The Bear Essentials (Siren Publishing: The Stormy Glenn ManLove Collection) (14 page)

“I get the idea.” So did his cock as it twitched with interest.

“My bear likes the great outdoors.”

“As long as your bear continues to like me, I don’t really care.”

“Yeah.” Rob flushed, which was just about as adorable a thing as Casey had ever seen. “I don’t think that’s a problem.”

“It might be, if you considered leaving me.” Casey wished he could ignore what Rob had said, but he couldn’t. Even now, after he had been claimed again, the thought of Rob leaving him made his stomach clench with fear.

“I didn’t want to leave you, Casey,” Rob said as their eyes met, Rob’s filled with so much pain that Casey’s breath caught. “I want you to be happy, even if that’s not with me. That’s all that matters to me.”

“Being with you makes me happy.” Happier than he could ever remember being.

Rob’s brows drew together in a confused frown. “Then why did you run from me?”

“I panicked.” Casey swallowed hard as fear welled up in his throat. “We’ve known each other like two days and already I’ve done so much to destroy your life. And then I find out I’ve done the same thing to your parents? How can you all not hate me?”

“Oh, cub, I could never hate you.” When Rob reached for him, Casey eagerly went into his arms. He pressed his face into Rob’s chest, drawing in a deep breath of the man’s scent. “Casey, you didn’t destroy our lives at all.”

“But—”

“You have given me so much, Casey. So much.”

Casey lifted his head so he could look up at Rob. “You’ve lost your home because of me.”

“I found a home because of you.”

Casey blinked. “Huh?”

“Casey, you’re my home, not some wood and brick building somewhere. As long as I have you, I have everything I need.”

Casey was going to melt right there on the spot. “I love you.”

Rob’s happy smile was well worth anything Casey had ever endured. “I love you, too, cub. I always will.”

Casey dropped his head against Rob’s chest when tears sprang to his eyes. He threaded his fingers through the fine hairs on Rob’s chest, twirling them around the tip of his finger. “If that ever changes, you’ll tell me?”

“It won’t. True mates mate for life.”

Casey felt Rob’s lips press to the top of his head and wondered at how easily the powerful male showed affection. Rob seemed to have no problem showing Casey how he felt as well as telling him. Casey would always be grateful for that.

“There will never be another for me, Casey. You’re it, until the day I die.”

Casey frowned. “Don’t want you to die.”

He smiled when Rob chuckled.

“I don’t really have plans to die any time soon, cub. I’m just saying, you are my mate. No one will ever smell as sweet, feel as wonderful, or look as good as you do. Everything about you fascinates me, even this omega thing.”

Casey didn’t really have a response to that. Rob was handing him his biggest wish ever and asking for so little in return. Even feeling the way he did, Rob had offered to give Casey up if it would make him happy.

“No one has ever wanted me the way you do.”

Rob’s grin grew as he winked. “No one is as smart as me.”

Casey laughed as joy filled him to the point of bursting. He didn’t really care where they went as long as they were together. The rest of the world could go hang itself. Casey had Rob and that was all that mattered to him.

That, and a shirt.

“Something seems to have happened to my clothes.” Casey glanced down at his naked body and then grinned up at his mate. The flush that filled Rob’s face was too adorable to let pass. “Since you’re kind of responsible, can I borrow yours?”

Five minutes later, Casey found himself being carried through the woods with nothing but a shirt to cover all his naked bits. Good thing he was mated to a bear of a man. Rob’s shirt hung down to the tops of his knees.

“Any idea where we’re headed?”

“Not really.” Rob shrugged as if they were discussing the changing weather and not moving somewhere unknown. “I guess we’ll drive until we either find a good place to call home or run out of gas money.”

“I don’t think gas money will be a real problem.”

Casey jumped and clung tighter to Rob when he heard Sheriff Garret’s voice. He was sure the man was a very nice guy, but just the sound of his voice sent a shiver of foreboding through Casey.

“Easy, cub,” Rob whispered.

Casey turned his head and pressed his face against Rob’s chest. He breathed in deeply, letting Rob’s natural scent calm his fears. He hated being afraid all of the time, but life had taught him that he had a lot to fear. When the people that should have cared for him turned their backs, those that had it out for him stepped forward to cause him pain.

No one had ever cared enough to make sure he was protected until Rob. Casey tightened his arms around Rob’s neck, thanking the cosmic powers that be that he had been led to his mate. He was never going to let go.

“What are you talking about, Garret?” Rob asked.

“Alpha Barker has provided for Casey. It’s not much but it should hold you over for a while.”

Casey glanced up when Rob started walking again. Harvey opened the door to the truck and Rob set Casey down on the seat before turning to Garret again. Casey had to admit he was intrigued when Garret handed Rob something. He just couldn’t tell what it was.

“Why would Alpha Barker give Casey a credit card?” Rob asked.

Okay, so that was what it was. And why would the alpha give him a credit card? He barely knew the man. Casey stared down at the piece of black plastic when Rob handed it to him. Huh. It even had his name on it. How weird was that?

Garret sighed, which was enough of an oddity in the self-assured man that it caught Casey’s attention. He glanced up, meeting the sheriff’s eyes.

“Alpha Barker married Raymond’s mother because it brought together two different clans. It was a marriage arranged by his parents. It was not a love match but it did produce Raymond.”

“And that has to do with me why?” Casey asked. He instantly wished he had kept his mouth shut when Garret’s lips thinned into a straight line.

“It has to do with you because Alpha Barker is your father.”

Casey stared for a moment, and then he started laughing because he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, Garret was pulling his leg. When no one else laughed with him, Casey’s amusement slowly died away.

“You’re not serious?”

“Alpha Barker met your mother when Raymond was a year old. He knew instantly that they were mates even though your mother was human. Barker and your mother met in private. When you were born, your mother had to go into hiding.”

