Chapter Fifteen
Malcolm stared at the slumbering blonde angel in his arms. He’d been awake a good twenty minutes, but he didn’t want to risk waking Irina. She needed her rest. At least in her dreams, Yuri couldn’t terrorize her.
The fear he’d seen on her face pricked at his heart. A woman who had dedicated her life to grace, beauty, and art shouldn’t have to experience such darkness because of an obsessive asshole. He didn’t care that Yuri was a bear.
If anything, that made it worse. A shifter should have known better than to grab a non-Blooded and subject her to mental abuse. He’d only been lucky that she hadn’t lost it and gone and blabbed to someone about their secret world.
Malcolm didn’t know much about the way dragons ran things in Russia, but he imagined given all the crap that had happened in the country over the last few decades that they were even more hardcore than the typical dragons in America.
He smiled down at the woman. He could get used to waking up like this, and he was more than willing to risk his life for the chance to set the ballerina free. Screw the bear. The wolf would show him a real predator.
Irina’s eyes fluttered opened, and she offered Malcolm a soft smile. “Good morning, Malcolm.”
“Good morning, Irina.” He leaned in to give her a light kiss on the forehead. “Sleep okay?”
“Very well. The best sleep I’ve had in many weeks.”
“Good to hear.” Malcolm took a deep breath. “Can you stay with me for a few days? It’ll be safer until we get all this crap taken care of.”
Irina sat up and nodded. “I have a couple days off. I’ll just call the company and let them know I’m staying with someone.” She laughed quietly. “It’s not as if a dancer shacking up with a lover on the road is rare.”
Malcolm shrugged. “Every man wants a beautiful and graceful woman.”
She nuzzled his neck. “But not every man deserves one.”
He grinned. “The important thing is that you’ll be somewhere I know he can’t get you. Now that I know what’s up, I need to go talk to my alpha. We’ll see what we can work out.”
The smile faded from the ballerina’s face. “Must it end in blood?”
“Unless we can convince Yuri to leave. You know him better than I do. Do you think that’s even possible?”
Irina shook her head and sighed. “No. He won’t leave, especially now that he’s come all this way for me. Not only that, whatever happens with him, he’ll probably insist that I be there. That’s the kind of man he is.”
Malcolm grimaced. He suspected this situation would end in fang, claw, and blood. The last thing he wanted was to make the poor woman see something like that. Then again, he’d do what he needed to free her.
Even if she didn’t want to stay with him in the end, it didn’t matter. As long as she had the choice, he’d be satisfied.
Malcolm hopped out of bed. “In any case, I better head over to talk to Caleb about this. He still needs to know who and what Yuri actually is.”
“Must you go? Can’t you just call him?”
He chuckled. “Discussing shifter business on the phone is a bad idea. I’m sure the dragons have a few guys in the NSA or whatever to filter crap out, but the less risks we take, the better.” He leaned in to give her another soft kiss. “It won’t take long. I just need to make sure I do what I can to protect you.”
Irina smiled and gave him a kiss back. “Thank you.”
* * *
Malcolm climbed the stairs to Caleb’s apartment above Devil’s Den and knocked lightly on the door. His alpha opened the door seconds later. It wasn’t a surprise. He’d called ahead. Surprising a werewolf was generally a bad idea.
Caleb motioned inside, and Malcolm entered the apartment. His alpha was just in his sweats, and Sarah was nowhere to be seen, so he suspected she was still asleep. It was still early.
The alpha moved over to his couch and took a seat. “So what’s the big emergency that you have to come and meet me at the ass crack of dawn?”
Malcolm took a deep breath. “Irina’s stalker ex-boyfriend isn’t just some mafia douchebag. I finally met him face to face. It was, uh, interesting and damned annoying.”
“Interesting? Define interesting. What the fuck happened?”
“Nothing happened but a lot of trash-talk, but I found out that he’s a damned werebear.” Malcolm sighed.
Caleb chuckled and shook his head. “Of course. I’m almost not surprised.”
The beta frowned. “You think this shit is funny?”
“It’s a little funny, you have to admit.” Caleb shrugged. “Some gangster werebear from Russia has come to Arizona.” His smile vanished. “Before we talk about anything else, I need to know one thing. I’m only asking because I need to think of the pack.” Tension lined his face.
