CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Dawn was just breaking over the distant hills when the final enemy surrendered. The entire town of Grizzly Cove came out to help with the cleanup. Beth’s hunting party retrieved their tridents from Jonathan’s body, going down to the shore to wash the blood from their weapons in a ceremony that was as old as the hunting parties themselves.
Sirena, as leader of the hunting party that had been officially disbanded when they moved to Grizzly Cove but was still alive in their hearts, spoke the ancient words to Poseidon, Lord of the Deep, and the Goddess, Ruler of the Tides. She spoke for the souls of the lost—even Jonathan’s—and prayed for peace and the strength to maintain it.
Beth was aware of Trevor keeping track of her movements from a distance, but it didn’t bother her. In fact, she found it kind of sweet. And she valued the fact that he didn’t make any demands that she stay with him or tell him what she was up to with her friends. He let her be her own person, which was something her stepfather had never allowed.
When they were done cleansing their spirits and their weapons, Beth hugged each member of her old hunting party and thanked them for coming to her aid. Each one dismissed her profuse thanks with the simple statement that they were family and that’s what sisters did for each other. Beth was deeply touched.
When the three mated women moved off into the arms of their mates, Beth knew it was time to talk to Trevor. There was a lot of work ahead of her if she was going to unravel Jonathan’s criminal enterprises. She’d have to make a start, and she figured Trevor was just the man to help her figure out where and how.
Nansee and some of the mer arrived to help, as well, and Marla and Janice, as the only two who were still unmated from Beth’s old hunting party, went to fill in the pod leader on events. More than a few of Jonathan’s henchmen had been water shifters. Sharks mostly, Beth thought. They would have to face the law of the sea, and Nansee would be the one to mete out punishment to the survivors.
Trevor came over to Beth, and she went into his arms, glad of his warmth after the tumult of the pre-dawn. They stood quietly for a few moments, gazing out at the cove as the sun kissed the water. Behind them, the task of dealing with the injured and dead went on, the inhabitants of Grizzly Cove rallying to help.
“Brody’s got his hands full at the sheriff’s office,” Trevor told her. “Ezra’s helping him sort the bounty hunters from the henchmen, and Big John is laying down the law. He’ll probably let the majority of the bounty hunters go with a warning never to set foot in his territory again on pain of death. The goons who are mobile will have to be assessed on a case-by-case basis, but the majority of the ones who survived are in the clinic. Drew’s mother, who is a priestess, is saying prayers over the dead.”
Beth let that statement ring in the air for a moment as she realized how bad things had been just a few hours before. She stood facing the water, Trevor’s arms around her shoulders as she leaned into his side. He made her feel safe, but he also made her feel strong. He was such a good man. A mate any woman could be proud of.
“Is it really over?” she asked, still a bit shell shocked after the events of the night.
By way of answer, Trevor held his free hand out in front of them. In it was a sleek, top of the line cell phone.
“This is Jonathan’s phone. You’ll probably need this, and the numbers it contains, to begin to unravel his criminal empire.” He handed it to her with no hesitation.
Beth took it, but kept her hand over his as she turned her head to meet his gaze. “I’ll need help,” she told him quietly, hoping he would volunteer.
Trevor didn’t disappoint. “I’ll make sure you have whatever you need, honey.” He sealed his words with a gentle kiss as the sun rose fully from behind the eastern hills, the first rays bathing them in golden light as they stood on the rocky shore of the cove.
The first call Beth made was to her mother. It was an awkward conversation that led to her mother breaking down in tears when she learned Jonathan was dead. At first, Beth wasn’t sure if her mother was crying due to grief at her husband’s passing, but it soon became apparent that her mother’s tears were ones of abject relief.
“Do you want to come up here, to Grizzly Cove?” Beth asked her mother. “I think my new pod would welcome you.”
Beth took strength from knowing Trevor was only a few feet away, there to support her through this difficult conversation. She didn’t mind that he could hear everything. After today, she really had no secrets left that she wanted to hide from him. Her mother countered Beth’s offer, by asking if Beth would come back to Catalina Island, but that was a non-starter.
“No, Mama. I’m never going back to Jonathan’s house. Never. I’d rather burn it down than ever set foot in it again. For now, I’m staying here. I’m sorry.” Beth was firm, but adamant. She would never go back to that gilded prison. Never.
Her mother was so glad to be free of the tyrant that had threatened Beth’s life to keep her mother in line that she was sobbing on the other end of the phone again. Beth hadn’t realized Jonathan was using her as a pawn against her mother. It made a lot of sense though.
A lot of other things Beth hadn’t really understood began to make sense as she rifled through the contacts list and text messages on Jonathan’s phone. His email accounts were another eye opener, and she spent a good few hours using a printer borrowed from town hall, creating a documented paper trail she could follow if need be.
