Double Bear Secret: Werebear BBW Menage Romance (Hockey Bear Season Book 2)

by Anya Nowlan

  There was a small garden behind the house, and she crouched down low as she approached it. Getting closer, she could hear a low murmur of voices, which told her she was on the right track.

  Keeping behind the meticulously trimmed bushes lining the whole garden and taking painfully slow steps, she moved towards the center of the greenery, with a small clearing that gave way to a gaudy little fountain and some benches.

  There, sitting down on one of them, she caught a glimpse of Wyatt and Miles. Not daring to get much closer, she stayed as far as she could, while still being able to make out what they were talking about.

  She could only pick up bits and pieces, but one sentence echoed out loudly as Miles seemed to grow somewhat agitated.

  “Then we have to use more forceful methods!” he exclaimed, standing up and pointing a finger at Wyatt.

  Frustrated that she couldn’t hear Wyatt’s response and now more than curious about what was going on, Lily took a chance. Getting down on her hands and knees, she crawled even closer, holding her breath as she did. The wind rustled in the bushes and trees around her, which she hoped buried any noise she might have made.

  “I’ll have access to their meal plans when we get back and start training for the new season,” she heard Wyatt say as she kept her head down. “I can slip something in the food, take out a man or two before a game,” he added in a casual tone, like he was thinking it through as he spoke.

  “That could work,” Miles mused. “All I know is, the more sure we can be about the outcome of a game, the more money we’ll be able to rake in.”

  With her fingers digging into the dirt and adrenaline rushing through her veins, Lily could hardly believe what she was hearing. Wyatt had been conspiring with Miles this whole time, and she hadn’t even considered Wyatt as a suspect.

  The assistant coach had been thoroughly vetted before he was hired, and there were no skeletons in his closets. No debts, no shady acquaintances, no reasons at all he would want to do something like this.

  Yet clearly he was guilty, and ready to go to even further lengths to make sure the money kept rolling in. Lily didn’t know whether to be relieved that none of the players themselves seemed to be involved, or to be even more disgusted that someone who was supposed to be looking after the welfare of the team and its members would stoop so low.

  Yup, definitely feeling sick to my stomach now, she thought after a second of letting it all sink in.

  Getting stuck on her feelings of revulsion and anger, it took her too long to notice the men had suddenly grown silent. A jolt went through her when she heard Miles’ voice, a lot closer than it had been before, say her name.

  “Lily. You know we can hear you out there, right?” he said, almost a chuckle in his tone.

  Shit.

  Thirty-Nine

  Crash

  “Is that how we’re going to leave things?” Crash asked, looking at his brother.

  “And what do you suggest, huh?” Connor replied, throwing his hands up in the air. “You see this is an impossible situation. You want to agree with her that Eddie is selling us out?”

  “You know that’s not what I’m saying. But there has to be a way we can figure this out without letting our feelings get the better of us.”

  Connor stared at him for a moment, eyebrows raised and his pacing around the room coming to a sudden stop.

  “When the hell did you get so reasonable?” he asked.

  “When you lost your mind over this whole thing,” Crash scoffed with a grin. “One of us had to stay sane,” he said with a pointed look.

  “Says the guy who was once convinced he could break the record for most tequila shots consumed in a minute,” Connor replied.

  “You have to have aspirations,” Crash shrugged. “It’s important to set attainable goals.”

  “Have you been watching Dr. Phil again?”

  “And what if I have?” Crash shot back a bit defensively. “That’s not the point here now, is it?”

  “No,” Connor sighed, defeated. “I don’t know what to do. She doesn’t trust us, we don’t trust her. We can’t seem to make it work.”

  “We did kind of shoot her down without even discussing it with that Eddie thing,” Crash remarked.

  It wasn’t that he believed for a second Eddie was somewhat involved, but he had to acknowledge that Lily was doing her job and that she actually had good intentions. Besides, it was hard to stay angry or frustrated at her for more than a minute, because every time he looked at her all he could see was his mate.

  The one that fit together with him and Connor perfectly.

  When we aren’t arguing with each other, that is.

  The thought of having irrevocably messed things up between them was unacceptable. There had to be a way to fix it. She had become far too important for the both of them to just give up.

  “Connor. Is this really how you want to leave it? You know she’s the one as well as I do.”

  Looking at him, it was clear that there was a war going on inside of Connor. Crash could admit that he was also somewhat torn, between trusting Lily and being loyal to his friends. But he believed there was a compromise to be found. And there was no way he was going to let the woman of his dreams, his mate, get away.

  Something inside Connor seemed to change as he considered Crash’s words. A look of determination took over Connor as he clapped Crash’s shoulder.

  “You’re right. I’m letting my pride get the best of me. Lily is our mate and we’re lucky to have even found her. We belong together. We can’t let our disagreements tear us apart.”

  “That was the sappiest speech ever, but I’m on board,” Crash replied with a grin. “Now let’s go find her and you can tell all of that to her instead of making me listen to it.”

  “You know, one of these days I’m going to kick your ass,” Connor sighed in response.

  “You can try,” Crash chuckled, already walking to the door.

