Southern Shifters: Bearing the Ink (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Black & White Book 3) Read Online Free

country roads brought him freedom. Being out and away from the closeness of a family who didn’t really belong to him usually made him feel at one with nature, at one with who he really was. A bear. A shifter. A lover of the outdoors. An artist. The forests and the mountains were his inspiration for the art he used to express himself and that he used to help others find ways of expression through ink.
    Bex relaxed as he began to decelerate the closer they got to Dandridge. He loved it, the way she put her faith in him. As he turned down the side street that led to the Victorian house they were still in the process of renovating, he scented the wolves, first. Blackwood must’ve left them behind. He also scented the bears of his adoptive family, namely his adoptive mother.
    Bex gripped his shirt and lifted her head when he parked his bike. Her thighs didn’t ease their grip on his hips. Her arousal was strong, the way it always was when the wolves were around. It was the craziest damn thing, that the scent of them made her angry and horny and aggressive.
    If he hadn’t been on the receiving end, or seen the split second shift in her moods, he wouldn’t have believed Bex capable of it.
    “She’s cooking,” Gus said, speaking of the woman who’d raised him as her own. He took his helmet off and hung it on the handlebars.
    “I smelled it about a mile out,” Michael remarked as he mirrored Gus’s actions with his headgear.
    “I can’t smell it. What’s she cooking? Anything good?” Bex swung her leg over and slid off the bike.
    “She’s frying fish. Catfish.”
    “Trout,” Gus countered.
    “Nope. Catfish. It’s my favorite.”
    “What does it being your favorite have to do with anything? She’s here at our house. So, it stands to reason that she’s making my favorite.”
    Bex shook her head and took the back steps to the kitchen door. “You two are pathetic.”
    “They are,” Meryl, Gus’s mother, agreed. “They’ve always argued about food. Especially fish. And sweets.”
    “Other than fish, what are you making? Smells like hamburgers.”
    “Yes. Hamburger steaks. The wolves didn’t want fish.”
    “Why does it matter what they want?” Gus asked, elbowing Michael in the ribs. “Catfish. Told ya.”
    “There’s trout too, you big baby.”
    Michael grinned and hugged his mother. “I knew I was your favorite.”
    “Oh, go on.” She shoved him away with a laugh. “Hello, dear girl,” she said to Bex, pulling her into an embrace. “How are you?”
    Gus saw the smile on Bex’s face. Genuine. Filled with openness, most times. Other times, he knew she was still trying to make sense of the fact that she had more family than she knew what to do with. “I’m… I’m okay,” she answered honestly. “It smells delicious in here. Nice to see the stove getting a workout.”
    “I hope you don’t mind. There was a houseful of hungry shifters and I thought it was better to keep them here and under foot, than to let them go roaming the town.”
    “No, of course not. And thank you for keeping them contained. I don’t think the town is ready for the invasion. The neighbors already wonder what’s going on.”
    “They do?”
    “Yeah.” Gus nodded and settled his arms on Bex’s shoulders. “We’ve had a couple come by, asking what was up with all the motorcycles and big, scary men. Wanted us to know this was a peaceful community.”
    “What did you tell them?”
    “That we’re here for all their daughters and single women,” Michael quipped. He stood at the stove, peeking under the lids of large pots. The back of his hand was smacked with a wooden spoon for his efforts.
    “Just because this isn’t your home, doesn’t mean the same rules don’t apply. Hands off until dinner.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Where’re the wolves?”
    “Around.”
    Gus lifted his head at the unfamiliar voice. “Who the hell are you?” He wrapped his arms around Bex’s chest in a protective gesture and