Taming the Bear Collection (5 page)

      
With her red pumps on she was as tall as Eva, but if Eva came out in heels she'd be sorely disappointed. Eva had a man; this was Rain's night to stand out and find someone, anyone who was better than what she'd experienced before.

      
"You certainly look stunning," Rowan said, sitting on the couch with his arms crossed. Rain hadn't really registered him when she walked through the door but now she was looking him over with obvious horror on her face because he moved uncomfortably as she bore a hole into him.

      
He was wearing nice black slacks and expensive leather shoes with a very nice white button-down shirt. In short: he was dressed to go out.

      
"What?" he asked, throwing his hands up.

      
Before she could answer, Eva strutted into the room, making an impression on the two wolves she'd grown closest to. She was wearing a short white skirt, one that showed off her amazing thick legs. Her short blonde hair looked great as usual, but the thing that stood out to Rain was the black button-down top she wore, with the three top buttons undone to reveal her substantial cleavage, of course. She knew how dress to show off every sexy curve she had. Even Rain felt her naughty bits tingle as she looked at Eva. Quickly she glanced down at Eva's feet and silently fist-pumped as she noticed the black flats as opposed to heels.

      
"Is Captain Dad going?" Rain asked, pointing at Rowan. He recoiled like she'd just poked him in the chest before crossing his arms like a scolded child.

      
"Captain Dad?" Eva asked, trying to hold back laughter. "No, he's got a dinner meeting with the rest of the Sheriff's Department. You don't have to worry about him."

      
"I'll only be a phone call away," Rowan said, jumping up from his spot on the couch and quickly taking Eva in his arms. "If there's any sign of trouble, call me."

      
"You worry too much, Rowan," Eva said, nuzzling his chest with her face. "We're going to be in town, where everyone knows I'm your woman. They'd be insane to try anything."

      
"All the wolves in town know that," Rowan said, unease in his voice. "But the humans who are sure to be out won't know that, and what if some of Abaddon's crew shows up? They still know you're the one who got their lieutenant killed."

      
"I don't think they care about that at all," Eva said, not letting any of his words break the mask of calm self-assuredness on her face. "If they did, they would have already done something about it or said something to you during the meeting. All they care about is Leena."

      
"Yes, Leena," Rowan said, his eyes rolling towards the guest bedroom. "I feel awful."

      
"What?" Rain asked, not wanting to be left out. "What's going on?"

      
"She wants to go with us," Eva said. "It's been years since she's been herself and she just wants to be normal again. At least that's what she told us."

      
"So why can't she go?" Rain asked.

      
"Think about what you're saying," Rowan said, giving her a look she was all too familiar with. When she said things he deemed to be stupid he narrowed his eyes, pursed his lips and shook his head slightly. She hated it when he did that; it always made her feel like a child asking dumb questions. She was an adult now, and he had to respect that.

      
"Don't talk down to me," she growled.

      
"You know," Rowan said, his voice growing high and defensive. "What the hell has been your problem lately?"

      
"You!" Rain said, pointing at him again. "You're always on my case. I'm not your damn daughter! You can't treat me like I'm a child!"

      
Rowan stepped back, his face smoldering. She hadn't meant for the words to come out with such vitriol, but she was tired of the way he had been acting with her lately. Ever since right before Eva had showed up, he had been king asshole with her.

      
"I'm going to be late," Rowan said, quickly kissing Eva on the forehead. "Don't leave until Hawk gets here."

      
If Rain hadn't hopped out of the way he would have shoulder-checked her on his way out the door. As it was, the pictures on the wall rattled from the force of him slamming the back door.

      
Eva turned to Rain, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open. She threw her hands up and shook them at Rain. "Why did you say that?"

      
"Say what?"

      
"That you're not his daughter."

      
"Because I'm not," Rain said, crossing her arms and pushing her hip out.

      
"That's how he sees you," Eva said, grabbing Rain by the shoulders. "He only does all of this because he cares about you so much, girl. He wants what's best for you."

      
"Well, I'm an adult now. He needs to let me make my own mistakes."

      
"I know," Eva said, nodding her head in agreement. I just need to talk to him."

      
"Forget him for now," Rain said, trying to put the incident behind them. "Let's go out and have a party."

      
"We have to wait for Hawk and Ciara," Eva said, walking over and taking a seat on the couch.

      
"What? Why?"

      
"Because we can't leave Leena alone. She's still kind of, umm, mentally fragile. If we left her alone she might wander off and try to find Aster."

      
"Why can't she be with Aster?" Rain didn't understand why they were keeping her from him. She also didn't understand why they weren't just taking her back to Abaddon now. She was the demon's mate and once he had her back it would avert the coming crisis.

      
"It's complicated," Eva muttered. "Rowan hasn't let me in on everything. He's still talking about it with Hawk. Thorn and Aster have no clue Hawk is even back."

      
"Really?" Rain was shocked to hear this news. She was almost sure the council would be meeting fervently over the whole situation.

      
"Really. They're afraid if Aster gets her, he won't give her back."

      
"Why don't they just take her to Abaddon in secret?"

      
"Because she doesn't want to go back."

      
"I thought they were mates."

      
"Not really. From what I gathered, Abaddon's demon was looking for someone to possess with his companion and he did that to Leena. That's why she's so fragile. She's been a spectator in her own brain for the last ten years. I imagine it's traumatic. She needs help, Rain, and we don't know how to get it for her."

      
"But if we don't give her back to Abaddon..." Rain said, trailing off.

      
"Exactly."

      
"It's a mess," Rain said, suddenly not feeling like partying anymore.

