Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
Ryder knew they needed to have a strategy meeting, and he was putting it off.
He only wanted to snuggle with Nolan and make love with him and bond, but it was important that they made a plan for when Herschel showed up and tried to take Nolan away. Which he would. Nolan was a goddamn treasure.
As soon as he woke up the morning after the whole drone incident, Ryder grabbed his phone to text Warrick and Connal to see how they wanted to do this and where they wanted to meet.
He thought War’s house would be best because that way he and Nolan would be on their best behavior. Also Warrick had that giant sunken living room they could all gather in.
He got a text back from Con saying anywhere was fine with him, but just as he had anticipated, War said,
Come to my place
So he texted back.
Nolan is still asleep, but when he’s up, we’ll come over
Now that he was wide awake, he could hear somebody moving around downstairs. He assumed it was Race, but it was probably a good idea for him to go see just to be sure.
He tried to slip out of bed without Nolan hearing him, but it didn’t work. His little bear snuffled and reached for him, both of them back in their human forms.
“I need to go down and check on your brother and mine.” He kissed Nolan’s head, loving the springy, almost black hair “Then we’re going to have to go to War’s and have breakfast, okay?”
“‘M gonna shower.”
“Okay, baby.”
Rye padded out the stairs, finding Race standing in the kitchen, building himself a breakfast sandwich.
“Hey, man, you want one? I was starving. I didn’t think you’d mind, and if you did, I’ll replace the bagels.”
“I don’t mind, and I would love one. Can you make one for Nolan?” They could have second breakfast at War’s.
Race grinned at him. “Who’s Nolan?” he teased. “Of course I can. Is he up?”
“He’s in the shower.” Ryder yawned big and wide. “So how’s it going? Are you feeling better?”
“Very.” Race snorted. “I’m finally starting to feel like a human being again, or, well, you know, a bear being.”
“Good, I know everybody was worried.”
“I’m going to assume you’re kind of pissed at me about the whole Nolan thing.”
Ryder rolled his eyes and started the kettle. “For what, protecting your brother? That’s sort of how he got here, isn’t it?”
“Well, yeah, but I know I was a little wild about shit. I tried to convince him to just leave with me.”
“I know.” Ryder sighed. “I love that you’re worried for him, and I know you probably feel bad that he was stuck in the situation he was in, but he’s my mate.” He clapped Race on the back.
Race shrugged, handing him the original sandwich and starting on another. “I don’t believe in mates.”
“What? You were serious about that?” His voice rose, which made him wince at himself, but he couldn’t help it. They were shifters. What shifter didn’t believe in mates?
“Bears don’t mate for life.”
“Race. Dude.” He blinked at Nolan’s brother, his friend, with shock. “That’s nuts. We mate for life because we’re half magical. We don’t need to be bald eagles to do that.”
“Oh, ha-ha, you’re so funny.” Race stabbed the butter with his knife.
Yikes.
“I see you have a lot of pent-up rage.”
“I got tranqed by this asshole who wants to be evil to my brother and take him back to a bad place, and, I don’t know, make a skin suit out of him. I’ve got a little rage. Also, I’m not home, in my apartment. Your house is nice, but I need my stuff.”
“I’ve seen your shitty apartment; this is way nicer.”
“Oh, shut up. I will kick your ass.” Race gave him a look that was almost like a plea, as in, ‘Let me kick your ass.’
Unfortunately for Race, Ryder thought Nolan might be a little grumpy about the whole ass-kicking thing, so he wasn’t going to go there, at least not until he was absolutely sure that was what needed to be done. Spoiler — he wasn’t sure.
Race snorted. “I can smell the smoke of your mind working. I’m not going to kick your butt.
You’d probably bite me, and it would all be over.
You are a grizzly, after all, but I’m a mean little fucker.
” He popped another sandwich on a plate.
“That’s for Nolan if he wants to get the hell out of here. ”
“Dude, Race, it is my house, and Nolan will be down as soon as he finishes his shower. I guarantee you now that you’re making food, my brothers will show up here instead of at War’s. They know. They have a sixth sense.”
Race grimaced. “I swear to God your brother Con can eat two to three times what any normal human or bear can eat.”
“Yeah, what can I say? He’s special.” Ryder chuckled and dug into his sammie. Yum. “I think it’s his energy level. He doesn’t sleep. He goes and goes and goes. He’s not a hibernator.”
