The Right to a Bear's Arms (A BBW Shifter Romance) (Wolf Rock Shifters) (15 page)

“But you probably don’t know that she took a significant amount of money from him. And I imagine that he wants it back.”

“
Oh, shit. What should I do?” asked Colson, pacing around the garage. “I need to find her.”

“If I were you I’d go to your house and look for any sort of a clue as to where she’s gone. Who knows? Maybe she’s still there.”

“Maybe.” Colson hung up the phone and tore off his coverall. He dashed out of the garage, his baffled cousin yelling his name. He got into his truck and whipped across town as fast as he could and then, not even removing his clothes, shifted into his bear form and sprinted through the woods to the house.

When he arrived he was relieved only to smell the woods, himself and Zoe. There was no sign of anyone else.

Few people knew about their house in the woods; only Kyla and Maddox, and a few other pack members who’d been helpful at offering supplies and furniture. But Colson trusted them not to tell anyone. They knew that Zoe was on the run and to conceal her from anyone asking about her.

Colson
climbed the tree and looked around the house, which was much as he’d left it. Zoe’s clothes seemed to have been left untouched, which was a good sign. But where was she?

He sat down on the bed and pondered his next move. Perhaps he could sniff her out; follow her trail. He decided to aim for that goal, as nothing else offered any hope.

As he got up from the bed, something fell gently to the ground at his feet. It was a piece of paper, folded in half. Colson reached down and picked it up.

All it said was:

I’m sorry, Colson. I love you. Remember that.

***

Colson sat with Zoe’s note in his hand, pondering its meaning. She had left, clearly, but for where? What was her plan and why? If this man, this former boyfriend, was looking for her, perhaps she was trying to pull him off her trail. That was the only possible answer.

He dial
ed his cell again.

“Kyla,” he said when she answered. “She’s gone.
She’s left town.”

“That’s what I was afraid of.”

“Do you know where she’s headed?”

“
Colson, I wish I did. I’ve tried to access it, over and over again. I can’t. I don’t know why…it’s like there’s interference, as though something else is getting in the way. But I was about to call you. There have been multiple sightings of a strange ferret this morning in town. He was asking questions about a woman, a changer…called Annette Barber.”

When he hung up, Colson picked up a scent nearby. Zoe had been in the house, but someone had been there with her, and he meant to find this man who’d taken his mate from him. Never in his life had he moved so fast. He shifted and, in bear form, made his way down the tree in the direction of town, following the scent.

When he drew close to the edge of the forest, he saw it: a
ferret, scurrying ahead of him through the woods.

The small animal
was quick, but didn’t know the territory as well as Colson did. The bear quickly caught up, a large paw coming down on the creature’s tail in an attempt to slow it down. But just as he tried to throw his weight forward to incapacitate the small shifter, the animal found a way to squirm out of his grasp and it dashed up a narrow tree.

This one was too thin
and weak for either a bear or a man to climb, and so Colson stood watching, helpless, as the animal began to bound from tree to tree. Colson ran after it, eyes skyward, and thought at last that he’d found a way to corner it as it came to a tree whose limbs seemed too far out of reach of those around it. It sprinted to the end of a long branch and leapt off it, aiming for the closest branch on another tree, and managed to grasp it and pull itself up.

Colson
stood below, defeated, watching the animal move into the distance.

He chose to hunt it.
His head to the ground, he sniffed his way along, tracking the irregular trail of the rodent, which seemed finally to have left the treetops and run along the ground into town. This was good, Colson thought, as others would be sure to have spotted him.

As the trail led him to the Main Street, the large spirit bear looked around, eyeing the wandering locals. He sniffed the air, looking to pick up the scent of the ferret who by then may well have shifted.

A clothing rack sat outside a store and Colson shifted, grabbing a large pashmina scarf and wrapping it around his waist. It wasn’t unusual to see men dressed like this in town, though in February it wasn’t the most practical attire.

The large man
walked with a determined stride down the street, his eyes, ears and nose on constant lookout. It didn’t take long to pick up the scent of his prey, who’d entered a ski shop.

The cashier was talking to a tall, thin man with greasy hair. The stranger wore a scarf much like Colson’s, wrapped around his gangly form.

“I need a coat,” he was saying to the cashier.

“
We’ve got some lovely sale items on the rack behind you,” said the store’s employee.

The scrawny man who looked as though he’d be incapable of hurting an ant, reached over the counter and grabbed
the cashier by the front of her shirt.

“I need a fucking coat right now
,” he hissed. “Just give me one and I’ll be on my way.”

The young woman
didn’t have time to reply. A six-foot-four man with long fangs was pulling the stranger off of him, a strong arm wrapped around the man’s throat.

“W
ho the hell are you and what are you doing in Wolf Rock?” Colson growled, holding the man hostage under the strength of his forearm.

“Let go of me or I’ll press charges,” said the man.

“Fine,” said Colson, letting him go and shoving him forwards. The ferret shifter turned and looked at him. His face was gaunt, his nose too large for his head. His eyes were dark, beady and almost comically close together.

The man looked at Colson for a moment, appearing to be on the verge of making a statement, and then he dashed for the exit. But this time Colson was faster than he was. He grabbed him by the arms and pulled them back, which made the shifter let out a sort of high-pitched shriek.

Colson pinned his arms upwards, knowing how painful it would be, and held him in place.