Casey swallowed hard. “My mother didn’t die of a drug overdose, did she?”

“No, not exactly.”

“Not exactly?” Casey snapped. “What in the hell does that mean?”

Garret grimaced, almost as if his own words were distasteful. “As long as she retained her position, the alpha mate looked the other way. She didn’t care who her husband was fucking as long as he was discrete. When you were born, it threatened her position and Raymond’s position as the next alpha.”

“How can that be?” Rob asked. “Raymond is older.”

“True, but he wasn’t created with the alpha’s true mate. Casey was.”

“Wait.” Casey’s fingers curled around the credit card in his hand until they hurt. “Are you saying that my mother was murdered?”

“She was poisoned but we’ve never been able to prove that the alpha mate did it.”

“What?” Casey’s heart ached for a woman he barely remembered.

“When your mother died, the alpha mate made it clear that if the alpha acknowledged you, your life would be in danger as well.”

Casey sucked in a breath. “She blackmailed him.”

“As long as Raymond was the only acknowledged child of the alpha, she said you would be safe. Alpha Barker had to watch you grow up from afar, never acknowledging that you were his son, born from the only woman he had ever loved.”

Casey leaned into Rob as he sniffled. “Then why did he send me away?”

He just didn’t understand it. They could have been a family. Granted, Raymond was a jerk and Casey really wanted nothing to do with the man, but he might have been able to look past that considering Raymond was his brother. Or not, but he still would have liked knowing he had family out there somewhere.

“Now that you’ve mated and come into your omega abilities, it is no longer safe for you in King City. Not only would you have come to the attention of others when you joined the clan, Raymond would have tried to mate with you because of that pesky little alpha clause.”

Casey shuddered, and not just because Raymond was his half brother. “Yuck.”

“I take it Raymond doesn’t know Casey is his brother?” Rob asked.

“No.” Garret shook his head. “That was one of the stipulations of Casey staying in King City. No one except Alpha Barker, the alpha mate, and I were to know.”

Casey swallowed hard when he felt bile rise up in his throat. “I think she broke that rule.”

Garret gave him a considering look. “Why do you say that?”

It wasn’t anything Casey knew for sure, just something he felt. “I was always placed in bear shifter foster homes, and except for a woman I was with for only a short time, pretty much every foster home was hell. There just can’t be that many bad foster families in one small town. Someone had to have said something.”

Garret’s eyes narrowed as they sparkled with anger. “Are you saying you were abused in those foster homes?”

Really?

Casey just stared at the man until he growled.

“Alpha Barker chose those foster homes himself,” Garret snapped. “He was trying to find you the best foster parents he could.”

“Well, he sucked at it.”

Garret’s eyes grew grim but determined. “You may not like the choices Alpha Barker made about your life but at least you had one. He did what he thought best to keep you alive.” Garret’s eyes hardened as they strayed to Rob. “Even now, he is trying to protect you.”

“By banishing my mate from all he’s ever known?”

“By getting you out of town before Raymond or his bitch of a mother can hurt you.”

Casey just stared at the man as he tried to come up with a response to that. Nothing was coming immediately to mind. He didn’t understand why Alpha Barker hadn’t simply divorced his wife and mated with Casey’s mother. They all would have been a lot happier if the man had grown a set of balls and stood up to the woman.

“So, what now?” Casey finally asked.

Garret nodded to the credit card Casey held in his hand. “Alpha Barker arranged for money to be placed on that card, money no one but you can access. Use it as you see fit but mostly, use it to make a life for yourself somewhere away from here. It’s still not safe for you in King City, and it may never be.”

“We weren’t exactly planning on coming back anytime soon,” Rob stated. “I won’t stay anywhere my mate isn’t welcome.”

“Good.” Garret nodded. “Take him away from here. There are clans out there that will willingly accept you, and if they have any questions, have them call me. I’ll give you a good recommendation.”

Casey wasn’t sure what that meant, but Rob’s eyebrows shot up, so it must be good.

“All of us?” Rob asked.

Garret turned to look at Harvey, Billy Ray, Jed, and Dwayne. He huffed a small sigh. “Yes, all of you.”

“Thank you.”

Garret nodded again. “Just go. You’re supposed to be out of this territory by dawn and that was about ten minutes ago.”

Casey almost laughed at how quickly things moved after that. He was bundled up in the truck, buckled into his seat, and a pair of jogging pants tossed in his lap. As he wiggled into them, Rob started the truck and got them underway. The two other vehicles drove in line behind them, Garret just sitting in his truck until he disappeared from sight.

Rob didn’t take his foot off the gas as they raced toward the border. The silence that hung in the air was cloying. It felt almost as if the man was afraid if they slowed down or stopped, they were never going to escape. And it did suddenly feel like they were escaping. If what Garret told them was true, they were.

“Do you think Garret was telling the truth?” Casey asked as he stared at the credit card in his hand, turning it over and over again before running his finger along the thin edge. “Do you think Alpha Barker is really my father?”

“Possibly, but even if he is, I’m not sure it matters. You’re mine and I’m not giving you back.”

Casey chuckled at the forcefulness in Rob’s voice. “Another rule?”

Rob grinned at him. “Rule six, cub. Once mated, a bear never gives his mate back.”

“I like these rules.” All of them. “So, what now?”

“Now, we drive until we find a new home. We make sure wherever we stay, we’re not put in a position where we are forced to choose between home and safety. And then we build the life we were meant to live together.”

“Another rule?”

“No, cub.” Rob reached down and entwined his fingers with Casey’s. “It’s a bear essential.”

THE END

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Stormy believes the only thing sexier than a man in cowboy boots is two or three men in cowboy boots. She also believes in love at first sight, soul mates, true love, and happy endings.

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