Chapter Four
Angus
Angus watched Heath scurry into the darkness. He stepped forward with the intent of stopping Heath and making him tell Angus what was wrong when he felt a light hand on his arm.
His brother's mate was trying to stop him.
Technically, Sawyer was also his pack master's mate, but Angus wasn't about to start bowing to his older brother.
"What are you doing?" Angus asked Sawyer. He didn't really know the boy, past the fact that he was his brother's mate and that he was the closest thing to a friend Heath had in this small town.
"What are your plans for Heath?" Sawyer asked, the monitor at his waist crackling but was otherwise quiet.
"Am I interrupting something?" Roscoe asked, stepping out onto the porch and pulling Sawyer to his side all at the same time. "Angus? What's going on?"
Crickets chirped in the forest behind them, despite the cold temperature.
"Nothing, Roscoe," Angus said, giving Sawyer a wink that the boy just rolled his eyes at.
"Don't try me, brother," Roscoe growled. Angus
could see his fingers lengthening, shaping into claws. His brother was so easy to rile up, it almost wasn't worth it.
"I'm going to go take a walk."
"Maggie and Heath are likely gone by now," Sawyer said.
"Who said anything about Maggie and Heath? Can't a bear just walk in the woods?" Angus replied. He turned from them, stepping off the porch and into the forest, whistling a jaunty tune as he did.
It wasn't until he was positive that he wasn't followed that Angus stopped, stripped his clothing and shoved it into the leather satchel around his ankle.
He shifted into bear form, stretching his limbs so that when he fell, four paws to the forest floor, he did so with a great yawn. He knew that other shifters felt at their most dangerous in this form. While Angus knew he could do some damage, he felt cozy in this form, covered in fur. He shook his fur out, knocking against a nearby bush as he did.
He wouldn't have to use his tracking skills to find Heath and Maggie. They were likely still on their way with Gaia down the trail to where they had parked their truck. Roscoe had allowed them to finally make the trek without wearing the blindfold they'd been required to wear in the past. Afterward, they would drive back to the inn that currently didn't have any guests.
Angus took off toward the inn, going through the forest. He needed to make it there in time to do what he really wanted, figure out what Heath was hiding.
***
When Heath's truck finally pulled into the driveway and parked, Angus was just inside the forest, hiding where the line of trees began, in his bear form. He relied on the shadows to keep him out of sight while Maggie got out of the truck and waved goodbye to her brother.
Where in the hell was he going? And this late at night?
Angus waited for Maggie to shut the door before taking off after the truck. He could run quickly in this form—even though not as fast as some of the other shifter breeds—and had only a little trouble keeping up with the truck once it reached the highway. When Heath turned down an unmarked gravel road, Angus growled. His instincts told him that Heath was driving into that trouble he'd been on the edge of telling Sawyer about. For the millionth time, Angus cursed his impatience. If he had only waited, listening in on Sawyer and Heath's conversation, he'd know by now.
Except, he didn't want to learn things about Heath through eavesdropping. He wanted Heath to tell him directly. The fact that he was following Heath without his knowledge contradicted that desire, but when it came to the guy's safety, Angus would do what it took.
By the time he caught up to the truck, Heath was not in the driver's seat. He leaned against his vehicle, talking to a man in leathers who had a shiny black motorcycle propped up behind him.
"The deal is this," the man said. "You fight off what you owe."
"They want me to fight?" Heath asked. It was clear to Angus that Heath wanted to sound like that wasn't a big deal, except Angus detected the slight tremor in his tone.
"Unless you have five thousand, plus interest, to pay them back?"
So, Heath owed money. That solved the question of how the guy lived without a job.
"You know I don't, Steven. No one will even look at me in Noel. Not to give me a job anyway. Except for Maggie, but it's been more than a week since she had a single guest. I can't ask her for money. Even if she had five thousand dollars."
"Plus interest," Steven said.
"Plus interest!" Heath snapped. He shoved his fingers through his hair. Normally, Heath looked like the confident, casual, boy next door with sparkling blue eyes and a complexion that always looked tan, even in the winter. Now, he looked stressed, his eyes didn't so much sparkle as they shone with fear. Angus growled, and both men straightened, looking around themselves wildly.
"Fucking forest," Steven muttered. "When and where?"
"Do you know where the Sutter Farm used to be?"
"No idea."
"I'll send you the address. Next Friday, 10 pm."
