Biker Bear Billionaire (Bear Creek Clan 5) (6 page)

“If you were a Bear Bluff bear he wouldn’t worry. But you are an unknown to him. So he doesn’t trust you.”

“You aren’t like him, are you?”

“No. I follow my mom. My dad is old fashioned, very set in his ways. I suppose that’s part of having the weight of the Clan on your shoulders for so long.”

“I can see when you’re the chief, I will have to use my hands to massage the stress away and maybe there are other ways I could take your mind off it all.”

“Firstly, it’s going to be years until I am the chief. Second, by then we'll have kids and everything. So being the leader of the Clan will be easy if they're anything like you were when you were younger.”

“Me. What about you? The heights you scaled with no safety rope.”

She turned and threaded her hands around his neck. “Life was so simple then.”

“Yes, it was. Now it’s more complicated, but we get to have sex.”

She shook her head. “Do you take anything seriously?”

He tilted her chin up and looked at her. “I have spent the last ten years being serious. I know we have to sort this mess out, but just being with you makes everything seem possible.”

“Oh Will. I do love you.” They kissed then, taking their time, shutting everything else out of their minds while they shared this one long, lingering moment.

“Helmet,” he said, passing it to her.

She fitted it on her head. “Perfect.”

“Of course. I know the exact size of any part of your body.”

“You do not.”

“I have had to etch it into my memory. Do you know how many nights I’ve imagined us being together?”

“And what did you imagine us doing?”

“Once we’ve been to see the Clan chief, I am more than happy to show you.”

“I will hold you to that.”

“You won’t have to. There is one very specific fantasy I am going to fulfil today.”

She raised her eyebrow at him. “Really. And do I have a say in whether or not I want to take part in this fantasy? For all I know, it involves whips and chains.”

“Now, where did you get ideas like that from? I would have thought you were much too well brought up.”

“This is your fantasy we’re talking about, remember.”

He smiled. “I am going to disappoint you. It’s a lot simpler than that.”

“Tell me.”

“No,” he said, kissing her cheek and then doing her helmet up. “It’s a surprise.”

He put on his own helmet and they went out to the front of the hangout. She walked behind him, watching him move in those trousers, which were like a second skin stretched across his toned butt. Putting the key in the ignition, he looked back at her and then lifted his leg to slip onto his bike. She stood and took in the scene before her. Her man straddling a beast of a machine.

Beast. That gave her an idea of what she would like to do later. It had been such a long time since they had run together as bears. Once this was all over, she longed to climb the mountain, just the two of them and make love in the forest or in the open meadows in the moonlight.

She had to content herself now with sliding on to the bike behind him and putting her arms around his waist. Holding on tightly, she gripped with her legs too. As he raced off up the road, they passed her father in the car with Eirik. She only hoped that the sheriff or anyone else didn’t stop them. For the clan chief of Bear Bluff to enter Bear Creek, permission should have been sought. She sighed against Will. There had to be a way to make things easier between the clans. Maybe fate was stepping in here too. This whole fiasco would work itself out for the best with the two clans brought closer together.

Yet as they drove along the lanes leading to the clan chief’s house she thought herself whimsical and foolish. The mating bond worked for no other reason than the pairing of the best genes to make the strongest offspring to maintain the stock. That was what her father had told her as she grew up. Her mother had different ideas, but her father called her a hopeless romantic, his words filled with scorn. Yet on her mother’s birthday and Valentine's Day, he always bought her flowers.

Maybe they complemented each other. As she and Will complemented each other. He was hard and toned, she was curvy and round. He was organised and resilient, she was pitiful and weak. No, she had strength, she really did; only as they drove up the drive to the Bear Creek Clan Chief’s residence, she was in awe of its magnificence and felt totally out of her league.

This was nothing like the ranch she had been brought up on. How the clans differed surprised her. Only around twelve miles in distance but a world apart.

“William Frasier. I wondered when the time would come for you to pay me a long overdue visit.”

“Malcolm.”

