Alpha Arrangement: A BBW BWWM Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Arcane Affairs Agency)

by Camille Laurent

  Gregory was my mate’s brother.

  This was a nightmare, and I wanted to close my eyes and never wake up again.

  Chapter 7: Mason

  I was dreading the day I’d have to introduce my brother to Aubrey. I tried my absolute hardest to push him out of my life and forget he ever existed. All he ever did was serve as a painful reminder of my father’s betrayal.

  Much to my dismay, it appeared Aubrey already knew him. The moment she heard his voice, a look of utter fear that I’d never seen on someone as strong as her washed over her face.

  What the hell did that monster do to her?

  Gregory was the type of kid growing up who would torture small animals just for the hell of it. As a kid, I was forced to spend time with him during the summers because he didn’t have any friends; thankfully, my mother made sure I had little to no contact with him after she discovered he was basically Hannibal Lecter incarnate. Who knows what kind of psychopath he grew up to be?

  Ugh.

  “I heard you two are getting married,” Gregory said, jamming his hands into his pockets. His blonde hair, which obscured most of his face, was greasy and stringy. His face — well, what I could see of it, that is — was gaunt and sickly, and his petite, humpbacked 5-foot-7 frame was anything but menacing. But for some reason, the sight of him made me shudder.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” I said as I pulled a limp Aubrey closer to me, so her head was resting on my chest.

  “Just wanted to say hi to my future sister-in-law, that’s all.” A lecherous smile crept onto his face.

  “You’re no brother of mine,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “Don’t be so mean to your little brother, Mase. We share the same bloodline. Our mothers both fucked the same guy.”

  “I’d rather die than admit I’m related to a piece of shit like you.”

  “Ha, you’re funny, bro.” He stepped closer, and I tightened my grip on Aubrey. “The bastard never gets a chance, does he?”

  He cocked his head and looked intensely at Aubrey. “I’m just as much of a Fortescue as you are,” he said. “I could be Alpha, and I could marry that hot little fuck toy in your arms.”

  Aubrey freed herself from my grip and looked at Gregory. “Over my dead body,” she said.

  “Oh, she speaks. Is that a challenge?” Gregory asked as he cocked his head.

  Aubrey looked like she was ready to shift and rip Gregory to shreds. “I’d drink acid before even considering marrying you.”

  His eyes — my father’s eyes — flashed with rage. “Too bad, bitch. I’m here now, and you’re not getting rid of me.”

  “Don’t speak to my mate that way,” I growled.

  Aubrey turned and looked into my eyes, her mouth agape. Fuck. I shouldn’t have said that out loud. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  I’d had the feeling Aubrey was my mate the moment I first laid eyes on her. The pull I felt toward her was too intense to ignore. The moment we made eye contact in the gym a few days ago solidified that. The moment I kissed her hand, even more so…

  To my relief, Aubrey smiled and leaned against me once again. I pulled her closer to my chest, hoping she felt safe in my embrace.

  “Aww, you said mate? How disgustingly sweet. That’ll make it even more fun when I take your spot.” He ran his jaundiced hands through his grease-filled hair. “I never thought you were into her type, though. I thought you’d go for those submissive bimbos you’ve always liked. Someone you can mold to your liking. Little Miss Perfect over here is too stubborn to be a good wife to you.”

  Aubrey was shaking, and her fists were clenched to the point where I wouldn’t be surprised if she was drawing blood.

  “Gregory,” I said. “I’m going to give you 30 seconds to get the hell out of here, or else I will kick you and your mother out of Timber Creek, I swear to God.”

  “You can’t do that. You can kick me out of the clan, but not the town,” he said with a laugh. “Besides, we’re not in the Fortescue compound, we’re in the Moore compound. If you want me to leave, your little slut over here is going to have to do it herself.”

  He walked even closer to us. “Don’t, Gregory —“

  “You going to kick me out, Aubrey?” he said. “Doubt it. I’ll tell Mason everything you did. I have nothing to lose, while you —“ He stood just 10 feet away from us and pointed his finger at Aubrey. “— you have everything to lose. Besides, you owe me, slut. You owe me.”

