Edward (BBW Western Bear Shifter Romance) (Rodeo Bears Book 1) (55 page)

Before she had a chance to think any further, Iris sped past the crowds of guests milling in the lobby and back to her room. Her heart was slamming against her chest-it felt as if her blood was bubbling under her skin. That was one of the bad things about the senses she'd inherited, when adrenalin hit, it was hard, fast, and threw her into hardcore panic mode. When she had been giving birth to Abby, she'd almost ripped one of the monitors out of the wall and scared the shit out of all the nurses in the room. As she barrelled up towards her room, taking the stairs two at a time, she slammed straight into a figure she half-recognised. She looked up, and immediately felt her heart rate begin to drop.

"Ian?" She wrinkled her nose up. Now that she had him by himself, she could tell that the bad vibes she had been getting down in the breakfast room were for sure not coming off of him.

"Yeah, Iris, right?" He smiled. "Sorry I was so short before, it's all panic stations here."

"Yeah, I think I figured that out," Iris blinked up at him, and saw that he had speckles of gold in his eyes, much like heir's. Ian cocked his head at her.
 

"What do you thinks' going on?" He asked, as if trying to test her. Iris wasn't sure whether to play dumb or not, but quickly settled on being honest, if she was right, then everyone else needed to know too.

"I think there are shifters on this island," she explained, lowering her voice to conspiratorial levels. "Bad ones."

"Can you tell the difference?" Ian's eyebrows shot up under his hair, and Iris lifted her chin and nodded.

"Yeah."
 

"Well, in that case, I imagine you could come in very useful," he took her hand, and she looked down at their interlocked fingers, with surprise, she realized how long it had been since someone had held her hand like that. She quickly pulled her hand free, and shook her head.
 

"Look, I'd love to help, but I have a daughter back home," She explained, "I can't…I don't want to…"

"Why didn't you say something earlier?" He took her hand again, this time leading her downstairs. "They're getting everyone they can, everyone who doesn't want to stay, on a boat off the island. You should go. Come on, hurry."

Iris scurried down the stairs after him, picking up her feet and feeling a wash of relief. She would be safe. Everything was so chaotic, she still wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but she knew that the sooner she got off this island the better.
 

By the time they got to the lobby, it was practically empty, Dina was chatting to one of the other bridesmaids, and Iris sprinted over to her, Ian close behind.

"Dina?" She gasped. "Ian said…he said you were getting everyone off the island, and I need to-my daughter, if there's any way-"

"Iris, fuck, shit, I'm so sorry," she shook her head. "We just sent everyone out. The boat's gone."

"What?" Iris heart dropped again. "So I'm stuck?"

"Until the storm lifts, yeah," Dina cringed. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

Iris took a deep breath and glanced over at Ian; he had a dark expression on his face, as if he was already worried about her. But what had he said? That she'd be useful? Well, if she had no choice but to stay, she may as well lend all the help she could.

"Dina, you need to tell me what's going on," Iris demanded, taking her hand and squeezing it. "You owe me that, at least."
 

Dina looked between Ian and Iris, and nodded.

"It's my ex. He's back on the island. And…he brought his pack."

"He's a shifter, right?" Iris cut across her briskly. Dina squinted at her with confusion.

"Yes, but how did you…?"

"I'll explain later. What can I do to help?" Iris ran a hand through her hair, feeling that adrenalin pulse through her once again. But this time it felt more focused, less hectic.
 

"Please, I don’t want anyone else going out there," Dina looked out across the wind and rain-soaked beach in the distance."It's too dangerous. Especially not you, with…you know. Abby."

"Is there anything I can do while I'm still here?" Iris asked, scanning the room. It was almost empty, it was just the three of them, and the receptionist, who looked as if a bomb had just hit her. Iris didn't blame her, this was supposed to be a sweet wedding weekend, not some kind of epic young-adult shifter battle.

"We need someone to stand lookout over the hotel," Ian suggested. "And with your…abilities, I imagine you're our best bet. "

"Right. I'll stay here, try and help out where I can."
 

"I'll keep you company," Ian agreed, and offered her an arm. "If you wouldn't mind."

"Not in the least," Iris nodded, taking his arm and allowing him to lead her back through to the dining room. They took up a spot just next to the windows, and Iris tried to keep focused, all her senses prickling. They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, until Ian turned to her and took a deep breath.

"Look, you know I have to ask." He began, and Iris looked up at him.

"Ask what? How I know?"
 

"Well, yeah," he nodded sheepishly. "I mean, I can tell you're not a shifter, but-"

"Yeah, I'm not," she agreed. "But my father was."

"So…you're…?"

"I'm a half-cut. Sometimes it's genetic and you get the whole shifter thing if your parent has it, but sometimes you just get…stuff." She explained with a shrug.
 

"Is that how you can sense other shifters?" He leaned forward with interest. "Sorry, I don't mean to pry, I've just never met someone like you before."

"Yeah," she looked him up and down. "That's how I know you're one."

He inhaled sharply, and she could tell she'd taken him off-guard.

"And that doesn't bother you?" He asked softly.
 

"I'd be kind of a hypocrite if it did," she pointed out. "I don't care. I generally get a good sense of whether or not shifters are intending to do me or anyone else any harm. That's why I was running when you bumped into me, I got the feeling that there were shifters on the island who weren't there was the best reasons, and it freaked the shit out of me."

"But with me…?"

"Yeah, I don't get that feeling," she smiled reassuringly. "Unless you want to prove me wrong?"

He laughed for the first time, the sound felt so dissonant to their situation, but it felt good to hear it.
 

