The Bear and the Unicorn (Supernatural Enforcers Agency Book 6) (11 page)

Chapter Nineteen

The next day, Zane collected Sky from work again.  He greeted her with a crooked smile and an appreciative glance over her lithe form.

He was about to ask her something when she quickly cut him off.  “So, spill, how’d it go with your client – Mr. Snow Globe?”

He chuckled.  “Actually pretty well.  Turns out the guy Mrs. Snow Globe was meeting was actually a designer at the snow globe company; he’s married to another guy, and they have three kids.  Mr. Snow Globe recognized him when I showed him the photos.  Went to confront her and she told him they were meeting because she wanted to design a special snow globe for his birthday – but they were having creative differences over the size, which is why she was sneaking around so much.  Mr. Snow Globe was happy, and he paid me in cash upfront for my hard work.”

“That’s wonderful!” she gushed, leaning over and pecking Zane on the cheek.

She flushed as he stared at her in surprise.

Zane cleared his throat as his cheeks turned slightly pink in pleasure.  “Well, I, ah, do like getting paid.”

“Not that part, I mean about her not cheating on him, right?”

He shrugged.  “Sure, I guess.  I mean it’s not like you know them.”

Sky smiled slightly.  “No, but no one deserves to be in pain.”

“Spoken like a woman who never met my high school Spanish teacher.  She was a gym teacher in a past life – made us do laps of the classroom until we got answers right.”

“Oh, and how is your Spanish?”

“Let’s just say I can’t even count to five in Spanish but I was the star of the track team.  So, hey, tonight, I thought we could get dinner.”  He paused for a couple of beats.  “If you want to.”

“That sounds nice, but you choose the restaurant this time.”

A pained look came over his face, but he quickly dismissed it.  “No, no, whatever you want will be fine.”

She seriously doubted that, but if he wanted to play it that way…  Maybe she would just annoy him into revealing his true self.

*

“Are you sure you don’t want to go anywhere else?” Sky asked again.

“No, this is fine.”

Tofu Joy.  The restaurant was called Tofu Joy.  If he weren’t sitting at the counter in an uncomfortable, plastic chair, he’d swear someone was shitting him. 
Who on earth would create anything called Tofu Joy?

He was doing well.  Hadn’t blown up once – and he’d certainly had the opportunities.  Never mind turning over a new leaf, he was turning over a new freaking tree.  They got his order wrong and then refused to bring him what he actually ordered – telling him he should try what they gave him as he would like it. 
Grrr
.  The guy sitting next to him spent the entire time talking on his cell phone loudly, elbowing Zane in the stomach and knocking over his drink.  The restaurant then tried to overcharge him for the dinner, and it took Sky patiently explaining for twenty minutes that the two of them didn’t order twelve meals and seventeen drinks between them before they relented and recalculated.  And then a guy on a motorbike ran over his foot in the parking lot.  Didn’t even slow down or look back.

Yeah, his gears were officially ground.  Feathers completely ruffled.  Goat definitely got.

But did he growl and run after the biker to give him a piece of his mind and a bigger portion of his fists like his bear demanded?  Nope, he gritted his teeth and flexed his claws, but he didn’t do anything.

Helped that Sky fluttered to his aid and propped him up by dragging one of his arms over her shoulder.  It wouldn’t have helped if he really were injured.  She was so slight that he would have toppled on top of her… actually, that sounded quite enticing.  But maybe not in the parking lot.  Sky wasn’t a grope in the parking lot type of girl.  No, he limped slightly and put a little pressure on her, pretending he wasn’t pulling her body tightly against him.

“Are you okay?  Should we go to the hospital?”

“Nah, I’m fine.”

She tried to raise a few more objections, and yes his foot throbbed.  But then he angled her against him, so her breasts rubbed against his chest and her hardened nipples grazed him, and that made him forget about everything else.

What?  He just got run over by a motorcycle.  He really couldn’t be held accountable; he was probably in shock or something.

*

At 3 am, Sky awoke to find a bear in her kitchen inhaling pizzas.  A huge brown bear, all shaggy fur, teeth, and claws.

“Zane?”

