His to Bear (9 page)

offers.”

“How do you fit into all of this?” Holt wanted to know. “If I’m the one she’s to

obey then why did I see her give in to you? Is she expected to obey all males?”

“No. That belongs only to her mate.”

“And you?” Holt pressed, sensing Laramie was holding something else back.

“My role is different. I’m not her mate and yet, I will hold the role of alpha. It’s

one I thought was lost to me with the attacks.”

“Why is that?”

“My father was the alpha of the bear shifters. At his death, the title would have

fallen to me as the last Kodiak among us. Hunters struck during our grief, and we

believed they’d wiped out all of our females.”

There was fire in his eyes, and Holt knew he was still in a rage over what he’d

learned from Jaeda earlier. Not only had his father’s death been planned, but so had

the attacks. The elders had suspected an enemy among them and instead of going to

their alpha, they’d hidden the remaining females from him.

“Without them, we would have all died off with no more females to breed us.

There was no point in assuming my role.”

“Wait? I don’t understand? Couldn’t you mate with humans? Our alpha, Tah,

mated with a full human, Abby. They have a little girl.”

“Perhaps that’s one way they were smarter than we were,” Laramie conceded.

“By embracing the human side, it allowed for the animal to adapt and for mating to

occur with human women. We embraced the animal side, merging completely,

becoming the beast. Only female bear shifters can give birth to bear shifter offspring.

We can take humans and even mate with them if the desire exists, but any children

will be wholly human.”

“Yet, you’ve allowed Jaeda to mate with me, a human.”

“It’s not the same for our women as it is for our men. A female bear shifter will

always have shifter children, no matter her mate. A male bear will only have shifter

children if he mates a female bear. It’s another way the female holds control. It’s her

choice that allows a man’s heritage to live on in another generation. She may submit,

but she holds all the power that truly counts.”

Laramie stopped and leaned forward, balancing his elbows on his knees as he

stared at Holt.

“Understand this. Female bears seek only the strongest and fittest as mates. They

look for strength and keen intelligence, all the characteristics they wish passed on to

their children. There are seven bears here, yet Jaeda chose you immediately and

without doubt. That’s why I welcome you so easily, why I grant you a clemency I

might not others. It’s also why I hold my brother back.”

Holt sighed. “Is Koby going to cause problems?”

“I sense no malice in him, only confusion. For whatever reason, he has the

impression Jaeda could be his. I don’t completely understand it. I’m betting he

doesn’t, either. I’m hoping with your acceptance of her, whatever Koby is feeling will

disappear. I’ll tell you this. Koby is the eldest after me. He’s always been my right

hand, my voice of reason when rage consumes me and I wish to react instead of think.

This is not like him at all. I’ve never seen him this way.”

“Thank you for telling me that,” Holt acknowledged. “Everything. It’s a lot to

take in. What little I thought I knew about mating is irrelevant here. I appreciate your faith in me.”

“It’s not my faith you need,” Laramie corrected. “It’s your mate’s.”

Holt nodded. “I think it’s time Jaeda and I talked.”

Laramie shook his head. “After everything I’ve shared with you, you still plan to

wait to claim her?”

“If anything, you’ve made the desire to know her, everything about her, even

stronger in me. I can’t truly appreciate what I don’t know. Before I know her body, I

need to understand her mind, her heart, her very soul. How can I be responsible for

someone I don’t know and understand? Give me the week. That’s all I ask. A little

more time for the two of us.”

“You have the week. I have other things to keep me busy. I should tell you that

I’ll be requesting your friends Murphy and Finn head back to their home. I can’t have

them here, now.”

“When will you send them?” Holt asked.

“I’ll give them a few more days. That way they can see you’ve accepted your

new role,” Laramie stated, no doubt in his voice that Holt would accept.

“There’s something else I’m curious about?” Holt admitted.

Laramie just stared at him, spreading his hands and lifting his fingers up in

question.

“If you need the female shifters to mate the male bears in order for them to

breed more of your kind, why did the elders hide them? Why not force the women to

choose mates among them? Invoke the same law you plan to?”

“My guess is they feel more paternal. Our elders are past their prime. Most have

mates already or have been left widowed. They probably have children older than the

women they’re protecting. Plus, an elder’s first duty is to protect the pack. Period. I’m not happy they kept something of this magnitude from me, but they did their job by

taking the surviving females and hiding them.”

“Are you planning to punish the elders for hiding the females? Or just to ensure

the safety of the remaining women by bringing them here?”

Laramie did that hard stare again, and Holt realized it for what it was. Not anger,

but deep thought.

“There’ll be repercussions for what they did. Despite my reluctance in stating

my position, every bear knows who their alpha is. They should have come to me and

sought my advice.”

“You heard Jaeda, though,” Holt offered. “They believe a bear shifter is the one

who made all this happen.”

“Even more reason to come to the alpha. I won’t let that pass. I will, however,

take into consideration they were seeking to protect the most cherished and important

among us. The remaining women will be brought here, and they’ll be pressed to

choose a mate among those of us here. There are a few other bears that I trust and will

ask to join us. I’m limited, though, until I know who betrayed us, something I would

already know had I been made aware. I’ll see all the remaining females mated and

protected before I call a pack meeting to ferret out the person or persons responsible.

Justice will be swift and brutal from the hands of the unmated males of our pack.

Those will be the ones robbed, the blood of their potential mates spilled. Those

women will be avenged through the hands of the men who might have been chosen.”

Holt didn’t bat an eye. It made sense to him after all Laramie had shared.

Understanding a little about how their culture worked allowed him to see things in a

different light. Laramie might seem arrogant, and he was, but there was a reason for it.

