Break This! (A 300 Moons Book) (10 page)

C
hance lay
on the cold marble floor, shaken to his core, strength drained by his shift.

And his fight…

Chance had never faced anyone so strong. The man was like a walking piece of construction equipment.

And holy shit could he fight.

But Thea was here, so surrender was not an option. Chance would fight this thing and save her, if it meant his own demise. And it probably did.

He pulled himself to his feet just in time to see the man reach for Thea.

Chance was shocked when she willingly reached her hand to meet the masked stranger’s.

The second their hands touched, there was a flash, like lightning, and the man froze, rooted to the spot.

The room went silent. Chance could only hear Thea’s harsh breath as she backed up tentatively.

“I think it’s time for us to go,” she told Chance in a low voice as she picked up the case without taking her eyes from their frozen adversary.

Chance joined her and they headed for the elevator. On the way, he grabbed a lab coat off of the wall to cover himself, his own clothes having been shredded on the floor when he shifted.

Just before they stepped into the elevator, the man in the mask spoke up.

“Wait!” he shouted hoarsely. “Don’t go.”

The voice was familiar somehow, but Chance couldn’t place it.

He kept moving, following Thea onto the elevator.

“Chance, please,” the masked man pleaded. “Do you even know what’s in the case?”

Chance.
The man knew him.

Chance stepped out of the elevator before the doors closed. He had risked everything to steal whatever was in this case. Maybe it was time to find out what it was.

Thea reached for him, but he pulled away and headed back to the man.

Thea sighed and followed.

“Who the hell are you?” Chance demanded.

The man reached up with his left hand, the only part of him that seemed to be working, and unfastened the mask, then slipped it off.

At first, Chance still didn’t recognize him. The context was all wrong.

When he did, he felt the world was spinning too fast.

“West Worthington?” Chance murmured.

West nodded.

“You’re the Glacier City Ghost?” Thea asked.

Chance remembered hearing that name from his brother, Derek. Some kind of costumed vigilante. He figured it was just some nutjob. Not one of the most respected people in the city.

“Guilty,” West nodded.

“But you’re supposed to be one of the good guys,” Chance said, feeling more than a little guilty himself.

“I like to think so,” West replied.

A quiet groan from the floor told Chance that Edward Dalton was waking up.

“Chance, we need to go. Now,” Thea warned.

“What’s in the case?” Chance asked West.

“Open it,” West invited him.

Thea set the case on one of the soapstone counters. She flicked open the metal clasps.

Inside something sat inside a piece of cut black foam. It looked like some sort of collar.

But to Chance it smelled all wrong.

“What is it?” he asked.

“It’s used to control shifters,” West explained, a note of repugnance in his voice.

“What?” Thea asked.

“It uses electric shocks to force them into shifting,” West explained, “Then injects drugs to stop them when they’ve served their purpose.”

Chance’s blood began to boil.

“Why the hell would you make something like that?” he demanded.

“My company didn’t make that,” West assured him. “But I did take it out of the hands of some people who were abusing it. And I’d like to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

Dalton rose to his feet, rubbing the back of his head where it had connected with the wall.

Thea snapped the case shut and pointed the gun at Dalton.

“You need to leave that case,” Dalton said.

“I’m afraid we can’t do that,” Thea replied.

Chance was torn. He had no idea how Draven and Sharp would react if they came back empty handed, but he was pretty sure it would be dangerous, possibly to his family.

But what did they want with something like this anyway?

“Whatever you’re getting paid, I’ll double it,” West offered.

“It’s not about the money,” Thea said softly.

Chance could hear the defeat in her voice. Sharp had her bubblegum pink talons in Thea, too.

“We can help you,” West told her.

“These people are bad news,” Thea said.

“And you think they might be better if they can control their own personal shifter army?” West countered.

Chance looked to Thea. She must have seen the pain in his eyes. Whatever it meant to her, she put it aside.

“Your call,” she said, handing him the case.

She was willing to sacrifice for him. To suffer whatever fate Sharp had in store for failure. He needed to be absolutely sure he was making the right decision.

He thought about his own brothers and sisters, forced to shift at the whim of someone like Miss Sharp.

Chance set the case on the table.

Thea lowered the gun.

“What now?” she asked West.

“We’ll get that stored away. And then Mr. Dalton is going to make two phone calls. One to leak the news of a robbery at Med Pros. That will buy you some time. The other will be to Mallory Pruitt.”

“The doc from the demonstration?” Thea asked doubtfully.

“She’s the smartest person you’ll ever meet,” West told her. “We’ll get her to make some special modifications to the collar before you hand it over to your boss.”

“So we just give it to her?” Chance asked. “What do we do after that?”

“Nothing,” West said with a wry smile. “We’ll take it from there.”

Chance didn’t doubt it.

