The Bear Truth

  The Bear Truth (Greyelf Grizzlies #4)

  By Ivy Sinclair

  Copyright 2015 Shadow Creek Press

  Cover design by Charity Hendry

  eBook edition, License notes

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  CHAPTER ONE – Lukas

  The situation was about to turn into a total shit show, and I felt the loss of control even as Reddon stepped out of the room. When the council showed up on my doorstep wanting to know what had happened out at Black Falls Cove, I knew I was in for a lengthy discussion. I left Billy Miller, who was acting as interim sheriff out there. Of course, since he was also a council member, it was his obligation to tell the other two council members. What I hadn’t counted on was the fact that Doc Walton had apparently heard the news while he was in Reddon’s company. They dragged Larry Bennett, the third member of the Greyelf Grizzly council along for the ride.

  It wasn’t a secret that the long-running feud between the Grizzly and Loper clans ran deep. It went much further back than eighteen years ago when the shifters came out to reveal their true natures to the rest of the world. In the animal kingdom, the grizzly and the lion are often at odds over food or territory. It was the latter that had been the festering wound between our two clans here in the backwoods of Minnesota for as long as anyone could remember.

  I hadn’t liked Reddon even when I first met him ten years ago. He and my brother Markus kept up appearances of being open to a treaty between our clans, but that’s all it was. Appearances. Add in Reddon’s streak of jealousy when it came to Markus’s unofficial status as the voice of shifters everywhere, and it seemed a compromise would never be reached. Markus said that Reddon would like nothing better than to swipe him out of the limelight and take his place.

  I don’t know why Markus ever agreed to go along with being mated to Reddon’s daughter. Not only would he have had the worst father-in-law in history, but my brother was also gay. It would have been a match made in hell for him.

  And here I was stuck in the impossible situation instead of Markus. Reddon demanded to know all the details of what happened with the Rally Against Claws members, and Billy had gone through a high-level sketch of the scene of what had transpired. He glossed over the fact that it was my attachment to Maren that allowed us to sniff them out in the first place.

  Reddon hadn’t believed a word of it. I could tell. I turned the conversation to what we were going to do with the offenders instead. It would have worked too. But then I saw Billy pull back from the group and make his way into the front hall. His look of alarm as his eyes moved toward the staircase that was hidden from view made my heart sink. I saw him mouth something, but I didn’t hear the words. Of course, Maren’s curiosity would have gotten the better of her. She was a reporter after all.

  Sniffing something amiss, Reddon immediately followed Billy into the hallway. “Who is it you’re speaking to Mr. Miller?” Then I saw the smirk emerge on his face. “So this is the girl that caused all the fuss?”

  There was something about the way he said ‘the girl’ that raised my hackles and made my bear growl deep in my consciousness.

  Maren stepped into view. Billy hung close behind her, and I saw her slight grimace as her eyes met mine. She knew that she had fucked up. Maren understood better than most the precariousness of my situation when it came to being the newly minted alpha of the Grizzly Clan. She wouldn’t have put me at risk if she had known that Reddon was in the house. Why she had come downstairs at all though frustrated me. The situation required a bit of finesse.

  I wasn’t the only one to take notice of the fact that she wore only my shirt and little else. Her tousled hair and swollen lips did nothing but accentuate her beauty, despite the massive bruise coloring her cheek. The assholes who had kidnapped her got theirs though. Nobody touched what was mine in violence and got away with it.

  “My name is Maren Lene.” Maren’s voice was stronger than I expected given the fact she was half-dressed in a room filled with male shifters. She drew the collar of the shirt up around her chin. She was making sure that no one could see the mark on her collarbone. My mark. It had a twin on my collarbone. Maren was my mate, and I told her that I was going to take care of her. “Yes. I was the one attacked and kidnapped by the RAC members.”

  Her chin came up as she said those words. My woman was a fighter, and I felt a swell of pride. She had been through hell in the last several hours, but she wasn’t going to shrink under the scrutiny of the men in the room.

  “As I told you, the RAC members accosted Ms. Lene from the opening ceremony tonight and were intent on doing her harm,” Billy said, gesturing toward Maren’s bruise. “We were lucky to have found her before anything worse transpired. Lukas brought her back here for questioning while I made sure the offenders were taken into custody and transported to the Greyelf police department.”

  Reddon looked down Maren’s body in a way that drew another growl from my bear. Somehow I managed to keep it in check so it could have been mistaken for a long sigh.

  “This attire is quite…informal for someone attending the opening ceremony,” Reddon said.

  “Ms. Lene’s clothing was damaged during her abduction and eventual rescue. I will need that for evidence.” Billy pulled an evidence bag seemingly out of thin air and handed it to Maren. He was trying to diffuse the situation. I had to give him props. Even a blind man could see that Maren’s current state of dishevelment had nothing to do with her kidnapping.

  “Of course,” Maren said. She was playing along, but her shoulders drooped as she knew that she was being dismissed. They both were doing what they had to do to protect me and her as well. But enough was enough. I was tired of playing games. I was the goddamn alpha, and it was time to start acting like it. No more secrets and no more games.