"What happens if I don't fight?" Heath asked.
Steven stepped away from his bike, putting Angus on high alert. "Then Marcos gets his money another way," Steven said quietly. If Angus weren't a shifter, he wouldn't have been able to hear the rumbling words.
"He'll kill me." Heath responded without the fear Angus would have expected. Did the idea of dying not scare Heath? That didn't sit well with Angus. He didn't want Heath to live with worry, but a healthy dose of concern would have been nice.
"He's not killing you over five thousand," Steven scoffed. "Unless it's to make a point. Most likely, he'll take the money out of your sister," Steven replied.
Heath moved quickly, grabbing Steven's jacket and slamming him against the truck. He didn't have the upper hand for long though, and Steven easily managed to throw him on the ground, Heath struggling under him. Angus saw a glint of steel and bounded forward, roaring so that Steven would be distracted from continuing whatever he had planned.
Steven jumped up and didn't wait to put on his helmet before peeling away on his bike, spitting up dirt and gravel as he rode off.
Heath trembled as he got to his feet. Angus knew the exact moment Heath spotted him because he jumped on the hood of his truck, letting out a stream of expletives that would even impress Angus' other brother, Julian, who had the mouth of a sailor.
Angus stopped about three feet away from the truck. On all fours, his head still cleared the top of the hood so he could see into Heath's eyes. His anger was clearing and changing, first to fear, then to curiosity.
"Do I…do I know you?" Heath asked in a soft voice.
Angus smiled. Unfortunately for Heath, a smile from Angus in his bear form just looked like him baring his teeth.
"Gaia is darker," Heath said, his voice shaking. "Roscoe is bigger."
Angus growled.
"Angus?" Heath said, loosening his limbs from the tight upright ball he'd curled into. "What am I saying? You're probably just a bear and about to eat me." Heath threw his hands in the air like being consumed by a wild animal was a great inconvenience. "You know what, go ahead! You get me, or they do, either way, I'm a bloody mess."
Angus shifted, forming back into a man he took the remaining steps that would bring him to the truck. "What do you mean?"
"Dude, you're naked."
"Answer me, Heath. Who is going to make you into a bloody mess?"
Heath slid off the truck, which only brought him closer to Angus. Angus set his hands on either side of the man, caging him in with his truck behind him.
"Who is Marcos? Is he the one who lent you money?"
Heath scowled. "Eavesdropping isn't polite."
"Neither is not answering a question when someone has asked so politely."
Heath's warmth radiated into Angus, making him
feel stronger, taller. It took every ounce of his control not to get an erection. Angus had never been so close to Heath while naked. He liked it. A lot. Heath didn't seem to notice until he looked down and remembered. "Dude. Your dick is huge," he whispered.
Angus smirked. "I know. It's a bear shifter thing."
"That's like, monster porn big, man."
"Want a closer look?"
Heath snapped his face up, scowling at Angus a moment before hurt flashed in his expression. "Don't make fun of me," he said, looking for a way away from Angus.
"I wasn't, Heath." He wanted to lean forward and nuzzle the man's neck.
"Yeah, whatever, can you back off? I've got about a week to figure out how I am going to survive an unlicensed, no-rules, backwoods fight. Or maybe I'm not supposed to survive."
"You're surviving. Better yet, you're not fighting."
Heath ducked down, bringing his face perilously close to the erection Angus failed in not producing.
Angus hadn't thought Heath capable of a maneuver that would bring him closer to his cock, not yet anyway, and because of that oversight, Heath found himself free.
"Yeah, right. I'm not gonna fight. That's suicide—or murder. I could never do that to Maggie."
He opened the truck door and stopped in the act of climbing in, peering at Angus through the window. "Were you out here just to spy on me?"
"You were acting weird at the dinner."
For some reason, that made Heath's frown clear. "Roscoe asked you to," he said, like he was explaining the situation to Angus.
"No. He didn't."
Heath's eyebrows furrowed for only a second before relaxing. "I mean, Sawyer asked Roscoe to ask you to—"
"No one sent me, Heath. I was worried. Is that so weird?"
Heath didn't answer. He slipped into the truck and shut the door. After a second, he rolled down the window. "Do you need a ride?"
He didn't. But he wasn't going to say no to alone time with Heath. "Sure."
"You have to put your clothes on first," Heath said hastily before rolling his window up.