Grayslake: Creed's Claim (3 page)

Dean Sterling picked up the call with a curt, “What the hell, Braun? I told you guys I was busy tonight.”

Oh shit, he sounded pissed. On a normal day, that wouldn’t bother Kait in the slightest, but this wasn’t a normal day by any stretch of the imagination. Any day that involved men with
claws
was so far from a normal day it was laughable.

“Uhm, I’m sorry. Lilly told me to call…that you could help.”

Heavy footsteps sounded behind her as she spoke. Twisting in panic, she breathed a sigh of relief to see their admirers from in the bar earlier. Only right now, they didn’t look so young and harmless. They looked grim and dangerous as they surrounded the small group of women protectively.

“What happened?” the one who’d tried to chat them up in the bar demanded, his attention all on Lilly. The charm was gone now, and the look in his eyes made Kait shiver.

“We got jumped.” Lilly’s response was no nonsense and rang with an authority Kait had never heard from her before. “Secure the alley and one of you go get a truck. We’re going to need to move her to the lodge.”

“Hello?” Dean’s voice brought Kait back to the conversation. “Hello? Are you still there?”

“Yeah, I’m here.” She’d obviously slipped into some surreal nightmare, but she was still here.

“Good. Who is this… Kait, is that you? Kait Turner?”

“Yeah, it is.”

You had to hand it to small towns. Dean hadn’t needed more than a few seconds to work out who she was based purely on the fact she was in Lilly’s company. No doubt the gossip network had swung into action as soon as she’d driven into town earlier.

“Kaitlyn. I need you to tell me what happened.”

She took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart and so she didn’t sound hysterical. Because what she had to say was crazy. Crazy
and
hysterical? They’d be carting her off to the nuthouse in Elim Springs.

“There were men,” she started, looking up with a smile of thanks as one of the new arrivals put a jacket around her shoulders. Why hadn’t she realized she was shaking so much? It couldn’t be the cold. It was too mild for that.

“Men in the alley waiting for us. They had…they had claws,” she said quickly and made the mistake of looking over at Kacie. She lay on her back, her eyes closed and her face pale. Everything about her was pale apart from the vivid scarlet across her abdomen. “Oh god, there’s so much blood.”

Before she could say anything else, the cell was plucked out of her hand by one of the men. “Itan? It’s Bennett. We got a couple of intruders. Five by the smell of it. They caught Braun and her friends in the alley by the library. One got tagged and it’s bad.”

“Which one?”

Kait clearly heard the question as she wrapped the jacket more securely around herself. She felt like an owl as she watched those around her. Three of them, including Lilly, crowded around Kacie, trying to stop the bleeding.

The guy with the cell looked down, a crease between his brows. “Yeah, it’s Kacie Leroy. How did you kn—”

The whole group heard the roar of pain and fury from the other end of the line. The guy holding the cell held it away from his ear, a wince on his face. He must have caught the full force of the sound before he’d yanked it away.

“Yes, Itan,” he said when the noise died down and he replaced the phone against his ear. “We’re on our way. Scott went to get a truck…” He paused and looked up, as though listening for something. “He’s just about here now.”

Sure enough, within seconds a truck pulled up to the entrance to the alley. Kait was shunted to the side as two of the men loaded Kacie onto what looked like a body-board and carried her toward the vehicle.

Lilly straightened up and regarded at her with an odd look in her eye. “Kait, I’m sorry, but you’re going to need to come with us.”

“Duh, way to go, Captain Obvious.” How she was still walking and talking, Kait didn’t know, but at least her powers of sarcasm hadn’t deserted her. “Where she goes, I go. Why aren’t we taking her to a hospital again? She’s bleeding… From. Her. Stomach. That shit’s serious. Like way serious.”

All of a sudden it hit home and the blood drained from Kait’s body right until she felt queasy. “Shit, she could die, couldn’t she? Screw this, I’m calling an ambulance…the sheriff. Anyone.”

She had her cell half out of her clutch when it was plucked out of her hand. She gasped and turned to look up into Bennett’s face. His eyes darkened dangerously.

“Sorry, ma’am, but we can’t let you do that. So, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Please take the easy way. Cause you won’t like the alternative.”