Trevor had suggested printing out the emails, just in case Jonathan had an ally who could make all the evidence disappear. Right now, she had access, but once word of his death got around, the evidence might dry up unexpectedly.
Trevor was a huge help in identifying the most important information. Beth learned a lot about why he was considered an intelligence expert over the hours of that morning. He’d helped set her up in a spare hotel room that was unfurnished. He’d brought in a desk and the borrowed printer, a few reams of paper, file folders, pens, pencils, highlighters… All the things she’d need to get to work. Then, he’d brought her snacks and drinks to tide her over while she worked.
He helped for the first couple of hours, but when she finally got the hang of following the intricate trails Trevor showed her how to find, he left her with Grace and Jack, who had come to offer their help. Jack, she knew, was meant to act as a guard, while Grace and she did the paperwork. It was a good arrangement and left her with friendly company that Trevor was certain would look after her safety.
She liked that he cared enough to arrange such things. And she was grateful to find that Grace was still her friend even though she’d mated one of the bears and left the water, for the most part. They had a good time while they discovered deal after rotten deal that Jonathan had been part of. Beth was certain of one thing after hours of weeding through the filth that was Jonathan’s email trail—heads were gonna roll.
She wouldn’t let this evil empire stand any longer than she had to. The work of dismantling it had already begun with a few well-placed email messages. More would follow. As would a long consultation with the best lawyers in Grizzly Cove, a mated pair that were both very experienced. For the first time in her life, Beth felt confident about her future.
In every area, except one.
For all his care of her, she still wasn’t completely sure about Trevor. Did he want to be her mate? Or was he merely interested for now, but not forever? It was killing her, not knowing where she stood, but there was a lot going on right now. She’d have to wait to get him alone…and work up the courage…to ask him what could be the most important question of her life.
Trevor took a few minutes that afternoon to request a meeting with the Grizzly Cove Alpha. He needed to set a few things in motion—or at least see if any of his tentative plans had a chance in hell of coming to fruition. Finding his mate had been a blessing, but he’d need to juggle a few very important things to make it all work out. He went into John’s office, ready to lay it all on the line. This meeting would make or break the best plan he’d been able to come up with. He had to get it right.
Both John and his right-hand man, Brody, were in the office. Trevor had talked to John a bit about his plans, but he didn’t know if the Alpha bear had told his second about it. Of course, if things worked out, everyone would know sooner rather than later, so it really didn’t matter.
“Thanks for seeing me,” Trevor said politely, taking the seat in John’s office right in front of the big desk. Brody was to his side, in the other guest chair.
“No problem at all. What’s on your mind, son?” John asked, his full attention on Trevor now that he was in the office.
“Thing is, sir,” Trevor figured straight out was better than beating around the bush, “I’d like to discuss that strategy we were talking about a while ago.”
“Good,” John replied while Brody sent Trevor a questioning look.
“Something going on?” Brody challenged, seeming annoyed to be left out of the loop.
Trevor came clean. “Beth is my mate,” he stated in a strong tone that brooked no argument.
Brody seemed to relax, smiling as he relaxed back in his chair. “Yeah, we kinda figured.”
“We?” Trevor asked the sheriff.
“All of us saw you claim her on the street when Ezra asked who she was. By now, we’ve learned to recognize the less obvious signs too,” Brody told him. “We all figured you were a goner.”
“Happily, a lot of my men have found their mates since settling here.” There was satisfaction in the Alpha’s voice. Papa bear was happy with his growing family.
But would he be as happy to add another bear to the fold? That’s what Trevor had come to find out.
“Thing is, I can’t really ask Beth to move to Wyoming. There’s not a lot of water on our mountain suitable for a mermaid. In fact, most of the water we do have is frozen a large part of the year.” Trevor tried to joke, but inside, he was nervous as hell.
A lot was riding on this man’s response to Trevor’s request. They’d already talked a bit about ways Trevor’s skills could mesh with the team already living in Grizzly Cove, but they hadn’t talked about this kind of personal stuff in their previous strategy session.
“I can see where that would pose a problem,” John allowed, but it sounded like he wasn’t going to make this easy. Like all good commanders, he had learned the value of making his subordinates squirm from time to time, it appeared.
Trevor took a deep breath and forged ahead. “Sir, I’d like your permission to join your community. Your Clan.”
John looked at him for a moment then answered clearly, “No.”
Trevor’s heart sank. What was he going to do now?
“Don’t look so glum, son,” John went on, smiling in a friendly way. “The guys and I anticipated your situation and had a bit of a discussion about it after you and I spoke the other day. We may have a solution that will benefit not only Grizzly Cove, but your current Clan, as well. First, tell me what you plan to report back to Major Moore about us and how we performed in the most recent action.”
