Chapter 3
Carl twisted in his desk chair at the quiet knock on his bedroom door.
“Come in,” he said, keeping his voice low.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to have the conversation with his brother here, but he was reluctant to leave Becca alone in his massive bed. He didn’t want her to wake and jump to all the wrong conclusions. In the end, his need to stay with her was stronger than his brother’s possible embarrassment.
Alan pushed open the door. His head was tilted to the side, exposing his neck, as was appropriate when entering an alpha’s bedroom. His lanky frame was stooped as well, though his gaze missed nothing. Not Carl killing time at his desk or the unconscious Becca tucked neatly into his sheets.
“Did Nick go home or into town?” Carl asked, not because he really cared but as a way to distract Alan’s attention away from Becca.
“Town,” Alan answered. “Did you really destroy an entire acre by yourself?”
Carl smirked. Nick Merkel had shown up an hour earlier, screaming about the destruction of his field.
He’d stopped short of accusing Carl—which showed the man had some brains—but he had not held back about his opinion of such wanton destruction.
On a different day, Carl would have had it out with the man, but the last thing he needed was a grizzly confrontation while a kidnapped woman snoozed in his bed.
Both situations required finesse, and he didn’t want to deal with two at once.
Meanwhile, he kept his tone deadpan as he answered his brother. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Of course you don’t,” Alan said. He leaned against the doorframe, his gaze traveling unerringly to Becca, sleeping in Carl’s massive bed. But he didn’t speak about her. He knew better. His thoughts were still on the Nick Merkel annoyance. “Why don’t you just kill the bastard?”
“Why is everyone pushing me to murder?” Carl grumbled, even though he knew the answer.
He also knew that out of everyone, Alan would give him the most logical answer.
That’s because his brother had gotten shorted in the shifter DNA pool.
As far as anyone could tell, the man was completely human, even if his eyes were Gladwin grizzly golden brown.
“He’s outright defied you. And now he’s going around telling everyone that destroying an acre of Christmas trees is the act of a coward.”
Carl knew it wasn’t his brother defying him.
Don’t shoot the messenger, and all that.
But even so, his shoulders hitched, the grizzly hump thickening between his blades.
Externally, nothing showed beyond a slight lift to his tee, but inside, the bear was roaring in fury and tearing at the restraints in Carl’s mind.
It wanted to rip through Alan on the way to eviscerating Nick.
Moron grizzly. Why the hell didn’t it ever understand that leading anyone—especially a clan of bear shifters—required deft handling, not brute strength?
So he carefully blew out his breath, letting his gaze land long and hard on Alan’s exposed neck.
His brother was submitting and that should mollify the alpha grizzly inside Carl.
Meanwhile, he let his human mind grouse out loud, just to blow off steam.
“Does the idiot want to die? Jesus, the man is almost sixty. I’d kill him with the first blow. ”
“He doesn’t believe that. And he’s talking so loudly, other people are starting to think the same.
” Alan straightened off the doorframe but didn’t dare take a single step into the bedroom.
Entering a grizzly’s den was never safe, even for brothers.
“I know you’re trying to give a measured response, and in normal times that might work. ”
Carl snorted. Normal? When had life ever been normal for any shifter clan?
“But things are getting ugly in Detroit. It’s the shifter Wild West over there, and people here are getting nervous. They think a powerful leader is the only way we’ll survive.”
“The last thing we need is a leader who will kill just because he can. Don’t they remember what it was like under Uncle Winston?”
Alan shrugged. “People have short memories when they’re scared.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
His brother’s eyes turned mischievous. “I rather think that’s your job right now.” His gaze traveled over Carl’s shoulder to where Becca lay curled on her side. “That was quite a spectacle you created, carrying her in here like that. Very Neanderthal of you.”
“I had to knock her out. She thinks I’m insane.”
“So do we all, but you’re usually more subtle with women.”
“Har, har.” He swiveled in his chair, unable to stop himself from tracing the outline of her body with his gaze.
She was curvy in a lush kind of way, and her strawberry-blond hair was cut short to emphasize her sass.
