Ready to Bear (8 page)

He stared out the window at the skyline in front of him and thought back on the day. He had awoken in his own lonely bed in Greyelf and was falling asleep in Copper City next to the woman that his bear said was his mate. It was surreal. Billy wasn’t sure what to think about all of it.

Billy figured that he would be awake for hours pondering all of the new things that had happened since meeting Thea at the airport, but the adrenaline of the day had worn off. He felt his eyelids slip closed, and then he was asleep.

“What the holy fuck is this shit?” The angry, booming voice woke Billy from a deep slumber. He opened his eyes to see Thea rubbing at her own beside him. Her beautiful emerald eyes blinked at him with a confused expression and then widened as her memory of the previous evening seemed to come back to her.

Thea was still trying to catch up on where she was and why there was a handsome man staring at her with the loveliest blue eyes. But Eric’s continued tirade took all those thoughts away.

“I demand an explanation!”

“Take it down a notch before you wake up Alex,” Thea said. She pulled herself up off the couch, noting various aches and pains. Her knees felt stiff and sore. They were reminders of the attack that she hoped went away soon. It made her wish for the shifter’s healing abilities. “What are you doing here so early?” A quick glance to the clock on the wall across the room told her it was 6am.

“I came over to check on you and take you and Alex out to breakfast,” Eric said, his voice only slightly lower than before. “I didn’t expect to find…this.”

Thea rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. “And by this, you mean seeing that I had a friend keep me company last night because it was too hard for me to sleep by myself?”

“You just met this guy yesterday,” Eric said, shoving his finger in Billy’s direction. Thea noted that Billy had stood up and taken a small step back, but didn’t appear to be willing to speak yet. She didn’t blame him. Eric was a peach to deal with when his temper flared up.

“This guy saved my life and escorted me and Alex home. I asked him to stay. He’s been a perfect gentleman.”

Eric rubbed his face. “Jesus Christ, it feels like the world has gone insane.”

“You’re right, it does,” Thea said. “I’ve got my stepbrother stomping around my apartment at the crack of dawn acting like a prehistoric wildebeest.”

“I don’t even know what the fuck that is, but I’m a panther shifter,” Eric said with a frown.

“It means that your behavior isn’t all that becoming in a grown man,” Thea said with a sniff. “It’s no wonder you haven’t settled down yet.” She watched with amusement as Eric’s mouth opened and closed like a fish.

“If you needed someone to stay with you, I would have given Sophie the night off. Or I would have been happy to come by after the fights,” Eric said. His voice had calmed down considerably.

“I know you are busy on fight nights, and I wouldn’t have asked Sophie to give up her tips,” Thea said. She let her arms fall to her sides. Billy was still watching the situation warily.

“I’m apologizing for my brother’s behavior. Again,” Thea said to Billy.

“It’s okay. I can’t say I’d act much different if the situation was reversed,” Billy said. He stuck his hands deep into his pockets. “I should probably be on my way.”

Thea wanted to stop him, but she could tell by the way Eric looked at Billy as if he were shooting him with daggers that it was probably for the best. “I’ll walk you out,” she said quietly. Billy gave Eric a wide berth as he made his way into the hallway. “Why don’t you make yourself useful and put on some coffee, if you remember how,” she threw over her shoulder at Eric.

Billy had already arrived at the elevator doors and pushed the button to call it.

“Thanks for staying with me last night,” Thea said. There were so many other things she wanted to say. She felt as if she had only scratched the surface of Billy’s exterior. She was attracted to him, but it felt different than when she had lusted after men before. She wanted to know everything about him. But he might be ready to ditch her and get on with his purpose in the city. She struggled with how to make the next few moments last as long as possible.

Billy took her hand and interlaced her fingers in his. His touch momentarily took her breath away. “I’m happy that you asked me to stay. I’d like to see you again while I’m in town if you’d be willing.”

“Oh, yes,” Thea nodded her head, relieved that he wasn’t about to walk out of her life forever.

“So I have an appointment at 10pm tonight that I can’t miss, but other than that, I’m free,” he said with a wry grin. “How about dinner?”

