“That’s amazing.”
He shrugged and started walking again. “It’s a bear thing. For some reason bears can sense the healing magic when no other breeds can.”
“Bears?” She called out to him, just as the party came into view. Before he could answer, she saw one. A giant brown bear…dancing. She blinked. “This can’t be happening.”
“That would be my twin, Trey.”
“Bears? This can’t be happening.”
“What’s wrong with bears?” He laid her suitcase on the porch of the nearby house before coming to stand next to her.
“I should be with a tiger clan.” She let out a light chuckle as the bear started to sway his hips like he was a belly dancer. All she could think about was those stupid bears that danced to a song that stores sold around Valentine’s Day. “Sorry, that was rude. I only meant Chad wouldn’t look for me here.”
“That’s the point. No one will be able to find you.”
“Chad is my brother.” She wanted to glance at him, but she couldn’t tear her gaze away from the dancing bear, still making his way through the dance area.
“Brother or not, his position put you in danger. Right now you need to be here so you’re safe and can heal.”
Her statement had come out wrong, making her feel slightly guilty. She had nothing against other shifters, she was just worried Chad wouldn’t be able to find her if he was still alive. Would he think to contract the Alaskan Tigers? Maybe if Mason was alive, but otherwise she didn’t think he’d have a reason to.
Chad, please find me…
Chapter Four
Trey shook his big bear body for all it was worth, dancing over to his new sisters-in-law and giving them his version of a lap dance. He shook his fur in their face, slid his bear paws over their thighs, and roared. This was his way of welcoming them to the family, to let them know what they had really gotten themselves into.
Recently the Brown family had become all work and little play. So this party was more than just welcoming Kallie, Courtney, and Milo to the family. It was also a chance for all of them to have a good time, let their beasts out. He might have been the only one grooving around the makeshift dance floor in his bear form, but the night was young and the party was just getting started.
He swayed his hips to the motion, shaking his large body in front of her. The lap dance didn’t have the same stunning sway of a naked body but this was more fun for him. Not to mention that if he was giving naked lap dances it would be a fight between his brothers and his mother as to who would have the privilege of killing him. His bet would be on his brothers since they were closer.
“Get your hairy ass out of my mate’s face.” Taber growled, and swatted Trey away.
Instead of fighting it, he moved down the line to Tad’s mates, Courtney and Milo. Oh, how he loved to screw with Tad about mating with a tiger shifter and a human. Three very different people and attitudes all had to merge together in a mating bond, yet somehow they were making it work.
He swung his hairy arm around Courtney’s waist and pulled her up against his bear form. Squeezed tight against him, she squealed. “Tad…”
“The more you fight the stronger he will hold.” Tad warned her.
Trey lifted her off her feet and spun her around. “How am I supposed to relax when I’m being swung around by a thousand pound bear?”
“Trey…” Tad’s voice held a warning.
Just to irritate his brother, he brought Courtney’s hand to his mouth and licked the top of it. Letting out a deep growl, he set her back down.
“Now we’ll have to work all night getting your scent off our mate.” Milo bitched and pulled Courtney into his lap, snuggling his head into her neck.
Like that’s a hardship. He spun around and shook his rear at Milo in a kiss-my-ass way. Screwing with his brothers was a way of life, but it also eased some of the tension between Tad and Aunt Bev. Even after the years since Rosemarie’s passing, Tad still blamed himself. Aunt Bev swore she didn’t blame Tad but there was a glimmer of sadness in her eyes throughout the party. The new additions to the family served to remind her just how much she had lost when her only daughter was killed.
“Trey, quit shaking your big ass before they tear you to pieces,” Turi hollered as he came toward Trey with a woman at his side.
Tight jeans caressed the curves of her body like a glove, while a loose low-cut tank top gave a teasing peek to her ample cleavage. The breeze sent her long blonde hair fanning around her and gave him the urge to tangle his fingers in it, but it was her sea green eyes that kept his attention locked on her.
Distracted by the gorgeous woman, he was no longer paying attention to his siblings and their mates, when Milo reached out and clawed Trey’s backside. An earthshaking growl poured from him as he pulled away.
What the hell? Turning around, he glared at Milo.
“It would seem as if we’ve gained from our mating.” Tad sat with his mates and started to explain. “Milo now has the ability to draw his tiger claws while remaining in his human form.”
Trey slipped behind the stage, quickly pulling the energy and shifting back into his human form before donning his clothes again. “You bastard.” He called to Milo as he came back around buttoning his jeans, his T-shirt stuck in his back pocket.
“You got what was coming to you.” Milo smirked.
“I guess what they say is true…a cat’s bite is nothing compared to its claws.” Trey rubbed his hand over the ass cheek that now sported long, burning claw marks.
“Quit your bitching Trey, I’d like you to meet our guest, Ivy. She was a member of the Arizona Tigers and will be staying with us for the time being,” Turi explained.
“Hello Ivy, welcome.” Trey held out his hand to her. The instant their fingers met, the connection flared to life. Electricity poured through them, rushing in circles as it tried to find something. No…someone…Turi.
