Ready to Bear Read online

  “Tell me that’s not what I think it is,” Eric said as he stepped closer to examine it. For once, it appeared he let his arrogance go. “And if it is, it can’t be real.”

  “What is it?” Thea looked confused.

  Billy met Eric’s eyes. “Unfortunately, it’s exactly what it looks like. And if how I’m feeling right now is any indication, it looks like this is one old wives tale that might just be true.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Thea didn’t understand the tension that kicked up in the room as the two men eyed each other and the scratch on Billy’s arm. She kept looking at it herself, realizing the angry red gash that looked as if it hurt had some significance that she didn’t know or understand. It was important. Billy and Eric knew what it meant, though, and she didn’t appreciate that neither one of them seemed in a rush to bring her into their party.

  “So will somebody let the human in on the secret?” she finally asked. “We can take him to see Dr. Wilson if this is some kind of issue as soon as we get him out of here.”

  “This doesn’t quite fall into Dr. Wilson’s specialty,” Eric said. Although Thea could tell his words were meant to be humorous, she didn’t see any laughter in his eyes.

  “Yeah, I got that this is a shifter thing,” Thea said sarcastically. “So what’s the big deal? It looks like a scratch. Billy should heal on his own, right?”

  “How long ago did this happen?” Eric asked, ignoring her question.

  “An hour,” Billy said.

  “Any chance of still being able to track them down?”

  “Depends on how good your sniffers are,” Billy said. “There were a lot of them, though, Eric. More than just a few wolves trying to intimidate me. I think they had an agenda. I barely managed to get out of there with my hide intact.”

  “Our sniffers are the best,” Eric said. He pulled out his phone. “We’ll go to where they jumped you and pick up the trail from there.”

  “There’s no guarantee you’ll find this one again. It’s a big city.”

  “Would you prefer that I didn’t bother trying? I’m sure that would go over well with your alpha.”

  “I figured you didn’t give a shit what my alpha thought.”

  “I’m not going to have it on my hands if his sheriff up and croaks in my city. Somehow, I think that would cause our already strained relations to break apart.”

  Croak? “Stop!” Thea yelled. Both men looked at her in surprise. “Somebody slow down and explain this to me, please. Stop being shifter dicks.”

  A corner of Billy’s mouth curled up in a grin. “Shifter dicks? I think that’s a new one I’ve never heard before.”

  Eric rolled his eyes. “Oh, she’s got more where that came from. Believe me.”

  Thea looked back and forth between them with her hands on her hips. Billy finally stood up. “Look, I’m sure that both Eric and I would be happy to explain it to you in the car. These are matters better left for conversations elsewhere.” His eyes cast up into the corners of the room. Thea realized that he was indicating the cameras.

  “Fine,” she said. “I’ll go take care of your bail.”

  “Thank you,” Billy said.

  “Expedited process,” Eric said. He hit a number on his phone and looked back at Billy. “The sooner we get on this the better. Thea, you’re going to need to clear my calendar for the day.”

  “Great, more work for me to take care of,” she grumbled as she moved out the door.

  Fifteen minutes later, they walked out of the police station with Billy in tow. There were two cars waiting for them at the curb.

  “I’ve got to go see Tony,” Eric said. “He might have some ideas on where these punks might be, especially since, well, you know. They’re wolves and all. Thea will take you to see Dr. Clarkson.” Thea’s eyebrows rose. Dr. Clarkson’s version of medicine was more than a little on the skewed side of the fence. “We’ll meet you at the park in two hours.”

  “The scent might have gone cold by then,” Billy started to protest.

  “We’ll organize as quickly as we can,” Eric said. “In the meantime, it’s not going to do anyone any good if you keel over. Dr. Clarkson should be able to give you something.”

  Thea could tell that Billy wanted to argue further, but he finally closed his mouth and nodded grimly. Eric got into the first car, and it sped away before she and Billy had even managed to walk to the other. They got in, and there was a pause as the car pulled away from the curb.

  Thea turned to Billy. “So, can you tell me what’s going on now? I’ve never seen Eric like that.”

  “Your stepbrother is covering his ass, which, by the way, is exactly what I’d be doing right now if the situation was reversed,” Billy said. “I’d love to tell you it had something to do with a concern for my well-being, but it’s all politics.”

  “Well, I’m concerned about your well-being,” Thea said. “So maybe you can slow down and explain it to the rest of the class. I’m feeling quite a bit behind.”

  Billy stared at her. His look was so intense that she almost squirmed in her seat. “I’m sorry. Things have been moving fast,” he finally said. He put a hand on his shoulder, and Thea saw him wince. “This is one of those situations that is always a possibility, especially in my line of work, but you hope to God that it never actually happens.”

  Thea nodded for him to continue.

  “What do you know about the various shifter species, Thea?” Billy asked.

  Thea was surprised. That wasn’t the question she expected. “I know there are lots of them,” she said. “Or more than I would have expected. But it seems like the primary ones are bear, wolf, panther, lion, and eagle.”

  “It’s a start,” Billy said with a wry grin. “Last count, there are fifteen separate species and more than a few hybrids. We discover more every year.”

