Chapter Nineteen

Paige felt the tension wafting off her mate through the tight grip he had on her hand as he opened the front door. The tension didn’t ease at the look on her best friend’s face—the same furrowed expression plastered on Dale.

Wyatt opened the door wider. “You two look like you’ve seen a murder. What the hell’s going on?”

Both men entered, Gavin leaning in to give Paige a quick kiss on the cheek. “You okay?” he whispered, his face still close to hers, his eyes narrowed with concern. She knew his question had nothing to do with whatever reason he was there and everything to do with her new relationship status.

She smiled. “Perfect.”

His face relaxed, his own quirky smile of relief replacing the concern.

“We’ve got a problem,” Dale stated as he walked past everyone and headed directly for the kitchen area.

Paige wondered what he was doing while he was bent reaching into the fridge, and then she smiled when he turned around with two bottles of beer in each hand. She had no desire to drink at the moment, but at least he didn’t leave her out.

Wyatt led her to one side of the sectional and pulled her down next to him. He took two of the offered beers, glancing at her. When she shook her head, he set one on the coffee table and opened the other.

Dale handed a bottle to Gavin, who sat on the other side of the sectional across from Paige. She was shocked when Gavin opened the bottle and took a long drink as if he’d been drinking beer all his life.

Dale sat on the long section of the couch, leaving several feet between himself and Gavin.

As soon as he took his first swig, he spoke. “We had an interesting evening with your reporter friend Kelly.”

Paige cringed. She would not call Kelly a friend.

Wyatt’s leg was touching Paige’s, but other than that, he hadn’t resumed holding her hand since he opened the beer. At Dale’s words, he leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. “Why?”

Gavin spoke next. “We saw her heading for Tipsy’s and followed her out of curiosity.”

“Basically, we were spying on her. After all, she’s been spying on half the town it would seem,” Dale added.

“That’s what I heard.” Wyatt stiffened as Paige set a hand on his back.

Dale continued. “The woman sat at the bar and ordered a beer. We took a booth and ordered our own. She polished the first bottle off fast and was halfway through the second before she turned to glance around the room. The moment her gaze landed on us, her face lit up like we were old friends. She literally jumped down from her stool and headed our way. Before we knew it, she shoved Gavin over and plopped down next to him on his bench.”

Paige pressed her fingers into Wyatt’s back. Shit. Just listening to the strange antics of Kelly Smith made her skin crawl. “Did she say anything?”

Gavin snorted. “Did she ever.”

Dale winced. “The woman never stopped talking. At first, she glanced from one of us to the other and then giggled and told us how cute she thought it was that we were having a guy’s night out. Then she jabbered on and on about her work as a reporter. It felt like she was trying to convince us she was a reporter, which made red flags fly up all over the place.”

Paige’s spine jerked straighter. “She isn’t?”

Gavin shook his head. “We don’t know, but that’s not the interesting part.”

Dale resumed, leaning forward, his face hard. “When she finished that second beer and started a third, her mouth got looser. That bitch knows about us.”

Paige froze.

Wyatt also stopped moving. “What do you mean she knows about us?” he asked in a monotone voice.

“She knows you’re grizzly shifters,” Gavin explained.

Paige couldn’t breathe. “How?” It was rare for a human to know about their existence and strictly forbidden for a shifter to intentionally reveal themselves.

Dale wiped a hand over his face. “She wouldn’t tell us how she knew. She just kept giggling and leaning toward us conspiratorially as if she were sharing a secret.”

“Which she was,” Wyatt deadpanned. “You’re sure she knows?”

“She thinks she does,” Gavin continued. “She eyed us both suspiciously and asked if we were one of them. When I asked her what she meant by them, she whispered, ‘One of the bears.’ I nearly choked, but she kept going, waving her hand through the air. ‘You know, one of those werewolves.’ Then she laughed and corrected herself. ‘Or I guess they would be werebears.’”

“Fuck.” Wyatt’s voice rose. “Did you tell anyone else yet?”

“No.” Dale shook his head. “Came straight here. Figured I’d let you decide who to contact.”

Wyatt leaned back against the cushions, sliding his hand into Paige’s and gripping tight. He lifted a finger, and she watched his face take on that slightly blank look all of them had when they reached out to someone telepathically. After several seconds, he returned his gaze to the room. “My dad’s making some calls.”

“To whom?” Gavin asked.

“The Arcadian Council,” Wyatt told him. “Our ruling body. Their headquarters is in the Northwest Territories, but they have forty members at all times. At least a few of them are somewhere in the vicinity. Whoever is closest will come to Silvertip and handle this. It’s one of their jobs.”

“Handle it?” Gavin sat up straighter.