  “Stop, Maren,” I said. I caught her glance over her shoulder. Her expression made me want to reach out and hold her. “Come here.”

  “Let the girl go collect the Deputy’s evidence,” Doc Walton sputtered. “With the men responsible in custody, we should be getting back. The Summit starts early.”

  The old man was clever. He knew that the longer they stayed in my house with the both of us there, the more opportunity there was for our secret to be revealed. Except Doc Walton didn’t know what had just transpired between me and Maren before they arrived. Before, she had only born my mark. It indicated my interest in taking her as my mate. But now, with her mark on my skin as well, our fates were sealed together. And I was going to be damned if I was going to let anyone disrespect her or what our relationship had now become.

  “Please, come here,” I said more softly, ignoring Doc Walton altogether.

  I could tell by her expression that she was confused by my request, but she crossed the room toward me. She moved hesitantly as if she didn’t know what was about to happen. Hopefully, I was about to make her as proud of me as I was of her.

  When she reached me, I put my hands on her shoulders and stared deeply into her eyes. I tried to silently reassure her that I knew what I was doing. Then I slowly spun her around. I stepped forward a few inches so that her back rested against my chest. I kept my hands on her shoulders.

  “It is important for all of you to understand why this matter was so important that it required my personal attention. I know that was a question all of you had for me.” Doc Walton’s jaw wo
rked as if the man was chewing on a bunch of rocks. “The truth of the matter is that I had to find these men because they stole something of great value from me. My mate.”

  Doc Walton’s low groan filled the room even as Larry Bennett’s face turned white. Reddon’s expression morphed into one of stone.

  “Lukas, you are overwrought from your brother’s death and the weight of taking on the duties of the alpha so abruptly,” Doc Walton started.

  “Stop,” I said.

  “No, it’s important that Mr. Reddon know that this has been a stressful time for you, really for all of us,” Doc Walton persisted.

  “STOP!” The voice I used didn’t even seem to emanate from me. My bear was just below the surface, and I felt as if I might lose control and rip the man to shreds. I let the invisible bond between us tighten, and unbelievably he fought me. “Just…stop,” I said, lowering my voice. I hated to admit it, but I needed the man’s support. He didn’t need to like me, but I couldn’t afford lose the council’s support on the cusp of the start of the Summit.

  He grimaced and turned away from me then, but he didn’t say anything else. It was as if his lack of words though told me everything I needed to know. I was on my own. I couldn’t count on his support here. I’d have to try to repair that later. Right now, there was someone else I had to make atones to, and she had been waiting for a long time for me to do it.

  “Mr. Reddon, I would have preferred to tell you another way than this given the history of our clans,” I said. “I discovered in my brief tenure as alpha that certain decisions had been made without my knowledge or consent. Had I been advised of them, I would have been able to tell you what I’m about to tell you now before anything was publicly announced in front of the other shifter leaders.”

  “And what would this truth be?” Reddon asked. His expression was unreadable.

  “I can’t take your daughter as my mate,” I said. Once the words were out, I felt a heaviness lift off my shoulders. “I am honored that you would have considered me as a suitable mate for her, and in the short time that I’ve spent with her, I am sure you are quite proud of her and her accomplishments. She will make a fine mate to anyone that she chooses. But that is the crux of this situation. This isn’t centuries ago when the way to resolve difficulties was through offering up people who had no choice in the matters of their heart.”

  Maren turned slightly so that she stared up at me. I wanted to wrap her in my arms and take her away from all of this, but I couldn’t do that. I had to speak the truth for all to hear. She deserved that.

  “The truth is that my heart was claimed long ago by my best friend and confidante. I was lucky that in the intervening years, I didn’t lose her to anyone else. But as soon as I came back to Greyelf, it was clear to me that there is no one else for me.” I almost choked on the words as I felt the rise of emotion in my chest. I had almost lost her that evening, and I wouldn’t ever let anything like that happen again. “Maren has agreed to be my mate. She is the only one for me. I’m sorry.”

  “You would chose a human over my daughter?” The words were incredulous and spoken at barely above a whisper. “Do you have any idea what you are saying?”

  My eyes hadn’t left Maren’s. “I do, and it is done.” I tugged at the collar of her shirt, even as her fingers rose up to stop me. I gave her another long look, and she reluctantly dropped her hand. Careful not to expose too much of her skin, I brushed her long hair to the side and let my mark be seen. Then I yanked on the collar of my t-shirt and exposed the mark on my collarbone.

  “It is done,” I repeated.

  Reddon’s face turned red. He glared at me and then turned to Doc Walton. “Everything is off. The peace pact. The territory negotiations. Everything. I’ll see you at the Summit.” Then he brushed past Billy and stormed out the front door.

  “That went well,” I said in a slightly mocking tone.

  “You don’t know what you’ve done,” Doc Walton said. “This is a complete disaster. I have to try to stop him from telling the others to stand against us. We need to do damage control here.” He moved across the room with Larry in his wake. “You coming?” He barked at Billy.

  “I’ll be there in a few,” Billy said. “I do still have a job to do. Maren said those RAC guys weren’t alone. I have to see what else I can dig up on what they are doing here before the Summit starts.”

