by T. S. Joyce
GRAY BACK ALPHA BEAR
(GRAY BACK BEARS, BOOK 2)
By T. S. JOYCE
Other Books in the Gray Back Bears Series
This book was not written as a standalone.
The author recommends to read these stories in order for optimal reader enjoyment.
Gray Back Bad Bear (Book 1)
Gray Back Alpha Bear
Copyright © 2015 by T. S. Joyce
Copyright © 2015, T. S. Joyce
First electronic publication: August 2015
T. S. Joyce
www.tsjoycewrites.wordpress.com
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s permission.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.
Published in the United States of America
Chapter One
Gia Cromwell’s life had been ruined by a werebear.
And not just any werebear, but the dominant, hot as hell, irritatingly detached alpha of the notoriously reclusive Gray Back Crew.
“I can’t believe I’m back here,” she murmured as she spied the sign that read Grayland Mobile Park. The words were carved neatly into a long piece of rough lumber that was hung high above the chalky gravel road that was currently layering her black Mercedes with travel grit.
Peanut Butter yipped from the front seat, and she took her hand off the wheel long enough to pat the little brown and white pouf of long, luxurious fur his groomer had pulled into a pink rubber band on the top of his head. Her life had gone to shit, but at least her dog, Peanut Butter, still loved her.
Creed was going to freak out, and she couldn’t blame him. Hell, she was freaking out, which was why she was here. That, and she had nowhere else to go.
A wave of uncertainty doubled her over the wheel as she pulled to a stop in front of a semi-circle of trailer homes. She was in a real-life trailer park, in the middle of the wilderness, searching for a man she’d bucket-list diddled almost half a year ago.
She inhaled deeply and stared at the ghost town before her. Maybe the Gray Backs weren’t home. Good. She threw her car into reverse and prepared to bail. She could do this another time.
“Gia?” a woman’s voice echoed.
Gia slammed on the brake and lurched to a stop. She’d know that voice anywhere. Dread blasted through her, making it impossible to draw a full breath as she turned to look at her childhood best friend. What the hell was Willa doing here?
She couldn’t leave now without some sort of explanation.
Stalling, she parked the car and pulled an oversize sweater from the back seat, then pulled it over her too-tight T-shirt. She wrestled Peanut Butter into the purse carrier on the floorboard, and then kicked the car door open with her high-heeled boot.
The October air snapped against her forearms where the loose knitting of the baggy sweater allowed the weather in. Gia was from a small town, with plenty of beautiful country, but Mom had hounded her that to protect her skin from wrinkles, she needed to stay indoors. Here, the smell of pine was overwhelming.
She unfolded her long legs, which were stiff after the long drive up into the Wyoming mountains. “Hi.” Yep, this was awkward. Her last encounter with Willa at Bear Trap Falls still haunted her.
Willa stood beside the car, arms crossed over her tiny boobs, bright red dyed hair pulled back in spiky pigtails, and honey brown eyes narrowed suspiciously. Did her black sweater read Worms Rule in bright pink letters? Probably. That was Willa.
“What are you doing here, Gia? And don’t tell me it’s to apologize. From the look on your face, you didn’t know I was living here.”
“Living here? I thought you were just lying low around Minden since the road trip. I saw your dad at the grocery store just last week, and he said you were doing fine.” Why wouldn’t he have mentioned his daughter moved all the way out to BFE? Willa was all he had left. Instead, he’d smiled vacantly and talked about how proud he was of his daughter for blazing her own path in life.
Willa pursed her lips like Gia wouldn’t get any answers from her.
Scrunching up her nose and readjusting Peanut Butter’s soft carrier on her hip, Gia asked, “Is Creed around?”
Willa’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, and her eyes drifted to Gia’s carefully concealed stomach. “What do you want with him?” Oh, Willa was a smart one. Always had been.
Tears stung Gia’s eyes as another wave of remorse washed over her. “I think you know.”
Willa’s small shoulders lifted and fell in a long sigh. She still had her arms crossed over her like a shield, but her eyes softened. She only hesitated another few seconds before she stepped forward and pulled Gia into a hug.
Damn, it felt good. It was exactly what she’d needed. So far, no one in her life had realized she craved for someone, anyone, to tell her everything was going to be okay. And somehow Willa, the one who had the most right to hate her, was giving her the exact thing even her parents had withheld. “Oh, Gia. What have you gotten yourself into?”
Gia relaxed against Willa, hugging her back, and allowed one tear. One tear, and she would button up this emotional roller coaster. She’d messed up. It was her mistake and no one else’s, and she was going to handle this like the grown-ass woman she was. No more crying. She just needed to figure out what to do next.
“Come on, girl,” Willa murmured. “You look like you could use a jug of moonshine, but since fetuses can’t drink that shit, you’ll have to settle for lemonade instead.” Willa snorted and shook her head as she led her to the clean, shingled trailer on the end. “You sure picked the wrong crew to diddle your way into.”
“I didn’t pick this crew, and I’m not joining it either. I just don’t know where else to go right now. Is Creed here?”
