Don't Moose With Her (Bearbank Book 1) (15 page)

“So he tended to fixate on shifter women,” Ethan said.

“Yes but he loved them,” Sarah insisted, looking him directly in the eye. “He’d never kill them. I know it looks bad but I know Eric. He’s just not capable. I can see him sending them gifts, trying to win them over. Sometimes he might have crossed the line a little. Maybe he even did get a little stalker-ish. I can accept that. But abducting them and hurting them? Killing them? He just doesn’t have that in him.” She paused. “Didn’t have that in him.”

“I know it can be hard to accept…” Leo began.

“No,” she insisted. “He was my big brother. He looked after me. He was always really protective. Really sweet. He always wanted to help people, it’s why he joined the police. He's not... he wasn't violent.”

Leo thanked her for her time and left the room with Ethan. A policewoman waited to show Sarah out of the building.

“Nobody ever thinks people they know are capable of murder,” Leo said, sinking into his chair. “I hate having to tell them otherwise.”

Ethan frowned, leaning against his desk. “I still don’t understand why he would kill them. It doesn’t fit with what we know about him. Not just from what his sister said but from what everyone has said. Nothing about him screams psycho killer.”

Leo shrugged. “It’d be easier if they came with tattoos on their foreheads but they don’t. Murderers tend to look perfectly normal. We may never know why he killed them. The most important thing is that he won’t kill anyone again.”

“I know,” Ethan sighed. He was still tired. “There’s just something about this that bothers me. Maybe it’s just because I’ve been chasing him so long. It’s hard to accept that it’s over.” He checked his watch. He still had a little time before he had to meet Dana. “I think I’ll go visit the morgue. I can get the post mortem results. Maybe if I see the Shifter Stalker’s body, it’ll finally sink in.”

Leo nodded. “I’ll come with you. I’d like it to sink in for me too.”

They made their way to the morgue and spoke to the pathologist. As they’d thought, the man had died from a knife wound to the heart. There was evidence of a fight and DNA had been found and taken for testing. Sadly, unlike the TV shows, the results would not be back for weeks. Until then, they’d just have to rely on solid detective work. With a few extra shifter advantages, of course.

A technician took them to the body and Ethan stepped forward to look. He didn’t recognize the man, had probably never seen him before. He was of average size and had a face that wasn’t handsome but wasn’t unpleasant either. Women wouldn’t have thrown themselves at him, but he shouldn’t have had trouble getting a girlfriend. Still, something still bothered him about the man. What was it? Something niggled away at the back of his mind but he couldn't bring it forward. Something was off... but what?

“I hate the smell in morgues,” Leo grumbled. “Sometimes I wish I could turn off the damn shifter nose.”

The smell. Ethan froze. Could it be...? Closing his eyes, he concentrated on his sense of smell. The smells from the morgue were strong, so strong that he’d been trying to shut them out. Now he paid attention. He discarded the normal morgue smells and the scent of death, concentrating instead on the underlying scent. The pure scent of Eric Matthews.

He swore. “It’s not him.” He stared at the body, shock holding him still.

Leo looked at him. “What?”

Ethan gestured to the body. “This is not the Shifter Stalker. I’ve been working on the case for a while. I told you before. I have the killer’s scent and it is not Eric Matthews. Although, I can smell the killer on him. He’s not the killer, he’s another victim.”

Startled, Leo stepped forward and closed his eyes for a moment. “You’re right. Becca’s body took too long to get to us but I remember the scent from the first body we found here. It’s on Matthews too but it’s not his scent.”

“He’s not the killer,” Ethan stated flatly. Then he swore. “Dana.” She was out there without his protection. Completely unaware that the killer was still alive.

“Go,” Leo told him. “I’ll talk to Alex. You get to Dana and make sure she’s safe.”

Ethan turned and ran from the morgue, ignoring the startled glances of the people he passed. Dana had promised him that she’d stay at work, surrounded by other people. Now that he knew the killer was still out there, that no longer felt safe enough. His wolf growled inside his head, pushing him on. Nothing mattered except getting to Dana and protecting her.

