Dragon Star (A Shifter Football League Novel)

by Aurora Reid

  “That's not what I'm suggesting at all,” she said, shaking her head vehemently, giving him pause and a reason to sit back down. Hopefully, he wouldn't charge back up. “I would like to build the homes on land you've already settled on. They would be fabulous, two-story homes with two car garages. These are our new model homes that I'm proud of. All of your clan would live for free, on your old land, only in our homes.”

  “And who else with us? Is this your plan? Is this your offer? You call this an offer...” His chest heaved, falling and rising in rapid pace. Jax gritted his teeth and turned away from her again, each word falling harshly from his gorgeous lips. “This isn't an offer. This is a joke.”

  He stood up and turned his back to Mia.

  “Wait, before you go, you should know the other option.”

  Growling low, he spun around and glared at her.

  Mia didn't like this part, but she remained focused on her alternative, telling her company that they had no future. The company that was their family's for generations would crumble, all because she couldn't come up with a solution. There was no way Mia would give up so easily.

  “The other option is that I kick you out. Or you could do the smart thing and give your clan a chance. Take the offer. Let them live in the new community I'm going to build. It's free. All you have to do is say yes.”

  “Agree to destroy our homes, to let you take our land? You'll never hear me agree to that.”

  “Something must be done with the land. It's the perfect site for an upscale community in Vermont. Since we technically already own the land, we could do with it whatever we like.”

  She took three suicidal steps until she stood next to the great bear.

  “I could ask you to clear out today if I wanted to,” she whispered, a threat that she hoped she wouldn't have to follow up on.

  Jax laughed. “I'd like to see you try. There's a reason why you wrote your fancy letter and decided to come here with a fancy contract, because you're too scared to ask the clan face to face.”

  He leaned closer, bowing so they were eye-level. Those molten pools of honey were all consuming. His manly scent of the woods, hard labor, and leather swirled around her, breaking her confidence.

  “I'm only one bear, and you're having a hard time remaining tough around me. How will it go when there’s a whole clan of us? There's a reason why your family couldn't do this before. They knew better than to piss off a clan of bears.”

  He let out another growl, almost a low purr, and it reverberated in Mia long after he stepped through the door.

  “You’ve got a lot to learn, little one,” he said, just before he walked outside.

  Mia raced to the door. She screamed at his back. “There's two choices. Remember that. If you're not going to take the gracious one, it'll be the one where we drag you off our land!”

  The bear froze.

  Too far? Dragging them off the land would be her last resort, but if he made her do it, she would have no choice. Mia grabbed the doorframe to steady herself.

  His monstrous shoulders tensed, his shoulder blades flexed. Through his thin shirt she watched the rippling of tendons. Jax had the body of a true predator.

  He said nothing. But he did give her his response.

  For the first time in her life, Mia watched someone shift. The first time seeing a shift could really wreck some non shifters due to the unnaturalness of it. Mia watched in awe and horror as he compacted, muscles and bones flipping in seconds, then his mass exploded, filling out until there was no longer a man standing before her, but a hulking, furry black bear.

  Without a word or a roar, the black bear took off toward the dense forest in the distance.

  Mia clutched the frame so hard she broke a nail.

  “Dumb bear. Dumb, dumb, bear…”

  Cursing, she walked it off, pacing in front of the Black Bear Tavern as she tried to think about what to do next. The image of a regular man changing into a bear still rattled her sense of reality, but it eventually subsided to the background of her mind.

  It was a cool, crisp autumn evening in Vermont. The sun began to fall over the lush red and orange mountains, casting a warm, majestic glow. She sat down on the front step and let it all sink in.

  A week into her new job as CEO, and Mia had been tasked with the impossible.

  There was no doubt about it.

  Jax would be a problem.

  Stupid bear...

  His bear could go to hell.

  Something strange had happened to Jax during that meeting with Mia, something that he'd been hoping for years to feel, but now that it happened, he couldn’t believe it.

