I'll Be Dammed Read online

  “Are you joking?”

  She shook her head. “No. Do I joke about things a lot?”

  She kind of hoped she did. That seemed like another familiar quirk she could get comfortable with.

  But the owl shifter male, who was most definitely not a scrawny bird, kept looking at her as though waiting for the punch line.

  When he didn't get it, he seemed ready to respond.

  "Bev, I'm your husband. You're my mate."

  Well, that would explain the heat between her legs and the need she had to jump into his arms and wrap her thighs around his waist so he could plow that...

  Down, girl. This could still be a trap.

  What if she was only thinking that because he was just that damn sexy?

  "I'm your wife?"

  There was truth in there. Beverly kept searching for a lie, but she couldn't find it.

  She was the wife of this guy?

  She wanted to laugh. “No fucking way.”

  He wasn't laughing with her. “Why wouldn't you believe it?”

  “I don't know.” She tried to think of a reason, but nothing came to mind.

  Why was that so hard to believe? She didn't even know what she looked like. “I guess it shouldn't be hard to believe. For all I know, I'm the knockout between the two of us and you're the ugly duckling. Though now that I think about it, the ugly duckling turns into a swan and outshines the rest of the peasants, doesn't it?”

  “You're not… “ He still seemed shocked by her initial statement, despite her attempt to lighten the mood. “Jesus. Can you remember anything? Do you know where you've been for the last two weeks?"

  "Two weeks?" That shocked her. "I woke up two days ago."

  He inhaled deeply through his nose. “What's my name?”

  She shook her head. “I don't know.”

  He lurched a little, and she was sorry to have to put him in pain.

  “My name’s Albert Huntley.”

  “Albert Huntley.” She tested the name on her lips and tongue. Something about it felt familiar and right.

  If his name felt familiar and right on her tongue, would his lips feel the same on hers?

  Or his cock inside her?

  Maybe she would ask that later. When she was sure this wasn't just some random guy with a convenient story she was lusting after.

  “You don't remember me?” he asked again.

  She shook her head.

  “You don't remember us?”

  “No.” She shook her head again.

  “You don't remember…” He trailed off.

  She waited for what else there could possibly be, but he didn't get into that.

  He seemed to think about what else he needed to say, what he needed to ask.

  Then he wet his lips—why did the sight of the very tip of his tongue make her stomach tighten and heat pool between her thighs?—and nodded.

  As though he was coming to some important decision.

  “All right. We’ll…we’ll deal with that later. Come on. I'll take you home for now. We’ll find out what happened to you.”

  “Home?”

  He nodded. “With hot food and clean sheets, a bath, whatever you need. Actually, we should run by the academy first. Nolan can look you over. Hopefully his equipment is up and running.”

  That sounded really good, even though she didn’t know what the academy was or what equipment Albert was referring to. She hadn't been looking forward to working any more nights putting her den together.

  And if home involved being with him, her handsome, sexy, alleged husband, she wouldn't mind climbing into a warm bed and snuggling up in his lap.

  She wouldn't mind if he snuggled something into her, either.

  Her horniness and the intense desire to burrito herself in soft, clean sheets aside, she couldn't help but notice the drop in his mood.

  She was his wife, but as he put his arm around her waist, she could feel the sadness dripping from him.

  Not because of her. She was sure of that much. She'd seen the look on his face when he saw her walk out of the water. She'd felt his thrill when he touched her.

  No. This sadness was for something else.

  What else could be wrong with her that would lead a very sexy husband, who apparently cared so much about her, to feel like the living embodiment of a dark, cloudy day?

  What was he hiding from her?

  Well, until she figured it out, it was best to keep this guy close.

  Sure, she felt safe and secure around him, and sure, she might want to wrap her thighs around his waist, but she really was only doing this for her own research. A test, you might say, to see if her instincts about him were right.

  Not at all because that jaw, and those eyes, were to die for.

  Two

  They didn't have to do much walking.

  Apparently, Albert had been making daily drives along the winding roads, stopping every few kilometers to take a flight overhead, searching the forest and rivers and creeks for any sign of the wife he'd lost. He’d stayed close by his car and clothes, and when he'd been in the air, he'd had his keys in his sharp talons. She hadn't noticed them when she'd been too busy ogling his body, and his cock.

  Bad girl. Stop it.

  Not only did he have clothes for himself but he also had a change of clothes that fit her.

  Not just clothes that were the right fit, clothes that felt well worn. Comfortable. Something else strange yet familiar.

  “Are you okay?” They stood outside the car, and he looked as though he knew that was a stupid question to ask.

  She had no idea what she was.

  “I think I just want to...I want to get to where you want to take me. I want to know what happened.” Because she knew it was something major.

  Beverly took a good, hard look at Albert. She wondered if there was any chance that the something major could have resulted from him.

  No.

