Mate Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire #3)(2)

“Yes, I have.” Once, and it didn’t go well.

“Well, good luck to you.”

Tobias grunted his thanks and pulled the package off the counter. It was light as a feather to him, but he’d learned long ago that people don’t like seeing his shifter strength. It made humans uncomfortable. So he acted like it was heavy, gave Mickey Gunderson a polite smile, and made his way out the door.

Link was waiting outside, leaned up against the log wall of the post office. “I’m going with you.”

“What? No.” Tobias sauntered right past him and down the porch stairs.

“The lady you’re delivering that to…she’s a witch.”

Tobias barely resisted the urge to growl at him as he turned right onto the main road that led out of town toward the landing strip where his bush plane was waiting. He walked faster, but Link lengthened his stride and kept up.

“Why do you think Perl Island works so well for the misfits? Huh? Think about it. Clayton hasn’t given you a kill order on any of them, and they’re all crazy.”

“Not McCall-level crazy.”

“Maybe not, but maybe so.”

Tobias cast him a quick glance. He hadn’t thought about it before, but Link was right. Clayton Reed, his handler, had never sent him out there to even punish a shifter for stepping out of line. And to his knowledge, Ian and Jenner hadn’t been given orders on Perl Island either. “Tell me what you’re talking about quick before I lose my patience.”

“There’s a lady on the island who has them all in line. They don’t need outside intervention because she’s managing every one of those crazy shifters. All of them, Tobias.” Link gave him a significant look. “How is one woman doing all that?”

“Hell if I know.”

“She’s suppressing their animals.”

“Oh, come on, Link. That’s just a rumor. That shit has been flying around for years. She isn’t a witch, and she’s not suppressing animals. The misfits are just staying in line so people stay off their land and leave them alone.”

“I thought so, too, but then something changed.”

“What changed?”

“I found her.” Link’s voice was growing more and more excited. “I tracked her down—her name and how I could reach her—and I made a call. Tobias, I talked to her, and you know what she told me when I asked her if she could help shifters with out-of-control animals?”

Fine, out of curiosity, he would play along. “What did she say?”

“She said she won’t talk to anyone but you, but that I wasn’t wrong.”

“Me? I don’t know anyone on Perl Island. What does she want with me?”

“To hire you. She said she needs you for an important job.”

“Fuck, Link! You’re getting sucked into this elaborate hoax, man!”

Link jerked Tobias’s arm and squared up to him, eyes sparking. “If you were me and you had a shelf life because your animal was taking over. If you knew you were going to die at the claws of one of your friends. If you knew you would want to hurt people because you’re going mad, wouldn’t you try? I need this, Tobias. I need to make sure I tried everything before I just give up and give in. And I know that sounds selfish, but I didn’t just contact the witch for me. You weren’t there when Elyse was bleeding and standing over Ian’s body. Your brother’s body! I could see it in her eyes. She knew she was going to die, and still, she popped round after round into my pack to protect him. That should’ve never happened. You Silvers shouldn’t be hibernating. You want to know why I really care about your family? Elyse is good, Tobias. I mean really good to her marrow, and I’m lucky enough to get to be around someone like that. And Ian is a match for her. I’ll stay saner longer just for knowing them. I was part of the pack that hunted her. Hunted. Her. And then she took me in, gave me a place to live on her property, fed me when food got low at the end of winter, and she told me I’m good. No one has ever said that to me! I’m not just asking you to go meet with this woman because I want to live. I’m asking so we can rule out any chance of Ian staying awake this winter so Elyse doesn’t have to be alone. Because when I die, and oh, I can feel the madness coming—when I go, who will watch her while Ian sleeps?”

Tobias shook his head over and over in denial of what Link was saying because it did Link no good for Tobias to build up his hope. There wasn’t a cure. It didn’t exist, but Link was staring at him with such desperation and, dammit, Tobias owed him since he’d been a part of saving Elyse and Ian last winter. Link had talked about how good Elyse was, but Link had kept her safe, patrolling her property all winter to make sure the remaining McCalls didn’t come back for her and her mate’s hibernating body. Elyse was right. Link was good, or as good as a half-crazed werewolf could be.

“Fuck,” he muttered. “What’s this lady’s name?”

“Vera Masterson.”

At the sound of her name, a strange, warm feeling unfurled in Tobias’s chest and made it hard to draw a breath. “Doesn’t sound like a witch name to me.”

“So you’ll do it?”

Tobias let off a long, irritated sigh. “On three conditions.”

“Name them.”