“Language!” Mia snapped again. She grabbed a glass jar off Ty’s desk and marched right up to the outraged bear. Holding the jar out, she jerked it when he stood there, staring at her. “You owe at least two dollars. More, if you keep it up.”
More fur sprouted and a growl rumbled from his throat. “You should keep your skin under control, Itan.”
Ty let out a roar that rattled every window in the house. Cullen reached out and grabbed Mia, twirling her to put her behind him, along with Ivy.
Ty’s bellow brought two Enforcers into the room. When they skidded to a halt, he calmed down enough to ask, “Where in the hell have you been? How did this joker make it into the inner sanctum without escort?”
“We were patrolling the woods, Itan,” the taller of the two said. “But those on house duty are laid out.”
The Itan turned his attention to the stranger. “Did you kill my Enforcers?”
“Of course not.” He shook himself, forcing his bear back inside. Facing them was a well-dressed man with a beer gut who stood a few inches over Cullen’s own height, and he was six-three.
“You must be Garland Scott.” Ty also forced his bear back, motioning for the visitor to sit down. Ty remained standing, his hard, black gaze fixed on the newcomer. Every line in his body indicated he was ready, and willing, to go across the desk to protect his clan from this aggressive bear.
“Yes.” Garland sat in one of the armchairs that faced the desk.
Ty stayed on his feet a few moments longer. Cullen figured he was asserting his dominance and reminding the guest just who was in charge.
After shooting a dark look at Ivy, sheltered in Cullen’s arms, Garland looked back at Ty as the Itan sat down. “I’ve come for my girl,” he said, his voice calmer but still holding a tremor of rage. “Hand her over, unless you want a war with the Lookout Mountain and Scottsville clans.”
Chapter Eleven
Cullen kept Ivy close as Ty leaned back in his seat, clasping his hands loosely in front of him. “Before we start talking about war, you should know that Ivy has leveled a serious charge against you.”
“Oh, let me guess. She claims I killed my wife.”
“Did you?”
Garland crossed his legs. “She was nothing. Less than nothing. By the laws of the Lookout Mountain clan, I had the right to cull a weak wife.” He gave a shrug. “So, I did.”
Ivy shuddered and turned her face into Cullen’s shoulder, while he fought to stay at her side. He wanted nothing more than to “cull” this weak, bullying excuse of a bear.
“You admit it?” Mia’s shock shrilled her tone and paled her face.
“Skins have no rights in my clan,” he told her, making her pale further. He gave her a once-over and, like before, decided she was insignificant. “If you can’t shift, you have little value. I had hoped with Bayleigh I’d get cubs that could shift, since they’d be three-quarters bear, but it was not to be.”
“So, you killed her?” Mia exclaimed, taking a step away from Ty.
Her mate grabbed her wrist and hauled her into his lap. Once she was settled there, a mutinous expression on her face, he looked at Garland. “You need to watch yourself here. We don’t subscribe to the same disgusting points of view that you and your clans have.”
Garland shrugged. “Makes no difference to me, you do or you don’t. When I ended Bayleigh, I didn’t break any laws.”
“And your purpose for pursuing Ivy here? You lookin’ to mete out the same measure of punishment to your daughter?”
“You mean Eden, don’t you?” Garland shot a look at her, disdain written in every line of his ugly face. “Don’t matter a-tall what you’re callin’ yourself, girlie. You fucked up. Give. Me. My. Daughter.”
Cullen saw Ty tighten his grip on Mia when she opened her mouth, probably to call out this bastard for cussing. Well, she’d better get used to it for the next few minutes, because Cullen was about to let loose, too.
“I think Ivy has been more of a parent to Bella in the last week than you’ve been the entirety of that poor girl’s young life.” Cullen narrowed his eyes. “And if you don’t start treating her and my Itana with some fucking respect, you won’t like what happens.”
Fur rippled along Garland’s cheeks. “You threatenin’ me, cub?”
“He is,” Ty said. “As am I. We do things differently here in Grayslake, and one of the things we do differently, I guess, is that we protect and cherish our females and cubs. The strong always protect the weak. Always. They never prey on them, especially when they’re members of their own clan.”