Race stared at him as if he’d said Con was a serial killer. “What does he do all winter?”
Ryder shrugged. “He works in his workshop, building things. He also breaks things.”
Con also painted and made pottery, but he wasn’t sure whether or not Connal would want him to tell that part. The guy was kind of a fascinating artist—welding and sculpting and shaping stuff. He spent the entire winter underground creating things.
Then, when he came out, they ended up with all this fascinating shit.
Rye got his gifts from , like every other bear.
Race blinked at him rapidly. “Interesting.”
“What do you do all winter?” He got up to pour himself a glass of milk.
“I do what other bears do. I work at my job, which is rescuing omegas, and I sleep. I love when it’s cold and crisp and really, really dark, and I can snuggle in the blankets and just be lazy.” Race made more sandwiches like a machine.
“Are you actually going to eat something?” He wasn’t sure Race was even hungry now, but it was hard to tell.
“I can hear your brothers. They’re on their way so I figured I might as well make enough that I could sit down and eat once they got here without having to get back up.”
Rye tilted his head, wondering what it was Race was hearing because he couldn’t hear anything, not even their mental chatter, and that was saying something.
“Cool.”
He helped for a few minutes, and then Nolan came bouncing down the stairs, all smiles. “Good morning.”
“Why are you so cheery?” Race grumped, and Nolan beamed.
“Because I got laid last night, and because I’m mated, and because I’m happy. Aren’t you sorry you asked now?”
Race blinked at him. “Yes, actually, I liked you a lot better when you were being all quiet and downtrodden.”
Ryder felt the little rush of hurt from Nolan, and the smile disappeared.
He stared Race down and growled, “Hey! Don’t you be doing that. This is not your home. I will not have you disrespecting my mate.”
Race rolled his shoulders, and then his head on his neck, as if he was tight and uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, bro. I didn’t mean to be ugly. I’m just in a shit mood, and I’m hungry, and I don’t understand what’s going on. I don’t understand anything anymore.”
Nolan’s smile returned, if a little more tentative than before, and he bounded over to hug Race’s neck. “Well, I love you, and I’m glad you’re here,” he said.
“Thanks.” Race put the knife down and turned to hug Nolan more completely. “I’m just being a butthead.”
“You really are.” Nolan kissed the side of Race’s head. “But I’ll live with it. I know sometimes it’s hard to be anything but grumpy when everyone else is happy.”
“Yeah, that’s fair enough, isn’t it?” Ryder hated having to snarl, but he wouldn’t have his little bear hurt. Not by Race, not by anyone.
His brothers came in, and suddenly there was nothing but noise and laughter.
Nolan came to sit with him. So that was shitty.
Yeah, it was a little intense. He’s very unhappy.
Yeah, he’s acting like kind of a big dick.
Ryder snorted. I noticed.
Very, very privately Ryder thought it was because Race was fighting a mate-bond of his own, but who was he to say? It wasn’t on him, barring the fact that he thought Nolan and Race were going to keep it all in the family.
He had to wonder if they had another brother.
Are you two the only ones?
The only ones what?
The only sibs in your family.
Nolan shook his head. No, no. We have a brother who left home years ago. No one’s seen him in forever. Sometimes I think that’s what Race is doing, looking for him because he feels so bad. We were still really small when he left. We don’t even know if he’s still alive.
Wow, I’m sorry, baby. He really was too because that sucked. He couldn’t imagine what would happen if one of his brothers disappeared. It would break his heart.
He gave Nolan another little squeeze then grunted at his brothers. “We were supposed to meet at War’s.”
“Are there more sandwiches?” Connal asked, grabbing one off the little tray of them Race was making up.
“You can’t eat that one?” Race snapped.
“Well yeah, but I’m gonna need more.” Connal gave Race a wide, unbothered grin, and then took a huge bite.
Ryder fought not to roll his eyes, but he kinda had to. They were so obvious. He wondered if War and Nolan noticed it too. “Look I’m glad everybody’s here. I think we need to have a meeting.”
“Ew. Meetings.” Con grinned at him. “Is somebody going to take notes?”
Ryder went over to the desk, grabbed a pad of paper and a pencil, and threw it at his brother, smacking him in the chest. “Yep, you are.”
“Cool!” Con winked at Nolan. “It’s my favorite part.”