Before long, he was pulling up outside the café where Dana worked. A patrol car was already sitting outside and his heart stopped. A cold creepy feeling crawled up the back of his neck and his stomach felt like lead. What had happened? He forced himself to get out of the car and enter the café.

The little mouse shifter looked up as he entered. Her face was white and tears ran down her face. There was no sign of Dana. Ethan's heart stopped beating. A uniformed policeman was talking to Dana's friend. Ethan knew the officer from the station. This one was a shifter, an eagle.

“Where’s Dana?” he demanded of the room in general.

The policeman turned to him. “Ethan. She’s been abducted.”

Ethan staggered back a little, bumping into a chair. He felt physically sick. He’d thought she was safe. She should have been safe. As soon as he’d heard about Matthews, he should have checked the body himself. He’d been too distracted and now Dana was paying the price.

The mouse turned teary eyes on him. “She went to the bathroom and didn’t come back. I went to check and there was no sign of her. The back door was open. We always keep it locked.”

“We found a small amount of blood just outside the bathroom,” the policeman added. “It’s not a large amount but it confirms that it’s unlikely Dana left willingly.”

“CCTV?” Ethan growled.

“None,” the policeman said, confirming his fears. “No witnesses either.”

Stalking through to the back of the shop, Ethan found the trace of blood. It wasn’t much, so at least she wasn’t badly hurt. Still, the thought of anyone hurting her at all sent a wave of rage through him. He could barely hold onto his wolf but he suppressed it. Dana needed him rational enough to find her. The wolf could have his vengeance once Dana was safe.

Dana awoke to a pounding headache. Even the tiniest movement caused a wave of nausea and sharp stabbing pain. She lifted her hand to the back of her head and winced as she found a lump. Opening her eyes, she squinted against the light that set off more shooting pains in her head. Finally, she managed to keep her eyes open and look at her surroundings.

She was lying on a bed. The quilt cover was old and faded. Everything in the room looked old, but it was clean with no signs of dust. The room was sparsely furnished but there was a photograph on the bedside table. It showed a couple with a young boy and a baby. They looked happy.

She tried to push herself up but had to pause when the room started to spin. She screwed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth against the nausea. She kept her breath shallow, waiting for it to pass. Gradually she managed to sit up. Looking down, she noted that she was wearing a long white nightdress. The thought that someone had removed her clothes while she was unconscious and redressed her made her feel sick again. Where the hell was she? And what the hell was going on?

She remembered being at work and being struck from behind. Then nothing. Her stalker was supposed to be dead, she was supposed to be safe. Surely she wasn’t unlucky enough to have gained the attention of two stalkers at the same time? Was anyone that unlucky?

Getting to her feet, she swayed unsteadily, shuffling to the door and holding onto furniture to keep her balance. The floor was cold and hard under her bare feet. She thoroughly expected to find the door locked but, to her surprise, it opened and she stepped out into the rest of the house.

“You’re awake,” a male voice said, the tone flat and uninterested.

Searching for the owner of the voice, she saw a man sitting in an armchair. He looked fairly average. Tall-ish, dark hair, and dark beard. His blue eyes were cold as they flickered over her.

“I was trying to decide what to do with you,” the man continued. “Everything has changed now.”

“Who are you?” Dana asked. “Why am I here? Did you send me the gifts?” Was this her stalker?

The man grimaced. “Only the last two. The rest were my brother, Eric. He liked you, you see. Wanted you for his mate. He was always shy, was Eric. He liked to get women’s attention with little gifts before he worked up the courage to speak to them. He saw you in that café you work at and he liked you. He always wanted a shifter mate. The others he’d liked let him down and he thought you would be different. But no, you’re not, are you?” He glared at her, stark hatred in his eyes.

“What?” Dana was confused. This was apparently the brother of her stalker, she’d got that much. She didn’t know anyone called Eric though and she was unsure how exactly she’d incurred this man’s wrath.

“You’re not different,” the man said, sitting forward a little. “You’re a whore. Just like the others. Accepting his gifts and then running off with another man. Leaving me to clean up the mess. Again.”

