by Amelia Jade
There was nothing quite like a barbecued steak.
Practically salivating, Joel led the way to the mobile trailer that served as their breakroom and on-site office.
“So Joel,” Darren said as they climbed the stairs inside. “You’re teasing Russ here about his inability to dress himself. It’s warranted, I’ll give you that, but it begs the question: when are you going to find someone to help dress yourself?”
“I look good, thank you very much,” he said with a toss of his head. Then he got serious. “Actually, guys, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.”
Heads turned in the trailer as the rest of the Jade Crew, already present, turned to listen.
“Ah,” Joel fumbled, suddenly nervous as everyone paid attention to him. “I’m going to be bringing someone tonight. I hope. So be nice, okay?”
Normally the others would tease each other, but there must have been something in the way he spoke that encouraged the others to be polite.
“That’s great!” Corey said, the first to speak.
“Happy for you buddy,” Cole said, clapping a hand on his shoulder.
“Thanks guys. I’m not counting any chickens just yet, but maybe it’ll be a full lodge soon. I really like her.”
“Yeah, that would give us all mates!” Cole said happily.
“Well, except for Evan,” Garrett said, disappointment evident in his voice.
Joel knew that their Alpha blamed himself for what had happened to Evan, thinking that he should have been able to save him, but the others knew better. Evan had been involved with a corrupt crew of shifters, the Sapphires, long before Garrett came into the picture.
The “lost” member of the Jade Crew was currently sitting in one of the ultra-secure cells at the Lionshead Mining Consortium head office, the massive re-purposed mansion up in the mountains owned by the Kedyn brothers, a pair of powerful gryphon shifters.
Marcus and Valen Kedyn had run LMC together until recently, when Valen had been forced to flee to prevent the involvement of forces that the bears and their allies hadn’t been ready to face.
Are we ready even now?
Shaking his head, Joel forced himself back on topic. The others had muttered their agreement with Garrett, and the mood had become somber instantly as they focused on their food.
“What’s her name?” Russell asked, breaking the silence.
Joel hesitated. If he spoke aloud, they would all know who it was. Or at least, Corey would know, and that was the same thing.
“Is it Doc Laurel?” Corey asked eagerly before he could decide.
So much for that.
“It is,” he said, much to the excitement of the others.
Good-natured ribbing and back-slapping followed. Joel noticed that though he smiled, Garrett didn’t join in much, waiting instead for the commotion to die down before he approached.
“Is this a serious thing?” he asked softly.
The others hesitated, as they heard the same question that had been asked to them at one point. Although Joel had never been asked this by his Alpha yet, he knew that Garrett had approached each of the others as they began to draw close with the women who would become their mates.
“I’ve never experienced anything like this before,” he said confidently. “When we’re together, time just flows, and when we touch, I feel like I’m on fire. It’s incredible the way she makes me feel.”
He should have felt silly saying the things he was to five other men. It wasn’t something they normally talked about; it was considered overly emotional for male talk. But every now and then, the situation warranted it, and none of the others said a thing. There was no snickering, no rolling of eyes, nothing.
Each man there understood the seriousness of finding a mate, and the implications for the shifter for the rest of his life. It was a great thing, something to be celebrated, but also not something to be taken too lightly.
“That sounds like how I felt,” Russell said with a nod. “There was just something about Gwen, something that spoke to me, in a way I couldn’t describe.”
Darren chimed in his agreement. “It was the ease with which we interacted without any experience. There was no awkwardness of getting in each other’s space. It all just felt right, as if it was meant to be.”
The more they talked, each of them revealing something of how they had come to find their own mates, the more Joel came to believe that Courtenay was his mate. The connection was just so powerful that he didn’t see how it could be anything but.
“Your bear will be the one that knows for sure,” Garrett told him. “When it speaks, you’ll know, and there will be no more doubt.”
The others agreed.
“Just make sure she’s ready to deal with pregnant women!” Darren said with a shake of his head. Although not as far along as Trestin or even Emma, Darren’s mate Kierra was also with child, and the shifter was still in shock.
Everyone laughed, and then began asking questions of Joel about Courtenay.
“You’ll have to ask her yourself. She’ll be there tonight!”
***
“I’m nervous.”
He paused, slowing his stride as Courtenay came to a halt.
“Me too,” he said gently, flashing her a smile.
She looked at him in surprise. “You’re nervous? You? Joel Murray? Big bad bear shifter, you’re nervous?”
The disbelief in her voice made him laugh.
“Absolutely. I have the most beautiful woman in the world with me. Somehow I charmed her enough to convince her to come on a second date with me, and now I have to hope she can put up with all of my ridiculous friends.”
Even in the deepening gloom of the evening he saw her blush at his compliment. He loved the way it rose from her neck, curling up over her jaw and into her cheeks. It was the most unique thing he had ever seen, and it drove him wild.
“You think I’m beautiful?” she asked coyly, clearly just fishing for another compliment.
Lucky for her, Joel had no problems indulging. “You look gorgeous,” he said sincerely, and looking at her once again he meant every word of it.