“You’re so weird,” Nolan teased.
Race actually growled a little bit. “Don’t encourage him.”
“He can encourage me all he likes.” Con stuck his tongue out at Race.
War rolled his eyes. They could just get it over with and start humping here if they wanted. It would make it so much faster, and we wouldn’t have to worry about this dance. Thank God you were just reasonable about yours and brought him home and fucked him.
Classy. He had to chuckle though, because, while it hadn’t been quite that straightforward for them, it had been pretty damn easy.
He was very lucky, in fact.
Nolan’s hand slipped into his, the other hand still holding a sandwich. “So we’re meeting about the drone?” Or are we meeting about the fact that Race and Connal are going to kill each other if they don’t decide that they want each other?
Right, Jesus Christ. “What we need to talk about is this idiot who wants to interrupt your life. Is it just a pride thing?”
Race nodded. “I think so. It’s not like we are, you know, a hugely wealthy family or anything like that. We don’t have much to offer politically. It’s got to be sour grapes.”
“Well, it could be that I’m absolutely irresistible. I mean, it’s a thing.” Nolan grinned, waving his sandwich around in the air.
“You are irresistible,” Ryder told him, “But that’s beside the point. You know this guy as well as anyone, I guess, so if he’s sending a drone to dart Race, does that mean he’s hands-off? Does that mean he’s a fucking coward?”
Nolan chewed his lower lip for a minute then took a bite of his sandwich and chewed that more philosophically. “I think it’s more that he’s cautious. He likes to know what he’s going to be before he goes into any situation so he doesn’t look like a fool.”
Race tilted his head slowly. ”Yeah, yeah, that’s totally true. He’s all about appearances. It’s not even that he’s smart; it’s that he’s worried he’s going to make an ass out of himself, and people will get to see what a dick move he makes.”
War grinned, his expression feral. “We can work with that. We can really work with that. That’s easy.”
Con tilted his head to one side, staring at Race, so Ryder broke in before Con could open his mouth.
“How much power does he have behind him?” he asked.
“He can’t have too much if he’s sending drones,” War answered instead of Nolan.
Nolan sighed, one shoulder rising and falling.
“He has a lot of sycophants. He has a ton of hangers on who court his favor because they want his money, but he doesn’t have a lot in the way of enforcers.
The guys who have any kind of physical power just don’t want to work for him.
He’s not much of an alpha in the way of leading people. ”
“That’s good news for us.” Rye glanced at his brothers. “Maybe we should take the fight to him.”
“I don’t want you to have to fight for me. Can’t we just hit him with a shovel a little bit?”
Race rolled his eyes at Nolan. “No, we cannot just do that.”
Ryder had to agree with Race. “Sorry, that’s not an option. There are four of us, however…”
“Five,” Nolan snapped, frowning deep. “I’m not pointless.”
Oh, dammit. “No one said you were pointless, mate, but I don’t feel comfortable with you riding right back into a situation you got out of.”
“No, that would be imprudent.” Race pursed his lips. “You know, guys…we could call a meeting with this guy.” Race met Ryder’s eyes straight on. “We could have a meeting at the bar to turn Nolan back over to him.” Race made air quotes around the words.
Oh.
Oh, he did love how Race’s evil little mind worked.
“Hell, yeah. The wolves would love to be in on this.” He knew Quin, and he knew that damn dire wolf would adore being able to take this asshole bear down.
“Okay, I’ll get a hold of Quin,” War said, “And then we’ll set up a meet with this guy. Tell him that we want to give Nolan back because he’s a pain in the ass.”
Nolan was just grinning madly at his brother, and Race waggled his eyebrows. “I think that sounds fantastic. He’ll come running then.” Race shook his head. “There’s no way he’ll think that anybody would dare to defy him, so he’ll totally buy it.”
“That’s my feeling,” Ryder said. “He seems like the kind of guy who would believe anybody would fold under the pressure of something like the big drone chase and darting. He’d see that as a show of his power, from what you say.”
His brothers and Race nodded. “Okay, all right. Nolan, we’re going to need his number.”
Race held up his phone. “Nolan doesn’t need to do anything about that. We’ve got it. You can make the call.”
Ryder took a deep breath and let it out, because he hated using Nolan as bait, but he needed to get this solved once and for all. They needed Nolan to be out from under this stress. So this is what was going to happen, and they might as well control how it went down.