Trapp’s deep belly laughter rang out through her cell phone’s speaker, filling the silence in her car. The sound was foreign to her ears. She’d been expecting understanding, hell, anything other than humor at her expense. Elizabeth gripped the steering wheel tighter, turning her fingers white as anger boiled her blood. “Sir, this is not funny.”
“Sure it is, Elizabeth.” Trapp cleared his throat, trying to stifle his chuckle and failing miserably. “Welcome to the family.” She could hear the smile in his voice. Damn man.
“He doesn’t want me. He’s attracted to the bear’s DNA I was injected with, not mine.”
“Oh, come on, Lizzy; you don’t know that.”
“Don’t I? He thinks I’m his mate.” Her voice rose in despair. “What the hell am I supposed to do now?”
“Abigail.”
Hearing her given name made her pause. Trapp never used her real name. Heck, he’d helped her to erase any trace of the shell of the woman she’d been before the attack. That long-forgotten name, meant to grab her attention, worked.
“Any man would be happy to be your mate.” The laughter from his voice disappeared. His tone turned gentle. She sighed.
“Don’t call me that,” she responded matter-of-factly with a slight chill in her voice. “Abigail Monroe is dead. Those bastards killed her.”
“Abigail Monroe was a survivor; and no matter what you think about yourself and what those assholes did to you, you deserve to be happy. I’ll be damned if I’m going to allow you to think you’re any less of a woman because of those pricks. I don’t give a shit what your name is or what animal you can shift into. I know the woman who works for me, and I wouldn’t change a damn thing about her, whether you call yourself Abigail or Elizabeth. It doesn’t fucking matter. What matters is that you survived, and they can’t take that away from you.”
If only that were true. “How do you want to me to handle Rhys?”
“He’s a strong bear, Lizzy. If he believes you’re his mate, there won’t be any stopping him from pursuit. The fact you left the bar without saying a word is going to drive his bear insane. Not to mention the fact you still have a job to do.”
Elizabeth pulled the car over onto the embankment and rested her head on the headrest. She closed her eyes, letting the knowledge she had to go back sink in. It was inevitable. She knew it, and he knew it. “I have no choice, do I, sir?”
“Afraid not, Elizabeth.”
“I have to go back.”
“Be upfront with him. Tell him the truth about what happened to you. Give him a chance to understand why you’re scared.”
“What? No! I’m not telling a stranger what the hell happened to me. I’ll just have to convince him that he’s wrong. I’m not the girl he wants. I’ll never be a mate he’ll be happy with.”
Trapp held more confidence in her than she held in herself. Sharing her secret wasn’t an option on the table. The embarrassment alone would kill her newfound confidence. She’d been treated like an animal, and no one had even noticed she’d been missing. Her life had been pathetic, and worse, it was still pathetic. The only thing that changed would be that at least Trapp would notice if she up and disappeared one day.
“Yeah, good luck with that.” He chuckled again. “Listen, if it will help, I’ll have a word with him and explain that you weren’t born a shifter. That should at least slow him down. It will buy you some more time while you decide if you want to share the details.”
“You’d do that for me?” she asked.
“Lizzy, I will always look out for you, not only as your boss, but as your friend. Now find a hotel and get some rest. You can go to their house in the morning. It will give him some time to calm down, and everything will look better in the light of day.”
“Thanks, Colton,” she said, ending the call. Time was something they both needed. She needed to figure out how to handle the big bad bear, and he...Well, he needed to figure out how he was going to keep his distance.
****
After thirty minutes of his cousin’s constant calling, Colton Trapp shut his phone off and eased out of the bed, throwing on some clothes. An hour later, he stood outside his cousins’ door. Colton rapped his knuckles against the wood. He heard the arguing inside. Shadows flicked across the window, blocking the light. A loud crash banged inside before he heard the wailing growl of one pissed-off bear.
The door flew open and Rhys, bare as the day he was born, pegged him with the glare, as he stood on the threshold. His electric-blue eyes swirled from blue to gray as though he was seconds away from ripping Colton’s head off.
“Settle down, bear. I came to discuss your mate.”
“Where is she?” Rhys growled while fisting his hands. Barely contained fury simmered just beneath his skin, threatening to break free. No wonder Elizabeth was scared. Rhys was acting like a lunatic.
