Page 2 of Delivered to My Beasts
But sitting here in her spot, armed with the conversation I’d overheard, the clouds that had covered my eyes since she passed. Mom never would have wanted me to be forced into a mating that would lead to nothing but sadness. She would never have allowed my father, no matter how it might affect him, to do something to harm his daughters. I had to leave, but I had nowhere to go. I’d tried to save up, but I rarely got my hands on any money, so I didn’t have enough yet. And time was running out.
While I sat there, a couple of young women passed, chatting away about some sort of an app where you could hook up with other shifters. “I hear the Beasts are on it,” one giggled. “Can you imagine anyone wanting to be alone with three fierce bears?”
The other girl shivered. “I don’t know if I’d be brave enough to do it, but I don’t mind imagining it.”
The Beasts. Getting out my phone, I downloaded the app they’d mentioned. Mail-Order Matings. There were no people called Beasts, of course, but the pair had said enough about them for me to find their profiles. They were big and strong looking, fierce even.
The answer to my prayers?
Or something else?
Chapter Two
Duke
When I was planting trees, I yearned for the off season, but a week into my resting time, I missed the activity of my job. Reforestation hadn’t been at the top of my career goals when I was a kid. I dreamed of being an astronaut, but bear-shifter astronaut wasn’t in the cards for me.
I tried to keep my routines as tightly as possible to the busy season but on days like today, the gym in the garage didn’t interest me in the least.
“Staring at it won’t get it done,” Crew said, clapping me hard on my shoulder. My bond brother was right, of course, but I wasn’t giving him the satisfaction. He came in and stared at the Smith machine as though it were his enemy. He was dressed like me. Sweatpants. No shirt. No shoes. We wouldn’t be able to dress as we did in a typical gym but this was our home.
“I know. Just giving myself a pep talk. Besides, you have no room to talk.”
“I come in here. Sometimes. Mostly, I let my bear do the exercise for me.”
Crew worked a desk job, and I didn’t envy him. My bear would’ve been out of control if I tried to sit in any chair for most of the day. He not only took care of our investments, but he did medical coding as his main job. My ass would be numb.
“Well, your human muscles need a workout too.”
“That’s why I’m here. Get your headphones on, and put your money where your mouth is, Duke.”
For an hour or so, we did just that.
I had to stay in shape for my job. When I first saw it posted, I thought it was a joke. Get paid a full year’s salary for a few months of work to walk through the mountains, valleys, and hillsand plant trees. Just me, a shovel, a bag full of saplings, and a pocket with flags. The sun shining down and clean air all around me. No phone calls. No internet. No expectations.
And up there, where I worked, no one knew our reputation as the Beasts of Hawthorne. Of course, it was that very reputation that kept us safe, but it also kept us isolated.
The silence could be deafening. The three of us worked and lived together with such synchronicity it tended to be boring. Safe. Secure. But boring.
Plus, everyone running for the hills when we went into town all but guaranteed we had no chance to meet a female, much less find our fated mate.
That was why we joined the Mail-Order Matings app in the first place. Females online wouldn’t know about the small-town whispers that we were monsters.
We were the furthest thing from monsters, for the record.
Our reputation was something that grew on its own without our permission. We hadn’t done anything to warrant the rumors. I’d heard some of the murmuring. Our shifter hearing came in both handy and in negative ways. According to the townspeople, we were murderers, thieves, the worst of the worst, and had been kicked out of our sleuth when we were only cubs because we were bad seeds.
We’d moved out of our sleuth of our own accord. Our parents visited us frequently.
Not that they would care a bit for the truth. Packs and people needed someone to be the scapegoat for their fear.
And we simply didn’t care if they knew the truth or not. We’d been around enough of them to know that none of the females we’d encountered was our fated mate.
I finished a semi-decent workout and went inside to shower. It was my night to cook. We were responsible for our own mealsin general but for dinner, we made it a priority to get together. We were family, after all.
We all tended to make our favorite meals when it was our turn to cook. Tonight would be meat loaf and mashed potatoes with pea salad. It was one of the meals I dreamed about when I was eating an MRE in the middle of nowhere.
Jax was outside in his shop, making the last piece of an outdoor set that someone had custom ordered online. He took his time with each piece, and so it took months to fulfill one order at a time. Then again, that was why the customers paid premium price for his furniture.