“But,
then
what do we do?” Thea asked slowly, as if the idea of being free from Sharp had never occurred to her.

Chance swallowed the lump in his throat, thinking about what she must have been through.

He wanted her to feel comfortable enough to share her story, to let him help shoulder whatever burden she carried. She would, in time. Or not. He would love her either way.

Thea reached tentatively for West, and touched his lifeless arm.

Chance could practically see the energy flooding back into West’s limbs.

“That’s a neat trick,” West said, flexing the fingers on his right hand. “Have you ever thought about fighting crime? We could use someone with your…
talents
on the team.”

Thea’s eyes lit up like a kid who just got the keys to the candy store.

T
he bright lights
of downtown Glacier City raced by in a blur before Thea’s eyes during the car ride back to the hotel.

Chance had been silent. At first she hadn’t noticed, she was so blown away by the evening’s events.

But now she wasn’t so sure.

They pulled up in front of the hotel at last and the driver got out and opened the door for them.

“I’m not going in,” Chance told her quietly before they reached the doors to the hotel.

“Why not?” she asked, figuring this was it. He regretted being with her. He’d fulfilled whatever sense of obligation had been keeping him around, and now it was time to make a hasty exit.

“The shadow thing you saw before,” he said. “That was there for me, because of a spell that was put on me when I was a kid - to give me control over my shifting.”

She looked up at him, confused.

“It’s a long story,” he said. “I’ll tell you all about it once this is over. We’ve got the rest of our lives to swap stories.”

The rest of our lives?
Thea’s heart lightened at the thought.

The point is,” Chance continued. “That shadow thing could come back. And at this point, I’m not even sure I can control the shifting anymore. I don’t want to be around people right now, especially when the moon is out. Someone will get hurt.”

“Well, what are you going to do?” she asked.

“We have an early flight,” he reminded her. “I’ll just walk for a few hours, and meet you on the plane.”

“That’s ridiculous,” she scolded him. “Well, most of it is pretty solid. But the part about you being alone right now is a bear-sized load of crap.”

“Thea, I don’t want to put you in danger,” he insisted.

“You do remember me, right?” she asked. “The woman who controls electronics and just took you on your first heist?”

He smiled.

“I’ll come with you for that walk,” Thea said, leaving no room for further negotiation. “I’m too jazzed to sleep anyway.”

With that settled, they headed toward the park, setting an easy pace. Thea enjoyed the sound of her heels against the sidewalk and the warmth that emanated from Chance, who looked right at home in the set of borrowed clothes Dalton had supplied him.

They walked under the stone archway and found themselves surrounded by trees instead of the city streets.

Her thoughts kept going back to what Chance had said. The rest of our lives. He seemed so confident about it. She’d never been with anyone who made her feel the way he did. But could she just decide to spend her life with someone she’d really only known for a few days?

“So, are you going to do it?” Chance asked suddenly.

“Do what?” Thea asked, caught off guard.

“You know, take West up on his offer, be a superhero?”

Thea laughed.

“He was kidding, Chance.”

“I don’t think he was kidding.”

She laughed again, trying not to think about being a superhero and failing miserably. She was being silly, it wasn’t a real job. And besides, West wouldn’t really want her.

“Wouldn’t it be great to be one of the good guys for a change?” Chance offered. “To help people?”

“Sure, but…” Thea trailed off, feeling foolish.

“But what?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Do you really think I could do something like that?”

“Didn’t you tell me you always wanted to be a superhero?” he asked, incredulous.

“Yeah,” she replied. “I guess.”

“Well, how many people actually get the chance to fulfill their dreams? Especially a dream like
that
one?”

She stopped and studied him.

He looked down at her, his handsome face one hundred percent serious. Didn’t seem to matter a bit to him that until a few minutes ago, she’d been a criminal.

“Maybe you’re right,” she mused. What was it about this man that made her feel like she could do anything?

“You know I am,” he smiled.

“What about you?” she asked, happy to change the subject.

He began walking again, and she joined him.

“I guess I’ll start training for my next fight,” his voice sounded resigned.

“That’s right,” Thea said excitedly. “You finally get your shot at the title.”

“Yep,” he nodded.

“You don’t sound too enthusiastic about it.”

“It’s funny,” he mused. “I’ve always known I was a shifter, but the spell kept my bear under control, mostly. I mean, obviously my senses seem like they’re pretty good compared to most people’s, but I never really felt more beast than man or anything.”

“That’s good,” Thea murmured, sensing there was more and hoping he would keep talking if she let him.

“I was able to keep him at bay, not use him in my fighting. I tried, and I hope I succeeded, at fighting as myself, fighting fairly. The thing is, I’ll never know. I’ll never know if I was winning because I was the best, or because of the bear. And now that he’s actually coming out, I don’t know if I can keep fighting at all. You saw what happened with Blanco, I can’t risk that happening again.”

