An Alpha's Storm (Water Bear Shifters 1) (7 page)

Brett looked around once more, then quickly stripped naked, throwing his clothes into a pile on the sand. He let out a roar, and threw back his head as he let the primal energy of his animal overtake him. His skin changed from tanned, human skin into thick black and white fur. His hands changed into large paws, ending in sharp claws, and his face became the familiar black and white face of a panda. Brett roared again, baring his sharp bear teeth and standing on his hind legs to stretch to his full height. For humans, pandas had something of a reputation for being cute and cuddly. But Brett was feeling anything but cuddly right now.

He was a panda shifter, the most legendary and ancient of all the bear shifters. He was afraid of no one, with the blood of generations of noble, fierce pandas running through his veins. He felt the energy of his bear surging through every limb as he let the beast take over, and he forgot to be angry about Aubrey. All he could think about was the exhilaration he felt at finally shifting out in the open air.

Brett started to run, keeping his path right at the water’s edge, where the lapping waves would quickly wash away the large paw prints he was leaving in the sand. The fur on his lower legs and belly became wet with salt water, and full of the sand that his quick pace was constantly sending flying into the air. Brett didn’t care. He felt amazing, and let his bear nose breathe in deeply the scent of the ocean air. The wind was blowing in from across the ocean, which made the breeze slightly cold. Brett didn’t mind, though. His fur kept him perfectly warm. He breathed in again, enjoying the scents and sounds of the empty beaches. He could smell people, but they were far enough away that he wasn’t worried about them seeing him. He ran for several more minutes, releasing the angry energy of the day out into the rhythmic pounding of his paws. When he had finally had enough, he turned around and ran back to the spot where he had left his clothes.

With a satisfied roar, he shifted back and quickly dressed. His human skin wasn’t as good of a match against the cool ocean breeze as his fur had been, and he shivered slightly. He breathed in deeply, smiling as the salty air filled his lungs again. His smile froze however, when he smelled a human close by. And not just any human. It was her. She was here.

Brett’s heart pounded as he swung his head around, looking for the source of the familiar scent. He had to strain to see her, but when he did, the perfect oval shape of her face and the reddish brown tint of her hair was unmistakable. There, crouching down in the bushes near the Torrey pine, Aubrey was watching him with a look of pure shock on her face.

He’d been caught.

Aubrey saw Brett turn and look in her direction, straining to see into the bushes. An unmistakable look of alarm crossed his face when he spotted her. For a long time, they both remained perfectly still, eyes locked and expressions wary.

Aubrey had no idea what kind of phenomenon, exactly, she had just witnessed. And from the look of distress on Brett’s face, it was clear that he had not wanted her to witness the phenomenon. Aubrey didn’t even know how he had found this beach. It was one of the most secluded spots within a fifty mile radius of San Diego, and she had never seen another soul out here at the same time as her. What were the odds that Brett knew about the beach, too, and had decided to escape here at exactly the same moment as her? The odds were good enough, it seemed, because here they were, staring at each other and unsure of what to do next.

Aubrey had gone for a long swim in the ocean, completely naked. She hadn’t even left her underwear on. She wanted to feel the salt water against her skin, fully enveloping her. She wanted to become one with the ocean that had almost killed her, but that she still loved. So she had stripped down to bare skin in this group of bushes, and then run quickly across the sand to splash into the water. No one was going to see her out here, anyway. The whole area was deserted and quiet except for a few seagulls circling above her, squawking now and then. Aubrey had swum for a long time, letting the water wash away the frustrations and anger of the afternoon. When she had finally calmed down, and started to feel at peace again, she had climbed out of the water and made her way back to the bushes to slip back into her clothes.

Just as she had pulled her pants back on, however, she had noticed a man running down the beach. She raised an eyebrow in surprise, and had chuckled at the thought that the man would have caught her naked if she had waited just a few more minutes before getting out of the water. Aubrey pulled her shirt over her head, and decided to wait a minute to let the man pass before leaving the bushes. Anyone going for a run all the way out here was obviously looking for time alone, and she didn’t want to disturb his solitude.

But as the man got closer, Aubrey did a double take. It was Brett. Although she was still a good distance away from him, since the group of bushes was several hundred feet from the ocean, she had no doubt that it was him. He was barefoot, and making long, easy strides across the sand with strong legs. Aubrey felt a momentary pang of regret that she would never get to sleep with him again. His body truly was the most amazing thing she had ever seen. But she was pretty sure that after the exchange she’d had with Brett this afternoon, they weren’t even friends anymore. Let alone friends with benefits.

