Mate Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire #3)(15)

“How long did your first Change last?”

“More than a month.”

Tobias rolled over and hugged her tight to his chest.

Her voice came out a shaky squeak when she found the words to continue. “Jonathan shoved me in a big canvas sack and tied the top, then smuggled me from the lab to this back road where a truck was waiting with this giant dog cage in the back. And through the wire cage was where I saw the man who’d hired Jonathan. I’d talked to him on the phone before because he owned the lab and had an interest in what I was studying. I recognized his voice. I knew who he was. They talked about how I wasn’t a success after all, but a failed experiment because I couldn’t control my animal. They talked about killing me humanely, but the man who hired Jonathan decided against it. He said he had a place to keep me where I could continue my work, safely away from everyone. By the time I Changed back into my human skin, I’d been shipped to Perl.”

“Who hired him?”

Vera wiped a runaway tear on the blanket beneath them and whispered, “Clayton Reed.”

Tobias went rigid against her, as if he’d been electrified.

“I know you and your brothers work as his enforcers, but he has his hands in more than you know.”

Tobias lurched upward and escaped her embrace. Running his hands through his hair, he stared at her, chest heaving. “Clayton Reed had you Turned? He wouldn’t. He protects humans.”

“Most humans.”

“No, Vera. You’re mistaken. It wasn’t him.”

She sat up, pulling the comforter more firmly over her to hide how vulnerable she felt after sharing that with him. With anyone. “He owned the laboratory, Tobias.”

“No.”

“He’s the one who put all the misfits on Perl. He’s the one who sends us food and supplies so we can survive there because we’re his pets. His experiments. He wanted the McCalls fixed.”

“Stop it.”

“He did! As long as I continued my work, Clayton let me live and continued to send us supplies. He even paid me a monthly allowance. Eustice McCall was my patient. He was going insane, and Clayton wanted me to suppress his animal, only it didn’t work for him. It worked on every other shifter on Perl, but Eustice got worse. It isn’t just an animal problem with the McCalls. It’s a problem with their human sides, too, and my medicine just made him deteriorate faster. He hanged—dammit!” A sob wrenched from her throat, and she clapped her hand over her mouth as her shoulders shook. Tears streaming down her face, she slammed her fists on the ground and whispered, “He hanged himself. I found him. He was my only friend, and my medicine had made him worse. He was the only one who didn’t call me a witch, and I killed him.”

Tobias’s eyes were like glowing green flames in the dark as he paced in front of her. She couldn’t even bring herself to tell him the rest. Already, he looked at her with suspicion, as if she’d made it all up. Anger burned through her, and she wiped her eyes. How stupid she’d been. Tobias didn’t trust her. She was just a misfit, and he’d lived a charmed life in the warmth of Clayton’s approval. Vera stood and dragged the comforter to the bed, then snuggled under it completely so he wouldn’t see her cry.

This was why she told jokes when things got too serious. This was why she made light of things instead of digging her heels into the memories. The things she’d been through were too big to share with other people. She’d been normal once with a family and friends, a good job and her own apartment, but then she’d been strapped with an animal side that hated her almost as much as she hated it. Two warring beings sharing the same body, and if she couldn’t learn to control the animal and make peace with that awful part of her, she would be no better off than Eustice. He’d told her she owed it to herself to try to wean off the meds and try to live again. That had been the last thing he’d said to her, like he was already planning to leave her alone on that godforsaken island. And here she was, a month off the medicine and preparing for the worst because she didn’t just owe it to herself to try. She owed it to Eustice.

A long, feral grizzly growl rumbled through the room, and then came the echo of the slamming door.

Another betrayal, another man gone.

She’d thought Tobias was different, but he was just like everyone else.





Chapter Six


Clayton better have a good f*cking explanation for all this. Tobias ripped his satellite phone from the back of his plane and punched in the number. He rarely answered, but Tobias couldn’t go the whole night feeling gut-socked like this. His mate was in there crying her eyes out for what Clayton had done to her, and Tobias wanted answers.

“Do you have her?” came the answer. The voice was disguised and robotic, just like it always was.

“Explain this shit away, Clayton.”

“Tobias, you don’t understand what is really going on. She can’t be trusted. She’s sly and conniving, and she’ll get in your head through your dick. Don’t claim that woman.”

“Too late,” he growled out. “Explain to me why she was on Perl. Why you had her Turned. Give me anything so I don’t lose faith in everything we’ve done from day one. Do it now!”

“She will cure the McCalls if you just give her time, but she isn’t safe off the island. Vera is volatile, and her animal is out of control. Harlan called. She hasn’t been taking the injections. Tobias, put her back where you found her and butt out of things you don’t understand.”