~

 

Roland had burnt himself more times than he cared to count. Maggie and Rayner were sitting together on one of the logs at the far side of the fire pit, heads bowed towards each other, whispering back and forth between them, and he was trying to overhear what was being said, but they were sneaky and kept it low.

He was cooking, and trying really hard not to burn anything, other than himself, but every time that Maggie flicked her gaze to his, he froze in place like a deer in the headlights, as his heart hit his ribs and his hand hovered over the damn flame.

“Don’t burn my damn steaks,” Dane said from where the man was stretched out, arms hooked back over the large rock behind him, legs thrust out in front of him with his ankles crossed, looking as casual as you like. That annoyed Roland more than anything – the night before that had been him sitting there with not a care in the world.

Now, he had a mate to woo and a rock where his stomach should have been. Life had turned on its head so damn fast that he still felt giddy.

“You could get off your ass and do it yourself,” he grumbled.

“Nah, it’s more entertaining watching you trying to juggle, brother,” Dane said and offered his brother a smug grin when Roland shot a dark glare back over his shoulder at him.

“You might want to watch out, Brother; I might forget which hunk of meat I’m meant to be sticking this fork into.” Roland prodded the air with the long fork.

“Challenging your alpha, ballsy move.” Dane’s tone was teasing.

Roland had the urge to use that fork like a javelin. It wasn’t as if his brother wouldn’t heal, and there was a clawing within him, like inaction before a fight.

It was almost as if he was waiting for something to happen, or something should have been happening. Every inch of his body and mind was on alert, and it was getting … exhausting, not physically, but mentally.

“Don’t tempt me,” Roland muttered.

“Gets to you, right?”

“What does?” Roland tossed a curious look back at his brother.

“The waiting – the mating pull,” Dane grinned, and it was a smug one.

Roland grunted with frustration. He couldn’t rush his mate into anything, and he couldn’t exactly shift and knock the stuffing out of Dane or Bowie. He was caught between a rock and a hard place.

“No man’s land,” Roland grumbled. Then he cocked his head to one side and listened hard. “Now what?”

Dane pushed up to his feet at the sound of a meaty engine. Someone was driving up the outer track to their land.

“Hopefully, not Bowie’s mate,” Dane grumbled.

“I don’t even want to imagine what that would look like,” Roland grumbled, just as Bowie yanked open the door to his cabin and stalked outside with his hands fisted at his sides.

“More … visitor’s,” he growled.

“Who’s that?” Maggie whispered to Rayner.

“Bowie, another brother,” Rayner said, pushing up when she felt the tension in the air from all three shifters.

“Stay with Maggie,” Dane tossed over his shoulder as he started in the direction of the loud thuds from the slamming of the vehicle’s doors.

“But…” Rayner didn’t like that idea, and neither did her bear.

“Protect the mate, if necessary.” Dane offered his mate the reason that he was leaving her behind, of course, it was not the whole reason; like he didn’t yet know what was coming at him, and he didn’t want her in harm’s way if things were going to go south.

Dane went straight down the middle, point A to point B, while Bowie took off to the left, and Roland to the right.

“Don’t burn the meat,” Roland tossed back over his shoulder and Rayner bit down on a few choice words that she’d like to hand back to him. Then she took in a long breath and sighed it back out trying to even out her bear.

“You can cook, right?” She tossed down to Maggie and snapped her attention away from the action.

“Is it always like this around here?” Maggie asked with wide-innocent eyes.

 

~

~

~

 

“Here he comes, stay behind me,” Tank growled back over one broad shoulder, and Mitzi knew better than to pick an argument with her brother when he was in full-on protection mode, and there were strange bears around.

That went double since she’d brought Joshua into the world.

Mitzi caught sight of movement to the right of her at the same moment that her brother did. She felt her bear rumble in her chest, a warning growl, as she clutched her cub tighter in her arms. Then the movement on the left, as the alpha walked right towards them.

Her bear was pressed just under the surface of her skin. Hell, she could feel its fur and its angst at walking into the damn lair of the clan with her son in her arms. She just wished that first contact had been with Rayner and not the alpha.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Dane’s response didn’t fill her with hope for the situation that they found themselves in.

“I know you don’t know me…” Tank started to plead his case, but Dane cut him off.

“Oh, I know you just fine.”

“Why? Because I owe some money to some people, you think you know me?” Tank shot back.

“Not helpful,” Mitzi whispered. Tank ignored her.

“Because you’ve fought with every bear clan this side of forever, and some further than that, and from what I hear; you’re practically rogue,” Dane offered back.

“We should go,” Mitzi whispered.

“Not yet,” Tank tossed back over his shoulder.

“Why are you here?” Dane didn’t like it.

Tank had brought the female with him, not to mention the cub, and that meant that they were limited to the kind of attack that they could implement — should they need to.

“Things got a bit more real when you left…”

“Sorry to hear that, but that’s not our problem.”

“Let’s go, Tank,” Mitzi said.

“I need somewhere for my sister to stay…” Tank said.

“Does this look like a hotel to you?” Dane shot back. While he had sympathy for the female and her cub, he also had two new mates on clan land to think about, and their protection was paramount to him.

“It looks like a shit hole,” Tank said, and Mitzi groaned.

“Yeah, that’s going to make them help us,” she muttered.

“Well, then you won’t mind getting their hell out of this shit hole, will you?” Dane growled.

“Look, I’m the asshole here…”

“I hope you’re not expecting any disagreement from me on that one,” Dane said.

“But…” Tank started, and Dane cut him off.

“See — there’s a word I really hate…”

“Yeah, and I hate to ask anyone for anything, but — this isn’t about me, it’s about my sister and her cub, so, alpha, if you want me to get down on my damn knees and beg…”

“Tank!” Mitzi growled at the thought. Her brother was a proud man — proud bear — and the thought of him begging anyone for anything made her skin crawl. “That’s not right…”