Chapter Nine

Monica pulled the sketchbook down from where she’d hidden it with every intention of ripping out the most recent sketch. She touched her fingers to the page, ready to pull, and found herself pulled into the art once more. It was amazing how well she’d captured his face, the strength and determination there.

Her gaze followed the line of his jaw and the shape of his lips. Having felt them first hand, she could better see the places she’d gotten wrong. Instead of ripping it out, she grabbed a pencil and worked on adjustments.

She’d driven out to see Oscar again and found herself lingering in her car. Oscar directed shifters in repairs, shouting orders and pointing them in the right direction. Everyone followed his command to become a tireless machine. And yet, Monica didn’t feel welcome. It wasn’t the family she wanted.

She didn’t get out and call his name. She didn’t even wave. Instead, she hit the gas and kept going. Her head was a mess again. With each passing day, she’d found herself replacing Oscar with Nikolai. She wasn’t doing it on purpose, and she didn’t think it was her panther’s doing anymore.

One bear was not equal to another. She cursed herself. Was she being stupid? If so, which choice was the stupid one? Was it better she choose the man who hadn’t noticed her since she’d been changed, or the one who couldn’t seem to resist her while his own world fell apart?

Monica took the sketchbook and pencil back to her bedroom where the balls still lingered. She hadn’t had the heart to clean them up, enjoying the frivolous fun every time she opened her door. Some would roll away, but it was still a veritable playground. It brought a smile to her lips as she waded through and climbed atop her bed.

Maybe she was stupid, but it was better to live with joy and excitement than to live safely. She wasn’t going to ask Nikolai to be her mate. That was too much. There was an undeniable blaze between them, a firestorm of lust and laughter, but she wouldn’t expect anything long term out of it. That way, her heart was guarded.

She set the sketch aside once she was happy with the progress. Wading through the mess of balls, she found her keys and set out. The drive was filled with thoughts of what might happen once she got there. She played the scenario in a million different ways, knowing the real thing would be greater than anything she could make up.

What she hadn’t expected was another coup on his front lawn. Fires had been lit and people shouted at Nikolai’s house. Worried, she lurched from her car and rushed forward. A form stepped into her view.

Thinking it was Nikolai, she stopped and reached for him. Only when the hands of a stranger wrapped around her outstretched wrists did she realize her mistake. She looked up at a young shifter. His face was all sharp angles, like a marble angel that had been starved. His blond hair was shaved on the sides and left long on top, gathered into a small ponytail. He leered at her from head to toe.

“What do we have here?” He scented the air, leaning too close to her in the process.

Monica cringed and tried to pull away. His grip was tight, but he allowed her to break it anyway. She fumbled back, peering around herself to take in her situation. This wasn’t her own pack. There wasn’t a familiar face in sight.

Great, she thought. She’d walked herself into a potentially violent situation for what? A booty call? She really was a hot mess.

“I’ve smelled you all over the place the past few days, like my brother’s truck. What possible reason could a pretty kitty like yourself have for being here?”

Brother?

Monica’s brows furrowed against her will. Confusion was a slap in the face. As much as she wanted to run, if Nikolai was inside he was in trouble. This group clearly meant ill will. Her panther itched to run inside and protect him. It was a foolish notion, one she hadn’t felt for anyone until now.

Slowly, she gathered herself. She counted the number of people on the lawn. With the fires burning and people shouting, it seemed a lot larger than it actually was. If she could guess, there were only six or seven people. It hardly even amounted to half of Nikolai’s pack. While that would be a nearly harmless uprising, she was more worried about the shifter that claimed to be his brother.

If they were both born of the same parents, she figured their strength would be a near equal match. Who would win a challenge? The thought of Nikolai fighting for his life scared her more than she thought possible. In that moment, she decided it wouldn’t come to that.

Carefully and confidently, she pushed past the people. The man claiming to be Nikolai’s brother watched her with hawkish eyes. His gaze never left her as she climbed the front porch, prickling across her back with every step. At any moment, she expected him to pounce on her, to take her prisoner.

Yet, he did nothing. Standing in the threshold of Nikolai’s home, she spared one last glance back. The shifter watched her with a smile on his lips. He was cocky, as if she were playing right into his hands. Whatever he thought would happen, she would fight against it. He might be rallying against Nikolai, but he’d never been put up against one of Oscar’s shifters.

Monica locked the door behind her, warning anyone against entering. It’d been unlocked when she entered. Perhaps that’d been an invitation. Anyone who would like to fight against him was welcome to come inside and try. And, yet, the shifters were still on the front lawn.

“Finally gathered the courage to face me yourself? I knew I smelled you out there.”