“I’d like that,” she said. “There’s a restaurant over on 50
th
. Marchuli’s. How about 7pm?”

“I’ll see you then.” The elevator doors opened, and he reached out to brush her hair out of her face and behind her ear. “Good luck with that.” He cocked his head toward the living room.

“I’ll need it,” she said with a small sigh. Billy stepped into the elevator and then the door slid shut taking him from her view.

Thea felt flushed, and her heart raced as if she had just gotten done working out. It had been a long time, if ever, since a man had excited her and intrigued her the way that Billy Miller did. She touched the side of her head where his fingers had just been and smiled. She liked being close to him. She’d leave it at that for now and try not to overanalyze it too much.

Squaring her shoulders, Thea made her way into the kitchen. She found Eric there and was surprised to see that he did, in fact, know how to brew coffee.

“I don’t appreciate you storming into my house and scaring away my guests,” she said. She figured it was best not to bother beating around the bush. With Eric, subtlety didn’t work well.

“Last time I checked, my dad still foots the bill for this place,” Eric said as he moved around the kitchen. It always surprised her how gracefully he moved for how large he was. Eric looked more like a linebacker than a CEO.

“It’s my place, Eric.” She wasn’t going to be drawn into an argument with him over how Robert’s holdings were divided among his children. “I’m twenty-five years old, and what you saw hardly even qualifies as anything at all. We fell asleep on my couch with all of our clothes on. Hot.”

Eric looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Then he got two mugs down from the cabinet. “I am glad to see that you do actually have an interest in the opposite sex, Thea. Believe me, if it were any other guy, I’d be delighted as shit.”

Thea sat down on one of the stools and thought about how she had done the same thing the night before when Billy and Alex were in the kitchen. It had felt a lot more like family then. “Can we tone down the language? It’s goddamn early. And who I choose to spend my time with isn’t any of your business.”

“It is my business when it involves the sheriff of Greyelf,” Eric said. “Look, Thea. I don’t want to make you paranoid or suspicious about the guy’s intentions, but Lukas Kasper has been on our asses for months. Then his sheriff shows up out of the blue and ingratiates himself into your favor in the span of a single evening? Doesn’t that seem like a pretty big coincidence?”

“Why does my favor matter?” Thea said. She didn’t like the direction of the conversation. She hadn’t felt one deceptive vibe about Billy in the time they spent together.

“You are my right-hand. If I had a wife or a girlfriend, you’d still know more about me than either of them.” Thea had to roll her eyes. Of course, Eric would assume that he’d have both and that the roles were not mutually exclusive. “You might not realize it, but you know more about my business and my agreements with Kyle and Tony than anyone else. Having your confidence means the sheriff gets inside intel of the highest caliber on the Urban Dwellers.”

Thea put up her hands. “There are so many insults in those few sentences that I can’t even believe it. First of all, I think you’ve completely misread the situation. Billy saved my life, and I was the one who invited him here. He wasn’t trying to ingratiate himself at all. Secondly, I appreciate how much credit you give me in being able to tell when someone is manipulating me or not. Of course, the fact that you made me sign a confidentiality agreement the size of a textbook might have been the first clue. Third, it warms my heart that you think a guy might seriously be interested in
me
, and not the entire fucking Carmichael family!” Thea’s voice had gotten louder, and Eric’s eyes widened at her last comment.

He slid a cup of coffee across the counter at her. “Stop giving me shit about my language. Pot, kettle, black.”

Thea felt a laugh burst out of her mouth and then saw Eric had a similar twinkle in his eye. He pulled the coffee cup up and gave her a small salute. She started to pick up her cup and realized that her hands were shaking. This wasn’t like her at all.

“It’s kind of nice to see you let loose for once, although I’d prefer that it wasn’t all directed at me,” Eric said drily. “Look. I’m not trying to be all paternal or anything. I do want you to find a guy and be happy. But I want you to find the right guy, and it bothers me to see you with someone that I wouldn’t trust being within fifty yards of me or anyone in my family. And it goes beyond the fact that he is the right-hand man of the biggest thorn in my side at the moment.”

