Her Russian Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Dating Agency Romance (Fated and Mated Book 3)

by Harmony Raines

  “Yes. And no. We hope they think we are dead.”

  “And Vadik?” Elina’s eyes darkened. “How is he?” she asked, her face concerned and he knew in that moment that he had a special woman as his mate, that she could feel such empathy for another shifter, even though she had never met him.

  “He is alive. But also dead.” That was all that could be said for Vadik. Yes, he put on a brave face to the world, he laughed, he talked, but there was a part of him that dwelled in darkness, and always would without his mate.

  Something Artem had no intention of repeating.

  Chapter Eight – Elina

  It was all so hard to take in, that the man who had turned up on her doorstep, whom she had already made love to, was on the run. It was as if she had landed in some kind of Russian espionage movie.

  “Artem, I have to go.” She caught sight of the time. “I have to go in to work, I’m already late.”

  “Can I stay here?” he asked, as she got up and gathered her things together, knowing she had to go to the office. More than anything, she wanted to get some perspective on his story, and let it sink in. By being here, had he put her in danger? And if so, would she be able to talk her way out of it?

  “Of course, help yourself to whatever you need. Just stay away from the windows, I guess.” She thought back to the moment she had surveyed the neighborhood when they had stood outside, kissing, and was glad there had been no one around to see the man on her doorstep.

  “No one here knows me.”

  “But everyone here knows I don’t bring men home.” She blushed, sensing she had given part of herself away.

  His smile made it worth the embarrassment. “I am pleased. I was worried when I saw you on the dating website that you might be the kind of woman who liked the company of men.”

  “The company of men?” She wanted to sound offended, but instead she sounded curious. “If you wanted a virgin, you must be disappointed.”

  “No, I’m sorry, let me try again.” He was quiet and his brow creased as he thought of the correct words. “I thought you might be a woman who was not happy unless she had a man in her life.”

  “And how do you know that isn’t true?”

  “I…” He shook his head. “I presumed. I think now would be a good time for me to stop talking.”

  “You might be right there.” She let her anger dissipate; she kind of understood what he meant. Or at least she hoped she did. Elina was certainly not about to be told what to do or whom she could see by this man, even if he was her mate. She was fiercely independent.

  “I will be here waiting for you.” He came to her, tilting her chin up and kissing her lips lightly. “I am so pleased to see you.”

  “Me too, Artem.” She leaned in and kissed him properly. He responded, by wrapping an arm around her waist, a very strong arm, and pulling her close, murmuring something she did not understand into her ear, but the meaning of it was in his tone and the inflection of his Russian accent, and he sent shivers down her spine.

  It took all her resolve to pull away from him and walk out of the kitchen, not daring to look back at the strong handsome man who was watching her walk away.

  Once outside, she took a moment to catch her breath. It all seemed so unreal. She wanted to go back inside her house and check he was there, check he was real, that she hadn’t banged her head on the way back through the canyon and was lying on the ground with a concussion, not standing on her drive, in her quiet road, with her life inexplicably changed forever.

  She dug her house key into her palm, and felt the pain of it, and knew she was awake, and more alive than she had ever been before.

  We have a mate, her tiger said happily.

  Yes, we do. Yet despite the inexplicable draw of him, she was worried. Was he telling her the truth about his past? For all she knew, it might be a lot worse than he had told her. Yet he was her mate; they were supposed to always be truthful with each other.

  Her phone rang and she rifled through her purse for it, while heading to her car, unlocking it and getting in while she listened to her boss. “Yes, Mr. Harrington, I’m on my way in. OK, I’ll come directly to see you. Yes.”

  She hung up and started the engine. Although she wanted nothing more than to go back inside her house and spend the afternoon in the strong safe arms of Artem, she couldn’t. Mr. Harrington had sounded agitated on the phone, and she could only think it was to do with the Launceston case. But what exactly the problem was, she had no idea.

  Pulling back onto the road, she headed to the spacious offices of Harrington’s Family Lawyers that lay on the other side of town. It was situated in a newly converted building that was tucked away behind some warehouses, in the hope that it would somehow feel chic. Her boss didn’t get that offices converted from warehouses were only trendy if the other warehouses had been transformed too. As it was, Elina often thought she should be donning a set of overalls to go to work, just like the men who worked in the parts factory across from the lawyers. No wonder two of the other buildings hadn’t been rented or sold.

  “There you are.” Unusually, Mr. Harrington was waiting for her at the reception desk. Unusual, because Elina often didn’t see him from one day to the next.

  “Here I am,” she said, hanging her coat up and putting her purse away while he followed her around.

  “Where have you been?”

  “To see my client,” she said easily, not knowing why he was so uncharacteristically jumpy.

  “Apart from that? I have you going into the prison at eleven, but where you were in the times either side of that, I have no idea.”

  “I went for a walk this morning. It helps me think.”

  “I don’t pay you to walk.”

  “But you do pay me to think.” She smiled evenly at him. “Do you want me to get back to work, or is there something else?”