Cullen sensed Ivy’s discomfort and tightened his grip on her hand in a show of support. No wonder she’d taken Bella and run. Garland Scott was mean, and dangerous, and obviously wouldn’t think twice about ending the two females’ lives.
Well, he’d have to go through quite a few Grayslake bears before that could happen now.
Garland stared at him a moment before the fur faded from his face. Inclining his head, he said, “I apologize. My concern for my daughter has, perhaps, clouded my judgment.”
“May I be excused a moment?” Ivy asked, her voice quiet. Small. “I need to use the ladies’ room.”
Ty looked at her askance.
“Truly.” She pulled her hand free from Cullen’s grip. “I won’t try anything.”
He gave a brief nod.
“I’ll show you where it is, honey,” Mia said. The two women left the room.
Cullen stared at the closed door for a minute, unease drifting through him. Ivy had sounded defeated. Scared. He didn’t like it. Neither did his bear. He turned back to Ty and Garland.
After several minutes, while Ty and Garland mostly stared at each other, Mia came back into the room. “Um, Ty? Can I talk to you for a minute?”
The Itan’s eyes narrowed, then widened and shot to over her shoulder. “Where’s Ivy?”
“Um…”
“Mia, my Itana,” he said warningly.
“Ivy-went-out-the-bathroom-window,” she said all in one breath. “She’s gone.”
Garland shot up out of his seat.
“Sit,” Ty bellowed. When the other man didn’t comply, Ty let loose another roar. “You will sit down.” As soon as Garland plopped back down, Ty turned his attention onto Cullen. “You. Get to the B & B. Find Van. Track down those three females and bring them back here.”
Cullen nodded and took off. His truck was gone, so he surmised Ivy must have taken it. The keys were in his pocket, so the only way she’d started it had to have been to hotwire it. Little minx.
God damn it. Why couldn’t she have trusted him? Hadn’t he and his bear been showing her that they would protect her?
But if she’d never gotten that from her clan of origin, she wouldn’t know it for what it was. He’d just have to show her.
He shouted at one of the single bears sitting on the wide front porch. “Keys!”
He caught the keys midair and ran to the other truck in the driveway. He made it in record time to Lucy’s, barely shoving the gear lever into Park before he threw open the door and bounded up the porch stairs.
“Where’s Van?” he barked at Lucy behind the reception desk.
“Upstairs, outside of Ivy and Presley’s room,” she responded without missing a beat.
Cullen took the stairs two at a time, bursting onto the second floor. Van, sitting on the hallway floor, jumped to his feet. “What?”
“Are they in there?” Cullen asked, gesturing toward the door.
“Who?”
“Ivy! Presley and Bella.”
Van frowned. “I haven’t seen Ivy. I thought she was with you at the clan den.”
Cullen scowled. “She snuck out of a bathroom window.” He knocked on the door. When there was no answer, he knocked again. “Ivy?” He tilted his head, listening. Nothing. Drawing a deep breath, he sifted through the scents in the air. Their scents were old, waning.
With a roar, he kicked open the door. The bed was disheve
led and, as he looked closer, he saw the sheets had been stripped. He walked over to the balcony and, sure enough, the bedlinens were tied to the railing. He went past Van on a run. “They’ve rabbited!”
Pounding footsteps behind him told him Van followed. Cullen threw himself behind the wheel of his borrowed truck, starting it up and shoving it in reverse, barely giving Van time to climb in on the passenger side. “Which way you think they’re headed?” the Itan’s brother asked.
“She told me she was heading toward South Carolina, but I think that was a lie.” Cullen did a three-point turn and sent the pickup rumbling down the driveway to the main road. “I think they’ll go south, pick up I-75 and head into Florida.”
“Why not west?”
“The father of the baby is from Scottsville. She won’t want to go into Alabama at all.”
“Ah.”
The diesel-powered pickup ate up the miles.
“Do we know what she’s driving?” Van asked after several minutes.
“My own goddamned truck,” Cullen admitted through gritted teeth.