Thea felt herself responding to Eric’s sincere words, and she felt bad for yelling at him. Like his father, Eric took his responsibilities to care for his family seriously. The way that manifested, though, always left a little bit to be desired. “What do you mean? What else do you know?”

“Just like I’m sure the sheriff has been doing his homework on me, I’ve done my homework on both him and Lukas Kasper. The sheriff looks like a boy scout on paper, but he has skeletons in his closet just like everybody else.” Eric leaned over to let his forearms rest on the countertop.

“Nobody’s a saint. If I’ve learned anything by being around you, Kyle, and Tony, I’ve learned that much,” Thea said. “You can’t judge someone by the actions of their past.”

“Let me put it this way,” Eric said. “People don’t just up and leave their clans for no reason. Shifters have these bonds of loyalty that run miles deep. So deep that the alpha can control them if he wants to. It’s part of the deal of joining a clan.”

That was the first time Thea had ever heard this tidbit of news. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s a long story, and I don’t even know if I understand it,” Eric said. “There are a lot of things about shifters that you don’t know because you aren’t one of us, and despite what you think to the contrary, you’ve only ever seen a small snippet of what it’s like to be one. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you with Alex all along. If he is a shifter, there are going to be some things he experiences that you have no comparable experience to relate to, and you have to be open to that when it happens.”

“I understand that,” Thea said. “But what does that have to do with Billy and being part of a clan?”

“The biggest reason that Kyle, Tony, and I chose not to become part of a clan, or even form one here, was because we believe in free will and choice. You shouldn’t have to be shackled to one person’s domination just because you happened to have the misfortune of being born into their clan. It’s an archaic system that doesn’t work in modern society.”

Thea had never heard Eric speak so passionately about anything before. She let the words sink in because he was right. It did feel archaic.

“There has to be a new way of doing things. That’s the reason we’re not going to take Lukas’s calls or give him the time of day. He can do what he wants to do. More power to him. But here, in our world, the way he operates doesn’t fit. If he’d just leave us alone, we’d all be fine.”

Somehow, Thea doubted that would the case, but she didn’t say that to Eric. There was only so much room in the world for so many alphas.

“Anyway, I got off track there for a minute,” Eric said, shaking his head. “Billy is part of that world. He was part of two different clans before he joined up with the Greyelf Grizzlies. Most shifters are part of the clan they are born into for their whole lives. On a rare occasion, a shifter will part ways with his old clan and join a new one. Usually, it has to do with the ability to find a mate and carry on the lineage.”

Thea wrinkled her nose. “Now that sounds archaic.”

Eric shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not going to judge it. It happens. But nonetheless, it is a rare occurrence. To have a shifter break from two clans, though? That is basically unheard of, and so there is a lot more to the story there.”

The knot of unease in Thea’s stomach had grown considerably larger as Eric’s words sunk in. “So what was the reason that he left those two clans?”

“Why don’t you ask him?” Eric said. “Since you two are so close now, I’m sure he’d be happy to tell you.”

Thea opened her mouth to say something else when Alex slid into the room. He wore black from head to toe, and she could see from the bags under his eyes that it had been a restless night for him. Eric had told her that it wasn’t uncommon on the cusp of the shifter transition for the body’s hormones and bio-cycles to go haywire.

“Hey there, champ!” Eric’s face brightened. “You hungry? I thought we’d grab some breakfast, and we can drop you off at school on our way to the office.”

“Sure, whatever,” Alex said. His head swung around the kitchen. “Where’s Billy?”

“Billy had to go,” Thea said. Her face flushed again as she realized that Alex must have known that Billy spent the night. It was the first time she had allowed any man to stay in the apartment when Alex was home. She didn’t know why she was embarrassed, though. They hadn’t done anything inappropriate.

“Bummer,” Alex said. “When are we leaving?”

Eric looked pointedly at Thea. “Unless you’re planning to go to work like that, you should probably change. We don’t want to get Alex to school late.”

She was being dismissed. Thea gave Eric a dirty look and then touched Alex’s arm as she exited the room. Eric had given her too many things to think about, and she wasn’t sure what or who to believe. Her gut told her that Billy was a good guy, but Eric had sowed the seeds of doubt in her mind.