“Yeah, I can imagine things could get pretty hostile,” Scarlett said. “Go take care of what you need to. I can see you later.”
“You are amazing, you know that?” Kurt smiled and kissed her again. “Do me a favor and head back to your bungalow. I would feel better knowing you aren’t around the other clan.”
Scarlett let out a snort. “Getting protective now, are we?”
“I can’t help it,” Kurt said. “It’s in my nature to want to protect you.”
“It’s OK,” Scarlett said honestly. “It’s kinda nice to have someone want to protect me for once.”
Kurt smiled. “I will always protect you.” Frank let out a snort of laughter behind them. Scarlett felt warmth rush to her cheeks.
“Let me walk you back to your room,” Kurt said. “Frank, go gather up our clan and tell them to meet me in the library.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Frank said, and ran off down the path.
Kurt grabbed Scarlett’s hand and started to walk her back to her bungalow. Scarlett could see the tension in Kurt’s shoulders. He must be under so much pressure, having to look out for the entire clan, Scarlett thought. They reached the path that forked with one direction leading to the resort, and the other leading to the bungalows.
“I can make it back from here,” Scarlett said.
Kurt let out a long sigh. “Sorry, I’m sure you can.” I will come and find you after I get everything settled with the clan.” Kurt gently caressed her cheek and ran up to the resort.
Scarlett smiled as she watched him run from her. As much as she hated to see him go, she certainly did not mind watching him run off. Scarlett turned towards the path of the bungalows and started walking towards her room.
Scarlett was a few feet away from her door when she suddenly felt eyes on her. The hair on the back of her neck stood up and she quickly turned around. In the distance, halfway to the hotel entrance was a familiar frame. He slowly raised his hand in the air as a greeting and started to walk towards her.
“Adam?” Scarlett called out. What the hell is he doing here? Scarlett felt her stomach form into knots, and for a moment she thought she was going to be sick. Adam walked down the path and reached Scarlett, who was frozen in her tracks outside her room.
“What are you doing here?” Scarlett accused.
Adam let out a cocky laugh. “Well, I could ask you the same thing.”
Anger rose up in Scarlett’s chest. “I’m here with friends,” she spat. “They were helping me forget what an asshole I dated.”
“Scar, come on,” Adam said. “I am not that much of an asshole.”
“What are you doing here, Adam?” Scarlett demanded.
Adam ran his fingers through his annoyingly perfect blond hair. He shifted slightly from one foot to the other. Was he nervous?
“I haven’t been completely honest with you,” Adam said, and he looked down.
“You don’t say,” Scarlett said sarcastically.
“I’m here with my clan,” Adam mumbled. The blood drained from Scarlett’s face. Clan? Adam was a shifter? How was that possible? Scarlett started to rack her brain for any signs that she should have spotted. Scarlett’s body started to shake with anger. Why did he have to lie to her about this?
“How is that even possible?” Scarlett demanded. “We dated for a year and you never once thought to tell me that you were a shifter?”
“I never thought it was important, Scar,” Adam said honestly. Scarlett let out a loud huff of anger. He didn’t even look like he was sorry. After how he treated her, it didn’t surprise Scarlett that he lied about something else. The power Scarlett felt the night she had ended things with Adam rushed back into her.
“You mean, I was not important enough to tell,” Scarlett said. Adam let out a sigh and slightly shrugged his shoulders.
“Come on, Scar,” Adam said. “We were never that serious.”
Scarlett threw her arms up in the air in frustration. “No, Adam, you weren’t serious about our relationship, but I was. You failed to see what was directly in front of you, and instead you turned to partying and hooking up with other women. I was an idiot that sat there and just ignored it, thinking of how lucky I was that a guy like you could be with a girl like me. It turns out I wasn’t lucky at all.” Adam stared at her with a shocked look on his face. This was the first time she had ever truly stood up to him.
“Goodbye, Adam,” Scarlett said, and she turned to open her door.
“Scar, wait!” Adam said, and he reached out and grabbed her wrist.
A very enraged growl came from behind Adam. Scarlett looked behind him to see Kurt standing down the path fuming. There was a loud rip of clothing, and in an instant Kurt changed his form to a large grizzly bear.
Chapter 15
Kurt
The moment Kurt saw the other bear’s hand on Scarlett’s wrist he lost all control of his anger. Only one word crossed his mind: mine. He felt anger pulsate throughout his body, and his clothes easily ripped as his muscles grew. He had shifted faster than he ever had before. He landed on his large paws and let out a loud growl, warning the other bear to step away from Scarlett.
The bear immediately dropped Scarlett’s wrist and dropped to his knees. Kurt was an alpha, and by this bear’s submissive nature it was obvious that he was low in the rankings of his clan. Kurt growled at the bear again.
“Kurt, man, calm down,” Frank called behind him. Kurt turned to Frank, who quickly dropped to his knees.
“Kurt, I don’t mean the girl any harm,” Frank grunted under the weight of his alpha’s power. “I am just trying to get you to calm the fuck down before the hotel staff sees that you shifted.”