He looked up, a bear caught in headlights.  A bear caught in headlights wearing nothing but a lot of pizza sauce around his mouth.

“What on earth?”

He growled and let out a few howling sounds.

Sky covered her mouth to stop the laughter.  “You better shift – I don’t speak bear.”

Slowly he did.  Hair receded, claws retracted, and he morphed into a very buff man – with pizza sauce around his mouth and no underwear.  Yes, her gaze drifted down. 
How could it not?
  He was practically waving it in her face.  Almost made her gasp when she saw him in his full glory.  Almost - she wasn’t a girl who was impressed by size.  Or at least the issue had never come up before.  Almost made her forget what they were talking about.

No, bad unicorn.

She forced her eyes to his guilty face.  Hand in the cookie jar moment and all that.

“Zane, what are you doing?”

“I can’t live on tofu!” he snarled.

Her mouth dropped open at his vehemence.

He started pacing her small kitchen.  “Look, I was pissed about the guy who ran over my foot and couldn’t sleep, so I went out looking for him.”

“You actually started searching the streets for him?”

“Yeah, but don’t worry, I got a friend to come by and watch you while I was out – called in another of my poker IOUs.”

“You must have a lot of IOUs.”

“Yeah, the trick is to cheat.  Anyway, I couldn’t find him, and I was starving so I kind of stopped by a pizzeria and ordered twenty pizzas, but I didn’t want to leave you alone so I brought them back here, and that’s when you caught me…  Okay, I have a problem with anger, I can’t let things go, and I have to eat meat, and I can’t stand agave nectar or herbal tea and…”

“Zane.”  She stood in front of him and placed a hand on his rapidly expanding chest.

He stopped and looked down at her in interest.  Her touch soothed the rage she saw in his eyes, giving her both relief and pleasure at the effect she had.

“Zane, I… I like you.  And I don’t expect you not to eat meat or to like the things I do.  I don’t eat meat because my animal doesn’t like it, but I don’t expect to turn you into a vegetarian bear.  And for the record, you really don’t hide your temper as well as you think you do.”

His face drooped like a five-year-old boy on discovering Santa wasn't real.  “But…”

“I saw the throat-slitting motions you were giving to the guy sitting next to us at dinner.  Not to mention the stabbing motions to the waiter.  Did you think I wouldn’t notice that he was trembling in terror?”

Zane looked a little put out.  “But you said that Edmund was an asshole and…”

“Ethan and you’re right.  He was and is an asshole. I mean, you know that ‘cause you met him, right?”

“Uh…”  He looked around shiftily.

“I know you did.  Why else would you have run off and left me in the care of a gator shifter with a grudge against vegetables?  And I did hate it when he lost his temper, but for you… I don’t know; I kind of think you’re cute when you’re all growly.  Mostly, you’re not like him.”

“Are you sure?  I mean, yeah, I’m a lot more handsome.”

Sky grinned as she clasped his biceps and shuffled closer to him, aware of the weapon he was packing downstairs.  “Much more modest, too.”

“But I know I told you I lost my job at the SEA because my boss had a grudge against me…”

“For being too handsome?” Sky teased.

“But really it’s because of my temper.”

She stroked his skin.  “I won’t deny that relaxing a little wouldn’t hurt you, but you’re not like Ethan.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, for one thing, he never really cared about my safety.”

“Asshole.”  His huge hands landed on Sky’s waist, and her unicorn whimpered.

“Even after I got mugged one time he wouldn’t come and pick me up after work – still had me riding the bus even though I was still scared.”  She was maybe exaggerating just a little bit.  The raccoon shifter in question stole a bag of oranges from her that she dropped on the ground.  It really wasn’t
that
traumatic.  But at the time she really wanted to eat them.

“Fucker,” he breathed with feeling.

She smiled.  “But the moment I met you, I felt safe, I felt secure with you.  I knew that you… that you’re important to me.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, I don’t want to label it, but I know I want to get to know your cute meat eating, tea hating bear a little better.”

“You don’t mind that I’m basically a dick?”

Her eyes flickered down, and he grinned.

“I’m not even touching that comment.” 
You could touch something else
her perverted unicorn suggested.  “But no, I don’t mind, as long as you don’t mind this.”

