Polar Bears are Forever: Book One Supernatural Enforcers Agency (20 page)

Chapter Nineteen

Isis sat up in bed, abruptly.  “What’s happening?  Where are they?”

Erin rushed over and placed a hand on her shoulder.  “It’s okay; it’s over.  We’re safe; we’re both safe.”

Isis looked around the hospital room wildly, breathing in and out deeply.  “What the fuck happened?”

Succinctly, because it had been a long day and Isis was still groggy from all the drugs she’d been injected with, Erin explained that she had been targeted to donate one of her organs -
unwillingly
.

Isis was suitably outraged.  “One of my organs?  Those fuckers were trying to steal one of my organs?”

“Specifically your heart,” clarified Erin.

“My heart?”

“Yeah, turns out you do actually have one.”

Isis gave her a sour look before shaking with laughter and clutching her chest.  “Don’t make me laugh, I’m still tender.”

In body only, thought Erin
.  She didn’t say it out loud though; it would just lead to more painful laughter.

“When I got out of the room, I managed to find a phone and I called for help.  Jessie tracked the phone, and she sent the cavalry.  Turns out they are the people we were looking for.  The guy who was about to operate on you was the doctor we’d been following.”

“So you’ve caught them, then?  Case closed.”

Erin sighed.  “Not exactly; we caught the doctor who was performing the transplants.  It was the badger plastic surgeon like we thought.  And we caught two nurses who were assisting him, but they were just paid to be there.  They knew it was illegal, but they thought it was just black market stuff, they didn’t realize people were just being snatched off the street and killed for their organs.  And we got the woman who was waiting to take your heart.”

Isis gingerly ran her finger up and down her chest, feeling where the cut had been.  It was healing, but as it was made with a silver knife, it would take longer than usual and would, in Gunner’s words, hurt like a bitch.  Apparently all surgery on shifters has to be done with silver instruments, otherwise the shifters would heal the incisions too quickly. 
Another reason why shifters avoided hospitals
.

“Why’d she need a new heart?”

Erin slumped into a chair.  “A witch’s curse, apparently, although she won’t say why.  In Cutter’s words, ‘the bitch probably had it coming.’”

Isis pursed her lips.  “That Cutter, what a charmer.”

“We didn’t get the guy who was arranging everything.  All the goons are dead – they went out fighting, and just about all of them got ripped apart.  The badger doctor broke down and admitted to doing the transplants, but he can’t explain how all the victims were found – a couple had been to his clinic – one we didn’t find out about.  But he wasn’t the one orchestrating it, and he wasn’t the one who dumped the bodies either.”

Erin hadn’t really had a chance to talk to Gunner since her unfortunate incarceration, he’d given her a death-squeeze hug back at the prison/hospital of doom, but they hadn’t talked.  She imagined he was less than calm about the fact that the ‘mastermind’ of the whole organ stealing endeavor was still on the loose.

“At least, though, we can give death notifications to the families of the other victims. That’s where the rest of the team is at the moment, apart from Cutter who’s still shouting obscenities at the doctor, hoping he’ll give in and admit to his partner in crime.”

In a weary voice, Isis said, “I guess I should apologize for being such a bitch, given that you, you know, save my life and everything.”

Erin smirked.  “Hmmm, being saved by a human, how humiliating.”

Isis gave her a look of admiration.  “Well, this human has skills; I’ll give her that.  I already said I won’t tell the Director about the gun… uh, incident, and I’ll keep to that, and I won’t tell him about you and Gunner either.  But, maybe you should.”

She let out an inward sigh of relief.  “Thank you.”

“And I’ll kill you if you ever tell anyone I said this, but Gunner’s lucky to have you.”

Erin raised her eyebrows.  “You think?”

Isis fidgeted awkwardly. 
Clearly she wasn’t used to or comfortable with being this friendly
.  “Yeah, and like I said if you…”

“I know, I know, my lips are zipped.”

Erin made a zipping motion over her lips, and Isis nodded, appeased.  She stood as a tall, handsome, blonde doctor came into the room.  As tired as Isis was, she perked up a little at his presence, and Erin noted her surreptitiously smelling him. 
Ah, he was probably a shifter too
.  Which, given his physique and attractiveness, really wasn’t a shock.

“I better get going,” said Erin, diplomatically trying to ignore the heat in Isis’ eyes.  “Will you be okay?”

“As long as this guy doesn’t try to rip out my heart, I’ll be fine.”

The doctor blinked a couple of times as Isis licked her tongue over her teeth. 
Ugh, did Gunner really fall for this, too?
  She was amazed that she didn’t actually feel jealous of that fact; it was more a mixture of humor and pity. 
Silly bear
.

The doctor graced them with a dazzling smile; his eyes twinkled under long lashes.  “With women, it’s usually the other way round.”

In spite of how tired she was, Isis gave him a feral smile, and Erin quickly slipped from the room. 
A minute longer in there and she would definitely see some things that would haunt her.

She slammed straight into a very familiar set of muscles, and felt herself warm as those strong arms cradled her body.  Oh, all her troubles just packed up their bags and went on vacation when she was in his arms.

“Hey, how long have you been here?” she mumbled into his chest.

Gunner tangled his fingers in her hair and carefully lifted her head to look at him.  “Just a few minutes,” he murmured.

His eyes bore into her, almost devouring her.  His lips twitched, and his body tensed as he studied her face.  Gently, he ran a finger over her bruises. 
Ah, yes, they’d take a while to heal.
  To say he didn’t look pleased was an understatement.  Fighting the urge to not howl and punch every wall in sight was more like it. 
Quick, distract him!

She ran her hands up his chest, and his eyes widened a little in lust. 
Hmm, good start
.  “Why didn’t you come in to see Isis?”

