by Bianca D'Arc
Nell showed up mid-morning. Brody dropped her off and stopped by the table Tom had claimed to chat. Tom wasn’t sure he wanted to talk about anything serious just yet, but if anyone would understand how he felt about Ashley, Brody would be the man.
“How’s it going?” Brody asked casually, taking one of the empty seats at the small table. He placed his cup of coffee on the table and bit into a honey bun he held in his other hand.
“It’s going really well, I think,” Tom said, his gaze following Ashley as she moved behind the counter.
“You got it bad, bro,” Brody commented after a short interlude where he devoured the rest of the pastry while Tom sipped coffee and watched Ashley.
Tom put down the coffee cup and looked at his friend. “Yeah, I do,” he admitted. “You got any advice for me?”
“Don’t fuck it up,” Brody answered immediately, capping off his words of wisdom with a shit-eating grin.
“Perhaps I should have said, do you have any advice besides the obvious?” Tom clarified. They’d been friends for a long time, and he was used to the kind of banter Brody enjoyed.
“Treat her right,” Brody added, pausing to think. “Don’t rush her.” He sipped his coffee. “And make her happy.” He placed the empty coffee cup on the table. “Do those three little things, and you should be okay.”
“What’s it like, mating a human?” Tom felt the need to ask. He knew it was more common for bears to mate with humans than most other shifters, but none of their immediate friends had mated until Brody found Nell.
“She’s more fragile than a shifter woman,” Brody answered honestly. “But my Nell has a core of steel. She’s stronger than she looks—both emotionally and physically. I’m afraid sometimes, that my strength and size is too much for her, but she promised to let me know when I go too far. As of this morning, she’s only had to do that once.”
Tom frowned. What had Brody done that his mate objected to?
“She doesn’t like the teeth every time,” Brody explained without Tom needing to ask. He pointed to his own neck. “She said she’s proud to wear my marks, but not every single day. And she did have a good point about not knowing who might wander into the bakery. She can’t pass in the human world with bite marks on her neck very well, and this town is open for visitors, even if we still control who stays.”
“Wise decision,” Tom agreed, seeing the logic of Nell not wanting to wear visible bite marks that would raise questions if humans saw them.
Brody stood, collecting his trash. “Are you going to John’s for the planning meeting?”
“Yeah, I was just about to head over there.” Tom stood also, noting the way the business in the bakery had picked up in the past few minutes. “I’ll go with you,” he told Brody, since they were headed in the same direction.
Not wanting to interrupt Ashley’s work, he waved to her as he walked toward the door with Brody. Ashley smiled and waved back, even as she waited on a customer. Tom went out the door with a feeling of joy in his heart. She had put it there. Ashley. His mate.
Chapter Ten
The planning meeting was something they held every week. It usually started just before noon and went on most of the afternoon. Tom’s date with Ashley wasn’t until later. He calculated he’d have just enough time to drop by the fish market and pick up the salmon from Sig before picking her up.
They discussed the applications for business permits that had come in over the past few weeks and the plans for further construction John had initiated. They were going to do most of the building themselves, but for the new town hall, John had sought proposals from two different construction companies, both shifter-owned.
They discussed the two approaches, and Tom wasn’t surprised when the better design proved to have come from Redstone Construction. Those werecougars had a top-notch operation and a well-earned reputation. If it was solely up to Tom, he’d give them the contract and be done with it, but John liked to think his little town was something of a democracy with a benevolent Alpha running the whole thing. He was putting it up for a vote next week after the two plans had been discussed and dissected to his satisfaction.
They were winding down the meeting when Brody’s radio squawked.
“Sheriff, there’s a situation at the bakery,” came Zak Flambeau’s disembodied voice over the walkie-talkie.
Tom stiffened. Ashley was probably off-shift at this time of day, but it was still her family’s business, and her sisters were there. If there was a problem, Tom needed to know what it was, so he could help.
