On one hand, if his intent was to be friendly and welcoming, it was kind of a nice gesture. On the other hand, if he thought that little old me needed to be taken care of and couldn’t stand on my own two feet in the world, he could fuck off. I wasn’t into ultra-possessive men. And if he was trying to buy his way into my pants, well, he might as well think again. He didn’t need to spend a dime for that. Truth.
“Charge that to my bill from your office.” I climbed back into Freebird before he could argue with me.
Choosing the spot closest to the water was a no-brainer. On a slight incline, I’d be safe from the incoming tide, but I could wake up and walk right out onto the beach. In that way, I felt a comradery with Gray. It was easy to see what had attracted him to the tiny island. Warm sand, salt air, beautiful ocean. A wave of melancholy washed over me. I should’ve caught up with Gray sooner. Why had we let seven years go by without seeing each other? We should’ve made time for one another.
Kon seemed to sense what I was thinking as he moved to stand beside me. He gazed down with a look of utmost sincerity on his handsome features. “I’ll find him. It’s what I do.”
“I’m lucky to have discovered you. Er, your team, I mean.” I looked away and wondered if I was blushing.
“Most humans wouldn’t have. Most would have gone to the police.”
I rubbed at my cheek with the back of my hand in case I had a noticeable blush. “I grew up with a brother who’s a shifter and a father who taught us to distrust cops.”
“What’s the story there? With your brother, I mean. You don’t carry the scent of a shifter.”
“I’m not. Unfortunately. I’ve had to lean on whatever human skills I learned, instead of the ability to shift into a badass animal. Gray inherited his ability from his mother. He and I have the same father, but while his mother was a wolf shifter, mine was a plain jane from the middle of nowhere, Indiana, who died giving birth to me.”
Gray’s mother hadn’t revealed the fact that she was a shifter to our father until after Gray was born. I didn’t know the full story, but once Gray was born, she took off, choosing to follow her pack, and left both Dad and Gray.
“I’m sorry. I lost my mother when I was very young, too. Were you and Gray close growing up?” Before I could answer, he chuckled darkly. “I’m trying to imagine what it would have been like if my sister had been human while we were growing up. She would’ve hated not being able to shift and snarl at me or nip at my tail.”
I wrapped my arms around myself and smiled. “We were as close as we could be. It wasn’t easy. My father was…surprised by Gray’s shifting, to say the least. Surprised, and then angered.”
“Poor kid. As if shifting into a big dog wasn’t enough.”
I laughed before I could help it. “Gray would kick your ass if he heard you call him a dog.”
Kon’s grin said he might enjoy a brawl. “He could try. Come on. Let’s get back to the office and find your brother.”
It didn’t go unnoticed by me that Kon had managed to turn my on the verge of tears mood into light laugher and optimism. I reached out and grasped his arm, shocking both of us. “Thank you. I can’t tell you how much more comforted I feel knowing you’re helping me to find him.”
He hesitated and wrapped his strong arms around me, pulling me against his chest. His hand stroked the back of my head and a low, growly sound rumbled in his throat. I could have sworn I heard him whisper, “I would do anything for you.” But that was probably my overactive imagination.
He smelled so good. My hands gripped his shirt, and I buried my face, comforted by his warmth and strength. With his thick arms wrapped around me, I felt safe. I breathed him in, trying to place his unique aroma. Arctic breeze and sunshine. He carried the contrasting scent of crisp, clean arctic air and, warm, radiant sunshine. Something in the back of my mind was alerted. Beware, the two natures of this man, it said. But at that moment, his scent made me feel calm and at ease. Like a hammock swaying in a cool, gentle breeze. In the cocoon of his arms, I felt safe.
Guilt suddenly stuck a pin in my serenity balloon. I was safe. Gray was the one who needed safety, not me. I pushed away from Konstantin.
He seemed to sense my guilt and anguish without me having to explain. “Let’s go, Grace. I want to get started looking for him right away. The less time you spend worried sick, the better.” He took my arm and guided me around to the passenger side of the van. “When’s the last time you slept? You look exhausted.”
