“Don’t take her medicine.” Clayton’s robotic voice sounded desperate.
“Is that what this is really about? You don’t want me around her so she doesn’t cure me.” Tobias drew back and blinked hard as it dawned on him what Clayton was really scared of. “Are you afraid you’ll lose your precious guard dogs if our animals are suppressed?”
“You’re better than that! Better than humans, and she’ll turn you human. She was supposed to suppress the misfits and improve the medicine. She was supposed to fix the McCall curse, not turn our damned species into humans! Vera will dull your bear, dull your senses, and you’ll be worthless to me. I want you and your brothers to figure out everything on your own, but this is too much. That witch is already in your head.”
Tobias’s heart pounded so hard against his sternum, his chest ached.
I want you and your brothers to figure out everything on your own.
With shaking hands, Tobias ended the call and dropped the phone onto the ground at his feet, desperate not to be touching it anymore.
His mind skittered away from the possibility, but with each racing thought, every enforcer mission began to make sense.
Horrified, he felt like retching as he realized something awful.
He knew who Clayton was.
Chapter Seven
The door opened, letting in a draft, and Vera squeezed her eyes closed, feigning sleep. Tobias clicked the door closed quietly, and the soft rustling of clothes sounded over the drone of the air conditioner. She could feel Tobias standing at the end of the bed.
“I know you’re awake, Thistle.”
The mattress shifted and sank under his weight, and he pulled the covers back, then slipped into bed beside her before covering them both up.
Still angry, she rolled away from him and glared at the blue light that filtered through the space between the blinds in the hotel window.
“I believe you,” he murmured.
Shocked, Vera twisted around to see if he was serious.
“Vera, what does Clayton look like?”
Baffled by his question, it took her a few moments to answer. “Tall, broad shoulders, probably mid-fifties. Silver hair.”
“Anything else?”
“Yeah. He has three long scars down the side of his face, like something clawed him.”
Tobias let off a tiny, painful sound. “Clayton is my dad.”
“What?” She sat up and leaned back on her locked arms.
Tobias looked ill in the blue light. “He said something when I called him just now. Something he used to tell me and my brothers when we were kids and curious about how our first Change would be or what we should do for our first hibernation. He wouldn’t tell us anything, and he would always say the same thing when we asked—that he wanted us to figure everything out for ourselves. That’s part of what being a bear shifter is, right? Relying completely on instinct.”
“That sounds awful. Instinct doesn’t work like that. You aren’t all animal.”
“He didn’t get that. Still doesn’t, I guess.”
“When was the last time you talked to your dad, you know, as your dad?”
“I’m thirty now, and the last time I talked to him on the phone was the spring after my first hibernation. He’d been wrong. I didn’t know what to do and neither did my brothers, and we were so scared, huddled in this shallow den, not even understanding we had to Change into our bears to hibernate. I attacked Jenner.” Tobias swallowed hard, over and over. In a steadier tone, he continued. “I almost killed my brother, and I couldn’t stop myself. And now I can’t stop having dreams about his face when I was killing him.”
“But you didn’t kill him. He’s okay. I researched your family. Jenner is alive.”
“He’s scarred up, Vera.” Tobias’s voice broke. “It was all I could do to get off him and let him live, and I left Ian to try and put him back together with almost no medical supplies. I was hungry and confused and so mad at everything that was happening. And I hurt him. You didn’t kill Eustice, Vera. He was doomed the day he was born a McCall. I actually went after my brother and tried to kill him.”
“Not you. Your bear did, and you said it yourself—it was confusing, and you had no guidance.”
“I wanted to blame my dad, so I called him when I woke up that next spring and lit into him. Yelling, cussing, telling him I hated him, and I did. I think I still do. He didn’t even defend himself. He was just like, ‘Lesson learned, boy. Grizzlies don’t get along. Do your brothers a favor and move on from them.’ And I did because I thought he must be right. This was the way it was supposed to be for grizzly shifters. No relationships, no mates, just a solitary existence so we don’t hurt other people.”