Brody looked upset as he keyed the mic on the radio. “Sitrep,” he ordered, falling back on their military training.
“A reporter was just in, asking a whole lot of questions. Nell called the station, looking for you, but when I told her you were in a meeting, she hung up. I ran over to the bakery to find out what was going on, and now, I’m calling you.”
Tom knew that when Zak said he’d run over, he meant it literally. The sheriff’s office was only a few doors down from the bakery on Main Street.
“Good man,” Brody commented. “Stay there and keep watch. I’m coming.”
Tom stood as Brody nodded at John. “I’m going too,” he said to the room at large, nodding as well to the Alpha.
“Is there something I should know?” John asked, some of the Alpha tone of command entering his voice.
“Yes,” Tom answered without hesitation. “But it’s complicated. And it’s not really my secret to tell, though I don’t think the ladies will mind now that they know about us. But I will tell you this—Ashley Baker doesn’t know it yet, but she’s my mate.”
Tom saw the varied reactions of his closest friends. To a man, they all looked happy for him, and several undoubtedly would have jumped up to congratulate him if he wasn’t on his way out the door. As it was, they were all smiling and most nodded to him, acknowledging the claim.
That was significant. He’d let them know that Ashley was his. By acknowledging his claim, they were saying that they wouldn’t interfere. In fact, these men—the closest he had to brothers in the world—would probably do all they could to help him along in his pursuit of the lady.
“Understood,” John said, nodding. “And congratulations.” He didn’t smile. The Alpha was probably more concerned about what the women—and Tom—could have been hiding. “I’ll be right behind you. Expect me in a few minutes. I’ll want an explanation as to why you didn’t give me the full briefing before we invited them into our midst,” John said with a bit of menace in his tone as Brody and Tom headed for the door.
Tom didn’t regret exercising his judgment on what to tell John and everyone else when he’d been tasked to investigate the Baker sisters’ backgrounds. But he knew he would have to do some fast talking when John arrived. Tom wasn’t worried about it, but he knew John could growl with the best of them, and he wouldn’t let John’s intimidation tactics frighten the ladies.
Brody and Tom stormed the bakery a few minutes later, much as they had once stormed enemy strongholds together in far off lands. Only this was friendly territory, and nothing more sinister than a few loaves of bread awaited them inside.
Brody’s deputy, Zak, was waiting for them in the seating area. He came forward to meet them at the door when Brody and Tom walked in. Tom kept going, leaving Zak to give Brody the sitrep, while he went to check on the women. At this hour of the day, it was the overlap period between the end of Nell’s shift and the beginning of Tina’s.
Nell was up front with Brody, having gone straight to him as soon as he walked in. That left the youngest sister, Tina, in back behind the counter.
“Are you okay?” Tom asked, coming right around the counter and checking things over to satisfy himself that everything was secure in the back. “Where’s Ashley?”
“I’m spitting mad, but okay. Ash is upstairs, hiding,” she answered succinctly.
Seeing that Tina was all right, Tom had to get to Ashley. He pushed through to the stairs that le
d up to the sisters’ apartment and took them two at a time. Ashley pulled open the door at the top as he neared it, and when he cleared the threshold, she launched herself into his arms.
He held her, feeling her body tremble with fear. He didn’t like the sensation, and he vowed again to protect her from anything that could possibly harm her.
“Ssh, honey. It’ll be all right.” He tried to soothe her, but she was going from scared to angry and back again. He could feel the fluctuations in her temper as he held her securely in his arms.
“How can you say that?” she demanded angrily. “A reporter found me! The bastard was bothering my sisters, asking about me, asking when I’d be working the counter. Threatening that he’d stake out the place until he found me and got his scoop.” She was crying nervous tears by the end of her angry speech, but Tom held her, rocking her back and forth.
