Brave Bear Read online

  “Tessa said we need to be there at 7:30. You can pick me up on the way.” May hung up before he could argue.

  Deacon hit END and threw the phone on the couch. He moved as if in a trance toward the shower. Two shifts in a row stuck in his patrol car makes for a rank shifter. His wolf seemed to agree.

  He quickly stripped off his uniform and jumped under the hot spray. He leaned against the cool white shower tile and let the water pound the sweat and dirt off him. Deacon loved his shower. It was custom built to shifter dimensions with a huge rainforest showerhead and sprays that came out from the walls. It took him almost six months to finish, but that’s because he had done it all himself while he was working full time on the force.

  There was plenty of room to stretch out his 6’5, 235-pound frame, plus extra in case there happened to be someone else in here with him. Hah! There hadn’t been anyone to fill the extra space in this shower for the past year. He was in the middle of a drought, which normally wouldn’t be a big deal. The concerning matter was that neither him nor his wolf seemed interested in ending it. He had no interest right now in dating or even just screwing around. He sometimes wondered if he was depressed.

  Ah! I’ve got no time to be depressed. He was working extra shifts on the force whenever Heath needed him, in addition to helping maintain order in their pack. If he worked himself to exhaustion, maybe the nightmares of his past wouldn’t interrupt his sleep, or at least that was his theory. He hated to sit still and always had this urgency to do something to help the pack. Deacon had this internal drive to prove himself. No matter what he did, it would never make up for what his father had done.

  Deacon spent a lot of time settling disputes among the male wolves in his pack and between the wolves and other shifters in the area. Aside from his pack, Grey Lake had a population of black bear shifters, as well as foxes, and now the unruly cougars who were a pain in his ass most of the time. A few of the cougars were OK; there was one of them he saw fairly often at the Grey Lake Gym. As for the rest of them, he wished they would move back south along with all the developers that were causing him grief.

  He finished scrubbing the dirt from his tanned skin, grabbed a towel, and dried off. He stared at his reflection in the steamed-up mirror. Still pretty good. Shifters aged a bit slower than humans so he appeared younger than his true age.

  Figuring it was not a good idea to tick off the lady who could burn you to ashes in less than 30 seconds, Deacon decided to put his best foot forward. He pulled on a cleanish pair of jeans and a not-too wrinkled T-shirt. It was best for him and his inner wolf if he managed to stay on Tessa’s good side.

  Deacon pulled his gray F-350 up to his sister’s cottage at 7:25. May was standing at her mailbox with her pale blond hair in a long braid, bouncing around on her feet. She was dressed in jeans shorts, a black V-neck T-shirt, and white converse gym shoes, carrying one of those giant designer purses that she always brought with her. She seemed to have an endless supply of new purses, yet she drove a 15-year-old VW Golf that was always being repaired. Not for the first time, Deacon pitied May’s future mate. He sure would have his hands full with his younger sister. He hoped the guy ended up being a strong shifter with a good sense of humor and a shit-ton of patience.

  “Finally, I thought you would never get here!” She jumped into the passenger seat before he had completely pulled the truck to a stop.

  “Why are you so excited?” he asked as he turned onto the main drag toward the pub.

  “Tessa invited us both, Deke. I have a feeling something exciting is going to happen. My wolf is excited, too. By the way, I heard you brought another one of the cougars in,” May said as she applied mascara using his passenger side mirror as her own personal vanity.

  “Yeah, Sean again. Those guys need a hobby or something. I don’t know what their issue is. They need to stay away from the booze, and they’d be a lot better off.”

  “They must be drinking a whole hell of a lot to get as messed up as they do, being shifters and all. I wonder what has got them feeling like they have to drink their troubles away…” May offered. “I know for a fact they’re not all bad. That big guy who works at the gym seems pretty nice. I think a couple of them work for the ranger service, too.” She put her mascara back in her purse and sat back.

  Deacon grumbled, “I think four of them work for the forestry service.” He then shook his head to clear the fog and said, “And stay away from ‘that big guy who works at the gym.’ He may be nice, but he’s still a cougar. He’d sell you out for his own kind.” Deacon growled.

