Grayslake: More than Mated: The Right Spot (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read online

  Patty eased away, sensing Maryann was calming little by little. She had to know how badly Maryann was hurt.

  “Can you stand, sweetie?” Patty’s tone was gentle. She knew her sister better than anyone, which was why she’d been so hurt when Maryann had basically run away.

  She was a grown woman. At twenty-one, she was entitled to go anywhere she wanted—a fact she’d reminded Patty of repeatedly in her goodbye letter. Patty had been glad of her sister’s bid for independence, but now she kicked herself for not tracking her down right away. This wasn’t the outcome she would have ever wanted for her baby sister.

  But Patty would fix things. First, she’d make sure Maryann was all right. Then she’d kill Greg. Her bear growled in approval.

  Maryann gathered her strength and with Patty’s help, was able to get to her feet. Patty took a good long look at her then, noting the faded black and blue marks. There seemed to be layers of them, all over Maryann’s arms, disappearing up under the sleeves of her shirt. Patty grew even more furious thinking about the hidden bruises and what must’ve been going on—and for how long—for Maryann to still be wearing this much discoloration.

  Normally, her bear would have healed her in short order, but it was pretty obvious the bear was having a hard time keeping up with the repeated damage. Patty’s blood was about ready to boil. She looked over at the filth passed out on the ground by the house and wished she dared leave Maryann alone for a few minutes so she could rid the planet of Greg once and for all.

  “Officer Montone.” Van’s voice, rippling with authority, made her snap her attention to her boss. Van Abrams was walking toward her, the stranger at his side.

  Now that she got a better look at him, she could see he was a tall drink of water, cut very much of the same cloth as her sexy boss. And this one wasn’t mated. At least…he didn’t seem mated.

  The stranger was every inch the dominant male as Van, but different. For one thing, he wasn’t a bear. Some kind of cat, she thought, sniffing the air delicately. But strong. Very, very strong.

  Maryann was trembling again. Shit.

  “Hey guys, you want to tone it down a bit? Baby sis is…uh…” She didn’t want to say it out loud and hurt Maryann’s feelings, but she would if she had to.

  Van came right over and bent down a bit to meet Maryann’s gaze. “Hey, sweet pea…” He used the childhood nickname the Abrams boys had come up with for the shy young bear they’d helped keep out of trouble. Patty had found good allies in the older Abrams boys. They’d helped protect her sister on occasion, which had fostered a lifelong friendship.

  But Maryann could just barely meet his gaze. Her head was tilted to the side, her neck bared in submission and Van sighed. His gaze shot to Patty’s as he shrugged and she knew he was withholding the full extent of his anger at Greg.

  “Officer Montone,” he tried again. “Why don’t you take Miss Montone back to the station. I think the Itan needs to see her for himself.” Patty knew Ty would need to see Maryann’s bruises in order to pass judgment on Greg.

  Good.

  The sooner that piece of shit in a man suit was dealt with, the better. And Patty would be petitioning the Itan and the Enforcer for the right to personally tear Greg to itty bitty ribbons. Her bear felt satisfaction at the mere thought of it.

  “What about—?” She began to ask how he was going to get back to the station, but he cut her off.

  “Mr. Brandon is going to give us a ride so that he can make his statement.” Van looked at the stranger and Patty looked up at the other man once more, this time, meeting his gaze.

  Emerald green flared in his eyes for a brief moment, his inner cat shining through. She felt her own shift begin, her eyes taking on the bear’s aspect as their animals met and evaluated each other.

  Damn. The man was potent. And every inch the dominant Alpha. She wondered what kind of slinky four-legged fiend he was. She’d have to read up on cat clans once everything settled down. She’d never been much interested in other shifter groups before, but then, she hadn’t met him before either.

