Releasing the Bear: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (The Callaghan Clan Book 2) (4 page)

“I can do that,” Bo said.

“And Brennan,” Brandt continued, “I need you to go talk to the Tik’a pack. Get Scarlett involved right away. She’ll know how to keep her wolves in line.

I swallowed hard, trying to push down nerves. I didn’t want anyone in this room knowing how much I really wanted to see Scarlett again. “Okay.”

“I’ll let you know as soon as I have an address,” Derrick added. “So you can tell Scarlett and Peter.”

With a nod, I stood. “Who is Major anyway?”

“He’s with the ISC,” Bo said.

“I know that brother, but what role does he have and what kind of shifter is he?”

All three men in the room stared at me. “You couldn’t tell?” Derrick asked.

“How could you not smell his animal? It was all I could do not to take a piss on the floor to mark our territory,” Bo said.

Brandt looked at me with narrowed eyes. “What’s going on with you?”

“What?” I shouted. “There’s something wrong with me because I couldn’t tell what kind of shifter Major was?”

“Yes!” all three of them said together.

“Well, fuck you guys then.” I stomped toward the door. “There’s nothing wrong with me, okay?”

“He’s a tiger,” Brandt said.

I stopped dead in my tracks. “Seriously?”

“Serious as a heart attack,” Bo said with a shudder. “That tiger wouldn’t hesitate to challenge one of us.”

“Why did they send a tiger?” I wondered out loud.

“Because this is serious,” Brandt said. “We need to find these humans as soon as possible.”

“I’m on it,” Derrick replied. He scooped up some papers and then left the office to go work downstairs in a private space Brandt had set aside for him.

“I’ll go tell the others now,” Bo said.

“Me too,” I added. But as I tried to walk out the door, Brandt called my name. Bo continued down the stairs, leaving me to fend for myself with our alpha.

Brandt waved me back into the room. “Would you care to tell me why you smell like a wolf?”

Shit.

Hanging my head, I said. “Nope.”

“Brennan, what’s going on with you?”

“Nothing, I’m fine.”

He stepped around his desk and stood in front of me. Putting his hands on my shoulders he forced me to meet his gaze. “Is this something I need to be concerned about?”

“No.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

He looked at me for way too long. My legs tingled with the power of his alpha encouraging me to come clean. But as my brother, I didn’t want him nagging me about a mate until I actually understood myself what was going on with us.

“I’m trusting you to handle this.”

I didn’t know if he was talking about Scarlett or the video. And perhaps he was alluding to both. “I can handle it, brother.”

Brandt slapped me on the shoulder and returned to his desk. “Keep me posted, okay.”

“Yeah.”

“On everything,” he said with a deep growl.

He knew I’d been mated. I could tell. “You got it,” I mumbled as I left the room.

So now not only did we have to clean up this human mess, I also had to juggle my feelings for Scarlett while our shifter communities depended on me behaving like I should. No more sex with Scarlett. I couldn’t. Not right now.

Yet as I climbed into my truck and started to pull out of the driveway, I couldn’t stop my heart from beating in anticipation for seeing her again very soon.

I had to leave my uncle’s side before I strangled him. Sure he was my alpha, but sometimes he’d forget that I was a grown woman and our pack’s enforcer. After Carla’s fight with two coyote men last night in the club, she’d ruined my mood. And I might have reacted a little harsher than necessary.

Or maybe I didn’t.

She was only two years younger than me but acted like an insolent teen who threw a tantrum every time she didn’t get her way. Last night she didn’t think one of the men tipped her enough and she nearly shed her wolf in response. Thankfully, Simone and Seth were able to pull her back stage before she showed all of the humans just how dangerous she actually was.

My uncle and I argued all morning over the punishment I’d given her. I didn’t think a broken wrist was that big of a deal, especially since she’d tried to punch me first. But Uncle Peter didn’t like to see her get hurt. Regardless of how much she deserved it.

“Where are you going?” he asked from the kitchen table behind me.

“Home,” I snapped. “I’m tired.”

“Scarlett, what’s wrong with you?” His voice changed tones and it caused me to stop in my tracks.

“Nothing,” I whispered. My head was spinning and my wolf was raging. She wanted me to claim my mate and she didn’t care if that act would have consequences even I didn’t know about. She wanted her mate and she was tearing me up on the inside because I wouldn’t give it to her.

“There is something different about you,” he pondered.

