The Bear and the Unicorn (Supernatural Enforcers Agency Book 6) (9 page)

Chapter Fourteen

“And what is this?”

Sky forced herself not to giggle, and even her unicorn chuffed.  “Tofu.”

Zane gave it an experimental sniff and tentatively licked it.  On reflection maybe this wasn’t the ideal place for the huge bear.  Completely vegetarian, healthy food, no alcohol and the placed had soft furnishings and mood lighting.  But her friend Mandy owned it, and Sky wanted to give her as much business as possible.

At first, it was kind of funny seeing Zane trying to identify his food, and kind of sexy as he licked it, but now she just felt bad for him.  She doubted he’d ever eaten quinoa before.  And judging by his ill-concealed grimaces never would again.

Sky leaned over from her cushion and placed a hand on his arm.  “I’m sorry, why don’t we go somewhere else?”

Zane shifted in his beanbag chair, looking thoroughly uncomfortable, yet a smile forced it’s way over his handsome face.

“No, this is… I’m having fun.”

“You are?”

“Sure, I love places like this.”  He gestured around him, scowling at the Flaming Guy Festival poster.

“You love vegetarian restaurants?”  She didn’t bother to hide the skeptic tone.  Even her smitten unicorn – who believed the bear could do no wrong – was dubious.

“Sure, I go to them all the time.”

That sounded like a lie.  But rather than annoy her – like it did when countless ex-boyfriends lied to her - it actually improved her mood. 
Maybe he really was trying to get into her panties!

“Okay, then – more jasmine tea?”

“Ah, sure.”  He looked like he was being led to the gallows as he sniffed the liquid.  He put his teacup back down and cleared his throat.  “You come here often?”  His eyes narrowed.  “Come here on dates?”

“I do come here as much as I can, but rarely on dates.”  She had tried to bring Ethan, but the wolf had insulted Mandy – calling her a dirty, unwashed hippy – and he was banned.

“You like it?”

“Sure.  I find it relaxing.  The food’s nice.”

He almost choked, and she patted him on the back.

“Uh, yeah,” he agreed.

Sky gave him a thoughtful look as she chewed on a piece of broccoli.  “You know if we’re going to be hanging around together, maybe you should tell me about yourself – unless you don’t think it’s professional.”  Although their meal together felt anything but professional – felt like a date.  Which is why she made sure she brushed her teeth and applied make-up before she left the gym –
just in case
.

“No, no,” he said quickly.  “What would you like to know?”

“Maybe we could start with the usual.  Favorite color, favorite movie, I already know where you work, family, favorite food, that kind of thing.”

“Huh.  Green.”  He looked into her eyes and winked.  “True Lies.  Mom and Dad – we don’t get on.  And I’ll eat anything.”  He glanced down at his tofu, which didn’t seem to be disappearing very quickly.  Perhaps he should amend that to almost anything.  “You?”

“Oh, also green.  I tell people it’s Casablanca, but really it’s George of the Jungle.  Yoga instructor – as you already know.  Mom, dad, a younger sister and two older brothers – we get on fine, mostly because they’re in another state.  And I love pineapple and tofu.”

“Yep, I ah, can see why.”  He held up another piece and eyed it suspiciously.

Sky pressed her lips together.  He took another bite and grimaced slightly.

“Oh, you have a little…”  She reached over and stroked her thumb across his lip.  “There, gone.”  And yet, she didn’t move, her hand stilled on his cheek, caressing his full lips.

Zane leaned towards her, seeking her touch, seeking her.  Her heart sped up as his eyes blackened to his beast.  She licked her lips as she felt him coming for a kiss.  It was perfect until his overly large frame burst the beanbag chair and the balls propelled everywhere.  Zane growled as he sprawled on the floor.

She gave up.  Wild laughter exploded out of her.

*

“That was a nice meal,” commented Sky, humor still dancing on her lips.