  Her bear began to take inventory of him. Tall. Wide shoulders. Lean muscles. Sleek build, but obvious strength. Sexy, ice blue eyes in his human form, though the cat brought out a luscious emerald green. Black hair with a slight, sexy wave to it. She wanted to run her fingers through that hair. She wanted to clutch it as he drove into her body over and over…

  Holy moly. She had to get her mind off the sexy cat and back on business before her boss realized she was having hot fantasies about the stranger.

  What was she thinking? Her baby sister was standing next to her, bruised and bloody and she was ogling some foreign hottie?

  Patty shook her head slightly and noticed the stranger’s sly smile. Did he realize? Oh, crap. He’d caught her staring. Great.

  “Thanks, Enforcer. We’ll see you back at the station then.” She held up one hand and Van threw the keys to her.

  Putting her attention strictly on her sister, Patty helped Maryann walk slowly toward the front of the house and the patrol car. It was time to take care of business. Her contemplation of the sexy cat could wait.

  Chapter Three

  Patty held her tongue as she drove her traumatized sister to the station. She kept a vigilant eye on the way her sister moved and held herself. As she calmed, she seemed to be mostly all right. The small cut on her face—probably from Greg’s fist hitting her jaw—had already stopped bleeding and was well on its way to healing as Maryann’s inner bear helped patch her up.

  “Are you sure you don’t need to see the healer? I can call him and we can stop there before we go to the station,” Patty offered gently.

  “No. I’m fine. Just banged up,” Maryann said in a voice so soft, Patty had to strain to hear it.

  “Bug, you’re going to have to talk to the Itan. He needs to hear what happened from your own mouth. Can you do that?” She glanced over and saw her sister shiver, but at the same time, a new sort of courage seemed to stiffen her spine. Maybe her experiences had strengthened her in some way?

  Patty hated to think what must have been going on these past weeks for her timid little sister to have such a determined look in her eye. She’d never looked quite that…battle-worn…before in her life.

  Patty was concerned, but by the same token, if her baby sis could take something good away from this awful experience, then maybe it wouldn’t have all been for naught. Oh, Patty would still like to bathe in Greg’s blood, but she might give him a quicker, more merciful death.

  Her bear didn’t like the sound of that, but Patty soothed her inner bear, promising there would be justice. Her bear had a strong protective streak and a solid sense of justice. It liked the J-word because it meant assholes got what was coming to them. Oh yeah, Patty took delight in helping achieve justice for those that would try to harm their weaker neighbors. It was probably the best part of her job, and what had drawn her to becoming a cop in the first place.

  “I can talk to the Itan. You’re right. He needs to know about Greg.” Maryann seemed to lose some of her newfound spine. “Patty, Greg wasn’t telling the truth about anything. He’s involved with criminals.”

  Maryann was shocked by this? Patty wanted to roll her eyes, but she held back the impulse. She’d never disparage her sister. Especially not when she was in such a bad way. No, the lecturing could wait until Patty knew the full extent of what had happened, Greg was dead, and Maryann was feeling better.

  “Bug, Greg wasn’t a good choice for your first bid for freedom. He’s always struck me as a little shady.” Okay, maybe the lectures couldn’t wait, but Patty tried to be nice about it.

  “You’ve always been a better judge of character than I have,” Maryann said, her voice sad. “I wish I’d listened to you about Greg.”

  There was no point in saying I told you so and rubbing salt in Maryann’s wounds. It was enough that she realized her mistake.

  “It’s okay, Bug. You’re safe now and Greg won’t ever hurt
you again.”

  “You sound so sure.”

  Patty didn’t want to tell her softhearted little sister what Patty was going to do with Greg the minute she got the go-ahead. She grunted and tried to think what would be most reassuring.

  “The Itan will take care of it.” There. That ought to work. Ty was notoriously protective of females and cubs. And he was a big fan of justice too. “Just tell him everything you know and leave nothing out, even if it seems embarrassing. He needs to know so he can make a good judgment.”

  “Okay.” Maryann’s voice was brittle again as she rested her head against the side of the car, baring her neck in what had to be an unconscious gesture of submission.