Aubrey’s pulse had quickened when Brett had suddenly slowed and come to a stop on the beach directly across from her hiding spot. He had looked around in every direction, as though carefully searching for something. Aubrey’s eyes widened. He wasn’t looking for her, was he? She didn’t know how he would know she was here unless he had been following right behind her from the moment that she left Pete’s bar. And she was pretty sure that hadn’t been the case. She would have noticed his car in her rearview mirror. Besides, she’d been swimming for a long time, and he was clearly running in from somewhere farther down the shoreline. No, he hadn’t followed her. He just happened to be here at the same time as her. But what was he looking for, then?

Aubrey had crouched lower as Brett’s gaze swung toward the group of bushes. She remained perfectly still and kept her body as low to the ground as she could, praying that he wouldn’t see her. He had eventually looked away, and she breathed a sigh of relief. She saw Brett start to strip naked, and realized that he must have been trying to make sure he was alone before taking off his clothes. He was probably just going to go for a swim in the ocean, like she had just done. Aubrey would wait until he had disappeared into the water, and then she would sneak away to her car to leave.

Aubrey had watched Brett, who was now completely naked, as he looked around one more time. Then, to her astonishment, instead of running into the water, he threw back his head and let out a loud roar that hadn’t even sounded human. In the next instant, Brett had suddenly started morphing into large animal. Aubrey put her hand over her mouth and stifled a scream as she watched black and white fur appearing where his skin had been moments before. After his transformation was complete, he stood still for a moment, and Aubrey’s eyes grew so wide that she felt like they were going to pop out of her head. Where Brett had stood just seconds before, there now stood a giant panda bear.

The panda swung its head back and forth a few times, then took off running down the beach. Aubrey sat in the bushes, dumbfounded and trying to make sense of what she had just seen. She considered for a moment that she might have imagined the whole thing, but she quickly pushed the idea away. Brett’s clothes still sat on the beach in a pile, so she knew he had been there. Where had he gone? Was he coming back soon?

Aubrey was torn on whether she should stay hidden in the bushes or make a break for it and leave. She didn’t want Brett, or the panda bear, whatever he was now, to see her walking away from the beach. For one thing, if the panda knew she was here, it might attack her. She didn’t know if the bear was dangerous, and she didn’t want to take a chance on getting ripped to shreds. She also didn’t know if the bear was still “Brett.” Could he recognize her as a bear? Would he be angry at the sight of her, as he had been at the bar earlier? Was this a permanent change, or would he return to human Brett after a while?

Frozen by fear and uncertainty, Aubrey continued to crouch in the bushes. Her heart raced, and she told herself to wait there for about thirty minutes to calm down and think. She wished she had brought her cell phone with her, in case she needed to call for help. She had no idea who she would call, though. The police? What would she say? “Hi, I’m afraid I might be attacked by a panda bear. There’s one running around out here who used to be a man.” They would probably send out someone from the psych ward to “help” her.

Aubrey waited, breathing rapidly at first, but gradually her breathing slowed. The sun was setting, and there was no sign of the panda. Wherever Brett, or the bear, had gone, it didn’t appear that he would be returning anytime soon. Aubrey decided to make a break for her car, but, just as she stood, she saw the panda jogging back down the beach.

She quickly crouched down again, her heart instantly beginning to pound in her chest once more. She watched with bated breath as the panda made its way back to the pile of clothes. The bear looked around, and then, with another loud roar, Aubrey watched in astonished fascination as the fur and claws disappeared and Brett stood before her once again, naked but human.

Brett quickly pulled his clothes on, and Aubrey waited in perfect stillness. With any luck, he was going to continue back down the beach in the direction from which he had come. Then she could get out of here and head home. She didn’t know if she should approach Brett about what she had seen. She wasn’t very interested in talking to him right now, but she didn’t feel like she could completely ignore the fact that she had just seen someone she knew turn into a panda and back again. She needed time to figure out what to say, though. This day had been extraordinarily weird, and she needed to get to her own house and shut the door behind her so she could truly be alone to think.

Just when Aubrey thought she was going to be able to get away unnoticed, however, Brett suddenly froze and lifted his face into the wind. He turned around in a slow circle, and stopped when he was facing Aubrey’s direction. Aubrey couldn’t be sure from this distance, but it almost looked like he was smelling the air. Then his eyes started searching the bushes, and her palms got sweaty. She crouched down lower, hoping he wouldn’t see her. But it was too late. He locked eyes with her, and, from the way his expression changed, Aubrey knew he had spotted her.