  “Deke! How can you say that?”

  “It’s true. We’re wolves, and our main loyalty is to our family and the pack. It’s the same for the cougars.”

  “That’s bullshit, and you know it. This isn’t the dark ages. I’d never do something I didn’t believe in, even if it was for the pack,” May said. “I know you wouldn’t either. You’re a good guy no matter what your messed-up dad told you. We’re just lucky our alpha is a good one. Those cougars can’t help it if theirs is messed up. They just need to be responsible for themselves.”

  Deacon held his right hand up in surrender. “OK, enough. I’m sorry. I’m not feeling quite right. Can we please just have a nice dinner?” Deacon asked. Yikes. He knew he must’ve pushed some of May’s buttons for her to mention his dead father. The tiny shifter normally didn’t pull out the big guns unless she was really riled up.

  “Apology accepted. Of course, we can have a nice dinner, just as long as you can behave yourself,” May chirped back, watching the road ahead of them.

  Deacon inwardly groaned. May might be tiny in stature, but she sure made up for it in attitude. He was glad she was on his side, at least most of the time.

  As the Hawk’s Eye came into view, Deacon observed that the parking lot was almost full. He grimaced, thinking about having to wait for a table and then food. He just wanted to get done with whatever nonsense Tessa was playing and get to bed. He already met this woman. He didn’t know what Tessa was thinking. He maneuvered the truck into a spot behind the restaurant. As he shut off the truck, his right hand began shaking. What the fuck? His left hand was trembling, too. He must have low sugar or something. He swore to himself and then followed an almost skipping May into the front door of the pub.

  “How’re you two doing?” a smiling Sadie asked Deacon and May from her hostess podium. Sadie and her mate Lincoln were good people. They were loyal members of the pack who didn’t cause problems. Sadie and Linc had been classmates with Heath at the local high school, while Deacon was a few years behind. Deacon mustered up his best impression of a smile for the kind woman.

  “We’re doing great,” May squeaked. “Tessa is treating us to dinner tonight. Said she wanted us to meet some friend of hers.”

  Deacon was trying to follow their conversation, but along with his shaking hands, he was now feeling flushed. What the hell was going on?

  “Oh, yes, the new girl she just hired from the city. Nice, quiet girl, supposed to be a hell of a good baker. I’m hoping we can buy some of her stuff for the pub once she settles in.” Sadie dropped her voice lower and leaned into the two siblings. “Strangest thing is, she doesn’t realize she has a bear in her.”

  Deacon’s head was now pounding. He must be more tired than he thought. Goddamn Tessa. “I met her this morning. Wait a minute, what did you say?” he said a little louder than he intended. May and Sadie’s eyes widened at his bellow. He lowered his voice. “So, she really doesn’t know she’s a shifter? How the hell is that possible?” Even if she couldn’t shift, she must know she has shifter blood in her. Bear, huh. Made sense. He knew she wasn’t a wolf, but couldn’t figure out what type of animal she had inside.

  “I have no clue how she doesn’t know she’s got a black bear in her, but that’s what Tessa told me. She called me before they came to give me a heads up. She also told me no one should spill this news. She wants to break it to her gently in time. Tessa doesn’t think Iris
even knows that shifters exist. She’s one of those sheltered city people,” Sadie finished.

  “Well, I hope nobody upsets this city girl and causes a bear to burst out of her. That’d be one hell of a way to learn about shifters.” Deacon rubbed his forehead and frowned. “Jesus, what happened to her parents? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Not your problem tonight, officers,” Sadie said. “You two get to enjoy a nice dinner courtesy of Ms. Lane—nice brother-sister time.” Sadie walked them to their table. “By the way, where’s the Chief been?” she asked about Heath.

  “He’s around, but he’s taking one of my shifts tonight to pay me back for covering for him last week,” Deacon answered. “If I had to do three in a row, I’d really be hurting.” He rubbed his chest as Sadie sat them on the patio and handed them each a menu.

  “Are you OK?” May asked. “You seemed fine before, but now you seem frazzled or something.” She furrowed her blond brows questioningly.

