Beaufort Creek Shifters (10 book series)
The Bear’s Arranged Mate Chapter 3

Jermaine

The mating ceremony wasn't impressive.

I'd seen it a million times, sat in the audience observing an elder dipping their fingers in that smelly, oily muck while thanking my lucky stars it wasn't me standing like an idiot in front of my entire pack.

But this evening, it was me. I was the idiot.

And Elva was the one at my side.

Well, she had been at my side at the beginning of the evening. Now, she was way ahead of me, marching her cute little a*s through the thick brush to a cozy cabin tucked away on the side of a mountain. In North Carolina. Far, far away from our pack.

Because distance was exactly the logical way to keep two important pack members safe. That totally made sense.

I snorted. It's more like excommunication.

"You got something to say back there?" Elva shot over her shoulder.

If it weren't for the fact that her bottom looked way cuter in front of me than tucked into the passenger seat of my truck, I would have argued. I would have said plenty of things to set her off. Who needed to try being civil when we had never been accustomed to such a thing?

I was still debating an argument when I replied, "Not a damn word, El."

Night had descended on us long ago. The headlamps of my truck illuminated the porch where Elva stood, tapping her bare foot while letting her heels dangle by their straps from her fingers. The shadows deepened her curves and made it harder to resist checking her out again.

So, I didn't fight it. We were mates now, right? I ought to check out my spiritual wife every now and again. I had to make her feel some kind of special.

"Thought so," she spat while flipping around. "What's the code again?"

That attitude was going to need some serious adjustment if we were going to live together.

I rattled off the numbers, turning to point my key fob at the truck. "Sleep well, Bettie." Two beeps bounced off the surrounding trees.

"Are you serious?"

I stared at Elva. "I'm more than serious. You treat your truck nicely, then she'll treat you nicely."

She sighed while swinging open the door. Soft night lights illuminated the living room. I couldn't see much just yet, but I knew what was waiting inside-the same technology we had back at the security post. Infrared and motion detection and night vision and cameras that were better than the ones used by filmmakers. Everything here would be sufficient enough to watch out for danger.

To keep me from picking at Elva? Nothing existed. I had a feeling being cooped up in a well-maintained cabin on a mountain wasn't going to produce cozy results. It would be an astounding explosion of the opposite. What Blake was thinking throwing the two of us together like this was just not clear.

He had his reasons for wanting us to mate.

I had plenty of my own for wanting the exact opposite.

"Sir, I realize you're a bear, but the least you can do is step out of the cold if you're shivering"

Pensive energy twirled around my heart.

Was that concern in her voice? Or was she merely worried about how she was going to leave Boone, North Carolina when the time was right?

I shook myself like I was rustling my fur and hoisted the bags on the ground like they didn't weigh a ton. "What do you have in here? Bricks?" "Formal complaints need to be submitted in writing."

"I'll be sure to grab my best pen."

She gave a quick, wry laugh while holding open the door for me. If anyone should be shivering up here, it should be her. This mountain was sure to get some kind of chilly weather soon enough with those gray clouds that hovered over our path all the way up to the cabin.

But no, Elva wasn't bothered at all by the brisk chill. She stood with her bare toes hugging the wooden floorboards and her hip cocked an extra inch to the right. All attitude and no regrets.

Part of me envied her disposition. I couldn't afford to act so recklessly. My alpha and my pack relied on me to protect them. It was my sworn duty to uphold that promise I'd made all those years ago.

I gruffly hauled the bags to the small hallway. More like a foyer of its own with three rooms that split off-two bedrooms and a huge bathroom.

"Well, at least Alpha had the sense to get us a two-bedroom cabin," I snorted while dropping Elva's bags in the spare room. "We won't have to share a bed."

The front door shut, the sound cutting sharply through the cabin. What could only be described as a clatter followed. That must have been the heels hitting the ground.

Elva appeared next to me seconds later. "Uh, no. I don't think so." She swept into the spare room and bent over to retrieve her bags.

Without bending at the knees.

It never occurred to me how hot my body ran on an average day. Add a little chill to the air and the heat would intensify to keep my body from stiffening up. It was just how bear shifters reacted to the weather. We had fantastic internal temperature gauges and our systems adjusted as needed.

However, even with my built-in air conditioning system, the sight of Elva bending over like that with half her ass hanging out the back of her spandex cocktail dress was making me imagine things that shouldn't have ever crossed my mind.

Like sailing across the room and nailing the attitude right out of her.

Elva stood up and turned around, easily hoisting the bags over her shoulders. She sauntered past me, smacking her feet over the wood and then planting them firmly into the carpet of the main bedroom. The clunk of the bags hitting the ground didn't register as much as it should have. It was more of a dull thud than anything else.