“They’ll interrogate her. Figure out what she knows and how she knows it and decide how to proceed,” Paige told him. She watched his eyes go wider.

He held her gaze. “You told me it wasn’t against your laws for me to know about you.”

“It isn’t. But if it becomes a problem, then the Arcadian Council steps in,” she added. When he looked like he might faint, his face going totally white, she rushed on, “Gavin, you’re not a threat to us. It happens sometimes that a human finds out about our existence. As long as they aren’t a threat, it’s no big deal.”

“And who decides if someone’s a threat?”

“The council,” she added, “but telling other people is a big problem, even drunk. She had no way of knowing if you two were shifters or not. If she were properly informed, she would have known she couldn’t blabber on like that, which means she saw something she shouldn’t have and no one set her straight.”

Gavin still looked pale.

Dale scooted in his direction. For a moment Paige thought he might take Gavin’s hand, but at the last second, he seemed to stop himself and rubbed his thighs with his palms instead. His voice was lower when he spoke primarily for Gavin’s ears. “You’re fine. Don’t worry.”

Gavin ran his hands through his hair and sighed. “I don’t even want to know what they’ll do to her.”

“No. You don’t,” Dale stated. “And you don’t need to worry about it, either. There’re plenty of us to vouch for you.”

“Jesus,” Gavin muttered. He picked up the beer he’d been nursing from the coffee table and took a long drink, downing half of it.

Paige wanted to reach into Dale’s mind and tell him he didn’t need to put on any sort of performance in front of her. If the man was into her friend, she would support them. But she also didn’t want to meddle in something she knew very little about, and she didn’t know Dale. Gavin was her friend. Unfortunately, Gavin wasn’t telepathic. She could communicate with another shifter at this close range, but not Gavin.

Wyatt must have read her mind. “Don’t say anything. Let them work it out.”

“I know. You’re right. I just hate the way Gavin hides.”

“But it’s his choice, and whatever is or isn’t going on between him and Dale is their business.”

“I know.” She squeezed her mate’s hand tighter.

“Where’s Kelly now?” Wyatt asked.

Dale turned his attention back toward the two of them. “We walked her back to her apartment. I hope to hell she went straight to bed and she hasn’t spent her days filling anyone else’s mind with stories of grizzly shifters.”

“It worries me that she spoke to the two of you,” Wyatt said. “I mean, who knows how many others she’s told or how long she’s known about us. How did you guys react?”

Gavin gave a short chuckle. “Like she was crazy, of course. We laughed at her and told her she was hallucinating.”

Dale looked at Wyatt and then Paige. “We should go.” He set his hands on his knees and pushed off them to stand. “I’m sure your dad will make certain someone is here to deal with this situation first thing tomorrow.”

Wyatt nodded as the rest of them stood. “Probably sooner. The council doesn’t like to hear stories like this.”

Paige went to Gavin and hugged him. “Don’t worry about this, okay? It has nothing to do with you.”

“Sure.” He rolled his eyes as she leaned back.

It took everything she had not to ask Gavin a hundred questions about why he was with Dale and what it meant. But now wasn’t the time to pry. She hoped it was a good sign, seeing him with another man and knowing they’d been in public. He’d had relationships over the years, but all of them had been in secret, and all of them had ended because Gavin wasn’t willing to come out. It put too much strain on his relationships. Besides, most men weren’t too excited to realize not only was Gavin not out, but he was also pretending to be in a serious relationship with a woman.

“See you tomorrow?” she asked him.

“Of course.” He gave her another quick squeeze and followed Dale out the door.

As soon as Wyatt had the door once again secured, he came straight to her. “You okay?” he asked, circling her forearms with his hands gently while leaning back to scrutinize her face.

“No. And Gavin isn’t either. I’m sure he’s scared out of his mind, even though he tried to hold his shit together in front of us. This is a disaster. I thought Kelly was following me around like some goody two shoes, trying to get me in trouble. Now I’m thinking she might have a different motive. Do you suppose she has known a long time or just found out something today?” She shuddered, not waiting for an answer to her rhetorical question. “And who the hell did she find out from?”

Wyatt pulled her closer and wrapped an arm around her. “I’m sure the council will figure that all out tomorrow.”

»»•««

By the time Wyatt had his mate calmed down enough to get into bed, it was late. Her fears were legitimate. He couldn’t blame her. It was stressful to find out a human was aware of their existence, and depending on the complexity of what the person knew or thought they knew, it could be messy for the Arcadian Council to clean up.

Two things were unfortunate and certain—no way were either Wyatt or Paige in the mood to pick up where they’d left off before Dale and Gavin arrived, and no way was Wyatt going to be able to get much sleep. He changed into his flannel pants while Paige used the bathroom and returned in the same sweet, sexy pink nothingness she called pajamas.

