Southern Shifters: Bear Sentry (Kindle Worlds Novella) (The Enforcers Book 2) (2 page)

His low growl seemed to wrap itself around her, and she didn’t have to look back to know he followed close behind. The sheriff’s office was several blocks away, and the chances of the sheriff being inside were slim.
Sweet Retreat
, Sierra’s bakery on the next block, was her only possible escape.

She looked in the window and breathed a sigh of relief when she spotted Dean and Gage sitting at a table in the center of the room.

She rushed inside the shop.

Chapter Two

Jase finished his lunch, got up from the counter, and took his check to the cash register. Other than two wolves sitting near the window, the place was empty, and he welcomed the solitude.

Earlier, he’d followed the sign off the highway and stopped at the first hotel he’d seen. He’d parked his bike near the front of the parking lot, walked into the building and froze. Two cat shifters, cougars if he wasn’t mistaken, stood behind the counter. A moment of silence passed as the three of them sniffed the air, but in the next instant, one of the women greeted him with a warm smile.

He didn’t hate all cats, but felines in general made him wary. The two women didn’t seem to mind his bear, so he forced one foot in front of the other and proceeded to check in.

Back home, or the place he’d used to call home, bear and panther shifters were enemies. The prisoner that had bested him and killed Montgomery had been a panther, and before that, the felines had been caught in a lot of illegal activity, including revealing themselves to full humans on several occasions. They tended to act irresponsibly without caution or judgement, and the results put all shifters in danger.

A recent attack on the Lead Enforcer’s mate lead to a treaty between the two clans, but no one trusted the panthers to follow the rules laid out in the agreement. While the panther alpha seemed to want peace, his pack had grown wildly out of control.

Things seemed different in Deals Gap.

After he’d completed the check-in process, he’d unloaded the few belongings he had from his bike and proceeded to take a shower and change into a clean set of clothes. The showerhead wasn’t one of the low-flow kind he’d been using for the past two weeks, and he’d closed his eyes and let the warm water pelt his skin until his fingers had turned into prunes.

Food was next on his agenda, and he took a walk to survey the town and search for something to eat. His choices were limited when it came to sustenance, so he chose the closest diner and took a seat at the counter.

The two person staff also took a minute to smell him before the waitress approached with a menu and a silverware roll. Later, when the two wolves arrived, he’d received the same reaction.

Apparently, he’d ended up in a shifter town comprised mostly of wolf and cougar half-breeds. Some were mixed with human DNA, but many were both wolf and cougar. A few others were mixed with other predators.

He was surprised to find no one smelled like bear, and from their reactions, he got the feeling the locals in Deals Gap had never seen a bear shifter before. Luckily, aside from the obvious sniffing, everyone he’d encountered seemed friendly and left him alone.

He paid for his lunch and walked back out to the street.

Another block down the road, he spotted a trendy coffee shop. Unlike the diner, the place was packed, and patrons moved in and out of the building frequently. The line was out the door, and he checked his watch to verify the time. It was nearly five in the evening on a Friday night, and he wondered if the place held its popularity in the middle of the week.

When he was finally able to step through the door, the multitude of different shifter smells threatened to overwhelm him. He took a deep breath to counter the assault, but one smell stood out from the rest.

Warm sweet apples and honey.

Mate!

His bear roared to the surface and nudged him to seek out the scent and claim his mate, but he didn’t need to. She walked right toward him.

When he’d walked into the shop, the entire room let out a collective gasp, and then the din had quieted to nothing. He wouldn’t have needed his acute shifter senses to hear the tiniest peep, but no one made a sound. For a few seconds, all eyes were on him, but he didn’t care. He only had eyes for his mate.

Mere seconds passed before everyone returned to their business and the noise level escalated to what it had been before he’d walked in, but when she stood in front of him, he felt as if time stopped.

She was about eight inches shorter than his six-foot-three-inch frame, and her layered, dark brown hair rested on her shoulders. Her eyes were hazel, and when she looked up at him, he saw a combination of light green and gold.

She wasn’t a bear, but he didn’t care. He scented equal parts wolf and human, and he couldn’t wait to see her animal form. Her soft, curvy body was the exact opposite of his hard, muscular one, and his dick hardened when he thought about pulling her against him. He smelled her arousal a second before she bit her lower lip, and his cock swelled to the point of pain and throbbed behind the barrier of his jeans.

What the hell?

He’d heard finding his mate would change his life forever, but the primal, possessive, animalistic thoughts running though his mind surprised him. The urge to rip off her clothes and take her on the floor of the shop with everyone watching rode him hard. He might be new in town, but he wanted everyone to know who she belonged to.

Unfortunately, his mate had other ideas.

The curvy beauty hurried past him and raced out the door. He followed her outside and let out a low, angry growl as she hurried down the sidewalk. Her dismissal felt like a kick in the chest, and he didn’t understand her reaction.

It had been easy to ignore the way everyone quieted when he walked into a room, but he thought it was because they’d never seen a bear before. Was there more to it? Did his mate dislike him simply because he was a bear?

He wanted answers. 

His long legs ate up the sidewalk faster than her shorter ones, but she’d managed to evade him for an entire block. When he finally caught up to her, she ducked into another store.
Sweet Retreat
was written on the window, and the smells coming out of the building were amazing.

He followed the woman inside. The smell of sweet donuts, cookies and cakes filled the air, but none of them could mask the scent of his mate. She’d run up to the counter and turned to face him when the bell on the door signaled his entrance.

Again, everyone in the place stopped and stared, but the two heavily muscled wolf hybrids blocking his way kept his attention. One had olive skin and long dark hair, and the other had short hair with skin naturally tanned by the sun. They both easily matched him in stature, but their frowns indicated they wanted blood.