  Visions of mauling Gregory flashed through my head. I could choke him; bring him to the brink of death, just like I did with Black. I would murder him if it meant keeping my mate safe.

  “Sweetie, I have something to tell you.” My mom kneeled down in front of me, her eyes red and puffy. “You have a baby brother, now.”

  My heart leapt in my little chest. “Brother? Did you and Daddy have a baby?”

  “No, sweetie, Daddy had a baby. Your brother’s name is Gregory.”

  “You’re not Greggy’s mommy?”

  “I’m not.”

  “But Greggy’s daddy is my Daddy?”

  “Yes, Mason.”

  “Oh, okay. Can I see him?” I wanted to give him one of my stuffed animals, so that we could play with them together. I was so excited to have a new friend.

  “I don’t know.” She sniffled and feigned a smile.

  “Ask Daddy, then,” I said.

  “Daddy isn’t here,” Mom said. “Daddy won’t be here for awhile.”

  My bear was growling inside of me, wanting desperately to eliminate this threat to our mate.

  “Too scared to kick me out, huh?” Gregory said. “I thought —“

  I couldn’t hold back any longer. I lunged toward him and let my bear take over.

  My clothes were shredded to tiny little pieces and my bones cracked as I shifted into my Grizzly form. Shifting was usually very freeing for me, but this time…this time, I was fulfilling a death wish. As satisfying as it was to destroy this asshole, it was also extraordinarily disturbing.

  In an ideal world, Gregory and I would’ve bonded over our shared trauma with our father. But here we were, brother against brother, blood against blood.

  He was able to dodge me before I crushed him under my weight. He landed on the ground with a sickening crack. I walked over him, my front paws next to his ears, and let out an eardrum-shattering roar.

  “Jesus, okay, calm down.” Gregory said, cradling his right arm. “You’re insane, you know that? I was just joking.” I placed my paw on his very visibly broken arm, causing him to scream in pain. “Let me go, you fucking psycho!”

  I stepped back as he hobbled to his feet. Blood was beginning to stain his dingy white t-shirt. I stood on my hind legs, my bear nearly twice his size. I let out a final roar, which sent him running.

  Aubrey was standing with her arms crossed, her eyes paralyzed in a thousand-yard stare. I approached her and nudged her leg with my nose. She looked down at me and slowly walked toward her house, letting the door shut gently behind her.

  I wanted to comfort her, but I was forced to remain in my bear form until I found another pair of clothes to change in — I was almost positive I would be no help to her completely naked.

  Instead, I waited until the light turned on in her room before I went back to my compound.

  I couldn’t just leave her alone, not after all of this. I needed to protect my mate, not just physically, but emotionally.

  We were in this together.

  ***

  After sprinting back to my house, I quietly shifted back, showered, changed into an old flannel shirt and jeans, and drove my Rolls Royce back to Aubrey’s estate.

  Aubrey answered the door, her eyes swollen and glassy.

  “I couldn’t leave you alone,” I said. “It wouldn’t have felt right.”

  She nodded and led me to her room. She collapsed on her couch, in front of her roaring fireplace. I sat next to her and held her close.


  “I’m sorry, Mason,” she said in between sobs. “It’s just…Gregory and I, we…”

  “You don’t need to explain anything,” I said. “I’m on your side. I’m here to protect you, and I’m here to be a shoulder for you to cry on.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered, as she rested her head on my lap. I ran my fingers through her glossy curls and wiped the tears from her face. The fire made her tears look like gold orbs on her dark, silky golden brown skin. She hugged my knees as she cried silently before falling asleep.

  I gently lifted her and carried her to her four-poster king-sized bed. I set her under the covers and kissed her forehead before tucking her in. I decided to sleep on her couch — I couldn’t just leave her alone in this giant house in the event that Gregory comes back.

  I grabbed a thick blanket from the edge of her bed and pulled it over me.

