Ready to Bear by Ivy Sinclair Read Free Book Online

younger half-brother may or may not be a shifter. We don’t know yet, and he won’t consent to the blood test.” There was part of her that wished he would, just so that they’d know one way or another. Alex wanted so badly to be a shifter, though, that she thought avoiding the test was one way that he could stall the truth awhile longer if he wasn’t one. “Alex wants to know everything about what it means to be a shifter, and my stepbrother, in his infinite wisdom, thinks that by allowing him to witness a shifter fight, that will somehow answer questions for him about his true nature.”
    “Shifter fights are illegal,” Billy replied slowly. “So I’m going to pretend that I don’t know anything about any of that.
    “Then let’s pretend for a minute that you aren’t a sheriff,” Thea said sarcastically. It wouldn’t surprise her if Billy had caught wind before now that Eric and his partners ran shifter fights in the basement of the club. It was widely known in the shifter circles. It wasn’t exactly condoned by the city officials, but it served to keep the shifters in check, so they seemed willing to look the other way. “What do you think? Honestly?”
    Billy paused. Then he looked away. “I think it’s really hard to grow up feeling like you are different from everyone else. Then add to that the impulsive feeling of possibly spinning out of control and becoming something else at any moment. It’s like you share your body and mind with something that is a part of you but completely alien at the same time. There’s a certain feeling of helplessness that always simmers there just below the surface.”
    Thea was drawn in by Billy’s words. She could see that Sophie was equally captivated. Thea was also sensing that Billy wasn’t talking in general terms.
    “One of the first things you learn is that you have to be vigilant in all things. Once your animal self makes itself known, it is there all the time waiting for the moment when you let your guard down. It takes years to master it in a way that it knows which one of you is the master and which one is the servant. I don’t condone shifter fights. I think they are barbaric and set our species back decades as a whole. But at the same time, it is the ultimate sign of our will and control over those parts of us that would control us if we let them. It is a reminder to be ever vigilant. It’s a way of showing that despite which form we are in, we always remain in complete control.”
    Thea felt herself shudder again. Her breath came in short gasps, and her core burned with something that she had never experienced before. She would never have admitted it to Robert or Eric or Alex, but she was glad that she hadn’t been born into that kind of life. She was grateful that her problems were nothing more than the usual human variety. Yet there was something about the way that Billy spoke of being a shifter that lit something inside of her that was envious.
    “Okay, then,” she finally managed to say. “Thank you for your opinion.”
    “See? Even the sheriff agrees with us,” Sophie said.
    “I didn’t say that,” Billy said.
    “You didn’t not say it either,” Sophie said with a smirk. Her head whipped toward the door. “And that, I think, is the sound of it’s time for my exit.” She got to her feet. “You coming with me?”
    “No, I’m going to stay,” Thea said.
    “Your funeral.” Sophie tossed her curls again. “See you around, Sheriff.”
    “Nice to meet you, Sophie,” Billy said again with a slight inclination of his head.
    Thea watched the smoldering sway of Sophie’s hips as she crossed the room and exited through the door. She figured that she’d find Billy staring as well, but when she looked at him she found that his gaze was firmly planted on her. She flushed as she bit her lip and looked down at her hands. They twisted in her lap of their own accord.
    “Guess the party is about to get started,” she said.
    “The party is