Alpha’s Secret: A Bear Shifter Romance (Bad Boy Alphas Book 10)

Grizz

A cry wakes me. Jordy thrashes in my arms, fighting demons in her sleep.

I shake her gently. “Shh, baby, wake up.”

She gasps and her eyes fly open, round and wide. “Grizz?”

“It’s okay, shh.” I rock her in my arms, feeling helpless. I wish I could fight the ones who prey on her in her nightmares. Never again, I vow. No vampire will touch you again.

She cries in my arms and I grope for the light, desperate. My hand falls on the sketch book.

“Here.” I turn so she’s in my lap and place the book in hers, along with the pencils. “Draw it.”

“What?” She sniffles.

“You keep having nightmares,” I explain. “You don’t have to tell me what they are.”

“I can’t.” She wipes her face. “I would if I could, but I don’t fully remember. Just bits and pieces.”

“It’s okay. Draw it. Get it out.”

A pause, then a shuddering sigh blows through her. Her pencil scratches over paper. I avert my gaze to give her privacy. No need to see what she draws until she’s willing to show me.

I hold her like that until she murmurs she’s done and sets the notebook aside. Then I curl up around her and hold her until her breathing evens and I know she’s asleep.

My bear wakes me close to dusk. I know the hour even though no light reaches us in the bedroom. A lifetime of hunting vampires has trained me to come alert before nightfall. Time to be up and on the hunt.

For the first time, I don’t want to move. I’ve got a beautiful vixen in my arms.

She’s a restless sleeper, twitching and frowning, worry lines moving across her face like clouds. She slept still enough after I fucked her, though.

I wait until she whimpers to wake her. “Jordy? Wake up, baby. You’re having a bad dream.”

She comes awake with a strangled gasp. “Grizz?”

“I’m here.” I snuggle her closer. “You’re safe with me.”

Her whole body instantly relaxes. I tip her back and brush her hair from her brow. “Another nightmare, Kit?”

With a sigh, she nods.

“You wanna draw it?”

“I’m okay.” She burrows deeper into my hold. “I feel safe with you.”

“I’m glad.”

“I never thought I’d feel that way. Not in a hundred million years,” she continues in a small voice.

My forehead creases. What the fuck did Augustine do to her, that she’s tormented every time she sleeps?

“What time is it?” She stretches and yawns.

“Close to dusk. Maybe a little after. I gotta go.”

“Do you have to?” She wriggles against me, waking delicious memories. And a monster—the one in my pants.

“Careful, Kit,” I growl. She giggles and I kiss her, swallowing her laughter.

“All right, enough.” I roll out of bed. “Rise and shine. Up and at ‘em.” I swat her as she dances from the bed into the direction of the bathroom. I want to pull her back to bed.

No! Bad bear. I need to head to the Fight Club to grab Benny, and take him to Frangelico for questioning. This hunt is close to being over. I can feel it.

I shake out the bed sheet and something flops to the floor. Jordy’s sketch pad. I go to grab it when an image on the page hits my eye. I recoil like it’s a rattlesnake.

“What is it?” Jordy asks from the doorway. She’s wearing nothing but her button-down shirt, and it’s not buttoned down. A second ago I would’ve been tempted.

I snatch up the sketch pad, holding it in the lamplight. I wasn’t mistaken. The image is clear—the one-eyed vampire.

“Grizz? What is it? What’s wrong?”

I keep my back to her. It’s too much to reconcile: the woman I love and the object of my hate. I never told her what he looked like. Did she know all along? Did Augustine know?

I can’t stop my thoughts from taking a dark turn. It’s too much of a coincidence that the monster haunting Jordy’s nightmares is my mother’s murderer.

Is it possible Jordy’s playing me? No. Not consciously—the vampires are pulling the strings. Is she a plant?

It makes sense. She’s the perfect bait. Augustine saw me slavering over her at Toxic, and conspired with my enemy to lure me out. At any moment, she could make a call and bring the vampires here. She just has to wait until this place is home to her, then she can invite them over the threshold.

No. Stop. This is Jordy we’re talking about. She couldn’t betray me. Could she?