I frowned. “Gee, thanks.”
“Beautiful, but exhausted.” He pulled open the door and gestured for me to get in.
“No way. I drive.” When he didn’t move, I crossed my arms over my chest stubbornly. “The driver’s seat is broken. It’ll never go back far enough for those long legs of yours to fit behind the wheel.”
He grunted and released my arm. “Why do I feel like you’re lying?”
I flashed him a quick grin before rounding the van, opening my door and climbing behind the wheel. No one drove Freebird but me. “Because I am.”
I drove us back to his office and found myself yawning by the time I pulled into a parking spot out front. I was going on 36 hours of no sleep, but I wanted to see them start on the search before I gave in to the exhaustion.
Like he was reading my mind, Kon looked over at me with a knowing frown. “You need rest. After this, maybe you’ll go back to the RV park and sleep? I’ll come to you as soon as I have something. I promise.”
I nodded, agreeing. Leaving them to find Gray was something I was feeling more and more comfortable doing. They would be better at it than I could ever be. But after I got some sleep, I was going to go over to Gray’s house, after it had been fingerprinted of course, and clean up. I didn’t want Gray to have to see that mess when he came home.
“Come on. Let’s see if Maxim discovered anything.”
I followed him inside the P.O.L.A.R. office and he led me to a table in the back. Serge sat across from me, while several other guys stood around and introduced themselves before the one who introduced himself as Maxim started speaking.
“Your brother is a ghost, Grace.”
I rubbed at my eyes and tucked my hair out of my face. “A ghost?”
“There’s no trace of him online.”
I scowled. “There wouldn’t be much. We were raised…uh…differently. Taught to stay off grid, but in this day and age, there must be something, no? It’s impossible to not leave some sort of online fingerprint.”
Maxim was nodding. “That’s the thing. There’s not a trace. The house is linked to a man who died thirty years ago. His truck is registered to the same man. No birth certificate, no social security number, no tax records, medical records, employment records, DMV records, school transcripts—nothing. According to the United States, no one named Gray Lowe born August 8, 1986, or using any alias that I can find with his description, has ever existed.”
I sat up straighter and braced my arms on the table. “What are you saying?”
“From the looks of it? I’d say your brother is a spook.” He frowned. “No other way someone is completely untraceable. Unless you don’t have a brother.”
I gave him a flat look. “I have pictures. I assure you, my brother is very much real. And very much going to have a lot of explaining to do. When you say spook, you mean…a spook as in someone with one of those 3-letter name agencies?”
“Yep.”
“Huh.” My stomach twisted. My first reaction was to adamantly deny it. Not with our upbringing, being taught to distrust the government. But, had those childhood lessons carried over to adulthood for me? No, not really. Sure I was a cautious nomad, but I had no beef with the government. I paid my taxes—played by the rules. Was it far-fetched to assume that Gray used the skills he was taught in childhood to work for the government rather than to evade them? “What do I do now?”
Konstantin cupped the back of my neck. “You need some sleep. Let us handle the rest. We’ll fin
d him.”
“How?”
Kon’s grin was dangerous. “We have our ways.”
I took a long gaze at the men around the room, each of them large and lethal looking. Kon was bigger and more foreboding than the rest of them. Yes, if anyone could find Gray, it was these guys.
9
Grace
Despite it only being late morning when I got back to the RV park, I fell into my bed and slept until early evening. I woke up for a few hours only because Damocles was sitting on my face. I fed him and laid back down staring at the ceiling and thinking of Kon’s delicious muscles and tight ass until I fell back asleep. When I woke up the next morning, I felt refreshed and full of energy but damned if my mind wasn’t still on the big, handsome polar bear shifter.
After making a call to check in with Serge—nothing new yet—I headed over to Gray’s cottage to start cleaning and putting things back in order. There wasn’t much else I could do and I wasn’t about to sit on my hands all day while my brother was god only knew where knee deep in god only knew what.
