Bear Naked and Bite Marks (9 page)

BOOK: Bear Naked and Bite Marks
12.2Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

“It isn’t looking like he dealt, just
used and got Marnie started on it.” Maverick glanced over at Trace and then
looked back at Declan. He already knew what Maverick was going to say.

“Link had the boyfriend taken care of.”
A beat of silence passed between them before Trace started talking again. “Marnie
hadn’t been dating him for very long, but it had only taken that short time for
the human to turn her life completely around. Her straight
As
dropped, her schoolwork lagged, and she started getting into trouble with local
officials. He knew something was up, tried to talk some sense into her, could
smell the damn drugs in her, but before he could get her the help she needed
they found her body in one of those cornfields the kids have been having the
parties at.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah, to say the least.”
Declan looked between the two men.

“You want me to find out who is the
distributor?” The two males stayed silent, and the sound of the music from the
bar seemed overly loud as the weight of what was going on filled the room.

“We want you to find out who is cooking
the shit,” Trace said with a low growl to his words. “But we don’t want you to
take him out. Link hasn’t decided if he wants to finish this privately, or have
the asshole rot in jail. Right now he is leaning toward killing whoever is behind
this. We’ve tried finding out
who
it is, but the
junkies we question don’t know anything aside from where they got it from. It’s
just a long string of dealers.”

“Whoever is making the shit sends it out
to the surrounding cities, where it is distributed and then makes its way back to
Sweet Water. It is nearly impossible to track down the source point, at least
from our side.”

“That’s where we need you to help us,” Trace
said, and after he spoke there was a knock on the door. It opened, and Declan
turned around to see this big fucking tiger shifter decked out in leather come
into the room. A silver chain hung from his pocket, and the cut he wore stated
he was part of the local motorcycle club in Sweet Water. He couldn’t have been
any older than Declan, but there was
a deadness
to his
light grey eyes. He also looked like he hadn’t slept in days. His short dark
hair was a mess around his head, but under that exhaustion and the clear sorrow
coming from him was a rage that could have leveled buildings. He knew this was
the male that had lost his daughter even though no introductions had been made.
Link stepped all the way in and shut the door behind him.

“Declan, we need your help tracking this
son-of-a-bitch down.” He looked at Maverick. There was no way he was going to
say no.

“It’s going to take some time,
especially if he is outsourcing. Is there anyone in town that fits this kind of
profile?” Link moved closer to them.


Me
and my boys
roughed up a gang of wolverines that have been dealing petty shit. Mainly pot,
and only at the edge of town near the industrial warehouses that line
Morrisonville.” Link’s voice was harsh, like the edge of a serrated blade, and
as much as he was keeping his emotions in check, Declan could easily pick up
his pain.

“Any of them have any background to
dealers or distributors in the area?”

He crossed his big arms over his chest
and shook his head. “Nah, nothing we did got us the information we were after.”
That had Declan lifting his brow, but he didn’t question their methods of persuasion.
“All we got is that the leader of the pussy gang buys their weed from some
pothead out of Franklin County. We checked into him, but he’s a washout, grows
his shit in the basement of his farmhouse his old man left him, and is more
focused by the fact the cows make noise than what in the hell he is doing most
of the time.”

“It’s going to take some digging. I
won’t know tomorrow or anything, so you guys will have to be patient.” The
three males grunted in unison. “Okay, I’ll see what I can find.”

By the time Declan left it was going on six
in the evening. He hadn’t been able to talk to Melissa since he followed her
home after dinner. They had exchanged numbers at the restaurant, and at least
he felt like she was still willing to give his stubborn ass a chance. Aside
from a text yesterday evening and another one this morning, he felt like he was
going through withdrawals. His phone vibrated in his pocket, and when he pulled
it out and saw that it was Melissa his smile grew.

“Hey.” Declan felt like a damn
pussy-whipped schoolboy at the thought she had actually reached out.

“Hi. I’m not bothering you, am I?” If
she only knew that he could be by her every second of the day and still not get
tired of her, she might actually run in the other direction from him.

