by Maia Dylan
Logan placed his chin on her shoulder and exhaled slowly. “You’ll have to be extra patient with us, love. We have never been in love before, and to be honest with you, I’m surprised as all hell that the Fates have destined someone as perfect as you as the mate to two bears like us. We so don’t deserve you, but we are going to hold you to us as tight as possible for the rest of our lives.”
Keiko growled. “I never want to hear you say that you are not deserving of me. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a load of bullshit. You are mine just as much as I am yours. I could talk about not feeling worthy of not one but two incredibly hot, sexy, successful men, but I’m not. I’m simply going to own it and move on, living my life the way I want to with the two men I want to live it with. All we have to do is find a way to avoid me having to sacrifice myself to save my father, and all three of us can go on and live that life. Together.”
“I think Yamaguchi-san might be able to help with that,” her mother said as she watched from the back door, her eyes suspiciously wet. “I want to make sure that my daughter gets the chance to live the life she wants, and there might be a way to get that.”
Keiko smiled at her mother and nodded. She reached down, and used her hands to gently cup Cooper’s face and urged him to his feet. She pressed a kiss to his lips before turning to do the same to Logan. Keiko felt as if the moment was somehow significant, as if their futures were now set, with only one hurdle standing in their way. A rich, powerful, highly-connected-within-an-organized-crime-group hurdle—but still, only the one.
Chapter 8
“Yamaguchi-san is one of the oldest people in our village.” Keiko’s mom was telling them all about the woman they were going to speak with as they walked to her home. Cooper had apologized to her as soon as they got back inside, and she had forgiven him, but he still wanted to smack himself in the head for her not only hearing him curse but seeing him curse at her daughter. “I’m not sure how old she is exactly, and I can tell you whatever number you think when you meet her, it’s actually a lot higher.”
“Is she like a village elder?” Logan asked. “Or maybe a shaman type of person?”
Keiko smiled and shook her head. “No, we aren’t a clan or a tribe, as such, so no elders, and we don’t have shaman like other cultures, but she has lived in this village her whole life. I have no memory of her ever leaving the village, even for a single day.”
“As far as I know, she hasn’t,” Keiko’s mom agreed. “But that is not to say that she is uneducated or knows nothing of the outside world. Yamaguchi-san is one of life’s mysteries, knowing more than most about everything, and when it comes to this village or even this prefecture, she knows more than anyone else.”
They stopped outside a small, single-level house with what looked like a stone shrine statue on the front porch. The house was quaint and the yard immaculately kept. Cooper and Logan followed the two women through the gate and up to the front door and then waited as they knocked and called out in Japanese. Once again, Cooper vowed to enroll in a Japanese course or convince his mate to teach him the language. A few minutes later, they were all sitting around a lowered table called a kotatsu, where the wooden frame of the table was covered by a thick blanket, and the top lay over it. When he pulled the blanket over his legs as Keiko did, he was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a heat source beneath it.
Yamaguchi-san was a small woman who walked slightly stooped, no doubt due to age and a hard life in the fields. Her face lit up when she saw Keiko, and it was obvious there was genuine affection between the two, but when her eyes turned to him and Logan, Cooper could have sworn on a stack of bibles that she saw more than most, and she could stare right into the heart of a person.
A conversation was taking place between the women, and every now and then, Keiko would glance at him and Logan and offer a small, apologetic smile. Both he and Logan just smiled or winked back. “Do you two plan to learn Japanese?” Cooper was startled not only by the sudden use of heavily accented English, but also its source. “Or are you happy to remain clueless around Keiko’s people from now on?” Cooper grinned when he saw the glimmer of mischief in Yamaguchi-san’s eyes.
“Just as soon as we can, ma’am,” Cooper answered for both of them.
Yamaguchi-san grinned and nodded. “Good. When you come back, I will expect you to be able to talk to me in Japanese. Now, I can see that you carry the gift and the spirit of an animal, but my sight is dim as age carries me relentlessly forward. Tell me, what animal do you carry within you?”
