Alpha Beast (Southern Shifters Book 8) Read online

  "Didn't realize I was," he finally answered.

  "It's been happening a lot since we left the bar. Almost as if having to take care of me annoys you. Or maybe coming here?"

  "Witches tend to make shifters uneasy. Their magic is powerful."

  "Then don't do this. I can keep a secret. I love Sienna too much to put her and Gage in jeopardy."

  He shook his head. "Trust me. I don't like this anymore than you do. But this is as much for your safety as it is ours. The knowledge of shifters and witches will not allow you to rest easy. You wouldn't be able to help it."

  She frowned up at him. "You act like I don't have a mind of my own. I'll have you know I am quite capable of thinking and doing for myself. Been doing it all my life thank you very much."

  He loved that sassy fire she exuded when she got defensive. Made him think of things he definitely shouldn't be.

  "That's not what I meant. Keeping the knowledge of shifters and their existence a secret is critical, especially now. Our world is dangerous and I'm thinking about your safety as much as ours. Even an accidental slip could result in catastrophic consequences."

  She rolled her eyes and climbed off the back of his bike. He immediately mourned the loss of her touch and warmth.

  "One thing is for sure. You sure have a knack for the dramatic. Let's just do this then and get it over with. One thing I don't need anymore of in my life is drama. You can keep that shit."

  She stalked off and he watched her body sway in the darkness. His eyesight sharpened as she moved, his senses filling with not only the gorgeous curvy woman in front of him, but the rest of their surroundings as well.

  Darkness didn't touch her like it did him. If ever there was a case of someone being better off this way, it was this one. If she knew they existed then that gave his beast a sort of permission to pursue her.

  Relentlessly.

  That also put her in more danger than she could handle no matter what she thought.

  Going after a potential mate might be the strictest law they adhered to, he would not put it past his enemies to use her against him any way they could. He climbed off his bike and followed her to the witch's door.

  This was the best decision for her and the pain in his head or the need in his gut had to be forgotten. For her.

  Bhric shook his head, desperate to erase the vivid memories from his mind. Dread filled his body as he brought his focus back to the here and now and the men in front of him.

  "You okay, boss?"

  "That's a stupid question," he answered. "My being okay has nothing at all to do with the matter at hand. It's Marcy we have to worry about."

  Gage shook his head. "We've got guys out hunting the Blackwoods just in case. But no word yet. They're off the radar."

  Definitely not a good sign. "They need to keep looking."

  "Absolutely. In the meantime, Sienna will keep tabs on Marcy at the hospital. We'll be there soon."

  He scoffed. "We'd be there sooner if you didn't stop me on the side of the road."

  Bhric watched a flare of anger flicker in Gage's eyes. His men were pretty bad ass in their own right and didn't always take to criticism or bossiness very well. Which is why he generally preferred a less is more approach.

  But for him this was different.

  His mate needed their best whether they knew it or not.

  "You going to tell us what's really going on here?" Calder's head shot up at Gage's question.

  Bhric's beast tensed, ready to lash out if necessary. He took a deep breath trying to quiet his own anger over the situation. He couldn't stop thinking about hazel, innocent eyes going dark because of him.

  His head throbbed at the mere thought. And the ache in his chest nearly debilitated him. Everyone in two states had a reason to hope that never happened whether they knew it or not. If anything happened to her...

  "Leave it alone, Gage," Calder warned before reigniting his ignition and revving his engine. "We have a mission and sitting our asses on the side of the road isn't doing shit to help."

  He roared back onto the road without looking back, reminding Bhric yet again why he liked that damned bear. Man knew how to mind his own business when he needed to.

  3

  Marcy walked the length of the long hallway that led to the nurse's lounge, looking behind her every few seconds as she did. Sienna's call had obviously affected her more than she thought. Who in the world from their past would ever threaten them? She'd tried to ask her best friend that very question when the line had gone dead. Her cell phone had died and getting to the break room and her charger had taken time.

  The agitation that plagued her the last couple of months increased as she slipped inside the door. Ever since waking up one Sunday afternoon unable to remember anything beyond the hospital on Friday, her life had changed.

  Easy going before, she now felt stressed and no amount of meditation, relaxation and even that bullshit yoga she'd tried had helped. Even the job got to her more often than before. Which was never a good thing when she spent her life dealing with crazed women having babies.

  The most appalling change in her mind though, came outside the hospital and in the form of sex. Or more specifically no sex. Two months without and she was climbing the walls. She needed something bad and so far not a single one of her regular friends with benefits held the slightest appeal. In fact, the two times she'd even tried to be near any of them had physically made her stomach hurt.

  At this point she was beginning to wonder if these were odd symptoms for some rare disease she wasn't familiar with. She'd tried to search for some cause on the internet, but that never turns out good. You can go from having a mild headache to half dead in the time it takes for the next page to load.