It was a casual party so they weren’t dressed up at all. She was wearing a simple blue V-neck shirt with black pants of some sort. But it wasn’t the clothing, or the way it accentuated her figure that caught his eye. It was her hair, the thick mane of raven-colored hair that flowed down almost to the middle of her waist.
Joel knew he was unusual in that he liked a woman’s hair straight without any waves or curls, but he did, and somehow Courtenay had picked up on that. That one little detail drove him wild, and he had to resist the urge to go after her right then and there.
“You’re sweet,” she said, taking his arm once again as they continued their walk from his truck to the bar.
The party, like all Jade Crew functions, was being held at the Tongue & Flame. Joel quite purposefully did not tell Courtenay the secondary reason for his nervousness. It had been a couple of days since he and Corey had broken in, but that didn’t guarantee that Ferro would recognize their scent if they got into close proximity with them. It was going to be an interesting evening, that was for sure.
Swiftly moving forward, he pushed and held open the right-hand door for Courtenay, allowing her to precede him into the building.
“Such a gentleman,” she teased, linking arms with him as he rejoined her.
“The Tongue & Flame is like my second home,” he said earnestly. “I have to act proper when I have a guest over.” He swung his arm wide to encompass the entire place. “I hope you like it.”
He watched her face as she took in the entire bar. It was a good sized bar that on any normal night would be mostly empty except for the two shifter crews that frequented it, the Jades and the Emeralds. Tonight however, the party was in full swing. There were bodies everywhere he noted with a smile. Trestin and Emma were popular figures in Origin, and they had a lot of friends who had shown up to help them celebrate.
> Normally the bar was a little more segregated. The doors were in the southeast corner of the building, and they were set at a forty-five degree angle to the rest of the square building. Directly to their left as the two of them walked in was the seating area normally reserved for the Jade Crew. Although Joel could see Corey and Russell standing there, there were also a handful of people he didn’t know occupying the area.
Along the western wall was the bar itself, a long, shining piece of mahogany, beautifully cut and maintained by Ferro, glossed to the point that Joel sometimes thought he could see himself in it. The northeast corner of the building housed the Emerald Crew area of comfortable chairs and a few low-slung tables. While the Emeralds were more strongly congregated in their area than the Jades were, there were still a bunch of others present.
They must be the mates of some of the Emeralds, he mused. Part of the Emerald Crew was mated, but another part, including their Alpha, was not. The area in between the two corners was filled with two pool tables, both occupied, and a number of high-backed chairs and tables, many of which had patrons sitting around them.
“There’s so many people here,” Courtenay said, and he could hear the nervousness in her voice.
“Tell me about it,” he replied. “If it makes you feel better, I don’t know very many of these people either. So we can both be at a loss together,” he joked.
Courtenay laughed. “Sounds good. How about you fortify me with a drink, and then introduce me to some of those you do know?”
He beamed. “Excellent idea, my dear,” he told her, stepping toward the bar with her in tow.
“Ferro!” he all but shouted in greeting over the noise of music and people. The bartender didn’t reply, but his body language told Joel that he had been heard. “Two please!” he said again, holding up two fingers as well, in case that helped.
To his surprise, the bartender shook his head. Not in a negative way, but as if to tell Joel that he was wrong. Frowning, he waited for the bartender to come over and explain. The dragon shifter finished handing out two full mugs, and then came over to stand in front of the couple.
“Two beers?” Joel asked, unsure.
Ferro rolled his eyes, and looked over at Courtenay.
She hesitated, looking embarrassed for Joel. “Can I have either a glass of white wine, or any fruity cocktail? Whichever is easier?”
Joel sagged against the bar. “I’m an idiot,” he said aloud, then looked at his date. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I assumed you’d have a beer.”
Behind them, Ferro grunted in derision.
“Hey, I can make a fool of myself on my own,” he told the bartender with a laugh, glad that he didn’t seem to realize Joel was the one who hadn’t broken in. “I don’t need you to emphasize it for me!”
Courtenay smiled and leaned into him, letting him know it was okay. “I should have specified anyway,” she told him. He saw her eyes darting around the room. “I didn’t realize just how many people here are drinking beer!”
“That’s because Ferro here makes an amazing house brew,” Joel said proudly, happy to have the chance to tell someone else about it. He and the other shifters often thought of Ferro as an honorary member of their Crews, and it felt good to give him praise, since he would never take it himself.
“Really?” she asked. “I’ll have to try it then,” she said, snatching the bottle Ferro had just placed in his hand and raising it to her lips.
He saw her eyebrows raise as she took a big sip, and a satisfied “ahhh” escaped her lips.
“Wow, that is really, really good,” she said appreciatively. “I might just have to switch to that.”
Joel smiled. “Well, I’m glad to hear you have good taste. Things could have gotten ugly otherwise,” he joked.
Taking her free hand, he guided her toward a knot of several of his crew.
“Let’s go introduce you to the crowd, shall we?”
He grinned as she hastily took a sip of her drink, rolled her shoulders, and followed him from the bar toward the friends he considered his family.
