Page 126 of Choose the Bears

“I’ve got news,” I said, cutting my brother off. “That… parcel Asher wanted me to bring down? It’s been stolen. Got knocked out cold with a hit to the head and some prick stole my car and all my shit.”

“Fuck… Where are you? Mount Crawford?”

“At the campgrounds,” I replied.

“Sit tight, brother. We’re on our way.”

As if I had a choice otherwise. I handed the phone back with a grateful nod, wincing as the pain in my head exploded.

“My family is on their way.”

“I’ll get you some water and some pain relief,” the ranger said. “Pretty sure you need to see a doc… Huh, that cut doesn’t actually look that bad.”

And I needed him gone before it healed before his eyes.

“Thanks, I’d appreciate it,” I told him.

Chapter 65

Asher

“He what…?”

I’d told Imogen that I wouldn’t go after Phil Jackson, but when I heard Bjorn’s voice down the line, I was ready to go back on my word.

“Jesse fucked up.” Bjorn said that in the long-suffering tone I sometimes used with Kyle. “I’m gonna make this right, Asher.”

“No need.” I didn’t mean to bite the other shifter’s head off, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself. “You and your family have done enough.” Bringing a fucking monster back to my city, providing the arsehole a target to aim at. “I’ll take it from here.”

“What’s happened now?”

Lucas appeared at my shoulder, and I was grateful then that Kyle had Imogen upstairs unpacking her books. I thought all we needed to do was sit tight and let the foxes go to work. Rye and his team were heading to Mount Crawford…

Where the only person they’d find was the wounded brother of a bear shifter.

Not Phil. He now had a car, a phone, and money.

My number and the address for this place.

I turned towards Lucas, my throat working but the words wouldn’t come out, because this was all my fault.

I should’ve ignored what everyone said and went to Coober Pedy. I could’ve dispatched Phil in one sweep of my claws, then tossed him down an old mine shaft for the vermin to find, and no one and nothing would get close to my mate. Instead, I’d listened to them and their concerns, allowing them to push my hard won instincts aside.

I’d been here before.

My heart thudded too hard and too fast as I remembered the way it felt in our foster home. The house seemed airless, like you could suck in all the breaths you liked and never really fill your lungs. The floor creaked and the doors slammed, and then there were the strange sounds at night. Like mice trying to hide their squeaks from the cats that roamed the halls, my ears had pricked up and been pulled from sleep because of them, but each time I was found roaming the halls, I was sternly told to get back to bed by my foster father.

But why was he always there to shoo me back to bed?

I found out why soon enough.

He was too… involved in what he was doing to stop me opening the door, scrambling back when I staggered inside, tears streaming down Ursula’s face.

“Hey.” My sister walked in then, tearing me away from my reverie and forcing me to face not the child she was, but the woman she’d become. “Bad news?”

I glanced at Lucas.

“Seems like you’d want your head of security involved,” he replied.

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