Bear Bait (Hero Mine Book 1) Read online

  “I’ve lived in an imperfect world all my life.” She pressed her lips against his skin, in the place where his heart beat beneath it. Beat for her. “And I’ll take your imperfections, just as you will take mine.”

  He laughed. “You are my mate, you are already perfect.”

  “Don’t put me on a pedestal,” Octavia said quickly. “Perfection is a difficult thing to live up to.”

  He brushed the leaves from her hair and began to move inside her, his arousal once more back under his control. “As long as you are in my life, it’s perfect.”

  Octavia kissed his lips, gasping against him when he screwed his hips around, stretching her wider, penetrating her deeper. In and out he moved, until his orgasm raced back toward him. However, this time Octavia raced him side by side, her breathing quickening as her orgasm reached her.

  As she came beneath him, he felt his teeth elongate, the primal urge to turn her to make her his completely was hard to fight, but he swallowed it down. Now was not the time.

  No matter how much he longed to, as his orgasm crashed into him and he spurted his seed deep inside the woman who would one day carry his children.

  No one was getting turned today.

  Chapter Sixteen – Octavia

  “So, this is what shifters get up to in their spare time?” Octavia asked, retrieving her clothes and getting dressed, hoping there was no one around to see her naked. She didn’t mind Cade seeing her with no clothes, but the rest of the population, yeah, she could do without that.

  Not that she had been anything but willing to strip naked and make love underneath the trees. There was a certain thrill to outdoor sex she had never appreciated before. The breeze on your naked flesh, the sun on your skin. Maybe she was already becoming a wild animal, full of abandon, even before Cade had turned her.

  “Here. I think this is yours,” Cade said, handing over her lacy bra.

  “Who said chivalry was dead?” she teased, picking out the dry leaves that had stuck to the black lace.

  “You have my dad to thank for that,” Cade said, pulling his jeans on and buckling his belt.

  “It’s tough, losing a parent,” Octavia said. “I hate that we have such a thing in common.”

  “He’s not dead,” Cade said quickly.

  “Oh, I thought since he’d been gone for so long, he must be dead, but you didn’t speak of it,” Octavia said.

  “My mom would know,” Cade said, pulling his T-shirt on and covering up his abs. Maybe she should have hidden his shirt, she could spend all day looking at his toned chest. “In the same way, I would know if something happened to you. Now that I’ve found you, we have this connection.”

  “And when you turn me, I’ll have that same connection?” Octavia asked.

  “Yes.” He stood watching her pull her shirt back on.

  “And I can’t tempt you to do it now?” she asked, coming up close to him and brushing her hair off her shoulder, revealing her bare neck to him.

  “I’m not a vampire,” Cade joked.

  “You don’t bite me, to turn me?” Octavia asked frowning. “Then how?”

  “No, I bite, but I don’t suck your blood.” He grabbed her and held her close, so close she could hear the beat of his heart. “It’s not … pleasant. Being turned.”

  “Pleasant?” she asked, tilting her head to one side. “I didn’t expect it to be.”

  “Good,” he said, pulling away from her and taking hold of her hand to lead her back out of the trees. “Sometimes people have this romantic notion about vampires, and things.”

  “OK, are vampires real too?” She had to ask.

  “Everything you have seen on TV and read about is real. And then there are the things no one dares to tell about,” Cade said.

  “Seriously?” she asked.

  “Except the Bigfoot, he’s not real. Just a shifter who got caught on camera.”

  “Are you joking?” Octavia asked.

  He stopped long enough for her to catch up with him and put his arm around her shoulder. “I want to hear you laugh.” He breathed in deeply. “The air is so much sweeter, the sun so much brighter now, don’t you think?”

  Now she did laugh. “So easily pleased.”

  “I am a very simple creature.” He breathed in again and his hand tightened around her shoulder.

  “Are you OK?” she asked, looking around, but the forest seemed just the same as it had before.

  He took another breath and then relaxed. “Yes, I thought for a moment I smelled… Never mind, it’s nothing.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  “Yes, and anyway we are nearly back.”