      
She plopped down on the couch next to Eva. Her face must have told the whole story, because Eva looked at her, worried, before trying to bring her back up with a warm smile.

      
"This isn't for you to worry about, girl. Let Rowan and the council figure it all out. Tonight we're going to find you a man."

      
"I feel kind of dirty going out to hunt for a man like this. Doesn't it feel like we're forcing something?"

      
"You're forcing a good time is what you're forcing."

      
Before they could continue, there was a sharp knock on the back door. Eva quickly got up to answer it, leaving Rain alone in Rowan's quaint living room. It was so clean and tidy compared to hers; she couldn't believe a man could keep his den like this.

      
She looked up to see Hawk walking into the room. She almost fell over looking at him; his usual quiet, brooding exterior was completely gone. It had been replaced by brightness and a smile. Beside him stood the short, curvy, redheaded beauty he'd had with him that morning. Their arms were intertwined and their hands were clasped together, and they looked like they didn't want to break contact with one another for a second.

      
Hawk looked so happy compared to the way he'd been before. It was striking for anyone who had known him before.

      
Is this what finding a mate does to you?
Rain wondered, looking back and forth at the happy couple.
This is what I need.

      
She jumped up from her seat, ready to go and hit the town with a renewed sense of vigor and excitement. Let the boys have their wars and battles; she was going to find love.

      
Beorn pulled into the parking lot of Peppercorn's at 7:45 p.m., always choosing to be early rather than late. Knowing Thorn, he was probably already inside with drinks waiting; that was just the way he was. Hopefully he hadn't brought Azyln, his mate. Beorn had no problem with the guy, but he always stared holes through Beorn. Obviously it was because of Thorn's previous feelings for his old friend, but surely Thorn wouldn't tell his mate about that.

      
As Beorn climbed out of the giant F250 he tooled around in, he took a deep breath and tried to force a smile onto his face. Thorn would immediately pounce on any looks of sadness or displeasure and try to psychoanalyze Beorn until sometime early in the morning. The alpha wolf wanted happiness for his friend as much as any best friend would, but sometimes he went overboard with his desire to see Beorn mated.

      
He knew Beorn's position on children and the way of the bear, but he still pushed for Beorn to find a woman to share his bed. Human women were too delicate, too fragile for the kind of rough love a bear would give them. Plus they wouldn't understand the bear's way when it came time to let the child go. There were very few cases of human women bearing cubs, and in each of those situations things ended badly or the family turned into weird mountain recluses.

      
Stories about crazy mountain men kidnapping "city-folk" were generally about a family born from a bear-shifter and his human wife. Beorn was pretty sure the movie
Deliverance
was based on a bear-shifter and his family. It made chills run up and down his spine to imagine a life like that.

      
Picking up a female wolf was a totally different story and one that Beorn wasn't too keen on. Each type of shifter was totally different from the others. Wolves had their own way of doing things, although the Bucklin wolves had created some sort of new weird human/wolf hybrid that Beorn had trouble reconciling at the moment. And cat shifters were different from wolf shifters who were different from bear shifters who were different from gorilla shifters and so on. Due to the differences it was rare to see an inter-species shifter relationship, but they happened.

      
Having children was a totally different story, though. The uneducated humans Beorn had run across thought that some sort of god-forsaken half wolf/half bear hybrid would be created if they mated. In actuality the father's genes took over and the child was whatever species the father was. Shifter reproduction was odd. For reasons that nobody understood, the best chance of reproduction was with a human and the next best chance was with your own species. Inter-species relationships rarely produced offspring.

      
On top of all that, again for unknown reasons, the famous shifter emotional bond was never formed. It was impossible for two different species of shifters to form the emotional bond that same-species couples and human/shifter couples could produce. This fact didn't really bother Beorn, though; he didn't want some damn woman's emotions playing with his head. Too many males had their balls cut off by their female's emotional responses.

      
Beorn sighed deeply again before walking into the old bar. Smoke immediately assaulted his nostrils as did the pungent, mixed scent of humans and wolves. Several eyes turned to look at the newcomer who had to duck to enter through the old wooden front door, but those eyes just as quickly fell back to their drinks. Wolves didn't like to mess with bears and Beorn preferred it stayed that way.

      
A hideous country tune was resonating from a juke box in the corner as several couples two-stepped on the tiny parquet dance floor in the center of the bar. Peppercorn's wasn't very large, but it was always packed. A U-shaped bar sat in the middle of the building, surrounded by tables straight out of the 1970s. The lights were always dim in this place, probably providing its patrons an excuse when they woke up next to some hideous beast the next morning. They didn't have the excuse of beer goggles; no shifter got that excuse.

      
Beorn spotted his alpha friend in the back corner, lounging against a smoke-stained back wall as he dreamily bobbed his head in tune with the horrendous music. Beorn had never been a music guy; it bothered his sensitive ears, but country was especially foul in his opinion. Unfortunately, he lived in Oklahoma, and the wolves thought a jukebox filled with country music would help them fit in better.

      
Thorn immediately jumped up when the giant bear came into view, pulling him in close for a warm hug that Beorn was not expecting. It was apparent that Azyln was nowhere to be found and Thorn was on his own tonight. Still, he knew where Beorn stood, so Beorn wasn't worried about any advances like that day in the forest.

      
Judging from the demure black button-down Thorn wore with dark jeans, this was a business meeting more than anything else. A bottle of Jack Daniels sat on the table with two glasses beside it, just as Beorn had expected. The burn of the whiskey going down his throat was always a pleasant taste. Plus he derived some joy from the shocked look of humans when they saw him pound glass after glass of the stuff without blinking.