“Come in, I was just about to start breakfast. And Freyja, Stuart's daughter. It is a pleasure to meet you. Come in.”

“Are you sure,” Freyja asked nervously.

“Of course.”

“We old bears like to sit down to a proper breakfast. It would be good to have some young company. Gracie,” he shouted. “We have guests.”

“Hello,” said a woman in her mid-fifties, carrying a plate of pancakes and setting them down on the table.

“Hello,” Will said, kissing Gracie on the cheeks.

“These two are full of young love; I think you’ll be having a wedding on your hands before long, Malcolm. There have been a spate of them lately, must be something in that mountain air.” Gracie beamed good-naturedly.

Malcolm agreed. “I don’t know if the wedding will be here or in Bear Bluff. These cross-clan matings happen so seldom. I don’t think there is a precedent, but since it’s your father he might like to officiate.”

“But who is going to give her away if her father officiates?” Gracie asked.

“Wait,” said Will, holding up his hands. “Those discussions can keep. We haven’t come to talk about the wedding.”

“Ah. You’ve come about that other business.”

“You know? About Garrow's Creek?”

“
Know
might be a bit too strong a word. Heard rumours, yes. But I didn’t think even Carson could sink that low. So I figured it was murmurings among disgruntled shareholders.” Malcolm poured everyone orange juice while Gracie laid the extra plates.

Will and Freyja sat opposite each other; he smiled at her reassuringly, sensing how nervous she was. “I went to see him yesterday.”

“Did you? I thought you two didn’t have anything to do with each other.”

“Freyja came to me and asked if I could help her clan.”

“And you finally faced you duty and took her as your mate. Quite a day you had.”

“Do you know why I never took Freyja as my mate?” Will asked.

“No. No one seemed to know. None of my usual sources had a clue. But I have watched you grow up into a fine young man, Will, so I trusted you had your reasons. Other than mixing between the Clans.”

“No. It had nothing to do with Freyja being from another clan. Carson told me I was adopted.”

Malcolm placed his fork down and looked critically at Will. “And you believed him?”

“He showed me what I thought was proof. Told me about my mother. I was naive enough to believe him. And too ashamed to ask my father for the truth.”

“Ashamed?” Malcolm shook his head. “You have nothing to be ashamed of. Oh, I see, he told you about the cave. About the poor unfortunate creature who gave birth to him. Oh, Will. I thought your father would take that to his grave. No one ever spoke about it since the day when he brought Carson down from the mountain and gave him a home.”

“Carson admitted his lie yesterday.”

“Why?”

Will looked at Freyja and saw the tears in her eyes. He reached across the table and squeezed her hand reassuringly. “He wanted me to know that he lied, and he wants to trade Freyja for the land at Garrow’s Creek.”

Malcolm gripped the table and the air filled with latent electricity. The Clan Chief of Bear Creek was fighting to contain his bear. Gracie looked at her husband and said nothing. But she looked so calm that Will knew Malcolm would be able to control himself. So he sat in silence too, keeping constant eye contact with Freyja, who looked scared. She had every right to be. If Malcolm couldn’t control himself his bear might just attack her as being a trespasser in his territory.

Slowly, Malcolm calmed down and the air became normal. Will let out the breath he had been holding and looked at Malcolm. “He said that if Freyja became his mistress then he would not desecrate their ancient lands.”

“How did he get the deeds?” Malcolm asked.

“He said he was the illegitimate son of Wayne McCormac.”

Malcolm nodded. “Did he? And he showed Wayne proof. Just as he showed you proof?”

“I believe so.” Will caught his meaning. Of course, Carson had lied once; he would lie again. A forged birth certificate, anything. All he had to know was that at some point Wayne had slept with Carson's mother.

“Then I suggest you find something you can use to compare the DNA of Carson to that of Eirik, Wayne’s true son and heir.”

“You don’t believe he is the son of my uncle?” Freyja asked.

“No. I do not.” Malcolm looked at Will. “Although there was often talk that some of the bears from both our clans used to go into the mountains to mate with a female bear. It is not something we ever encourage, but some men find it a fetish.”