“If you don’t tell me what you’re doing here, I’m going to rip your arms off. You can
press all the charges you want after that, but good luck dialing a fucking phone.”

The man remained silent, so Colson pulled
up and back again, hard, which resulted in another shriek.

“Jesus. Okay, I’ll talk. Stop doing that,” said the man.

“Talk then. Now.”

“A man
hired me and sent me here to find someone. I owed him a favour.”

“I don’t give a shit if you owed him anything. Who is he?”

“His name is Drake Simmons. He lives in Terrence. He was looking for his girlfriend. I suppose more accurate would be to call her his ex-girlfriend.”

“
And why would he want to find her? Doesn’t it occur to him that maybe she doesn’t want to be found?”

“She stole his money
and left him for dead. Essentially she’s trash.”

Colson pulled up again, and this time the man screamed.

“Maybe,” said the bear shifter, “a man who sends a fucking ferret to sniff out his girlfriend is trash. Did you find her?”

“Yes.”

“So why are you still here?”

“I didn’t trust her to bring him what she owed him. I was looking around to make sure she hasn’t stashed it anywhere.”

“What have you done with her? And where is the bastard Drake?”

“
He’s in Terrence. And she’s…”

“Where the fuck is she?”

“On her way there.”

“Jesus Christ.
Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” said Colson.

“I’ve simply followed orders and done my job.”

“You’ve ruined several people’s lives. And you’re lucky if I don’t kill you.”

***

Zoe knew that it was only a matter of time before she saw him. A man she’d never wanted to see again in her life. But had she stayed in Wolf Rock, she would have endangered Colson’s mother, and possibly Colson as well. Drake wasn’t the most intelligent person in the world but he was an angry one, and a mean one. Better to confront him head-on.

The ferret shifter had
called Drake hours before. He’d told the hyena shifter to meet her at his place.

Zo
e sat on the porch of her former lover’s house, in her redheaded form. It was no use; she refused to run or to hide anymore. If she’d learned one thing from her new life it was to be herself and to live in her own body. She’d never been so happy in her life as she’d been as this plump, flawed woman who showed her emotions and her vulnerabilities. She’d allowed Colson into her mind and her heart, and he had accepted her completely. In fact, she thought, he even loved her.

The first thing she’d done upon her arrival was to find a nook between two bricks on the chimney of
Drake’s house and to stash the money there. The deal was that Zoe was to show up in Terrence and Colson’s mother would be safe. There was no agreement with regards to the cash.

Though the ferret had called ahead of time to tell
Drake she was coming, he took his sweet time in getting there. It was a full hour before he arrived at his house. This was a typical power play on his part; he would know that he was making Zoe sweat and that he was in control of the moment. She knew this, though, and rather than become nervous or agitated she simply found that a quiet rage built within her. That man, she thought, has no real idea what he’s dealing with.

At last he arrived
, driving what Zoe had referred to as his “penis car;” an old souped-up muscle car meant to compensate for the man’s lack of virility. Only in Drake’s case it wasn’t so much an under-endowment between his legs as between his ears. He was the sort of shifter who resented his form; he hated that he’d been born a hyena, and particularly despised that his girlfriend’s form was physical superior to him. This made her more powerful than he was, and Drake’s whole life had been spent trying to ensure that the world saw him as the strongest shifter around. He was her alpha, he’d said, and she the beta.

Only she’d always known it to be false. Deep down,
she knew now, she’d always controlled the situation.

She saw him studying her as he left the vehicle; he’d never seen this version of her and yet she knew that he would immediately recognize her for the woman she was.

“So,” he said as he approached, “This is…Zoe, is it?”

“Zoe. Yes. That’s my proper name.” She stood, her back bristling. Had she fur at the moment it would have stood on end; such was the revulsion that she felt.

“And this is your proper body?”

Why, she wondered, had she never noticed how beady his eyes were or how his nose ended in a strange little bump at the tip? How had she ever been physically attracted to him, let alone enthralled by his personality?

“This is my ‘proper’ body, if that’s what you want to call it. I call it my body.”

“You should’ve stuck with the other one. This one makes you look like you live on cheesecake and beer.”

Zoe wanted to strike him then. Not because she believed him; she didn’t, in fact, care what he thought. But because he thought he had the power to bring her down again and that power had long since been taken from him. She was loved now, and she loved herself as well. This jackass of a man couldn’t make her feel wretched.

“What is it that you want,
Drake? Why did you send that asshole detective to Wolf Rock?”

He was right in front of her now; he’d walked up the steps and was standing over her, breathing on her face. More than anything she wanted to shift into her panther and stalk away, or perhaps strike him down. But she controlled her urge and stood her ground.

“I want what’s mine,” he said, grabbing her wrist.

“And you think I’m your fucking property, is that it?”

“I don’t give a shit about you, Annette or Zoe or whatever the fuck your name is. I want my damn money.”

Zoe
now felt more strongly than ever as though she rather wanted to keep the cash.

“Oh, that’s too bad. I
t’s gone,” she said. “Spent.”

“On what? Your monkey house in the treetops?” laughed
Drake. “Yeah, our mutual friend found it. Surely that didn’t cost you ten grand. Then again if it did, maybe my friends ought to tear it down and sell the parts.”

“No, not on the house. I gave it away.”

Drake pulled his right hand back and looked as though he intended to slap her on the face with it. But instead he opened the front door.

“Go in,” he said.