  It couldn't be. Mia couldn’t be the one.

  Yet his bear told him that this was it. Mia was his mate.

  After a night of hardly sleeping, Jax fueled himself on a pot of coffee, downing the whole thing because, why not? He was a big guy. He could handle it. And he needed to get out of his head.

  Work was usually the answer.

  In his work outfit: rugged jeans, a t-shirt scattered with holes, and some hardy boots – he met up with the rest of the clan's bearjacks. They were gearing up at their usual meeting spot, on the crafted benches just outside of Black Bear Park at the cusp of the Big Trees, not the most creative name, but damn accurate.

  “What's up, big guy?” Claude asked. He threw his head back, in effect, tossing his blond hair over his shoulders. Claude would be what they called an outlier black blear. There weren't many Black Bears that came out of the litter with a full head of blond locks.

  Just don't call him Goldie Locks. While he might be one of the biggest pranksters on their bearjack crew, he hated any mention of his blond oddity, and he'd been in a lot of fights over it. Square jaw, frame like a linebacker, the man could take down a bear without even shifting.

  “Ready for work,” Jax grumbled.

  “He's extra growly this morning,” Claude reported to the others. “I guess we can expect to bust our ass today.”

  “Uh huh,” Jax said as he passed them by, heading past the maple trees. His focus was on the job. The others lugged the equipment: the knit bags, the axes, and the saws, trying to catch up with Jax's long strides.

  “I want to ask what's wrong, but at this point, I know better,” Claude muttered.

  Jax tried to ignore them, but they were right on his heels. Gritting his teeth, trying his best not to produce another growl, he continued. If he kept this brooding up, they might discover that he'd met his mate...or what his bear told him was his mate. He still refused to believe it.

  Mia, the daughter of Lucca, the most hated man in Black Bear Park.

  Fuck him. Why did it have to be her?

  Perhaps he was finally going feral like he'd always feared. There were rumors that when a bear hadn't met his mate for a long time, his bear and his human side could get confused, pitting each side against one another.

  Beautiful, curvy, Mia...the enemy...who got the blood rushing to his cock. Even as he tried to stay focused on the work ahead, it seemed impossible with the images that played in his mind. His incessant bear urged him to tear off her business attire, shove her against one of the great trees, and take her hard against it until he had claimed his mate, sank his teeth into her tenderness, and bound them together forever.

  Babies. Lots of cubs. She'd move in with him, too.

  Oh hell, there was no way that Jax could bring this up to any of them. He’d really lost it. They might just chain him up to one of the Big Trees, and try to talk some sense into him, and the sad part was, he wouldn’t blame them if they did. Jax was mad.

  He stopped at the first ancient tree that wasn't marked yet. Running his coarse fingertips over the grooves, he began to listen. The ancients spoke to him, like they spoke to all the other Black Bears if they were willing to open themselves to their words.

  This tree told him it wasn't ready to be felled. It still had lots of years ahead of it. Funny, when it said it needed time yet, it was speaking of hundr
eds of years. He moved ahead.

  “Uhm, I guess...everyone get to work. Jax means business today!” Keith shouted.

  The veteran bear, so old that there were streaks of gray in his long black mane, kept them in line when Jax preferred to be alone. Jax was the alpha of their clan, but Keith was older than him, and in some respects, far wiser. They listened to Keith as much as they listened to Jax, so it was a good relationship they had going. Especially since Jax often liked to be left the hell alone.

  “Yeah, I ain't fuckin' around today. No way,” Troy said.

  Troy was the lankiest of the bunch, but that didn't mean much since they were all thick Black Bears. He had the shortest hair as well, cropped tight with gelled spikes, giving him a more boyish appearance.

  The other bears spread out. They went through the ancient trees, so big you could drive a car through them if there were any roads in this deep country, except most of their business was conducted through bear clans, so they had no use for roads.

  Jax thumped his palm against a particular tree that along with the red hue of its bark, also had a hint of blue. Blue often hinted at a tree being ready to be felled, a sacrifice to make room for the young, the next generation.