Van barked out a laugh. “Well, hell, buddy. I’m sure glad to see this mating business isn’t giving you any easier of a time than it has the rest of us.”
“Fuck off.”
Van laughed again. “There it is,” he said, pointing at a black pickup about a mile ahead of them.
Cullen put the pedal to the metal and they caught up with Ivy and the others in two minutes. He pulled up next to her and honked the horn. When she glanced his way, her eyes widened.
Van rolled his window down and yelled, “Pull over.”
Her lips thinned, and she shook her head. And actually sped the fuck up.
Cullen growled and increased his speed. Van yelled at her again. When she once again ignored his command, he let loose a roar that made Cullen’s eardrums hurt.
Cullen glanced her way and saw Presley talking to her. Ivy shook her head. He looked in the back seat and little Bella was wailing away in her car seat, obviously not a happy baby.
He could see the moment Ivy decided she had no other options left open to her. She began slowing the vehicle and directed it onto the side of the road. Cullen pulled over in front of her. “Careful,” he warned Van when the other Enforcer hopped out of the truck. “She might try to take off again.”
“That’d be a mighty poor decision on her part,” he muttered.
Cullen walked to the driver’s side and rested his forearm on the now open window. “You said you wouldn’t try anything.”
That stubborn chin lifted. “I didn’t try. I did.”
He huffed a sigh at her semantics. “Okay, Yoda.” He leaned in a little closer. Keeping his voice quiet, he asked, “Why’d you run?”
“Your Itan is going to give Bella back to her father.” She blinked, her eyes wet, but the cantankerous female didn’t let any of tears spill over. “I can’t allow that. If we have to be on the run for the rest of our lives, that’s what we’ll do. But Bella will not spend another second with that son of a bitch.”
He leaned over so he could get a good view of Presley. “That’s what you’re willing to do, too? Run forever?”
Presley grimaced. “I told her it was a bad idea.”
“Presley!” Ivy glared at her friend and then turned her heat onto Cullen. “What assurances can you give me that Bella won’t go back to that cold-blooded, murderous bastard?”
Cullen glanced at Van, standing by Presley’s open window. The Itan’s brother said, “Ty isn’t going to let a male, who outright admitted he killed his wife, take a vulnerable child back into his household. He’ll come up with a solution, I guarantee that.”
“So, I’ll get to keep her?” Ivy asked, her voice and face filled with hope.
“Uh, I didn’t say that,” Van mumbled. “If Garland Scott complains about it, you won’t be given custody, Ivy. But someone from Grayslake will, and I can promise you they’ll love her like their own.”
“But—”
“Ivy, right now that’s the best we can do,” Cullen told her gently. He pulled open her door. Now, scoot over. We’ll go back to the den and face the music. Together.”
Chapter Twelve
Once back at the clan den, Ivy took a deep breath and got out of Cullen’s truck. He came around the front of the vehicle, taking her hand while Presley climbed out of the back and lifted Bella from her car seat. Van got out of the truck they’d borrowed and brought up the rear.
Garland Scott stood on the porch next to a stoic Ty. As soon as the interloper saw Ivy, he jumped off the porch, shifting mid-jump. He paused a moment, using his claws to slice his ruined clothing from him. Then he ran full-on toward Cullen and the others.
“Van!” Cullen shouted. If this bastard thought he could lay one claw on Ivy or sweet little Bella, or even Presley who he didn’t know, he had another think coming. “The females.”
“You got it.”
Cullen was barely aware of Van ditching his clothes and shifting to grizzly, placing himself in front of Ivy, Presley, and Bella. Garland now had two bears to go through to get to Ivy and his daughter.
The charging bear wasn’t going to give Cullen time to shift. He bounced back on his heels, fists up, and waited for his moment.
The grizzly roared and swiped one massive paw at Cullen. Cullen ducked and rolled under the outswept arm, popping back up to his feet before the big grizzly could even move. He hammered his fists into the bear’s sides lightning fast—right, left, right, right. A sharp crack came to his ears and he smiled as Garland roared his pain. That was one rib down, several more to go.
