9781631054747HerstoBearHoffa (10 page)

Bern
led her to the door of the
limo,
where Hans acted as chauffeur
and held the door open awaiting their entrance. They pulled out into the street
and Jenna noticed three dark SUVs following them. “Are those your guards?” she
asked.

“Yes,
those are my men.”

“How
many are coming with us?”

“Only
ten.”

“Ten?
That seems like an awful lot.”

“Not
really. It is a small contingent when going into another’s territory.”

Jenna
raised an eyebrow.
“If you say so.”

Bern
kissed her. “I do.”

She
shrugged her shoulders. “Okay.”

Alice
leaned forward and tapped Jenna on the shoulder.
“Everything
okay?”

“Yep,
everything is
peachy
.”

“Uh-huh,”
Alice murmured. Everything is peachy was code for something’s up but I can’t
talk about it, or don’t want to talk about it. The girls had used it for years,
so Alice now knew something was up.

Martin
tried to make small talk, but the atmosphere in the limousine was strained and
he finally gave up. They rode the remaining fifteen minutes in virtual silence.
Bern held Jenna’s hand and gently stroked her knuckles, trying to soothe her
agitation. She should tell him it wasn’t working.

After
what seemed like forever they pulled into a long tree lined drive. A huge
plantation style house sat at the end of the drive. As soon as the limousine
stopped a uniformed attendant opened the car door and extended a hand to assist
Jenna out. Bern growled. Jenna ignored him and exited the limo.

She
stood quietly on the sidewalk as Alice climbed out, followed by Martin and
Bern. A tall dark man stood in the open doorway to the house. He was backlit,
so Jenna could not see his features, but he exuded power and strength. This had
to be Bastian Von Drake, the alpha.

Bern
placed his hand at the small of her back and guided her toward the door, Martin
and Alice followed. The man stepped forward and extended his hand. “Good
evening,
Sippe
Helms.
How good of you to come.”

Bern
clasped his hand and nodded. “Good evening, Alpha Von Drake. I thank you for
your kind invitation. May I present my mate, Jenna Raynes, her friend, Alice
Miller, and you know my second, Martin Kruger of course?”

A
strange scent suddenly filled the air and Jenna could have sworn the alpha
wolf’s eyes flashed amber for a moment, but he closed them briefly and when he
opened them they were the normal dark brown they had been before. She blinked,
wondering if she had imagined the whole thing. She tried to catch Bern’s
attention, but all his concentration was on the alpha.

“Sebastian
Von Drake,” he said with a slight bow, leaning down to kiss Jenna’s hand, he
repeated the gesture with Alice. Then turned her hand over and kissed Alice’s
palm, did she imagine it or did he sniff Alice’s wrist? What the hell was going
on?

He
briefly shook Martin’s hand and turned on his heel. “
Come,
let’s adjourn to the library for a drink before dinner.”

Alice
leaned into Jenna’s ear and whispered. “What bug crawled up his ass?”

Bern
cleared his throat loudly, and whispered back. “Shifters have very good
hearing.”

Alice
covered her mouth with her hand and then mouthed,
Sorry, my bad
.

Bastian’s
back was ramrod straight as he led the way to the library. He gave no
indication he had heard Alice’s remark. He paused at an open doorway and
gestured for them to enter. Bern stepped back allowing Jenna to enter before
him, and then followed her into the darkly paneled room.

Heavy
leather furniture filled the center of a room surrounded by bookshelves filled
with tomes. Everything from modern day spy novels to rare historic manuscripts
filled the shelves. Jenna could go crazy in here.

“What a
lovely room,” she remarked.

“Thank
you, my dear.” Bastian replied. “What can I get you to drink?
Wine,
or something stronger?”

“Wine
would be lovely,” Jenna said.

“Wine
for me also,” Alice replied.

“Whiskey,
on the rocks, for me, thanks,” said Bern.

“I’ll
have the same,” Martin said.

The
four of them chose seats around the room.
Jenna and Bern on
the sofa.
Alice on the loveseat and Martin in the arm
chair across from her.
Bastian uncorked a bottle of wine and brought it
and three glasses to the table, he left the wine to breathe while he fixed Bern
and Martin their whiskeys.

He
handed the men their drinks and proceeded to pour a tiny sip of wine into a
glass, he swirled the liquid around, held it to the light and then handed it to
Alice. He bowed again.
“For your pleasure, my lady.”

Alice
looked at Jenna and cocked an eyebrow in
a
what
the hell question
. Jenna shrugged and mouthed
just go with it.
Alice tipped the glass to her lips and swallowed
the small sample.

“Delicious,”
she said.

Bastian
beamed and filled the three glasses handing one to Jenna and Alice and keeping
the last for himself, he sat next to Alice on the love seat. Jenna watched as
he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“So
Bastian, while I appreciate the invitation. I’m curious as to what prompted it.
You have never invited me to your home before,” Bern said.

“I
heard of your good fortune and wished to meet your mate. Is that not reason
enough?” Bastian asked.

“I
suppose, but tell me, how did you hear of my mating? I had barely announced it
to my clan when I received your invitation, and how did your wolf come into my
territory undetected?”

“Come
now, Bern. This is not the time to talk of such things. We are in the company
of two beautiful women, politics can wait until we are alone,” he said sternly.
“We will talk after dinner, I have some things to discuss with you, for now let
us enjoy ourselves.”

Jenna
could feel the tension radiating off of Bern, but he controlled it and pulled
back. “You’re right, my friend. Let’s take this time to get to know each other
better. You come from Russia, yes?”

“Yes,
though I have been in the United Stated for over four hundred years.”

Alice
gasped. “Four hundred years? How the
hell old are
you?”

Bastian
looked down his patrician nose at her. “I am five hundred fifty-seven years of
age.”

