Page 18 of Grumpy Special Ops Bear: Ep. 2
Dammit. Why did he have to be just my type?
Hot, with short, silky jet-black hair, a sensual mouth, and a set of piercing sky-blue eyes that made me want to rip his damn clothes off and have my freaky, dirty way with him.
“Stupid shifters,” I grumbled. “Why should I trust him? Just because he says he helped me? Or because he appeared in my dreams?” I pushed a branch out of the way. It whipped forward, almost smacking me in the face. “He shoved me into a damn cave. If he really wanted to help me, he would’ve just gotten me out of here, right? Bastard Fergus.”
There was no reason for me to trust him. Even if I wanted to turn right back around and let him curl his body around me so I could feel his warmth, hear his rough voice…
Nope. Not happening.
I couldn’t be sure if he was trying to help me or kill me. Maybe he just wanted to use me. I had nothing to gain by trusting him. I’d find my way back to the stream and make it to the park ranger station.
They’d save me. Humans—normal, everyday humans—would get me home, and maybe this time, I wouldn’t feel the need to leave again. Maybe I’d even quit the agency and just travel the world until I found somewhere that felt like home.
Self-consciously, I scratched at my arm, the one with the birthmark. When I was a kid, I used to get made fun of because of it, and I normally covered it up. No one had seen it, not even Halle, in years.
Then Fergus did.
I felt the need to stare at it.
I stopped walking and slowly pushed up my coat sleeve. I ran my index finger over the mark. It was pale, a stark contrast against my dark skin. For the longest time, the actual shape of the mark had eluded me.
But now, after spending so much time around weird things…
My jaw dropped when I realized what it looked like—a paw print with something going through the middle.
A knife, maybe?
“What the hell?” I eyed it for a long time before I heard a rustling behind me.
When I turned, no one was there, but I had a feeling Fergus would not let me go as easily as I’d hoped.
Or is it Price and the others?
That thought got me hurrying, and I ran as fast as I could with my injured leg, blocking out the pain.
I’ll get somewhere safe, away from all this shit, and never look at that mark on my arm again.
Chapter 16
Fergus
I hadn’t seena mark like the one on Trinity’s arm in person, but one was printed on one of the pages of my clan’s history books. It was rare and associated with the Protectors. And from the look on Trinity’s face, she did not know what it meant.
I was running out of time. I didn’t want Taggert to know more than he needed to, but right now, I didn’t have a choice.
I called the base and asked for him. “Tell him it’s Sheenan, and it’s urgent.”
“Right away, sir.”
I paced around the fire as more snow fell around me. I kicked at the drifts until Taggert finally picked up the line.
“Sheenan, you’d better have good news for me.”
“Sir, did something change on your end?”
“We have massive movement at Price’s primary residence and on his land. The body count is still rising,” Taggert declared. “I want this monster brought in and soon.”
“I understand that, but sir, we have a bit of a complication.”