“And Carson's mom liked to be a bear more than she liked to be human.”

“Exactly.”

“You don’t know more than this?”

“No. Your father treated you both equally. Never spoke of it. That is why I never questioned your motives when you handed the running of the company over to him.”

“Where are you going to get Carson’s DNA from? It’s not as though you can go and ask him for it.”

“I know where.”

They were outside now, Malcolm and Gracie standing and watching as they put their helmets on. When Malcolm called out. “One more thing.”

“Yes?” asked Will.

“Your father would have been very proud of you, Will.”

Will looked down at his leathers and his bike and remembered his dad in his smart suit and tie leaving in his expensive car for work every morning.

“I’m not so sure,” Will said.

“You are a self-made man, Will. I have kept my eye on your business dealings; you are more than a match for Frasier Corporation.”

“I have no wish to take it over.”

“By the time this plays out, you might well have to. It was your father who built it from nothing. Now it is your turn to take control.” Malcolm gave them one last wave and then went back inside.

“He is so different from my father,” Freyja said.

“Does it ever seem strange to you that our clans live so close together and yet might be on different continents?”

“Yes. I believe it’s because my father and Malcolm are so old. Although Malcolm seems a lot more open to change than my father.”

“He was willing to help; I thought I would have to use more persuasion.”

“What kind of persuasion? Malcolm is your chief; there can’t be much you can use as leverage without making things difficult for you and your business.”

“That wasn’t the leverage I was going to use.”

“Then what was?”

“That if Carson has control over you, he will have control over Bear Bluff one day.”

Her skin paled. She placed her hand on him to steady herself, his presence giving her comfort. “Of course. I thought he just wanted to hurt you.”

“So did I, and I’m not sure if that was what he wanted us to think. However, I believe that he has a lust for power. First, he took Frasier Corporation from me, making him a billionaire overnight; now he wants more. He wants to be the chief of your clan, or at least acting chief through you. He could wreak havoc on this mountain.”

“That won’t happen.”

“He must believe that those lands are worth more to you than they actually are.”

“Well, he is wrong. They are invaluable, but they are not worth the control of the clan.”

“Get on, let’s go and find the DNA we need to prove he is not the heir to the land anyway. Then your clan will have a legal right to the lands back.”

“You really think he persuaded Wayne that he was his son with a fake birth certificate?”

“Yes. Although Wayne must have had a guilty conscience to be so easily deceived.”

“So where are we going?”

“Home.”

She slid on behind him and held on tight as he raced off down the drive. Back onto the road, she felt as if the devil was on their taillights as they made their way to the house Will had grown up in. She had never been inside, only sat in the grounds on warm summer evenings dreaming about him. She had taken a risk coming here, but she had needed to find some way to be close to him when he had rejected her.

This empty house was the best she could come up with. It stood alone and unloved, mirroring her life without Will. No one had lived here since Will’s father had died.

“Why did you never live here?” she asked.

“It didn’t seem right. I signed the running of Frasier Corporation over to Carson, believing the house rightfully belonged to him as well. He never lived here. I never asked him why.”

“Do you think you’ll find his DNA here?”

“I hope so, or I will have to pay him another visit and pull his hair out or gouge his skin with my claws.”

“Maybe I should give you a hand.”

He grinned. “I thought females were supposed to be gentle homemakers.”

She stopped in her tracks, hands on hips. “You are joking?”

“No. I thought that now we were mated you would become the stay-at-home type. While I go out and earn our keep.”

His face was perfectly serious and he wondered if that was what he truly believed. When they were younger, before the mating bond took over, they would run and hunt together in the mountains. Now they were mated, and she might very well be already pregnant, did he expect her to give up the person she was, the person she was born to be? “Damn it, Will. That is not funny. I’m the next leader of Bear Bluff.”

“The more I think about it the more I think it would be better if Eirik took that over too.” He walked on, going up to the front door and trying it. “Locked.”