She panicked. She had to get out of here. She didn’t want to talk to him right now. And she didn’t want to be alone with him out here, after what she had just seen. How stable could someone really be, if they could turn themselves into a freaking bear? Before she could really stop to think about what to do, Aubrey took off running. She left the bushes as fast as she could, her feet struggling to pound across the soft, sinking sand.

“Aubrey, wait!” Brett called from behind her. Aubrey didn’t stop to turn around. She just kept running as quickly as she could force her legs to move. She was in decent shape, but her running speed was no match for Brett’s and she knew it. She only hoped that she had enough of a head start on him to make it to her car, which was parked a quarter of a mile away, before he closed the gap between them. She struggled up and over a sand dune, tears starting to sting her eyes as she heard Brett’s voice behind her getting closer and closer. She couldn’t imagine that he actually wanted to harm her, but, then again, she hadn’t ever imagined that he had the ability to turn himself into an animal. She had to make it to her car before he caught her.

After she crossed another small sand dune, her car came into view. Her keys were already in her hands, her finger poised over the unlock button. She didn’t dare look back, for fear that any little bit of slowing down would give Brett the opportunity to catch her.

“Aubrey!”

He was so close. His voice had grown louder, and more insistent. Aubrey ran like her life depended on it. Maybe it did. She made it to her car and slammed the door shut and locked just moments before he closed the last small space between them. He pounded on the window, looking upset, but not necessarily angry. Still, she wasn’t taking any chances.

“Aubrey, please. Let me talk to you. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Get away from me!” Aubrey screamed. She put her car key in the ignition, and turned it. Brett’s pleas through the closed window became even more muffled as the noise from the engine drowned them out. Aubrey couldn’t stomach the hurt, confused look in his eyes.

She was hurt and confused herself. She had discovered this afternoon that Brett was not at all who she thought he was. He wasn’t a kind, easygoing friend. He was a jealous, angry man who thought he had some sort of dibs on her. And, as if that wasn’t enough, he somehow had the ability to change himself into a panda.

Was it witchcraft? Magic?

Aubrey didn’t know, and she didn’t care much at the moment. All she cared about was getting out of here and away from Brett. She put the car in drive and roared away as fast as she could. She glanced into her rearview mirror just in time to see Brett putting both of his hands on his head in frustration as he watched her go. She had no doubt that he would be coming after her, but, for the moment, she had escaped.

Brett watched Aubrey leaving, feeling more helpless than he ever had in his life.

“Shit. What a giant clusterfuck,” he said out loud. “Shit, shit, shit.” He kicked angrily at the ground, but the soft sand didn’t offer much resistance. He would have loved to have a punching bag at the moment. He needed something to pummel.

“Why the hell was she out here?” he asked the seagull that was circling over his head. The seagull only squawked in reply, but it didn’t matter. If Brett was honest with himself, he knew why she was out here. She was mad and frustrated after their argument at the bar. And when Aubrey was mad and frustrated, she always went to the ocean to swim it off. He didn’t know how long she had been in those bushes, but he was sure she had at least seen him shift back from panda form to human form.

He had been ready to never talk to her again after seeing her with another guy’s hand on her arm, but now he had no choice. He had to talk to her, and he had to do it soon. For all he knew, she was already on her cell phone doing something rash like calling the cops.

“Shit,” he said again. Then he took off running toward his car, which was still pretty far down the beach. The light was fading quickly, and the area was completely deserted. He thought about shifting into bear form again so he could run faster, but he decided against it. If she was going to call the cops, she had probably already done it. No sense in shifting again and risking another person seeing him, however remote the risk out here might be.

Brett finally made it to his car and took off, speeding toward Aubrey’s house. Her car was parked in the driveway, and the lights in her living room were illuminated, so he knew she was home. He swallowed back his anxiousness and went to the front door.

“Aubrey, it’s me. Please, let me talk to you,” he said as he pounded on the door.

She didn’t answer, but moments later the lights in the living room went dark.

Brett gritted his teeth. This wasn’t looking too great. “Aubrey, please. I know you must have questions. Let me explain.”

“Go away,” Aubrey yelled from inside.

Brett decided to try another tactic. “I’m not leaving until you at least give me a chance to explain,” he said, trying to make his voice sound firm and convincing.

A moment later he heard the deadbolt unlatch, and the door swung wide open. Aubrey stood in front of him, her eyes blazing with anger. He had never seen her look so furious, and the fire in her eyes might have been almost sexy, if it hadn’t been directed at him.

