~

 

Harvey was tired. He’d done what he’d needed to do and allowed his bear to roam until the small hours. He’d stuffed his gut with a hearty breakfast, showered, and changed into his work clothes, and then he’d driven to Taylor’s barn and taken his sleepless annoyance out on hammering every damn nail that he could into some poor, helpless wood.

He was hot and sweaty in the afternoon sun, and he’d shucked off his shirt a good few hours ago as he labored away. His muscles were tense as he lifted the hammer and aimed for the head of the nail, picturing the first thing that came to mind that annoyed him as he swung.

“You look bigger with your shirt off,” she announced, and he thought he might be having a senior moment or something because that kid’s face from the night before popped into his mind just as the hammer came down on his thumb.

“Damn the hell out of it!” he growled, chucking the hammer down onto the workbench and sticking his throbbing thumb into his mouth as his dark eyes flicked towards the sound of that voice.

There she stood. All smirking enjoyment and wide eyed innocence mixed together as she stared back at him. A nightmare right there in the flesh of her little person body.

Harvey’s bear roared within him. The beast either wanted to eat her or just chase her around for a good long while until she left him the hell alone. He yanked his thumb free and glared at her.

“What the hell are you doing here?” He gave the kind of growl that he only usually reserved for the moment before he was going into a bare-knuckle fight.

“I live here,” she offered back.

She looked kind of entitled at that moment like she knew something he didn’t and was superior to him. Well, he guessed that she was, she was human after all and didn’t carry the burden of the beast inside of her.

“No, you don’t,” Harvey growled back.

“Yes, I do,” she sounded a little more snotty, and it annoyed the hell out of him.

“This isn’t your land,” he growled, worried that if he took a step towards her, then he just might shift and eat her.

“It’s my grandpa’s,” she informed him, like a little Princess. She even raised her chin in the air and looked down her nose at him.

Harvey grunted in annoyance. Taylor had a daughter, and a Grandkid, he knew it, but he didn’t think they lived anywhere nearby.

“Then go be with your Grandpa,” Harvey growled, turning his back on her and reaching for his hammer once again.

“He says I can’t be hanging around him while he’s working,” she said, and Harvey snorted.

“That’s cos you’re annoying,” Harvey growled.

“Oh,” she said back, and he could hear the small catch in her voice.

His guilt gene kicked in again. His bear growled like he’d just taken it to the vet and had its fur removed and Harvey felt the need to make amends. The trouble was he didn’t know how.

“Look, kid, just go away,” Harvey grumbled.

“Ok.” Now she sounded a little less sure of herself. Her voice was quieter, and Harvey’s bear pointed an accusing claw in his direction.

Harvey took a breath in through his mouth and sighed it back out. He’d hurt her feelings. He knew it, and he hated himself for it.

That was why he didn’t like kids. Fragile – in mind and body, and there was him, a bad mood, gruff bear that growled and swore at anything that annoyed him.

He was a beast and he knew it. She’d tapped into that guilt gene and jumped all over it, and now he needed to make things right. Damn it.

“Look, kid…” he turned on his heels to find her gone.

He scanned the area, and he was more than tempted to sniff the breeze to find her scent, see which way she’d gone. The woods were no place for a kid and he didn’t want to think what could happen to her if she was alone in there.

Harvey knew scenting the air would be bad. Wrong. He didn’t need any more hassle in his life, and that little bundle of mischief was a hassle.

Still, he felt like a dick.

Harvey’s beast growled a warning inside of him, and he snorted his contempt for everyone and everything. It wasn’t like it was his fault that she was so damn annoying that even her flesh and blood didn’t want her around.

But still, the woods? Harvey bit down on a curse as he dropped his hammer back on the woodpile and reached for his shirt.

He’d just check to make sure that little Miss Precious had gotten home. Then he was done. Then he would tell Jon Taylor to keep his grandkid to himself and not share the misery around.

 

~

~

~

 

Harvey didn’t need his nose to track the kid. She left little people footprints in the dirt and broken twigs and leaves in her wake. The bad news was, she was pushing further into the woods.

His bear wasn’t happy, but he couldn’t tell if the beast was mad because that was his normal state of being. If he was mad because they were trailing after a kid. Or if he was mad because he was trying to make him feel like an even bigger bastard than he already felt.

Being mean to a kid… What the hell was wrong with him? Sure, she was annoying, well, kind of, she’d only spoken to him – she’d only told him things were bad for him.

Hell, he knew Scotch and gooey junk was bad for him, he didn’t need to be schooled by some kid, but…

People get mean when they drink that stuff. How the hell would she know that unless someone had been mean to her?

Damn it; I’m a dick.

No, I’m worse than a dick I’d pond scum… And a dick.

What kind of a jerk off was mean to a kid?

Except for me.

But, I’d been words means. I hadn’t tried to scare her or anything.

How were they mean?

Damn, I can’t be dealing with this. I can’t get involved in human problems.

But, she’s a kid. Taylor’s grandkid.

Did the old man know that someone was getting drunk and being a dick around his grandkid?

Was it Taylor? Her mother? Father?

Harvey sped up at the sound of a couple of twigs crunching underfoot. If it was her, then she’d changed direction, and he didn’t like where she was heading.

The east side of Taylor’s property backed onto the bear clan’s land. Now, those guys were mean, and not the kind of mean that would make her feel bad, but the kind that would scare the hell out of her at best.

They didn’t like people trespassing on their land. They didn’t like humans. But a kid? Even they weren’t despicable enough to hurt a kid – maybe.

“Hey, kid!” Harvey called out into the stillness of the woods and got silence back as his only reward.

Another crunch came from his right, and he might have kept walking, but he also twisted his head on his neck to listen. Silence.

Something wasn’t right. It was too quiet, like all of the mini-beasts had taken a vacation.

Harvey stopped dead in his tracks and waited. His beast was ready to burst free from within him at the first sign of trouble. His claws were itching to be flicked out, and his fangs pushed against his aching gums.

He was ready for whatever supernatural being was lurking in the woods.