Nikolai’s voice came from the kitchen. She heard the clatter of silverware in the sink before Nikolai appeared in the doorway. His sandwich was halfway to his mouth when he paused. Surprise was written all over his face, from the rise of his brows to the drop of his jaw.

“You’re not what I expected.” Slowly, his surprise faded, and anger took over. He spun toward the living room, giving her his back. “I thought this was over.”

“Yeah, and I thought you were an Alpha with control over his pack.” Her words were cutting, but she knew he needed it. He was hiding inside while his pack rioted all over the place. “There’s less than ten idiots outside. Between the two of us, we could probably scare them off.”

He glanced over his shoulder, sizing her up, and then nodded. “While I have no doubt that you could put them all in their place, help from one of Oscar’s shifters would make me look even worse. I’m going to wait for Alex to come to me. Once he finds the courage to take me head on, then we’ll find out who is the better Alpha.”

Monica lost it. “The better Alpha is a smart Alpha! He uses whatever resources he has available to get the job done, to protect his people. Even if that means protecting them from themselves. You’re acting like you don’t know which of you is better.”

His lips pressed into a thin line. After a moment, he shrugged. Her panther surged forward. Her skin ached and her throat burned, but she fought the creature back. Now wasn’t the time.

“You don’t. At least, you don’t think you do. You think you’re no better than those assholes. Well, I have a newsflash for you. While you’re a bit of an idiot, you’re also a good man. Don’t doubt that.”

He spun on her, throwing the sandwich onto the nearby desk. “A good man wouldn’t have tried to steal someone’s freedom! He wouldn’t have risked his people over a bunch of sand just because it was someone else’s dream. A good man would know who he was.” The last words were a growled confession.

They hit the room, clearing the air until there was nothing but Nikolai, Monica, and those words.

“Should I come back when you have that figured out? Or, am I wasting my time with you?”

He made a pained sound and took a step forward. She could see the hunger, the desire that ignited between them each time they were in the same room. It was sudden and all consuming. Slowly, his fist clenched. He stayed where he was, not once taking his eyes away from hers.

It was her turn, she realized. He wasn’t going to move. Caught between confusion and rejection, Nikolai waited for her to make a move. While he’d made mistakes like all the Alpha bears had, his weighed the heaviest on him. Oscar still didn’t see anything wrong with what he’d done in the name of expansion, but Nikolai regretted every moment of it.

Monica was about to close the space between them when glass shattered. A brick clattered across the floor to land between them. Glass caught the firelight outside and glimmered like fire all around them.

“Well, that’s a bit cliché,” Monica said. There was a numbness in her chest that was slowly melting into anger. “There isn’t even a note attached to it.”

Nikolai bent to grab the brick. He tossed it in his hand, testing the heft of it. “How about this? We get these assholes off my lawn and then we talk.”

Monica reached for the hem of her shirt, the panther all too ready to rise for the fight. “You have a deal. Although, I don’t know how much talking I’ll be able to do.”

***

Before Nikolai could respond, the words caught in his throat while Monica shifted. Her panther form slid forward, nearly seamlessly. Her shift was as elegant as her animal form. Soon, a large cat, roughly the size of a motorcycle, approached him. She rubbed her cheek against his leg and turned toward the now open window. Glass crunched under her feet, but the pads of her paws were too thick to be pierced.

She leapt out the window and landed among a group of his own shifters, snarling and swiping. Nikolai watched with an odd sense of pride. Here was a woman who’d once ran over his mailbox and argued with him over a dildo. Without hesitation, she jumped to his aid. Not only with the shifters outside, but with his own woes. He’d thought she’d turned her back on him completely after the other day.

Now, Nikolai kicked open his front door and strode onto the lawn after her. The shouts of his delinquent shifters being pounced on by a panther was a joyful sound. While she kept them busy, Nikolai approached the man who claimed to be his brother. He waited, leaning against a car parked on the side of the road—on top of his mailbox, Nikolai realized.

Well, he did need a new one, after all.

The closer he came, with the firelight illuminating the man’s face, he couldn’t find any touch of resemblance. This man looked nothing like his father. It was possible Alex looked like his mother, Nikolai reasoned. The man was slight, everything about him wiry and malnourished. His face was gaunt, a mask of death.

Alex pushed off his car with a triumphant smile, as if getting Nikolai to come outside had been a victory. True, the standstill had lasted a while, but no matter what Alex thought, Nikolai was about to end it.

“So, you’re the one who claims to be my brother,” Nikolai began, his voice flat as if he was bored. He pretended to look away, his attention still firmly locked on Alex.

The man swaggered forward. He thought a lot of himself, apparently. Nikolai was not so fond of theatrics. A man’s worth should have been apparent from the moment he entered a room. It was one of their father’s doctrines, words he lived by.