“You
are
leaving. Right now. If you don’t, I’m going to call the cops. Then you can explain all you want—to them.”

Brett sighed, and backed up with his hands raised. “Fine,” he said, not wanting to leave but not wanting to find out if her threat to involve the police was real. “I’ll leave. I know you’re angry right now, but, please, consider calling me after you’ve had some time to think about this, okay?”

Aubrey didn’t reply. She just kept looking at him with an angry glare on her face. Brett took a deep breath and forced himself to turn and walk away. He hoped that she wasn’t going to tell anyone what she had seen until at least talking to him first, but he had no way of knowing for sure. As much as he hated to admit it, he had screwed up. He had shifted in front of a human, and not just any human—a human who was already very angry at him.

He had to tell the other alphas. They would be furious, but they needed to know. If Aubrey did say something to someone, and he hadn’t warned the others, things would be even worse. Brett pulled out his phone and sent a group text that simply read “EAM, my apartment, ASAP.” EAM stood for “emergency alpha meeting.” The guys would all show up within the hour. Everyone knew that an EAM was never good. It would mean something serious, like the possibility that the enemy scientists had found them. Or that, as was the case here, their shifter status had been exposed to humans.

With a heavy heart, Brett started driving toward his apartment. He had been so excited to have an unexpected day off. His head had been filled with visions of a fun dinner out with Aubrey, followed by a night of passion in her bedroom. But things had gone awry so quickly. He had never expected that he would be spending the evening calling an emergency meeting to tell his fellow alphas that he’d been caught shifting by Aubrey.

When Brett got to his apartment, Lance and Ben were already there. Without a word, Brett walked past them and unlocked his door. As they were walking into the apartment, Ace showed up.

“What’s going on?” Ace asked, worry etched into his forehead.

Brett shut the door behind him. He wouldn’t mince words with this group. He would say exactly what happened, and then let them voice their anger. It wouldn’t be fun, but the sooner he tore the bandage off, the better. “Aubrey caught me shifting. She was already angry with me, and now she won’t even speak to me. I don’t think she has said anything to anyone yet, but when I tried to go talk to her, she threatened to call the cops on me if I didn’t leave.”

Brett watched the faces in his living room change from concerned to enraged.

“What the hell, man?” Lance said. “I thought you guys weren’t even officially dating, and you go shifting in front of her?”

Ace crossed his arms, shaking his head in disgust. “I told you this whole friends with benefits thing was going to go south. Those arrangements never work out in the long term. And now you’ve got an angry woman who knows you’re a shifter. Great. Just great.”

Brett took a deep breath, and did his best to explain. “I went to surprise her at work when we got the day off. I found her at the bar next to work, with another guy all over her. I got upset, because she told me she didn’t want a relationship, and yet here she was getting cozy with some other schmo. So I stormed off, and went running on a secluded stretch of beach a little bit north of here. My bear was angry, and I decided to shift and run free for a little while. I thought the whole area was deserted, but when I got back to the beach where I had left my clothes, Aubrey was there. She saw me, and got scared, and then angry. She started running to her car, and I couldn’t stop her because she had a huge head start on me. She drove off, and I followed her back to her house as soon as I could get to my car. She wouldn’t talk to me, though. I tried to convince her, but that’s when she threatened to call the cops if I didn’t leave. I don’t think she is going to say anything to anyone as long as I leave her alone, but I’m not entirely sure, so I called this meeting.”

Brett looked around at the faces in the room, meeting each alpha’s eyes with his own. He may have screwed up, but he would not cower down in fear. He would not apologize for pursuing a woman he cared about deeply. Things had not turned out the way he wanted them to, and he should have been more wary of shifting out on an open beach. But, so far, no damage had been done. He could see that everyone in the room was angry with him, but Brett would not spend his whole life hiding in the shadows.

Ben was the first to speak, and his voice was nearly a yell. “What the hell were you thinking, man? Shifting in front of a woman who’s angry at you? How can you be so confident that she’s not going to say anything to anyone? As soon as she figures out that she could get you in some deep shit by telling the right people who you are, she’s going to be blasting your secret all over town. The scientists are going to figure out where we are, and it’s all downhill from there. We’ll either have to fight them, or find an entirely new place to hide. You’ve put all of us at risk with your foolhardiness.”

“Look, I made a mistake. And I’m sorry for that. But Aubrey isn’t the kind of person who is going to use this information to spite me.”

“You don’t know for sure,” Ace hissed out, getting right in Brett’s face. “We could all be looking at the end of life as we know it thanks to your idiocy. I told you that you can’t trust human women!”