“Creed and the boys are all up on the landing working. It’s week one of logging season. I can’t remember, does the sight of blood freak you out?” Willa turned on the porch stairs, waiting on her answer. She looked different without the big, thick-rimmed glasses she’d always worn. She must’ve gotten contacts.
“Blood? I don’t think so,” Gia drawled out.
“Good. This week’s been hard on the boys.”
“And they’re bleeding?”
“They do that a lot. No one bleeds more than a Gray Back.”
“Fantastic.” She toted Peanut Butter up the stairs after Willa and onto a screened-in porch. The screen door had a big splinter of wood jutting off the edge, so she used her pink manicured nail to hold it open as she passed through. Removing her oversize sunglasses, she blew a strand of dark hair out of her face and looked around. This place wasn’t what she’d expected from a trailer park. “Are all the…homes…like this one?”
“Yep.” Willa led her past a pair of rocking chairs, across the cedar planked porch, and through a door.
The master bedroom led to a kitchen and living room combo. The walls were a light gray color, and the kitchen cabinets were antique white with gray-veined granite countertops. Someone had a bit of taste in this place.
“Oh, except Easton�
�s home. His trailer is definitely not nice and updated because he dragged it off into the woods with his bare hands when he got pissed off at Matt a couple of years back. At some point, he stripped all the fancy shingles off the sides. I haven’t actually been inside, but I imagine it’s full of leaves and spruce tree limbs like an actual bear den. He’s a little…feral.”
“Easton sounds lovely.” If Willa heard her sarcasm, she gave no sign. Instead, she poured two glasses of what looked like homemade lemonade into a pair of glasses, then led Gia back to the porch.
“You can let PB out here if you want,” Willa offered. “Let him stretch his little legs after the trip. Did you drive straight here?”
Thankful for the small talk, Gia took the offered glass and sank down into a rocking chair beside Willa. “I stayed the night in a couple of cheap hotels. It was awful. I got a tick in my armpit in one of them.”
Willa almost spit her drink out mid-slurp and tried to cover her laugh, bless her. “Well, did you pick it off?”
Gia nodded miserably. “With tweezers. It was traumatizing.”
Willa frowned as if she was working something out. “Wait. Why didn’t you stay in a ritzy hotel? Cheap has never been your thing.”
Gia offered her an empty smile. “Because my parents emptied the rest of my savings when I told them I was pregnant with a bear cub.”
“Gia,” Willa whispered. “Why did your parents still have access to your accounts? You’re twenty-four.”
“Yeah, well I wasn’t raised like you were.” Gia gritted her teeth and dragged her gaze to the carrier by her feet as she unzipped the top and released the hound—hound meaning ten pound show-quality Shih Tzu.
“Well, girl,” Willa said, eyebrows arched high and serious, “time to pop your momma’s titty out of your mouth and cut that cord.”
“No shit.”
“Now,” Willa said grandly with a twirl of her wrist, “you may apologize to me at your leisure.”
“What do you want me to say?”
Willa loudly slurped the pink straw she’d shoved in her lemonade, and then sank into her chair until her legs were spread out like the bottom half of a starfish. Leaning her head back on the rocking chair, she murmured, “I don’t know. Dig deep. I want to like you again.”
Deep, sharp pain slashed through Gia’s chest. Willa didn’t like her anymore? Gia opened her mouth, but only a tiny shocked sound came out.
Willa sucked at her straw until her glass was completely empty. She gulped and said, “I’ll help get the ball rolling. Why did you and the bombshells invite me on that road trip? Was it to make fun of me? Was it to ditch me and remind me how unimportant I am?”
“No! God, no. We invited you because I told Brittney I wasn’t going unless they let you come, too. That was the pact. We were supposed to road trip together.”
Willa frowned and sat up straight. “Oh. You wanted me to come?”
“Of course.”
“Then why was Brittney such a bossy trollop the whole time? She was trying to get rid of me.”
Bossy trollop was actually the perfect word combo for Queen Bee Brittney. “I don’t know, Willa. Brittney’s always been like that, and it wasn’t just you she was being mean to. I had to stay away from her and Kara for a week after we got back just so my self-esteem could recover. That wasn’t an awesome road trip for any of us.”
“Wait, but I’ve never seen her treat you bad.”
“Yeah, well, she was being a brat about Matt going for you, and when I stuck up for you, she made the rest of the week a living hell.”
Willa looked really disturbed. “Gia, you said you had nowhere else to go. Why aren’t you staying with Brittney or Kara? What did Brittney say when you told her about…you know…your furry bundle of joy?”
More pain in her middle, and she was not going to cry. “She said congratulations—”
“Oh, that’s surprisingly nice of her.”
“You didn’t let me finish. She said ‘Congratulations, Gia. You’re just as stupid as I always thought you were.’”
“And there’s the lovely Brittney I know and love to hate. Let me guess. She’s shunned you?”
“Yeah. She told Kara not to answer my calls, either. Kara texted to tell me that part. So you call us the bombshells?” That word really bothered her for some reason.
“That’s how I’ve always thought of you. You three are perfect, and I’m…well…not.”