  Even though Patty was way more dominant than Maryann, she’d never demanded any sort of submission from her sister. The thought of it made her bear sit up in distress. Maryann was theirs. She was family. She was to be protected like a little cub, no matter how old she was.

  On that, Patty and her inner bear agreed wholeheartedly. Everyone else could bare their neck before her. All the weaker bears, at least. But never Maryann.

  And there were precious few bears in Grayslake that could make Patty’s bear show any kind of submission. The Abrams boys were just about the only ones. They had her bear’s respect and obedience, and always had.

  Patty pulled into the parking lot and drove around to the back door of the station. She would escort Maryann in the back way, providing her a little bit more privacy. Her clothing was bloody and she looked pretty bad—her hair all over the place and her skin bearing multiple layers of bruises. Patty would get her cleaned up before they left the station, but Ty needed to see Maryann the way she was now. He needed the full picture in order to pass judgment.

  “After you meet with Ty, you can use the female officer’s locker room. There aren’t too many of us, so you’ll have the place to yourself. There’s a shower back there and I have extra clothing in my locker you can use. Then you can come back to my place, okay?” Patty had it all planned out.

  “I’d like a shower,” Maryann admitted as she followed Patty into the station.

  Ty was waiting for them. The big man tensed as he got a look at Maryann.

  “Aw, sweet pea, what happened to you?” Ty’s gruff voice was filled with brotherly concern and his bear’s immense power enveloped both of the Montone sisters.

  Maryann sniffled and went toward him when he motioned her to follow him into his office. Ty very firmly shut the door on Patty, but she understood. He needed to question Maryann without anyone’s influence.

  Patty sighed and prepared to stand watch outside the Itan’s office door.

  Mario didn’t mind giving the deputy a ride back to the station. He drove a pickup truck these days, so the prisoner was trussed up in the bed, handcuffed and cussing the whole way. A growl from the deputy every once in a while shut the drunken bear right up, which came in handy as they neared the heart of town. It wouldn’t do for the human residents of Grayslake to find out about the bear shifters living among them because of a drunken fool.

  The deputy instructed Mario to drive around to the back of the station, to the private lot reserved for official use. Mario saw the patrol car the pretty bear officer had driven away in, and parked right beside it. The deputy hustled the prisoner out of Mario’s truck bed and ushered them both into the back door of the station.

  Mario had been in the building only once before. He’d arranged a meeting with the sheriff—who was also the Itan of the local bear clan—when he’d come to town, as was proper for a non-affiliated shifter entering a clan’s declared territory. He’d gotten the Itan’s permission to stick around for a while in Grayslake while they both got to take the measure of the other.

  Mario had liked the Itan and respected his power, though his inner cat knew it was superior. Of course, the jaguar had a tendency to think it was superior to everyone and everything, the snobbish brute. But in this case, it had been wary around the bear, and respectful. Here was a close contender in dominance, and the cat settled down and behaved, allowing the humans to come to an understanding.

  As he walked into the station from the back, Mario recognized the layout, even though he’d never seen it from this angle before. The door to Ty’s office was closed and the pretty female bear was pacing outside. Guard duty? Nah. Probably not. She looked anxious, which didn’t sit right with Mario.

  As soon as Van ushered their prisoner past her, she stilled, growling low as she gave the other bear a death glare. Mario felt his dick start to harden. Whoa.

  For a she-bear? Really? But there was no disputing he found the woman’s fierce spirit a definite turn-on.

  Van pushed the prisoner past her and said a few words that held her at bay, though Mario was just far enough away to not be able to hear. Van turned toward him then, and raised his voice a notch.

  “I’m going to put him in a cell,” Van said, referring to the prisoner. “Wait here for a minute. I’m sure Ty will want to speak to you.”

  Mario waved in agreement. “No problem, deputy.” There was a bench seat along the wall, so he settled in to wait, wanting to be in the female’s presence, but present a non-confrontational pose. The jaguar was stalking her, though she probably didn’t realize it. And sitting would hide the boner, even if it was majorly uncomfortable.