When she returned to the bedroom, he was on his back, head propped up on two pillows. Without a word, she climbed up alongside him and snuggled into him, her head resting on his shoulder, her hand draped across his chest. His heart raced.

They’d come so far so fast. In just days she’d gone from not being capable of touch to stretching out against him. If they hadn’t been interrupted earlier, he had no doubt they would have had sex.

He settled his arm around her, loosely allowing his hand to rest on her biceps. There was a certain familiar comfort between them as if they’d done this thousands of times when in reality this would be their first normal night sleeping together, and it was taking place without having sex or binding. It would wreak havoc on his libido during the night, but for the moment, as they settled into a comfortable position, Wyatt forced himself to concentrate on the dire situation with Kelly and ignore the arousal threatening to keep his cock stiff all night.

He kissed the top of her head. “Sleep, babe.”

“Sure. Right after you,” she murmured.

He stroked his fingers lightly up and down her arm. “Nothing we can do tonight.”

“I know.”

After a few minutes of silence, knowing she was as awake as he felt, he decided to bring up a new subject. “Have you spoken to your parents?”

She sighed. “No. Not since I got to Silvertip. I sent them an email letting them know I arrived and I was busy and settling in, but I haven’t called them.”

Though immediate family members were capable of communication even over distances, few shifters could make a connection from extremely long distances. Living in the same small town made it possible for Wyatt to keep in contact with his brother, sister, and parents, but with her parents in Australia, she would need to call. “What about your brother and sister?”

“Nope. Not them either.”

“Are you embarrassed about me?” he teased to lighten the somber mood.

“Yep. That’s it. You’re an ogre, and I don’t want anyone to find out I’m bound to you until afterward so they can’t try to stop me from binding to someone as hideous as you.” She pinched the skin on his chest with two fingers.

“Ouch.” He pretended to be wounded, scrunching his body for a second before settling his hand over hers and wrapping his fingers around hers to keep her from doing it again.

“I just haven’t had a chance, okay? If I reached out to Nolan or Ryann, they would demand ten thousand details I don’t feel like getting into. When have I had time for that?”

“No one in your family honestly believed your relationship with Gavin was legitimate, did they?”

She shrugged in his arms. “I don’t know. But they all knew he was human, of course, so I don’t think it’s too unreasonable for me to suddenly announce I met a shifter and found out my heart belongs to him.”

At those words, Wyatt’s heart fluttered. His voice cracked when he spoke. “I’m so glad it does, but I think you should maybe call your parents and let them know. They’ll be disappointed if you wait too long.”

“You’re right. And I will, but I’ve barely come to grips with this myself. It’s not like I’ve known for months and withheld information vital to national security.”

Wyatt smiled. “She’s witty too, folks.”

“That’s me. A regular comedian,” she joked.

“But seriously, I’d feel better about binding you to me if we spoke to your parents first. Let’s try to get them on the phone tomorrow, ’k?”

She giggled, the vibrations shaking his body and tenting the front of his loose pants. “You feeling a human need to metaphorically ask for my hand in marriage? I mean, you do realize half the shifter population binds without consulting others.”

It was his turn to pinch her, and he did so on her arm but only firm enough to make her flinch. “I’m not sure if it’s better or worse that I’ve actually met them, but it’s been a while, and I’d feel better if we called them, so humor me.”

“Okay.” She snuggled closer. They didn’t have covers over them, and he got the impression she often didn’t use covers after her confession earlier that she hated feeling confined. He could live with that. Shifters ran warmer than humans anyway, and they could always keep the room warmer if they needed to.

“Sleep,” he suggested again.

“Mmm,” was all the response he got. For a long time, he knew she was awake, mainly because her eyelashes kept fluttering against his chest. Finally, her body loosened and stilled, her mind shutting down in a way he knew she was asleep.

The same didn’t happen for Wyatt. His mind wouldn’t let go of the barrage of questions racing through it. He hadn’t said anything, but he had serious concerns about how Kelly knew about shifters and how long she’d known. She could be a threat to his species and their entire way of life.

He also prayed for his mate’s sake and Gavin’s that the council didn’t decide to investigate Gavin’s knowledge of shifters too when they arrived. Wyatt didn’t believe for a minute that Gavin had ever shared this most important secret he would ever have to carry, but the council had a tendency to err on the side of caution when it came to human involvement in the lives of grizzly shifters.

Gavin had a legitimate right to be concerned. Far more than he knew. When the Arcadian Council arrived in the morning to investigate Kelly Smith and eliminate any threat she or anyone she’d spoken to might pose, there was every chance they would not ignore Gavin in the process. He could easily become an unlikely victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time—in this case, Silvertip, Alberta, while an untimely investigation was taking place.