“Nah, you’ve got it wrong. You were always the best of us. That pissed Brittney off to no end, but truth be told, I was really proud of you for sticking up for yourself and not taking her crap anymore. I wasn’t brave enough, but it was really cool seeing you pull away like that. You’re my shero.”
“Shero.” Willa scrunched up her face and nodded. “I fuckin’ love that.”
Gia huffed a laugh and canted her head. “You seem really different now.” She couldn’t put her finger on what had changed about her childhood friend, but this Willa wouldn’t take crap from Brittney anymore. She wouldn’t take crap from anyone. Perhaps living in a commune with a bunch of ill-mannered mountain men had thickened her skin. Good for her.
“Willa, what are you doing here?”
“You don’t want to talk about the bear-child you’re growing?”
“No.” Friend or not, she needed to talk to Creed about all of this before anyone else.
“Are you sure it’s Creed’s?”
Another wave of hurt flooded her veins and made her heart thump painfully against her chest. “I heard what you said to Matt at the bar that night. When you were going into the restroom? You told him the brunette was really easy, but you were wrong. Creed is the only person I’ve been with in two years.”
“Oh, Gia, I’m sorry.” Willa looked ill and shook her head. “I didn’t mean it. I was just mad at you three for tricking me into going to Saratoga. And if I would’ve known you were sticking up for me behind the scenes, I would’ve tried harder to hang out just you and me on that trip.”
“That would’ve been a helluva lot more fun that being with Kara and Brittney. We sat at the pool for the rest of the trip listening to Brittney plan ways to take Matt from you. I’m glad he chose you, though. Obviously that’s working out.”
“Yeah. Swear not to tell the bombshells?”
“Scout’s honor.” Wouldn’t be hard since the last text Brittney had sent her read I’m not picking up for a reason. Take the hint, slut. Stop calling me. Gia had pretty awesome taste in friends.
“I’m Matt’s mate. I’m still here because he’s mine, and I’m his.”
Gia gasped and clutched her sweater over her chest. “Willa, that’s so great. I wondered why he took down his social media pages, but I had no idea you were together. I mean, the chemistry between you two was molten hot, but I’d seen his posts before. That man was a playboy. I had no idea you’d settled him.” Gia swallowed hard and pulled Peanut Butter into her lap for a cuddle so Willa wouldn’t see how emotional she was. Gia had always wanted to find something like that, and now she had literally screwed herself out of finding a good man. Her voice dipped to a whisper. “I’m really happy for you, Willa.”
“Are you crying?”
“No, I just have pollen in both of my eyes.” Gia laughed thickly when Willa obviously didn’t believe her. “I screwed up so badly. Creed’s going to hate me.”
“No, he won’t. He’s strong and smart and level-headed, and we’ll figure this out, okay?” Willa patted her knee. “You’ll see.”
And for the first time since that damning first positive pregnancy test, Gia felt a little better.
Chapter Two
“Who even fights for fourth in a crew?” Creed Barnett yelled. “Huh?” He shook his head and glared at Easton and Jason as they covered their shredded, bloody bodies with the extra clothes Creed kept in the back of his truck because his crew apparently couldn’t stop fighting for one fucking shift.
Easton and Jason had a stupid fight about who was better t
rained on the processor. Seriously? “You’ve been brawling since Willa was declared second, and this shit has to stop. At least at work! Season started six days ago. Six! And we haven’t made it through a single shift without someone bleeding. Now, I’ve looked at the Ashe Crew, the Boarlander Crew… Hell, I’ve talked to Kong! No one is having this kind of problem with their animals.”
“Maybe you should bring Willa up here to kick Easton’s ass,” Clinton said with that obnoxious smile Creed wanted to bear-claw-slap off his face.
“Say another word right now,” Creed growled, jamming his finger at the joker, “and I’ll literally kill you.”
Jason, at least, had the good sense to avoid his eye contact as he buttoned up a blue flannel shirt. Easton was looking around at everyone as if he couldn’t understand what he’d done wrong, and Matt was taking a piss off the side of the landing as if he didn’t give two shits that Creed was on the verge of a Change to kick all their asses.
Most of the time, he liked being alpha, but lately, these problem bears he’d initiated into the Gray Backs were driving him insane.
Another day on the landing preparing timber to transport to the saw mill in Saratoga, another day of missing the already low numbers his boss, Damon Daye, had challenged them with.
“Get in the truck.” His disappointment in his crew was bottomless right now.
Jason, Easton, and Clinton climbed into the back of his gunmetal gray, jacked-up Ford while Matt zipped up his pants and climbed in the passenger’s seat.
The roar of the engine drowned out the snarl in Creed’s throat. They didn’t get it. He owed Damon. Owed him. But all he ever did was let the old dragon down. Damon owned these mountains and had hired the crews to help clear the dead, beetle-infested lumber off his land. But the fighting hurt their target numbers. Demolished them, really, and already the Gray Backs were working with a smaller crew. Ashe Crew had nine on their landing at any given time. The Boarlanders were a tree-cutting crew, but they had seven. And here he was trying to juggle four assholes who didn’t give a shit about lumber numbers.