While Laramie hadn’t come right out and stated it, Holt knew enough from his alpha

to understand. While each woman picked her mate, and that male took responsibility

for her, Laramie took responsibility of the entire pack. Holt hoped the man would find

a mate among the women still living—one who would help temper the rage he saw

burning in Laramie’s eyes. There was too much good hidden in Laramie, and Holt

was afraid if left alone, the other man might lose that part of him and harden

completely.

“I’d like to stand with you when those responsible are found,” Holt told him.

“As you will,” Laramie agreed. “You’re one of us, now. I’ve noticed the man

you appear to be. Only Jaeda can show us the man you really are. Still, I have a

feeling you’ll be a great asset to me.”

“I’ll do my best,” Holt assured him then turned with a hurried step to seek out

his mate. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep his hands off her for the full week,

wasn’t sure he even wanted to. His dick throbbed with the need to feel the snug grip

of her around him. Pussy, ass or mouth didn’t even matter. Anything was better than

the dull ache of a zipper slowly embedding in his swollen shaft. There were things

they needed to know about each other, first, and he’d make damn sure they took the

time to talk, even if it killed him.

He reached down and adjusted his cock once he was out the door, wincing at the

rough denim cupping him.
Talk,
he whispered in his head.
Talk to Jaeda. Get to know
her. Then fuck, because God only knew how long it would take once he sunk inside

her before he would have the ability to think again.

Chapter Seven

Jaeda paced the room, tracing the same path over and over again while her head

continued to spin with too many thoughts to focus on just one. Still, she kept circling

back to her Holt and whether he wanted her or not. He hadn’t refuted her claiming

him as a mate. Instead, he’d put his foot down over the challenge issued by Koby

Holloway. Holt had also stated there would be no deadline like Laramie had stated.

Plus, her Holt had yelled at her. His chest heaving as his face flushed with fury.

It had been exhilarating to see. She’d felt the rush of need coat her thighs and tighten her womb with desire. Magnificent. That was how he’d appeared. Like a warrior

ready to do battle for her, ready to take and claim what was his. Her. She wanted him

to claim her as she’d claimed him. Was it too much to ask for?

He’d mentioned that she shouldn’t be faulted because he was human and reacted

differently. He said he wanted time to know her. But they would have a lifetime to get

to know one another once they were fully mated. So why delay? Was there something

about her that had him questioning? Was it his kitten? This Kenzie she’d heard

mentioned? Her bear had sensed no other woman’s scent on him. There’d been

nothing to warn her away.

She dropped her hand to her stomach. God, she yearned for his touch. She

wanted to taste him, to lick over every angle and dip in his flesh until she knew every

inch as if it were her own skin. She wanted to kiss and suck, to stroke and touch. She

needed him to do the same. Her breasts ached for him. The walls of her sex slick with

a lubrication that kept her at a constant ready to be possessed by the one she’d chosen.

She walked to the mirror and took stock of her appearance. Was there some part

of her that was displeasing to his eyes? Her black hair was long, twisted here and

there with the loose curls she could never brush out. It glistened, though, supple and

healthy. She’d always thought her curls appeared to beg for a man’s hands to clench

and hold them. Her tanned skin was a very light shade of caramel that set off her eyes

to perfection, which she saw as her best feature. Huge emerald orbs with a dark blue

ring around the outside of the colored circle. Brown and gold flecked through the area

closest to her pupil. She loved her eyes and had been told many times how expressive

they were.

You hide nothing with those damn expressive eyes of yours, Jaeda! Stop being so

easy to read. Your attacker will know exactly what you plan to do before you even

move.

Uncle Emmett had warned her constantly. He wasn’t her real uncle, but the title

had been given to him as a show of respect for his age and place within their pack.

He’d become her family after the attacks that had ended with her being separated from

her sisters for the first time in their lives. When he’d died, she’d grieved while she

hid, listening to everything they’d done to him. He’d been family.

Her older sister Xandra had been the first one taken away under the cover of

darkness. Xandra had sworn to Jaeda and Sidia that she would find them. Told them

not to worry, to be strong. What would the Holloways say when they knew Jaeda had

kept this from them? That not only were there other females alive, but that two of

them were her sisters? Laramie hadn’t asked her for such information so the blame lay

with him. She would never voluntarily expose her sisters’ safety. She prayed Xandra

was okay, and that she’d somehow found a way to contact their brother Malachi.

God, what a mess. Jaeda and Sidia had been hiding in the den, eager to escape

from the chore list their mother always had for them, when the attack had happened.

One moment they’d been laughing over something Jaeda couldn’t even remember.

The next, Xandra had joined them, covered in blood, eyes vacant as whatever horror

she’d seen played over and over inside her head. Jaeda still didn’t know. Xandra had

never spoken of it.

Xandra was the only one who’d made it down into the den with them. Their

mother and youngest sister hadn’t survived. Evidence of their father’s torture had

been left behind when they’d finally ventured out over a week later. That was when

Uncle Emmett had come with several of the other elders. Four more young women

had joined them, the youngest only thirteen at the time. Five years ago. Five long

years since Jaeda had seen either of her sisters.

She knew Sidia was alive. The bond they shared was deeper than that of just

siblings. Sidia was her twin, her other half in so many ways, and even now, Jaeda felt

her sister touching her mind. Was it so wrong that she hoped the Holloways did find

them and bring them here? Her sisters could ask for no stronger mates than one of the

alpha family. None of them could. Yet, Jaeda had still chosen an outsider, a human.

Her Holt. A mate who’d yet to claim her.