Chapter Five
Courtenay
She was glad for the switch to beer. The evening was going on far longer than she had expected, and it was so much easier to just sip at her beer. Despite the truthfulness in her statement of how good she found it, Courtenay had been able to nurse two beers through most of the evening. The limited intake, combined with a certain indulgence on the snack bar that someone had set up, allowed her to maintain a relative calm about her.
Joel was going to drive her home, so she didn’t have to worry about being fit to drive. From what he had told her, a shifter could consume five to seven times as much alcohol as a human of similar size before they even began to feel any effects. Getting home safe was taken care of.
Staying safe with him was another matter entirely. She really needed to have that conversation with him, but now wasn’t the time. Maybe later that night, but either way, she couldn’t put it off for much longer.
“I really like your Crew,” she said aloud. That part she meant completely truthfully.
She had never suspected that the problems resided with the shifters, but it was nice to have any lingering suspicions put to rest. Meeting their mates had really helped do that. The women were all so nice! Kierra, Darren’s mate, was just an absolute ball of fun, and Emma thought the two of them might get along fabulously.
“They are pretty great, aren’t they?” he said, a smile on his face. “We’ve come a long way as a family since we first formed.” He laughed. “Back then, the slightest thing would have us at each other’s throats.”
She frowned. “Do you still fight at all?”
Joel shrugged his shoulders. “Every now and then, but that’s part of being a shifter. It never really goes away, you know?”
Courtenay didn’t know, but she nodded along, pretending like she understood.
“None of it is really serious anymore, especially since Corey finally came around. That’s been a big unifying factor in the past couple of weeks. Thank goodness for Jenny. She’s really helped him open up and join us.”
Her date for the evening frowned. “Except for Evan, we’re all happy now.”
The way he hesitated before saying “happy” caught her attention. Instinctively she knew that wasn’t the first word he was about to choose. He was going to say something else, but what? What were all the members of the Jade Crew now, if not happy?
She looked around, picking them out. There was Garrett and Emma, the leaders. His stepbrother Russell and Gwen, who she just loved. Darren and Kierra, Corey and Jenny, and Cole and Trestin. They were all so perfect for each other, and they definitely all looked happy.
Then it hit her.
They were all mated. Each of them was standing with their mate, and they almost always had smiles plastered to their faces. Everyone had found their other half.
Except for Joel.
But he had just said they were all happy. “We’re” all happy, in fact, clearly including himself. Which meant that he considered her to be…
She was his mate?!
The revelation hit her like a runaway freight train. How could that be? This was only the second time they had gotten together. They’d done nothing but kiss. True, it felt different and wonderful and she was completely at ease around him, but was that really enough for him to know?
They were sitting close to each other on a two-seater chair, though their proximity ensured that they weren’t taking up the entire thing. Courtenay was no fool; she knew that she had strong, intense feelings for him, and that they had something special together. The difference was she wasn’t sure what that was, or what it would lead to. Joel, on the other hand, had apparently already decided that she was his mate.
Thankfully he wasn’t acting like an arrogant dick about it, proclaiming her to be his and the like, but then again, she didn’t think that was very like him at all. If anything, he actually still seemed to be nervous aroun
d her, despite the relaxed manner he tried to portray. It was, if anything, kind of cute. Still, she would need to level with him, and soon, if they were going to continue seeing each other. There were a few things she needed to get off her chest.
“So, Doctor Laurel,” he said formally, breaking the silence which had dropped over them. “Who are you? Why Genesis Valley?”
“The usual questions,” she said with a smile.
He nodded. “Yep. Yesterday just didn’t quite seem like the right time to be asking while you were pulling fragments from my shoulder and all.”
She laughed, narrowly avoiding making it a snort. “Being able to focus was probably a good thing,” she said in agreement. “As for why Genesis Valley and LMC? I think the answer is like any of the other humans who work there. Money. I know that doesn’t mean much to you and yours,” she said, gesturing at the other shifters in the room, “but it does for us. I had a lot of debt to pay off, and they were offering me something it would take at least a decade to achieve on my own. I can’t pass that opportunity up, even if, you know.” She shrugged.
Internally, however, she was beating herself up.
You idiot. Now he’s going to ask, and you’re going to tell him all about what you know. You’re going to ruin his mood and evening, all because you couldn’t wait a few more hours to talk to him about the situation at hand. Rude.
Joel frowned at her words. “Even if what?” he pressed.
Courtenay hesitated. It was too late now, though, and she knew it. She had to answer and tell him what was going on in her mind.
“The pay is extremely good, and I couldn’t turn that down, even now with everything going on.”
He looked shocked. “You know?”
Licking her lips, she looked around the room, trying to avoid looking at him for as long as possible. Her efforts failed, however, as she kept being drawn back to him. Courtenay nodded.
“How?”
“I’m the only real medical doctor in the Valley,” she said dryly. “I know all these shifters haven’t gone missing, or left. They’re dead,” she said flatly. “What I don’t know is why or what’s causing it, and admittedly that makes me scared.”