  She had only to look at him for a few seconds before she was certain of it. She was already sure of it. Beverly got the impression she wouldn’t have walked with him at all if there had been any sense of danger, but it was good to look one last time and make sure.

  At least for herself.

  “What are you doing?” Albert grinned, stroking his chin. “Liking what you see?”

  Another reassuring thing. His flirting.

  “You do that a lot, don’t you?”

  “Do what?”

  “Stroke your own ego.”

  He looked as though he had a comeback for that, but then he stopped himself. As though playing with her would be too much for either of them to handle.

  Despite feeling safe around him, a prickle of something uneasy worked its way between her shoulder blades. “You’re hiding something from me.”

  He stopped smiling but said nothing.

  “I’m right.”

  His nostrils flared as he inhaled a deep breath. “We can talk about it after we get back. I’ll tell you everything,” he added, as though knowing he was about to lose her. “I just want to make sure you’re all right.”

  “I feel all right.” Short of the missing memories and bit of shaved hair, it was true. Her body seemed otherwise unharmed.

  “You’ve been missing for days. Half your head is shaved. You don’t remember me, but thankfully you know I don’t want to hurt you. I think you know that I love you.”

  “But do I love you?”

  He jerked back, his eyes widening with a bit of alarm. He took a breath before answering. “You do. You told me it before you vanished, and you said it the day I asked you to marry me.”

  She tilted her head. “Not on our wedding day?”

  He grinned. “The main event that day was you destroying the priest who showed up stinking of booze and piss. You held it in and let him marry us. You waited until we’d said the I do’s and signed our names, and then you let him have it to the point that a blind man could tell he’d been dipping into the blood of Christ before the ceremon
y.”

  “No!” That sounded so...deranged. She was embarrassed and thrilled at the same time. She couldn’t believe that she’d done it.

  “You were furious, and I was laughing. You were too busy threatening to divorce me to tell me you loved me at our wedding.”

  She laughed. She tried not to. She tried to hold back, she really did, but it was as though he had forced it out of her.

  He’d made her laugh, telling her that horrible story. A horrible story that somehow sounded charming and soothing at the same time. She almost couldn’t believe it.

  But she did.

  “So, yeah, you do love me,” he said, suddenly exuding a more somber aura. “But I didn’t need to tell you that.”

  Beverly stopped laughing. He seemed to be waiting for her response. “I’m not confirming or denying anything.”

  “Can I ask why?”

  She got the vibe he was trying not to sound hurt, but she picked up on it anyway.

  She thought about it.

  But there was nothing.

  Everything inside of her pulled her to him. It was like an instinct she couldn’t ignore. She did trust him, but there was something nagging in the back of her mind.

  Nothing that told her he was a danger, but it was something else. Something just as important and crucial to who she was, and she couldn’t ignore it.

  No matter how much she might want to.

  “I think I’ll keep this to myself for now.“

  It seemed like an incorrect move to come off as though she were unsure of herself, especially when she had almost no memories, and the last thing she expected was for him to smile again.

  It didn’t reach all the way to his eyes, but there was still something warm in it. “I know what it is. You don’t have to feel guilty for not being able to tell me. I get it.”

  Beverly frowned. “You do?“

  Albert leaned on the hood of his car. He scratched the back of his neck, and somehow he looked younger and more handsome than he already was.

  “You know who you are. You know that you love me, that I’m telling the truth when I say I love you, too, but you’re too practical. That’s always been a strength of yours, a good thing. Definitely for me. I fucking love you so much for it sometimes. When we were dating, you never gave me any bullshit, and you expected none in return. You can feel it all you want, but you want to see proof. You want more than my word. I respect that.”

  Beverly’s gut clenched. Her spine stiffened.

  He knew her. She was glad for it, but there was still something a little unnerving about knowing that he could feel her out so well. At least it saved her from having to explain something she couldn’t put into words. “What if I never get the proof? What if I never want you near me?”

  He chuckled at that. “I’ll give you proof. And even if I couldn’t, I know you too well. You’ll figure this all out.” He brushed his fingers through his hair, making the already windswept strands a little bit wilder.

  Untameable.

  All right. She would play along. “What exactly do you know about me?”

  His eyes flashed, and in that moment, she could see the bird of prey in the sky, eyeballing her little round ass as something delicious to eat. “That you think I’m irresistible.”

  That clenching feeling in her stomach started up again.

  Shit. He was right.

  Not that she was going to let him know that. Giving him that satisfaction so quickly made her feel as though she were giving in a little too easily.

  “Whatever, Owlbert.“ She got into the passenger side of the car, sitting down and buckling in. “You’ve got a little more work to do if you think you can just smile at me and I’ll fall into your arms.”

  “Not my arms I want you to fall into.”

  Beverly pretended not to hear that as he got into the driver's side of the car. Best to ignore the heat that was pooling between her thighs at the mere thought of such a challenge. Suddenly, finding out her past seemed like a distant second on the mental list of important things that needed to be done.

  First on that list was finding out if he was as good as he implied.