My uncle had raised me since I was a pup. Both of my parents were teenagers when they had me and both had been killed in a car accident before I was a year old. Uncle Peter was already the pack alpha, so no one argued with him when he took me into his home. I’d grown up listening in on all of the meetings, learning how to get business accomplished while dealing with all types of personalities. I’d enrolled myself in an online homeschool program and had my diploma by sixteen and a degree in business management by nineteen. I’d always been in control of my life.

And now Brennan Callaghan had thrown a major kink into that.

“Scarlett! Are you in there?”

Seth’s voice interrupted my uncle’s inquisition and I secretly thanked him for doing so. I opened the door to the trailer and watched Seth jogging up to it. “What’s wrong?”

His face was pulled tight as he ground his jaw together. Nothing bothered Seth. Ever. So I knew he wasn’t bringing us good news. “I just got a call from ISC.”

“What?” my uncle shouted behind me.

“Why?” I asked at the same time.

“Some man told me to be expecting a visit from the grizzly clan.” Seth leaned forward, out of breath. Had he run all the way from town?

“I don’t understand,” I said, just as we all heard the truck entering the road that would bring it into our trailer park. A small cloud of dust warned us about the visitor before we could see who was driving. But my wolf knew right away who it was.

Brennan.

“Uncle, you stay here. I’ll go find out what’s going on.” I started to close the door, but my alpha yanked it out of my hand.

“Not a chance,” he said with a grin. Despite his age, I had to admire how much he was still able to do. And how much he still wanted to be involved.

So the three of us walked down the center dirt road until the truck in front of us came to a stop. Brennan and I made eye contact and it took all the self-control I could gather to remain standing beside my alpha and my friend.

“Peter Kani,” Brennan said when he approached us. He’d dressed in business attire and looked as delicious as anything I’d ever seen. “I’m sorry to barge in on your pack like this.”

Peter lifted his chin. “We were warned.”

“Warned?” Brennan asked, surprised.

“ISC called Seth,” I said.

Brennan’s gaze fell to Seth, the bouncer who’d seen Brennan frequent my club for the last few weeks. But Seth didn’t give any indication that he’d recognized him or suspected that there was something going on between us.

“What’s wrong?” Peter asked.

Brennan shook his head then focused on our alpha again. “Do you have a computer or television I can use?”

An hour later, we all sat in my uncle’s living room watching the video for the hundredth time. “How could this have happened?” Peter asked.

“We were all too caught up with Joshua’s attack to even sense the humans in the woods,” Brennan said as though he’d been searching for an answer all morning. When his phone rang, he quickly pulled it out of his jacket and stood. “Derrick? Yeah. Okay, hold on a sec.” Brennan covered the phone and spoke to Peter. “I’m sorry, I need to take this.”

Peter and I both nodded our approval but only I watched every step Brennan took as he stepped out of the trailer. My wolf was still wild with desire, but now she was also burning with the craving to protect.

“What are we going to do?” Seth asked. I’d almost forgotten he was in the room.

“Let’s see what Brennan finds out first. Then we’ll plan.” My uncle may have sounded calm, but I could see the tension in his shoulders and the way he kept opening and closing his fist. Thankfully, the silence between all of us didn’t last too long.

The front door slammed shut and Brennan cringed. “Sorry,” he mumbled. He remained in the kitchen and looked as though he was about to explode.

“What did Derrick have to say?’ I asked.

“He got an address.” Brennan smiled and started to pace, like that would help him come up with a plan. “It’s in Anchorage.”

“Are you going?” Peter asked.

“Yes.”

“Good,” he said as he stood. His knees cracked several times. “Take Scarlett with you.”

The color in Brennan’s cheeks paled faster than I thought possible for someone already so light-skinned. “It’s okay, sir. I can do this—”

“It’s not a request,” Peter said, asserting his authority.

“But…” I tried to think of a reason I shouldn’t be alone with Brennan despite my wolf purring inside for the chance to have him again.

“Seth will watch over me,” Peter said.

Seth stood and stepped to the side. “I won’t let anything happen.”

“I know that, but what about our woods. Those humans trespassed and they—”

“We’ll take care of it,” my uncle interrupted me again. “I need you to find this video before ISC gets any more involved.”

I heard the fear in his voice simply because I knew him so well. Where I’d not had any interaction with the ISC, I’d heard stories. And when my uncle learned that they had sent a tiger, and Major Patel at that, he’d immediately clammed up and stopped asking questions. I promised myself I would find out more about his knowledge, ISC, and Major when I could. But for now, it looked like I was going to Anchorage.

“When do we leave?” I asked Brennan.

He looked at his phone and then mumbled something under his breath, like he was counting. “I could be back here in an hour.”

“All right.”