The other two women at the table gasped, but Cooper wasn’t surprised. “We are Kodiak bears. Our sloth is in America, and we have a long and rich heritage within us.”
“What rank do you hold within your sloth? Are you alphas?” Yamaguchi leaned toward them as she asked, and Cooper got the feeling the answer to this question was important.
“Yes, ma’am,” Logan answered with a frown. “Despite the fact that we have given fealty to our sloth alpha, which we do out of respect for what he has done for our people, Cooper and I are both dominant alpha bears.”
A broad smile spread across the older woman’s face and she sat back. “This is good. Keiko has told me about her father and the deal that devil Ken wants in return for his life. Kanako should have told me weeks ago, as soon as Naoki was killed, despite the fact that I have known for some time. But, with you being what you are and who you are, I think there is a way to save not only Keiko’s father but also Keiko herself. We need to—”
Yamaguchi’s explanation was interrupted by a male banging on her front door and yelling something in Japanese from the front of the house. Confused, Cooper looked at Keiko, and immediately he knew that whatever was going on, it had her scared. All color had drained from her face, and Cooper was fairly certain that she was shaking slightly.
“What is it?” Logan growled.
“That’s Hiroki, Ken’s first lieutenant. He’s saying that Ken knows about the two of you, and he’s tired of waiting. He’s here, and he has my father.”
Cooper felt every cell in his body scream to shift. “That is not going to happen. Why can’t Logan and I just shift and go out there and rip them to pieces?”
“Because they’re bear shifters, too,” Yamaguchi-san answered, and Cooper couldn’t stop his jaw from falling open slightly. They had no idea that there were bear shifters in Japan, let alone that they were Yakuza. “Not Kodiaks like you, but native to Japan. The Ussuri bear is smaller in size than the Kodiak, but not by much.”
“So what now?” Logan snarled. “We just hand our mate over to those assholes just because there are more of them? Oh, hell no!”
Logan jumped up, Cooper right on his heels, but before they could storm out of the house and let their bears do the talking, Yamaguchi-san snarled, “Stop and listen first! If you have any hope of living through this and keeping your mate, you must listen to me.”
They turned and saw that all three women had leaped to their feet as well. Keiko stood with her mother’s arm wrapped around her, Kanako’s stance saying very clearly that she was not going to let her daughter go. Yamaguchi-san stood closest to them, her hand on her hips, glaring at them
“We’re listening, ma’am.” Cooper took a calming breath. “If you have a solution that will allow us to save Keiko and her dad and have all three of us able to get the hell out of this alive, then please, we are all ears.”
“We have no time to talk about what I’m planning. They’re already here.” Yamaguchi-san started stomping toward the front of her house. “You will simply have to hear the plan as I reveal it to the Ussuri. We have no choice, and you will simply have to hold back any adverse reactions you may have.” She paused as they got to the door, and she dropped her voice. “It is good that you two feel the need to fight for your mate, because you’re both going to get the chance.” Then she opened the door, stooped even lower than she was, and shuffled out slower and more unsteady than they had seen her.
Cooper fo
llowed, thinking about what she had said. Whatever her plan was, it involved him having to fight for his mate, and he was okay with that. And as for his bear? Well, he was pretty much demanding it.
* * * *
Logan stepped out behind Yamaguchi-san and stood behind her, just to her right-hand side, with Cooper to her left. Logan was really looking forward to seeing this Ken Shimoyama for himself. There was a large, black Rolls Royce with blacked-out windows parked on the opposite side of the road from the house. There were two large Toyota Crown cars, both with blacked-out windows, one parked in of the Rolls and behind it. As soon as they came to stand on the porch, four men piled out from the Crown cars to join the man who must have been the one yelling.
“Hiroki, why do you come here, shouting at the house of an old woman?” Yamaguchi-san scolded, her voice sounding much frailer than it had moments before. Logan was, at least, thankful she spoke in English. “If your mother knew that you were here bothering an old lady like me, she would be most disappointed.”
