him? To the wolf who was with him? To Gus’s birth parents?”

Behind her, Gus tensed, as though bracing himself for something unpleasant. “Luke,” Gus said, the warning clear in his voice.

Martin waved Gus to silence. “Go on,” Martin urged Luke.

“I don’t know everything I need or want to know, but I think I know enough. For instance, I don’t know what happened to your bear specifically, but I know what happened to our wolf. Poachers, not legit hunters. I can’t…” He shook his head and tightened his jaw before continuing. “I won’t go into what they did to him, but the arrows were enough to tell us how he was killed. I’ve been searching for not only a way to keep our bloodlines viable, but also to search out the poachers who had been killing in the mountains. The human authorities can’t help us. They can only do what their laws allow. We abide by slightly different laws, ones that if we work together, we might be able to solve a few of the deaths that have occurred over the years.”

BOOK: Southern Shifters: Inked By The Bear (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Black & White Series Book 2)
9.03Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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