“She’s not Blooded,” Malcolm spat out before Caleb could even ask. “At least not wolf or bear.” He shrugged. “She didn’t know shit about shifters until Yuri.”
Caleb’s face relaxed. “Ah, good, that simplifies this shit, and since Irina didn’t run you off by telling you he was a werebear, we know she can keep her mouth shut so that means we just need to deal with Yuri. All that shit I said before about the pack being involved, it’s different now. It’s time to rally the pack.”
“Why?” Malcolm shrugged. “This is still a personal problem, and she’s still not Blooded.”
“Because it’s a shifter thing. Bears are tough. I don’t want you getting your head torn off unless it’s me doing it.”
Malcolm shook his head. “I didn’t even want Thomas and your help before, I don’t want it now. I just wanted you to know in case shit gets complicated.”
Caleb eyed him like he was drunk. “You want to take on a bear by yourself?”
The other man grunted. “Yeah, that about covers it.”
His alpha shook his head. “Look, I’m the first wolf to sing the praises of our kind, but even I wouldn’t try to take on a bear by myself. They aren’t dragons, but they are still damned tough. Throwing your life away to prove a point won’t help Irina. If you die, he’ll just drag her back to Russia.”
Malcolm shook his head. “I have to do this. I need to do this.” He shrugged. “And it’s not like I’m an idiot. Bears get weaker the longer they’re away from the forests. Yuri’s in the middle of a desert right now in a stretch of millions of people in glass and concrete. He’s gonna be weaker than normal. I can win.”
“Maybe.” Caleb shrugged. “Not like either of us know how long it takes an individual bear to weaken. It might take months for him to get to a point you can face him on equal terms. Why are you obsessed with taking him on yourself? Is this just about proving yourself to the woman? Fuck, just lie and say you did it by yourself. I don’t give a shit if she doesn’t know the truth. I say we jump him with the entire pack and tear him apart.”
“It’s partially about her, but not all about her.” Malcolm sighed.
Caleb frowned. “Then explain to me why the hell my beta wants to take on a bear by himself.”
Malcolm blew out a breath. “I think about it a lot you know. How I joined the pack.”
“What about it?”
“You know I hate my dad. To me, he represented what I thought werewolves were, self-serving bastards.” Malcolm gritted his teeth. “Even after my first shift, I didn’t want anything to do with wolves because of him. I figured I could handle it all myself until I got sloppy and those hunters almost got me. If you hadn’t been there that night, I would have been killed.”
Caleb shrugged. “I wasn’t gonna let a fellow wolf get taken down by hunters. You didn’t have to join up just because of that. Not that I’m not glad you did.”
“The point is, I owed you my life, and so I joined the pack, but I’ve been thinking about that for years, how I shouldn’t have needed the help, especially over a few human hunters.”
Caleb shook his head. “Look, you’ve been great for the pack, too. We needed a calmer beta, so if this bear thing is some sort of deal where you think you have to prove what a wolf you are by not getting help, well, that sounds like a dumbass stunt that Thomas might pull, and you should think about it long and hard.”
Malcolm let out a grim chuckle. “Just saying, it’s a lot of things. I want to protect Irina, and I want to prove something to myself about if I even deserve a woman like her.” He locked eyes with Caleb. “Given the shit you pulled with the True Sons, I figured you of all people would understand.”
Caleb snorted. “I still brought the pack along.” He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Okay, I’ll agree to this stupid shit on one condition. I at least want to be there to make sure Yuri doesn’t pull any dirty tricks, other than being a crazy-ass Russian bear.”
“Fine. Fair enough.”
“Do you even have a way of getting a hold of him?”
Malcolm nodded. “He called Irina. We can just call him back.” He frowned. “The only thing I’m worried about are the dragons. Since Yuri’s not from around here, if I take him down, that might cause trouble. I don’t want the King up our ass over this.”
Caleb furrowed his brow and then nodded. “I’ll contact Greg and explain the situation. I’ll make it clear what’s going on and that we’re gonna do this somewhere that no one can see. That should satisfy the dragons. Let’s find a good place for the showdown then contact him. Once he knows, you can call Yuri.”
“Sounds good.” Malcolm chuckled. “Even if I die, it’ll be a pretty badass death.”
“Yeah, I might almost be jealous.”