Page 22 of Blood and Bone
Maybe the animal instinct was stronger when compared with human instincts. Or finding out that a man you worked with every day was at the very least, a sexual predator, didn’t allow for niceties. Maybe this was how shifter justice was supposed to be carried out, with an epic battle of tooth and claw until the threat was neutralized. At the moment, he wished he knew more about shifter culture and was beating himself up for not asking more questions before walking into the situation today.
“Two Trees, listen to what I’m saying,” Eoghan said in a tone Ari hadn’t heard often. He suspected he only used it when trying to pacify a subject. It was calm and extremely soothing. The bears stood about a yard from the squealing opossum, growling like crazy, but to their credit, not advancing. There was no doubt in Ari’s mind that they could have torn the thing to pieces in a matter of seconds. Perhaps they didn’t need Eoghan to tell them not to attack. And were practicing as much restraint as they could.
In the case of Deputy Uwaite, Ari suspected he’d only shifted when he’d realized the chief was about to. Two Trees had seemed much angrier than Alo had been, and it was the deputy who’d spoken to him in their native tongue to calm him down before the horrible timing of Colt Wilkins’ arrival. Maybe Ari was completely off base, and they had little to nocontrol over their shift when they were very upset as they’d both appeared to be when reading Riversong’s diary. In any case, if they were going to get Wilkins out of this mess alive and in one piece, they would have to get the chief and his deputy to shift back.
“Two Trees…Uwaite…listen to my voice,” Eoghan repeated. “This isn’t helping. You need to shift back so we can arrest this bastard.”
Two Trees, the larger of the grizzlies stopped growling and looked back at them with glowing, violet eyes. In bear form, the man was gorgeous if not terrifying. The grizzly stood almost seven feet tall with signature grizzly anatomy…a large hump in his upper back and paws the size of dinner plates tipped with three-inch-long claws. Ari suspected one swipe of those claws could rip a man’s stomach open, exposing his intestines in a garish display. His muzzle had fur in a lighter color than the rest of him. But that wasn’t what caught Ari’s attention when he looked at the bear’s face. Instead, he couldn’t drag his gaze away from the way his black lip curled up, revealing vicious fangs.
“That’s right, Two Trees…Joe…calm yourself and shift back,” Eoghan said. “Trust me, Wilkins got your message. Look at how he’s cowering in the corner right where he belongs.”
Two Trees was listening because he turned back and snarled at the opossum before turning back to him. Speaking softly, Eoghan said, “Come on…shift back so you can arrest him. He needs to face the consequences for what he did but not like this. If what Riversong wrote is true, you need to honor her and arrest this bastard, not kill him. Death is too good for him, and you know it.”
Ari watched as his snarl gradually disappeared from the bear’s muzzle. He gave a sharp bear nod and to Ari’s shock,shifted back to the police chief in the blink of an eye. Ari stared at the naked man, knowing that his mouth must be hanging open, but didn’t care. Two Trees was looking around for his uniform and gun. He found it in a pile on the floor several paces away and picked it up. It fluttered back to the ground.
“Son-of-a-bitch,” he muttered.
Ari bit his lip to hold back a chuckle as he looked at the clothes which had been torn to ribbons.
“I’ll get you and your deputy some of Jack’s clothes,” Ari said. “Get Uwaite to shift back and we’ll deal with this—” He waved his hand toward the animal near the front door. “Opossum,” he finished. He didn’t wait for a reply. Glancing at Eoghan, he asked, “Are you okay here without me?”
Eoghan nodded. “Yeah, go get them some clothes. I’ll deal with this.” He canted his head toward the chief who’d walked over to Uwaite—still in grizzly form—and placed a hand on his back, leaning down and speaking quietly to him in their native tongue.
Ari gave Eoghan one last glance before turning and walking out of the room. After collecting sweatpants, two shirts, and some socks, he walked back out into the living room, curious as to what he was about to see.