“
Y
ou can’t do this
,” Kait hissed for what seemed like the hundredth time as she was hauled out of the truck and shoved toward a large building. The lodge, apparently. Lodge of what, she had no idea. It looked more like one of those fancy hunting places Aiden and his lot booked for “team building exercises.” Despite having grown up in Lizard Lick, she’d had no idea it was here, tucked away in the forest-covered hills above town.

The others had already unloaded Kacie, rushing her into the building ahead of them. Dean Sterling had been waiting at the door, lines of concern and fear written on his face. Perhaps the thing Kacie had for him wasn’t all one way?

“Hey, Bennett. Stop being an asshole and be gentle.” Lilly stormed around the truck and got all up in Bennett’s face, forcing him to let go of Kait’s arm. “She’s human and scared, so cut her some fucking slack, okay?”

“Yes, Enforcer.” The big guy rumbled, ducking his head in what appeared to be a subservient gesture. Kait’s eyes widened, as much at his manner and the casual way Lilly had referred to her as “human.”

Shitshitshit
, this really wasn’t a dream, was it? She stepped to the side, away from the big man and swept a gaze around her. There was a parking area in front of the lodge, filled with all manner of vehicles, but just beyond it was the tree line. She was a fast runner, once she got rid of the ridiculous heels, of course.

If she could make the trees, she had a good shot at getting away from whatever madness this was. Alert the authorities about the attack on Kacie. She’d been thinking about it. Those guys must have had some kind of cosplay claws that fit over their hands…perhaps they were all involved in some weird live action role play world that Lilly also seemed to be involved in.

“Good, don’t you fucking forget it.”

Lilly slid a sideways glance at Kait. “Don’t run, Kait. We’re predators. We like to chase.”

Kait’s breath stuttered in her lungs. How the hell had Lilly known what she was thinking?

“I’ve known you since we were kids. It’s written all over your face. For moon’s sake, never play poker. You’d lose in a heartbeat.” The other woman chuckled. “Come on, let’s get inside.”

Inside, things went from bad to worse. The place was crammed to the rafters with people from town. Familiar faces that Kait had known all her life, like Marvis who taught elementary, and George from the store. She looked around the room, spotting face after face…hell, even Sheriff Anderson was in here, looking at her with the dark eyes she’d come to associate with whatever the hell cult this was.

None of them wore the friendly smiles she was used to seeing, though. Instead, they were all viewing her with suspicion.

The sheriff was the first to speak. “She saw? She knows what we are?”

Lilly nodded. “She saw enough, yes. There was no avoiding it. The intruders didn’t care they were revealing themselves to humans.”

There was that use of “human” again. As though these people weren’t. Kait took a tiny step toward her friend’s side. She seemed to hold some authority in whatever weird setup this was. Hopefully that would help and get them all out of here in one piece.

“She knows and she’s not married to one of us.” Anderson’s voice was not friendly. “You know the law as well as I do, Enforcer. She has to die.”

She had to die.

Kait froze in place, feeling like her feet were rooted to the floor. Her heart pounded in her ears. Did he really just say…? Her world stopped turning. All of her attention focused on that one little sentence. Surely this was taking roleplay a little
too
far?

Lilly inclined her head. “I do and she isn’t. Yet.”

At that, Kait’s head snapped around to look at her. “Yet?”

Lilly gave a warning shake of her head, her attention on Anderson. “You know how delicate bringing someone into our world is, since your brother had to bring his wife in. It’s a long process, and not completed quickly…unless rushed by other circumstances. Unforeseen circumstances like this.”

“You mean to tell me someone was bringing her in?” Anderson frowned, standing. “Who?”

Kait didn’t miss the tension rolling around the room as he advanced on Lilly. She didn’t back down, though, glaring up at him. A shiver seemed to cover her skin, as though something moved underneath it.

“Who, Enforcer?” the sheriff demanded. “Or I’ll do your job for you. Or maybe,” he looked over, raking a glance down Kait that made her feel sick. “I’ll claim her myself.”

The door opened and closed behind them but Kait daren’t take her eyes off the little interplay between Lilly and the sheriff.