Sky took a deep breath and backed away from him.  Confusion turned to excitement as she stripped out of her pajamas.  That soon became wonder as she allowed her shift to take over.

“Holy fuck, you’re a unicorn!”

Chapter Twenty

Nellie Draper grasped her purse tightly as she jogged through the streets.

Stupid cab driver
.  Oh no, sorry, doll, I’m now off duty.  The guy just stopped and kicked her out of his cab.  What kind of man leaves a woman to fend for herself in the middle of the night?  What kind of man actually tells his girlfriend he thinks she should get a boob job right in the middle of getting a blowjob?  She almost choked.  It was her useless boyfriend’s fault she had to get the cab in the middle of the night anyway.  No way was she staying at his place after that argument. 
Ugh, men were all awful.

Her animal bobbed her head in agreement slowly.  She did
everything
slowly.  Nellie wasn’t built for speed.  The unending joy of being a Pinta Island tortoise shifter.  Rare and large and slow.

She shivered slightly as she heard some footsteps behind her.  Probably nothing.  She took out her phone ready to call for help, just in case, ignoring the twelve missed calls and fourteen text messages from her douchebag boyfriend.

“Probably nothing,” she muttered again.

The city was full of shifters who preferred the nighttime to the daytime.  No reason to expect they were specifically out looking to attack her.  Just because she made a very slow, big, easy target.

Nellie could sense someone getting closer.  She dialed nine and then one and made an effort to speed up.  Not an easy feat.  Her natural instinct was to take things slowly.

She rounded a corner running smack dab into a hard chest, squealing as he grabbed her and roughly pushed her up against the wall.  Nellie squirmed against his steely grip and let out some muffled curses as he slapped a hand over her mouth.

Another huge, ugly brute joined them.  “This the one?” he sneered.

She screamed against his hand, trying to bite him.

The first brute smirked.  “Yeah, scraping the bottom of the barrel, right?”

She didn’t understand it, but she assumed it was an insult to her and tried to knee him in the groin.  He moved out the way, laughing at her.

The other joined in as she grumbled against his hand, wishing they’d just take her purse and piss off.  The longer they didn’t do just that, the more worried she became.

“Get the needle,” said brute number one.

The second pulled out a hypodermic needle, and she shook her head, increasing her struggles.  It had no effect on him.  Bastard didn’t even move an inch.

“Jab her; she’s starting to piss me off.”

“I don’t think so,” declared a growly voice behind them.

Both attackers and Nellie looked up to see a man in a black costume and a mask.  The men burst out laughing while Nellie cursed her luck at the local nut house for not having better security.

“What the fuck did you come as?” roared brute number one.

“I am Wolfman, prepare to be obliterated… not actually obliterated… but I will take you down… so prepare for that!”

Surprised, Nellie watched as he did just that.

*

Holy fuck! 
A Unicorn?
  He had no idea unicorn shifters even existed.  Unicorns didn’t exist in the wild, so… wait, did they?  Were there some wild unicorns?  Okay, now he had even more questions.

His bear rumbled as she melted back to her human form, a nervous expression on her face.  Zane held back a mewl of disappointment as she pulled her pajamas back on.

“So what do you think?” she asked, shifting from foot to foot.

What did he think?  His mate’s a fucking unicorn!  Screw not labeling it – she was his.  That was that.  She was even more incredible than he realized and needed his protection even more than he thought.  No wonder she was scared.  A unicorn.  So rare, so perfect, so
his
.

He imagined there were plenty of people who would be thrilled to get their mitts on her delectable body.  He would too but for different reasons.

She liked him, trusted him enough with this secret, but now he knew the truth, he was even more scared for her.  Scared for himself – he couldn’t lose her now he’d found her.

Sky looked at him uncertainly, and his bear growled.  He grasped her hips, dragging her against him and covering her mouth with his.  She moaned against him as her arms snaked around his shoulders.

The warmth of arousal, the feeling of rightness it was to have her close, having her surrender to him, spread through his body, lighting every nerve.  His manhood pressed against her stomach, hard and insistent.

Zane wrenched his mouth from hers, peppering kisses along her jawline.