“Sir, I’ve already made my preliminary report—just the brief after-action summary. The full rundown will go in tonight, and will include my personal impressions of you and your team. What I’d planned to tell the major is that you’re a lot more battle ready than you let on. You may call yourselves retirees, but that’s far from the truth, and I was going to propose the major seek an alliance with you and your men. He’s been looking for top-notch groups like yours to work with ever since the Lords warned of increased enemy activity. I think your team here would be a good fit with our mission.”
“Can you divulge your core mission?” Brody asked.
“To defeat evil wherever we find it.” That was the core of everything the Wraiths did, and it was the measure they took of each proposed job before they agreed to take it on. The Wraiths didn’t work for just anyone.
“Now that’s a mission I can get behind,” John agreed. “So, this is what we came up with. We’d like you to continue to act as a liaison between our team and your friends in Wyoming. We’ll grant you residency here in the cove, and a sort of dual citizenship—something we’ve never tried before, but that seems appropriate in this particular case.”
Trevor’s hopes rose again. This proposal was better than anything he had expected. He’d thought he’d have to give up his affiliation with his friends in Wyoming, as John put it, in order to make his home here in Grizzly Cove. In the normal course of business, he would have had to give up his Clan affiliation and try to form new bonds with the bears here, as a new member of their already established Clan. He would’ve been the low bear on the totem pole until he proved himself, which could take a long time.
The really special part about the group in Wyoming was that they weren’t just bears. He had friends and coworkers across species lines. They had become true brothers in arms over the years they had fought side by side. They were his family, and it would’ve been difficult to sever those ties. But he would have done it for Beth. She was his mate. She was his family now, too.
The solution John proposed gave him hope that he wouldn’t have to cut ties completely. Oh, there were a lot of details yet to be worked out, but Trevor would do everything in his power to make it happen. If Major Moore agreed, Trevor could have his cake and eat it too, in a manner of speaking.
“I’m going to formalize relations between the Wraiths and my team, with the understanding that our theater of operations will be limited to this region, for the most part. On occasion, I can already foresee that some of my guys will be only too happy to join with the Wraiths for the odd mission here or there. Some of us—especially the ones that haven’t found mates yet—still crave action in the real world from time to time. As you saw, we keep ourselves battle ready at all times. That seemed to be the wisest move, considering the unwanted attention we’ve unintentionally drawn from all sorts of evil opponents since day one.” John seemed to think about that for a moment. “There have been some good things to come out of it, though. The alliance with Master Hiram is one, and Major Moore will have to be aware that Hiram has been investing in our town and making friends among my people. I’ve been approached by Samson Kinkaid, the lion Alpha, as well. So allying with Grizzly Cove brings with it connections to a few like-minded others, and possibly more in the future.”
Trevor knew Moore would be pleased with both of the existing connections, though they’d have to do a bit more recon on the master vampire. Any future alliances would have to be vetted, but Trevor had great respect for the bears of Grizzly Cove and their cunning Alpha. They wouldn’t get mixed up with anyone or anything that wasn’t on the up and up.
“I don’t think that will be a problem. The major has had me vetting possible allies for a while now, and Kinkaid is already on the cleared list. Master Hiram is on the list of possible allies, but we needed more intel before moving him over. Perhaps you can be of some assistance there.”
“I’ll do what I can,” John agreed readily.
“Hiram’s a good guy,” Brody put in as John pushed some files around on his desk.
“Now then, all this is contingent on whether or not your mate wants to stay here,” John continued. “I suppose she’s about to inherit a mansion on Catalina Island and a small business empire. She might not want to stay.”
“Negative on Catalina Island, sir. Beth is adamant about never going back there. The place holds some really bad memories for her. In fact, she’s asked her mother to come here and meet Nansee and the pod, so you might be asked to shelter one more mermaid if Beth’s mom agrees to come,” Trevor told him. “However, there will be a lot to settle, and the possibility of needing to travel to take care of some of it. There’s also the matter of Beth’s stepfather having been involved in several highly illegal activities. I’d planned to ask the major if he could spare some men to act as backup for Beth and me when we have to travel to dismantle some of the criminal enterprises, but if any of your men want an adventure, I’d be pleased to have them at my side, any time.”
John smiled. “I’ll pass that along. I think you’ll have a few takers, for sure.”
Trevor rose, extending his hand to each of the men in turn. “Thanks for everything. I still have to talk to Beth about all of this, but I’ll let you know. I appreciate that you planned this far ahead for us.”
“I take care of my people, Trevor. That’s a promise.” John’s words were solid, just like the man himself.
“I can see why your team made you Alpha.” Trevor moved toward the door. “I always thought it was a bit odd—a bunch of independent bear shifters coming together here under an Alpha. That’s not usually the way for our kind, as you well know. But I see why now.”
John ducked his head a bit at the compliment, but said nothing as Trevor left his office. Trevor had things to do and people to talk to before he could lay out his plans before his mate. Goddess give him strength.