“Ivy?” Turi asked when she let out a soft moan.
Trey couldn’t pull away or even speak before Turi laid his hand on Ivy’s arm, closing the connection. Electricity stopped circling through them and poured into Turi. The connection complete, bringing all the emotions and thoughts from Ivy and Turi into him, transformed the three of them into one.
“Shit!” Both of the twins shouted at the same time, pulling away as if they’d been burned.
Turi was going to kill him. They had talked about the possibility of them having to share a mate only that morning. There was no way they were ready for it yet. He hadn’t had time to prove he wasn’t a lazy bear, that they could make it work.
“What just happened?” Ivy glanced between them.
“Boys…” Their mother’s voice cut into them staring at each other. “There’s no reason to do this here, take Ivy up to your house. Ivy, once my boys explain, if you have any questions come back down and find me.”
“Let’s get some privacy.” Turi started toward his cabin.
“They’re right, it shouldn’t be done here.” Trey placed his hand on the small of her back, but once the current began to flow through him, he pulled away to hover just next to her without actually touching. He didn’t need the electricity charging his blood any more than it already was. One of them had to keep a cool head and he had a feeling it should be him.
* * *
The warmth of the cabin helped chase away the chill that had settled over Ivy from being outside with only a tank top on. She had been dressed for the Arizona temperatures, not Alaska, and she was pretty sure there wasn’t a long-sleeved shirt in her wardrobe, let alone her suitcase.
“Here.” Trey grabbed a blanket off the back of the leather chair and wrapped it around her arms.
“Thank you.” She grabbed the edges to keep it firmly around her. “Now, will one of you please tell me what the hell just happened?”
“Mating…” Turi sank into the chair farthest from where they were.
“No.” She shook her head. “Mating is between two peopl
e. That was something else.”
“Twins run in the family.” Trey leaned against the back of the sofa nearest her. “Our Grandmother Annabell—our mother’s mother—mated with twins, giving our mom two fathers. They sought high and low for a way to break their matting, anything to remove the connection between the three of them, to give each of them a chance to find their own woman.”
“That’s not how mating works.” She shook her head, not wanting to believe what he was saying.
“For most couples you’d be right, there’s only one destined mate for them. But there’s something more to the twin connection.”
“You mean like DNA?” she questioned.
“Partially.” Trey nodded and glanced to Turi who was sitting there with his arms crossed over his chest. “Identical twins have the same DNA, which is why they can end up with the same mate.”
“Our oldest brothers, Taber and Thorben, are twins and are mated to Kallie,” Turi finally said.
“I thought it was rare for shifters to have twins.” Her legs turned to wet noodles and she needed to sit. The two steps around Trey and to a chair felt like she was climbing a mountain. All of the night’s activities were catching up to her.
“For most breeds, multiple babies are uncommon,” Trey agreed.
“Were they able to find something to stop this?” Even as she asked the question, she figured out the answer. If there was a remedy for it, the other twins wouldn’t be mated to one woman.
“There was nothing to find. The mating is what it is.” Trey glanced at Turi and then back to her. “If the mating is denied, the longing for each other’s touch becomes excruciating. Given long enough, the need will drive you insane, our beasts will begin to gain more and more control until we are unable to do anything but give in.”
“What happened with your grandparents? I mean, I guess they gave in, but were they ever happy?” She needed to know what was in store for her.
“They were left with no choice other than to return,” Turi answered, his voice cold, averting his gaze as if unable to look at her.
“But what kind of life did they have? If they searched for a cure, they must not have wanted to be with your grandmother.”
“As Mom explained it, they both cared for her very much, but for them it was more of a challenge to win her. Which of them were better and could withstand the mating need the longest? It wasn’t until our grandmother began to suffer from their actions that they wised up.” Trey stood from the sofa and strolled over to the window. “In the end things worked out well for them. Our grandparents lived a very happy life together.”
“Mom never told us any of this until Taber and Thorben mated with Kallie. She said there was no reason to because she wasn’t sure it would happen to us. Our grandparents were gone before we were old enough to remember having two grandfathers.” Turi crossed his arms over his broad chest.
She tugged the blanket around her shoulders tighter and tried to put her finger on what she was missing. While Trey seemed open to it, almost excited, Turi was the opposite. Since their brief touch, he had closed himself off. Even as he sat there, he had distanced himself from them. He couldn’t look at either of them without what appeared to be anger in his eyes. What was she missing? Was there tension between the brothers, and how was that going to affect the mating?
Chapter Five
In the last twenty-four hours, Ivy’s home had been blown up, her whole clan killed, and her brother was missing, along with the clan Elders. Now she’d been thrown onto an island with bears, and into a mating with twins who couldn’t even look at each other. She wasn’t up to a long discussion about whatever had caused the tension between them. Suddenly she realized all the tension between them would affect their mating. This sent her heart racing as the first waves out doubt lanced through her. The urge to run coursed through her body, uncertainty overtaking her. She hadn’t known either of them very long, they had major issues to resolve between them; if this wasn’t a red flag, she didn’t know what was. Could she risk involving herself with these men?
