Grayslake: Furrever Yours (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read Online Free Page A

her…”
    “Damn it to hell!” Ty growled at her furiously. “You didn’t think at all! An unconscious shifter in the emergency room is likely to spontaneously shift. And expose us all to humans. You should have at least stayed on the floor until Knox showed up.”
    “And now we have absolutely no fu— Uh, hello. We have no darned idea where she is,” Knox said as an attractive pregnant woman marched out the door. She had a pleasant round face and brown curly hair and a little up-turned nose. Her stomach was just starting to swell.
    “Language!” the woman said, looking indignantly at Ty. Mia, his Itana, the female leader of the clan. A small boy, bear cub, trotted along next to her, holding her hand. His name was Parker; Knox had heard something about her and Ty adopting him after his parents had been murdered by his uncle.
    She patted her rounded belly protectively with her free hand. “You’re setting a bad example for Parker, and for our bun in the oven. See, our guest isn’t swearing.”
    She was the only bear in the clan who could get away with talking to Ty like that.
    Ty shot a look at Knox as if he’d like to eviscerate him with his claws.
    Knox smiled at her, flashing an innocent smile, just to annoy Ty, because he really wasn’t crazy about wolves. “Oh, no, ma’am, my grandmother raised me never to swear around a lady,” he said with exaggerated politeness, and he saw Ty’s eyes glow with rage.
    “Swear jar,” Mia added to Ty. “You owe five bucks. Don’t think I’ll forget. And did you offer our guests a drink?”
    “Oh, I couldn’t impose,” Knox said. “We’ve got to get back out there and keep looking. The Northeast Alpha’s going to blow a gasket if I don’t track this girl down. But thank you for offering. Itan, Itana,” he added, with as short a nod of his head as he could get away with and still be respectful. The truth was, he didn’t want to enter a bear’s house, and he didn’t want to hang out with them long enough to have a drink. Although Mia wasn’t too bad. Then again, she was only part bear, from what he’d heard, so maybe that was why.
    He turned to go, then glanced back at Ty. “You’ll let us know if you hear anything?”
    “Yeah, we’ll let you know,” Ty said, looking annoyed. “But you wolves need to start taking care of your own problems. We’re not here to clean up your messes.”
    Clarence stifled a snarl and speared Ty with a look of pure hatred.
    That did it. Knox straightened up and fixed Ty with a stone-cold glare. Ty couldn’t get away with disrespecting him in front of his Beta. “Is that so?” he said coldly. “We wolves wish you’d take care of your own problems too, like when you went to war with the hyenas and you had to go running to the Redby Pack to save your furry asses. Sorry, ma’am,” he added to Mia, and fished a five-dollar bill from his wallet. “That’s for the swear jar.”
    Ty met Knox’s eyes and let out a low, rumbling growl. Mia let out a snort of impatience, muttered, “Men,” and grabbed Parker and hustled him back inside. Knox kept staring at Ty, steadily. Shifters could instinctively sense who was stronger, and that determined their pack or clan hierarchy. Ty and Knox were about equally matched. Of course, they were on bear property, so Ty would have plenty of backup and Knox only had Clarence.
    Still, Clarence would go down fighting. He’d die before he let anyone get at Knox.
    After a moment that stretched out for eons, Ty finally growled, “Get the hell off our property.”
    Knox lifted his lip in a snarl. “With pleasure. Didn’t want to come here in the first place. Wouldn’t have had to, if your clan member hadn’t screwed up and risked revealing us to the entire human species.” He shot a withering glare at Virginia, who looked away and hugged herself, near tears.
    He and Clarence climbed into Knox’s patrol car and left the Grayslake bears’ property, fuming.
    Fortunately, they didn’t