“I never thought about that,” Thea told him honestly.

“But fighting is all I really know how to do,” he said sadly.

She knew the feeling. She had never really been anything but a thief. Even the modeling had only started as a cover. Thea also knew she wanted to be with Chance while he got it sorted out. But was that what he really wanted?

“What about…Jade?” she asked carefully.

Chance stopped walking and turned to face her, his dark eyes serious.

“You know how I told you that you know you found the right person when they make you forget about everything else in the world?” he asked.

Boy, did she.

Thea nodded, unable to speak.

“Well, what I didn’t tell you is that when you find that person, you need to do everything you can to hold onto them. Even when it seems tough.”

Her heart sank.

“Even when it means accompanying them on a failed heist,” he continued. “Then helping them stand up to the scariest boss you’ve even seen, then moving across the country with them so you can be close to them while they learn how to fight crime from your idol, who turned out to be a secret cyborg superhero.”

Oh.

Thea grinned like a fool and punched him in the shoulder.

“Ow. Careful,” he teased, rubbing his arm in pretend agony. “I’m a little tender. Your new boss hits like a wrecking ball.”

The streetlights in the park cast cheerful pools along the sidewalk. Chance’s eyes danced mischievously in their light.

He took Thea’s hand and led her off the path.

The dark woods seemed a little spooky.

But Thea would follow Chance anywhere.

C
hance grinned
like a fool and pulled his beautiful mate through the trees.

He had no idea where he was taking her, or what his plan was when they got there. But the bear was tugging him along just as he was tugging Thea. And for once, he figured he’d let him take the lead.

Thea’s hand was warm in his. Chance felt the same tingle he had the very first time they’d touched. But now it was magnified. He assumed it was the bite he had given her.

They were bonded now.

He knew he needed to explain it to Thea more clearly, but like he’d told her, they had their whole lives for that. Besides, she seemed awfully pleased at his declaration that he was going wherever she went.

And, to be honest, he wasn’t entirely certain what it meant himself.

Mom had done her best for Chance and his siblings, trying to help them control their animals, giving them the best shot that she could at a normal human life.

But no parent was perfect.

And now that he was an adult, Chance felt the loss of the knowledge a shifter upbringing would have brought him. He had found a mate, the woman who would be his family. His bear had chosen her. Yet he had no real idea himself of what it meant, or what it would mean in the future.

If fighting wasn’t in the cards, well, his heart would be broken.

But maybe it would give him the time and the space he needed to learn more about shifter culture. And he hoped he could share what he learned with his foster brothers and sisters.

“Are you going to do it?” Thea whispered.

“Do what?” he asked.

“You know, be… yourself?”

“You mean shift?” he asked her, a little scandalized. “We’re in the middle of the city.”

“It’s the middle of the night and we’re in a seven hundred acre park,” she goaded him, her eyes flashing with mischief. “We’re not even on the walking path.”

The bear roared in agreement and Chance decided to let go.

The sounds of the city melted away and the park sounds roared in, birds and crickets and the seductive rhythm of his mate’s heart beat.

He decided to remove his borrowed clothes this time, instead of bursting out of them. He handed them to Thea as the change overtook him.

Suddenly, it was as if the dark woods were lit by full daylight, the bear could see everything around him with his phenomenal night vision.

His paws dug into the grass, cool and damp. He drank in the brisk night air to refresh his big shaggy body.

Tinkling laughter assailed him.

He turned to see Thea, giggling with joy.

“Sorry, it’s just so amazing,” she said.

The human words buzzed around his head like so many bees, but their intent was clear.
I like you. I accept you.

He nudged her with his giant muzzle.

She laughed again, the sound like a waterfall.

Then he lowered himself and thrust his chin up to her.

With an astonished expression, she ran a hand through his glossy fur.

It felt fantastic.

He shook himself heartily to clear his head, then lumbered around her in a circle, treating himself to her scent: a flower smell that was suspiciously cosmetic, a saltier female scent which he preferred heartily, and that clean charged up flavor that must be her gift.

He lowered himself again, and this time she bravely hopped onto his back as he had hoped she would.

As soon as she had a good grip on his fur he began to walk, then to trot, then he let loose and sailed through the trees.

“Oh, my,” she squealed.

He knew his mate was startled but not frightened so he enjoyed his romp, stretching and bunching his big muscles.

The scent of sweet fresh water drew him north.

He ran on, until at last they arrived at its source.

He lowered himself and Thea slipped off his back and began making exclamations.

She was talking too much and he couldn’t understand her.

Besides, the bear knew it was time to let Chance back out, so that he could take his mate again, slowly this time, to let her understand what it meant.

Happily, the bear stepped aside to give control back to Chance.