The one called Hiroki sneered. “Luckily for me, old lady, I have never worried about disappointing my mother.” The man spoke perfect English, and if Logan wasn’t mistaken, he caught the edge of a British accent. Hiroki was lean, but powerfully built, with an upper body build that spoke of many hours in the gym. His black hair was tied behind him and he wore a deep purple suit, almost black in color, with an unreal shimmer to the material Logan had never seen before. “We know that Keiko and her mother are inside. If she comes with us now, then no one will be hurt. Ken believes that Keiko will do the honorable thing. So much so, that he has brought with him the credit chip she is payment for.”
The back door to the Crown at the rear of the convoy opened, and another goon stepped out, pulling a blindfolded, gagged, and handcuffed man from the car. Logan knew that he was looking at Keiko’s father, and from the state of him, he hadn’t been taken care of while he had been held within the Ussuri stronghold.
Yamaguchi-san shuffled forward slightly. “Ah, Shinya, it is good to see you back, old friend. I am sure Keiko and Kanako are very happy to see you and very much looking forward to having you back home with them. These men”—she turned slightly to indicate Cooper and him—“are mates to your daughter. We—”
Her introductions were interrupted by a sound Logan knew all too well. It was the roar of a pissed-off bear, and it had his own bear pushing to stand on two legs, ready to meet the challenge. The door to the Rolls opened and out stepped a man that looked a lot like Hiroki. Logan knew he was looking at Ken Shimoyama, the leader of the Ussuri clan, and for all intents and purposes, the alpha of their sloth.
Ken was breathing heavily, barely contained rage rolling off him in waves. “You call these gaijin mates to one of our own? She is mine! It is my will and my right to claim the mate I wish, and Keiko Saito is and always has been mine.”
Logan had to put a stranglehold on his bear, desperately fighting the urge to change. This asshole thought he could simply will someone to be their mate? That was not how it worked. Add that to the fact that Ken thought he could take Keiko’s will away from her, and that made for one Kodiak bear with nothing but blood on his mind.
Obviously sensing how close he and Cooper were to simply shifting and shredding all of the fuckers who stood before them to pieces, Yamaguchi-san turned and glared at the brothers. She had a plan. Logan and Cooper just had to let her put it into play. Breathing through the pain of rejecting a shift and trying desperately to calm his raging bear, Logan held his ground.
“As always, Ken Shimoyama, you have forgotten that the Ussuri clan were once a principled race of shifters who lived with honor and adhered to the laws of their kind. You have perverted that with your need for material things, for power, and for the desire to have all those around you fear who and what you are. You took that clan into the Yakuza and allowed them to use you and your clan as Enforcers. Nothing more than soldiers to fight on the front lines of their wars.”
Ken sneered and took a step forward. “What the fuck do you know of anything? You are a fossil in this village who knows nothing of the real world. You have no fucking understanding of our ways or anything that goes on here.”
“Hatashi jou.” Logan had no idea what Yamaguchi-san just said, but whatever it was, it certainly caused a stir within the group before them. “The only way to remove the infection from the clan is to exorcise the cancer that is eating away at it. Logan and Cooper Anderson extend hatashi jou to you and your wakagashira. They will meet both you and Hiroki in battle on the grounds of the village Shinto shrine, and you will fight before the gods for the right to lead the Ussuri clan and to claim Keiko as your own.”
There was a moment of silence before Hiroki barked a humorless laugh. “This proves my brother’s point. You know nothing of our clan. They cannot challenge, as they are not Obake.”
Part of the plan was suddenly revealed to Logan and he grinned. He shot a glance at his brother and saw that he wore the same bloodthirsty smirk. Logan took a couple of steps forward to stand in front of their group. “Oh, now, that’s where you’re wrong.” As long as Logan lived he would remember the look on both men’s faces at his words. “Cooper and I are most definitely Obake. And we relish the opportunity to meet you in a fight.”
Ken snarled and moved forward, the essence of a true alpha filling the air, making the men with him buckle under his dominance. Logan and Cooper both felt it, but because they were alphas themselves, they were able to shake it off. There was a flash of concern in Ken’s eyes when neither he nor Cooper backed down.