  Octavia ducked her head. Ahead of them, about a hundred feet away, the trees thinned and if she listened carefully, she could hear the sound of an axe being driven into wood. They were close to the enclave.

  “We’re nearly home,” she said, placing her hand on his chest.

  Cade pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. “I’ll find out from Lucas about us moving into one of the empty houses.”

  She patted his chest. “You might have thought about that before you kicked their front door open.”

  “He’ll get over it,” Cade said.

  “I’ll have to go back to my apartment and get my things.”

  “Once we’ve taken this degetty out, I’ll come with you.”

  “And how are we going to take him out?” Octavia asked. “I know you don’t like Tally’s idea.”

  “I like the idea, I just don’t like the thought of Tally doing it. She’s strong, but releasing Zinan will be putting both Tally and my mom at risk, and I hate the thought of either of them getting hurt. He knocked us around badly the other night. If Tally hadn’t put Zinan in the Druid Box, I think one of us would have ended up dead.”

  “And can’t she put him back in, if she can’t control him?” Octavia asked.

  “In theory. But if he knocks her down first, then we are stuck.” He sighed. “I’m going to ask her to bring backup.”

  “Backup, you mean another witch?” Octavia asked.

  “Yes, or her whole coven.” He looked up at the sky. “Maybe if the coven works together, they might be strong enough to send Taro back to the Underworld. And Zinan too.”

  “That sounds like a good plan.”

  “Except we have to get a whole coven of witches into Stonehenge.”

  “Oh. Won’t they let you in?”

  “The druids, but not witches. You have to know the secret handshake.” He took hold of her hand and kissed it. “Druids, Templars, Illuminati. Secret societies, who needs them.”

  “We do,” Octavia said. “At least it sounds as if we do to get…” She stopped talking, the quiet of the forest destroyed by the sound of her cell phone ringing.

  Cade stopped, and turned to her as she took it out of her pocket. “It might just be work calling,” she said hopefully. “I phoned in sick and they…”

  “Matthew?” Cade asked, his face studying hers closely.

  Octavia nodded. “What do I do?”

  Cade looked around, and then down to the phone. “We keep walking.”

  “You don’t want me to answer it?”

  “No. Not until we are back at the house. He kept calling last time. He’ll do the same again.”

  Holding her phone put in front of her as if it was likely to explode at any moment, Octavia kept walking, trying to keep up with Cade, whose pace had quickened. When it finally stopped ringing, she let out the breath she had been holding.

  “Couple more minutes and we’ll be there,” Cade said as the ringing began again.

  He was right, the houses were in view now; she could make out the shape of a roof between the branches of the trees. The sound of the axe was loud enough to be heard over her phone, and she let herself breathe, telling herself it would be OK. The ringing stopped.

  Seconds later, her phone vibrated in her hand; she’d received a text. Stopping, she swiped the screen to unlock it and the
n hit the icon for texts. It was from Matthew. Six words.

  You should have answered your phone.

  Cold dread seeped through her veins, chasing away the warmth of the sun. “Cade,” she said, looking at the words and rereading them.

  Cade was twenty feet in front of her; he’d kept on walking, head down deep in thought. Now he turned, and as he did, he raised his head, a look of horror on his face.

  Octavia smelled it first, then its big bulking body filled her peripheral vision. Cade’s voice broke through her fear and made her move.

  “Run,” he yelled. Legs moving like pistons, she flung herself toward him, as he began to move toward her. Just at the moment she thought she was going to fall into his arms, he moved to the left, a frisson of electricity filling the air as he shifted into his bear. He intended to intercept the degetty, giving her time to escape.

  There was no way she was going to allow him to give up his life for her while she ran away.

  “Help. Help!” she yelled.

  The sound of the axe on wood stopped, and she heard a voice calling for Tobias. Wheeling around, Octavia began to run back toward the degetty. She ducked down as she moved to pick up a branch. Swinging it, she ran at the degetty, while Cade’s bear raked it with its claws.