  In the break room, she rushed for her locker and pulled out her phone charger. Fumbling with the cord, she dropped it twice before she got it plugged in next to the microwave. She'd have to give it several minutes to work before the phone would actually turn on. Which only gave her more time to think about everything wrong with her life these days.

  She really missed her sex life. The irritability and lack of patience could all easily be attributed to the fact that her only orgasms these days were self-given and they lacked a certain oomph from before.

  She sighed. Who was she kidding? Masturbating was not only normal and healthy, but after a while it's a poor substitute for a real partner.

  At that thought an image of a man popped into her head and she leaned against the counter to keep from falling over. There was one man who'd caught her eye. Someone she didn't know, but had seen him a few too many times around the hospital and maybe once near her apartment. The word stalker had flitted through her mind after that.

  And still his appearance flustered her. Although he was the farthest thing from her type. She usually went for the lanky ones. Good looking, smart, as focused on their work as she was and most importantly were NOT looking for a romantic relationship. Mostly people she knew from work.

  Mr. Mysterious was almost none of those things. Lanky? No. That one was built like a tank. Even from a safe distance she could make out legs the size of tree trunks and arms and shoulders that would barely fit in a doorway. He was thick with muscle. That was easy enough to see from the snug denim and dark t-shirts that barely contained them.

  Good looking? Yes, she'd definitely give him that. Dark hair just a little too long, a chiseled jaw that drew the eye and bedroom eyes that seemed to watch her every move as she walked by.

  Which of course led to smart. Without knowing him she had to venture maybe not. If he was some sort of crazy stalker following her around town then he most definitely would not be called smart.

  The other attributes she knew nothing about. He rode a big bike and his arms and neck were covered in delicious tattoos. Marcy's brain stuttered. Had she really just thought his tattoos were delicious?

  She took a deep breath and released it nice and slow. Clearly her brain was fried. Had the months of long
shifts at work finally taken a toll on her body? What else could explain the craziness going on with her. Loss of memory, irritability and loss of sex drive to her usual companions. What the hell kind of symptom was that? There was no such thing as a selective loss of sexual attraction.

  She reached for the carafe of coffee she hoped had been made today and poured the remains into a styrofoam coffee cup. She then proceeded over to the microwave to heat it up. As far as she was concerned there was only one way to drink this stuff and that was straight up black and hot as hell.

  Her phone chirped to life and she snagged it off the counter.

  Finally.

  She hit the recent calls and depressed Sienna's name to bring up the details and call her back. The call connected and began to ring. The microwave beeped at the same time a string of notifications came through on her phone. She looked at the screen to see they were all messages from Sienna. On the fifth live ring the call went to voicemail and Marcy huffed out a breath.

  "You couldn't wait twenty fucking minutes for me to get to my charger? You need to call me back ASAP. I need way more details than some vague person from the past is making death threats. You're freaking me out, babe. CALL. ME. BACK."

  She disconnected the call and began listening to the voicemails. Each one escalating from the other. Sienna was freaking out about her phone dying, but hadn't bothered to tell her anything. So annoyed she was half tempted to slam her phone down on the counter. Of course breaking her expensive smart phone would not help. Like it or not she had to wait for that crazy bitch to call her back.

  Another fifteen minutes passed, her cell phone was charged to twenty five percent and her coffee was long gone. Too irritated to make more, she'd have to go sneak into the doctor's lounge and see if they had anything in there before she headed back to the NICU. She stuffed her phone in the front pocket of her scrubs and slowly opened the door.

  This nonsense from Sienna had her on edge as she found herself poking her head into the hall just enough to look up and down the corridor to see if any strangers lurked before heading out. With no one in either direction she headed down the hallway towards the doctor's lounge. Maybe while she was there she could pilfer something to eat too. The privileged of the hospital always had free snacks lying around.

  She peeked around another corner, wondering the whole time why she was letting Sienna get to her. There was absolutely no reason for anyone to wish her harm. Or Sienna for that matter. Her friend was a saint compared to her. What could she have possibly done or gotten involved with that would warrant someone wanting to hurt her?

  Secure in the knowledge that she knew her friend well and that no one would ever want to hurt her, Marcy straightened and walked around the corner. Halfway down the hall she skidded to a stop because the man--make that the big man--she half thought might be following her came around the corner and scowled at her. Behind him was another man even taller, although not quite as wide and they were both staring her down and coming right for her.

  With their twin expressions freaking her out, she began to notice other attributes as well. Large fists clenched at their sides, faded denim and leather jackets covered their bodies and big black shit kicker boots covered their feet. Jesus, they looked right out of some biker gang movie.

  That thought made her heartbeat speed up and fear whip through her. Afraid to take her eyes off of them she began moving backward. She had to escape. But could she make it back to the nurse's lounge, swipe her ID and get the door closed behind her before they caught up? Not likely.

  She had to try. For that to work it would require her full focus. The one she recognized looked like he was about to say something. Not that she cared. If they were here to hurt her then her only chance of escape was that damned lounge.

  She whirled away from them and took off at a run. Heavy steps sounded behind her, letting her know they were in full pursuit.