Mating was something special, something she’d hoped would happen to her, because if she chose a life with a human she’d have to leave the clan. The clan wouldn’t risk their secret to bring in another human they had no ties to. There would be no way to know where their loyalty lay, possibly until it was too late. A shifter mate would allow her to stay within the shifter folds, and close to her brother, friends, and the people she considered family.
Bears? I always thought it would be a tiger. Bears weren’t really what she had in mind, but destiny hadn’t given her a choice. This was hers to claim and she needed to claim it with both hands. With or without the red flag. In order to accept what she desired, she needed to figure out what the underlying tension was from.
“What am I missing? Turi, why can’t you look at either of us?”
“Don’t get upset. It’s nothing against you.” Trey stood up for his brother when Turi didn’t answer. “Over the years I’ve done things within the family that have caused problems. Turi was the one who suffered the most for them.”
“Damn right, Trey.” Turi shot out of the chair, the anger pouring off him. “I spent my life covering for you, picking up on your slack. You’re my brother so I’ve done it, plus it was for the best of the sleuth, but I won’t do it when it comes to mating. I’m not going to have to share a mate with you when I know you’ll end up hurting her, and I’ll be left trying to keep her from hating us both.”
“I told you—”
Turi waved a hand, cutting him off. At the same time he took a step forward, rage etching a scowl on his face. “Don’t! I’ve heard it all before.”
She pushed off the sofa, putting herself between them. “Hold on. I don’t know what the hell happened between you two and honestly I don’t care. That’s for you to work out, but you’re not going to come to blows here. Let’s sit down and talk about this rationally.”
Turi stepped back, the anger still clinging to him, but he relaxed his fists. “I need some air.”
“Then get some, and when you’re ready we’ll be in here.” With a mixture of irritation and understanding, she watched him walk away. She couldn’t help but wonder if that would be a staple point of this mating.
The door clicked shut while Trey leaned against the wall, his gaze on the floor, unable to look at her. “I’m sorry.”
“Every family has problems.” Her statement made it sound so simple, yet it was anything but.
“This isn’t fair to you to be drawn into this.”
Shivering, she took a step back and sat down on the sofa. “Why don’t you tell me what the problem is between you two?”
With one last glance out the window, he moved away from it, and to the fireplace. Crouching next to a pile of wood, he grabbed a couple of small logs and tossed them into the dying embers. Keeping his back to her, he grabbed the poker and stirred the fire until the new logs caught. “I’ve always been the troublemaker of the family. Take my leather jacket for instance.” He nodded toward the chair where he’d casually tossed it. “I started wearing it because it drove Mom nuts. I just gave a lap dance in my bear form to Kallie, Courtney, and Milo to welcome them to the family. What kind of welcome is that?”
“A big Kodiak bear giving a lap dance, shaking your furry body…come on, Trey, that was adorable.” She smirked, remembering the way his bear form moved. Maybe he’ll give me a lap dance in all his manly glory.
“Turi didn’t find it too amusing.” He shoved the poker back into the holster. “He just saw it as another way I wasn’t falling into line. It didn’t matter that I dispelled the tension with Tad and Aunt Bev earlier. All he could see was I wasn’t him.”
“Fall into line?” She decided to stick with one problem and leave the comment about Tad and Bev for later.
“Taber and Thorben are the oldest, they are supposed to take over the sleuth when the time comes for Dad to step down, but they live full time at the Alaskan Tigers’ co
mpound. They’re there to help the Elders Ty and Raja and because their mate feels safe there. Tad is mated to Courtney—a human—and Milo one of the guards for the Alaskan Tigers’ Lieutenant’s mate Bethany, so they’ve taken up residence at the compound too. It leaves Turi and me as the next oldest, to assist Dad with the sleuth responsibilities.”
She raised an eyebrow, unable to believe what she was hearing. “Are you telling me Turi thinks you can’t do your duties because you like to push the limits, play some jokes, and have a good time?”
“Turi is very much by the book, even if that book is an unwritten one. He’s all business. To him I’m slacking off, and sliding through life like it owes me something.” He sank down by the fireplace and sat on the hearth. “To him there’s no balance, it’s all work and no play. I guess that’s why I’ve always been the one to push things further. I needed to make up for the stick in his ass.”
“I have a brother just like that.” She laughed and the tension from the day slipped away. “Chad’s the Captain of Guards for my Alpha…well, former…”
“Don’t.” He reached out to her, placing his hand over hers. The touch brought the connection back to life. “We don’t know anything has happened to them. They could have escaped and might be in hiding.”
“Isn’t this cozy.” She turned to find Turi standing just behind them, the disgust dripping from each word. “I step outside for a few minutes and you start laying your claim.”
“Turi…” The rage in his eyes made her want to go to him, to lay her hand on his arm and calm the storm raging within him. The anger called his beast to the surface, making the situation dangerous. One wrong move and his bear would come out howling. That very thought kept her at bay more than the way his body screamed for her to stay away.
Bearing Secrets Page 3
