“You're amazing, Aubrey,” he said in between gasps. “You’re everything I dreamed of in a mate and more.”
I nuzzled up to him and rested my head on his chest. If this was heaven, I never wanted to leave.
***
“So, I wanted to run something past you,” Mason said. “But just a heads up, it’s about Gregory.”
I took a deep breath and braced my self. “Go for it,” I said.
“Did you notice he was wearing gloves during the last hearing?” he asked.
“No, not really, I was trying not to look at him.”
“Well, he was,” he said, “and after I beat the shit out of him, one of his gloves fell off.”
“Okay…?” I asked, confused.
“There was something weird about his hands. His hands looked like one of the shifter homicide case studies we went over during Agency training, and I’m frustrated that I can’t pinpoint what it is, exactly. It looked like they were stained with ink.”
“Ink?” I asked.
“Yeah, like pen ink.”
“Why would he have ink on his hands?”
“I don’t know, that’s what I’m wondering,” he said, putting a pillow over his face. “I should know what it is, but I’m so scattered that I can’t remember anything.”
“Maybe he’s been writing creepy fan fiction about the two of us,” I said with a chuckle, while shuddering at the same time. “Could you call your supervisor and ask?” I said.
“I could, but I’ve been dodging his calls for the past few days. I need to gather more evidence before reporting back,” he said, his voice muffled under his pillow.
I rubbed his chest in an attempt to comfort him. “It’s okay,” I said. “Why don’t you check in with Andrews and see what evidence he’s come up with?”
He groaned in response and tossed his pillow off the bed. “I guess I’ll have to. We should also contact Councilman Truman and let him know that we’ll be moving forward with the contract.”
My heart skipped a beat and a knot formed in the pit of my stomach. “We should,” I said, after taking a deep breath.
Mason sensed my anxiety and kissed my forehead. “It’s going to be okay, alright? I’m not going to leave your side.”
“I know,” I said, and meant it this time.
“On that note…” he said in a low voice as he traced his finger down my chest. “We should practice for our wedding night.”
“I like the sound of that,” I said, as he crawled on top of me and left a trail of kisses down my stomach.
God, I could get used to this.
Chapter 14: Aubrey
Mason and I held hands as we sat at the front of the Town Hall meeting chambers. His mother and Tabitha were smiling at us and talking with each other in an excited manner – no doubt they were talking about the wedding. The rest of the councilmembers were more solemn, and were visibly exhausted.
Councilman Truman walked to the stand and banged the gavel with a loud thud. “Councilman Reed, please begin with role-call.”
Councilman Reed stood up and started reading through the list of names.
“Sheriff Andrews?”
“Present,” he said after clearing his throat.
“Councilman Black?”
Silence. The council looked around to see where Black was. He usually never missed an opportunity to attend these meetings and antagonize his colleagues.
“He was in his house this morning, I saw him,” a councilman from the Fortescue clan said.
“Perhaps he’s running late,” Reed said. “We’ll continue.”
After the names were read, Councilman Truman returned to the stand. “Now, let’s discuss the contract. It is my understanding that Alphas Moore and Fortescue have agreed to the terms outlined in the contract?”
“Yes,” Mason said. “We went over it with my lawyer earlier today.”
“Excellent. And it is my understanding that you have signed it?”
“Correct,” he said. A few councilmembers clapped softly.
“Well, congratulations to you both. Your dedication to the clan will not go unnoticed –“
The sound of clanging metal and grinding gears sent a shock through the Mason, the councilmembers, and me.
“No!” Gregory said, as he burst through the doors to the chambers. “This is not how it’s supposed to happen!”
His frail, jaundiced body limped down the walkway, stumbling past stunned audience members. His broken arm was still in a sling, and in his other hand was a silver dagger.
My world started to spin and a loud ringing sound echoed in my head.
“Gregory, drop your weapon,” Sheriff Andrews said as he stood up and drew his gun.
