Chapter 2
Daniel
Rush hour traffic slowed to a snail’s pace as the light snow turned into a heavier fall.
The sun had already set by the time Daniel arrived at his mock-colonial home.
In the darkness, the porch light shone like a beacon, illuminating the two-acre woodland property—not vast, but ample space for a bear shifter to wander.
Days like this made him want to unleash his inner beast and let it vent. Except that would only prove all the lies about his kind.
Shutting out the miserable weather, he kicked the door closed and tossed his keys onto the hall table. Letting out a long sigh, he headed toward the stairs, shoes tapping against the tiles as he stepped deeper into the dark house. Why bother with lights when his eyesight was as good as any cat’s?
Within minutes, he’d discarded his suit, throwing it carelessly onto a chair before heading to the bathroom. He needed to feel the hot spray of the shower beat down on his tense shoulders.
Normally, he had patience for days, preferring to work the more complex cases. He enjoyed helping people by untangling their legal problems. But at this time of year, all that tolerance flew out the window—much like all the empty words Matthew had ever said to him.
Any sense of calm the hot water had given him dried up under the weight of resurfacing irritation.
Dressed in gray track pants and a matching hoodie, he padded down to the kitchen in search of food, opening cupboard after cupboard and finding little. Giving up on the idea of cooking, Daniel did a 180 and walked into his den—his sanctuary, the one place he felt at ease.
Lowering his bulky frame into an oversized armchair, he stared at the cold fire and closed his eyes for a moment, savoring the stillness—broken only by the loud rumbling of his belly.
Picking up his phone, he pulled up a food app and placed an order for a super-sized spicy Hawaiian pizza with extra ham and pineapple.
While he waited for his meal to arrive, he deliberated the pros and cons of drowning his sorrows in bourbon.
Salvation—or at least oblivion—was not waiting at the bottom of the bottle. He’d been there, tried that. It didn’t work. All it achieved was to further sour his mood and leave an acidic taste in his mouth.
Hearing Claudia’s voice was like a fire alarm going off in his head. It grated on his already strained self-control. The need to lash out built like a volcano about to erupt.
Instead of a relaxing weekend, Daniel was on the verge of royally losing his shit. The card thing had him feeling off-kilter, and then factor in the harpy… well, that was just the cherry on top of a week he’d rather forget.
Except he couldn’t. His damn brain wouldn’t switch off. The more he tried to push the unwanted thoughts to the back, the more they loomed at the forefront of his mind.
He knew why Claudia had cause to pitch a fit. What she expected to achieve by it was anyone’s guess. As he didn’t own a time machine—and unless she did—there was no way she was going to get what she wanted.
Almost a decade ago, Matthew had made a choice that both of them were still feeling the ramifications of. Then he made another—one Daniel didn’t like—but he’d learned to live with it.
Make peace with it? Hell no. That was why his home was a festive-free zone.
When he received Matthew’s card, all the joy of the season fizzled and died. The moment Matthew walked away from what they shared and didn’t look back, something in Daniel had gone cold.
It wasn’t in a bear’s nature to pine for a love lost—yet it was part of his nature, nonetheless.
The rest of Daniel’s weekend was miserable. He spent most of it hiding from himself and the world. It wouldn’t have been seemly for a bear alpha to be a drama llama, so he stayed holed up in his den, burrowed into soft blankets, watching Disney movies and eating comfort food.
That was something else he wasn’t supposed to like.
Jeez, it was ridiculous that in the twenty-first century, the old mindset of what was and wasn’t expected of an alpha still held fast. So what if he enjoyed watching films meant for children? That was no one’s business but his—much like whom he mated with. Or it shouldn’t have been.
He wasn’t fooled into thinking the Council wasn’t watching him.
He’d known it for some time. Felt the pushback when he petitioned them on behalf of his clients.
Knowing pack law was, after all, part of his job—not just because people depended on him to have his shit together as the firm’s senior partner, but because of his position in the pack.
He had an image to protect, even if it wasn’t the true him.
He’d barely tasted the oatmeal he swallowed down that morning, or the too-bitter coffee bought from a drive-through on the way to work. He’d just pulled into his parking spot in the office’s underground garage when he heard shouting.
Really? Mondays were the worst. The working week had barely started, and already there was drama that made Daniel want to turn his Jeep around and drive home.