  The branch hit the degetty on the side of the head, before exploding with the force. The demon looked at her, its green eyes ablaze. With a hand reaching out for her, she was knocked to the ground as a second bear launched itself at the degetty, and then another. But it was so strong, it beat them down.

  In amongst all of this, she heard ringing. Her phone.

  She’d dropped it when she picked up the branch. Crawling along the ground, she sought it out, swiping to unlock it and then answering the call. It was Matthew. Of course, it was Matthew.

  “Ah, there you are. How are you enjoying your little taste of my pet’s strength?”

  “Call him off,” Octavia said.

  “I’m not sure you and those Others have learned your lesson yet. Maybe a death might bring home to you just how serious I am. And after all, I owe the Loveson family a bereavement.”

  “Call him off,” she repeated firmly. “If you don’t, you will never get your precious Dragon’s Tear. If you kill one of them they will never give it to you. Because they will have one of their own to bring back.”

  Muffled voices on the end of the phone, the sound of Matthew barking out a command, and then the sounds of fighting behind her stopped. She turned to see the degetty heading into the trees.

  It was over. At least for now.

  “What do you want?” she snapped.

  “An update.”

  “We are still trying to retrieve the Dragon’s Tear.”

  “Try harder. Or next time someone will die. I’ll call tomorrow night, you had better have good news.”

  The call ended. Octavia’s legs gave way under her and she slumped to the ground, shaking, her stomach turning over as bile rose in her throat.

  Lifting her head, she saw Cade coming toward her. She spoke only six words. “You are going to turn me.”

  Chapter Seventeen – Cade

  “No,” Cade said firmly.

  “Yes,” Octavia said.

  “Not now,” Cade said, denying his mate what she wanted.

  “It’s my decision,” Octavia said, as she grabbed a bunch of towels from the linen closet and followed Cade back downstairs to the sitting room, where Wes and Tobias were sitting. Tally had arrived and was checking them over, placing her hands on a wound on Tobias’s arm and muttering a spell.

  “I don’t want you to make it while you are emotionally wrought.”

  “Overwrought…” Octavia let it go: they needed to concentrate on getting everyone healed, then she would tackle Cade again over turning her into a shifter. “We should get you to the hospital,” Octavia said, wincing at the cut on Cade’s forehead.

  “No, there’s no time,” Cade said. “We have no idea when that thing is going to attack again.”

  “Matthew said he would call tomorrow night. That gives you time to get that looked at. You need stitches,” Octavia insisted.

  “No, he doesn’t,” Tally moved her hand and the wound closed to half its size. “Best I can do.”

  “Thanks, Tally,” Cade said, and she moved on to Tobias.

  “Octavia, can you come and sit with Wes, make sure he keeps his head up and a towel under his nose. Blood is next to impossible to get out of the carpet,” Eva said.

  “Glad to hear you are such so sympathetic, Mom,” said a nasally Wes. “I think it’s broken.”

  “No, it’s not, just feels that way,” Eva said. “You’ll all live to fight another day.”

  “Is that what you intend to do, Cade?” Tally asked. “Fight another day?”

  “Not now, Tally,” Cade said.

  “Cade, I think now is the time,” Eva said quietly.

  Cade set the towels down and folded his arms across his chest. “You saw what that thing could do. We don’t stand a chance.” Never once in all the times he had led the squad had Cade been anything but optimistic of their chances. He always went in with a positive attitude that they would win, no matter how the odds were stacked in their favor. But not this time. His head throbbed, his arms ached, his leg was bruised, and stiffening up where the degetty had picked him up like a rabbit and flung him into the ground. His bear had not shattered, but his confidence had. If they went up against this degetty, they would die. His brothers, or his mom, or his mate, they would not all come home.

  “Tally, even if Zinan can help us, what are we supposed to do? The degetty Matthew is setting on is us stronger than Zinan. We need a druid.”

  “What if Zinan fought alongside us?” Tally asked.

  Cade shook his head. “Don’t you get it? We can’t trust that you can bind him strongly enough to hold him. And if the bind breaks, we will have two degetty on our hands.”