“No,” Councilman Black said as he walked in behind Gregory. Two other men wearing bulletproof vests flanked him. “Every one, put your hands up.” He pointed his gun at Mason. “You – come with me.”
Mason calmly let go of my numb hand and slowly raised his arms. He had the slightest bit of a smile on his face – I didn’t understand him, sometimes, but I trusted that he had some sort of plan.
Gregory finally made his way to the end of the walkway, only 10 feet away from where I was sitting. “I have something I’d like to tell you, Aubrey,” he said, baring his crooked teeth in a demented smile.
I stood up and tried to keep my legs from collapsing under me. My palms were cold, clammy, and trembling; I hoped Gregory couldn’t see the sheer terror that was threatening to burst inside of me.
“No,” I said, quietly at first. It was the ‘no’ I’d wanted to tell him for over 8 years. The same ‘no’ that was trapped in the depths of my soul, submerged under layers of emotional scarring. The ‘no’ that I struggled and failed to scream out in my nightmares, my flashbacks…
“No, Gregory,” I repeated, louder this time.
He waved his dagger in my direction. “You don’t get to say ‘no’,” he snarled as he stepped closer to me. “You’re going to listen, or I’m going to make you listen.”
A faded black spot on his broken hand caught my eye – the same stain that Mason described. I narrowed my eyes, and tried to focus in on it, but my eyes started to glaze over and I entered a familiar state of dissociation.
“Like I said, the number of protons in carbon is six. If there are six protons in carbon, and its atomic number is six, how many are in nitrogen?”
“Seven?” Gregory asked as he picked at the skin under his fingernails.
“Correct,” I said. “What about oxygen?”
“Eight.”
“Great,” I said, searching for a new element on the periodic table in front of us. “What about silver? How many protons does it have?”
“Forty….six?”
“Close, forty-seven.”
“Mr. Henderson said he was going to bring in silver to show us,” Gregory said, his eyes opening wide.
“No, not exactly. He was going to bring in silver nitrate. What’s its chemical symbol?”
“Ugh,” he said, rolling his eyes. “A-G-N-O-three.”
“Right,” I said. “I don’t actually think he’d bring it. It could kill us.”
“Even if it’s not pure silver?”
“Yeah. It still has silver in it, so its toxic to shifters,” I said, as the bell rang. “I’ve got to get to class. Email me if you have any additional questions.”
“What will happen if I touch it?”
“Touch what?” I said, confused.
“Silver nitrate,” he said. “Will I die?”
“Probably,” I said. “But because you’re only a half-shifter, who knows? According to our textbook, it’ll stain your hands for a while even if you don’t die. It’s best not to try.”
“Did you hear what I said, bitch?” Gregory asked. “Can you understand English?”
The ringing stopped and my eyesight was clear again. “What’s on your hands, Gregory?” I asked.
Mas
on, who was still taking his sweet time walking toward Councilman Black, turned to look at me. Councilman Black pointed his gun in my direction as the color drained from his face.
Gregory brought his hands close to his chest in an attempt to hide them, nearly cutting his own throat in the process. “Nothing, now listen to --”
“I was your chemistry tutor,” I said, adrenaline coursing through my veins, “and you once asked me about silver. Remember?”
“Shut up, bitch, or I’ll shoot you from where I stand!” Councilman Black spat.
“You asked me if you could die if you touched silver nitrate. You seemed quite interested in it, weren’t you?”
Gregory started shaking with rage. “You –”
“It was you who killed Edgar, wasn’t it? You poisoned him, and you were too careless to wear gloves because you knew you wouldn’t die from touching silver.”
“I did it so that I could be closer to you, Aubrey,” he said, falling to his knees and breaking into sobs. “I needed to find a way to you. I needed to be with you.”
A group of Timber Creek Defense Force Members stormed in and began to surround Councilman Black and his two flankers.