“No, of course not.
I meant to call you yesterday, but I figured you might want a little time to
yourself.” What he didn’t saw was that he knew
 
the way he had acted before they even started
dinner, and how he had handled the whole meerkat situation after all that,
probably hadn’t been what she was used to, nor what she deserved. Besides, he
had been doing a little digging on the meerkat.

Her soft laugh had his dick twitching,
and he forced the bastard to calm the fuck down. “I didn’t need any time. I
actually meant to call you, but work has been a bit crazy, and then I was
dealing with that Manny fiasco.” At the sound of that asshole’s name coming
from her lips he growled low. She chuckled again, but he could hear the catch
in her voice, and the fact she couldn’t quite hide that she liked it. “I was
wondering if maybe you’d want to come over tomorrow night. Maybe I can cook you
dinner and we can talk without the interruptions we had last time?”

He made his way to his SUV, and just
thinking about being at her house, having his mate cook a meal for him, and
having no one around to be witness to the electricity and lust that had nearly
consumed the restaurant on their last date, had him getting an instant hard-on.

“Yeah.”
He cleared his throat, trying to wash away the arousal that thickened his
voice, because the images that were going through his head were filthy and oh
so fucking
good
. He shouldn’t have been picturing her
naked and wet for him, spread out on the bed and just waiting for his mouth and
cock. But shit, being alone with her, and the fact she wanted to feed him, had
this primal animalistic part of him feeling like he had just hid the jackpot.
“I’d like that a lot, Melissa.”

“Great. How about you come over about
eight tomorrow evening? I hope you like pasta because that is the one thing I’m
not guaranteed to burn.”

“I’m good with whatever.” She could have
served him a freezer burned and charred steak, and he would have eaten it all,
licked the plate, and asked for another serving. His heart raced, and the
feeling of endorphins bursting inside of him gave Declan this sort of euphoric
feeling. It was crazy and intense, and he was looking forward to experiencing
more of it. They hung up, but he didn’t start his car right away. Instead he
pushed those pleasant thoughts of Melissa out of his head and told himself that
thinking of her when he had to go home and find the sorry bastard that was
making the drugs that were killing these kids, was not practical.

Just knowing that she had talked to
Manny had all kinds of questions moving through his head, but he wasn’t about
to ask her about any of them, because they weren’t his business, and as long as
the asshole didn’t bother her again, Declan could let this go. This might have
been the one and only time he ever said that, but after the search he had done
on the meerkat the other day, and found out he was relatively harmless, he let
it pass as an infatuation. The guy’s record had been squeaky clean, and he even
had some community service thrown in there. He worked for a small film
developing company, but he manned the phones in quality control. He was a born
and bred Sweet Water resident, and had been a loner his whole life. There
wasn’t anything on his family life aside from a lawyer father, a mother who
stayed at home, and a brother. Dubbed a geek in high school because he was in
the “smart kid” classes, Manny had apparently fallen head over heels for
Melissa in the ninth grade. At thirty-seven years old Declan thought the little
creep was way too fucking old to have this lifelong crush on her, and to not go
out and search for a female of his own. But that shit ended the night of the
dinner, and if Manny decided he still wanted to have another go at Melissa,
well then Declan would be more than happy to show him how possessive a mated
male really was when it concerned their female.

Chapter Seven

 

“Well shit.” She balanced her cell
between her shoulder and ear and pulled the pot of spaghetti sauce off of the
stove before she burned the rest of it.

“You okay?” Ary asked, but she was
laughing at her. Melissa blew a strand of hair away from her face and breathed
out.

“Yeah, but I think I overcooked the
pasta, am pretty sure I scorched the bottom of the spaghetti pot, and might
have burnt the garlic bread.” She pulled open the oven, and pulled out the cookie
sheet that held said bread. “On second thought the bread has survived.” Ary
laughed even harder, and Melissa heard Charlie’s deep voice in the background.
“Do not even tell him about this disaster called dinner.” Ary brushed off
whatever Charlie said, and the sound of kids screaming in the background dimmed
before finally everything became quiet.