Addressing my uncle, he added, “I’ll take care of her, don’t worry.”

Peter laughed. “Oh, I’m not worried about my Scarlett taking care of herself.”

Brennan couldn’t help but smile as he left the trailer and waved his goodbyes. I started to head out myself, but a hand on my shoulder stopped me.

“Scarlett, sit.” My uncle pointed to the couch again. “You, too, Seth.”

Seth and I looked at each other in fear. My uncle had used his alpha voice and neither one of us could refuse his power. Plopping down side by side, we looked up at him like two children who’d just broken a window. Or killed a deer.

“How long?” Peter asked.

“Excuse me?” Seth replied.

My uncle refocused on me. “How long have you been mated to that bear?”

Oh shit.

“I—”

Peter interrupted me when he pointed a finger at Seth. “And how long have you known?”

Seth looked at me with wide eyes and shook his head very fast. “I didn’t know they were mated, I swear.” His lips trembled with shock.  “I had no idea,” he whispered.

With a sigh, I figured it was time for me to confess. “It just happened.”

“When?” Peter demanded.

“Last night.”

Seth sucked in a breath but then lowered his gaze when my uncle snapped a glare at him. “How could you let this happen? You were supposed to mate with Seth!”

“What?” Seth and I shouted together.

With hands flying through the air, Peter hobbled around the tiny living room floor. “He would have been a good choice for you, Scarlett. He’s large, protective, and has a job.”

“Just like Brennan,” I said before I could stop myself. My uncle froze in his tracks and I knew I’d crossed the line. “Uncle, you know we can’t control who our animal chooses,” I whispered.

“I do,” he grumbled.

“And Brennan is a good mate. His clan is an ally we should have. A mating like this could solidify that bond.”

“Or it could destroy it,” Peter huffed.

Seth sat like a statue next to me, too afraid to move. I should have done the same, but now that I’d claimed my mate out loud to my pack leader, I felt like I needed to defend my choice. “They are good people,” I said.

My uncle left the living room, went to the kitchen and pulled a beer out of the fridge. He rarely drank, and Seth and I shared another worried look as we watched him take a swig. For several minutes, we observed our alpha as he chose his next words.

“Find these humans, Scarlett. Or it will destroy everything we have.”

“I will,” I told my uncle.

“And while you’re gone, I’m going to study our records.”

“For what?” I asked.

“To see if an alpha female has ever mated outside of her species before.”

“Oh.” I couldn’t say anything else as my heart clenched inside my chest. What if no one had done this before? What if he would force me to mate with Seth instead? I looked at my friend and wondered if I could do that. Seth was a beautiful wolf and a solid friend but we’d never been more. Ever. Our animals never wanted that. But as our alpha, my uncle could force that coupling and we would have nothing to say about it. My stomach plummeted at the thought.

“This stays between the three of us,” Peter demanded. “Understand.”

“Yes,” we replied together.

“Now, go.”

His command washed over us and without saying another word, we left our alpha behind. The walk off the deck and onto the road was riddled with tense silence and I felt Seth’s eyes boring into my back. As soon as my boot crunched on the gravel, I spun on my friend.

“What?” I asked a little too harsh.

Seth raised his arms and dropped his gaze. “Relax, Scarlett. I’m not your enemy.”

With a sigh, I apologized. “I know. I’m sorry. My wolf is so close, and I’m having a hard time keeping her in check lately.”

“Because of Brennan?” Seth asked quietly. Was that a hint of disappointment I sensed in his voice?

“That and now all of this human stuff. She’s been very aggressive.” Thinking back to last night and the way I’d acted with Brennan, I realized my wolf was having much more of an influence than I’d ever allowed her before.

“Will you be okay with him?”

I looked up into Seth’s light green eyes and saw how honest his concern was. Seth had always been a good friend and I wondered if he’d wanted us to mate like my uncle did. But then I squashed that thought because it would never happen. Especially not now. “I’ll be fine,” I replied with a smile. “I can take care of myself.”

Seth reached forward and gave me a quick hug—an unusual move for him. He wasn’t one to show affection. “I know you can, but be careful anyway.” With that said, he jogged away and disappeared into his trailer at the end of our property.

I could take care of myself, right? Danger didn’t scare me. Those humans that snuck onto our property and filmed something sacred didn’t worry me. But could I handle time alone with Brennan again, knowing that my alpha did not approve of this relationship? Was I truly strong enough to go against him?

As I opened the door to my home and pondered the thousand thoughts swimming through my head, I let my wolf calm me down. She didn’t need to think about all of these extra things. She had her mate and that would solve everything else.