She leaned on the door frame, glaring up at me with the fury of a thousand offended goddesses.

Now, that was a sight.

And it twisted my head into knots trying to figure out why it was making me hard.

My fists curled at my sides. Subtle but still hard enough to draw blood from my palms with my growing claws. I can't sleep with her. We hate each other.

I cleared my throat. "You done?"

"I'm the lady. I get the main room."

I barked with laughter. "You're joking. I'm bigger than you." I gestured to the twin bed sitting kitty-corner in the room. "My feet will hang off that thing."

"That sounds like a you problem and not a me problem."

I took a giant step forward. "Elva, you can't be serious."

She flinched.

It was weird seeing her react that way. I hadn't even raised my voice. All I did was pitch forward at my full height and square my shoulders.

But her reaction was unmistakable. The bead of sweat at her temple couldn't be ignored, or the way her eyes started to dart around the room-most notably, to the double panel window big enough to let someone crawl outside.

I knew that look all too well.

My stomach churned as my brows forced themselves together. I was angry. But I wasn't angry at her.

Just whoever or whatever had made her want to search for the exits that fast.

"Hey, I'm sorry," I whispered gently. "I, uh..." I scrubbed the back of my neck. "Maybe we can take turns sharing the big room, yeah?"

"Or we could drag the twin in here."

I shook my head. "I'm still not sleeping on it."

"There's always the rug."

Whatever sympathy I had seconds ago disappeared. I shoved my hands into my pockets, feeling my palms ache from being pinched by my claws. I was trying to get my animal side under control. Years of anger management came to the fore with those worksheets, those talks, those exercises.

All of them went right from my brain to the window.

"Alright, if we can't decide on sleeping arrangements, then we can't stay here," I announced. "We'll get separate cabins."

She scoffed and stepped back toward the main room. "Geeze, if you want to be that dramatic about it."

Fear had melted from her eyes but not from her body. I could tell the stiffness of her movements was a trained response to run at the slightest hint of danger. But there wasn't any danger here. Didn't she understand that? Blake and I had scoped the place with cameras and a trusted team of out-of-town shifters to make sure nothing and no one was around. Always visit FindNovel.net for more novels and updates

And then it dawned on me-her attitude, her insistence on the big bed where the monitors were located and the weapons were stored.

"El, if you're afraid to sleep by yourself, all you have to do is ask."

She choked, her eyes growing rounder than oranges as she gaped at me.

And then she busted her gut with a round of chuckles so hard she stopped breathing.

If the gods had sent me a more confusing woman, I probably would have left by now. But I'd participated in that ritual. I'd taken an oath. I was sworn to protect her, too, loathe as I was to do so.

It wasn't in me to let her down.

Even if she was pissing me off. "Come on, be serious. You're just scared to sleep alone. You want the big room because it's equipped better."

"I want the big room because it's away from you."

Well, she didn't have to go that far, did she? That sort of commentary was best left back at the pack. No, this wasn't an ideal situation and we weren't best friends, but the least she could do was try to be a little amicable when we were going to be stuck on a mountain for a week.

My upper lip twitched. "Elva, you don't have to be rude."

"And you don't have to be such a huge oaf."

I started to speak, but the words died when she marched away.

The nerve of this woman to be so difficult when it was my patience being tread into the ground. I knew if I went after her that the argument would explode.

But if I didn't, I would lose.

Anger management starts with breathing, I reminded myself. I forced my chest to expand with as much air as possible. Hogging air was reasonable when hogging a bed wasn't in the cards. She's just cold and hungry. You are, too.

There it was, a more logical explanation for why we were fighting. We were hungry. I sensed it in her just as I would in my alpha. It was the bond that did that, the oil drying on my chest even after all those hours of driving.

My hand instinctively swiped at my sweater. Though the ritual was short and sweet, the result of it was far more influential. No, it hadn't been impressive. It was hardly much of a ritual at all. And we'd had to get someone else's elder to do it. Yet for some reason, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Even with Elva's hips swaying defiantly as she marched around the four-post bed.

I took up the doorway with my shoulders. Not on purpose, just by nature. "Some bed there."

"It's gorgeous."

"Need help?"

She avoided my gaze as she fluffed a pillow. "You're not sleeping in this bed, Jermaine. That's the end of the story. Happily ever after. Fin."

"Bet you'd be happier with a burger in your system."

She dropped the pillow, her eyes narrowing to points when she finally looked at me. "What kind of burger?"

"I had Alpha stock up the fridge with goat, moose, and deer. We can make just about anything."