  Lily’s scent still hung in the air, tantalizing and sweet, and fanning out all over the house. Usually Crash would be able to tell which way she went easily, but right now it seemed like she had been walking around in circles.

  So the brothers walked upstairs and checked her bedroom first. Connor gently knocked on the door, but there was no response. Listening intently, Crash couldn’t hear even a faint rustle coming from inside, and her scent didn’t seem fresh here. Connor must have been thinking the same thing, as he slowly pushed the door open, peering inside.

  The room was dark, but that wasn’t an issue to them. They could clearly see she wasn’t there. But her stuff still was, so at least she hadn’t packed up and left in a huff.

  Small victories, and all that.

  Not wanting to wake anyone else up, the twins quietly roamed the house, letting Lily’s scent take them all over. The looked everywhere, save for the guys’ bedrooms, before coming up empty-handed. Lily was nowhere to be found.

  “I saw her coat upstairs,” Connor pointed out as they stood at the edge of the living room.

  “She couldn’t have gone far without that,” Crash mused. “I smell fresh air,” he added, stepping closer to the curtains.

  As he brushed them aside, he could see there was a small gap between the sliding doors and the wall, as if someone hadn’t closed it all the way. And when he took a deep breath, he recognized her smell on the curtains.

  “So she went outside to clear her head?” Connor suggested.

  “We better go find her before she freezes,” Crash replied, sliding the doors open.

  The followed her scent outside, but what struck Crash as odd was that there were two other scents present, almost entangled with Lily’s.

  “Tigers?” he commented, earning a nod from Connor.

  “Smells like… Wyatt and Miles,” Connor added, sniffing the air.

  “Why would Lily be hanging out with them, out here, in the middle of the night, without her coat?” Crash asked, as if Connor somehow had the answers.

&n
bsp; “Beats me,” Connor shrugged.

  Crash could tell that even though his brother was trying to look nonchalant, he was worried. And so was Crash. Something about this didn’t add up. His bear was already growling inside him, feeding off his uneasiness.

  Everything around them was quiet as they kept tracking the scents, their boots treading softly on the wet grass. Crash felt himself crouch over, his animal side ready for anything. He tried to not jump to the worst conclusions.

  There was probably a very good explanation to everything. All they had to do was find Lily, and they’d find out what it was.

  The trail lead them to the garden out back. That eased his worries for a moment. There was a sitting area out there. Maybe Lily just went to hang out and collect her thoughts there?

  But even before he could try and convince himself of that, both he and Connor stopped short. There, near one of the rows of bushes, were snapped twigs and leaves on the ground, along with dirt that looked to be kicked around.

  Two small holes held his attention, right in the middle of what looked like the scene of a scuffle. It looked like someone had dug their heels in, before being dragged off.

  Leaning in to get a closer look, Crash could feel a chill run down his spine. There, on one of the leaves, were small, red droplets. His nose told him immediately what they were.

  Blood, the realization sunk in, creating a hollow in the pit of his stomach.

  Forty

  Lily

  With her head throbbing and her mouth tasting of pennies, Lily tried to push herself up with her elbows. Rough tree bark dug into the skin of her back and the cold from the earth she was laying on was seeping into her bones.

  “We need to go further,” she heard Miles say.

  “Then you carry her for a while!” Wyatt shot back.

  Collecting herself enough to keep her eyes open, Lily saw that they were pretty deep into the forest now. It was all trees as far as the eye could see, with no sign of the house peeking through the rows of pines.

  The last thing she remembered was trying to run, but Miles caught her. Then there was a sharp pain, and just jumbled pieces of being dragged and then carried along, with her body protesting at every jostling move and rough step.

  Now, it seemed she had been unceremoniously dumped on the ground with her abductors bickering with each other. Everything about her current situation sucked, from the cold dampness of the dirt sinking into her clothes, to the dull thudding in her head and the fact Wyatt and Miles were probably going to kill her.

  She was fully aware that the last one was actually the thing she should be most worried about, but it was hard to focus on what was important and what was not. But she did know she had better get a grip of herself if she wanted to get out of this alive.

  Get it together, Lily.

  “Don’t mean to interrupt, but what the hell do you think you’re doing?” she asked, causing two pairs of eyes to snap to her.

  And to think, I helped this asshole get home from the bar, she thought, glaring at Wyatt in particular.

  The assistant coach hadn’t really evoked any particularly warm feelings in her, but they’d been friendly enough. At least they’d gotten on well enough that she’d never considered him murdering her in the middle of the woods.

  You think you know someone… she thought wryly, using whatever humor she could scrounge up to distract her from the all but paralyzing panic building up in her chest.

  With adrenaline kicking in, she was no longer woozy. Her head still hurt, and it felt like her lip might be bleeding, but those sensations were also beginning to dull as her fight-or-flight response took over.

  “Shut up,” Miles snapped.

  The polite, even overly amiable façade was gone, and she doubted if the man even viewed her as a person anymore. No, from the look on his face, she was more of a problem to be solved than a human being to Miles right now. That in mind, she decided to take her chances with Wyatt. He had shared a house with her for a week. It stood to reason he couldn’t dismiss her as easily as Miles, who only just got to Shifter Grove.

