Rob grinned when he heard his best friend’s unique ring tone blare on his
phone. He tapped his Bluetooth earpiece, connecting him to the call. “Yo,
dude, we did it.”
“Right?” Billy Ray Jenson replied.
“I can’t believe it’s finally over.”
“Yeah, man, school sucked.”
Rob couldn’t agree more.
“We still meeting out by the river tonight?” He couldn’t wait to celebrate.
He had wanted to drop out of school when he turned eighteen and go to work
fulltime in his father’s construction company. His parent’s made him stay in
school, and now he was glad they did, but the last few months had been the
hardest.
Unlike the rest of the known universe,
shifters had to attend an additional three years of school. Most humans
assumed it was some sort of advanced college courses, and maybe that was true
to some extent. The courses they took taught them about their bear history. It
taught them how to control their beasts when they were faced with violence or
situations that forced their bear to the surface.
It taught them how to be better bears.
“You know it.”
“You and Jed grab the beer,” Rob said. “I’ll bring some steaks.”
“Cool.”
Billy Ray was a man of few words, at least few comprehensible words.
“I need to swing by the house and grab few things then I’ll head out to the
river.” And he wanted to talk to his parents now that he had finished school.
He wanted to go to work for his father fulltime. He had been dreaming of
working side by side with his dad since he was seven years old and picked up
his first hammer.
“See you out there.” Rob chuckled as he disconnected the call. He was still
reeling from the fact that he had finally graduated. It felt like he had been
attending school forever and he had finally been set free. His bear wanted to
roar.
“Holy fucking shit!” Rob slammed on the breaks, his eyes rounding as his truck
slid to a stop mere inches from the small figure racing across the road in
front of him.
Wide eyes the color of the warm caramel and edged with kohl peered up at him
over the hood of the truck, big fat tears dripping from them down pale white
cheeks. Time seemed to stand still as Rob sank into those big liquid eyes,
drowning in them.
Then the man blinked, his dark thick eyelashes sweeping over his pale tear
stained cheeks as he huddled further into his dark grey hoodie. He turned and
started across the road again, the moment broken.
Rob stared after the lone figure, stunned by the overpowering emotions
suddenly running rampant through him. He didn’t understand why his stomach
clenched at the sight of those tears or why his dick became so hard he could
have punched a hole through a steel plate.
But he was going to find out.
Rob growled as he drove his truck to the side of the road and turned the
engine off. He jumped out of the truck and raced after the little man,
catching sight of him hurrying down a dirt path on the side of the road that
led into the woods.
He quickly caught up with his prey, barely panting from exertion. He grabbed
the guy’s arm, his eyebrows shooting up when the guy instantly dropped to the
ground and curled into himself.
“Please, don’t hurt me,” the man whimpered as he covered his head with his
arms.
Rob growled, his gaze snapping back and forth as he scanned his immediate
surroundings for signs of danger. Spotting nothing out of place, Rob lifted
his nose and drew in a lungful of air. He smelled the forest—trees and dirt
and the slightly musty smell of dead leaves.
And apples…cinnamon and apples.
Rob frowned in confusion. If he didn’t know better, he’d think someone was out
in the middle of the woods baking an apple pie. God, he loved apple pie. It
was without a doubt his favorite desert next to honey.
Nothing tasted better than honey.
Dismissing his wild thoughts, Rob turned his attention back to the man
cowering on the ground at his feet. A deep mind numbing rage began to take
hold of him when he noticed the bruises showing up through the rips in the
man’s hoodie. There was even a trickle of blood at the corner of the man’s
mouth, no doubt due from the cut on his fat lip.
Someone had worked this poor guy over, and hard.
Rob squatted down next to the smaller man. Jeez, he had to outweigh him by at
least a hundred pounds if not more. The little thing was all skin and bones.
And bruises, there were a shitload of bruises.
“What happened, cub?” Rob spoke in his gentlest voice, which wasn’t easy when
his usual tone was deep and rough. It matched his looks. He was big and fierce
and made like a brick shit house. And for once in his life, he wished he
wasn’t so intimidating.
The poor thing was going to shake apart.
“Sshhh, it’s okay.” Rob tried to sooth the man by rubbing his back. “You’re
safe now. No one is going to hurt you.”
When a little of the tension eased in the man’s body, Rob lifted him up into a
sitting position, surprised by how easily he could move the guy. He had lifted
heavier bags of cement.
Big liquid brown eyes peeked up at Rob through a fall of honey blond hair. Rob
reached down and gingerly touched the man’s swollen bottom lip, grimacing at
the wince of pain that crossed the guy’s face.
“What happened to you, cub?”
“They took my bike.” The words were whispered in the sweetest voice Rob had
ever heard. It wrapped around him like a blanket of tranquility he had never
felt in all his years. If he had been a cat he would have purred.
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.
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