Ready to Bear Read online

  Somehow, Thea had managed to keep him calm. She didn’t falter or waver in the slightest, even though she had to realize how close he was to losing control. It took everything he had in him to focus on her voice and keep the bear at bay. He understood why the bear was so agitated. It wasn’t as if they faced death every day.

  As Billy sat in the jail cell waiting for Thea to arrive, he had thought long and hard about what happened to him in the park. He was more certain than ever that it had been a set-up for his benefit, and that he hadn’t been a random target. The chances of being attacked by a wolf shifter who had a strong enough tie to the legacy bloodline was a one in one thousand chance. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

  He didn’t like that he had to trust his care to a doctor that he didn’t know, but he knew that his time was growing shorter with each passing moment. The poison’s effect was taking hold in his body, and it wouldn’t be long before it took him over. He couldn’t let that happen. There were too many things that he hadn’t done yet.

  It wasn’t until that moment that Billy realized how much he yearned for a mate and a family to call his own. He should have been looking for her. He should have been living his life to the fullest. But instead, he had let fear and a sense of guilt force him to the remote part of the Minnesota wilderness where he lived and worked in the shadow of other great men. That was because he had feared that he didn’t have it in him to be a great man himself.

  Now it might be too late.

  He heard Thea talking to someone, and that was what caused him to open his eyes. The face peering at him from across Thea’s still form was the kind of face you see in nightmares. Another click fell into place in his mind. He hadn’t registered it earlier when Eric told Thea to take him to see Dr. Clarkson.

  Dr. Clarkson was another name on Lukas’s shitlist, which seemed to get lengthier by the day. The reason it was on there had to do with human and shifter medical experiments and trials testing unknown drugs and other insidious kinds of things that Billy probably didn’t want to know. He took no comfort at all in the idea that this was the man who was supposed to help him.

  “Are you sure I can’t talk you into taking me to see a real doctor?” Billy mumbled under his breath as he allowed himself to be practically carried across the sidewalk toward a low-slung brick building that had clearly seen better days. In fact, he cast a glance up and down the sidewalk in either direction. It wasn’t a street he would have cared to walk down during the day even if the sun was bright and high in the sky. He felt the weight of many pairs of eyes, even though there wasn’t a soul to be seen anywhere. That was odd enough considering they were in a massive city.

  “Great neighborhood,” he said.

  “In my line of work, obscurity in places where no one would go looking for you is best,” Dr. Clarkson sniffed as he pushed the door open and stepped aside motioning for them to go in front of him. “You’ll find the examination room right through the door straight ahead. If you can get him onto the exam table, even better.”

  The first thing Billy smelled was iodine and the antiseptic smell that was commonly associated with hospitals. The walls were covered by tall file cabinets that seemed to be overflowing with paperwork. A small desk shoved in the corner was similarly stacked with charts and papers.

  “Nice place you got here,” Billy croaked.

  “Shhh,” Thea said. “Let’s keep the sarcasm to a minimum, okay? If this is the person that Eric thinks can help you, you should zip it before he says no.”

  “Wise words,” Dr. Clarkson said. “But just so it’s clear, my services aren’t free or cheap.”

  “I’ll arrange whatever you need,” Thea said. “Just get on with it.”

  Billy wanted to argue, but then a lightning bolt of pain in his abdomen caused him to trip and double over. He fell heavily to his knees and grabbed his middle.

  “Don’t you dare phase in my office!” Dr. Clarkson yelled.

  Billy felt the bear surge forward, and that was when he felt the needle plunge into the base of his neck. The world immediately went black.

  “What did you give him?” the words came from a female. Muffled. Her voice was taut with tension.

  “A sedative.” Another voice. Older. Grouchy. “And be glad that I did. You might find the idea of a shifter male appealing for some godawful reason, but believe me, you have no desire to meet the beast who resides within him.”

  “I’ve seen men shift before,” Thea said. “They are in control.”

  “This man is delirious and on the verge of death. His beast will assume full control at the first possible sign of weakness because it is a matter of survival. The beast within us always wins in those situations.”

  Dr. Clarkson - always the optimist, it seemed.

  “What can you do for him? Money is no object.” That was Thea. Thea Philips. Billy felt his insides wince at the idea that she felt the need to pay for him. Lukas would wire whatever funds were necessary. But he would worry about that later. At the moment, he couldn’t feel his limbs.

  “I can make him more comfortable,” Dr. Clarkson said. “Even I am not a miracle worker to be able to do anything more than that.”

  “What does that mean?” Thea’s voice held a note of fear. Billy thought for a moment that it was possible that she cared about him the same way that he cared about her, but of course, that was silly. She was human. She didn’t feel the same mate bonding that shifters did. Still, he appreciated her kindness, even though he felt that it was probably out of a desire to even the stakes between them.

  He opened his eyes. The light above him was blinding. He was relieved that his arm followed his command to move up and block the light. “It means that a shifter wound like a scratch or bite from an enemy legacy bloodline only has one cure.”

  “Thank God, you’re awake,” Thea said. She leaned over him, and he wanted to nuzzle at her hand as she rested her hand on his forehead. “I was afraid we weren’t going to get you back.” Her hair fell onto the side of his face and tickled there. He wasn’t about to push it away though. Instead, he drank in the smell of her closeness.

  “He’s right,” Dr. Clarkson said, breaking up Billy’s focus. “Despite the years of studying and…research…that I’ve done on legacy bloodlines, I haven’t been able to replicate an antidote to this kind of poison.”

  Thea hadn’t taken her eyes off of him. “You said there was a cure.”

  “Not the easiest thing to procure,” Dr. Clarkson said. “Especially since the one who does the clawing and biting usually does so for a reason.”