  “And you, Wyatt. You’re really on board with all this? Hurting your own team? Aren’t those guys your friends?” she questioned, pulling up her knees so it would be easier for her to get up when she needed to.

  “I don’t want to be their friend. I want to be their coach. That was what I was supposed to be,” he replied bitterly.

  His thin face looked pulled taut, with his jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed. It was a side of him Lily had never seen. She immediately remembered the story Graham had told him about Wyatt being the coach before Ben was brought in.

  She also remembered the man’s assessment that Wyatt wasn’t that ambitious anyway and that he was totally fine with how things turned out.

  Guess you were wrong about that one, Graham.

  “That’s why you’re doing this? Because your ego got hurt?” she asked, fixing Wyatt with an incredulous stare. “Okay, alright. Selling secrets as some petty way to get back at the team that doesn’t appreciate you. I can somehow understand that.

  ”But murder? I assume you didn’t bring me out here for a hike,” she said.

  Wyatt looked hesitant for just a second, glancing at Miles who seemed to be getting more annoyed at every word Lily spoke.

  “Don’t listen to her,” Miles said. “She’s never going to keep quiet about what she heard. Are you ready to be disgraced, lose your job, go to jail?” he asked, turning his large frame towards Wyatt. “And she’ll put you in jail, happily. Because she’s not an assistant at all, are you?” the man said, turning his beady eyes to Lily.

  Squaring her jaw, she stared back at him. This was as intimidating as she’d ever found Miles. It’s not that she hadn’t noticed his broad, muscular build before, but the way he had carried himself had made her dismiss that. He had always managed to be so nonthreatening.

  What a great judge of character I’ve been lately.

  “If things had gone as planned, I wouldn’t even be here right now,” Miles muttered to himself between gritted teeth.

  That definitely got Lily curious.

  “What do you mean?” she asked, even though she knew Miles was probably not keen on chatting with her about his underhanded plans.

  “That wasn’t my fault!” Wyatt insisted, both he and Miles choosing to ignore her question entirely. “How was I to know Connor was going to be hanging out on the porch, or that those idiots were going to come close enough to the house to be sniffed out,” Wyatt protested.

  It all clicked for Lily after that. The bears lurking around the house hadn’t been just random shifters passing through Shifter Grove.

  “Those bears were here for you,” she stated, looking over at Wyatt. “You were supposed to hand something over to them, weren’t you?” she accused.

  “Yes,” Wyatt sighed, sounding like he was tired of hearing her voice. “I’m not stupid. I knew someone would catch on sooner or later, and I wasn’t going to leave a digital trail for Fiona and her high-paid nerd-herd to follow.

  “But Connor and Crash fucked that up, didn’t they?” he said, rolling his eyes.

  “But then I had to be lucky enough to get to come over here to this hell-hole to set up the game with the Shovelers, so I got to be the one smuggling the information out,” Miles interjected, voice dripping with sarcasm. “You happy now that you’ve figured it all out?” he asked, looking at Lily with barely hidden disdain.

  “I’d be happier if you dropped dead,” she shot back, saying the first thing that popped into her head.

  Miles just chuckled at that, and went back to arguing with Wyatt about whether they should keep going deeper into the forest or nor.

  She couldn’t help her thoughts drifting to Connor and Crash. Her gut had been right about them, before she’d convinced herself of the opposite. Suddenly, she wasn’t just afraid for her life. She was petrified at the thought of that stupid argument they’d had being the last time she would ever s
ee the twins again.

  All the complications aside, her work and their crazy ex, and the lies they felt they had to tell… When she eliminated all those things, which now seemed more trivial than ever, she knew, in her heart, she would never meet anyone like those two again.

  And not just because there’s a good chance I won’t survive the night.

  No one had ever made her feel like Crash and Connor did, and suddenly, it felt completely ridiculous that she had ever let anything come between them. They had all been too proud and too stubborn, and now she’d never even get a chance to apologize.

  Okay, stop feeling sorry for yourself, she told herself as tears sprung to her eyes. You’re going to get out of this.

  Going up against two shifters, her odds at escape weren’t great. But she had to at least try. No way was she going out without a fight. Grasping at straws, she tried reasoning with the men one last time, while her hands went behind her, looking for anything she could grab and use as a weapon.

  “You’re right. I’m not an assistant. I’m a private investigator Fiona sent to find out who’s selling information,” she said, fingers moving around in the dirt.

  “I knew it,” Miles exclaimed, giving Wyatt an I-told-you-so look. “There were too many things that didn’t add up. And I knew someone had to be getting suspicious. Fiona has always been paranoid.”

  Lily carried on, more or less ignoring Miles.

  “So how do you think me disappearing in the middle of the night is going to look? You think Fiona’s suspicious now… Someone is going to figure out it was you two. Who knows, maybe they’ve already discovered I’m gone, and that you’re nowhere to be found, either.

  “You’re not going to get away with this. Just cut your losses and let’s go back. You don’t want to spend the rest of your lives in prison for murder.”