Southern Shifters: Inked By The Bear (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Black & White Series Book 2) by Lissa Matthews Page A

for something sugary and cake like.
    “No. Can’t say that was on my mind when we set out earlier.”
    “Shame. Would’ve been nice, since I don’t think you’re here to talk about anything good.”
    “Guess it all depends on what you consider good.”
    “Guess so.”
    “She tell you about what happened to her mother?” Luke asked as they climbed the staircase. Gus had refinished it down to the original wood a couple of weeks back. He needed to earn his keep. He couldn’t let her be the only one working while she got things off the ground. She didn’t make him feel that he did. No, the feeling came from within him, from when he’d been taken in and raised by a family who didn’t owe him anything, who didn’t have to keep him, yet did.
    He couldn’t and wouldn’t be beholden to anyone, not even the woman who made him feel as though he fit with her more than he’d ever fit anywhere. “Yes, she told me,” he answered honestly.
    “Did she tell you it was a bear? One like you?”
    “She did, but he wasn’t anything like me. I wouldn’t have done what he did. I don’t know any bears who would.”
    “No?”
    Gus rounded on Luke so fast, the wolf nearly fell down the steps. “No, you son of a bitch. I don’t. If you’ve got something to say, say it. Otherwise, save your story for Bex or leave.”
    Luke raised his hands in a show of surrender. “Guess donuts would’ve been a good idea. Maybe they’d have kept your temper in check. You’re touchy.”
    “We’ll find out who’s touchy when I get the tattoo gun out.”
    “You don’t scare me, bear,” the wolf muttered once they started up the stairs again.
    “That was your second mistake,” Gus bit out.
    “What was the first?”
    “Showing up. If I don’t scare you, then what?”
    “You worry me. Concern me. I can’t get a read on you.”
    “Makes two of us. What’re your pack mates gonna do while we’re up here?”
    “They won’t go searching for your woman if that’s what you’re asking. They’ll probably lounge in the back, work on bikes, nap, shift and wrestle. No idea. But your woman is safe.”
    Gus grunted. It was the only acknowledgment he gave. In the attic, in a small corner near the window, he’d set up a temporary tattoo station. He’d need to take a trip back home if he intended to stay with Bex. He —
    “Why her?” Luke settled on the massage table that Gus used as a tattoo table, and Gus settled opposite on the stool. Outside the window, he had a clear view of Main Street and the restaurant Bex worked at.
    “Gut.”
    “You really believe in that?”
    “Yeah. You don’t have mating instincts?”
    Luke shrugged and removed his shirt. He presented his back to Gus. “Yeah, we have them. But there’s more to what we feel than the need to rut.”
    “Like what?”
    “The need to survive.”
    Gus’s movements didn’t falter, but the words struck him. He understood more than he ever let on to anyone, more than he ever let anyone think. Survival was bone deep and part of it was based on a past he couldn’t remember, parents he couldn't remember. His adoptive family gave him love and a home and never treated him different than they treated their natural born cubs, but that never filled the emptiness inside, the belief that he belonged somewhere else. He loved them, too. He was thankful they took him in and raised him, taught him how to survive as a half-breed, but his independent, loner streak was strong.
    He smiled. And then he met Bex…
    “How long have you been doing this? Traveling and tattooing.”
    ’Since I could ride. Got my training on the job in a shop over in Knoxville, and have been getting licensed as I can when I travel into a new state.”
    “You ever met any others like us?”
    Gus grunted. “Shit, wolf. Ain’t no one else like me and I sure as hell hope there’s no one else like you.”
    “Fuck you.” The smirk on Luke’s face took the insult out if the words, but Gus wondered why that