  “We've got one,” Jax said.

  Keith, Claude, and Troy huddled around him. They stared up at the massive tree, then back down at the beginning of its roots which spread for miles underneath.

  Keith stepped forward as Jax stepped back. Casting spells wasn't his specialty. Jax wasn't even sure if he believed that the spells worked, but he couldn't deny that there was some sort of magic at play in Black Bear Park. Something bound the bears to these woods. The multi-colored trees, and their crazy size, couldn't be explained otherwise.

  The old bear was always going on about Artia, the female bear god, which he claimed granted them their powers. There were many practitioners of Artia, but there were plenty of bears who remained agnostic as well. The source of their power was always a mystery, but not to the priests, who claimed they had direct contact with the bear gods.

  Keith took out a small knapsack and untied it. He doused his fingertip with a dollop of black ink mixed with purple sand and then streaked it across the aged bark.

  “Artia, we thank you for your offering. Thank you for watching over these forests and allowing us to call them home, and for this blessing you have bestowed upon us, may its sacrifice bless these lands and—”

  It went on for quite some time. Jax remained like a statute, ax in hand, waiting impatiently to get swinging.

  Jax wasn't sure what had caused the bears to be so in tune with nature, but he wasn't going to piss off an all powerful clan of godly bear shifters if he could help it. He let Keith continue.

  “Let's get to work, boys,” Keith said after stuffing the bag back in his pocket.

  Jax lifted up the ax, and with a thunderous roar, swung it into the side of the tree. It would require much work late into the late evening, but Jax and his crew were always up to it.

  He madly chopped away, hoping that the physical exertion would help him forget his bears need to claim a mate, would help him forget that name tumbling through his brain, over and over…

  Mia.

  After a long day of chopping and sawing, they managed to drop the beast. Upon crashing, the ground quaked, and it most likely woke up the nearby human suburbs. They’d gotten complaints before, that was nothing new.

  Transfer of the felled tree would be done tomorrow. For now, they called it a day. Jax left sweaty and tired. He began to head back to his cabin, but thought otherwise once his mind began to spin again.

  Troy caught up to him. Like Jax, a layer of sweat soaked his shirt.

  “Hey, man, just wanted to make sure you're all right. You're usually in a mood, but this time I'm worried about you. Am I allowed to say that, dude?”

  “I'm fine,” he replied gruffly. Troy was only trying to help though, and Jax recognized that. “Thanks, Troy. I appreciate it. I'm just...”

  “I sense something going on. All of us can sense it.”

  Jax turned away. Sometimes their shifter connection could save their asses, sometimes it could be downright intrusive.

  “I'll let you know. I've got to figure it out myself first.”

  Troy winked at him and grinned. “You haven't found a mate, have you?”

  Jax's jaw dropped, but he quickly slammed it closed. Troy could never know who his mate was. He wouldn't take it well.

  His family had been one of the first burned by the Marchinis. They were settled close to the borders of their saw mill, and Mia's great-great-grandfather had taken it upon himself to cut down some of their trees and threaten complete destruction. After a few bears stood their ground, the Marchinis relented and allowed Troy's family to stay. That was a long time ago, but bears were stubborn and held long grudges.

  No one liked the family. Just looking at the clear line of deforestation was a good way to mark property lines. It was impossible for the destruction not to hit a bear hard with how much nature spoke to them.

  “No,” Jax said. He was getting old. Thirty-five. Too old not to have discovered his mate. Other bears were worried about him, but they never brought it up to his face. Usually, when they did, it didn't go over well. “Thanks for asking, but it's really nothing. I'll take care of it.”

  With a pat on his back, Jax took off. “Thanks for all your help today,” he said and was happy to see that Troy didn't tail him.

  As he neared his cabin, a two-story home constructed from the ancient’s autumn coloring and nestled in a canyon near a trickling waterfall, he decided against entering. There would be no way he'd get proper sleep. And he didn't feel like dealing with himself all night.