  “Hold me, please,” she said just as I was about to fall asleep. Without a word, I joined her in bed and held her close. She fell asleep in my arms, and I followed not too long after.

  Spending the night with Aubrey in my arms was blissful; the circumstances around it, however, were far from it.

  Chapter 8: Aubrey

  I woke up with sore limbs, swollen eyes, and a pounding forehead. Confused, I sat up and stretched, looking at the smoking embers in the fireplace. Shit, I always forgot to put out the fire before I went to bed. One of these days, I was going to set my entire house on fire.

  I was wearing my soft satin butterfly print pajamas that my mother got me in high school. I rubbed my fingers on the frayed edge of the sleeve, remembering how pissed I was when she expected me to wear these to my first high school sleepover. All the other girls in my grade had sexy, silky Victoria’s Secret pajamas, and here I was, wearing pajamas that were probably meant for a grotesquely oversized baby. They eventually grew on me, though, and became a source of comfort for me as I navigated this world without my mom.

  I wiped the sleep from my eyes, and took a deep breath. The sweet smell of hickory-smoked bacon filled my nostrils.

  Fuck, Mason was still here.

  Suddenly, I remembered everything that happened with our date, the kiss, with Gregory…I remembered dissociating, crying a lot, and falling asleep in Mason’s arms.

  I fixed my hair and brushed my teeth before going down to see Mason. I’m pretty sure he thinks all I can do is cry at this point — cry and trip over my own feet, basically.

  Mason was wearing a faded red flannel t-shirt and wrinkled raw denim jeans. He stood in front of the gas stove, frying bacon using a cast-iron skillet that has been in my family for at least 3 generations.

  “Hi,” I said, watching the bacon sizzle in the skillet.

  “Hey, sleepy head,” he said with a smile. “Do you like bacon? I hope so, because I made a metric shit ton.”

  “Yes, I love it.” The sleeves on his flannel shirt were rolled up, exposing his lean, muscled forearms. I remembered how they amazing they felt wrapped around my waist…

  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  “Meh,” I said. “Still trying to piece things together.”

  “I’m more than willing to listen if you want to talk about anything,” he said. “Also, I went to the store and bought some donuts. I hope you like those as well — I bought every kind they had just to be sure.” He gestured to the stack of pink boxes on the granite countertops behind him.

  “Jesus,” I said. “This is heaven. I fucking love donuts.”

  “Me too. I figured if you didn’t like them, I’d just save them for myself. Maybe I’ll do that even if you do like them.”

  “Not if I eat them first,” I said. “Every weekend, my dad used to take me hunting and then buy me donuts afterward. It was a father-daughter bonding type of thing.”

  “That sounds fun. I heard that your dad was a legendary hunter.”

  “He was,” I said, grabbing a créme-filled donut. “Best in the west, he used to tell me. I never knew if he was exaggerating or not.”

  “I can believe that.”

  I walked over to the fridge. “Want something to drink? We have apple juice, cranberry juice —“

  “Have any more of that vodka?” he said, flashing me a toothy grin.

  “I don’t have that exact kind of vodka, but I have something similar.”

  “Just kidding. Apple juice is fine.” He placed a heaping pile of bacon on a plate. “Breakfast is ready.”

  “Great,” I said, feeling more at ease in Mason’s presence. “Thank you for staying with me, by the way. It means a lot to me.”

  “Of course,” he said. “Yesterday was pretty fucking scary. I couldn’t have just left you alone.”

  We ate in silence for a few minutes at the whitewashed oak table that my father and mother made after their wedding. My name was sloppily etched into the wood at my favorite spot at table — boy, were my parents happy about that. The similarly whitewashed oak chairs were still sturdy, albeit worn down at the seats. In the center of the table rested a metal vase filled with dried sunflowers from my mother’s garden. They still smelled a bit like fresh earth and sunshine.

  “There’s something you should know about me and Gregory, if we’re going to get…married.” The idea of marriage still made me incredibly anxious, solely because it meant I would be Gregory’s sister-in-law.