  “I didn’t realize that,” Thea said. “I guess I should pay better attention when Eric, Tony, and Kyle talk about that kind of stuff.”

  “My guess is they don’t talk about that kind of stuff around you as a general rule of thumb,” Billy said. “Even though you’re related to Eric by marriage, it’s different. Shifters maintain a certain level of secrecy because it’s not safe if our enemies realized that there are some very common weaknesses that we all have.”

  “Your enemies? You make it sound like you’re in some kind of war,” Thea scoffed.

  “Well, it isn’t that overt, but there are a lot of people out there who are more than a little bit uncomfortable with the idea of sharing their world with shifters,” Billy said. “That’s part of why Lukas is so adamant that all of the species band together peacefully.”

  Thea caught the emphasis on the last word. “Peacefully. That seems like that would be a difficult task.”

  “Yes,” Billy said, looking out the window. “If not impossible, but if there is a man who could make it happen, Lukas Kasper could.”

  “So the shifter lesson is interesting, but that doesn’t tell me why you and Eric are on such high alert right now?”

  “The way I always heard it explained was that in every natural setting, Mother Nature installs a kind of checks and balances. I’m sure the idea is that no one species can become too powerful. It’s along the same lines as natural selection. Survival of the species, survival of the fittest, all comes down to a multitude of different things. But in the case of shifters, it was rumored that there were certain species and bloodlines within those species that were quite literally toxic to others.”

  Thea felt her insides grow cold. “Shifters can heal quickly though. Surely that would offset any kind of ill-effect.”

  Billy pulled up the sleeve of his shirt again. Thea gasped. The wound on his arm had started to open. The edges were angry red. “Shifter healing doesn’t help when you are attacked by another shifter that has the ability to poison you with his bite or scratch. It can be lethal. The only reason I’m not already dead is because this is a scratch and not a bite. The effects are
slower this way.”

  “Can be lethal? This seems crazy,” Thea said. “How have I not heard about anything like this before?”

  “Well, because we’re all a lot more civilized these days,” Billy said with a sigh. “Despite how it might appear, there are still a lot fewer of us than humans. Most of the clans are very careful about mates and how different bloodlines are propagated. The Greyelf Clan is a legacy clan, though.”

  “Legacy? What does that mean?” Thea wished there was a manual or something. This was all sounding terribly complicated. She wondered what Alex had inadvertently been born into. Did her mother know any of this when she pursued Robert Carmichael?

  “It means that the Kasper bloodline is one of the original shifter bloodlines. All of the Greyelf Clan members share it as long as they are part of the clan.”

  “But the Greyelf Clan isn’t your biological clan,” Thea said.

  “Once you join the clan, you’re blood bound to the alpha. I’m Greyelf now whether I was born into it or not. It’s nice to know you’ve been checking up on me, by the way,” Billy said.

  Thea blushed, realizing that she had let her mouth run off without thinking about it. She stiffened in her seat. “I pay attention to the shifter news. I am related to a prominent shifter family, you know.”

  “I do know,” Billy said. He turned his head and looked out the window. “I feel bad for you, actually. This isn’t something you should have to deal with. I’m sorry for the intrusion.”

  Thea felt her blood start to boil. “You make it sound as if I had a choice, I would have chosen something different. Look, just because I’m human doesn’t mean that I don’t care about anyone other than humans. I think this talk of ‘us vs. them’ is part of the problem. And if that’s the message your alpha is actually preaching, then we are going to have a problem.”

  “Hatred will live and breed no matter what we do,” Billy said. His head fell back against the headrest. “When you’ve lived in the world like I have, you realize pretty quickly that evil sometimes hides in plain sight. Trusting people becomes difficult, and you start to believe that there is always someone out there who is trying to take something away from you.”

  Thea wondered what had happened to Billy in his past that he would have such a pessimistic, jaded view of the world. It seemed like a miserable place to be and live in, and that wasn’t the sense that she had gotten from him before at all. “How are you feeling?” she asked.

  “Like I’ve been hit by a Mack truck,” Billy said. “I’d like to play the macho role right now, and act like it doesn’t hurt at all, but I don’t think I’d be very convincing.”

  “You don’t have to play the macho guy around me,” Thea said. “I think you did that well enough last night, anyway.”

  Billy’s eyes met hers again. She felt as if she could drown in them. There were so many things that she felt as if she could read there if she just had the time.

  “You are an amazing woman,” Billy finally said, breaking the silence.

  “You don’t even know me,” Thea said.

  “I’ve done my research too,” Billy said with a small chuckle. “Thea Philips, reclusive step-daughter of Robert Carmichael. Studied at Cornell. Was beat out for valedictorian of her class by some joker from California who managed to earn a bare point tenth of a percent better on his GPA than you. You immediately went to work for Eric right after graduation. I’ve heard chatter that you are amassing a small fortune of your own with some handy stock trading, no doubt due to your affinity for numbers.”

  “I guess you did your homework too,” she said. She hadn’t ever thought that anyone would take more than a passing interest in her. She needed a lot of money to be able to invest in everything she needed to set-up a vineyard, and she wasn’t going to ask Robert or Eric for a dime. She wanted to do it on her own.