“It didn’t seem appropriate.”  The big bear actually looked a little awkward.  Dang, she’d made him feel that way with all her jealousy over the tigress.  That didn’t sit right with her.  She guessed after what happened she was just feeling a little more charitable towards the tigress, and a little ashamed of how she had tried to make him feel guilty over being with Isis before he met her.

“Is she okay?”

A loud peal of feminine laughter ripped out of Isis’ room.

“She’ll be fine,” deadpanned Erin.

He smiled tightly as his thumb lingered over her lip.  “Have you had someone check out your bruises?”

“Yes, and I’m fine.”  Well, she was actually incredibly achy, and her head felt like it wanted to explode – but she wasn’t about to admit that.  She knew what she wanted to make her pains go away, and she knew Gunner wouldn’t give it to her if she admitted to just how shaky and sore she was.

Without warning, Gunner swooped her up and started marching out of the hospital, carrying her princess style.  “I’m taking you home,” he told her gruffly.

Goody. 
Her nympho was very pleased to hear it. 

*

When Gunner said home, he actually meant his apartment.  Any objections she might have had were shot down before she had a chance to voice them.  He wanted her in his apartment, in his bed, surrounded by his scent, and he wasn’t open to argument.  He did relent a little, and, grudgingly, asked her if it was okay, and asked her if she would do this for him. 
He said he needed it
.  Of course, she couldn’t say no to that. 
Not when he needed her
.  Just that fact sent her heart fluttering and her arousal surging, and that sure wasn’t helped by the shower he made her take,
with him in the shower with her, naturally
.  He washed every inch of her, massaging her tired limbs and cataloging her bruises.  Erin could see the disapproval on his face, but was thankful he kept it to himself.  Particularly about the bruises on her shoulder earned from the very ill-advised attempt at breaking down the door…

He gave her an oversized t-shirt to wear in bed.  Well, oversized on her, probably tight on him.  It had a picture of a cartoon polar bear and proudly proclaimed that ‘polar bears can go all night.’ 
Yes, she could attest to that.

Gunner gave her a half-embarrassed smile when she saw it.  “Gift from my brother,” he explained.  “I have others if you don’t like it.”

“No, I like it.”  She pulled it over her head and found it was more like a dress.

“Hmmm, it might be a good idea for you to keep some clothes here.”  He looked at his closet thoughtfully.

“Are you envisioning more sleepovers?” she asked, hopefully.

“I sure hope so, although you won’t be doing much sleeping.”  His hand ghosted over her ass, and she shivered.

Gunner took her hand and led her back out to the living room.  He was only wearing a pair of sweatpants that hung precariously from his waist; his chest was deliciously displayed.  She had an urge to lick and kiss her way over the smooth skin.  Instead, she settled for curling up in his lap.

“I guess the usual game of truth or dare is off the table?  I heard it’s something kids do at sleepovers.”

His fingers danced over the bare skin of her thigh.  “Can’t say I ever played it.”

“No, me either, I never had sleepovers though, the other kids thought I was weird… they weren’t wrong.”

“Their loss, I didn’t have sleepovers either.  The other cubs kind of thought I was scary,” he admitted, completely uncaring.

“You?  The only scary thing about you is your aftershave.”

Gunner snickered.  “True.  But I might have been a bit rowdy when I was a kid; I had my brother anyway, so I was never alone.”

“He’s older, right?”

“Only by 37 minutes,” he grouched.

Erin sat up and looked at him.  “Wait, you two are twins?” 

“Yeah, fraternal though, not identical.  Multiple births are really common in my clan.  My brother and his mate have twins, a boy, and a girl.”

“How common?” she asked uneasily.

Over the last few days, she couldn’t deny that she had considered her future with Gunner.  She’d envisioned a house, a minivan and yep, a little blonde boy and girl running around causing mayhem.  Although, she had to admit she was a little apprehensive about the thought of giving birth to polar bears. 
They came out human, right?
  Having twins suddenly made the future a little more daunting.

“Uh, let’s save that discussion for another day.”  He quickly changed the subject.  “Hungry?”

She traced a finger over his collarbone.  “Would you be mad if I said no?”

Gunner let out a long breath.  “No, but I’ll insist on feeding you in the morning.”

“Deal,” she agreed in relief.  She was hungry, just not for food.

“Now how about that game of truth or dare?”

“Really?” 
What was next, hide and go seek?

His chest vibrated with laughter.  “Sure.”

Hmmm, maybe this would be fun
.  “Okay, truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

She considered all the things she could ask, mostly pertaining to their own relationship and the possibility of a future together.  But it had been a long day, and she wanted to keep the atmosphere light

“Who was your first kiss?”

“Ha, Cindy Larsen.  We were 13; she kissed my brother and then me in the janitor’s closet at school.  Turns out she was kissing all the boys in our class and rating them out of ten.  She ended up mating with a walrus.”

“Really?  What was your score?”

“Three,” he muttered reluctantly.

“Bummer.”

“My turn,” he growled, and she could sense he was keen to move on from that.  “Truth or dare?”

“Oh!  Truth.”  She wasn’t really up to dares at that moment.

Gunner looked at her thoughtfully for a few beats.  “Did you mean what you said earlier?”

“Hmmm?  About what?”

“When you said I was beautiful.”

Erin burst into laughter.

“It’s not that funny,” he grumbled.

“Of course I did, you have a very beautiful beast.”

He leaned his head back and closed his eyes; a ragged breath of relief escaped his lips.  “Thank god, I thought you’d freak when you saw him.”

“Why?”

“Well, you hadn’t seen him before; I was planning to introduce you to him gently.”

“I’ve been around shifters before, maybe not this up close and personally, but I know what happens when you change.  And I mean it; you’ve got a gorgeous beast, maybe even more gorgeous than you.”