The Bear Essentials (Siren Publishing: The Stormy Glenn ManLove Collection) (2 page)

He wasn’t a cat.

“Who took your bike, cub?”

“Casey,” the man said as his eyes flickered up for a moment before darting away. “My name is Casey Newton, not cub.”

Rob chuckled at the small flicker of defiance he could see in those warm caramel-brown eyes. He knew who Casey was. While they didn’t run in the same circles, Rob had seen the man around town. He might not have known his name until now, but he knew who Casey was.

“I like cub.”

And he liked this particular cub. The draw to cradle Casey in his arms and hold him close, protecting him from all the evils in the world, was riding him hard. Rob had felt the same way each time one of his siblings came into the world, just never to this magnitude.

He’d kill a rock for his mate…

Fuck
.

Rob dropped back onto his butt on the ground as he stared at Casey’s shaking form…
His mate
. How in the hell had that happened? Mating with a human was against clan law. It wasn’t allowed—ever—and Rob had never heard of a bear mating with anyone except another bear.

And yet, he still knew deep down in his soul that Casey was his mate. The knowledge that he was sitting there staring down at his true mate rocked Rob to his soul. While everyone knew they had a true mate out there somewhere, most found someone they were compatible with and imprinted on them because true mates were so very rare.

Rob wanted to gather Casey in his arms and keep him away from the rest of the world. Casey was sweet and gentle. Rob could see it in his eyes. He needed to be protected. He needed a buffer between him and danger.

Luckily for Casey, Rob was big enough to be that buffer, and he’d start with getting the man’s bike back for him. “Who took your bike, Casey?” Because Rob was going to kill them for hurting his cub.

“Ray—” Casey’s audible swallow was so filled with fear that it shook his small thin frame. “Raymond.”

Rob barely held back his growl of disgust. “Raymond Barker?”

Casey’s honey-blond hair flopped on his forehead as he nodded enthusiastically.

“Oh, cub.” Casey had tangled with one of the premier assholes in the entire town. Raymond Barker was the son of the current alpha and fully expected to be the next alpha when his father stepped down. He often acted as if he already had the position.

He thought he was big and bad.

He was just bad.

Casey’s lips trembled as he rubbed the tip of his finger over the swollen bloody cut on the corner of his bottom lip. “He hit me.” Casey’s lips thinned as he glanced away, sniffling. “He’s always hitting me.”

Rob’s growl rumbled low in his chest. There was no way he could have kept it suppressed after hearing that Casey was getting knocked around on a normal basis. That would no longer be allowed.

“He ripped my hoodie,” Casey whispered as he plucked at one of the tears on the gray material.

Over Casey’s whimpered protests, Rob grabbed the edges of the man's ripped hoodie and pulled it up over his head. He grabbed his own hoodie and whipped off before pulling it down over Casey’s head.

“This should keep you warm.” The dark-blue fabric swam on Casey’s slim form. Casey could probably tuck his knees up to his chest and the sweatshirt would cover all of him. But it also smelled like Rob, and knowing his mate was covered by his scent made his bear very happy.

“Did Raymond give you those bruises?” He hadn’t missed the bruises coloring Casey’s skin from his side to his belly button. They looked a couple of days old so he didn’t think they came from today’s altercation with Raymond, which meant the idiot had gone after Casey in the past.

“He likes to pick on me.”

Rob could barely keep his growl to himself as he lifted Casey into his arms and then stood, starting toward his truck. He was going to feed Raymond his teeth.

“What are you doing?” Casey’s voice was pure panic.

Rob sent Casey a smile of reassurance. “We’re going to go get your bike back.”

“No!” Casey started to struggle, wiggling in Rob’s arms. It was all Rob could do to hold on to the thrashing man, especially once he reached his truck and needed one hand to open the door before setting Casey down on the seat.

“Enough, cub.” His voice, while gentle, brooked no defiance.

Casey froze. Rob wasn’t even sure he was even breathing. He reached out to stroke the side of his face, gritting his teeth when Casey reared back from him as if he thought he was going to be hit.

Rob slowly cupped both sides of Casey’s face and tilted it up toward his. “I will never hurt you, Casey, nor will I allow anyone else hurt you ever again.” He knew his voice was sincere so he was confused when Casey frowned. “What is it, cub?”

“Why?”

That one was easy.

“Because you’re mine.”

He had fallen down the freaking rabbit hole. That was the only explanation as to why he was sitting in some giant monster truck with a man built like a tank, and on his way to retrieve his stolen bike from a man that made it part of his weekly schedule to beat the crap out of him.

Casey shot Rob a glance out of the corner of his eye, swallowing hard when he saw the muscles in the man’s arm bulge. Jeez, what did the man eat? Boulders? He was huge. His arms were as big around as Casey’s thighs. He probably drove the large macho truck because it was the only thing that would fit him.

“I really don’t need my bike.”

Much
.

“We’re getting your bike back, cub.” The sheer force behind Rob’s words sent a shiver down Casey’s spine. This was not a man to be messed with. “It’s time that Raymond learned he can’t pick on you anymore.”

“But—” Casey pressed his lips together and glanced away when Rob shot him a look.

“It’s not up for debate.”

Casey couldn’t help but wonder if Rob had a screw loose. No one went up against Raymond Barker willingly. The man had ruled the campus since day one. Raymond made sure everyone knew who he was and those who didn’t acknowledge him as big man on campus were made to regret that decision.

That was kind of where Casey was at the moment. By state rules, he had till the end of summer after he graduated from high school to move out of his foster home.
He had been working every available shift he could get at the bakery in order to save up. And he wouldn’t be able to afford his own apartment for a couple of more months. Casey knew he had to suffer through, even if life sucked, and it did.