Lance butted into the conversation, his tone upset but much calmer than Ace’s. “Did she have anything to say about why she was with that other guy? I’m concerned that if she’s interested in another man, that she might go running to him and tell him the whole story.”

“I don’t know who the guy was,” Brett said. “She tried to tell me that there was nothing going on between them, but the guy had his arm on her when I walked into the bar. There’s no denying that there was something happening between them.”

Brett frowned as he considered Lance’s words. Lance had a valid concern. If Aubrey was interested in that other guy, this whole situation might serve to drive her straight into that guy’s arms. Just the thought of her with someone else made his chest tighten, but he had to calm down and think rationally. He racked his brain, trying to remember whether Aubrey had ever talked about another guy friend. Suddenly, he remembered her mentioning once or twice some guy in the math department who wouldn’t leave her alone. She’d said the guy kept bugging her for a date and didn’t seem to get the hint that she wasn’t interested. Had that been him in the bar? And, if so, had Aubrey changed her mind and agreed to go out with him? Or had he been pushing for more than friendship against Aubrey’s will?

Brett felt his cheeks heat up as he remembered Aubrey’s words when he found her at Pete’s bar. “
I told him I would have a drink with him as long as he knew it was only as friends. But he overstepped his boundaries. I didn’t want him to hold my hand, and I certainly didn’t invite it.
”

“Oh, shit,” Brett said, as understanding flooded him. Aubrey had been trying to tell him the same thing she’d been saying about this guy all along—that the guy was overly persistent and didn’t listen when she told him to back off. No wonder she had been so angry with him. He hadn’t even listened to her. He hadn’t given her the benefit of the doubt, or even the simple courtesy of a moment to tell him what was really going on.

Brett had royally screwed up. And not just by accidentally shifting while someone was watching. He had flown into a fit of rage at the woman he loved instead of trusting her. He deserved her anger. And he deserved the anger of the other alphas in the room. He could only hope that it wasn’t too late to fix it. Brett ran his fingers through his hair and started pacing the room.

“I need to apologize to her,” Brett said. “I think I just realized what happened, and I definitely did not react the right way when I saw her at the bar. Oh, god, I hope it’s not too late to fix things with her.”

Ben spoke up next. “Listen, I don’t mean to sound crass, but I don’t really give a damn about your love life right now. I’m concerned about being outed as shifters, and I think we all need to go over as a group and talk to Aubrey.”

“Are you kidding me?” Ace asked. “You actually think it’s a good idea for all of us to just show up at Aubrey’s house? That sounds like a great way to freak the poor girl out. She’ll probably go straight to the police, and who knows how out of control things will get from there.”

“She’s already freaked out and upset,” Ben said. “She’s angry with Brett, so she doesn’t want to talk to him. Fine. But she might be swayed to let us at least say our piece if we all show up as a unified front.”

“You’re out of your mind,” Ace said. “She might be swayed into talking to us, sure. She also might be even more frightened when there are four big guys on her porch instead of one. My guess would be if we all show up, she’ll call the cops without a second thought.”

“Brett?” Lance asked. “What do you think? You know her better than any of us.”

Brett bit his lip. “I think we should talk to her,” he said. “She’s a pretty levelheaded person. I think if she sees all of us showing up together, she’ll see how important this is to us and let us speak.”

Ace rolled his eyes and let out a loud sigh while Ben crossed his arms and gave Ace a triumphant smirk.

“Fine,” Ace said. “I’ll go along with this idiot plan, since we’re probably already doomed, anyway. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

The group decided that Lance would drive them over, since he had the largest vehicle. Brett sat in the passenger seat to give driving directions, feeling nervous and excited all at the same time. He knew if they could just get Aubrey to listen to them, that everything would be okay. Aubrey was one of the most open-minded people he’d ever met. He couldn’t imagine her doing anything to expose him or any of the other alphas to harm. Sure, she was angry with him. But even in her anger, she wouldn’t want to turn him over to angry scientists who wanted him dead.

Brett’s biggest worry was that Aubrey wouldn’t be willing to listen to the group at all. If she didn’t let them explain things, she might let her imagination run away with all kinds of fears and misinformation about shifters. If she called the cops, and the pandas’ enemies got wind of where they were, it was game over.

Brett crossed his fingers in hopes that the presence of all four of the shifters at once would be enough to make Aubrey realize how serious the matter was.

If not, it looked like he might have to start running again, leaving behind the rescue swimmer job that he loved.