Page 3 of Grumpy Special Ops Bear: Ep. 3
Getting out of this mess alive and making sure Price and his pack of deranged wolf-shifters never came after me again was my number one priority. I couldn’t give a shit about the rest.
“Trinity?”
“Sorry. I’m just not sure what you’re trying to tell me.”
“You never knew your parents or anyone else in your family. But if you had, your life would have turned out completely different.”
I sighed. “Well, yes, that’s a given. I lived my life in a series of fucked-up foster homes.”
“You were born from a long line of Protectors, Trinity.”
I arched a brow. “What are Protectors?”
“A secret group of hybrids born with shifter-like fighting, tracking, and hunting skills. Their mission is to protect humans from shifters. Protectors track feral or rogue shifters and kill them when they have killed a human or become a threat to human society.”
“Wait. What?” Shaking my head, I stood too fast. Dizziness overwhelmed me, and Fergus helped steady me. “Are you saying that I’m a hybrid shifter that can transform into an animal?”
“Yes, you’re a hybrid. No, Protectors aren’t able to shift. They do, however, have all the other shifter abilities—heightened smell, speed, strength, agility, hearing. Protectors are fierce warriors.”
This news was blowing my mind. “But how do you know that I’m one of them?”
“Only Protectors have that distinctive mark.” He pointed to the mark on my arm. “It marked you from birth as one of them.”
“Impossible.”
“Why do you think you chose your profession? Something else is driving you, a voice saying you need to be doing something more. Jumping out of airplanes gives you a rush, but it never lasts long enough, does it?”
“Stop it,” I whispered. Panic made my heart twist in my chest, and my gut clenched at the truth of his words. I always called myself a thrill seeker, but maybe something else had been driving me to take on bigger and riskier adventures.
“You were born to the Protectors, but they gave you up as a child. You stumbled into this world because of Price, because of what you are.”
“I’m not a Protector,” I cried.
Fergus only stared as Cutter and Grant glanced over their massive shoulders at our exchange.
I can’t handle this.
Accepting there are strange things in the world, fine. I can get over that. Learning I’m supposed to be a part of this insanity too? Absolutely no way in hell.
I liked my life and didn’t need this shit.
I glanced at Fergus’s determined eyes. He would not let me stick my head in the sand and pretend this wasn’t happening. His sheer strength and stubbornness were what I needed to face the truth.
He was right. A restlessness had always tormented me. I’d never felt fulfilled.
“The faster you accept what I’m telling you, the easier it will be to fight Price and his pack.”
“Oh hell no. You didn’t say shit about fighting,” I retorted, still reeling.
He smirked for a second. “You were born to be a Protector, a fighter. You need to embrace that side of yourself, just as your parents did when they were alive.”
Does he know who my parents were?
A sudden pang in my chest made me want to ask, but it was quickly replaced with anger. They’d abandoned me, and I hated them for it.
“Trinity,” Fergus whispered softly. “Please sit back down. Your shoulder has to hurt like hell right now.”
“It’s okay.”
