Page 12 of Choose the Bears

Most bears had nothing to do with the fox shifter community. They were seen to be dirty, thieving vermin rather than fellow shifters. The thing was, for the right money, they could provide a very useful service. Feral fox colonies had developed all over the city, and some of them were run by shifters. They had eyes and ears on everyone and everything, especially in the shittier parts of town.

“I’m still staying.” I dared each one of them to contradict me with my gaze, satisfied only when they both shook their heads in surrender.

“I’ll call Ursula, have her send out another car for pick up,” Asher said. “You start with the boxes and I’ll be up shortly.”

That settled, Kyle and I moved, loading up boxes high, the weight barely perceptible with our shifter strength.

“It fucking sucks what Imogen is going through,” he said in a low voice as we walked towards the steps. “I hate that we found her right as she was breaking up with that dickhead, but…”

What if we hadn’t arrived when we did? What did Phil intend to do to her? Nothing good, the viciousness of his response making clear his motivations. All I could see was Mary and her two kids when they’d walked in our door. Claws punctured the boxes, much to my chagrin, because right then it was Imogen’s distraught face I saw, not Mary’s. The bear roared his denial of that. I shook my head, taking a moment to regain control and then climbed the stairs.

Nothing would touch my girl, nothing. I’d take fur, unleashing hell on whoever tried, and damn the consequences. Every day I got up to help abuse victims because it was the right thing to do, but now… My fangs ground together. Now it was personal.

Chapter 7

Asher

“Mama Lisica has sent her boys to help?” I drawled as three red-haired men approached. Mama was the matriarch of one of the biggest fox shifter clans in the city. Rye nodded, shooting me a sly smile.

“Anything for the good people of Bear Paw Security.”

“For a price,” I replied, not getting sucked in by his bullshit for a second.

“Always.” Todd, his cousin, held his hands out from his sides. “You know how this shit works.” He glanced up at the apartment building. “You want someone watched discreetly and our animals are the best for the job. So, who’re we watching? Some scumbag who roughed up his wife? A fucked up stalker?”

“My fated mate.”

It felt weird saying that, like I was standing before them naked or something. Shit, being naked would feel less vulnerable than this. Shifters were less fazed by nudity, having to move from skin to fur at short notice, but this… I stared each man in the eyes, waiting for the smart comments to come, but Rye just nodded.

“Fated mate?” Wyatt was the quieter one of this skulk, and his eyes darted from one of his cousins to the next. “We need?—”

“I know.” Rye’s shit-eating grin was gone and something real replaced it. “Your mate is in danger? There’ll be no charge for this. I’ll square it with my grandmother.” He shook his head slowly. “Maybe one day we’ll need your services. You’ll owe us a favour instead.”

I hated getting into any deal where everything wasn’t spelled out, but there was something in Rye’s, in all of their eyes that had me nodding.

“OK.”

“So who’re we looking out for?” Todd asked, some of his usual cocky bullshit back in his gaze. “Jealous boyfriend? A competitor you wanna take out? For a real big favour, we could ‘remove’ him for you.”

I wanted to think that whoever treated Imogen like that would be no threat, but I knew. That look of horror, not new or fresh, but ongoing and soul destroying, that came into her eyes when she walked into that place. She’d experienced it over and over until it became normal for her. I was willing to bet she felt both completely elated and yet also a strange kind of free-floating anxiety upstairs in her new apartment. She’d escaped him and the dump that they shared, but the scars would remain.

“Bears don’t off their rivals,” I snapped, and that had Todd grinning. “I just need to know if anyone is coming around, sniffing at her door. One of my guys will be here, but?—”

“We can be places you can’t,” Rye replied, and with a sigh he took fur, a pile of leather and cashmere was left where a man once was, a fox sitting in the middle of it.

“Always ditching his clothes, like these don’t cost a fucking mint,” Todd sighed, picking them up and shoving the lot of them into Wyatt’s arms. The other man frowned, eyes narrowing, but he took them over to their car. “Don’t worry.” He shot me a longlook and there was more things in there than I understood, but I wasn’t about to go digging. “We’ll keep an eye on your girl. Do it in shifts and report back to Ursula?—”

“Me.” Now I was really hanging my arse out for everyone to see. “You contact me. I’ll give you a number that you need to use if you see anyone or anything weird happening around here. A guy stands too long outside her door? Call me. Someone talks to her too much on the stairs? Call me. If?—”

“Someone breathes too close, gets too near to the one woman you think of as yours.” Todd tried for a broad grin, but I saw the pain there, one that hadn’t existed before now. “We know.”

“You—”

“Found our fated mate?” Todd raked his fingers through his spiked hair. “Yeah, we did.”

“Not that the process of convincing her to be ours is going all that well.” Wyatt shot his skulk mate a dark look. “Thanks to you.”

“No one’s ever accused me of being slow on the uptake,” Todd said to me. “We’ll make sure your girl is kept safe. Gimme that number.”

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