Bear's Claim (Bear Heat Book 3) by Natalie Kristen Page A

Faizel
injected Luke with some drug that made him appear dead. Then he
brought him back to life again with another jab.”
    Michael stared at Luke. “You
have to get him out of here. Don't let him become like me.”
    “You?”
    “I'm a killer,”
Michael stated. She heard the rancor, shame and bitterness in his
voice. “A weapon. A monster.”
    Despite her fear, Aubrey
wiggled her fingers from under the metal restraints and managed to
touch Michael's shoulder. “You're not a monster,” she
said softly. “You're a kind, good man. I can see it in your
eyes.”
    Michael's laugh was a harsh,
grating sound. “You haven't seen me when I'm in my other
form.”
    “What other form?”
    “Dr. Faizel injected
something into my blood, something that makes me change
uncontrollably into a beast, a monster.”
    “Oh God...”
    “He's going to do the
same to your friend there. You have to get him out before he is
Changed.”
    Aubrey raised her head and
stared at Michael's cut, wounded face. “We'll all escape,”
she said. “We'll help each other. You'll come with us.”
    He gave her a brief, sad
smile. “It's too late for me. But I'll use what little time I
have left to help you.”
    “No, it's not too
late,” Aubrey said fiercely. “It's never too late.
You're a good man...”
    “I'm a murderer,”
he reminded her. “I...”
    “I know. You ate him.
But tell me something, Michael. Did you want to eat him?”
    “No. God, no.”
Michael closed his eyes, looking sickened. He clutched the sides of
his head and doubled over. “No...no!” he roared, and
when he threw back his head, Aubrey saw that his eyes had turned
yellow and feral, and there were sharp, lethal claws glinting from
the tips of his fingers.
    She made a strangled sound
but she couldn't look away. The man was changing before her eyes,
but he didn't shift fully into an animal. He was no shifter, she
could see that.
    His change was tortured and
messy. He clawed at his own skin as he changed, and she saw
pinpricks of blood on his skin as tufts of fur pushed out from his
smooth human skin.
    “Michael,” she
whispered fearfully. “Please...”
    He turned towards her,
panting and snarling. She held his gaze unflinchingly until his eyes
stopped glowing and as he blinked, the fur receded from his body and
his claws retracted slowly.
    Michael crouched before her,
shivering and bleeding.
    “I told you,” he
said in a raw, ragged voice. “I am...”
    “You're not a monster.”
    Aubrey stared at the top of
his bowed head for a long time. “You are not a monster,
Michael,” she repeated quietly.
    He looked up at her and
snarled, “How can you say that? I killed...my friend! I tore
open his body, and I ate his organs. That voice—that voice in
my head, Dr. Faizel's voice, kept commanding me but I just couldn't
swallow Walter's flesh and organs.”
    Aubrey winced. “Oh,
Michael...what has Dr. Faizel done to you?”
    “It's not the doctor.
Someone else is behind this. Dr. Faizel is working for Alberto
Birns,” Michael spat.
    Aubrey furrowed her brows.
“He did mention that name, but I have no idea who Alberto Birns
is,” Aubrey said, glad that her voice sounded steady, not
hysterical.
    “Alberto Birns is a Mob
boss. He's the boss of the second largest crime gang in the city.
He's always wanted to be the biggest, most powerful Boss, the Boss of
the bosses.” Michael rattled off the information with a
faraway look in his eyes.
    “How...do you know so
much about the Mob? Are you a gang member?” Aubrey gulped,
wondering if she had a violent mobster crouching just inches from
her.
    “No.” Michael
smiled. For the first time, she saw the light return to his deadened
eyes. “I was a cop. I was to be Walter's deputy, help him
fight organized crime and clean up the city. It was my job to know
who's who in the underground world. But now...” He turned
away from her.
    “I deserve to die for
what I did.” His voice was soft but firm. “I can't live
with