I trusted that the guys at P.O.L.A.R. were doing everything they could to find Gray, so I could focus on getting his house back in shape. I still felt stressed, but I didn’t doubt Kon’s abilities. I was pretty sure he would find my brother. And then I was going to kick Gray’s ass.
My brother working for the CIA? I was still having trouble processing it. If I was being completely honest, not that I believed the same shit that Dad had, but my fearfulness of the government was still there somewhat. I’d incorrectly assumed it was the same for Gray. I’d incorrectly assumed lots of things about him, apparently.
I’d only been there a couple hours and had barely made a dent—most of the time had been spent trying my damnedest to keep my thoughts off the big, sexy blonde Viking—when the front door flew open with a loud crash. I let loose a startled scream and my hand flew to my chest as I glared at Kon. “What the hell? You scared the devil right out of me!”
“WHAT are you doing here?” He glared right back at me.
I waved my arms around gesturing at the room which, granted, wasn’t quite up to showroom standards yet, but did look a little better. “Uh…cleaning. I would think that would be obvious.”
He looked at me as though I’d lost my mind. “It’s too dangerous! If the people who trashed this place happened to come back and find you, do you have any idea what they might do?”
“I…” I looked around. I hadn’t thought about that. Not really. I’d just figured they’d already searched the house once. Why would they come back to do it again? It looked to me as though they’d done a thorough enough job the first time. “You assume I can’t take care of myself. Oh, ye of little faith.”
He strode across the room and grabbed me. “Against a group of men possibly—probably—armed? It has nothing to do with my faith in you. You can’t be here by yourself, Grace.”
The force of his words put me on the defensive and, despite the fact that he was right, I opened my mouth to argue. “I have to do something, Kon. I can’t just sit around in the van and twiddle my thumbs.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and leveled him with my I mean business, buster look. “I’ll go crazy waiting for news about my brother.”
He caught my arm and turned toward the door pulling me after him. “I can get myself back to the campground, thank you very much. I don’t need you dragging me.”
“I’m not taking you to the campground. I’m taking you to the P.O.L.A.R. office. Serge’s mate Hannah is there. She’s nice and she’ll keep you company.”
I pulled my arm free. “Do you hear yourself? You’re not my keeper, Kon. I don’t need to be babysat like an unruly child.”
He spun around and bent low. Because he caught me off guard, he was able to push his shoulder into my stomach and lift me off of my feet. I dangled over his shoulder, all the blood rushing to my head. “I can’t focus on your brother if I’m worried about you,” he grunted out.
Okay, tossing me around like that was unexpected and highly erotic in a me Tarzan, you Jane kind of cavemannish way. My eyes couldn’t help staring at the way his ass moved in his jeans while he carted me downstairs. I crossed my arms and tried to be as stern and as dignified as I could while upside down and draped over the shoulder of undoubtedly the hottest man on the island.
“This is ridiculous. Is this the way you polar bears operate? Y’all throw your clients around like a sack of potatoes? Or is it just you? Would Serge, or one of the other guys, do the same if they’d been the one to come check on me?”
“They wouldn’t dare.” He rasped out all growly-like, and his hand which had been on my thighs moved up to my ass. “They touch you and they lose their hands.”
A strange streak of pleasure coursed through me at his possessiveness. Okay, maybe I did like possessive men after all, or at least this possessive man. I played along. “Um. Excuse me? Your hand is on my ass, sir.”
He just grunted and left it there. If I was expecting him to be any type of normal and put me down next to a vehicle, or some other form of transportation, I was mistaken. He continued to carry me all the way down Main Street that way, slung over his shoulder. Someone honked and I heard a cheer call out but I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face. I kinda liked being manhandled by the hottest man on the island and I kinda didn’t care who saw.
“Is this how you treat all your clients, Konstantin? If so, I feel like someone should give you a lesson in public relations.” I squeaked when his hand landed firmly on my ass. Had he seriously just spanked me?! “How would you like it if I did that to you?”