  He felt the she-bear’s attention settle on him. She wasn’t showing her anxiety, though he’d bet it was still there. From what he’d observed, the battered woman was the female officer’s little sister. If big sis was pacing a vigil outside the Itan’s door, the little sister was probably being interviewed by the clan leader. The cat liked how concerned the she-bear was for her weaker family member. She was strong, but she had compassion. That was a good combination for a mate.

  Whoa. Why in the world was his cat thinking mate so fast? The damned finicky thing had looked at pretty women the world over and sniffed in disdain at each and every one. But he hadn’t even talked to this woman yet and already the cat was ready to pounce and claim. What the…?

  “Thank you for calling in the disturbance,” the female officer said, finally, walking a pace closer to him. “As you probably realize, the victim is my sister, and before today, I thought she was off on her first real adventure away from home.”

  Much to his surprise, the woman sat on the other end of the bench and sighed heavily, relaxing in his presence. Was her bear that comfortable around him that it would allow her to stand down her vigil? Or was she that upset that any halfway friendly face would have elicited the same reaction? Mario wasn’t sure, but either way, he liked that she’d unbent enough to sit next to him.

  “Let me guess. She didn’t tell you where she was going.” He wanted to coax her into a better mood and help relieve the anxiety she refused to let others see.

  “She claimed I was too overprotective.” She rolled her eyes and Mario had to smile. “I’m Patricia Montone, by the way. I’m indebted to you for helping my sister.”

  She held out her hand and he reached across the few feet that separated them to grasp it. Electric sparks flew when they touched and his inner jaguar sat up and purred its interest. His gaze met hers for a timeless moment and he could see she was affected by their touch as well.

  A human ended the moment by walking past, shuffling papers on his way out the back door. Mario let her go, realizing they were in a public place, with humans as well as shifters around.

  “I’m Mario Brandon.”

  Chapter Four

  Oh. Patty’s bear liked the way his lightly accented words flowed over her senses. Now that she had a moment to look, she realized this werecat was one of the sexiest men she’d ever met. And that included every last sexy bear in Grayslake and beyond. She wondered idly if that was a cat thing or if Mario was special.

  The tingles still running up her arm from the light contact of his hand on hers told her it was him. He was special. Special to her.

  No. Way.

  “If you don’t mind my as
king, where are you from, Mario? I like your accent.” She had to get herself back on track here. No drooling. Absolutely, no drooling!

  “I was born in Argentina.” She liked the way he said the name of the country. The way a native would. Not the way an American said it. Sexy. “But I left there many years ago. Until recently, I was what you might call a soldier of fortune.”

  Her eyebrows rose. “Does Ty know?” Surely the Itan would want to know if a professional soldier—especially a mercenary—came to town.

  “Yes, he knows. I don’t hide who I am or what I was, though I don’t go around telling just anybody.” His arm rested across the back of the long bench as he swiveled to face her.

  “Then why did you tell me?” Her eyes narrowed. What was his game?

  “Because I believe in honesty with the woman I intend to pursue.”

  Her breath caught. For once her inner bear was silent, clearly as stunned as the human half of her.

  “Pursue?” she repeated, unable to really form a sentence after such a pronouncement.

  “You are a beautiful, strong woman. Surely you have had many admirers in the past, no?” He scooched a little closer on the wooden bench as she sat motionless, watching him warily. “You are unmated. Lovely. And I want to be open with you. I’m very interested in getting to know you, Patricia.”

  What? Wait… What?

  The strength of Patty’s personality—and her bear—scared off most everyone she knew. Was this foreign cat really interested, or was this some sick joke? She sniffed the air around him. He didn’t scent of malice. No. He smelled…interested. Aroused?

  Her eyes flicked to his crotch and even though he sat, she could make out the bulge against the soft canvas of his well-worn black BDUs. Whoa, momma. He was packing. And it was for her?