Figure of Speech

Well, shit. “My mother.” It was right after he told her he was going to find Spencer whether she liked it or not.

The two men shared a confused look. “That doesn’t make sense.”

Alex was watching him suspiciously, as if he thought Jim was lying to him. “Aunt Laura told me she’d called and told you about Chloe.”

Jim shook his head. “Nope. I never spoke to her until I got there and Chloe was already awake.”

“What the fuck, man?” Alex looked confused as hell.

Jim shrugged. “Maybe something got confused?” God, please let it be that and not my mother being a bitch. “I know your aunt was upset. It’s possible my mother just didn’t understand what she was being told.” A remote possibility, it was true, but still there. He refused to believe his mother had lied to him on purpose.

Ryan shot him a sharp look. “You kept telling her she was too young for you.”

“She is.” Jim still couldn’t get over the age difference, but he’d have to. There was ten years between them, and she’d practically been a baby when he first met her. “When I visited her in the hospital no one told me how bad she’d been.” She’d been bruised, battered, scared and scarred, but she’d been awake. Her green eyes had glowed when she’d first seen him, dulling when he told her that they couldn’t be together.

Fuck. If he’d known then what he knew now, he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from being with her. As it was, he’d been so torn between his duty to Spencer and his desire for Chloe that he’d become a bear to live with.

“If it weren’t for Julian, she would be dead.”

Jim almost howled out loud.

The cousins exchanged another, unreadable glance. “Speaking of Julian…”

“You might want to have a little chat with him.” Ryan cleared his throat. “The two of them have a…connection most other shifters don’t.”

Connection? Oh, Jim’s Wolf didn’t like the sound of that. Not one little bit. It didn’t matter boo-squat to him that Julian DuCharme was madly in love with his mate, Cynthia Reyes. He squinted at the two men, noting how uncomfortable they looked all of a sudden. “What kind of connection?”

Ryan zipped his lips as Alex shook his head and held up his hands. “Nuh-uh. Talk to Super Bear. Or better yet, Chloe. Let them explain it.”

“I’m not even sure I could if I tried.” Ryan frowned, looking confused. “It’s not a mate bond, but it’s really close.”

Jim surprised himself with a loud, animalistic snarl. The world lost color as his eyes shifted, the reds and greens of the parking lot turning yellow and brown. Anyone with a mate-like connection to Chloe that Jim didn’t have deserved pain.

Ryan wagged his finger at him. “Now you know how she felt whenever she saw you with another woman.”

Jim took a deep breath, trying to calm his Wolf. “I haven’t been on a date in over a year.”

“Bullshit,” Alex coughed into his hand.

“Seriously. The one time you all saw me out I was with a colleague, someone I was trying to lure into my practice. Remember Doc Klein?” He waited until they both nodded. “He retired six months ago. I just managed to replace him.” It was one of the many reasons he’d been so swamped. He’d had to take on not only his own patients, but Doc Klein’s as well. “He had that massive heart attack and was forced to take early retirement.”

From the expression on their faces they hadn’t known that little tidbit. Neither of them owned pets, and they’d been busy with their own personal issues. “No wonder you’ve been unavailable,” Alex muttered.

“And I wasn’t able to talk to anyone about any of this, not even Emma. Between my parents, Spencer’s illness, and Doc Klein? I was fucking swamped. Then I get the whole fur-faced thing plopped on top of that, and we’re lucky I’m not in a hug-me jacket humming ‘Psycho Chicken’.”

“You still need to…psycho what?” Ryan tilted his head. “There’s a song called ‘Psycho Chicken’?” He turned to Alex. “Why haven’t I heard of this?”

Alex grunted, ignoring his insane cousin. “You still need to make time for Chloe.”

Ryan was glaring again, but there was a little more sympathy in his gaze too.

“I plan on it.”

“Good.” Ryan held out his hand. “Make sure you talk to Julian before you confront Chloe about the bond they have. He’ll be able to explain it better than we can.”

“And ask Cyn how she feels about it.” Alex took his hand next. “She’s in the same position you are, so she’ll be able to give you a little more insight on how your Wolf will react when the two of them connect.”

The more Jim heard about this the less he liked it. He was definitely going to have to speak to Julian and Cyn, preferably before he spoke to Chloe. “I’ll talk to him.”

“Good.” Ryan looked relieved, but Alex still looked a bit worried. “Chloe won’t admit it but I know she’s concerned about how you’ll react to her bond along with everything else that’s wrong with her.”

“I didn’t leave her alone because she has trouble talking. I was taking care of a terminally ill brother.” Jim wanted that clear right from the start. “Besides, I knew nothing about shifters and mates. If I had, things might have been different.” If Chloe had been up front with him, he would have…

Hell, he would have freaked the fuck out, but he wasn’t completely unreasonable. Once he’d seen her shift he would have believed her. The undeniable draw toward her would have been explained. The need to simply breathe the same air as her would have made perfect sense.

“Would they?” Alex was watching him, his expression skeptical. “I’ve seen what happens when humans find out about us. Some of them accept it just fine, but most run as far and as fast as they can.”

“Not from Chloe, I wouldn’t have.” Not ever.

“You already did.” Ryan patted him on the shoulder. “But at least you’re not running anymore, right?”

“Right.” Jim rubbed his shoulder once Ryan lifted his gigantic, fifty-pound paw off of it. What the fuck did the Bunsun-Williamses feed their kids? Stainless steel Wheaties?