Bearly Hanging On (The Jamesburg Shifters #6)(9)

A single cow? Wandering around after midnight? That can't be normal. But still...

For his first felony in the Jamesburg jurisdiction, this one was going to be a lot easier than he thought. Slowly, Ryan plodded toward the confused looking heifer, a big girl with black spots and dark brown eyes. He stuck his hand out, and she looked back at him - or past him - as he did.

"Easy does it, girl," Ryan said softly. He reached back for the rope he'd brought along. "That's it, easy, easy..."

The flapping overhead was getting closer, but his attention was laser focused.

"Easy does it, easy—"

"Ah!" he shouted. Something hit him in the back. Something sharp. He swatted his hand and whirled in a circle. "What the hell is—ah!"

Iron bands wrapped around his waist, and something - hands? Grabbed his head, holding him immobile. A split second later, desire coursed through Ryan's body, followed by heat so intense that he thought he was going to combust. And then, just as he looked down, catching a glimpse of what he thought was a black stiletto, something cracked against his head.

He hit the ground, limp, like a sack of furry potatoes. He blinked his eyes, trying his best to stay awake, even though a sensation very much like he last felt when he was on doctor-ordered pain killers for breaking his shoulder, was trying to push him into unconsciousness.

"You?" he asked, spying a pale face with high cheekbones and slate-gray eyes. "What in the fu—"

And that was it. He blinked again, Jamie lowered her head, and drained just enough out of him that he wasn't going to be awake for at least a couple of hours.

When she lifted her head, she couldn't stop shaking.

"I get my legs around you, and then knock you out," she said, her voice soft and disbelieving. His blood was strong, sweeter on her tongue than the cow's, and even though she long since swore off same-species feeding victims, she was pretty sure that the gorgeous hunk of bear who she was presently straddling, had been trying to steal Gertrude.

"Life sure as shit is funny sometimes." She pressed her saliva-wet fingers to the pinprick holes in Ryan's neck, sealing them up. "Why couldn't I just ask you on a date?"

Even with bear blood in her veins, she couldn't lift his massive bulk. Jamie managed to drag him all the way back to Gertrude's shade tree, while the cow followed her intently. She slung his limp form onto the enormous sled he'd no doubt brought along to help with the theft, but then another thought hit her - where the hell am I going to take a giant, unconscious, bear?

The light in West's kitchen flicked on. It was a half-mile or so from where she was, the pasture was so wide open, that even Jamie could see it flick on. Her muscles were tightened, thicker than they usually were, because of her snack. If I get going now, I'll probably be able to drag his ass to the house, but... what then?

She shook her head. Jamie had never been particularly good at figuring out "what then" before it became "what now?"

I'll figure it out, she thought as she shouldered the rope and grunted with effort. Once it was rolling, keeping the sled in motion was easier than she thought it'd be, but the rocks and sticks she had to drag it over didn't make things simple.

I'll figure it out. I always do.

She shot a glance back at the unconscious bear, and realized that even with this unlikely, and really, really unfortunate method of meeting, she got what she wanted a couple of days before.

He had shaved, somewhat recently, his face marked only with a dusting of whiskers. And holy hell was he gorgeous.

The rise and fall of his chest, the flexing of his muscles underneath the giant's body glove of a shirt, she had to stop for a second and just admire him. She shook her head.

I'm in really, really, big trouble.

She couldn't help but smirk as she dragged her quarry the rest of the way, wondering exactly what West was going to think of all this.





-4-


"That really didn't go the way I expected it to go."


-Ryan


The world seemed like a raisin that got pulled through the singularity of a black hole as Ryan opened his eyes. All at once, his stomach growled, his head thumped, and the side of his neck was... prickling with excitement? He lifted a hand, groaned, and touched his neck where the tingling was the most intense. When he touched it, he got the same sensation in the back of his throat like he'd just eaten a really sweet snow cone slightly too fast.

Satisfied he wasn't dead, but not sure of much past that, the big bear rolled to his side and tried to prop himself up on his elbow.

Instead, he found himself briefly burrito-rolled between the edge of the mattress and a tightly tucked sheet. "Hotel?" he grunted, and then he hit the floor as his weight untucked the sheets. He landed face down, but luckily his chest was big enough, and he was aware enough, to keep himself from totally face-planting. A broken nose to go with...

I got caught, he remembered. That bat girl, she... bit me? I think? Or hit me with something? Ryan touched his neck again, but there were no marks that he could find. Then again, he couldn't quite remember if all that had actually happened, or if it were all a dream.

But dreams don't usually end with a weird, throbbing skull and falling out of a bed you've never seen, onto an admittedly nice hardwood floor.

"No hotel," he groaned, rubbing the back of his head. If it were, he figured, he would have been face-down on that awful gray industrial Berber stuff that was basically the calling card of the sorts of hotels Jamesburg had to offer. That is: cheap and sorta gross.