“We can handle one little reporter, sweetheart. The entire Clan is behind you. They won’t let anything happen here. More than that, I won’t let anything happen. I’ll tear the reporter apart with my bare hands before I let him reveal your location to anyone.”
But she wasn’t really listening. “I’ll have to move again,” she whispered brokenly.
Tom set her away from him and made her meet his gaze. “Stop right there, Ashley. You’re not going anywhere. You’re happy here in Grizzly Cove, aren’t you?”
She seemed to come to her senses. “Happier than I’ve been in a long time,” she admitted, her gaze still holding echoes of defeat.
“That’s good to hear because you’ve made me happier than I’ve been in a long time too. I’m not willing to give that up so easily. Are you?” he challenged.
She shook her head, but her expression looked agonized. “I just don’t see how this can possibly work out. I’ve been found. He’ll tell others, and then, we’ll have no peace here whatsoever. For your people’s protection, I’ll have to leave and take my troubles with me.”
“Honey, you’re one of us now. You’re part of our community. We’re not going to let anything bad happen.”
“You keep saying that, but I just don’t see how.” She shook her head, her expression pitiful.
“For starters, we’re circling the wagons. Brody and Zak are downstairs, and Big John is on his way here. We’re going to have to tell him about you, so he understands what he’s up against. He’s not going to be happy, and he’ll probably growl a bit, but don’t worry. He’s a good guy under the Alpha bluster. He’ll do the right thing.”
She cringed, but she was listening. “And then what?”
“Then I believe I’m going to have a little chat with the reporter.” Tom was looking forward to it. He’d kill the man if he refused to leave. Nothing was off limits when it came to protecting his mate.
“No, Tom! You can’t. It’ll only be worse if you try to scare him off. He’ll know for sure then that I’m here. Right now, he’s still wondering. He doesn’t know for sure. We need to keep it that way as long as we can.”
Tom considered her point. “Okay. So maybe chat was the wrong word. What if our reporter friend found himself confronted by a bear? Or two? Or maybe a whole bunch of us?” Tom started to grin, imagining the fun of running the reporter out of town on a rail without ever speaking a word.
“That actually sounds like a really good idea,” came John’s voice from behind Tom’s back.
Tom had heard the Alpha’s deliberately heavy tread on the stairs and wasn’t surprised by his presence. Nell and Brody were right behind him, and they all trooped past Ashely and Tom into the apartment, moving into the living room.
Ashley stepped back from Tom, leaving his embrace and wiping at her eyes. She seemed to be in a state of mild shock, her gaze following the small crowd that had just invaded her home. She walked toward the living room, but Tom caught her hand.
“We do this together, Ash,” he whispered. “Remember, John’s growl is worse than his bite.”
“I heard that,” John groused from the living room.
“Damn shifter hearing,” Tom joked for Ashley’s sake.
Together, they walked into the living room, hand in hand.
Chapter Eleven
Tom wasn’t exactly happy to have to explain about Ashley’s problem to John, but though the Alpha growled a bit—as predicted—it wasn’t really that bad. In fact, as soon as John became aware of the full extent of the situation, he was as supportive of Ashley as Tom could have hoped.
“So what can we do to deter this reporter from asking any more questions?” Brody asked once the facts had been fully explained. “If it was the old west, we could run him out of town on a rail, tarred and feathered, but somehow, I don’t think that would go over too well in this day and age.”
“I liked Tom’s idea,” John said. “We could go bear on his ass and scare him off. Where’s the guy staying?”
“Zak discovered he was camping on National Park land, not too far away,” Brody supplied as John grinned.
“That’s just about perfect,” John said, looking a lot like the cat who swallowed the canary, no matter that he was a big assed grizzly shifter.
* * *
Ashley sat with her sisters, waiting for word of the men. Brody, Tom, Big John and a few of the others had gone off in search of the reporter’s campsite a few hours ago. The bakery was long since closed, but the girls couldn’t rest until the guys were back safe and they knew what had happened up in the woods.