“You good for nothing piece of shit,” Councilman Black yelled. “I hope you rot in the dirt, like your mom and dad are right now.”
He cocked his gun and fired. My head felt fuzzy, and everything seemed dream-like. I became hyper-aware of my surroundings; I looked at Gregory, who was looking at me through his tears with a smirk, and at Mason, who had shifted into his Grizzly form with a loud crack and was jumping through the air to position himself between me and Councilman Black’s gun.
I dropped to the ground and covered my head as the bullet went clean through Mason’s bear. He landed to the ground with a thud, and the bullet hit a marble pillar behind me and landed with a clack.
I heard a shriek, followed by a loud series of cracks. I looked up and saw Councilwoman Fortescue begin to run toward Mason while shifting. Her bear began sniffing his body before getting on her hind legs and letting out a loud growl. Behind her, the Defense Force members tackled Councilman Black and his associates. Sheriff Andrews jumped from his seat and ran toward me.
“Looks like your mate is dead,” Gregory said as he stumbled to his feet and stood over me with his dagger. “Now you have no other choice than to come with me.”
He brought his dagger to my throat, allowing the silver to hover above my skin. “Don’t worry, you and I will have lots of fun,” he said with a laugh. “Just like we used to, remember?” He looked me up and down and licked his lips. “Oh, I remember how your body used to squirm underneath me—”
My rage manifests in the strangest ways. Sometimes, I’ll feel a tingling in my teeth, followed by my jaw clenching and a feeling of fire moving up my body, from my toes to the hair follicles in my scalp. Other times – like this time – I feel like laughing uncontrollably…and laugh I did.
I raised the leg closest to him and kicked him in the throat, sending him and his dagger flying backwards. My bones began to crack and contort as bear took over. I stood over his body, which was bent unnaturally at the waist, and was surprised to see him still breathing. I put a single paw on his neck, and he let out a soft moan, much like the ones that haunted my flashbacks.
I growled and looked up at Mason’s lifeless bear, and saw Councilwoman Fortescue’s bear licking his face furiously. Dr. Reynolds was crouched over him, her hands covered in blood as she attempted to stop the bleeding.
My growl turned into a whimper as I began to fully realize what had happened to my mate. I looked back at Gregory, who somehow managed to smile and laugh softly at me.
I decided at that point that I wanted to rip his fucking throat out.
Rot in hell, Gregory.
Chapter 15: Mason
“I know him, I’m his supervisor.”
“Sir, he’s not accepting guests at this time.”
“I don’t care, this is important.”
“Sir, if you don’t leave, we’re going to have to – oh, you didn’t tell me you were from the Agency. Please come in, sir.”
“Mason,” a deep voice said. “Mason, are you with me? It’s me, Theo.”
I opened my sleep-crusted eyes with a grunt.
“Thank god, he’s alive,” he said. “Do you remember me?”
I coughed and tried to sit up. “No shit, I’ve been avoiding your calls for the past week or so.”
He let out a deep belly laugh. “I was starting to get worried that you had died on the job, or something, so I flew from HQ to see you myself,” Theo said. “Only to find you’d got shot and nearly died.”
“It’s nothing,” I said and winced. Yeah, sitting up wasn’t going to happen for a while.
“Brock Adalbern, who is the Agency’s shifter councilman, is quite impressed,” he said, pulling up a chair. “He heard that one of your fellow Alphas identified the murderer by the stains on his hands.”
My memory was fuzzy, but I vaguely remembered Aubrey’s confrontation with Gregory in the chambers. “That was my fiancée,” I said with a smile. “Do you know if she’s okay?”
“Congrats,” he said. “Never thought you were the marriage type, to be honest. And yes, none of the Alphas were injured, at least according to a certain Sheriff Andrews’ report.”
“Thank god,” I said.