Shit, Kurt thought. Shifting was against the rules at the resort. Kurt turned back towards the bear and let out a growl of warning. He reluctantly pushed his anger down and shifted back into his human form.
Frank luckily had a towel with him from being at the beach earlier, and he chucked it at Kurt. Kurt stood up and quickly wrapped it around his waist.
“Look, I was just—” the other bear stammered. Kurt marched up to the bear and swiftly punched him in the face, knocking him down.
“Leave. NOW,” Kurt said.
The bear grabbed his face and looked back at Scarlett. Kurt let out another growl in warning. The bear turned and quickly ran off towards the resort. Kurt let out a huff of anger and turned back to Scarlett, who was standing there in shock.
Fuck, Kurt thought. Scarlett had probably never seen someone shift before. Over the years, it had become second nature to him, and he had forgotten how terrifying it actually looked.
“Scarlett—”
Scarlett’s face had gone completely white. Kurt slowly walked up to her and lightly touched her arms.
“Scarlett, baby? Are you OK?”
Scarlett’s eyes shifted towards Kurt’s face. She slowly nodded her head. Kurt could hear her erratic heart beat and knew that she was going into shock. He was such an idiot. He should have been more careful around her.
Frank walked up behind him and slowly placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Come on, man. We need to get out of here before the staff knows that it was you who shifted.”
Kurt knew that Frank was right. He was sure someone had already seen him shift, but the sooner he got out of there the better. But he couldn’t leave Scarlett alone like this.
“Frank, go get the rest of the clan together. I have a feeling we are going to have to either deal with the other clan or with Ursula about this.”
Frank nodded and ran off towards the resort. Kurt wrapped his arm around Scarlett and walked her inside her room. He led her over to the couch and sat her down.
“Scarlett, I know what you saw was terrifying. But please believe me when I say that I will never be the one to cause you pain. My bear has recognized you as his, and he was only trying to protect you for what he saw as a threat. He would never turn on you.”
Scarlett slowly nodded and lean
ed into Kurt’s chest. He held her tightly, never wanting to let her go.
***
After calming Scarlett down, he headed back to his room to meet with Frank and the rest of his clan. He hoped that the other clan was smart enough to not retaliate.
There was a loud knock at his door. Thinking that it was Frank, Kurt quickly opened the door. Outside stood Ursula, the owner of the resort. Kurt towered over her petite frame, but she did not seem to flinch at his stature.
“It seems that we have had an incident involving you, Mr. Donnelly,” Ursula said. “May I come in?”
Kurt stepped aside and let her into his room. “Will the rest of your clan be joining us?” Ursula asked.
“I had Frank go and call them.”
“As I am sure you are well aware, we have one hard fast rule at our resort to protect all of our guests, bears and human alike. It has come to my attention that you have broken this rule.”
“I understand this rule,” Kurt said through gritted teeth. “But you also assured me on the first day here that our clan would not come in contact with the other one.”
“You came in contact with the other clan? How is that possible?”
“It seemed fairly easy to me,” Kurt seethed. “He just walked down to the bungalows from the main resort area.”
Ursula opened and closed her mouth. “Did you engage with the other clan member?” she asked.
“He put his hand on my mate, and my bear responded.” Mate? Did I really just say mate? Once the word fell from his lips he knew it was true. There was no other way to explain how he felt the way he did for Scarlett other than she was his true mate.
“Did you kill him?”
“Luckily, I didn’t,” Kurt said. “However, I did punch him in the face. He was extremely submissive, so I do not think that he is high up in the rankings of his clan, but that doesn’t mean that their alpha won’t want to have words with me.”
“I am so sorry that this happened,” Ursula said honestly. “We usually have this process seamless, so that the clans never see one another. But I feel like we have let a few things fall through the cracks. I will alert the alpha of the other clan.”
Ursula stood up to leave the room. She reached the door and turned towards Kurt. “I am truly happy that you have found your mate. When I met you the first day, I feared that you were too lost within yourself to allow someone else in. Despite these current circumstances, I am happy that Bear Ridge Resort was able to bring you two together.”
Chapter 16
Scarlett
Seeing Kurt’s transformation into a bear had shocked Scarlett. The horrible cracking of his bones, and the sheer size of him as a grizzly was enough to make her have nightmares for weeks. Somehow, though, deep down she understood that it was still Kurt underneath all of that muscle and fur. After the initial panic wore off, she understood that it was a part of who he was. Scarlett knew that Kurt would never hurt her, no matter what form he was in.
Kurt had left over an hour ago to meet with his clan. He had told her that because he had attacked the bear, even though it was in human form, the other clan might see it as an act of war and retaliate. Apparently different clans of bears did not get along, which is why the clans stayed separate from one another. Kurt explained it was because grizzly bears instinctually were very territorial. When human emotions were mixed with instinct, it made them one hundred times worse. Since Kurt was able to use his alpha power over him, he did not think that the bear was high in the ranks of the clan, which would make it easier for him to smooth things over. However, each clan was different, so he wasn’t exactly sure how everything would end up.
“I will promise you one thing,” Kurt said.
“What’s that?”
“I will keep you safe. If things turn ugly, I will find a way to get you and your friends somewhere safe.”
