“Please. Make as many as you want. I’m out of my depth here.”
“Yeah, I know, Mister One-Night-Stand.” He grinned. “Go slowly. Take it easy with Elaine. A subtle seduction is best in this situation.”
“Okay. I can do subtle.” He’d never done it before, but it wasn’t too late to learn.
“Be a dad to her kids. Lend a hand around her home. Right now, she just needs support. But while you’re supporting her, maybe you could throw in a few coy looks and a couple of nice compliments. You don’t need me to tell you how it’s done. You might just need to tone it down. Help her realize she can’t live without you.”
He’d already been doing some of those things. He could do this. “Do you think it’s possible for a shifter to find love with another mate after the first one dies?”
“What the hell do I know? A couple of years ago, I would have said no. A couple of years ago, I didn’t even want humans on this island. Now I’m married to one and expecting a kid. I’m not so sure about all our old shifter wives’ tales. Since Lloyd passed, everything feels different. I do know this. If you don’t try to have something real with Elaine, and I meanreal, you might regret it for the rest of your life.”
“You’re right. I have to try.” Connor stood, determined, and walked to the door. “Thanks for listening.”
“No sweat. Oh, and one more thing, Connor.”
“Yeah?”
Ryland picked up the letter opener and ran his finger along its sharp blade. “You’re my friend and I love you like a brother, but if you hurt that woman, everyone here at the Ursa will form a line and take turns whooping your sad ass.”
“Noted. See you tonight.”
The phone rang. “Oh, hang on a second. I need to take this call.”
He sat back down and waited, his head perking up when Ry mentioned something about illegal hunting.
Ry rested his head in one hand and stared at his desk as he listened to the person on the phone. “Yeah. It doesn’t sound good. No, I realize it’s a busy week for me, but I’m going to ask my people to keep an eye on the area. There’s no way anyone at the Ursa would tolerate this shit. Okay, Drew. We’ll be in touch.” He hung up.
“Was that the cops?” Their friend Drew Maitland, a bear shifter, was chief of the small police force on the mainland.
“Yeah. Drew wanted me to be aware of a situation. It seems someone has been hunting wild bears the past few weeks.”
“But hunting season is over in November.”
“Exactly. Drew mentioned this to me a while ago. He seemed to think the incidents were isolated at the time, but they’re seeing patterns now. They suspect the bears are being hunted for their organs.”
“For the black market?”
“You got it. There are people out there who’d pay a lot of money for bear gallbladders and bile.”
Connor made a noise of disgust. “No self-respecting hunter would attack a bear when it’s in torpor.”
“As you know, this isn’t about sport. It’s about greed.” Ryland frowned. “I don’t like this. Drew said they’ve found brown bear and grizzly carcasses near the entrances to some caves, and the path seems to be leading in our direction. I promised him we’d keep an eye out for any suspicious characters.”
“Of course. Do you want me to bring Bart and the other guys up to speed?”
“I’ll call a meeting for this afternoon. This bothers me. We’ve had to deal with enough shit around here. If anyone so much as puts a foot out of order around this resort, they’ll regret it. We’ve all reached our breaking points. I won’t lie, Connor. I’m glad you’re staying.”
“Yeah, me too.” If there really was a threat out there, he wouldn’t feel right leaving the island.
He’d wanted to make a contribution. A perfect one had landed in his lap.
There was no way he’d leave the Ursa knowing unsavory people were hunting nearby. As shifters, they probably had nothing to worry about, but the very fact someone would attack a hibernating bear made his stomach turn. Even his mountain lion objected with a yowl.
As shifters, they were connected to the earth in a way most humans weren’t. To them, trees weren’t just trees. Leaves weren’t just leaves. And animals weren’t just dumb beasts; they were majestic creatures, God’s handiwork at its best. They all had a purpose, and the shifter community owed it to their animal counterparts to protect them when they couldn’t protect themselves.
As he left the office, he made another vow. He would do everything in his power to find the piece of shit who was killing bears and treat him to a bit of shape shifter justice.
God only knew, he was just pissed off enough to do it.