Colton straightened his shoulders, waiting until Rhys regained control and his eye color flashed back to blue. “Good. Now as much as the ladies might enjoy seeing you in the buff, I don’t. Go put on some damn clothes so we can discuss your situation.”
Colton walked into the house, bumping Rhys’ shoulder in passing. Rhys’ brother, Max, glanced up with broken lamp pieces in his hand. “Took you long enough.”
“Yeah, well, imagine my surprise getting a call in the middle of the night from my best investigator explaining the problem.”
“I don’t know what name she’s using, but she isn’t booked at any of the local hotels under Elizabeth Hanson,” Dylan announced while walking into the living room, looking down at the open phone book he carried in his hands. He glanced up, meeting Colton’s gaze.
“You won’t find her if she doesn’t want to be found.” Colton moved farther into the living room and waited until Rhys returned with his jeans up and zipped before continuing.
Dylan flicked the book closed and tossed it onto the coffee table. It landed with a loud thud. “Why the hell didn’t you return our calls? You could have put the poor bastard out of his misery hours ago.”
“I’ve been debating on my course of action.” Colton gestured for them to have a seat.
Max plopped down in the recliner with his legs hanging over the side while Dylan relaxed on the couch. Rhys, the poor bastard, sat down on the oak coffee table, and the wood moaned from his weight.
Colton stepped to the fireplace and took a deep breath, figuring a way to tell them about Elizabeth without breaking her trust. “There are some things you need to understand about my investigator before I allow her to stay under this roof.” He held Rhys’ glare. “She wasn’t born a shifter.”
“Someone changed her?” Rhys rose from his spot, his eyes swirled dark gray; the muscles of his arms bunched, holding back the bear clinging beneath the surface.
“Yes,” Colton confirmed. “Against her will, no less, but”—Colton held up his hands to stave off their questions—“make no mistake, he wasn’t her mate, and she killed the assholes who hurt her. I was just the one who found her and helped her pick up the pieces of her life.”
“Assholes? As in more than one!” Rhys took a step toward him before stopping.
“There are things you don’t understand about her.”
“That explains why she ran,” Max said more to himself than anyone else. “She’s scared.”
“I’d never hurt my mate,” Rhys growled, turning a deadly glare on his brother. “There’s no reason to be afraid of me.”
Colton paced the length of the living room. “Scared isn’t quite a word I would use to describe Elizabeth.” He glanced back at Rhys. “She’s headstrong, bright, and competent just to name a few of her good qualities.” He paused before continuing. “She’s also got anger issues, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but she’s not overly fond of shifters.”
Rhys remained quiet. His brows dipped in confusion.
“She only trusts me because I earned it, and I’m afraid you’re going to have to do the same.”
“Exactly what has she been through?” Rhys prodded.
That was the only question that Colton wouldn’t answer. “That’s not my story to tell,” Colton acknowledged apologetically. “I just came here to explain that she’s just not used to being a shifter, much less our customs. The idea of a mate, and what it represents, is a foreign concept to her. So the minute you act like a caveman, she’ll have you on your ass, unconscious in ten seconds flat, before she disappears out the door.”
Colton stopped pacing. “She is…that good, that strong, and that cunning. I should know; I trained her. I expect all of you to show her some respect. She’s here to do a damn job.” He glanced at Rhys. “She won’t care that you found your mate, especially if it derails her from the mission. So as hard as it’s going to be, if you have any hope of mating with her, you’re going to have to allow her some space and let her do her damn job.”
“Fuck.” Rhys stood and walked around the back of the couch. “You’re asking me to be okay with putting my mate in harm’s way.”
“I’m not asking you. I’m giving you a piece of advice. If you even want a chance with her, you won’t try and change her. She lives for the job. Throwing bad guys behind bars, especially if they’re shifters, is the only way she’s learned to cope and survive with what happened to her.”
“What did happen?” Max asked.
Colton shook his head. “Sorry. I can’t tell you, but let’s just say it’s ten times worse than you or I could ever imagine and leave it at that.” He locked his gaze with the Rhys. “Don’t fuck this up. She needs you as much as you need her, although she’d never admit it.” He patted Rhys on the back and walked toward the door. “Good luck and keep me posted.”