Zane tried not to scowl, but he couldn’t help it.  She liked it; he was all cutely menacing when he scowled.  It was sexy. 
He
was sexy.  Every gruff, growly inch of him.  Her unicorn tossed her head in approval.

Sky busied herself checking her messages as Zane re-checked for bugs.

Was it a good idea to get involved with Zane?
  She wanted him, the warmth in her tummy and her nipples straining against her shirt were evidence of that, but what if she was in danger?  What if someone wanted her unicorn?  What if she had to disappear?  Or worse, maybe Zane was in danger just being near her.

Zane didn’t know her true nature.  How would he feel if he ever found out?  Would it make a difference?  Would whoever was after her go through Zane to get to her.  Lord, he didn’t even know how much danger he could be in!

The instinct to hide herself was strong, something instilled in her since a young age.  But this new urge, the one to protect Zane, to give in to Zane, to surrender everything to him – that was quickly gaining momentum.  Her unicorn wanted to give
everything
to him.

No, she couldn’t tell Zane the truth about herself yet.  But she needed to keep him safe, needed to get him away from her.  Needed to…

“You bitch!  Answer the fucking phone…”  Another one of Ethan’s delightful messages.  “I’m getting really angry… answer the fucking phone… I miss you… pick up the fucking phone…”

Sky sighed as the message ended and quickly deleted the offending temper tantrum.

“Ethan,” growled Zane, an inch behind her.  She and her unicorn jumped, quickly twisting to see his dark eyes regarding her fiercely.

“Oh, ah yes.”  Zane got his name right for a change.

Zane eyed the answer phone with the same contempt as if it had just insulted his mother.  “He leave a lot of messages like that?”

“Some… a few… about twenty so far,” she admitted glumly.  She was getting a little tired of it.  Maybe she should just change her number.

He snorted.  “He needs to be stopped.”

“He’ll get bored eventually.”  Ethan tired of everything eventually.  There was a reason why her bedroom was only half painted purple.

Zane grunted in a non-committal manner.

“No need to worry about it,” she said uncertainly.

Another grunt.

“Or do something rash.”  Like something that might put him in danger.  Ethan was a tool with a lot of tooly friends.

Another grunt.

Sky lifted her hands to his temples, gently holding his head.  “Picture a calm blue ocean.”

Zane glowered for a second before chuckling lowly.  He caught her wrists and lowered them.

“Didn’t you say you wanted a shower?” he murmured.

Sky cocked her head.  “Oh. Do I smell that bad?”

His eyes glittered.  “Not bad at all.”  Her breath caught in her throat as he brushed his lips over her wrist.

“Go take a shower,” he crooned gutturally.  “Don’t worry about a thing.”

“Okay,” she whimpered.  He let go of her and on wobbly legs she made her way to the bathroom.  Head clouded with desire, unicorn neighing gently and logic completely gone, she entered the shower, making it as cold as she could stand.

*

New York

Booker gave the gigantopithecus a kick. 
She wasn’t so tough
.  Dumb bitch actually followed a limping cat down an alleyway.  Didn’t even notice she was being drugged ‘til she was drooling on the ground.  The giant ape shifter was currently working at a pet hotel so it was a safe bet she’d do gaga over a bloody house pet.  Catching the cat and giving it a limp was the hard part.

He grunted as he answered his cell phone, holding back the annoyed sigh as Dr. James jabbered at him.  He put her on speakerphone and Vargas perked up at the sound of her voice. 
Good, let Vargas deal with her.

“I have wonderful news!” she cried.  “I was talking to one of my old professors and it turns out he found a dodo bird shifter!  He couldn’t wait to tell me but he wasn’t exactly forthcoming with details about her, so I had to let him get a little handsy while I got him drunk.  When he was passed out, I found all the details about her.  He also had details of some other potential candidates too!  Isn’t that great?”