  “It’s…”

  “Part of your job,” Thea finished. She thought that his face looked paler than before in the jail. He nodded to her, and as he opened his eyes again, Thea could see that a feverish glow had risen in his cheeks.

  “I hope that doctor isn’t far off,” he said. His voice held a low note that made Thea’s eyes widen. “I also hope that he’s got plenty of room and a lock on the exam room door.”

  “What’s happening?”

  “Nothing good,” Billy said. He scooted further away from her in the seat. “I just think the sooner we get there, the better.”

  Thea took his hand even though he tried to brush her away. She knew that he was anxious, and she sensed that he was concerned about losing control. She wanted to do something to distract him.

  She started to massage his palm. “Tell me your story, William Miller. I haven’t read anything about a mate in your life.” It was a brash question, and she still stumbled a bit over the word “mate.” It held such a strange connotation, but she understood that it was important to use the language that was most familiar to him.

  “There’s not a lot to tell,” Billy said. He let his head fall backward again. “Mates are hard to come by. It’s not like dating for humans.”

  “Why not?” Thea just wanted to keep him talking about something that was fairly benign and had nothing to do with scratches, poison, or war. There would be enough of that talk later. She was growing more concerned about Billy’s well-being by the moment.

  “It’s complicated,” Billy said. “First of all, when you’re a shifter, you’re supposed to stick to mating with those of your species. Well, I mentioned before that there aren’t that many of us out there. Then, if you look at the humans, most of the women who are interested in me just want to put a shifter notch in their bedpost. They don’t understand what it means to be a mate to someone who lives in my world.”

  Thea found that she was jealous of those women who had that kind of intimate knowledge about Billy. “That sounds like most men I know. They don’t have to be a shifter to just want to get me in the sack.”

  “Can you blame them? You’re beautiful,” Billy said.

  Thea kept rubbing his hand. She didn’t look up at him. He had called her beautiful. Not pretty. Not cute. Beautiful. There was something about the way he said the word that made her believe him.

  “Well, most guys think the Carmichael money is the main attraction,” she said. “Plus, I’m boring.”

  “I doubt that,” Billy scoffed. His voice sounded more relaxed now.

  “I go to work. I take care of Alex. I fight regularly with Eric. That’s about the extent of my life.”

  “It seemed like you and Sophie were close,” Billy said.

  “Sophie and Eric tried dating once, a million years ago,” Thea said. She smiled at the memory. “Those two are like oil and vinegar. But Sophie is one of the smartest women I’ve ever met. She told Eric and Kyle everything they were doing wrong with the club, and they put her in charge of the bar. Last time I heard, the liquor profits had more than quadrupled since she took over.”

  “So you don’t spend a lot of time at Urban Dwellers? You seem like you’d be a dream on the dance floor,” Billy said. His voice had gotten low and gravely.

  Thea looked up at him then and realized with a start that he had fallen asleep. Or at least, she hoped that’s all it was. At that moment, she felt the car stop. She looked out the window with a frown. The driver came around and opened the door for her. She gently brushed Billy’s shoulder.

  “Billy, we’re here,” she said.

  Thea let out a small gasp when a head popped into the door next to her. It was heavy with wrinkles and deep angry circles beneath his eyes. His burning gaze swept briefly over Thea and then settled on Billy. Thea wasn’t quite sure how it was possible, but the ugly face got even uglier. She knew who he was even though they had never met in person. This was the elusive Dr. Clarkson.

  “I’m surprised he’s still alive,” Dr. Clarkson said.

  “Of course, he’s still alive,” Thea snapped. “What are you going to do with him? I want to know everything.�
�� Dr. Clarkson was the resident shifter doctor, but he practiced the kind of medical mischief that no other doctor was willing to touch. Which meant that Eric kept him on retainer. Dr. Clarkson was the one who cleaned up the fight participants and ensured that nobody gave a thought to suing the ones in charge of organizing the fights.

  “I hardly think you’re in a position to dictate anything about this one’s care,” Dr. Clarkson said.

  Billy opened one groggy eye. “I hope your medical skills are better than your face.”

  Dr. Clarkson gave a gruff laugh. “If you can walk, let’s go. Otherwise, I’ll have this thug of a driver bring around a wheelchair.”

  “I can do it,” Billy said. Thea quickly climbed out of the car and turned back to help Billy get out. She could tell that he wanted to push her away, but his legs started to buckle as soon as he got out of the car.

  She caught Dr. Clarkson’s eye roll. Now that she was standing next to him, she saw that he barely came up to her shoulder. Considering Thea wasn’t that tall to begin with, she rarely experienced the feeling of towering over an adult – male, female or shifter.

  “Help him before he embarrasses himself by passing out in front of his lady friend,” Dr. Clarkson said to Cal, the driver.

  With Thea under one arm and Cal under the other, they slowly helped Billy as he limped after the doctor.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  When he told Thea that he felt as if he had been run over by a Mack truck, Billy was underestimating his true state. He felt like death warmed over. His insides felt cold, yet his flesh burned. He felt the gnashing of his bear inside of him, and he feared that he would shift inside the town car. The results of that would be disastrous.