“I think I got my answer,” she whispered.

Mine
snarled his bear.

*

Nellie shivered under her blanket as the SEA agents asked her questions.  Her idiot boyfriend was holding her hand.  She was still mad at him, but it felt nice.  He hadn’t even glanced at the busty, ten-foot tall blonde lion shifter.  Nope, all of his concern was for her.  He would be forgiven…
eventually
.

“What were you doing out this late?  Where were you going?” asked the enormous polar bear shifter, Gunner.

Nellie flicked a look at her boyfriend, Evan who had the grace to look chagrined.

“What does it matter?  I was on my way home, and my idiot cab driver kicked me out of his cab because he wanted to go home.  Two morons caught me, said something weird about whether I was the right one.  They tried to stick me with a needle and then Wolfman saved me.”

She sighed as she remembered her masked hero.  Evan frowned at her, but he could suck it up.  When he saved her from two attackers while wearing a form-fitting jumpsuit, then he could get a little bit of hero worship.

The blonde lioness, Avery patted her hair.  “Is Wolfman still here?” she asked eagerly.

“No, he left.  He said he had a city to save.”  Another sigh.

“Oh.”  Avery deflated a little.

Gunner gave her a look.

“Because I wanted to arrest him,” she added quickly, looking thoroughly embarrassed.  “Because he’s a vigilante.  No other reason.”

Nellie snorted.  She totally had a crush on him.

Gunner focused on Nellie.  “You said they didn’t try to rob you or hurt you…”

“Other than jabbing me with a needle you mean?”

“Any idea why they targeted you?  Did they give any indication of what they were going to do?”

The two guys were barely conscious after going five rounds with Wolfman, but they managed to mutter one word - ‘lawyer’.

Nellie looked away, and Gunner sharpened.  “You do?”

“Maybe,” she said hesitantly.  She flashbacked to when she was fifteen, and a zoologist was trying to convince her parents to allow him to do tests on her.  When they wouldn’t give in, he tried to abduct her.  Didn’t work thanks to her high-pitched scream and a swift kick in the nuts.  But after that, she became good at hiding the nature of her rare beast.  “It’s kind of a secret.”

Ignoring Evan’s pout, she pulled Gunner down and whispered into his ear.

He straightened up.  “Huh.”

*

Ten years they’d been running these rare shifter auctions, and none of them had a problem.  This year… fuck - what could go wrong did go wrong.

“It’s not my fault,” Christian hissed, sounding like a whiny little girl.  “What do you want me to do?”

“Bring the auction forward,” rumbled Booker.

“I can’t; we’d lose too much money – something we’re already hemorrhaging thanks to your useless men.”

Booker snarled.  “The two we lost today are at Los Lobos General.”  His gorilla shook his head in disgust – beaten up by a freak in a mask – probably some nerd fanboy.  They better be ashamed of themselves – for what little life they have left.  “One of our doctors is on staff.  She’ll take care of them.”  He got paid a huge paycheck to ensure their specimens were healthy before the auctions.  The least he could do was get rid of the two bumbling fools – they’d paid for his vacation home in Aspen after all.

“But we should still move up the auction.”  Before a sinkhole opened up in their warehouse.

Not that they had much to sell.  He flicked through the security camera feeds. The fucking highlights were a giant penguin that doesn’t stop crying.  A nerdy mammoth shifter panting after the idiot penguin.  A gigantopithecus with as much personality of a block of wood.  Not to mention the sabre-tooth tiger with the personality disorder - he would sell and well, but he didn’t envy the person who bought him.

“We’re almost there.  Be patient.  Forget the tortoise - the SEA will be all over her.  Grab the other two Dr. James found.  A dodo will be good – the last one we had ten years ago sold well.  Just a few more weeks and this will all be over.”

His gorilla bristled at the tone Christian adopted.  He was trying to
handle
him – to treat him like one of his sap business associates.

“Remember, we said one more auction, and we’ll be set for life,” cooed Christian.

Booker didn’t like it, but he was right.  “Sure,” he spat.

“Great.  You just get more specimens, and I’ll line up the buyers.  You’ll see - everything will be fine.”