“Perhaps we should recruit her for the Agency. We could use her brains,” he said. “Either way, we were able to take the murderer’s associates into custody, and they’re awaiting trial right now. They are the ones who perpetrated the murders in Spokane…and who knows how many people they could’ve killed here.”
“What about the murderer? Did he escape?” A wave of panic washed over my drugged body. If Gregory escaped, that means that Aubrey is at risk.
“He died,” Theo said. “Your fiancée killed him – pretty brutally, I might add.”
“Thank God,” I said. “She did my job for me, basically.”
“Basically. Next time, don’t ignore me for a week when you’re on assignment, okay?”
I smirked at him. “I’ll try, boss.”
“And that fiancée of yours is quite a catch. Don’t let her go, okay?”
“I won’t,” I said. “Never in a million years.”
***
“Mason, do you take Aubrey to be your lawful wedded wife, to love, honor, and cherish him now and forever more?” Connor asked with a subtle wink.
“I do,” I said, staring into Aubrey’s beautiful brown eyes. She forgo a traditional wedding dress in favor of a blue cocktail dress, the same one her mother wore during her own wedding.
“And Aubrey,” Connor said, turning in her direction. “Do you take Mason to be your lawful wedded husband, to love, honor, and cherish him now and forever more?”
“I do,” she said, with tears in her eyes.
“By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Mason, you may now kiss the bride.”
I gave Aubrey a sweet peck on the lips, before sweeping her off her feet and kissing her passionately. The audience let out a chorus of excited cheers. I turned to my mother, who looked to be the happiest I’d ever seen her. She sat beside Councilman Truman, who was also smiling and holding her hand.
I carried Aubrey down the aisle as the guests threw flower petals – Aubrey did not want them to throw rice, despite the whole tradition thing – at the two of us. A single petal fell on her cheek, and became glued to her face with her tears of happiness.
I finally set her down when we arrived at our brand new Bentley, which we would use to drive to our honeymoon at Aubrey’s cabin. Before we got in the car, Aubrey turned around and faced the crowd.
“Now, I’m normally supposed to throw my bouquet into the crowd so that some lucky lady would catch it. Instead, I’m just going to give it to my Beta, Emma, because you and Connor need to get married.” Emma laughed and covered her mouth with her hands
. “Y’all ain’t fooling no one with that ‘secret dating’ shit,” Aubrey said as she handed the bouquet to Emma and then stepped in the car. We drove away to a chorus of cheers.
When we arrived at the cabin, we grabbed two shot glasses and filled them with Stoli Elit.
“Do you want to mix yours with cranberry, or do you want to do it the right way and drink it straight?” I teased.
“Oh, just give me the shot already.”
She downed her shot and slammed the glass on the table.
“Damn,” I said. “My wife’s more of a bad-ass than I thought.”
“Are you saying that me being able to down a shot makes me cooler to you?” She said, teasingly.
“No,” I said, “okay, yes.” I walked toward her and enveloped her in a hug. I ran my hands up and down her curves, wanting to feel every inch of her and make her mine.
“Well, I can also play beer pong. Happy?”
“Oh, I’m more than happy,” I said, feeling an erection start to form under my suit pants. “I just married the sexiest woman in the world, and I’m about to claim her for myself.”
She looked up at me with smoldering eyes. “Show me,” she said. “Claim me.”
I kissed her deeply, allowing my tongue to slide between her lips, wanting to taste her. My fingers moved delicately through her soft, curly hair. She gently touched my waist, and ran her fingers down my button-up shirt and slowly began to undo my tie.
Quick gasps escaped our lips between each delicious kiss, and our clothes rustled as we searched each other’s body. I began to unzip her dress, wanting to feel her warm, silky skin. She arched her body toward me in anticipation.
“This needs to come off,” I ordered, my fingers teasing their way under her bra. It was cream-colored, and contrasted nicely with her dark and smooth complexion.
Alpha Arrangement: A BBW BWWM Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Arcane Affairs Agency) Page 11