  “I don’t know what the hell is happening,” he said quietly. “I haven’t been sleeping. I thought I was just tired, but as soon as I pulled into the lot, I started to feel off. If this is some of Tessa’s witch voodoo shit, I’m going to be really pissed off.”

  “Just try to relax. You’re getting all riled up,” May said quietly across the table. “Calm yourself down. You have wolf eyes right now.” She pointed to her own eyes with two fingers.

  “Oh, for God’s sake,” he mumbled, “I’ll be right back. Just order me a 22-ounce red, OK?” Heath stood up to head to the restroom.

  “No problem.” May said happily as she perused the drink menu. “I’ll order you two even. We’re not paying tonight.”

  Chapter 5

  The evening was going very well. Iris’s anxiety was under control. It helped that the Hawk’s Eye Pub was a cozy, comfortable family-friendly restaurant. It was designed to resemble a ski lodge with old wooden cross-country skis nailed to the walls along with framed pictures of skiers swishing down the Grey Mountain ski trails. The plush leather booths and rustic tables were filled with couples on romantic dates as well as families of all ages enjoying their meals. Shortly after seating them, Sadie had brought her husband over to meet Iris. Linc was another tall bearded man, just like the policeman she’d met earlier. While Officer Clay was fair-haired, Linc had dark brown-almost black hair and dark eyes. And Linc was much more jovial than the officer. He and Sadie greeted each of their customers with a smile and kind word. They seemed like nice people.

  Tessa was in the middle of telling Iris how her last employee left her when she became pregnant with triplets about a year ago when, all of a sudden, Iris got a chill and felt like someone was watching her. It was the strangest feeling. She looked around, but no one was staring at her. There were just customers enjoying their meals, talking amongst themselves. It started to become harder to hear what Tessa was saying. Iris’s attention was diverted toward the back of the pub, near the bar. Riley got up from the floor and leaned against her legs, applying the pressure he knew helped her get her distress under control. “It’s OK boy. Nothing’s wrong,” she said softly.

  Her hands started to shake, and she began to feel really warm from her cheeks down to her girl parts. Weird. She finished her glass of water and then a refill from the pitcher on the table. Crap, still feel weird.

  “Tessa, I’ll be right back. I need to, um…” She stood up from her seat. “It’s fine, Riley. You stay here,” she said to the dog leaning against her left leg.

  “No problem, Iris. Restroom is all the way in the back behind the bar. You can’t miss it.” Tessa said.

  She managed to find her way to the restroom and splashed some water on her burning cheeks. She wiped her face with a paper towel. What was going on? This wasn’t a panic attack. She studied her reflection in the mirror. She appeared OK, aside from reddened cheeks. Maybe I’m coming down with something. It can’t be something I ate as all we got so far was bread. Keep it together. So far, your new boss thinks you’re pretty much normal.

  As she exited through the bathroom door to head back to her table, she bumped into something solid. “Ooof. I’m sorry,” she said, automatically clutching onto what she ran into with both hands.

  She then realized she had grabbed onto a pair of very firm arms with dark tribal-looking tattoos covering them. “Ooh. I’m really sorry,” she repeated slowly, her gaze roving up to see who was attached to those delicious arms.

  “We meet again, Miss Williamson. Funny to run into you twice on the first day you arrive in town,” Officer Clay said with one side of his mouth tilted in what seemed like the start of a smile, or the world’s smallest smile, Iris couldn’t tell for sure.

  Iris groaned. It would have to be the bossy cop. Why did such an ass have to be so hot? She closed her eyes, took a calming breath, opened them to stare up at him and said, “Sorry. It’s my fault. I wasn’t paying attention. I’ll just be going now.” She started to pull away.

  “Are you going to let go or take me back to your table?” he asked, still smirking.

  “What?” She shook her head, trying to clear the fogginess. She glanced down at her hands, and only realized she was still squeezing his forearms.

  She let go as if she were burned by fire, stepped back quickly, and stared at her feet. She winced. “Ah, again, I’m sorry, really sorry.”

  “This time I think it was my fault, too.”

  Iris hesitantly raised her eyes and noticed he was staring at her with a funny expression, somewhere between interest and confusion.