“Clean up the mess?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

The man sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I loved my brother but he was soft. Weak. I tried to tell him to stay away from filthy shifters, that human women were better for him. He would never listen. He adored that bitch of a stepmother, a fucking bear shifter. Nothing like our mother. She was a proper woman. Human. But no, Eric was always chasing shifters. And they always let him down.” He fixed Dana with a hard look. “So then I had to teach them a lesson and dispose of them.”

“Dispose of them?” She really had to stop asking questions she didn’t want an answer to.

“I kill them like the rabid animals they are,” he spat. “But Eric always finds a new one and it starts over.”

Dana stood quietly. This man was not entirely sane and he was dangerous. She was in trouble. She still felt weak and dizzy, and was in no state to fight back. Not yet. She couldn’t even pull together the energy to shift into her moose.

The man sighed. “And now you’re the last. Because of you, Eric is dead. I had to kill my own brother. The police were looking at him and he panicked. Damn fool was going to turn himself in and wanted me to go too. He attacked me and I had to kill him. My own brother. It was my job to protect him.”

The man stood and walked towards her, halting just a short distance away. Dana tried to back away but she wasn’t steady enough to let go of the door frame.

“I was going to kill you like the others,” the man said, frowning down at her. “But I needed you to wake up first. You needed to understand why, what you did to deserve it. Then while I waited, I started to think that it doesn’t seem right. You were my brother’s mate and all I have left of him. Then it occurred to me… in the Bible, in the Old Testament, if a man died then his brother was supposed to marry the man’s wife. So that the dead man could father children through the living brother. Not that I'm particularly religious but it sounds right. A way for Eric to live on.”

Dana felt a chill go through her. She stared at him mutely. He couldn't mean that.

“So it looks like I’ll have to take you as a mate and father Eric’s children on you.” The man grimaced. “The children will have to be trained to suppress their filthy shifter side. I’ll make sure they marry humans and eventually Eric’s descendants will have had the animal bred right out of them. You’re not what I would have chosen but it was Eric’s choice. I can force myself to fuck you, for Eric’s sake.”

“No,” Dana stated, shaking her head. “I won’t cooperate. I’m strong enough to fight you and I’ll kill you if you try.” As soon as she pulled herself together enough to shift, the fight would be much more even.

The man snorted. “I don’t need you to cooperate. You’ll be much more docile when the time comes. I’ll keep you drugged or tied down if I have to. It'll keep your filthy animal suppressed. I’d have drugged you earlier but I didn’t want to take a chance with that head injury and I needed you lucid enough to understand how we reached this point. Besides, right now you can barely stand up. How much of a fight are you capable of?”

She glared at him and he laughed. Stepping forward, he grabbed her arm before she could dodge him. He pulled her from the door and she lashed out at him, dizziness making her miss. He let go of her and she went down hard, sprawled on the floor. Pain shot through her knees. His foot on her back prevented her from scrambling back up. He put enough weight on her to make his point before removing his foot and standing back.

“Enough,” he said harshly. “Go to the bathroom. There’s a pregnancy test kit under the sink. Use it. Once I can be sure you’re not carrying that shifter’s brat, we can get started. I'm not going to raise another man's child, only Eric's.”

He grabbed her roughly and hauled her to her feet. Dragging her to the bathroom, he shoved her inside. Unable to keep her balance, she fell again, her body landing with a thud. Her head only narrowly missed hitting the toilet.

“Get on with it,” he ordered. “I’ll be outside so don’t even think about trying anything. If you take too long, I’ll come in and you can do it in front of me.”

Saying that, he closed the door, leaving her sprawled on the bathroom floor.

Ethan prowled Alex’s office, unable to sit still or curb his wolf’s anxiety. He needed to get to Dana but he didn’t know where to start looking. His body ached from the effort of keeping his wolf under control.

“You’re sure Eric wasn’t our guy?” Alex asked, watching him intently from behind his desk. “His fingerprints were on a couple of the ‘gifts’. He was always in the right area at the right time. Even his sister said that he was obsessed with shifter women.”

“The scent is wrong,” Ethan pointed out shortly, continuing to pace. “There’s no denying that. It’s not him.” Why the hell hadn't he checked that earlier?

Alex frowned. “I just find it a staggering coincidence that the Shifter Stalker just happened to always strike wherever Matthews was. And I don’t believe in coincidences.”