“How ugly could this potentially get?”
“I’m not sure,” Kurt answered honestly. “I think it all depends on who the bear is to his clan.”
Scarlett didn’t have the heart to tell him who the bear actually was. Had Kurt found out it was Adam, she knew for certain he would go after him, especially after she had explained how he had hurt her. Scarlett paced back and forth in her room and hoped that Adam wouldn’t be stupid enough to cause more of an issue with this. Adam was cocky, but she didn’t think he would have the guts to take on Kurt.
A knock on the door broke Scarlett’s pacing. She quickly ran to the door and looked through the peephole. When she saw Kurt’s familiar frame she let out a sigh of relief and pulled the door open and let him inside.
“Ursula has arranged a meeting between me and the other alpha to speak about what happened,” Kurt said.
“Are you sure that is the smartest idea?” Scarlett asked.
“It is the most civilized one,” Kurt said. “This way, I will get to explain to him what happened and let him know that you are my mate and that is why I acted the way I did.”
Scarlett blinked her eyes in shock. “Mate?”
Kurt pulled Scarlett into his strong arms. She felt her whole body melt against his as she leaned her head against his chest.
“Since I met you, Scarlett, there has been an undeniable attraction. It is as if there is a force between us, and when I am with you I know that you are the cause of it. You are my mate, the one thing that I thought I could never truly have.”
Blood rushed to Scarlett’s face, and she felt her whole body shake with happiness. She couldn’t deny that his words were true. Scarlett felt the same undeniable attraction that Kurt explained. She leaned up and looked into his face.
“I love you, Scarlett.”
“I love you, too.”
***
Despite Kurt’s protests, Scarlett walked with Kurt up to the resort for the meeting with the other clan’s alpha. Due to the dangerous nature of two alphas meeting, Ursula requested that both their clans be present and that they meet in one of the resort’s meeting rooms, away from the other human guests. Scarlett wouldn’t be allowed in the meeting, which she hated. She wanted to be there to help defend Kurt’s actions, but he insisted that she wait in the restaurant, where she would be safe.
They reached the resort and Kurt dropped her off in the lobby. “I promise to come back here the moment the meeting is over,” Kurt said.
“I know you will,” Scarlett said. “Good luck.”
Kurt leaned down and gently kissed Scarlett on her forehead. Scarlett closed her eyes at the sweet gesture and let the happiness she felt being with Kurt warm the rest of her body. Kurt squeezed her hand and walked down the hall to the conference room.
Scarlett wandered into the restaurant and sat down at the bar to order a drink. Scarlett’s skin bristled when she felt someone standing behind her.
“I see you have gotten close with the alpha,” Adam sneered. Scarlett flipped her head around.
“Why are you talking to me again, Adam?”
Adam walked up to her and ran a hand down her cheek. “Because deep down, we both know that I was the best thing that ever happened to you, Scarlett. That alpha will get sick of you quickly. He will find someone better than you, and you will come crawling back to me.”
Scarlett swatted Adam’s hand away from her face. “Go to hell, Adam.”
“Aw, Scars, you know I like it when you get rough.”
Anger rushed through Scarlett. Adam smirked and walked off towards the conference room. Adam was going to try and push Kurt’s buttons. Scarlett knew that he wouldn’t take being knocked out by him lightly. Adam liked having his way and the fact that Kurt had showed him up had put Adam in revenge mode. Adam may be a lower rank to Kurt, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try his best to bring him down.
Scarlett needed to find a way to warn Kurt, and fast.
Chapter 17
Kurt
Kurt pulled forth all of his alpha power as he walked into the conference room. He made sure to look every member of the other clan in
their eyes, letting them know who was the alpha of his clan.
The conference room was not a huge room, but it wasn’t a small one, either. There was a long table in the center of the room with several chairs around it. Kurt took his seat at the head of the table while Frank sat next to him on his right, and his third rank on the left. The rest of his clan filed in behind him.
At the opposite end of the table sat the alpha of the other clan. The alpha looked to be a little older than Kurt, in his mid-thirties. He had some gray in his short military-style haircut, and carried himself with just as much authority as Kurt did. Kurt recognized him immediately as Jacob Harrison, the alpha of their neighboring clan back home. Fuck, if this all didn’t blow over this could get extremely ugly.
Kurt spoke first. “It’s nice to see you again, Jacob.” Kurt and Jacob had been in the same military unit when Kurt had first joined the army. Kurt had left first for the special testing, and he found out years later that Jacob had followed in his footsteps.
“You too, Kurt,” Jacob said. “Though I am sorry to see you under these circumstances.”
“I agree, but I think we can work to make things right,” Kurt said honestly.
“Why don’t you tell me what happened?” Jacob asked. Kurt started to explain the incident. When he mentioned how Scarlett was his mate, Jacob broke into a large smile.
“You have found your mate?” Jacob asked.
“I believe I have,” Kurt smiled. “So, I am sure you can understand why I reacted the way I did.”
Jacob nodded. Out of the corner of Kurt’s eye he spotted the bear that had grabbed Scarlett, and his bear bristled underneath the surface.
Furever Always (Furever Series) Page 7