“Don’t let her size fool you. She can fight.
” There’d never been any question that he would overpower her, but he’d been trying to go easy on her.
His restraint had cost him in the form of inch-long gashes in his arms, not to mention the bruises near his groin.
“I wouldn’t go around telling people that.”
Carl nodded. Wouldn’t Nick have a field day with that information? If people found out that a petite blond woman marked him in a fight, he’d have challenges from every direction.
Meanwhile, Alan’s mind was still sorting through angles and possibilities. “You’re sure Theo has changed? Just because a boy gets into fights doesn’t mean he’s about to shift.”
“I’m not sure of anything, but Bryn was and he’s got the better nose.”
At the mention of Theo’s name, Becca’s fingers twitched.
It wasn’t a big movement, but it was enough to signal that she was awake and playing possum.
Smart of her, but it wasn’t going to work.
Especially since he could smell the increased fear coming off her skin.
Alan noticed, too, even without shifter senses.
His next words were a repeat of what Carl already knew, but it would be reassuring for Becca to hear.
“We’ve got everyone on the lookout, including the friendly police. We’ll find him and Justin.”
Justin was a local from a strong shifter family.
He’d gone missing late this afternoon. “God, I hate spring,” Carl muttered.
No matter what they did to make it easier, a bear’s first shift was an incredibly dangerous time.
The kids had no control as their bears ran amok and people tended to shoot wild grizzlies.
“You need to marry Tonya,” Alan said in all seriousness. “It’ll quiet the grumbling in the clan and you’ll get laid every spring.”
And right there was the opening he’d been waiting for. And yet, now that it came to it, Carl hated every word he had to say. “Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that.” It was, after all, why he’d summoned Alan in the first place.
“Time for wedding announcements?” his brother said with a grin.
“I’m making her my beta.”
Alan didn’t respond at first beyond a quick snap of his chin. He was completely human, but he’d learned some grizzly habits, including the angry jut of his jaw and the tensing in his shoulders. And that submissive tilt to his head was completely gone.
Even that small act of defiance had Carl’s grizzly in an uproar.
Carl had to grip the sides of his chair to keep himself from responding to the visual challenge.
Alan was a good fighter for a human, but he’d be mincemeat against Carl’s bear.
And, anyway, all the man needed was time to process the statement.
To realize that it was the best solution all around.
He didn’t.
“I have served well as your beta,” he said, his voice tight and hard. “You handle the bear part, I’ve got the paperwork. It’s not glorious, but it’s damned necessary, and you know it.”
“I do.” Alan was a lawyer, and a damned fine one. He also had an organized mind and had kept the clan running when no one else could.
“But you think Tonya can do better.” It wasn’t a question.
Carl snorted. “Not a chance.” He leaned forward, straining to keep the gesture nonthreatening. His grizzly did not like anyone questioning something he’d already decided. But the man knew he had to be diplomatic. “The beta position is about appearing powerful—”
“And I don’t shift, so I’m out of the clan?”
“Like hell!” he snapped. It was all he could do to keep it from a roar.
As it was, he jerked out of his chair. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Becca twitch in fear, but that was more reaction than he got from Alan.
The man hadn’t even flinched. Fortunately, that meant he kept his neck exposed in a submissive gesture.
“You are a Gladwin, and I’ll kill anyone who says anything different. ”
Carl let the statement hang in the air. The man in him was terrified at that statement, but the grizzly wouldn’t let him take it back.
He would indeed kill anyone who dared suggest his brother wasn’t a Gladwin, and Alan’s expression softened when he realized that truth.
But he wasn’t completely mollified as he knotted his hands into fists.
“Tonya won’t do the work of keeping the clan assets together. She’s got a job, and even if she didn’t, that isn’t in her wheelhouse.”
“Which is why I’d like to offer you a job. You’d be a well-paid employee of the Gladwins.”
“You’re a shifter clan, not a corporation.”
“We’re a shifter clan,” he emphasized. “And your first task will be to create a legal entity for us. It’s long past time for that to happen.” He pushed a piece of paper into Alan’s hand. It was the job offer, complete with a generous salary.