With each passing moment, Nikolai became less and less convinced this shifter had anything to do with his father. He remembered the man, the bear he’d been, as if he still towered over his shoulder. He’d been an imposing man, with hammer-like fists and a hunger for everything. Perhaps Alex had his hunger. The gleam in his eyes said it all. Or, Nikolai thought he saw something that was only the firelight reflected.

He needed to call the fire department after this.

Alex entered Nikolai’s space and had to tilt his head back to look up at Nikolai. It would have been laughable if it weren’t for the scars that raked over Alex’s skin, proof that he was scrappy. This was a shifter that had survived.

“You aren’t quite what I thought you’d be,” Alex stated. He blew out a breath, letting it cascade over Nikolai’s exposed neck as if to remind him how vulnerable he was at this angle.

“Well, you’re a lot more than I thought you’d be—like alive, for one thing. As far as I knew, my father never had any more children. One son was more than good enough for him.”

Alex grinned. It was nothing like Nikolai’s toothy grin, but a show of teeth from one animal to another. His head cocked to the side and he walked his fingers up Nikolai’s chest. Nikolai growled and snatched Alex’s hand. His grip was crushing. Bones popped, and Nikolai caught the faintest cringe cross Alex’s face.

“You think you’re going to come in here and steal my title because my father’s blood flows through your veins…”

Alex’s laughter interrupted him. Nikolai looked down at the man before him, one brow raised.

“Oh, I don’t have our father’s blood. I have his animal.”

It took a moment for his words to sink in. This was no sibling of Nikolai’s, but a creature his father had made. The scars crossing his skin and the lack of resemblance suddenly made sense. His father had screwed up and attacked a human, perhaps near the end of his life. He’d done his best to hide it from the Pack, but here was the evidence.

His father had never been sound of mind. Nikolai should have known it. He should have seen the signs. Instead, he’d followed and tried to be the son the older bear had wanted.

“You’re insane,” Nikolai breathed. “Just because he changed you doesn’t make him your father. We aren’t brothers.”

“Aren’t we? He made both of us. The only difference is that I was chosen. You were an accident he could never fix.”

His words were gas, spurring the spark inside Nikolai to become a balefire. His bear tried to push at his skin from the inside. His entire body ached, muscles contracting and bones protesting, but he held back if only to show his control. Nikolai was not his father. He was better man.

He was a shifter who would lead his Pack.

The sound of a panther’s whimper broke his concentration. Brigid wrestled with the big cat, her arms wrapped around Monica’s neck so that Monica’s paws only swiped empty air. His resolve fractured. The bear erupted with a deafening roar.

Alex smiled and leapt back. Nikolai’s bear pressed forward. It unfurled from his body like something out of a horror movie, patches of fur growing in as his jaw cracked and lengthened. The enemy bear threw its head back and let out a howling sound that grew into a husky roar. Unlike his human form, he was a massive bear. It was evidence of what his father had done, leaving behind another grizzly in the world.

Except this one had fumbled through the change on his own. Nikolai wanted to feel bad for the man, but as they clashed it was hard to feel anything other than fury. Monica’s whimper turned into a growl. Her own roar filled the air, more powerful than anything he’d ever heard from another feline shifter.

Brigid’s grunts of pain filled his ears as he brought his paw down on Alex. Claws raked over thick fur, but Nikolai found purchase. They pierced flesh and the scent of blood filled the air. Just as Nikolai thought he was winning, Alex ducked and rammed his shoulder into Nikolai’s chest.

Air fled his lungs and his feet left the ground. He grunted and snarled. Alex shoved him back but didn’t close the space between them. Nikolai’s mind spun. He wondered why the man hadn’t pressed his advantage, then he realized why.

There’d been no formal challenge. Alex wanted to win this the right way. He would do it with the rest of the Pack watching, show them the man they followed wasn’t bear enough to defeat him.

Nikolai’s chest tightened. His bear roared with indignation. They would not let this accident best them. But, the enemy shifter backed away. He fell to all four paws and ambled away. Nikolai felt the urge to chase him down, tackle him to the ground, and rip his throat out, but a black form moved to stand in front of his knees.

He looked down to find Monica watching him. Her eyes were not accusing, not shameful. Her presence only told him to wait. Slowly, he calmed and came back to himself. There was more than one way to defeat this wild shifter.

Alex’s bear shuddered. His form wavered, muscles filled with tremors until he began to shrink. The sight turned Nikolai’s stomach. He was forcing the change too quickly. It should have hurt. His bear should have howled with pain. Instead, that twisted grin was still on his face. It was a mockery of Nikolai’s own grin.

Alex let out a grunt that turned into a sigh as the rest of his form cracked back into a human shape. “I’ll be back. It will be a party.”