"Yeah, no, you're fine," he shook his head, still smiling. "But you think these other shifters…?"

"They certainly don’t have the best intentions, no," she nodded. "But I think we already figured that out, considering pretty much everyone else went out to try and deal with them."

"You think they're in danger?" He asked, a tinge of fear to his voice.

"Not mortal danger, no," she shook her head. "I think your pack is stronger than theirs. By the way, how many of you are there? As soon as I sat down this morning, I got a big hit of it, but I couldn't be sure that the other lot weren't messing up my senses."

"All of us."
 

Iris raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Does Dina know?"
 

"No, no, after everything that went down with Freddy, her ex, the one who's here, we figured she might be put off our type for life." He glanced over his shoulder, as if worried she was waiting there behind him, listening to everything he was saying.

"She knows about my father," Iris shrugged. "She doesn't know about my…stuff, but she knows about him."

"Did she ever meet him?" He asked, leaning forward.

"No," she shook her head, and felt an uncharacteristic prick of tears behind her eyes. "He died before we moved to town."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," he frowned, and reached over to touch her shoulder comfortingly. He was a touchy guy, more than she was used to, but she wasn't complaining.
 

"No, no, it's fine," she shook her head. "I just wish I'd known about how he was before he passed."

"He never told you?"
 

"I think he was hoping it would never manifest itself in us. Living in denial, kind of thing, you know." She brushed off the question.
 

"When did you find out?" Ian asked, glancing back out over the hills in front of the hotel.
 

"My mother told us, me and my sister, when we started to notice stuff. We got feelings about people, and we couldn't figure out what it was, but my mother knew straightaway," Iris looked down at her fingers, fiddling with the jewellery she'd brought along to go with her bridesmaids dress. "He had warned her that it might come out like it did, so she was always keeping an eye out for it."

"You said you had a daughter," Ian began tentatively. "Does she…?"

"Not yet, at least, thank God," Iris shook her head. "I hope she never has what me and Ellie have. I mean, it's not as bad as…you know, it's not as disruptive as being a shifter, but sometimes it feels like I don’t have control over the things I feel or the way my body reacts to stuff. I'll just be out at the store picking up some stuff for dinner when boom, I'm totally on edge and my entire body feels like it's fucking vibrating."

"That's awful," Ian furrowed his brow at her. "I'm sorry."

"Sympathy from a shifter?" Iris snorted. "I think I'm the last person who deserves comforting from you."

"At least I get a pack and a recognised legal status," he countered. "You just have to…I don't know, you just have to live with it."

"I guess we both think the other person has it worse," Iris shrugged ruefully. "Isn't that always the way?"

"Yeah," Ian shook his head, brushing a strand of hair from his eyes. "It's just interesting to see another perspective on it, you know, A perspective that isn't "oh shit, that human-bear hybrid thing is probably going to eat my children."

"Bear?"
 

"Yeah," he grinned sheepishly. "We're all bears, all five of us."

"That's a new one on me," Iris mumbled, but she was lying, her father, according to her mother, had also been a bear, an enormous, magnificent brown bear. She wondered if that's why the scent of these groomsmen had been so potent to her, she recognised some of herself in them.
 

"Yeah, it's pretty rare," he shrugged. "I think we're dealing with wolves, though, out there, I mean."

He gestured across the hills, and suddenly squinted off into the horizon.

"Wait a second, is that…?"

Iris jumped to her feet, and peered out the window, he was right. There was something approaching them at a high speed, something thundering towards them across the hills. Iris leapt to her feet and hurried to open the door, even though she couldn't make out what it was yet, she could be certain that it was friendly. The prickles weren't starting at the back of her neck, but that sense of recognition was.
 

Thundering towards them across the hills was a bear-a
 
bear carrying someone on its back. Iris stared in disbelief, even after everything she'd heard today, she still didn't feel ready for a sight like that. It just felt so…new, and disorientating. Even though she knew that logic dictated that this was all completely natural, she felt her chest tense. This was what her father had been. She'd never seen him in his shifted form, but it can't have been far removed from this, strong, enormous, slightly terrifying. Iris couldn't take her eyes from it, so much so that she didn't notice the wolves in hot pursuit.
 

She felt a pair of arms around her waist, pulling her back, and slamming the door in front of her. She fell back against Ian's chest, immediately struggling to get free.

"But-"

"The wolves, the wolves'll get here first," Ian replied urgently, hastily unbuttoning his jacket. "I'll go out there, just promise me you won't-"

Before he had a chance to finish his sentence, the bear and it's cargo arrived outside the door, completely wolf-free. Ian hurried to open it for them, and pulled the woman who had been astride the bear in through the door. She had barely opened her mouth before a crash came from the room next door, glancing at Ian and the woman, Iris hurried through to see what help she could offer.

A man was standing in the hall, bleeding heavily from a wound on his neck, everyone was crowding around him, each of them trying to get a better look, until Ian came striding out behind Iris.

"Win!" He exclaimed, and hurried over to him. They conferred for a few minutes, and Iris found herself boggling at the fact he was still standing, those wounds looked as if they could have taken down, well, a bear. But right in front of her eyes, she watched as he began to heal, the wounds knitting together, fixing themselves up.
Wait, could shifters do that?
She had always supposed that she had a pretty good insider knowledge of what shifters could and couldn't do, but now she had been confronted by them, she found that her knowledge was shot full of holes. Ian finished his conversation with the injured man, and strode back over to Iris.

"You okay to help me keep watch?" He asked. "It seems like we came off a bit worse for wear in the first encounter with them, but if we stay in the hotel we should be safe."