“Holy
shit!
I
didn’t know you guys lived that long.” She turned to Jenna. “Did you know
shifters lived that long? What the hell? You’re gonna get old and wrinkly and
Bern’s still gonna look like that. How the hell is that going to work?”

Jenna
could feel the blush crawl across her face. What the hell was she supposed to
say? Bern said she wasn’t allowed to tell anyone. Not even Alice.

Bastian
took the dilemma from her hands. “It is not common knowledge, but shifters can
change their mates. Once a shifter claims and bites his mate, she turns,
becomes a shifter like him.”

Alice’s
eyes practically bugged out of her head. “You didn’t fucking tell me that!” she
yelled at Jenna.

“Um,
sorry.
I was
told I couldn’t. It wasn’t allowed.” Jenna looked at Bern. “What’s going on?
Why did he tell her?”

“I’m
not sure.
Bastian?”

Bastian
took both of Alice’s hands in his. “I told you because you need to know, krasivaya—beautiful—because
you are mine. You are my mate.”

“Shut
the fuck up,” Alice burst out.

Bastian
did not look amused. “It is true, sweet Alice. I knew the moment we met.”

“Look,
I get you shifters have this whole, I sniff you, you’re my mate thing, and it
works for you. It worked great for Jenna. She’s super happy and I’m glad for
her, but I’m not interested. I have a career I’ve been busting my ass for. I’m
up for a big
promotion,
I just signed a new client.
I’m leaving in eight days. So you can just go sniff somebody else’s tree.”

“It doesn’t
work that way Alice. It is a rare and wonderful thing to meet one’s mate. I
never thought to be lucky enough to meet a second mate in my lifetime.”

“You
already have a mate? Well see there,
then
you don’t
need me.”

Bastian’s
eyes filled with sadness. “I had a mate, in Russia, four hundred years ago. She
was killed, along with my unborn child. I thought I would be alone for the rest
of my years.”

Jenna
saw Alice’s tough veneer crack for just a moment, but she quickly shored it up.
“I’m sorry for your loss, but really, I’m not interested in a relationship, and
as I said. I’m leaving in a week.”

Bastian
nodded, but Jenna could see that he was only backing down to regroup. Alice may
have won this battle, but she hadn’t won the war. The alpha wasn’t going to
give up that easily.

A knock
sounded at the library door. “Enter,” Bastian called.

“Your
other guests have arrived, Alpha, and dinner is ready to be served. Do you wish
me to bring your guests into the library or will you be adjourning to the dining
room, sir?” A suited gentleman asked from the doorway.

Bastian
raised Alice’s hand to his lips again and kissed her palm. “Are you ready to
dine, my dear?” he asked, as if no one else was in the room. Alice frantically
looked around the room, her eyes met Jenna’s begging for help. Jenna shrugged
her shoulders and flippantly waved her hand. Alice rolled her eyes and if looks
could kill, Jenna would have been dead on the spot.

“Um,
yeah, sure.
Let’s eat.”

“Send
the guests to the dining room, Bradley. We will join them there shortly.”

“Very
well, sir.” Bradley turned on his heel and silently left the room. Bastian
swallowed the last of his wine, his gaze still firmly fixed on Alice. He set
his glass on the table and stood, extending his hand to help Alice from her
seat. Once they were both standing he finally turned to the rest of his guests.

“Dinner
awaits
.” He gestured toward the door and led the way,
his hand gently guiding Alice by the waist. The group entered the dining room
and Jenna stifled a gasp at the opulence. A table large enough to seat forty
people was bedecked with a brilliant white linen table cloth and deep red
napkins folded into fans at each place setting. Gold
flatware,
and crystal goblets edged in gold sat beside china plates ringed with gold,
then red, and finally cream in the center.

What
must be Russian tapestries, depicting scenes of wolves fighting men at war
adorned the walls. The ceiling was at least twelve feet high, with exposed
wooden beams crisscrossing the expanse of white stucco. The floor was black
marble. In all, the room was breathtaking.

Over
half the seats were filled. Jenna had wondered where Bern’s guards had
disappeared to while they were in the library. They were now at the dining room
table, along with several men she had never met.

Bastian
led the group to the head of the table. He seated Alice to the right hand side
and Bern to the left of himself at the head. Jenna sat beside Bern, with Martin
next to her. She recognized Guiles and Hans and knew a few other of Bern’s
guards by sight, but not name.

Once
everyone was seated Bastian began introductions. “Jenna, Alice, this is my
second, Anton, and my lieutenant, Viktor. I will not burden you with
introduction to all the
guards,
it would be too many
names to try to remember. Bern, Martin, you have met before, yes?”

Bern
and Martin nodded. Jenna and Alice exchanged greetings with the two men seated
next to Alice. Both were tall and handsome with sharp eastern European
features.

Two
women brought out covered
trays,
they stopped beside
Bastian’s chair and uncovered the trays.
“Sesame salmon
croquettes, sir.”

“Lovely,
you may serve, my dears,” he responded.

Jenna
couldn’t quite fathom how formal Bastian’s household appeared to be, but when
the succulent little morsels were set in front of her, she sighed in bliss. Oh
this was going to be some meal.

The
dinner was beyond belief. The appetizers were followed by beef consume, salad,
beef wellington, with roasted potatoes and baby asparagus, a decadent chocolate
mousse, and then a cheese platter. Jenna was well aware that her bear ate
like…well a bear, but it appeared wolves were rather voracious too.

Even
so, conversation flowed throughout the meal and Jenna was surprised when she
looked at her watch to discover over two hours had passed while they consumed
their meal.

“My
dear ladies, would you mind terribly if Bern and I escaped to my office for a
few moments of business talk? Martin and Anton can keep you company in the
garden until we return.”