“Yeah, great,” muttered Booker.  He handed Vargas the phone and sauntered over to check the chains on the gigantopithecus were secure.

“Sure is babe,” said Vargas winking at Booker.  “How handsy exactly?”

“Oh shit!” yelled Dr. James.  A crash echoed down the line.

“Babe!” snarled Vargas.  “Babe?!”

Chapter Fifteen

Los Lobos

Sky yelped on finding a tall, lanky gator shifter lounging on her couch.

He looked up from the TV, a beer in one hand and the remote in the other, and nodded at her.  “Hey.  Wayne.  Friend of Zane’s.”

“Oh.”

She held back from him and on noticing her reticence, he pulled out a SEA badge, flashing it around along with a huge, toothy grin.

Sky shifted the towel she was wearing, very aware she was virtually naked.  To be fair, she was kind of hoping to catch Zane while only in a towel.  While reliving the wrist kiss in the shower, among doing other dirtier things, she had kind of imagined yawning and accidentally-on-purpose letting the towel fall to the ground.  It was why she’d shaved a heart shape into her hair…
down there
.  An impulse that she envisioned would make Zane laugh… before becoming overwhelmed with lust and taking her right on the couch, or the kitchen table, or against the wall… whatever.

“Ah, what are you doing here?  Where’s Zane?”  An exploratory sniff showed he was long gone.  “Did you bring your own beer?”  She looked down at her coffee table.  “And order a pizza?”

Wayne shrugged languidly.  “Had to go out.  Asked me to watch you.  Didn’t want you to be alone.  And yeah, glad I did.  No offense but your fridge is like a nuclear wasteland for food.”

“That was nice of him.”  Although, her unicorn let out a sulky huff.  “And my fridge is full of food.”

Wayne almost choked on his beer.  “First of all, what you call food, I call rabbit meal.  Secondly, nice?  You think Zane is
nice
?”

Sky pursed her lips.  “Of course, he’s been nothing but nice to me since we met.”  Even as she wished for him to treat her a little… dirtier.

Wayne seemed to be trying not to laugh.  “Zane?  Big guy, permanent scowl on his face, looks like he has a unibrow?  Got a gait like a drunken ox?”

She rolled her eyes.  “Funny.  Would you like some lemonade?”

“Tried it, hated it.  Seriously, get rid of it.”

“Zane likes it.”

Wayne slid his eyes in her direction and grinned.  “I’ll bet.”

“Is he coming back later?” she said, ignoring her heated cheeks.

“Try and stop him.”

*

He growled as he stirred.  His sabre-tooth tiger snarled, demanding release.  His body ached, and his head throbbed with the pain of a thousand hangovers as he pulled his sluggish limbs into a sitting position.  A whimpering sound assaulted his tender senses.

“Shut up,” he snarled.

The whimpering intensified.  Vague images flashed before him.  Waking in a cell.  Trying to attack the men feeding him.  Being tazed.  Then waking in a cell again… 
That happened over and over
.

He looked up to find he now shared the room with other creatures in cells.  A large penguin shifter sniffled and cowered while a huge elephant-like shifter tried to reach out to her.  Elephant-like, but not quite elephant – he smelled wrong.

His tiger grunted at them. 
Pathetic
.

He snarled as the scent of sweat, and cheap cologne approached – it preceded one of the black-clad mercenaries.  One of the men keeping him there.  One of the men who delighted to sending volts of pain through him. 
Soon to be dead men
added his beast.

The male in question banged on the bars.  “Finally, it’s awake.”

“Fuck you.”

The mercenary spat and poked a cattle prod through the bars, tazing him.  He barely flinched.  Wouldn’t give the shit the satisfaction.

“Learn some fucking manners.”

“Fuck you.”

Another prod.

“If I had my way, you’d be out cold until the auction.  But the boss wants you lucid, and needs photos of you looking half-alive.”