Uwaite had changed back to human and as soon as Ari walked into the living room, he rushed across the floor and grasped his hand, shaking it. “Thank you for not shooting me,” he said with a voice much rougher than Ari had ever heard him speaking before. He took the pile of clothes from him and lifted them in a salute before walking back to the chief who climbed into the gear, not even checking sizes or anything. Ari and the two grizzly shifters were almost the same size in human form.
“I’m sorry,” Ari said, indicating the white tube socks Uwaite was pulling on. “I looked around, but I couldn’t find any shoes. Maybe she got rid of them? I don’t know.”
Both men nodded. “We appreciate this,” Two Trees said. “These’ll do. We have a spare set of clothes in the tribal police station.” He sat down to pull on the thick socks.
Ari glanced around the room, noticing their suspect, once again in human form, lying face down on the ground naked, with his hands cuffed behind his back. He was still alive, probably grateful to be so, but it didn’t stop him from spewing profanity at Two Trees who’d walked over to him.
“Shut up, you filthy piece of crap,” Two Trees said, reaching out and prodding the man’s midsection with a stocking foot until he rolled over and awkwardly got into a sitting position, crossing his legs, and glaring up at him with hatred. Ari noticed the man had beady rodent-like eyes, with pupils blown so large they made him look half-dead.
“Let me out of these cuffs right now, Two Trees!” Wilkins growled. “You can’t detain me like this. I’ll see to it that you lose your job. You brought outsiders into reservation business!” He shook his head. “You’re done.”
“First of all, thanks to the men you’re calling outsiders, they have exposed you for what you are, you piece of sexual abusing shit!” Two Trees held up the diary which he’d picked up from the table.
Ari watched Colt Wilkins turn several shades of pink as he stared at the unicorn cover of his sister’s diary.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He raised his chin, looking defiant.
“I’m talking about the way you’ve been sexually assaulting your sister for years and how I suspect you systematically set up her husband to take a fall for grand larceny and had him sent away for three years in Folsom. Trustwhat I’m saying to you, Wilkins. I will work tirelessly to have you trade places with him.”
“You can’t prove any of that,” he spat out, looking marginally less defiant and slightly panicked as he stared at the diary. “Someone kidnapped my sister and you and these I.S.R. marshals have nothing better to do than to poke into my family business. I swear, I’ll have you fired.” He turned and glared at Eoghan who was standing in between Two Trees and Uwaite. “And, you…I’ll make sure that the I.S.R. is never allowed on this reservation again.”
“Oh, really? Is that right? You’re pretty arrogant for a sexual predator,” Eoghan said.
Ari could see that Eoghan, who’d been silently clenching both hands into fists at his sides for the last three minutes, was exercising extreme self-control so that he didn’t launch himself at this idiot. Ari was sure Eoghan could crush Wilkins’ windpipe in both hands if he wanted to.
“But don’t worry.” He looked at his watch and then back up at Wilkins. “If I had to guess, Riversong and the kids are just crossing the Oregon border as we speak.”
“What? Why would she be going there?” Wilkins asked, looking like a combination of scared and shocked all at once. Not a trace of relief crossed his features. Ari speculated he knew exactly where she was heading and had been freaking out about it. He’d probably come back to her house to clean up any hint or trace of where she was headed the first time he’d been through it…before reporting her disappearance.
“I’m sure Jack’s brother and his wife are waiting for her with open arms and an open heart, ready to hear the tale of how her older, much more powerful and influential brother, has been assaulting her whenever he could. And because Jack knew about it and put an end to it, I’m sure she’ll tell his brother all about how he was framed,” Eoghan said. The utterdisdain for this creature on the floor was on full display with every word he spoke. “If I were you and there’s any shred of decency left in your heartless soul, you’d confess to the whole thing and save Chief of Police Two Trees a fuck ton of paperwork.”
“I don’t know what you mean!” he protested shrilly, sounding slightly desperate.