He wasn’t looking for a fight.

He glanced past the men and sought out his woman. A pale skinned cougar female with almost white, blond hair now stood in front of her, acting as a shield. He’d only wanted to talk to his mate, but they all thought he’d meant harm her. Worse was the fact that she didn’t correct them.

“You’re a bear,” the olive skinned one said, breaking the silence. He still stood ready to attack, but his features had softened slightly and his voice held a note of awe.

“What are you doing here?” the other man asked. “Do you know Calder?”

Jase glanced at the other man, and noted he, too, had minutely relaxed.

“No, I don’t know him,” Jase said, looking past them again, searching for his mate.

She still stood behind the white cougar, hiding, and an invisible band around his heart tightened as pain erupted from the back of his head. Phantom pains or not, they were a reminder that his instincts couldn’t be trusted. If they were truly mates, she wouldn’t be running scared, hiding behind her pack mates.

He rubbed the back of his head, and sucked in another deep breath. Once again, the scent of warm sweet apples and honey assaulted him, but he pushed it aside and focused on the other smells drifting around the room.

“Again, what are you doing here?” the tanned man asked.

“And why are you chasing down our women?” the olive skinned one barked.

“I’m not chasing down women,” he said, holding his hands up as if in surrender. “I’m staying at the hotel a few nights, just passing through, and I thought I knew her. I was clearly mistaken. It won’t happen again.”

“See that it doesn’t,” the olive skinned one said.

“I’m sorry,” he called to the woman. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

The worried look on her face was a combination of sympathy and pity, and it resembled the looks of his teammates after the accident. A mate would never look at him like that, and the realization confirmed his mistake.

He turned and walked out of the shop without looking back.

Both he and his bear were useless, and it seemed nothing was off-limits.

Defeated, he went back to the hotel and crashed on the bed.

***

Violet didn’t understand her feelings. One minute she was running scared, and the next she wanted to wrap her arms around the big bear and offer him comfort. She’d never forget the look in his face when he turned and left the bakery.

Had she misunderstood his pursuit? Had he really mistaken her for someone else? She didn’t think it was possible, especially since she didn’t look like any other shifters, but he’d seemed so sincere.

What the hell is wrong with me?

Minutes before, she’d raced into Sweet Retreat, dashed past the table of shifters she knew would protect her, and stopped at the counter behind them. She’d been intent on seeking refuge from the stranger stalking her, but now she felt like an idiot.

Had she overreacted?

Her face heated as she realized she hadn’t even given him a chance to say one word. What if he was a friend of her brother’s? Or what if he really had mistaken her for someone else?

What if he liked you?

She shook her head the minute the thought surfaced. A bunched up brow didn’t mean
like
in any species. Whatever his reasons, she doubted she’d ever see him again. If she did, she had a feeling he’d stay away from her.

For some reason the thought bothered her more than it should.

“Are you okay, Vi?” Sienna asked from behind the counter.

“What happened?” asked Niki, turning to face her.

“What did he do?” Gage asked.

“Why were you running?” Dean chimed in.

They fired the questions at her one after the other, and the temperature in the room seemed to skyrocket. A layer of sweat dotted her forehead as several others shifters looked on, waiting for her response.

Only a few shifters knew about the senses she lacked, and even though she knew Gage, Dean and their mates could be trusted, she didn’t feel like revealing her faults to everyone in the shop.

“I’m okay,” she finally said. “The only thing he did was follow me down the street, and I’m fine. It’s been a long day, and I misread him. I’m sorry.”

Niki narrowed her eyes at her.

“You ran in here in a state of panic because he followed you?” she asked, incredulous. “That’s it?”

“Niki,” Dean warned.

“Don’t you think that’s a little extreme?” the blond asked.

“I…”

What could she say? Yes, she did think it was extreme, especially after watching him leave, but she was defective. A freak in a town of badass shifters. Aside from a few trusted friends and leaders, she had no idea who was a threat and who wasn’t.

“Niki,” Dean called her name again. “Let it go.”

“In a minute, I just want to—”

Dean picked up Niki and started walking toward the restroom.

“Watch the baby,” he called over his shoulder.

“Dean, I—” Niki’s voice was cut off as Dean closed the bathroom door.

“She’s been cooped up a lot these past few months,” Gage said. “Don’t take it personally.”

Violet nodded and looked at baby Anya sleeping in her carrier. She imagined motherhood was a lot different than working as an assassin. Though her brother was trained to kill, he wasn’t a specially created breed like Niki. The woman’s life had been completely flipped upside down, and that was enough to make anyone angry.

As if on cue, Niki’s erotic cries from the bathroom filled the room, and several shifters stood up and ran out of the shop. Gage growled behind her, but Sienna, his mate, stayed behind the counter.

“Would you like a donut to go, Vi?” Sienna asked.

She hadn’t needed the woman’s not so subtle hint, but she appreciated her kindness. Even though she didn’t have the senses the other shifters had, she knew when she’d out stayed her welcome.

“No thanks,” she said, heading toward the door. “See you all later, and thanks again for the help.”

She heard the lock on the door click into place behind her, and she turned in time to see Gage stalking his mate. The woman had already jumped on the counter with her back to the window, and Violet saw her short denim skirt bunched up around her ass.

Her cheeks heated at the raw magnetism between the mated pair, and she turned away and hurried home. She longed to find someone to look at her the way Gage and Dean looked at their mates, but she knew better than to hope for something impossible. No alpha male, whether wolf, cougar or bear, wanted a freak for a mate.

Bear?

She shook her head. Whatever the bear had wanted, it hadn’t been her. As the incident played over and over in her mind, her embarrassment grew. Sure, his frown and deep growl had been upsetting, more so because she’d been imagining him naked, but what would he have done if she’d confronted him?