His eyes swiveled in the direction of the mercenary.  His tiger preened as the man looked a little uneasy at being the focus of his gaze.  “Fuck.  You.”

The mercenary sneered and lumbered over to the penguin.  “C’mon big bird, time for your pictures.”

She sobbed, and her wide, scared eyes sought the elephant guy.  The mercenary opened the cage and lunged for her.

“Get away from her!” roared the elephant guy.

The mercenary tussled with the penguin shifter as the elephant guy howled.  In the struggle, the keys to the cages clattered along the ground coming to a stop outside the sabre-tooth’s cage.

He grinned. 
Never hire a moron to do an asshole’s job
.

*

Zane whistled as he wiped the blood off his knuckles.  Hey, he was happy.  So shoot him.  Yeah, clobbering Ethan was great.  Even better than paintballing.  Although that probably wasn’t a good thing.

Fucking wolf shifter.  Guy was getting drunk and high with a bunch of his wolf shifter buddies.  They tried to take him down. 
Dumbasses
.  They didn’t have a chance sober, never mind off their asses drunk.

It went much like his confrontation with Erik, except with less crying and with more use of the word ‘bitch’.  He pretty much thought Ethan would leave her alone now.  In fact, given how their altercation ended, Ethan probably wouldn’t be able to do anything with any woman for a few weeks.

Zane picked up his phone as it rang without thinking, expecting either Wayne or Sky.  He trusted Wayne to keep her safe, and he let it be known what would happen to the gator shifter’s balls if he tried anything with her.

“Hey, everything okay?”

“No, it’s not,” sniped Melissa.  “You’ve been ignoring my calls!”

Fuck
.

“Yeah, I’m busy.  I’ll give you a call sometime…”

He hung up ignoring her squawks of protest.  His bear grunted in approval.

Okay, so his pledge not to blow up with more ferocity than an active volcano hadn’t lasted very long, but starting from now, he was not going to lose his temper.

Yep, from now on, he was going to be calm.  Cool.  Collected.  The man of Sky’s dreams.  Yep, not even his bear had any problems with that.

He actually started singing – badly - but still singing.

*

Dr. James huddled under the desk.  She’d foolishly dropped her phone when she saw the sabre-tooth escape, and now she had no way to call for help.  But then, who the heck would she call? 
Did Fred Flintstone do housecalls?!

Roars shook the wood around her as screams and bullets flew.  God, how on earth did he get out?  Why the hell weren’t Booker’s men stopping him?

Her eyes filled with tears as the door to the office opened.  Footsteps boomed through the small space.  She bit her lip, trying to stop herself from shaking as huge, bare feet came into view.  Her short, tedious life flashed before her eyes a moment before six gunshots echoed through the office.  She clamped her hands over her ears and squeezed her eyes shut.

Dr. James screamed as she was pulled out from her hiding place.  She opened her eyes as she realized she wasn't actually being mauled.

“Mr. Hawk?  Christian?” she gasped.

Her boss, sleek in a perfect suit grimaced at her and sheathed his gun.  “What on earth happened?” he hissed.

“I don’t know,” she stammered.  “He… he… he got free, and he started killing everyone.”

The sabre-tooth tiger groaned from the ground.  Blood oozed from his wounds.

“He was going to kill me, too,” she whispered more to herself than anything else.

Christian ignored her and stalked out the room, yelling down the corridor to no one in particular.  “We need medical assistance in here right now!”

“Will he be okay?” she whispered.

“He better,” Christian snapped.  “Can’t believe I had to cut my date short for this,” he muttered.

Dr. James bent over the tiger before yelping and jumping away as he made a desultory swipe at her.

His eyes swiveled in Christian’s direction, and he sniffed before choking slightly.  “Huh, you smell good, pretty boy.”

“Looks like he’ll be fine,” Christian said sourly, pretending he wasn’t worried by that statement.  He glared at Dr. James.  “Get on the phone.  Get Booker.  I want him back here now!”