I turn and the look on my face makes her back away.

“Grizz?” She glances from me to the sketch pad, hesitant and uncertain.

“What is this?” I hold the sketch in front of her face, my voice intentionally cold. “Why did you draw this?”

She shakes her head, her fingers trace the drawing lightly. “You said I should draw my nightmares.”

I drop the book and grasp her shoulders. “Who is he? Is Augustine in league with him?”

“Grizz, please—”

“Answer me!” I roar, even as my bear protests my rough treatment of her.

“I don’t know,” she cries. “I don’t know who he is. He’s in my dreams. I don’t remember. Augustine brought me to him, and I think they…I don’t remember.”

“Are you lying to me?” I tip her head back.

Tears hit her eyes. “I’ve never lied to you.”

She’s telling the truth. I sniff her over and can’t sense a lie. She might still be a pawn in this, but that’s not her fault.

“I’m sorry.” I back away. She tips her face up, pleading, but I can’t touch her, reassure her. I run my hand through my hair instead. “I was wrong. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just saw—” I gesture to the image. Fuck, my heart’s racing.

She picks the sketch pad up. “What is it? You’re scaring me.”

“That’s the vampire that killed my mother.” I stare at the face that haunts me. I haven’t seen his image in over fifteen years.

The blood drains out of Jordy’s face. She looks as tortured as I feel. “I didn’t know.” She sinks on the bed, the sketch pad in her lap, damning image on display.

Of course she didn’t. I’ve got to think clearly. Rationally. If I’m not the hunter, then I’m the prey.

I rub a hand over my face and clear my throat. “When did you meet him? Do you know?” There, that’s rational. Ask questions, figure things out. I’m Sherlock fucking Holmes.

Jordy hesitates. Her face twists in painful memory. When she speaks, she looks at the image. “It was recently. The past few months. I was blindfolded at first, but then they…got into things.”

“Sexual?” I ask, my voice cold, clinical.

She winces. “And other things. They fed. Just my pulse points at first but then—” she gestures to her heart. “I don’t remember that part.”

Makes sense. Heart blood is the most potent, but the most dangerous to take. Easy to kill your victim.

“Do you remember anything else?” She hesitates and I growl. “Jordy. Tell me now.”

“I felt like I was dying,” she whispers and my heart seizes. I’m an asshole, forcing her to remember. But I need to know. Everything I’ve worked for is at stake. “The vampires drank and drank, and I thought I would die. I passed out a few times. When I came to, they were giving me blood. Their blood.”

What. The. Fuck. Vampires sharing blood? With a shifter? Sounds like my arrangement with Frangelico. But why would they do that for Jordy?

When I ask, she shakes her head. “I don’t know. But it healed me. The blood made me feel strong again. But later, Augustine told me I’d failed. That I was too weak. He hated me after that.”

“So you tried to forget that night.” Until I made her remember. Yeah, I’m an asshole, but it’s time she knew. I’ve been playing house with a cute little fox for too long. Playtime’s over.

I tug the sketch pad from her hands and rip out the image of my enemy. A quick page through doesn’t reveal anymore telling images. I pause a moment on a sketch of my face, drawn lovingly, scars softened. “Kit—” the word sticks in my mouth. I swallow the endearment down. Gotta stay cool. No heart. No emotion. Nothing but the hunt.

I toss the pad on the bed next to her. “I’m going out. Stay.” I put enough dominance into the order to root her to the spot.

“Grizz—”

“I mean it.” If she leaves and Augustine finds her, he’ll get her to lead him straight to me. The hunter becomes the hunted. Not if I can help it. Once Frangelico and I question Benny, the truth will come out. Frangelico will give me enough blood to take out the one-eyed vampire and company. I just have to focus. That means getting a seductive fox out of my head.

With that thought, I head out of the bedroom without a second glance.

“Grizz,” she cries.

I stop in the doorway but don’t turn. “What?”

“I’m sorry.”

I make an impatient gesture. A sob hits my ears as I walk out, but I harden my heart. Stone cold hunter, hell bent on trapping his prey. I forgot for a moment, but it’s time for us both to learn: there’s no room in my heart for anything but revenge.