  “Fine,” Doc Walton said. He glared at me. “You should have stayed away.” Then the two men were gone.

  There was a long silence as Billy, Maren, and I looked back and forth between each other. I put my arm around Maren and drew her into my chest. She sighed as she put her forehead against it. “I’m so sorry,” she said. Her voice was muffled. “If I had known Reddon was here, I wouldn’t have come downstairs.”

  “You don’t have anything to be sorry for,” I whispered against the top of her head.

  Billy put his hands on his hips and looked at his feet. I knew the displays of affection between me and Maren would likely bother him for a while. After all, he thought that he was going to be the one taking Maren off the market. As long as he didn’t try anything with her, I was going to let him stay. He told me I could trust him, and Maren and I needed someone else to trust.

  He ran his hand over his face as he shook his head. “You really fucked that one up, Lukas. I gave you and Maren an out. If you could have just waited until the Summit was over…”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head with a frown. “What’s done is done, and I wasn’t planning on hiding my mate from anyone. Not now. Maren was attacked, Billy. She was a target even before this, and at least now it won’t seem odd for me to keep protection around her at all times.”

  “I would have done that anyway,” he said.

  “Thank you,” Maren said suddenly. She put her hand on my face and drew my eyes down to hers. “Thank you.”

  I gently kissed her forehead. “I wasn’t doing anything that I shouldn’t have done years ago. Can you give me and Billy a minute?” I could tell she was tired. She needed to rest. It was going to be a long day for all of us.

  She nodded. She pushed up on her tiptoes and kissed my cheek. “I’ll see you upstairs.” As she crossed the room, she gave a quick nod to Billy. His eyes followed her until she was out of the room. I heard the low growl of my bear deep down inside. I didn’t like anyone looking at Maren like that.

  I waited until I heard the latch of the bedroom door upstairs before speaking again. “Do you think all of this could be connected to Markus’s death?” It was a question that had blossomed in my mind ever since I discovered Maren’s disappearance.

  “Markus’s death was an accident. You know that,” Billy said, crossing his arms.

  “I don’t believe in coincidences,” I said. I began to pace the room. “Markus’s death right before the Summit where the largest peace treaty was supposed to be negotiated? RAC showing up and causing trouble for me during the opening ceremony? Somebody is targeting our clan, and you can’t tell me that hasn’t crossed your mind too.”

  Billy frowned. “Look, Lukas. I realize that you and Sheriff Monroe weren’t exactly bosom buddies. But he wasn’t hiding anything from you about Markus’s accident. I was there, remember? I’m the one who found him that night.”

  “I know that,” I said. “You can’t tell me that didn’t look even a tiny bit suspicious. I worked on one of the crews that cleared the bear traps on that end of the territory. I’ve been over that spot a million times in the last eighteen years. What was he even doing out there in the middle of the night?”

  “I don’t think we’ll ever know,” Billy said. “Sheriff Monroe questioned everyone here that night. No one saw Markus after midnight. He probably just went out for a run. He was amped up about the Summit coming up. We all were.”

  “It just doesn’t make any sense,” I said. “Speaking of the good ole Sheriff, how is he?” I had kicked the man’s ass the day before. We were both lucky that I hadn’t killed him.

/>   “You mean other than not dead?” Billy said with a slow drawl. “I’m surprised you even care.”

  “I don’t,” I conceded. “But I have some questions for him about that night, and I’m willing to use the bond to get them if I have to.”

  “I think you are chasing ghosts that aren’t there,” Billy said. “You are hanging on by a thread the way it is. You’ll be lucky if the Lopers don’t leave the Summit altogether after this stunt you’ve pulled with Maren.”

  “Stunt?” I wanted to knock the man off his feet. “This wasn’t a stunt. This was the inevitable conclusion that has always supposed to have happened. If Markus hadn’t made me leave Greyelf ten years ago, this would have been settled years ago. I told you all when I took the alpha claim that I wasn’t going to just go along with protocol.”

  “Well, you could have done that a bit gentler than declaring that Reddon’s daughter basically wasn’t good enough right in front of him the same night your engagement was announced,” Billy said.

  He had a point, but I wasn’t going to feel remorse about my decision. “Look, I realize that this puts all of us in an awkward position, but I meant what I said. There are other ways to resolve this conflict other than putting two adults through a marriage of convenience. Doc Walton will make sure Reddon doesn’t walk out.”

  “He’s got his hands full,” Billy said. He glanced at his watch. “The Summit starts in less than four hours.”

  “Delay it,” I said. “We can use the excuse that we need to go through and readdress the security protocols.”

  “That’s going to freak everyone out,” Billy replied. “And potentially cause a lot of unnecessary panic.”

  “Maren said that one of the guys got away,” I said. “If RAC is here, and willing to go out on a limb like this by kidnapping someone close to me, who knows what else they are prepared to do? We need to find Joshua and make sure there aren’t any more of them out there. This is a matter of the highest security.”

  Billy looked uncertain but then began to nod. “I’ve got a few guys on it already, running the asshole’s name through our databases. We’ll find him. He’s probably hightailed it out of here by now.”