  “I’m all ears,” he said after finishing a piece of bacon.

  I told him everything: how I started off as Gregory’s tutor and how I ended up becoming his target.

  I told him how he’d body-shame me constantly, tell me how worthless I was, and how he’d fabricate incriminating photos of me to use as blackmail.

  I told him about his never-ending cycle of abuse, repentance, and self-pity, and how he’d threaten to kill himself if I ever told anyone about it.

  I told him how Gregory spiked one of my drinks — it was Pepsi, for god’s sake — during a tutoring session and sexually assaulted me afterward.

  And most importantly, I told him how ashamed I felt that I let this happen.

  The memories came flooding back, and with them came the shame, fear, and terror. I didn’t stop the memories. After all, these memories were forming an impenetrable barrier that kept me from becoming closer to Mason. I needed to face them head on. I needed to fight my fear.

  “I believe you,” Mason said: the three words I was dying to hear. “You didn’t let this happen, Aubrey. Gregory did this to you, you hear me? He did this to you. You were just trying to do your job.” He reached out to grab my limp hand.

  “I could’ve tried harder —“

  “You can focus on what you could’ve done all day; hindsight is 20/20,” he said. “The point is, Gregory is a predator — the worst kind. I can guarantee you that if you were to retaliate, you would’ve been hurt a lot more.”

  Surprisingly, I wasn’t crying — not even close. I mean, it wasn’t that I felt numb, or that I was nonchalant about discussing my trauma. I just felt like I could trust Mason with something as personal as this, and he wouldn’t judge me for it. He was my personal guardian angel, someone who would keep me safe at all costs.

  “We all have regrets. Hell, I have so many fucking regrets, and you know what?”

  “What?” I said, cocking my head to the side.

  “One of my biggest regrets is that I didn’t ask you out sooner.” He looked down sheepishly at his hands. “I’ve been wanting to for ages.”

  My jaw dropped. God, I looked like such an idiot. “Really?”

  “You sound surprised.”

  “I mean…you knew who I was before the first hearing?”

  “No shit. You’re an alpha, which means it’s kind of hard for me not to know who you are.” He winked and squeezed my hand.

  “You know what I mean,” I said, feeling my cheeks flush. “I mean, you were attracted to me?”

  “Have you seen yourself in a mirror?” He laughed. “Of cours
e I was attracted to you. How could I not be?”

  I so desperately wanted to point out that I’m nothing like the petite blondes he’s been with in the past. What did he see in me?

  “You seem surprised,” he said with a puzzled look. “What about that is so surprising to you?”

  “I just…didn’t think I was your type.”

  “My type, huh?” he said. “And what is my type?”

  “Um…” Way to put me on the spot.

  “Better yet: what is your type?”

  “You’re my type,” I blurted out before cringing internally (and externally, probably).

  “Wow, I’m flattered,” Mason said, puffing out his chest. The first three buttons of his flannel shirt were undone, revealing the upper part of his pecs. A few silvery-blonde wisps of hair hung in front of his blemish-free face, eventually resting on his stubble. I caught a whiff of his signature sandalwood cologne, a scent that made my heart skip a beat.

  “I’m pretty sure you’re everyone’s type, to be honest.”

  “You’re making me blush,” he said with a wink, his turquoise eyes twinkling. He leaned back in his chair and stuffed another slice of bacon into his mouth. “In all seriousness, don’t let Gregory taint your view of yourself. Easier said than done, I know — but I will make sure you know how beautiful you are, and eventually, you’ll start to believe it.”

  I pressed my lips together as I tried to keep myself from smiling like an overly obsessed fan girl. “You’re not who I expected you to be, Mason.”

  “And what did you expect me to be?”

  “I don’t know, a brutal, cold-hearted drill sergeant type?”

  “Am I not?” he said as he raised a single eyebrow and took a sip of apple juice.

  “With me, you’re not.” I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms.

  “There are quite a few reasons for that.”

  “Such as?”

  “Guess,” he said. “I want you to guess.”