  If she could just make it around this corner...

  "Stop running." The command came at the same time she felt something grab the edge of her blouse.

  She twisted to the side and broke free again. Thank God she'd taken up running in an effort to keep her weight from creeping up anymore than it already had. But she liked to eat and that didn't bode well, so she ran to allow for that extra dessert she enjoyed every Sunday night.

  Not happy that she wasn't keeping her head in the game, she grabbed her badge from its lanyard and prepared to swipe the lock at the door.

  "Marcy, stop!"

  The growled command made her falter. How did he know her name? Automatically and without thought, she turned to look at him, misjudging how close he was and her agility. Her body pitched forward and while she tried to correct her error she was headed to the ground.

  Instead of making contact with the cold tiled floor she fell into something hard.

  And it wrapped around her.

  "Jesus, Marcy. What the hell?"

  Wait. She recognized that voice. She looked up and blinked.

  "Gage?"

  4

  Sienna's husband had appeared out of nowhere and stopped her from crashing into the floor.

  Before she could begin grilling him though, the sound of growling from behind her caught her attention. She turned and came face to face with the familiar big guy and he looked pissed. Her mouth went dry and her pulse roared in her ears.

  "Easy, Bhric. She fell into me." Gage steadied her on her feet and let go. "Why was she running anyway?"

  "You know these guys?" She looked back and forth between the men who'd been chasing her and Gage.

  "They're family." He hesitated. "Of a sort."

  Marcy straightened out her scrub top that had ridden half way up her stomach with her less than graceful run and then crash into her best friend's hubby. All while trying not to look at the man who unnerved her just with his presence.

  "What does that even mean?" she asked. The brute of a man was still glaring at her.

  "It doesn't matter," the glowering brick house said.

  Is that what Gage had called him? Her brain was still flustered, so she couldn't quite remember. The last several minutes had been surreal to say the least.

  However, she did want answers. "I don't know you. So it does matter."

  "That's Bhric. He's the owner of the Dark Moon, the bar in Deals Gap where I work and live."

  Vaguely she recollected Sienna giving her some of these details. Although she didn't remember any mention of someone named Bhric.

  "And I'm Calder," the other big man reached around to shake her hand. "We all work together."

  Despite his towering appearance he did not have a scowl across his face and instead greeted her with a friendly smile. She started to reach tentatively for his hand and that growling sound from the scary one started again.

  The smile disappeared from Calder's face and he dropped his hand. "If it was going to be like that you should have warned us."

  He was obviously not talking to her, but Bhric did not respond to his companion or take his eyes off her. A little shiver worked up her spine, but this time it had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with the testosterone oozing off of this man.

  So she decided to go for it and get straight to the point. "I don't know you," she said. "But I have seen you. Here and at my apartment. Why have you been following me?"

  Calder coughed and she swore she heard a snicker come from Gage.

  "Leave us," Bhric said, the force of his words making her muscles tense.

  "I'm out," Calder said, turning back they way they'd come. "I'll keep watch at the front."

  Gage took a step forward. "Bhric, I don't know man. I think you're scaring her half to death."

  "Why would she be scared of me? I'm here to help her."

  The tension, already tightening her muscles, heightened. This was bullshit. "Please don't stand there and talk about me as if I wasn't right here. Gage, is right. Your menacing appearance in the hospital did frighten me. Mostly because Sienna's
phone call and dire warning rattled me. But there's also the fact that I haven't been able to shake the feeling that you were following me and it looks like I was right about that. So Gage can stay until I have some answers about what the hell is going on."

  She grabbed the side of her head and rubbed hard. The nagging headache that had been plaguing her had returned full force. The adrenalin rush from fear had not helped her. At all.

  "Are you in pain?" Bhric asked, the scowl finally dropping from his face.

  "Nothing I can't handle."

  "How long has this been happening?" His brow drew together in what looked like concern.

  "It's just a headache. I've been getting them a lot lately."

  "Since when?" Gage asked, clear concern filling his voice.

  She shrugged. "I don't know. A couple of months I guess. I doubt it's a big deal. Too little sleep and too much work. That kind of thing can take a toll."

  Gage turned to Bhric. "Do you think it's a side effect?"

  "Could be. Either way I don't like it." He turned back to her. "You should be taking better care of yourself."

  His admonishment pricked at her pride, or maybe her ego, but either way she did not like this stranger suggesting he knew better than she did.

  Wait.

  "Did you say side effect? A side effect of what?" She really needed to pay better attention to what they were saying, but it was difficult to keep up when clearly she was missing something here.

  "We need to go somewhere and talk. Out in the open is not the right place to have this conversation." Bhric held out his hand and waited for her to take it.

  She looked over at Gage, who nodded.

  There was absolutely no reason she should go anywhere with this man, except Gage made it seem okay. He was Sienna's husband after all and she'd witnessed his love and devotion to her best friend first hand. She believed that he would never do anything to harm Sienna and that would extend to her, right?