Custody battles were never pretty when cubs were involved, and Ms. Williams was being—well, to be blunt—a real bitch about shared custody. They didn’t need a lawyer so much as a referee.
Any hope he had of sliding out of his car and heading to the elevator unnoticed was dashed when the couple of wolf shifters turned in his direction and rushed toward him.
“Alpha Sanders, will you tell this jerk-off that there is no way he’s getting sole custody of the cubs? They are my heirs, and I’ll not have their future tarnished by the company he likes to keep,” the alpha she-wolf sneered toward her soon-to-be ex-husband before turning her gaze back.
It was far too early for this crap, and after the weekend he’d just had, he wasn’t in the mood to placate the shrew curling her lip at the thought of her omega husband finding his true mate in another alpha—and a male alpha at that.
Some alphas still clung to the old ways, believing their omega spouse was their property merely by placing a ring on their finger. Putting his personal views aside was nearly impossible when faced with such blatant homophobia.
Stephanie Williams wasn’t just a spiteful female alpha—she was a sitting member of the Shifter Elder Council who thought she could twist the law to her advantage. How the tenderhearted Carson had weathered her storm this long was a miracle.
When Daniel was first approached about filing Carson’s separation, he was reluctant to take the case. All it took to change his mind was one threatening email saying that further prejudicing the Council would not be in his best interests.
Ms. Williams had a lot to learn about bear shifters if she thought her thinly veiled threat would intimidate him.
“Ms. Williams, I would say it’s a pleasure to meet you, but that would be a lie. Carson, if you’ll follow me, we can talk upstairs in my office.”
Turning to block out the woman beside him, he hoped to coax the omega into the lift. The loud, indignant screech from the enraged female made him wince.
“If you think that badgering my client will force a more favorable outcome to this case, you’re very much mistaken. Unless you wish to find yourself subject to a restraining order? I doubt that would be a re-election winner.”
Her eyes burned bright for a second as her wolf bled through. Did he think crossing the she-wolf would be an issue? Without doubt. Did he care? Not one bit.
The similarity between Carson’s situation and his own was a bitter pill that stuck in his throat. He wanted this case done as soon as possible. Shielding the omega was at the forefront of his mind.
Turning his back on the other alpha, he ushered Carson into the lift and mashed his finger on the up button, scarcely holding back his smirk as the doors closed in her face.
“Th-thank you, Alpha Sanders. I don’t want to be any trouble, but after meeting my true alpha—my fated mate—I couldn’t keep living a lie.”
Carson Williams was small, even for an omega. The top of his curly brown hair barely reached Daniel’s chest. There was no way he could have fought off his former alpha if she’d been of a mind to attack.
Whereas Daniel would’ve had great pleasure in introducing her head to the wall. Repeatedly.
He wasn’t usually violent, but his tolerance for bullies? That was something he couldn’t let slide. Everyone deserved respect, regardless of rank or size. Just because he was bigger and stronger than most alphas didn’t mean he could throw his weight around.
Not that it didn’t come in handy sometimes. It did.
The lift doors opened, revealing his brother’s festive makeover in all it’s sparkly gaudiness.
“Wow, when did Santa move here from the North Pole?”
A giggle of laughter answered his grumbling reply. Wonderful. Yet another person having fun at his expense.
Christmas was only a couple of weeks away, and he couldn’t wait for it to be over so his life could return to normal.
Pushing down a rising sense of irritation, Daniel directed Carson to the conference room—the same room that held a lingering hint of Claudia’s scent. Which did nothing to soothe his already sparked temper.
The next shifter to poke his bear was going to get a chewing out.
Letting out a long sigh, he mentally counted to twenty before easing his six-foot-five muscular frame behind the oval conference table and leveling his gaze on the omega.
“My brother has a tendency to get carried away when he’s decorating. Now tell me—just how long has Ms. Williams been threatening you?”
Carson’s melodic voice faded in his ears as his focus drifted to a different time, a different place, and a different omega. One with amber eyes.
The conference room door bursting open jolted him back to the present.
His growl of irritation at being disturbed died in his throat the moment he turned his gaze on the intruder.
Had he summoned the omega merely by thinking about him?
The words fell from his lips before his brain could catch up.
“Matthew… why are you here?”
“Oh, thank the stars, Daniel—I need your help!”