“Touch her and die,” a deep voice said behind her.

A deep, familiar voice.
Creed.

With a gasp, Kait whirled around. Creed stood behind her, but this was Creed as she’d never seen him before. He’d always had that bad boy edge, an indefinable aura of danger that had drawn her like a bee to honey, but now he radiated lethality. His usually blue eyes were darkened, the color eaten up by fury as he looked at the other man.

“Kaitlyn Turner is mine. Always has been. Always will be. Anyone has a problem with that, they can take it up with me in the pit.”

T
hanks
to the call from Bennett, Creed knew that he was walking into a hot situation, and humans finding out about the bears in their midst was about as hot as it got. The clan, all clans, had rules everyone was required to abide by or get the Itan, the bear badass in charge, and his enforcers breathing down their necks. Enforcers like Creed and Lilly, whose fragile feminine form was the best concealment for the meanest she-bear Creed had ever known. Head Enforcer for the Itan, they all took orders from her.

All apart from Anderson, who was a dickhead. He’d had an issue with Lilly ever since she’d been named as Head, always niggling at her decisions and inciting others to argue with her. Creed wasn’t an idiot. The guy’s request to become an enforcer had been turned down several times. He was too volatile and irrational to enforce their laws, no matter what his role in human life was. The fact that his badge meant diddly-squat in the lodge obviously really bugged the shit out of him.

So, he’d expected a shit-storm when Bennett had called him into the lodge, even though he was technically rostered off tonight, but not this. Never this. As soon as he’d opened the door, Kaitlyn’s scent had hit him like a truck doing Mach 1, and the situation went from a possible bust up with a couple of local hotheads right through to outright murder if anyone so much as looked sideways at her.

Like the way Anderson just had. Rage filled Creed, boiling over to consume every cell in his body in a lightning fast reaction. His bear, normally placid and hard to reach, was there, just under the surface to feed him its strength as he glared the other man down.

“Do I make myself clear?” he growled when Anderson didn’t back down. “I claim Kaitlyn Turner as mine. Understand?”

A mulish expression crossed the other man’s face, as though he seriously considered challenging Creed for the right to claim Kaitlyn. Creed took a step forward, a warning rumble in the back of his throat. He might prefer not to shift to fight, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t take this asshole apart with his bare, human hands.

“Do. I. Make. Myself. Clear?” he demanded.

Sudden fear filled Anderson’s eyes and he nodded, dropping his gaze and refusing to make eye contact as he backed off. “Yes, Enforcer, I understand. The woman is yours.”

“Good.”

Without speaking, Creed looked around the clan assembled in the lodge’s main room. A silent challenge to them all that Kait was his. That he was claiming her in front of them all. They all looked away, no one holding his gaze for more than a few seconds before looking away. Only Lilly smiled and gave him an approving nod.

“Get her out of here,” she leaned in to advise softly. “Let me and the others deal with this lot. You have some explaining to do.” She jerked her head toward Kait, who watched them with over-bright eyes and an expression that said she was teetering on the edge of a breakdown.

“Roger that. Kait, walk.” Looping a hand under her arm, he led her to the other side of the main room.

“
Half-skin. Might as well be a fucking human yourself,”
someone hissed as they passed.

He ignored them, urging Kait ahead of him. There was always some elitist fucker who hated skins, a slang term for humans, in every clan. They were best ignored most of the time.

The door at the back of the main room led to the stairs and beyond them, the bedrooms on the first and second floors. There were enough for all members of the clan to crash in case they were caught up here. Many stayed at least a couple of nights during the monthly run, when their bears were close to the surface. Creed himself stayed here, but never during that time of month. It was too much of a reminder that he wasn’t like the others, that he was, indeed, a half-skin.

Putting the slur from his mind, he focused on Kait as she walked ahead of him. Her back was straight and her movements tightly controlled. Sure signs that she was trying hard to keep it together. Pride filled him. His girl was tough as nails. She was strong and beautiful…he’d spent years admiring her from afar.

And now, through some bizarre twist of fate, she had landed in his lap. She was his. His to claim…his to bed…

His to mate.

Shit, he was shaking already.