Just then, the roar of a vehicle approaching broke the moment, and three Ford Explorers pulled up behind Ken’s convoy. Logan wanted to laugh at the looks on the other men’s faces when twelve large-as-fuck men piled out of the three trucks and walked in their direction. What surprised Logan the most was the fact that Seth was leading them.
The Greenspoint bears and their alpha had come to Japan.
Seth’s eyes narrowed when he neared and caught the dominance Ken had been trying to press upon Logan and Cooper. Logan grinned when he felt Seth release a little of his own, making Ken’s entire group of men drop to a knee in the dirt.
Seth snarled in Ken’s direction. “Boy, you wanna throw some dominance around, you better hope someone like me doesn’t come along. My bear and me, we don’t take too kindly to shitty little alphas trying to press their dominance on bears that belong to us. Do it again, and I will show you the true fucking meaning of what it is to be alpha.” A low, grumbling roll of anger erupted from deep within Seth’s chest and Ken wobbled before dropping to one knee. Seth turned his back on the leader of the Ussuri clan, one of the worst insults a dominant bear could give another, and walked over toward Logan and Cooper.
“Logan, Cooper. Wanna fill me in on what’s going on here?” Seth asked reasonably as he approached.
Cooper grinned as he stepped forward. “Long story short, alpha, these men are part of a Japanese shifter group called the Ussuri. The two in the shiny suits are the alpha and beta for their clan, and they have led their sloth in, well, let’s just say not entirely legitimate business directions. Oh, and they’re also crazy as fuck because they think we’re just going to hand our mate over to them and be on our merry way. Thanks to the beautiful Yamaguchi-san there”—Cooper turned to point at her, and she grinned and waved happily back—“we have just issued a leadership challenge to them. Logan and I were about to lay a smackdown on these two, take over the clan in your name, save our future father-in-law, and get the girl.”
Logan looked over and saw that Keiko stood on the top step, her mother standing beside her. She offered a small smile and wave also, but there was no missing the concern in her eyes.
“Cool,” Seth answered with a nod. “I haven’t seen you two fight outside of a cage for a long time. Let’s get to that soon so we can be on our way. Grant saw a karaoke bar in the city we just drove through, and he’s been whining to all of us about wanting to go, so to
save our sanity and stop his incessant whining, we’re going there straight after this.”
Yamaguchi-san seemed to skip down the rest of her stairs and walked to join Logan and Cooper. “Logan will meet Ken, and you will battle in the form of your spirits.” Logan grinned. He would pit his bear against anyone except Seth and a few of his senior Enforcers, so he was all good with that. “And Cooper, you will face Hiroki in human form.” In all the years he and Cooper had been cage fighting within the MMA community, Logan had never seen Cooper lose a fight. He was just too fucking stubborn.
Logan looked over at the men he and Cooper would be facing and saw the arrogant confidence on their faces. They probably thought that the two American businessmen that had challenged them didn’t stand a chance. But they forgot one very large incentive. Keiko was their mate. Theirs to love, theirs to cherish, and theirs to protect. If the path that led to their happily ever after was currently blocked by Ken and Hiroki, then they would just have to bathe that path in their blood and step over their dead bodies to get there.
Chapter 9
Keiko looked around and up at the village Shinto and drew comfort and strength from its familiar red archway and carved stone stairs. It was here, as a child, that she had prayed to the gods for the opportunity to see the world, and for a love as strong as her parents’. Now, years later, the gods had bestowed both upon her, and it was here that her lovers would fight for her family. And that somehow made Keiko feel as if this were the moment when everything came full circle.
“Are you okay, baby?” Keiko’s eyes closed against the sting of tears brought on just by hearing Logan’s voice and feeling his strong arms wrapping around her body.
She took a calming but shaky breath and nodded. “I will be, once this is all over and done with. The thought of you and Cooper being hurt or…or worse, is killing me. If anything happens to you…” Her voice trailed off as her emotions got the better of her.