Shifters of Grrr 1 (106 page)

—
Funny girl. Or do I have to have words with the gift company?

— The chocolates and flowers were from you?
 

—
Hurrying home. I know a cheeky lady with a luscious ass that needs a good spanking.

— About that —

—
Your luscious ass?

—
The gifts. Stop with them already. Feels like 12 days of Christmas on steroids. Worried I’ll wake up to 700 swans a-swimming in a man-made lake on my front lawn.

—
Is the bulldozer there already? They were booked for Saturday.

— Arrived this a.m. Bulldozer driver hot…the earth moved.
 

—
Sweet Jesus, not helping me! Unhappy, jealous, horny as fuck. Sharing a bed of straw with Romer. Bear threatening utter chaos if we don’t see you soon. Where r u right now?

— On my bed.

—
I’ve got the sexiest image of you in my mind. Soft, supple, spread out over the sheets. Curtains open, sun streaming across your naked body. Do me a favour, and take your clothes off for real.

Oh, shit, she should never have gotten into this. Just the thought of Ranger picturing her naked caused a dense, sweet ache between her legs and a deep tug of longing in the pit of her stomach.

—
I’m taking the silence as a sign you’re undressing.

She had to tell him this was entering a no-go zone given the status of their relationship. Going along with this for a little fun sent the wrong signals.
 

—
Fuck me, the ph battery’s going. Holding that picture of you until I get home. Love you, babe xxx

Ada typed out a ‘U 2’ reply and hesitated for the longest moment before she pressed send. There was no further response from Ranger. The phone battery must have died.

She swung off the bed and took her wine to the kitchen, where Nicki had already started throwing together her favourite quick meal: black rice, salmon, and whatever green vegetables were about.
 

Ada swung open the fridge door, sliding containers back and forth across the shelves. “I have haloumi in here, and walnuts. Let’s add them to your concoction.” She placed the cheese and nuts on the kitchen island, eying the chocolates Ranger had delivered.

“We’d better try one of these while we cook. Ranger’s mad for chocolate, so they’ll be good.” She unwrapped the packaging. “Saints and sinners, the man is certainly trying to trap my heart. These are Guido Gobino; here, Nicki, eat and die.”

She unwrapped the silver foil and placed the chocolate on Nicki’s tongue. “Tourinot Maximo—bitter chocolate and Piedmont hazelnuts—Ranger’s favourite. I think he’s plundered his secret stash for me.”

Nicki rolled the chocolate around her mouth and did nothing but moan until she swallowed. “That man loves you, and I don’t know why you’re holding out on him.”

Ada raised her eyes to the ceiling. “You know perfectly well why. Anyway, I’m not holding out on him. I’m saving my life.”

“Oh yeah, the sad, lonely, risk-free life of yours that is the envy of exactly nobody.”

“Ouch.”

Nicki shoved the salmon into the oven and rounded on her. “How would you describe the past six months?”

“Apart from my shitty job?” Ada shrugged. “They were fine.”

“Next you’re going to tell me you’re thinking of entering the convent, except, they won’t have you, Ada Hastings, because you’re such a freaking liar. For six months, you’ve been half the person you normally are; even less courageous than your mother. She attempted to change things, even if that didn’t work. She allowed herself to feel, probably too much, but at least allowed that to happen.”

“She smothered anything she felt under a thick blanket of alcohol. Is that what you’re suggesting I do?”

“No, I’m suggesting you take a long look at the amazing work Ranger’s doing. Then you listen with your ears wide open to what he’s saying to you, instead of imagining the worst and creating an idea in your head that’s probably so far removed from reality it might as well be occurring on another planet. You two love each other—that’s what you told me after two weeks with him. Don’t live your life based on your parents’ relationship. That might have shaped you, but now it’s time to let Ranger help you remodel that landscape.”

Nicki had no idea what she was talking about. She’d had a safe, nurturing upbringing, the polar opposite to what Ada experienced. Her entire life she’d felt unlovable. Her father didn’t love them enough to choose his family over his dangerous work, and when his work killed him, her mother didn’t love her enough to choose Ada over her self-destruction.

She wanted to tell Nicki how much it hurt when just hours after promising to give up his Bear Force work, Ranger chose another mission over her. Except, her friend was right. She hadn’t given Ranger the opportunity to truly explain what it was he was doing and why he had to do it.

She poked at the haloumi browning in butter in the pan.

“Some people have a need to protect, Ada. I’m thinking that’s inherent in that bear of a man of yours. You should be proud of him, not trying to eliminate a quality in him that’s so admirable. I think if you search a little deeper you might discover that’s one of the things about Ranger you love so much.”

“Pah.” Ada took a mouthful of wine. “Next you’re going to tell me I’m looking for a father substitute.”

“Oh, yeah, I can just see Ranger coming on with the whole ‘Who’s your daddy?’ line.”

Ada laughed, but a trickle of unease ran across her heart.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

~RANGER~

Ranger sat hidden in the corner of Romer’s enclosure while the veterinary nurse spoke quietly to the sleeping bear. Ideally, he’d prefer her to leave without discovering him. If she spotted him, he would feign sleep because once Ada’s housemate, Jessa, discovered it was Ranger in the enclosure with the bear, there would be a lot of explaining to do.

He mightn’t have been part of Ada’s life when she left him, but he’d kept an eye on her. Not in a stalker way, but to make sure she was safe.
 

When he found out that Jessa wanted to take a break from her veterinary small practice work and volunteer at a sanctuary, he’d been ready to help with her application. But she hadn’t needed his help; her qualifications were outstanding.

Hiding in the enclosure meant eavesdropping was unavoidable, and while Jessa sat stroking Romer’s fur, Ranger heard her telling his brother of the connection she’d felt between them.