  “So what? We hide?” Tally asked.

  “That is not a bad idea,” Cade said. “What if we go to the Council and refuse to leave?”

  “You want them to protect us?” Tobias asked. “What are the chances? We are expendable.”

  “If we face that degetty, we are dead.”

  “Cade, can I speak to you, alone?” Octavia said.

  “Go, I’ll help Wes.” Tally took over pinching Wes’s nose. “I hope you plan to talk some sense into him,” Tally said quietly as Octavia slipped past.

  “I’m going to try.”

  Cade shook his head. No matter what Octavia had to say to him, he knew what he was saying made sense. They did not want to get another degetty mixed up in this. However, he had to concede their options were slim with or without Zinan.

  “Before you say anything, we cannot trust Zinan. There is no guarantee Tally can control him.”

  “And you aren’t even willing to try?” Octavia asked.

  Cade turned around and began to make fresh coffee, ignoring the half-kneaded dough Eva had abandoned when she had heard her sons being attacked by a degetty. She had shifted, and joined the fight as a bear, something she rarely did since her mate had left. Her bear side was something she shut away and tried to ignore, much like Helena shut magic out of her life.

  “Cade.” Octavia put her hand on his arm. “I know you are scared.”

  Her words hit him hard, his father’s words coming back to him. He was supposed to protect them, to keep them safe, but how was he supposed to do this against such staggering odds?

  “I promised my dad I would keep them safe.”

  “I know. But there is no safe in this situation. Matthew is going to send in that degetty, and if I thought it would stop at just taking my life, I would give myself to it.”

  “Not happening,” Cade said.

  “But something has to happen, Cade. Come on, you can get us through this.”

  “How? It feels as if I’m drawing straws to see who comes off worse. We do nothing, and the degetty takes down my brothers
, or my cousins, as we try to protect you. We let Zinan out of the box and my mom or Tally gets it… And then we still have to deal with the one that is after you.”

  “Or Tally controls Zinan. And we see if he has information to help us. Even if as a stop-gap we put Taro into the Druid Box.” Octavia squeezed his arm. “You have to let her do this.”

  “She’s a kid.”

  “She’s a young woman, and if she thinks she can do it, you have to let her try.” Octavia cupped his cheek in her hand and leaned in, kissing his lips. If only he could simply pick her up in his arms and carry her away to a den somewhere, high up in the mountains where no one could ever find them. But he could not leave his family behind, not even for his mate.

  “If she gets hurt, I can’t have her thinking I chose you over her.”

  “Cade, no one who knows you will ever think that.”

  “She’s right,” Tally said from the kitchen door. He didn’t ask her if she’d been eavesdropping on them, it didn’t matter, not in the whole scheme of things.

  “Tally. What about your mom? If something happens to you,” Cade asked.

  “Firstly, nothing is going to happen. I know I can do this, I’m strong enough. Secondly, my mom probably wouldn’t even notice.” Tally shrugged. “And she has Locke.”

  “Tally, that is not true. She is still your mom, she still loves you,” Cade insisted.

  “I know, somewhere deep in her subconscious. I see it sometimes, usually when she is falling asleep in her chair. It’s like the barrier comes down, and she opens her mouth to speak and bam! It’s back up.” Tally walked into the kitchen, her hurt at seeing Cade and Octavia so close, hidden. “I want to do this, because maybe if we unravel this plot, I might get my mom back.”

  “You think it’s connected?” Octavia asked.

  “What if this degetty was pulled from the Underworld by a druid? What if that same druid is the one who has bound my mom so she doesn’t tell us whatever it is she knows?”

  “It makes sense, doesn’t it?” Octavia asked.

  “Perhaps. But the two things could be completely unconnected.”

  “There is one way to find out. Let me take control.” Fire flashed in Tally’s eyes, and he saw the hunger there, the need to know more; it was the same hunger and need that had fired through his veins when his father didn’t return. Slowly he had dug a hole and buried that need to find out the truth, to put his family back together again. But it was still there, festering away in a deep dark pit.