JAMESON

Jameson lingered on the verge of going full bear on her from sheer frustration that the girl wouldn’t listen. She didn’t understand the danger she was in and the longer they both stood there, the higher the likelihood that she or the cubs would get sick or frightened, and the higher the likelihood that thieves or gang members would stumble across them. Which meant he would have to shift to protect them, since he didn’t have any weapons in his running clothes, and he couldn’t reveal shifters to a random human.

When she refused to pop the hood of the car so he could figure out what the hell was wrong, he figured he could kill two birds with one stone: push the damn thing to her destination and work through his frustration at the same time.

He tried to temper his words but she pushed him past reasonable. Maybe she headed to the women’s shelter Sunny and the bears ran. The girl sure as hell didn’t look like she had the resources to stay in even a third-rate motel in the worst part of the city -- which wasn’t Kaiser’s neighborhood, as hard as that was to believe.

So Jameson pushed the car along, hardly noticing the weight as his bear and adrenaline surged, and the woman steered the shitty car slowly down the street. The snow and sleet drove down and coated him in a thin layer of slush, but he hardly felt it. The cold was so deeply a part of him he didn’t notice anything except the extreme pain of frozen skin. Even that took quite a while. 

Definitely more than three blocks pushing a car through a blizzard. Even with the stubborn woman and her kids and their baggage. He had no doubts she had a lot of baggage, and not just the kind that weighed too much to haul around easily. She probably didn’t even have luggage for her baggage.

He huffed a breath, irritated, and let the car’s momentum roll it the last half block. The sedan rolled up to the block with the women’s shelter and she hit the brakes. Jameson slammed into the bumper with an oof and bent his head so he didn’t snarl with irritation. Was it too much to ask for a head’s up before she turned the moving chunk of steel into an unmovable metal ball-crusher?

Jameson breathed through the annoyance and gut-clenching pain, and straightened up to stretch his back. He took a deep breath. He just needed to get the woman and the kids into the shelter and a safe place, then he could go back across the street for a swim and a couple of beers. A perfect way to end the night or start the morning, depending on what side of the hangover someone was on.

The woman rolled her window down more and gagged, her eyes watering, and hauled herself out of the car. Her thin, ratty boots slid in the ice but he didn’t dare jump forward to help, since she was about as friendly as the eastern black snake he’d crossed paths with in Australia. She leaned against the fender and breathed, squeezing her eyes shut. Her breath puffed out in great white clouds as he waited for her to move or -- God forbid -- thank him.

And then he caught a whiff of what had driven him out of the vehicle. A half-cough, half-gag bent him over. Jameson leaned to spit as much of the awful smell out of his mouth as possible and groaned. “What the fuck died in your car?”

“Don’t swear,” she said, but the venom disappeared in another dry heave.

Jameson looked in the back window at the two kids -- one smiling and babbling, the other screaming her head off until her face reddened and then blued. “Don’t tell me it was them?”

“Yeah. A full diaper can do that.”

“What the hell do you feed them that comes out like that?”

She scowled, taking deep cleansing breaths, and eyed the inside of the car like she couldn’t stomach facing it again. With the door open, what might as well have been a brown mist of stank oozed out into the previously refreshing night air. The snow fell harder, like it meant to cover it all up as quickly as possible, and he shook his head to clear it.

The woman rubbed her shoulder and looked at her kids, though her eyes seemed distant. “You’d be surprised. Couple of strawberries, peanut butter crackers, and carrots.”

There was no way. She must have given the kids asparagus, brussels sprouts, beans, and rotten fermented shark sushi to end up with that kind of output. Jameson wanted to get inside as quickly as possible, even if the woman and her kids needed some assistance. He didn’t think any of his time crawling through jungles and uncovering mass graves prepared him for a close encounter with that kid’s diaper. God help them all if the second kid fired off a shot.

“Great.” Jameson shook himself and gestured at the shelter. “There you go. Ring the bell and someone will come out to help you.”

“What?”

“The shelter.” He pointed at it directly and waved to the girl manning the front desk for the overnight shift. “They’ll get you a place to stay and clean up the shitshow in your car.”

“A shelter? Why would I go to a shelter?”

Was she fucking with him, or just dense? Jameson shook more snow off his arms and checked to make sure the cubs didn’t look cold or too uncomfortable, even with a dumpster in their diapers. “This is where you were headed. You’re parked in front of it. You look like you need the help, and with two kids like that...” He shrugged. “No shame in needing help.”

Her face reddened and she puffed up like a wet chicken. “Look, I don’t know who you think you are, but...”

“I’m just the asshole who stopped to help an ungrateful chick stranded in her shitty car.” He held up his hands and backed up, ready to be done with things. If she didn’t want to admit she needed the shelter, fine with him. He’d delivered her to safety and now he was going to leave her there. “You have a good night. Just try to stop chewing your own face.”

He headed for the gym, though the gym part of the building had long since turned into mostly an expansive playpen for the herd of ankle-biters the bear clan produced. He deserved to enjoy the heat of the hot tub, too, even if it took a while to warm up. He wasn’t in a rush. There was no telling whether Sasha and Sunny were done with their Santa-elf adventure, either, so another hour outside in the hot tub was probably smart. It wasn’t like he needed to get up early for anything. And he needed to sit outside to get that awful smell out of his memory. Just another reason not to have cubs around.