~

 

“Damn straight it’s not,” Dane said with a small shake of his head. He’d never ask a man — or woman — to beg for anything in their life — especially when that had to do with family — that was just damn wrong.

“Mitzi, this is between me and the alpha,” Tank growled back.

“And me,” Mitzi growled.

“Just let me get this done,” Tank growled back over his shoulder.

“Trust me, you get down on your damn knees to beg — I’ll knock you the hell out,” Dane growled.

“Fine. Tell me what you want me to do?” Tank tossed back. He’d do anything to protect his sister and the cub.

“Damn it,” Dane growled, he tossed up a hand in frustration and mulled that one over. “Why the hell are you here?” He was ready to listen.

“Family is a pain in the ass, but it’s still family. The cub’s father turned up at the house — he’s trying to take the cub away from Mitzi. I need her out of the way for a while, somewhere he can’t find her.”

“That’s just wrong — her cub needs it, mother,” Bowie growled at the intended injustice.

“Well,” Dane motioned toward his brother. “Soft bear seems to agree with you.”

Dane was kind of surprised that Bowie would give away his location, let alone take the side of an outsider. But, since the thing with Rayner, Bowie was changing, and he couldn’t say that it was a bad thing.

But Bowie around a cub? That sounded like a full-time job in keeping an eye on him. Hell, he was already keeping an eye on the man anyway.

“It’s just for a while,” Tank assured him.

“If you bring any trouble to my…” Dane warned him, but he didn’t need to go any further. Tank held up his hands to his chest.

“I won’t even be here – I need to take care of … things.”

“Tank…” Mitzi started, but her brother shot her a glare over his shoulder.

“Rayner’s here,” Tank said, and that was all that needed to be said.

That statement shocked the hell out of Dane as well. It seemed that his mate had won the respect of the crazy-ass bear shifter. That in itself was pretty impressive.

“We’ve got a cabin — it’s not much,” Dane offered, thinking of all the ways that they would need to improve that cabin so that it was hospitable for a female and her cub. They’d get to work on it straight away.

“I don’t need much,” Mitzi said, grateful for the alpha’s offer.

“She can stay in my cabin,” Bowie said. Dane almost choked on his tongue. “Roland and I are working on the other cabin anyway,” Bowie added, not wanting to be referred to as soft bear again.

It felt right. He couldn’t see a female and her cub in one of the other cabins; even the best one was still pretty damn bad. It certainly wasn’t that liveable.

Dane had been blindsided — not just by Tank, his appearance, the woman, and cub, but by his crazy brother’s offer. Hell, how could he argue with that?

 

~

~

~

 

“So, you’re a bear shifter?” Maggie asked as she held the baby in her arms and marveled at just how perfect one little person could be.

“Just like Rayner,” Mitzi said, and Maggie’s head came up fast, and her eyes were wide in surprise as she turned her attention to her friend.

“You have a bear?” Maggie asked. It sure did explain a lot about Rayner and her kickass ways.

“Yep. That’s a long story,” Rayner said and caught the apologetic look that Mitzi tossed her way. She offered a small shrug of her shoulders back to show that in the grand scheme of things it didn’t really matter.

Rayner couldn’t get past the fact that Bowie had offered up his cabin to Mitzi and Joshua. The man protected his territory like it was sacred ground, and she couldn’t help but wonder what had prompted his decision.

There was no getting away from the fact that Bowie seemed to have been evolving lately, and that was a damn good thing in her book. But still…

“And one that can wait till morning,” Dane said as he stalked up to his mate and held out his hand for her to take. “We’ve put your stuff in the cabin, and moved his stuff out.” He informed Mitzi.

“I appreciate it,” Mitzi said.

“Tired?” Dane asked his mate.

“Nope.” Her eyes sparkled with good humor, and the wicked grin on her face made Dane a very happy man.

“Good.” He chuckled.

Rayner slapped her hand in his and allowed him to pull her to her feet. Not that she needed his help, but he seemed to like doing the manly things in life.

“That looks good on you,” Rayner said to Maggie as she motioned to Joshua in her arms.

Maggie’s cheeks flared with color as she opened her mouth to speak, but nothing would come out. Her eyes flicked toward Roland, and she heard the less than subtle rumble of a growl that went through his chest.

“Mate?” Mitzi leaned in and whispered to Maggie as she scooped Joshua up and cuddle him to her chest. Maggie didn’t answer.

“He is — they haven’t — but soon,” Rayner chuckled as she allowed Dane to walk her to their cabin.

Maggie felt the urge to throw herself on the ground, dig a hole with her bare hands, and toss herself in.

“Bed! Maggie spat out as she pushed up to her feet, and another hungry growl rolled through Roland’s chest toward her. She swallowed hard. “That’s me — not you,” she looked to the darkened sky and thought for a moment. “At least not in the same place as me.” She bit out, whirling on her heels, and stalking off towards Roland’s cabin before she put another foot in her mouth.

The sound of Roland’s deep chuckles followed hard on her heels. That sound was just as potent as his growls were, and Maggie knew that she needed to bolster her defenses against, not only those sounds but the man himself.

Rayner had laid it out for her earlier – the man was sex on a stick, and that thought led Maggie to other things that Rayner had said, sex, sex, dirty sex – that all sounded really good to her, and yet, she stalked faster towards the sanctuary of the cabin before she did something stupid.