“Do it and find out.”
I tried to wiggle out of his grip, but it was useless. “Where are you taking me?”
“I told you, I’m taking you to the P.O.L.A.R. office to hang out with Hannah for the day. I’m following a lead and I won’t be able to concentrate unless I know you’re safe.”
I was torn between frustration, humiliation, arousal and flattery—yeah, I was flattered that this hunky muscle man with incredibly smoldery violet eyes was carrying me down the street with his hand resting proprietorially on my ass. But I was just frustrated and humiliated enough to not want to let him know how turned on I was. “Kon, I appreciate you worrying about me, but I’m a grown woman. I’ve lived on my own since I was eighteen and I don’t need you mothering me to death.”
“Mothering you?” His grip on my ass tightened. “Is that what you think? Woman, if you only knew…”
I felt my face go red and crossed my arms again. It was a little ridiculous, hanging upside down and all, and I wasn’t sure what to do with my hands. No way was I wrapping them around him. That spelled trouble. In all caps.
“I can only imagine your reviews on the Better Business Bureau. Bossy beasts who bully their clients. Hot, but real pains in the ass.” I was mostly mumbling to myself, but Kon laughed. “The big one has a real issue with personal space, but at least he smells nice.”
“So, I’m hot and I smell nice?”
“Actually, I was calling the others hot.”
When Kon tossed me back over his shoulder, easily caught me, and put me on my feet in front of him, it was only to snarl at me. His glowing eyes told me the bear was more in control than the man, I watched as his nose began to lengthen to a snout and his voice emerged as a nearly inhuman gravelly growl. “Don’t look at them.”
I was stunned stupid.
My mouth was still hanging open when he tossed me back over his shoulder and continued walking.
10
Konstantin
I was breathing heavily by the time I threw open the office door. It had nothing to do with the walk and everything to do with holding myself back from devouring the woman in my arms. I wanted desperately to claim her and mark her. Every inch of her called to me. My heart thundered in my chest and my bear was so close to the surface that I knew he was visible in my eyes, but there was not a damned thing I could do about it.
�
��Kon?!” Hannah jumped up from where she’d been sitting at the dispatcher desk, and gaped at us, wide-eyed.
I forced myself to put Grace down and back away from her. I was barely holding onto the sliver of self-control I had left. I needed to distance myself from her and regain composure. I kept walking backwards. She was having none of it, though.
The little minx goaded me. “What? You spend the past ten minutes gripping my ass like it’s the last cheeseburger on earth and now you just turn tail and run away?” Grace put her hands on her hips and tilted her head, the challenge evident.
I told myself to leave. I told myself that leaving was best for both of us, but damned if I listened. I crossed the room in two strides and grabbed her before the squeal could make it out of her mouth. My lips crashed over hers. I pulled her flush against my body, and gripping her hair, licked at the seam of her lips. They parted with a groan, and angling her head back, I stroked my tongue into her mouth, tasting, plundering, owning that sweet mouth that tasted like honey cakes.
I gripped her delicious ass yanking her higher up and into me so she could feel the hard as steel erection I was sporting for her. When her thigh came up and wrapped around my hip, I growled and pulled her head back farther so I could kiss down her throat. Nipping and sucking her sweet skin into my mouth, I was desperate to put some kind of mark on her, no matter how temporary.
What the fuck was I doing? I was seconds from ripping her clothes off and fucking her right there in the office—in front of Hannah, no less! I dragged myself away and balled my hands into fists to keep them from grabbing her again. I rolled my head back and closed my eyes. I could barely get words out and when I did, they were stilted. “I’ll be back in a few days.”
I didn’t wait to hear what she had to say. I practically ran from the place, but not before filing away the mental snapshot of Grace flushed and breathless from my kiss. That was an image I would hold onto forever, but if I didn’t run out of there, god only knew what I’d end up doing. Never had I been so tempted to shirk my duties to the crown, my family and my species.
Royal Bear Page 4