“All right, I moved away from the
insanity that is my household.”

Melissa turned everything off and took a
step back. “I don’t know about this. In fact, I’m pretty sure this is going to
be a bad idea.” She untied her apron, the one she had just bought today because
she didn’t even own one, but assumed all “chefs” needed an apron. Yeah, she was
far from a chef.

“Honey, this wasn’t a bad idea, unless
you’re not talking about the dinner but of inviting Declan over.” Melissa moved
over to the dining room table and adjusted the place settings.

“No, I was talking about the dinner. I
have never had to cook for anyone aside from myself, and even that was
sometimes a chore. What can I say? I’m just not the cooking type of girl.”

“I’m sure everything will be fine.
Besides, maybe your mate likes soggy noodles and sauce that taste a bit on the
charred side.” Ary was laughing through her words, and Melissa couldn’t help
but laugh too as she looked at the food on the stove.

“Well, if this doesn’t make him rethink
being mated to me I don’t know what will.” She started laughing harder at the
thought of them even consuming what she had cooked.

“Melissa, there isn’t anything that can
drive a male away from his mate, believe me.”

Melissa sobered and moved over to the
breakfast bar. She rested her elbows on it and closed her eyes for a moment,
trying to work through her sudden nervousness.

“Yes, I know. I just don’t know why I
asked him to come here, or that I said I’d cook. Even I know how bad my cooking
is.” She looked at the clock and saw she had about half an hour to get ready.

“You asked him to your house because you
want some alone time with him, and because what is happening between the two of
you, although fast and almost insane in nature, feels so right. You just want
to take it to the next level, right?” If anyone knew about mating and dealing
with an alpha mate it was Ary. Well, Candace, too. Okay, any of the females
that were mated probably knew all about that, but still, Ary was the first out
of their group of friends that had gotten mated, and Melissa trusted what she
had to say.

“Yeah, I guess that’s true.” She traced
the grain of the wood on her counter. “Is it weird that I’m actually nervous
about tonight?” Melissa knew things were going fast, but she didn’t see a point
in avoiding what was bound to happen. They were mates, had this incredible
connection, and she wanted to explore more of it. Although sex had just been
about mutual pleasure before meeting Declan, she also knew that she wasn’t some
twenty-something year old that had all the time in the world. She was only three
years off from being forty, and that family wasn’t going to create itself if
she didn’t let go of some of her rigidness and stubborn nature, and try to accept
the things she couldn’t change. Besides, being with Declan wasn’t any hardship,
and in fact she hadn’t been able to think about much else since she had first
seen him.

“No, it isn’t weird that you’re nervous.
It’s very normal, especially when you are talking about your mate. Hell, I
slept with Charlie the first night we met, got knocked up, but for all my
worries and hesitation, everything worked out exactly how it was meant to.” Of
course Ary was right. Her friends were level-headed and smart, and she trusted
their judgment. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t still nervous on how this would
play out, and if she was being honest with herself, on whether she would be a
good mate or not.

“Thank you. I’m glad I have all of you
to talk to when I feel like ripping my hair out.”

Ary chuckled again. After they got off
the phone Melissa stood there for a few minutes trying to get her thoughts
under control, and her nerves a little less jumpy. But then she realized she
had sauce on her hands, and her hair was probably a hot mess. Yeah, she needed
to get shit done, especially if she planned on taking things to the next level
with Declan, and easing this intense arousal that was claiming not only her,
but she knew him as well.

BOOK: Bear Naked and Bite Marks
12.2Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Kansas City Cover-Up by Julie Miller
Across the Endless River by Thad Carhart
The Monkeyface Chronicles by Richard Scarsbrook
One Can Make a Difference by Ingrid Newkirk
Overqualified by Joey Comeau
Legacy by Riley Clifford
Anything but Ordinary by Nicola Rhodes
Shattered Rainbows by Mary Jo Putney
Chef by Jaspreet Singh