  A girl had to have her priorities.

  Three

  He brought her back to their place of employment, rather than a hospital or even the home he said they shared. He called ahead, letting them know to expect them. She appreciated his comment about wanting just a few there. The last thing she wanted was to be crowded by strangers.

  They took a long, winding drive and then passed through a security check.

  “Welcome back to the Furry United Coalition Newbie Academy. FUCN’A,” he told her.

  Really? She nearly snorted at the name, but the instant Albert had said it, she knew that this actually was the name of the place. Just as she then knew that FUC was the proper acronym for the Furry United Coalition.

  To serve, protect, and keep humans in the dark.

  The words echoed in her head, and she felt the feeling of pride that came with the agency’s motto. They were the first line of defense for those who wore the fur all around the world… and occasionally their feathered friends.

  “You’re ASS,” she murmured out loud.

  “I’m going to hope you’re talking about the Avian Soaring Security and not just calling me an ass,” Albert guessed correctly. “But marrying FUC means I get lots of special privileges.” He smiled, and she thought he leaned toward her just a bit. She could almost feel the ghost of his arm around her and his kiss on her cheek, but he didn’t do it. She didn’t know if she was glad or not.

  She didn’t have much time to consider it, though, as they left the car in the underground parking lot and made their way into the main building.

  “Do you remember WANC?” he asked as she took in the sight of the milling people.

  Her eyes flicked down to his pants and back up to his face. “Excuse me?”

  “The Working and Administration Networking Core. WANC.” He gestured his arm toward the hall in front of them for emphasis.

  “Who the hell names all this?”

  “Someone who understands that we’re people who turn into animals. We’re not going to make it if we take ourselves too seriously.” She chuckled at his explanation and knew it was right.

  Most of the bodies around her seemed to be academy cadets, those training to become the next rock star FUC agents. She knew the place was also full of staff. Agents who took on teaching assignments, professionals who knew how to investigate a crime scene or question the victim of a kidnapping. People who were going to be able to help her.

  Walking the halls of this institution definitely left her with a feeling of belonging.

  A few of the younger people, young adults who she assumed were cadets, looked at her as she walked by. There were whispers, and a few even called out to her.

  “Welcome back, Mrs. Huntly!”

  “Where’ve you been?”

  “Love the new haircut!”

  Some of them looked almost a little too young. They were still teenagers. “How old are the kids here supposed to be?”

  “No one is younger than eighteen.” Eighteen still seemed a little too young, but like everything else Albert told her, the second he said it she knew it to be the truth. “FUC cadets need to be at least eighteen years old, pass rigorous training, be physically fit, and have their license to drive and to carry and operate firearms.”

  “Everyone in this building is qualified to be here,” she mused.

  “Which means you are, too.” Albert quietly reminded her as they made their way down the halls.

  More cadets waved, and some even tried to approach her, excitement in their eyes as they welcomed her back and complimented her new haircut.

  Albert waved them all away with little explanation as he guided her. “Do they all know I went missing?”

  “Nah, the teachers rotate in and out of the academy pretty frequently. The cadets are used to it. They don’t know if you were tasked with
a FUC mission or took a vacation, and they know better than to ask.”

  “Did I get along well with the students here?“

  “You’re one of the favorites.“ It was difficult to say whether or not he told her that because he wanted to soothe her anxiety, but she didn’t sense any untruth. It was clear from the reactions she was well-liked.

  She was a beloved teacher in a prestigious academy with a loving husband.

  That warmed her in a way she didn’t expect.

  Add to it the reminder of her qualifications, that she had a license to carry a firearm and had passed FUC training and security clearances, and she wondered if she was a badass.

  If that was the case, was she different now compared to how Albert, or anyone else here, knew her? Since she hadn’t known who she was a few hours ago, it was a safe bet that she was behaving a little differently compared to how Albert knew her. But just how different?

  Might explain why he was treating her like glass, despite all her supposed qualifications.

  Or she could just be imagining it.

  She was his wife, and she had been taken by someone who had done something to her and stripped her of her identity.

  That would be enough to make any loving husband a little on the prickly side.

  “This is the faculty-only area, and they have a room prepped for you,” Albert explained, opening a door for her.

  She stepped into a room that looked like the nurse's office for her old high school. There was a desk beneath some glass cabinets with bandages and other items, and a cot across from it, which didn’t look at all too comfortable. What really made her uneasy was the trio who sat in the room, watching her every move.

  “Bev, do you remember our boss, Alyce Cooper? Or Mila Starling, who worked in the lab with you?”

  Bev shook her head. “I don’t, but I’m guessing this is the Nolan you mentioned.” She nodded to the tall man in the white doctor coat with a beautiful mane of blond hair.

  “Dr. Nolan Manners, at your service.” The warm smile he gave her while he shook her hand made her feel only slightly more at ease. “I know this all feels incredibly strange right now, but we’d like to look you over.”