~

 

“You heard me,” Bowie growled back at them. His beast was already riled and he didn’t want to have to repeat himself.

“Well, I thought I did,” Dane bit out on a shrug of his shoulders.

“You did.” Bowie growled.

“Congratulations?” Rayner wasn’t sure. It didn’t look like Bowie was too happy about it. Then a thought hit her head-on. “Is it Mitzi?”

Bowie broke what had become the habit of not looking at her as his eyes flicked a dark glare her way. She gasped in surprise.

“Mitzi?” Dane had a feeling that something was going on between the two of them.

Bowie giving up his cabin wasn’t exactly an everyday occurrence, and he hadn’t expected it at the time, but now that he thought about it, well, it seemed right.

Now everything that had been going on with Bowie lately was starting to make sense. His brother, the idiot.

“Let’s go,” Bowie said.

“Let’s not go just yet,” Rayner said, and shot a quick look at her mate. Dane grimaced.

“We need to do this, now.” Bowie was more than insistent, and that raised so many more questions inside Rayner.

“Why now?” Rayner asked.

“Why not?” Bowie tossed back.

“Why aren’t you over at your cabin claiming your mate?” Rayner tossed back like a verbal game of ping-pong.

“That’s not going to happen,” Bowie growled.

Mine…

“Yes it is,” Rayner said.

“No, it’s not,” Bowie growled back.

“Yes, it is.”

“Can you two stop with the damn sniping back and forth?” Dane grumbled.

“Sure,” Rayner said with a small shrug of her shoulders. “Just as soon as growly-boy admits that it is happening.”

“No, I won’t — it’s not,” Bowie growled back.

“Hold on,” Dane growled out, silencing the pair of them. “This isn’t getting us anywhere. Why aren’t you claiming your mate?”

“It can’t be because he’s afraid that he’d bite her and turn her into a bear shifter,” Rayner said, she folded her arms, and shot the man a dark glare that was mixed with teasing.

“Funny,” Bowie growled.

“She’s your mate, and if you don’t claim her then you’ll go…” Bowie’s deep growl cut off her words.

“What? Even more crazy?” Bowie tossed back. He grunted in disgust at himself.

“That’s why you’re not going to claim your mate?” Dane asked.

“Would you?” Bowie growled.

“I … have no damn answer to that question for you, brother,” Dane admitted.

“I do!” Rayner dropped her arms to her sides, snapped her body straight, and reached out and slapped Bowie around the back of the head. “Do you wanna bite me?”

“What? No!” Bowie snapped back.

“There you go then, idiot,” Rayner tossed back.

Dane couldn’t help but chuckle at the look on Bowie’s face. To say the man was confused was an understatement.

“Your mate is crazy,” Bowie growled.

“Aren’t we all?” Rayner tossed back.

“Not as crazy as some,” Bowie grunted in annoyance.

“How about if I kick you in the shin?” Rayner demanded.

“Rayner,” Bowie growled.

“The balls?” she said. “How about I get all claws up, and make pretty patterns on your chest?”

“Can we just leave now?” Bowie demanded.

“Nope,” Rayner tossed up a hand and shrugged. “Not until you claim your mate.”

 

~

~

~

 

Bowie stalked toward the truck with Rayner hard on his heels and Dane following on behind her. Rayner hadn’t stopped talking since the moment that Bowie had started to walk away from her, and he’d started away from her because he didn’t want to talk.

Bowie knew his own mind, and his own limitations — Mitzi was one of those limitations. Maybe in another time and another place, maybe before he’d met Colt, or before he’d gone crazy, or maybe before his bear had become out of control and unpredictable. There were so many ways things that could have, should have been different, but they weren’t.

He got what Rayner was saying, of course he did, and he was kind of impressed that she cared so much about Mitzi’s happiness, maybe even his own, but that didn’t negate the fact that he was a no good bear.

He wanted to be a better man, and he’d tried to be after the incident with Rayner, but he was nowhere near who he needed to be to become a mate that was worthy of Mitzi.

“Let’s just get the job done and we can talk when we get back,” Bowie lied. He had no intention of coming back.

He’d done what he needed to do and told Dane about Mitzi. The clan should provide everything that she needed for the rest of her life, and Joshua too.

“Why does it feel like there’s something you’re not telling us?” Rayner said, chasing hard on his heels as the man sped up toward the truck. “Oh, that’s right, because you’re not telling us anything.”

“I just did,” Bowie grumbled.

“You just told us that Mitzi was your mate, and now you’ve gone all sulky, bad mood bear again.” Rayner growled. Her bear was getting as agitated as she was by Bowie’s lack of communication skills.

“Rayner calm down,” Dane said.

“I’ll calm down when he says it,” Rayner tossed back over her shoulder.

“Says what?” Bowie asked.

“Anything other than a grunt would be good,” Rayner growled.

Bowie stopped and turned back toward his clan sister. He scoffed at her with just a look, as she ground to a halt in front of him.

“You need to calm down before you lose control of your bear,” Bowie said.

“So, spill the beans before my bear gets pissed off enough to burst free and shake it out of you,” Rayner tossed back.

“I told you — she’s my mate — let’s go kill Colt,” Bowie growled.

“Kill?” Dane asked.

“Not exactly the attitude to take into a job like this,” Rayner tossed back. If colt was dead then he couldn’t pay his bills, if he couldn’t pay his bills to Bute then the job was null and void.

“Fine, I won’t kill him, just maim him – a lot,” Bowie growled.

“What’s going on?” Roland called as he started up the long dirt track toward them.

“Mitzi is Bowie’s mate,” Dane tossed back over his shoulder, and he kept his eyes on Bowie and Rayner just in case. Neither of them had total control over their beasts, and he could practically feel the damn fur in the air.

“Thought it might be something like that,” Roland tossed back. Rayner shot him a curious look.

“Why didn’t you say something?” She asked.

“He knew,” Roland said motioning to Bowie as the man muttered something under his breath and rolled his neck on his shoulders.

“Can we just leave now?” Bowie demanded.

“No,” Rayner snapped back.

“What’s the problem?” Roland asked.

“He is,” Rayner said tossing up a hand in Bowie’s direction and rolling her eyes to the sky above them.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Roland chuckled.

“He’s not going to claim his mate,” Dane grumbled.

“The hell he’s not,” Roland growled with a dark scowl that took over his face at the thought of his brother going even crazier than he was already.

“Can we just drop this now?” Bowie growled.

“Sure, you go do what comes naturally and we’ll drop it,” Rayner shrugged.

Bowie grunted in annoyance. He couldn’t understand why they just wouldn’t let it lie.