  “Wait a minute. Are you OK?” she asked, sounding panicked. “Your eyes are yellow. I think you need help.”

  “Shit!” He flinched as if he was in pain. “No. My eyes aren’t yellow Miss William—”

  “Oh, just call me Iris,” she spat out. This time when she peered back into the Viking’s eyes, they were a deep blue. I must be nuts. “Sorry I ran into you. I have to get back to dinner,” she mumbled before she turned to walk briskly back to her table with her cheeks flaming.

  “Holy crap!” Iris said in a low voice as she returned to her seat.

  “What happened? I thought you abandoned us. I was getting ready to rename your dog Princess,” Tessa said with a small smile. Riley let out a huff.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I ran into someone,” she sputtered, focusing on her plate that was now covered with juicy prime rib and vegetables. “I mean, I literally ran into someone. Well, not someone, but Officer Clay. He’s so bossy. He yelled at me in the woods after I found Riley,” she said quietly.

  “Oh, Deacon…he’s a good guy. Been here all his life. I think he’s just a little protective.” Tessa went on. “Are you OK? You seem upset.”

  “I’m fine,” Iris said, rubbing Riley’s head. “I’m just embarrassed after almost knocking over a cop,” she said quietly. She stared at the mouthwatering meal that was in front of her. “This looks and smells so good. Thanks again for inviting us out.”

  *

  “What happened to you?” May asked as Deacon sat down at their table. “I was going to go looking for you, but I thought it might be an issue. You know, like if I ran into the men’s room. People tend to not like when I do that.” She smiled.

  “I’m fine. I just ran into Tessa’s new employee again. Or she ran into me, I’m not sure,” he said quietly, staring off into space.

  “What do you mean you’re not sure? How is she? Does she seem nice? Can you tell she’s a bear?” May asked rapid-fire.

  “She seems very nice and, no, I didn’t notice she was a bear. She smells like a shifter, but nothing specific.” He stared blankly at his empty plate.

  “Earth to Deacon! How could you not notice if she was a bear?” she asked.

  “I wasn’t paying attention. I was just talking with her,” he said gruffly. “Don’t worry about it,” he said as the waitress came by to take their order.

  They managed to eat their meal and were almost finished when Deacon’s hands started shaking again. Wha
t the hell?

  Just as May was opening her mouth to ask him something, Tessa’s voice interrupted from behind Deacon, “Well, hello there. I hope you two are having a nice dinner.” She smiled at the two.

  “Yes, we are. Everything is delicious as usual. Thank you so much,” May answered happily. “Who’re your friends, Tessa?” she asked with a smile before Deacon could say a word.

  Deacon turned and was now staring at Iris who was to the side of Tessa with a wolf leaning against her left leg. The gray wolf was obviously a shifter—this was evident to any other shifter—but he was still wearing a red dog collar and was attached to a leash that Iris was holding.

  “May Jensen, this is my new employee, Iris Williamson, and her dog, Riley. Deacon and Iris have already met—twice, I think.” Tessa smiled while making the introductions.

  Deacon and May quickly peered down at Riley and then their eyes simultaneously snapped back up to Tessa.

  Iris glanced at Deacon briefly, her cheeks bright red, before dropping her eyes to the floor, fiddling with the wolf’s leash.

  “Well, it’s nice to meet you,” May responded brightly, jumping up. She walked around the table and grabbed Iris’s hand. “Welcome to Grey Lake.” She leaned down and spoke to Riley, “Welcome to you as well.”

  “I’m sorry my brother almost knocked you down. He doesn’t realize how huge he is sometimes,” May said, turning to Deacon with a small smirk.

  Good God! I’m going to kill her and the witch, Deacon thought.

  “It was my fault. I ran into him and it’s OK. Nice to meet you,” Iris said quickly and then dropped her eyes again as her cheeks flushed even redder than before.

  “Well, we’ve been told you’re some kind of an expert with sweets. I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but as cops, we’re what’s known as ‘donut connoisseurs,’” May joked, using air quotes. “I can’t wait to try yours. I’m sure we’ll be by the bakery soon.”