Page 2 of Unmistakable Mate

“If you’re sober enough to think at all, I suggest rethinking whatever you’re planning before you end up hurt.” Maya smiled up at him, calm and confident.

“You hear that?” The shorter one laughed like a hyena, “She thinks she’s going to hurt us.”

“Oh, I heard her.” The taller one’s lips twisted into a menacing smile and he leaned down closer to her, lowering his voice. “You should come out in the woods with us. We’ll show you something that’ll change your life. Nobody has to get hurt. We’ll all just have a little fun.”

“You’re going to show me something that’ll change my life?” Maya snorted, “You really think your dick is some kind of magic, huh?”

The shorter of the two growled, “You want to talk about magic, bitch? Show her, Slade.”

“Now, Hank, calm down a little.” The taller one, Slade apparently, chuckled and Maya smirked and put on her sweetest voice, coated in sugar.

“Yeah, Hank. You really should calm down because if you call me a bitch again, you’re going to make me mad.”

“Oh, is that so…” Hank met her gaze and purposefully snarled, “Bitch.”

Maya took the single word insult as permission and released her tight hold on her self-control. In one quick move she moved into Hank’s space, grabbing him and spinning his arm around until she had it pinned behind his back at an angle that was guaranteed to break through even the whiskey haze he seemed to be affected by.

“Ow! Ow!” he screamed.

“I did try to warn you.” she sighed.

“Get the fuck off me!” Hank tried to squirm free but she only tightened her grip, causing him to cry out in pain.

“Look, let him go and we’ll forget all about this.” The taller guy, Slade, took a step towards them, hands up as if in surrender and Maya shifted her attention to him, watching to make sure he didn’t attempt to jump her while her hands were tied up holding the other one in place.

“Stay back.” she warned.

“Yeah. Okay.” Slade stopped moving but her split second of inattention to the man she was holding cost her.

“Fuck you, bitch.” The guy in her grip stopped trying to break free long enough to lean forward, dragging Maya off balance right before he reversed his weight and slammed the back of his head into her face.

Maya fought a howl of pain as her nose splintered. She could feel the break in the bone, feel the rush of blood that released and cascaded down over her lips. She ignored the urge to release the man and grab at her nose the way he no doubt hoped she would. It didn’t matter though, when he reversed his weight again her grip slipped and he stumbled free with a snarl.

“You’re going to pay for that.” Maya hissed through the blood pooling in her mouth, spitting it at him where he stood seething with anger.

“If anyone is going to pay, it’s you.” Hank snarled and Maya’s breath caught as his eyes turned from a muddy brown to the glowing gold that she knew so well.

He was a shifter and he was letting his animal come to the surface. Right here in public. Right here on Main Street in the middle of Noir. He was shifting and she didn’t even know what kind he was.

Her brain berated her for getting in a fight when she was outnumbered and clueless as to exactly what she was dealing with. Her wolf growled low, not liking the danger Maya had put them in. She kept a tight hold on her own wolf, not allowing a shift, not yet.

Instead she stepped back, bracing herself as she watched her assailant’s hands turn to huge paws with deadly claws, as his teeth sharpened and his face twisted, as his jaw lengthened and a growl of pure anger rose from his barrel chest.

A bear. A fucking bear! Maya gaped up at him, unable to move as the shift overtook him and he easily doubled in size. He was a bear shifter and she couldn’t believe her eyes. She’d never seen one before. She’d only ever heard rumors of them and in all of those stories the bears had lived in the mountains up north, preferring the colder climate to that of the sultry bayous of southern Louisiana.

She had known these men were more than they had appeared to be at first glance but never in a million years would she have suspected they were bear shifters.

She braced herself, knowing that as strong as she was, taking on two bear shifters wouldn’t be an easy feat. They were bigger and stronger. Her wolf was faster though and vicious to her core. She might have a chance if…

A flash of bright lights lit up the dark street a moment before a horn sounded, loud and repeatedly. Maya jerked towards the interruption and saw that a car was pulling up to the curb. She glanced back at the two men in time to see that the one named Hank had stopped himself from fully shifting and that his friend, Slade, was grabbing him by the arm and tugging him after him, up the street. Maya thought for a moment about going after them when they took off running but the little red Jeep Renegade pulled to a stop next to her and the window rolled down to reveal her younger sister behind the wheel.

“Maya?” Nova looked horrified, “What the hell happened to you?”

“I… what?” Maya shifted her gaze back down the street but the two men had disappeared. She blinked and turned back to Nova. Her sister’s eyes were wide and she made a gesture towards Maya’s face. “Oh, yeah, that… I uh, got head-butted.”

Nova pursed her lips and Maya could practically feel her younger sister’s disapproval radiating over her like the rays of the sun. Maya dabbed at her nose and then glanced at her fingers in the streetlight. She wasn’t bleeding anymore so that was a good sign. When she focused on it, she could feel the heat of the magic in her veins, the power of her shifter side healing her and putting her nose back together. It stung, but not as badly as Nova’s disappointment in her.

“I don’t know what you think you saw but I didn’t start that fight.” She felt the need to defend herself.

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