With a wink, Alex turned back to his car. The man was naked now, not caring in the least that he was exposed to the night. The swagger in his step was…overmuch, in Nikolai’s opinion. Alex and his car disappeared into the night while Monica leaned against Nikolai’s leg. The other shifters left, but not before Brigid made eye contact.

Nikolai couldn’t decipher the look in her gaze, the set in her jaw speaking volumes he couldn’t understand. She got into her own car, the bonfires she and the others had lit still flickering around them, and drove off. He scowled at the mess, both his lawn and his Pack.

“What do I do now? How do I make this right?” He looked down at Monica, the sleek feline. She let out a rough sound that was most likely the panther’s attempt at a meow. That wasn’t quite the answer he’d wanted. “Want to come back inside? Maybe have a beer?”

She purred and turned back toward his house. While she was shifting back into her human form and getting dressed, Nikolai doused the fires in his lawn and found a sheet of plywood to cover the window for the night. While he worked to clean the mess, Monica pilfered the fridge, the sound of clinking bottles like music to his ears. She appeared with two cold beers, prying the caps off with her bare hand.

Shifter strength was good for something, he thought.

He took a long swig before turning back to the window and the plywood in his hands. His back was to her when he heard her small gasp.

“Why isn’t this in the trash?” she shouted.

He spun to see that she’d found the rolled plastic-wrap painting. A smile drifted across his face, even after the night’s events.

“There’s no way in hell that I’d throw it out. That’s a piece of art by a popular artist.”

She snorted. It was cute, the sound, even if it made his heart clench. The way she quickly turned away from the piece made him wonder if she doubted her skill. It would be a waste of negative energy to shoulder such doubt when he could see that she was talented.

“I want to preserve it and hang it on the wall. What’s the best way to do that?”

“Good gravy, boy. If you’re hanging it, this is the last time I’m coming over here.” Even though her words were mean to herself, he caught a glimpse of pride on her face. It was the way her lips fought against a smile, the way her cheeks rose and darkened.

The urge to pull her to him was overwhelming. His body demanded her, every inch of her body pressed against his, but there was still glass all over the floor. The bear rumbled in his ears. It begged for her, too, but he swallowed and went in search of a broom and dustpan.

“Resin,” Monica said once he returned. “I’d use resin to solidify and protect the painting.”

“I thought as much. That’s going to be one very big painting once I’m done.”

Monica laughed. There was a secret look on her face, but she turned away to keep exploring his home. He liked her presence, the way she turned everything over and inspected every inch of his life. The shelves were empty save for a few books. A leather couch with built-in cupholders sat against the far wall.

It was, rather obviously, a bachelor pad. Even so, Monica seemed to fall into it seamlessly. She collapsed onto the leather couch, plopping her beer into the plastic cup holder. Across the room, their eyes met, and an electrical spark zinged through Nikolai’s body. His breath came short, and he felt a tug in his core. He stumbled away from the broken window.

At first, he considered their meeting a stroke of fate. This whirlwind of a shifter woman had blown into his life, inciting joy and strength at every turn, even in such an unstable time for Nikolai. Slowly, the gears turned, and things clicked into place. This was no act of fate, but a match made by someone he thought should hate him.

Monica’s eyes slid to him once more, watching him stand awkwardly in the middle of his own living room, and he knew he owed Nessa a world of thanks. The urge to hold onto Monica, to grip her while he waited for the world to stop spinning around him, was overwhelming. Instead, he dropped to his knees before her.

Slowly, as if asking for permission, he touched her denim-clad knees. His fingers grazed bare skin through the frayed rips. Monica swallowed, pulling her lower lip into her mouth, and nodded. His hands slid up her thighs in response.

“I’m going to take care of this situation,” Nikolai said. “After tonight, you should probably stay away for a few days. Maybe a month, just to make sure all of this has blown over.”

Suddenly, she gripped his hand. Her eyes were no longer clouded with lust but piercing as they pinned him. “I’m not a mouse of a woman like Lia. I can handle myself.”

How did he tell her that he didn’t know what he’d do if she got hurt? His bear thrashed at the very idea. If she got caught in the chaos of his pack and got hurt, he would find a side of himself that was ugly. No one would be safe. Not even his own Pack. For her, he’d gladly destroy the world.

“How can I thank you for tonight?”

The heat of their bodies seemed to intensify. The air between them singed his skin, and he found himself aching for more. He wanted to lose himself in the inferno that was Monica. The blaze between them was undeniable. It was a thing he’d never known with any woman. It could have been the distance they always put between each other. The swell of constant denial that allowed their lust to grow exponentially.

There were other options, but Nikolai wasn’t ready to consider them. All he knew was the feel of her muscled thighs beneath his hands and the way her breath hitched as he stroked them.

“You could throw away that painting, for one.”

“Never,” he whispered.