Page 27 of Hunny and the Bear (Bearly Yours #1)

Twenty Seven

“ O h, God,” Hunny wheezed, the stench of her own vomit filling her nose. Her gut churned, and her forehead was damp with sweat as she struggled to breathe.

“Holy shit, are you alright?” Jasper bit out a sharp curse, rushing toward her. Natasha’s severed head swayed back and forth in his grip, the strands of hair twisting together as the dead she-wolf’s face circled back into view.

“Get that thing away from me!” Hunny exclaimed, covering her mouth as more bile rose in her throat. Without another look at the bear shifter, she darted shakily up the stairs, racing into the bathroom. She slammed the door shut behind her, barely making it to the toilet in time.

Dropping to her knees, she bent over and vomited again, retching until she was sure there was nothing left in her stomach. With a soft moan of despair, Hunny wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand, feeling more than a little light-headed as her vision swam. When she was confident she wouldn’t be sick again, she plopped onto her ass, scooting back until the porcelain tub pressed against her spine. It was cold, seeping into her clothing after a few minutes as she waited for her stomach to stop cramping.

She’d gotten lucky so far with her pregnancy and had hoped she wouldn’t get sick at all for the foreseeable future. Now her streak was ruined, and Jason’s dead mate was responsible.

As soon as the thought crossed her mind, Hunny felt like an asshole. Wasn’t it taboo to think ill of the dead? At that moment, it didn’t matter that Natasha had tried to kill Hunny. The she-wolf must have died horrifically. She’d only caught a few glimpses of Natasha’s detached head, but it looked like someone had torn it clean off—

“Shit, don’t think about it,” Hunny whined out loud as nausea reared its head once more. Dragging her legs up, she dropped her forehead to her knees, squeezing her eyes shut and taking a deep, shuddering breath, hoping like hell she could calm down.

Unfortunately, that was much easier said than done, mostly because she’d never seen a dead person before. Or … part of one. Hunny groaned pitifully. She couldn’t get the wretched image out of her head. Who’d killed her? And possibly worse—who’d thrown her head at the front door? Jasper didn’t seem concerned with chasing anyone down, but it was probably because he didn’t want to leave her alone while a threat remained outside.

A shiver raced down her spine. Was the killer still lurking about on Tank’s property? Who was it? What was it? Could it be Jason? No way. Since they were bonded, he would have felt every moment of her death, so it couldn’t be him. Then who? Someone else from his pack? Natasha had clearly been a warning—what if they were coming after Hunny next? What if they got into the house and hurt her babies?

Logically, she knew shifters killed people; it happened all the time in skirmishes and when they went to war. But that was war , not some kind of sick, senseless slaughter, and definitely not the same thing as chopping off a head and tossing it onto the front porch. What kind of disturbed freak did that?

Fuck! She wanted Tank—needed him here with her. Now more than ever before.

There was a soft knock on the door, and she whimpered in fear before she registered Jasper’s scent just on the other side of the wood. “Hey, how are you feeling?”

She grimaced, ignoring the knot of fear twisting in her gut. “What kind of question is that, Jasper? Someone threw a severed head at the front door!” Just saying it out loud caused her mind to create an image of what must have happened, and she swore she could hear a squelching sound as the head hit—

“Murphy and Tank are on their way, and the rest of the clan is on lockdown. Hopefully, we can find whoever did this before they escape.”

At the mention of Tank, Hunny’s eyes watered, and a heavy weight settled on her chest as she fought back the urge to cry. “How soon before Henry gets here?” she asked, despising the tremor in her voice.

Don’t cry! You’re not some weak female. It’s just pregnancy hormones; nothing to do with the fact that a murderer is lurking outside.

She let out a small, pathetic sob. Oh God. There was a murderer outside—

“I don’t know. Maybe another ten—”

“Get the hell out of the way.” Tank’s muffled voice was little more than a snarl on the other side of the door, and immediately, that weight pressing on her chest eased. Hunny’s head snapped up just as the doorknob twisted, the door pushing open softly despite the menacing aura her mate brought with him as he entered. As soon as he spotted her, some of the tension drained from his shoulders. His eyes softened, too, but that did little to eliminate the furious gleam in his gaze as his impressive form filled the doorway. “Ah, little rabbit, don’t cry—”

Hunny’s chin wobbled. She let out another small sob, throwing herself at her mate as soon as he knelt down beside her. Tank scooped her up into his arms before standing to his full height and carrying her into the bedroom. Sitting on the bed, he readjusted her until she was straddling his waist, her face now buried in the crook of his neck as she cried.

She absolutely hated losing control of her emotions, but it seemed like every slight inconvenience made her hormonal lately, and if this wasn’t a good reason to cry in her mate’s arms, what was?

“You’re alright,” Tank whispered tenderly, his large palm sliding up and down her back in a soothing caress. “You’re safe, baby. I won’t let anything happen to you or the kits.”

“I know,” she wailed against his neck, her lips tracing over the mating mark she’d given him less than twenty-four hours ago. She inhaled deeply, dragging his scent into her lungs to help steady her racing emotions. “I-I’m just freaking out because I’ve never seen a dead body before, let alone a-a severed head .”

Tank stiffened before releasing a harsh growl so fierce it vibrated against her chest. “You showed her the goddamn head?”

“Hm?” Jasper asked innocently, a nervous note in his voice. “I mean, I might have come back inside with the head in my hand.”

“You showed my pregnant mate a severed head?”

Hunny’s stomach flipped, that unfortunate familiar burn creeping back up her throat. “Can you please stop saying that?” she begged, swallowing bile back down as she hugged Tank tightly to her. “I don’t want to be sick again.”

“Of course, baby,” Tank crooned, rubbing his palm up and down her back once more. To Jasper, he snarled, “I’m going to beat your fucking ass.”