Drool appeared on her lower lip. "You're...kidding."

"I know those are your favorites. Blake told me. Veronica, too."

"You...asked them what I like?"

I shrugged. "We're going to be here for a while, so we might as well eat good."

"Eat well."

"Sorry, sweet pea. We can't all be as educated as you."

That vicious glare forced her eyes to round out again. Some secretly devious part of me was curious about the other faces she made. What made her eyes soften? Was there anything that would make her smile? Because if her favorite meat wasn't among those things that inspired grins, then I was out of ideas.

Not that I wanted to make her smile or anything like that. Couldn't be farther from the truth. Impossible. Unrealistic.

But it couldn't hurt to know what that looked like.

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, I'm not hungry yet." That was a lie. "But I could go for a hike. What about you?"

"By yourself?"

"Why do you think I asked about you? So I could go alone?"

I grinned with a fierceness. "I'm not letting you go alone in these woods. Come on, get changed, sweet pea."

She defiantly grimaced, marched to the door leading into the shared bathroom, and then slammed it shut.

It was going to be an interesting honeymoon. I could guarantee that much.

***

The trail curved around the cabin and sliced through the woods, heading north toward a town just above us. If we walked for the entire evening then we would make it, but all we were doing was going for something of a stroll.

Humans weren't able to do things like this. I mean, they could do things like this, but it wasn't exactly safe. However, shifters like us were more than capable of seeing at night without any extra light.

While it helped to have flashlights, the moon provided plenty of liquid silver to illuminate the path. Elva trailed next to me, staying about two to three feet away at any given time. She extended her hand to touch the trees, pausing every so often to gaze at the sky. Her nostrils flared. "Storm's coming in."

"I figured as much."

"Yet you still suggested a walk. How come?"

My eyes roamed to the darkening skies-or darker than it usually was at night. "I guess I just thought we could both use the air after that shitshow."

"You didn't like the ritual."

Call me paranoid, but even the slightest hint of disappointment in her voice set me on edge. Was it upsetting that I didn't like something I didn't want to do?

I cleared my throat. "Didn't seem too excited about it yourself, El."

"I guess I just didn't have a choice."

"You always have a choice."

She skidded to a halt, digging the heels of her combat boots into the ground. She wore a simple black sweater with torn-up jeans, yet she looked better now than she had in that skin-tight tube she called a dress earlier.

She crossed her arms. "Neither of us had a choice, Jermaine. Doesn't that bother you?"

"My alpha is my best friend. I listen to him."

"Because you're trained," she spat. "Do you do tricks, too? Do you jump through fire hoops? Isn't that what trained bears do?"

"You're thinking of lions, sweet pea."

She sneered. "Don't call me that. It's gross."

"It's only gross because you're not used to men being sweet on you without wanting you to f**k them in return."

The look in her eyes was indiscernible. If Elva had ever been speechless around me, I hadn't ever noticed. But right now? It was louder than the owl hooting nearby.

Her silence was stunning. It was a magnificent crater in the air between us that answered the question lurking in the back of my mind. There was no doubt that Elva was experienced when it came to dating. What few trips I'd taken into the city had shown me that much.

As to whether that experience had been any good, it was quickly revealing itself to be the opposite. Much like us. We were striking opponents in a bond that seemed intent on sticking despite the fact that we were going to argue our way into the grave. Could bonds be undone?

Even if it was possible, I wasn't sure I wanted to find out. Who knew what the consequences of breaking such an unfulfilled promise would be?

She swallowed hard and set her stony gaze on me. "We should move out of the way before the storm hits." "What are you talking about? I didn't hear-"

Thunder burst in my ears, the sound rattling the ground beneath my hiking boots. It must have moved in while I was distracted by Elva. I snatched her arm and yanked her into the thick forest, marching toward a large shadowy structure just on the other side of the trail.

While I hadn't noticed the storm rolling in, I had taken the time to scan our surroundings. That structure wasn't much-maybe nothing more than a shack-but it would shelter us from the freezing rain. It could end up sleeting with the temperature up here and I didn't want to risk running back to the cabin.

Besides, we would be much faster in our animal forms. But that would require stripping. And we simply didn't have time for that.

A drop of rain slapped my forehead, colder than the Arctic Ocean.

I shivered. "Come on!"

Rain pattered the treetops. Steadily, the drops grew heavier, the sound intensifying as we briskly walked toward the shack. By the time we reached the rickety door, it was pouring.

We were freezing right through our sweaters.

We had to get inside and stay inside-for however long it took to get through the storm.

I guess we were about to share a room after all.