He hoped that she referred to some sort of human-animal bond, because the idea that Romer had shifted at some time between leaving the bile farm and going under anaesthetic could be a problem.

Even now, in his damaged and unconscious state, he was responding to Jessa’s touch with a soft rumble that hummed through him like a purr.

It was a sound that filled Ranger with unease.

Romer was certainly charismatic, but when it came to women, he was a
good-time
rather than a
long-time
sort of person. Ranger hoped that when he found his true mate all that would change. Since his late-teen relationship with his girlfriend, Liana, had failed, there’d been no one even close to taking up a permanent position in his life.
 

Finally, Jessa seemed done with her comforting, and when she stretched before leaving the enclosure, Ranger noticed that her curves, stature, and red hair made her exactly the type of woman Romer went for. The fact that his brother seemed to attract the same women in bear form as he did as a human didn’t surprise him one bit.

The illumination of his watch told him it was just past four a.m. Like the other staff, poor Jessa must have had a hell night. He, on the other hand, still operated in a Southern Hemisphere timezone, and was now wide awake. Romer stirred, so Ranger crept into the dimly lit hallway to be sure they had the area to themselves.

Back in the enclosure, he threw off his clothes and with much relief allowed his bear to finally push through. In many ways, re-experiencing Romer’s injuries and trauma through his bear’s psyche was even more painful than in his human form. He curled against his brother and closed his eyes, concentrating on the small grunts the injured bear made and encouraging him to waken.

Romer emitted a long moan and rocked onto his back. Ranger crouched near his head, calling his name, urging him to fight through the fog of drugs and pain and become more present.

The bear blinked, clearing his clouded amber eyes and cast his snout into Ranger’s outstretched paw. Once fully awake, Ranger had to work hard to calm his brother’s confusion. When he’d managed to settle him enough, Ranger suggested they shift.

It took Romer longer than usual, working through his wounds with intense low moans. In his human form, he glistened with sweat and collapsed into the straw panting hard. He’d lost a lot of condition in the past couple of months, and the abrasions and contusions across his body made it look like some sort of relief map.

“My guts hurt like hell. What’s going on?”

“You, dear brother, have been captive in a bear bile farm providing ingredients for Traditional Chinese Medicine. Right now, some unsuspecting person is consuming your bile in a hope to cure what ails them, or to increase their sexual prowess.”

“Fuck them, I hope it’s toxic.”

Ranger laughed. “The way you party, anything from your liver is bound to be a health hazard.”

“Where are we now?”

“Shandong Bear Sanctuary #2.”

“My dull memory suggests this is where I set out from a couple of months ago.”

Ranger threw Romer some clothes, rolled his sleeping bag and stuffed his pack. “We can talk about that on the plane. Are you well enough for a bumpy ride in a van to the airfield?”

Wincing, Romer eased a leg into the jeans. “Christ, who was the barbarian who stitched me up?”

Ranger looked at the wound. “Don’t complain. They were rushed, and you’re alive. You can find a plastic surgeon back home to pretty that scar up for you. Are you good to travel?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“I thought so. Now, we’ve no discharge notes, and I don’t know what the hell they did to you, so we’ll get you to a doctor or a vet as soon as we hit home.”

“A vet, very funny—”

“Quiet.” Ranger motioned with his hand for them both to move into the dark corner of the enclosure.

“Is somebody in here?” A woman asked.

“Your nurse is back,” Ranger whispered. “Stay here, and I’ll sort her out.”

He slipped through the door in time to stop Jessa from entering.

“Is that you, Ranger? What the hell?”
 

“Shh.” He placed a finger against her lips to quieten her, and then took her arm and drew her just inside the door of the enclosure away from anyone who might happen along the corridor.

“What are you
doing
here?”

“I’m here for the brown bear. We’ve been trying to get him back to the agency. It’s complicated, but Andrei knows what’s going on. Everything is fine, but I need you to keep quiet about what you’ve seen.”

“I haven’t seen anything. And where’s the bear?”

“Shifted…ah, we shifted him. To another place.”

Her gaze made a site sweep of the dark enclosure, looking for a bear, and missing Romer crouching in the dark. “You can’t move him. He’s sick, and he needs antibiotics and other medicines.”

“I thought that would be the case. Could you do me a massive favour and grab a supply of the meds he needs? Enough to see us through the next forty hours should do it. Can you do that, Jessa, please?”

She frowned and shook her head. “I could lose my job doing something crazy like that.”

Ranger felt like a shit playing the sympathy card, but it was the only way forward. “We could lose the bear.”

She seemed to think about that for a bit. “Okay, then. But you’re nuts, you know that? And you owe me a big explanation when I get back to New Zealand. Ada said you were up to crazy stuff, but smuggling bears?”

“I know, insane, huh? I promise you’ll have a full explanation when you return home. And I’d love to stay and chat, but we need to move before things start becoming too lively around here. Can you fetch the drugs?”

She paused, as if reconsidering the weight of what he asked.

“Come on, Jessa. Think of the bear…and if there are any issues, you talk to Andrei and tell him I forced you to do it.”

Ranger went with her to get the medication in case she ran into any trouble, but she gathered a supply of drugs without any problem. She gave him instructions on what to do and what to watch out for. Back home they had a friend who was a veterinarian, accustomed to odd requests when any members of Bear Force were injured to an extent that would have a hospital emergency department asking difficult questions. He would be able to deal with Romer.

Ranger found Taras asleep, head cradled in his arms resting on a table in the cafeteria. He shook him awake and asked him to bring the van to the transfer area. All he had to do was get Romer to the van before anyone noticed they had a missing bear.

Romer was still in the back corner of the enclosure. “I’m not going anywhere,” he announced. “She’s the one.”