  Jax was sorry to say that the only person who might be able to help him was his sister. They hadn't talked in a while, so he figured that a visit was overdue. With a heavy head, Jax walked down the hill to visit his sister's house.

  Something told him that she might screw his head up even more, but Jax was desperate.

  Jenny lived in what Jax liked to call a “Hobbit Home,” a long house, constructed of gnarled roots and warped bark. She kept an extensive garden around the path to her front door. Many of the brightly colored herbs were used whenever she needed to mix a potion or talk to some bear spirit, or whatever else she needed. Jax had no idea what she did in her free time, and he didn't care to ask. He wasn't sure if he believed in most of it, and it was much safer not to get into an argument with her. There simply wasn't enough time in the day for all that.

  She threw open the door on his approach. Her arms were wide.

  “Brother,” she screamed. Before he could get to her, she raced at him and gave him a big hug.

  His sister, like Claude, had blond hair. Often, if a bear didn't match their clan's colors, it was because they'd been birthed from a couple that weren't fated mates. Jax had been birthed from his father’s first wife, his fated mate, while Jenny had been birthed from his second wife.

  “It's good to see you.”

  “It's good to see you too, sis,” Jax said, as he pushed ahead into her home.

  She chased after him and rounded him before he could sit down at her table. With its various cushions, the whole space looked like an excellent spot to lounge in. A bear could hibernate there forever and never need to wake up.

  “What’s wrong? Something’s wrong,” she said.

  “Please, sit down.”

  “This can’t be good. Sit down?” She bit her nails and tottered.

  “Sis, please, sit down.”

  She refused. “No, I won’t sit down. You have to tell me what’s wrong. Right now.”

  “Why do you think something is wrong?”

  “When do you show up unannounced?”

  “Good point.” He pointed to her tucked away kitchen, a little cove that held plenty of jarred concoctions. “Can I have some of that tea? The one I love so much?”

  “Talk first. Tea later.” She sat down acro
ss from him in a rush.

  He sighed. “I’d really love some tea. You know how much I like that blackberry tea you make…”

  “And I know how hard it is to get you to talk about your troubles.”

  The hulking bearjack grumbled again, but shrugging his shoulders, he admitted defeat. “I think I’ve found my mate.”

  Jen blinked once. Then it sank in. “You found your mate!” she screamed. “Why is that a problem? Oh, Jax, that’s wonderful news.”

  He didn’t have time to explain further. She jumped up from her seat and gave him a hug. He patted her arm to get her to stop.

  “This is wonderful news,” she said again. “How could this be bad news?”

  “Because it’s my bear we’re talking about here. My bear loves bad news, it seems.”

  “Who is she?” Jen asked, sitting back down. She couldn’t make up her mind whether she wanted to sit or stand.

  “That’s the problem.” Jax swept his hand through his hair. “My bear must be going mad, because this should not be my mate. It’s Lucca’s daughter.”

  Now she didn’t look so happy. “Lucca...you mean...I hope that you don’t mean, Mr. Marchini?”

  “That’s the one. Her name is Mia. She’s all grown up, and my bear wants her. It’s tearing me up.”

  “I could see how that’s a problem now.” Mia’s excitement deflated. Her eyes twinkled suddenly as she came to her conclusion. “You’ll just have to do it. There’s no point in arguing when your bear picks its mate. Do you feel it? What does it feel like?”

  She reached out to take Jax’s hand. He pointed to the jars of tea leaves. “I’ve earned my tea, haven’t I?”

  Jen squinted. “You’re unbelievable.” But she got up and started to mix ingredients like a witch brewing up a spell, a delicious spell that Jax always enjoyed. “Keep talking,” she yelled from the kitchen, her voice booming through the abode. “I’m listening the whole time.”

  Before he could talk, she yelled, “What does it feel like? Please, you’ve got to tell me. How do you know for certain that you’re meant to be together forever?”