One True Mate: Shifter's Solace (Kindle Worlds Novella)(7)

“Because Rory didn’t choose her. She chose him. She called him. And he’s the one who’s going to keep her safe.”





Chapter Six


Ivy stormed into the room, absolutely furious, if only because that stopped her from being so scared. A childhood in the system had quickly taught her to mask fear with defiance.

She’d woken up alone, on a thin mattress in a row of identical cots. She hadn’t known where she was, but it wasn’t her own bed. She wasn’t in a hospital, either, which would have been her second guess – her lungs and her throat felt raw, and she ached all over. She’d heard male voices from the next room, and that had brought back what had happened.

Her mom’s shop. The angel. The spiders. The fire…

And most clearly of all, the vision. The vision of being held against her will. The sense of a vast evil, rising. The smell of fur.

She stopped in the doorway, all eyes turning to her, and realised she must be at the firehouse. Either that or they had a pole because they were strippers, and she’d walked into an argument about who’d be Mr August in the 2018 calendar. Not a completely ludicrous thought – the guys were all well over six feet tall, and easy on the eyes too.

But the guy she couldn’t take her eyes off was the one who immediately broke off from what he was doing and strode towards her, hands outstretched as if to touch her. She took a smart step back, and he stopped short, dropping his hands to his sides. When she inched back a little further and folded her arms defensively over her chest, he looked stricken.

Silly – that expression on his handsome face made something twist unhappily inside her. She drew on her anger again, this time to force down more confusing emotions. Feelings she didn’t want to have to deal with right now. Rage was easier, so she clung to that instead.

“Who do you think you are?” she demanded. “First you all argue over me like dogs with a bone, which is rude.” She took a step closer. “Then you bring me here against my will, which is illegal.” She poked him in the chest with her finger. “Then you magically turn into a bear, which is impossible. Well you can just quit it!”

Wow, his chest was muscular. She realised she was still prodding him, and slowly drew her finger back.

He was looking down at her with a strange mixture of emotions on his face. His eyes were a deep, intense blue. His hair was a medium brown and cropped short, and his high cheekbones and stubbled jaw gave his face a harsh strength that was softened by the soft, pink fullness of his lips.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.” His voice was a deep rumble that sent a thrilling vibration through her.

“I’m not afraid,” she said quietly. “I’m furious.”

That was a lie, though. She was frightened. Because he hadn’t denied turning into a bear. In fact, nobody in the room had laughed, or questioned it, or checked her for head injuries. And that meant one of two things.

Either every single person in the room was stark raving mad. That could be a really bad situation. Or she wasn’t crazy at all, and something much stranger and more frightening was going on here.

And she was increasingly worried that might be the case.

The room was brimming over with testosterone, but there was something else. A distinctive, animal smell, like burying her nose in fur. And the only place she could remember smelling it before was in her vision.

“Turn into a bear,” she demanded, her voice shaking. “Do it now.”

A tiny smile curled the corner of his mouth, as if he were trying it on for size. “You just told me not to,” he pointed out.

She pushed him hard in the center of the chest. He didn’t move, solid as a rock. “Do it!” she insisted.

He looked at her for a moment longer, then he stepped back and shrugged.

He stretched his arms above his head, lacing his fingers together and cracking his knuckles. She tried to keep her eyes off the narrow band of his flat stomach that was exposed as his T-shirt rode up. As he brought his arms back down, fur washed over his skin like a shudder, and his face pushed out into a muzzle. He dropped to all fours, and his spine twisted, his limbs contorting and his hands and feet spreading into enormous paws with wicked, curved black claws as long as her thumb.

Then he was standing in front of her, as large as life and twice as furry. As a bear.

Ivy stared, her heart racing. Her limbs felt shaky and weak. She wasn’t going crazy. He really could turn into a bear. And she guessed the other firefighters could too, since they were standing there watching, completely un-freaked-out, like it was an everyday occurrence.

Maybe it was, for them.

She circled him cautiously, looking at his broad, furry back, his powerful hindquarters, his curved flank, the solid strength of his forelimbs. There was no smoke and mirrors. It wasn’t a trick or an illusion. He was real and solid and there. She could feel the heat radiating from his big body and smell his musky, animal odor.

She reached out with trembling fingers, and she took his small, round, velvety ear between her fingers, rubbing it gently. He gave a low, happy rumble from deep in his chest, like the bear version of purring. She gazed into his eyes, no longer that startling blue, but still with the spark of human intelligence.

Then she turned and bolted for the door.





Chapter Seven