“What did you want me to do, Tank? I had to watch Hunny!”

“You keep the goddamn he— object —outside!”

“Oh, that’s easy for you to say,” Jasper argued. “You weren’t here. You were off at your meeting, and I did what I thought was right.”

“And what exactly was that? Scaring my mate until she was sick?”

“No, getting the fuck back inside to protect her in case we were attacked.”

Tank fell silent, but he kept his hand running gently over her back.

“Jasper’s right,” Hunny murmured against his skin. “It’s not really his fault I saw Nata—”

She pushed away from Tank, nearly tripping over her own feet as she raced back into the bathroom, her mate hot on her heels. This time, as she retched into the toilet, he was there with her, pulling back her hair to keep it from falling across her face. He spoke softly to her, little words of encouragement that were both ridiculous and incredibly sweet as she dry heaved until she was exhausted.

Her head pounded by the time she was finally finished, and she was more than a little thirsty as she slumped against the wall in a heap. Crouching down beside her, her mate ran the pad of his thumb over her cheeks, wiping away her stray tears.

“How about a nice bath, baby? Those little bath bombs will help you feel better, and afterward, I’ll get you something to drink.” Tank stood, turning toward Jasper, who still lingered in their bedroom. “Wait downstairs, yeah? I’m going to get Hunny settled, and then Murphy will be back in with the others by the time I come down.”

Jasper nodded. “They hunting down the fucker who did this?”

“Yeah, they are.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t go with them, Tank.” Jasper tilted his head curiously to the side. “Figured you’d want their head on a silver platter—”

Hunny gagged.

Tank released her hair and lunged at his brother, shoving so hard he sent the male flying backward. Jasper hit the edge of the bed, bouncing awkwardly off the side before slamming onto the ground with a heavy thud.

“Rude,” he wheezed, pulling himself up from the undignified lump he now was. “I’ll just go wait downstairs,” he groaned roughly.

Once he was gone, Tank re-entered the bathroom, closing the door hard behind him. He crossed over to her side, running a hand through her sweat-dampened hair. “You think you’ll get sick again, darlin’?”

She really hoped not.

Hunny shook her head, letting him pull her to her feet. “I need to brush my teeth,” she muttered as he turned the tub faucet on. Moving over to the vanity, she did just that, grabbing her toothbrush and applying a heavy amount of toothpaste to the bristles.

She’d just gotten done scrubbing her entire mouth when Tank plucked the toothbrush from her hand, rinsing it off and placing it into the holder.

“Hey! I wasn’t done with that,” Hunny groaned forlornly. She needed another five minutes at least to wash the acidic taste out of her mouth.

Tank narrowed his eyes at her in exasperation. “You scrubbed any harder and your teeth would have cracked.”

Hunny sighed. “It wasn’t that bad.” She ran her tongue over her teeth, just to prove a point, and then winced at how sensitive her gums felt. Okay, maybe he was right, but she wouldn’t admit that out loud.

Grunting, Tank tugged her shirt over her head, dropping it carelessly to the floor before reaching for the waistband of her leggings. His palm slid over her lower belly reverently before he undressed her the rest of the way. Lifting her up, he carried her the few feet to the bath before he began lowering her into the warm water. “Into the tub, little rabbit.”

She sank down gratefully into the blissfully warm water as he moved back to the sink, grabbing a bath bomb from the cabinet and unwrapping it before crouching down beside the tub.

“I need to talk about something, anything, to take my mind off of earlier.”.

“Yap away, baby.”

Hunny cleared her throat, struggling to find a topic that wasn’t related to Natasha. Unfortunately, the she-wolf was at the forefront of her mind, impossible to forget. She floundered before giving up and asking, “How was the meeting, Henry?”

Tank snorted, sending her a knowing look. “Jason was a prick. Noticed we were mated almost immediately.” Her brows rose in surprise, and he shrugged, sending her a small smirk. “I might have stated it outright. He seemed more concerned about you than his own mate.” He dropped the bath bomb into the water, and almost immediately, it began to fizz and dissolve.

Hunny made a face. “Well, he’ll probably regret that when he finds out what happened to her.” Tank hummed noncommittally in response, grabbing a washcloth and her shower gel container. He squirted some of the liquid onto the cloth. “Who do you think did that to Natasha?” she asked hesitantly. “It wasn’t someone from your clan, was it?”

She doubted it, but did she really know anyone besides Tank’s family?

Tank shook his head, bringing the wet, sudsy cloth to her bare shoulder. He ran it down her skin, eyes locked on his task as he answered, “No one within our clan would do something like this, Hunny. Maybe we’d take down an intruder, but we wouldn’t defile their corpse. Or deliver them to someone like that.”

“How long do you think she’s been dead?” She ignored the way her nipples pebbled as the cloth slid over her breasts, staring up at his handsome face instead. “Jason had to feel her die. They were fully mated; it would be impossible for him to not feel it.”

Even if they hadn’t bonded fully—emotional connections usually took months or longer to form between chosen mates, and sometimes it took even longer still before they could communicate telepathically—he’d still feel her death. It would be like his soul had split in two.

And if Tank believed him to be crazy and unpredictable before this, what would Jason be like now? He’d essentially accused Murphy of kidnapping Natasha, and now, on the same night, she was dead in bear territory.

“From what I could smell, the blood was fresh. She couldn’t be dead for more than an hour.”

Hunny shivered. Tank frowned, turning the faucet back on and adding more hot water to the tub. She didn’t have the heart to tell him the chill she felt was soul-deep.

“Can you imagine if she’d died while Jason was with you all? He’d have lost his mind. It could have caused a war,” she muttered.

Tank swore under his breath as his head shot up, eyes meeting hers. “Maybe that was the plan. I need to talk to Murphy.”