He didn’t understand what had drawn Raymond to him but he had found himself the recipient of Raymond’s fury every time he saw the man. Casey tried to avoid Raymond as much as possible, but it often felt as though the man hunted him down just to beat the crap out of him.

“I really don’t need my bike,” Casey tried again. He’d do just about anything to avoid another confrontation with Raymond. He was still healing from last week’s beatdown and now he had today’s injuries to add to that. He didn’t need to have any more.

“We’re getting your bike back, Casey.” There was something disapproving in Rob’s gaze that unsettled Casey. It made his stomach knot.

“I know who you are,” Casey said to get the conversation headed somewhere else. “I’ve seen you around campus.”

He just couldn’t believe that Rob Colton was talking to him. Raymond Barker might be the big man on campus, but Rob Colton was bigger. He also didn’t need to beat the crap out of people to gain their respect. He earned it naturally.

And yet there was something edgy about that man that was intimidating as hell, and it wasn’t just his massive size. Any man that was six and half feet tall would be intimidating to Casey. Rob seemed to have something more, almost like there was a wildness just below the surface, waiting to be released.

Casey wrapped his fingers around his seatbelt when they pulled into the campus parking lot and he spotted Raymond and his cohorts hanging out near the guy’s sports car. A few of the cheerleaders from school were standing there, vying for the man’s attention. Word had it Raymond was working his way through the entire cheerleading squad.

“We really don’t have to do this,” Casey insisted when he spotted his bike leaning against a trash can near the small crowd of people. He didn’t need his bicycle. He could walk.

Hell, he could run.

“We’re doing this,” Rob said as he parked his truck several spots away from Raymond and the others, and then shut it off. He turned and patted Casey’s thigh. “It’s going to be okay, Casey.”

“But…” Casey swallowed when nervousness thickened in his throat. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

The corner of Rob’s mouth quirked up. “Have a little more confidence in me, cub.”

“I don’t know you.” How could he have confidence in someone he didn’t know?

Rob grinned. “You will.”

Casey didn’t know what to say, or even if he should say anything at all. Instead, he just sat there and watched Rob get out of the truck and walk across the parking lot toward Casey’s worst nightmare. Fear grabbed a hold of him when Rob confronted Raymond. He couldn’t hear what was being said but he sure could see the angry gestures.

Raymond’s face was turning red.

Casey cried out and slid across the bench seat to the driver’s side window when Raymond swung at Rob, the man’s fist plowing into Rob’s face. Casey knew just how much that hurt. His jaw dropped when Rob merely wiped the blood off his lip and then laughed.

The man laughed.

He was insane.

Casey flinched and jerked back when Rob drew back his arm and then punched Raymond so hard the man flew up over the hood of his car. The two men were pretty much evenly matched when it came to size, but it was clear to anyone watching that Rob was stronger. He picked Raymond up off the car and tossed him through the air as if he was as light as a feather.

When the guys that hung with Raymond started toward Rob, the man turned and said something. Casey couldn’t tell exactly what he said, but whatever it was scared the guys enough that they backed off.

Casey wished he had that ability.

By the time Rob started across the parking lot, Raymond was just rolling to his hands and knees. Rob grabbed him by his hair and forced the man to his feet before yanking him back across the parking lot to where Casey’s bike was.

When Rob started gesturing and Raymond nodded quickly, Casey slapped a hand over his mouth as a giggle escaped. He had never seen anyone manhandle Raymond Barker. He wasn’t even sure it had ever happened. No one was brave enough to go up against the man.

Until now.

When Rob pointed back toward the truck and Raymond turned, Casey quickly scooted back and then slid down onto the floorboard. Rob might be brave enough to stand up to Raymond, but Casey was a chicken through and through. He had learned the hard way the futility of opposing Raymond.

The scrape of metal on metal was accompanied by the truck swaying as Rob put the bike in the back of the truck. Casey closed his eyes and prayed Raymond hadn’t hurt Rob in some manner and was even now coming after him. The thought of Rob being injured made his stomach queasy. The man was trying to help him and Casey was cowering in the truck like a weenie. He deserved to have his head handed to him.

Rob was probably regretting ever picking him up.

Casey squeaked and cowered down when the door opened. When nothing happened, he peeked up through his arms. “Rob?”

“Hey, cub.”

Casey winced when he spotted the bloody cut on the corner of Rob’s mouth. It was already healing, but it still looked painful. “Does it hurt?”

“This?” Rob wiped away a drop of blood, staring down at it for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. “I’ve had worse.”

Casey had, too, and that was one of the reasons he was so in awe of the powerful man. “You fought Raymond for me.”

An easy grin spread across Rob’s lips, his gray eyes beginning to sparkle. “I’d do anything for you, cub.”

Casey’s heart thundered in his chest at the adoring glint he could see shining in Rob’s eyes. No one had ever looked at him like that. No one had ever looked at him as if he mattered.

Gathering up little courage he had, Casey climbed up onto the seat and then scooted toward Rob. He opened his mouth to offer…something…when a flash of movement behind the man caught his attention.

“Rob!” he screamed out in warning.

The man swung around so fast, it belied his large stature. Rob raised his arm to stop the downward momentum of the steel pipe in Raymond’s hands. Casey cringed when he heard a distinctive snap. Having broken a few bones in his life, he knew what that sound meant, and he knew how much pain Rob must be in.

Casey began to shake as fear knotted in his stomach. His eyes darted back and forth as he watched the two men grapple with each other. Raymond had the upper hand since he had broken Rob’s arm, but that didn’t seem to be swaying Rob one bit. The man was going after Raymond as if he intended to kill him.

Casey had to do something. He spotted the steel pipe on the ground. He cast a quick glance at the two men fighting before sliding out of the truck and reaching for the weapon.