The bear charged again. Rage made him sloppy, and gave Cullen one chance after another to land blow after blow while staying out of reach of its claws. His final strike was a slam of his fist to the bear’s jaw. The animal’s head jerked to one side as he howled in pain. He lost his footing and went down.
“He won’t stay down,” he heard Ivy whisper.
“He’d better stay down, if he knows what’s good for him,” Ty responded.
Cullen turned his back on the beaten bear and started walking toward Ivy. Her face was pale, her eyes dark and round. They went even rounder and she screamed his name, pointing to something behind him.
He twisted to the side, narrowly missing a swipe from Garland’s paw. Cullen jumped and came down, slamming his clenched hands into the bear’s snout. Garland shrieked in pain and fell back, shaking his head.
Cullen took the opportunity to strip and finally let his bear out to play. The change rolled through him in less than a second. He went from a six-three two-hundred-pound male to nearly five hundred pounds of werebear with a score to settle.
The fight was ferocious. It was final for Garland Scott. In a matter of minutes, Cullen, still in his bear form, stood over the dying male and roared his triumph. He stood on his hind legs, challenging anyone else who wanted to take him on. When no one came forward, he dropped to all fours and padded over to Ivy and the others.
When he shifted back to human, Mia was there with a blanket, which he draped over his shoulders and pulled closed in front of him. Ivy stepped forward, her arms outstretched. He opened his arms long enough for her to cuddle in against him, then he closed the blanket again, enveloping them both in its warmth and comfort.
“This was a righteous kill,” Ty called out to those of the clan who had gathered to watch the fight. “Cullen was the clear winner and would have let Garland Scott live, had Scott had honor. Yet he attacked Cullen when his back was turned, showing us he had no honor at all.” He looked out over the crowd, eyes black with his bear. “Do any witnesses disagree?” His gaze fell on one person and he lifted a brow. “Helen?”
She shook her head. “Garland acted without honor, Itan.” She glanced at the body for a moment, then looked at Cullen where he stood with Ivy in his arms. “I thought I was doing the right thing by calling him. I thought…” She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “I didn’t know he’d killed Bayl
eigh,” she said quietly, her gaze on Ivy. “I’m so sorry.” Without another word, she turned and walked away.
“Ivy,” Ty called. He waited until she looked at him. “I’ll follow up with the Scottsville Itan and the Lookout Mountain Itan. A challenge was offered and answered, and the mightier bear won.” He glanced at Bella, where she rested in Presley’s arms. “As far as we’re concerned, that child is yours.” He and Mia turned and went back into the house.
“I’ll take Presley and Bella back to Lucy’s,” Van told him quietly, wearing a blanket of his own. “Just as soon as I get dressed,” he added dryly.
Cullen nodded but didn’t take his gaze off Ivy. “It’s over,” he said. He pulled one arm free from the blanket and tipped her chin up. “And now that you don’t have to run, will you stay? With me? Give this fated mate thing a try?”
“For how long?”
“The rest of our lives.”
She gave him a tremulous smile and went up on her tiptoes. Pressing her lips against his, she gave him a long, slow kiss full of promise. When she drew away, there was doubt on her face. “What if you hurt me? What if I hurt you?”
“There’s somethin’ my mama used to tell me, when she’d talk about her and my daddy. ‘Son,’ she’d say, ‘the fact of life is, everyone’s gonna hurt you. You just have to find that one woman who’s worth sufferin’ for, because the joy will outweigh the pain.’”
“She was right.” She looked up at him. “And Bella?”
“Our oldest cub, sweetness. I know you love her, and I’m already on my way, the little bit I’ve been around her.”
Ivy searched his face and must have found what she was seeking, because she nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay.” His grin like to split his face. He was happier than he’d ever been in his life, and he knew it was because he’d finally found what had been missing. He knew Ivy had, too. They’d each been a part of a whole but alone, and now that they were together, there wasn’t anything they couldn’t do.
No one could take this away from them. The rest of their lives were just beginning.
Grayslake: More than Mated: Bear My Heart (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 8