C
reed was one of them
. And, apparently, she was his.

Kait kept silent as he led her up the stairs and along a corridor to a room at the end. Opening the door, he waved her through it first, his expression set and his eyes the color of the sky before a storm. Whatever was going on, she knew Creed. He wasn’t acting. And he was far too grounded to be involved in any weird cosplay group or cult.

The door shut, making her jump, and she put as much distance as she could between them before turning to face him. He leaned against the door, arms folded as he watched her steadily. He’d always done that. Watched her. From the first time her brother had brought him home when they were kids. Always watching, like something about her fascinated him.

“What?” she snapped, her nerves almost at a breaking point. “Do I have something on my nose?” She lifted her hand to rub at it, just in case. “God forbid I should have something on my nose after the complete
fuck up
tonight has been.” She laughed, the sound harsh in the silence of the room.

A bedroom, she belatedly noticed, with a large double bed covered in crisp, white sheets. He’d claimed she was his and brought her up to a bedroom. Even an idiot could figure out what was going to happen next.

“Creed… What’s going on? Who were those men and why did they hurt…” Her voice broke and she paused to gather herself. “Why did they hurt Kacie? Why did the sheriff tell Lilly I had to die? Please… what am I missing?”

“Fucking Anderson. I’ll rip him to shreds. He shouldn’t have said that in front of you.” Anger flared across Creed’s eyes for a moment and he pushed off the door in an explosion of movement.

She couldn’t help the squeak escaping her lips and backed up as far as she could away from him. Half-remembered things from the past swirled in her mind. Like how half the town always seemed scared of him and how he’d walked away from the accident that had killed her brother with barely a scratch. She’d put it down to sheer dumb luck at the time, but now she wasn’t so sure.

“Shhhh, I’m not going to hurt you. I promise,” he said reassuringly, approaching her with his hands held out to the sides. The care he took eased her nerves a little bit. He obviously wasn’t going to jump her right away.

Damn.
Disappointment rolled through her, displacing more of the fear. This was Creed after all. He’d never hurt her… Even in this strange, upside down world, she knew he’d never hurt her. But she had to know.

“Did my brother find out about this?” she asked suddenly, surprising even herself. “Is that what really happened that night? In the car?”

“No!” Creed’s denial was immediate and forceful. Before she knew it, he was there in front of her, his large hands gripping her upper arms. “Kait, I would never do anything to hurt you or your brother. You have to believe me.”

As soon as he’d touched her, she froze, fear running rampant through her veins. But, looking into his eyes, she saw the honesty there and relaxed a little. Something deep inside her wanted to burrow into the safety and comfort of his arms and stay there forever, but her brain, always thinking, wouldn’t let her.

“Tell me what’s going on.”

He sighed, running a hand over his close cropped hair. “Sit down.”

She did, watching as he squatted down in front of her. The shirt he wore stretched over his chest and shoulders, the tight fabric hugging the sculpted muscles beneath. Tattoos covered his arms, moving as he flexed his forearms to rest them on his thighs.

“Okay, there’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to come out with it. Don’t freak out on me, okay? Just hear me out.” His deep voice was a quiet rumble in the silence of the room.

He held her gaze, his expression earnest as he reached for her hands. Like he needed the contact, and she didn’t refuse. His thumbs stroked over the backs of her knuckles reassuringly. Well, it should have been reassuring. The feel of his hands on hers sent all her feminine instincts haywire.

“We’re bears, Kaitlyn. Werebears.”

O…kay.
Whatever she’d expected him to say, it hadn’t been that.

“Werebears?” She laughed, but the sound was unsure, dying a quick death under his steady gaze. “What…like werewolves but with turning into bears instead? Don’t be silly. Monsters like that are just made up for books and films. They’re not real.”

Even as she spoke, the memory of the men in the alley filled her mind. The weird claws she’d thought were elaborate cosplay weapons…the way they’d snarled and the darkness in their eyes.

“Oh shit.” Her hand stole up to cover her throat. “They really did have claws, didn’t they?”

Creed nodded, his expression grim. “I’m afraid so. They weren’t local bears, but occasionally we get gangs of males causing trouble. We have a team out looking for them now.”