  “Why is everyone insisting on talking in shifter riddles today?” Thea said. Her words didn’t carry any of their earlier fire.

  “The one who clawed me. I need his blood,” Billy said. The idea itself was grotesque and wrong on so many levels, yet it was what it was.

  Thea’s mouth fell open. “Are you serious?”

  “Mystical, magical, whatever you want to call it. Bordering on vampirism, I guess you’d say.” Dr. Clarkson had moved to his desk. He shuffled around several batches of papers and appeared to be looking for something. “The whole shifter lore is filled with these kinds of rules that would fail any reasonable medical rhyme or reason today. Yet, it exists and is as real as any other vaccine or antidote in the world.”

  “I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Thea said. Billy wasn’t going to continue to have the conversation lying down. He moved to sit up, and Thea put her hand against his chest. It felt good. Her touch was like a balm on his temperament. His bear had gone completely silent.

  “The sedative you gave me,” Billy said. “How long is it supposed to last?”

  “Long enough,” Dr. Clarkson said. He pulled out a piece of paper and held it up in the air. “Aha! Here it is. Yes.” He moved across the room and handed the piece of paper to Billy. Thea looked over his shoulder. He loved the fact that she was so close to him that her soft breast pressed against his arm. He knew that he had much bigger things to be th
inking about, but if he was going to die anyway, he figured he’d enjoy the small stuff while he could.

  The piece of paper had a crude tree drawn on it that could have easily passed for a genealogical family listing. Except instead of individual names on the tree branches, there were clan names. Billy recognized most of them, but the ones at the top he didn’t think he had ever heard of before.

  “What is this?” he asked.

  “I’ve been studying the shifter bloodlines since before you were born,” Dr. Clarkson said. “You probably think the Greyelf Clan was one of the original shifter clans, but it wasn’t. All of the current clans can be traced back to those four clans.” He pointed to the top. “The bear shifters didn’t evolve until the second dynasty. Before that, there were ancient forms of the clans as they existed today.”

  “I think I’d know more about shifter lore than you do,” Billy scoffed. Yet he didn’t look away from the paper. The Greyelf Clan was indeed on the second tier of branches down from the top.

  “Nobody knows more about shifter lore than I do,” Dr. Clarkson said. He didn’t appear to be ruffled by Billy’s tone. “The point of this diagram is simply to show you that most of you walk around thinking there is one legacy clan out there that can do this type of harm to you. In fact, there could be as many as three.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Each of the four original clans eventually evolved into a new species, and as they mated with humans, the bloodlines were further diluted. Some of the clans kept a strict code of only mingling with those in their clan for many generations, and the average shifter lives thirty years longer than his human counterpart. Several new species evolved later, but those bloodlines were never as strong as the original four. Then there was the eventual crossbreeding between shifter clans. But the fact of the matter is, the closer the alpha is to the source of the original clan, the stronger his clan’s susceptibility to being wounded in this fashion.”

  “Hold on,” Billy said. He swung his legs around to the edge of the table. He tested out putting his feet on the floor and was delighted to find that his legs were able to support his full weight. Thea hovered next to him. “If all of this is true, why doesn’t everyone know that?”

  “The alphas do know it,” Dr. Clarkson said. “But even the knowledge of the poisonous bite of a legacy clan isn’t well-known. You being a council member and all, of course, you would know it.”

  Billy tried to think of who he had spoken to or had spoken to him about the poison carried by a wound inflicted by a legacy clan enemy. He thought the first time he might have heard it was when he was little and overheard his grandfather talking about it.

  “So what you’re saying is, this bite is poisonous to me only because of the clan I belong to, and the fact that the Greyelf alphas have been cautious about their generational mating over the years?” If that was true, Lukas had done even a further service to his clan by deciding to take a human as his mate.

  “The dilution of the bloodlines has occurred in almost all the clans. The younger generations are likely not susceptible anymore. They might be bitten and feel as if they come down with the flu that eventually passes. Yes, this is more dangerous for you because the Greyelf alpha bloodline is still strong.”

  “Just my luck,” Billy grumbled.

  “So we just have to find him,” Thea said. It was the first time she had spoken in several minutes. Billy wondered if she thought the world around her had gone insane. He sure as hell felt that way.

  “Easier said than done,” Billy said. He looked back at Dr. Clarkson. “I feel okay, better than okay actually.” It was true. He made several fists with his hands and marveled at the power and energy he felt coursing through him. He knew that it was a high from the drug, but he’d take it. “How long am I going to feel that way?”

  Dr. Clarkson shrugged. “It could be a couple of hours. It could be a couple of days. There’s really no way to tell for certain.”

  “Guess we’d better get on our way, then,” Billy said. “Anything else I can do to slow the effects of the poison in the meantime?”

  “I wouldn’t suggest trying to exert yourself physically, and I absolutely wouldn’t phase. Period. That will do nothing but burn through the medication because the bear’s metabolism is much faster than your human form.”

  “Shouldn’t be a problem,” Billy said. He nodded at Thea, who turned to the doctor and handed him a card.

  “Call that number, and tell them the fee. They’ll wire the funds over today.”

  Billy thought he could see the gleam in Dr. Clarkson’s eye. “Excellent. Always a pleasure to do business with the Carmichaels.”

  Thea rolled her eyes, and Billy motioned for her to lead him out the door. Back out on the street, he saw the anxiousness cross her face again. The way she was able to shift from strict professionalism to warmth and back again was amazing and fascinating to watch.

  She pulled out her phone and showed him that she had a text from Eric. “We’re supposed to meet them at the park in 45 minutes.”

  “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.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  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.