“Do you think they’ll be okay?” Nell asked for the twentieth time, pacing and hugging herself as she worried.
Nobody answered. Nobody had an answer. The sisters were handling their worry in different ways. Nell was pacing. Ash was curled up on the couch, hugging a pillow. Tina was by the window, looking out on the quiet street.
Nothing much happened in town at this late hour. The occasional bear might stroll through the woods or down by the water, but they mostly kept well out of sight. Tonight, though, there was a more visible presence as Zak sat in the deputy’s SUV, just down the street, on a stakeout. He’d been stationed there, Brody had told Nell, to make sure the town stayed as quiet as it should be while the other guys held their surprise party in the woods.
They’d been gone for a few hours when Tina finally broke her silent vigil. “I see Brody’s truck coming down the street,” she said, her voice full of intensity.
Ashley jumped off the couch and threw the pillow aside. She stopped before she hit the window, not wanting to be visible just in case the reporter or any of his friends were watching from below. Nell had no such compunction and went right up to the window and looked out on the street.
“What’s going on?” Ashley asked from behind her sisters.
“The truck is stopping,” Nell reported. “Brody’s getting out,” she said, then turned quickly. “I’m going down to let them in.”
But Ashley was already on her way to the stairs, heading down into the bakery at a fast clip. She halted at the bottom, allowing Nell and Tina to go ahead of her, for the same reasons she’d stayed away from the window. Until she heard how the guys’ little raid had gone, she wouldn’t take anything for granted.
Nell raced ahead to open the door for Brody. He hugged her as he walked in the door, sweeping her in with him as he stood aside to let the other guys enter. Much to Ashley’s relief, Tom was right behind him, laughing at something John said as he brought up the rear.
The men were grinning from ear to ear, laughing like schoolboys, at times, and Ashley felt relief in her heart to see them all safe—especially Tom. She walked forward to meet him and was thrilled when he reached out and swept her into his arms, twirling her around the room for a breathless moment.
When he put her down, he gave her smacking kiss as his enthusiasm spilled over, making her laugh. Whatever had happened, it had left the men in an ebullient mood.
“Ash, you should’ve been there,” Tom enthused. “We had that city slicker crapping his pants and crying for his mama before we let him escape
.” He made little quotation marks in the air as he said that final word. “He jumped in his car so fast he left behind most of his gear.”
“We now know his home address, his name and social security number,” John confirmed, flipping through a brown leather wallet that had to be the reporter’s. “With that, we can wreak havoc on him, the likes of which he can’t even imagine.” John’s laugh was slightly evil, but in a loveable sort of way.
“You wouldn’t do that, would you?” Ashley had to ask.
John seemed to consider. “If he comes back, we can take this one step at a time, but if he insists on screwing with us, I won’t hesitate to do all in my power to fuck him up in every way possible.” John’s tone of voice was as serious as Ashley had ever heard it.
“And when Big John says the reporter is screwing with us, he means all of us, honey. You, me, your sisters. We’re all family. Clan. We protect each other.” Tom’s arms came around her from behind, hugging her. “Believe me now?” he asked in a rumble right next to her ear.
She turned around in his embrace, pulling him close. She couldn’t speak for a moment, overcome by emotion. When she had a bit of control again, she turned to face the others.
“I can’t thank you enough for this,” she said finally.
“No problem, sweetheart,” John answered, his smile returning. “I haven’t had this much fun in a long time. You should’ve seen that guy run.” John and the others dissolved into guffaws and laughing comments about the way the reporter had screamed and scampered away when confronted by a half dozen big, angry bears.
“I don’t know what he made of the polar bear,” Brody mumbled, setting the men off laughing again. “I didn’t expect Sven to come on the raid, but it was good to have him along. Confused the hell out of that reporter.”
“Maybe he thought he was seeing a ghost. All that white fur in the pitch black forest,” John added, chuckling.