  It wasn’t the way she would normally talk to her boss, but she could feel her tiger pressing against her mind, giving her confidence. Finding a mate had certainly had an effect on one of them. Or was it simply that lately Mr. Harrington had seemed off, but he was still her boss.

  “My office,” he said, and turned and strode off, expecting her to follow. Elina had a good mind to go in the opposite direction and ignore the summons, but she wasn’t ready to give up her job. A thing she had to remind her tiger.

  “I’m sorry, I should have called. But I had a meeting with Mr. Launceston and I didn’t think it was worth coming into the office first. As I said, I needed some time to think.”

  “And where have those thoughts led you?” he asked, his eyes fixed on hers, making her feel uneasy.

  She had a sense that he knew more than he was letting on, that maybe he knew where she had been. Had someone seen her go into the mountains, had someone else been there and seen her find? But why would that upset Mr. Harrington, didn’t he always tell her to search where others didn’t? To look in the most unlikely of places. As a shifter himself, he recognized that sometimes it was their other senses that gave them an edge in the courtroom.

  “I’m not sure yet.” Normally she would have shared information with Mr. Harrington, but her tiger shifted in her mind, her tail swishing from side to side, and so she kept her find to herself. “I’m trying to figure out how the prosecution is going to show the jury how Mr. Launceston got all that gasoline. He doesn’t drive, and there is no gasoline station in Brannock.”

  “That’s a good point,” Mr. Harrington said. “And have you come up with an answer?”

  “No. The more I look at it, the more convinced I am that it was someone else.” She watched a flicker of something cross his face, but her boss was experienced in the courtroom, he knew how to keep his expression flawlessly open, no hint of his emotions.

  “Maybe he has been storing it all these years. Little by little.” Mr. Harrington sighed. “A true case of revenge served cold.”

  “But that doesn’t tie in with the facts. How did he move it? There would have been a
large amount of gasoline. Without a truck, he would have had to go back and forth to his house.”

  “Well, I suggest you head over to the sheriff’s office and check all the details of the search. We don’t want to be caught out. You’ll be up for a promotion if you win this case.” He didn’t sound too sincere, and she knew he didn’t want her to leave. She had talked over her prospects of finding a new, more high-powered job when she took this case. His reaction was to warn her off, to tell her how much she meant to the firm, but he never offered her a raise, or an internal promotion.

  She frowned, “I’ve just gotten in, and you were questioning where I have been, and now you want me to leave?” She wasn’t sure what had got into Mr. Harrington, but he seemed edgy.

  “I want you to do your job, and if that means going out and questioning people, then that is what you will do. There is a lot riding on this case, Elina.”

  “I realize that.” Not wanting to stay in the room with him any longer, she turned heel and marched right back to her locker, and grabbed her purse and coat before going back out into the fresh air.

  “Did he fire you?” Jennie, the receptionist, asked. She was standing outside having a cigarette, when Elina walked by.

  “No, were you expecting him to?” Elina asked, troubled that so much appeared to have been going on in her absence.

  “Not really. It’s only he’s been talking to the bank … a lot. I wondered if he was looking at cutting back on staff and if he fires someone, he doesn’t have to give them severance pay, does he?”

  “How do you know all this?”

  Jennie shrugged. “He’s been acting weird, that’s all. So I paid more attention to who calls him.” She put her cigarette out, and went to walk back inside. “Maybe he’s having a midlife crisis, bought himself a new trophy wife or something. You know, those Russian mail-order brides. God knows the present Mrs. Harrington needs to be traded in.”

  “Why would you say that?” Elina asked, thinking of her own Russian waiting for her back home.

  “No reason.” Jennie gave Elina her blank receptionist’s smile, and then headed inside.

  Was everyone behaving weird today? She didn’t answer that. Instead she hurried over to her car, wanting to get the visit to the sheriff out of the way so that she could go home and indulge in her own weird day. Namely, Artem. There must be something in the air, she thought as she drove the mile or so to the sheriff’s office.

  Parking in one of the spots reserved for officers of the law, but knowing the sheriff was the only officer who was ever here, she went up the steps and into the building.

  The coffee machine tempted her. Out of all the offices she had visited, the coffee in the sheriff’s machine was decent, better than some of the instant stuff she bought.

  “Elina. What can I do for you?” The sheriff appeared, as if he had been expecting her. Or he had scented her approach, that sixth sense again.

  “Hi, Alain, I came by to ask you a couple of questions.”

  “Go ahead, Elina. You know I’ve already told you everything, it’s all in the report.”

  “I know, but the whole gasoline thing is bothering me. You’ve been sheriff here for long enough, you know everyone; you particularly know Jim. So do you really think he did it?”

  “I know what the evidence says. He was caught red-handed. This story that someone told him to do it so he could get a job, is just too out there.”

  “So is thinking he saved all the gasoline he’s ever bought and then hauled it over by hand to the school.”

  “I know. But that is why there is a jury. Now for me the fact is, he had traces of gasoline on his hands, and in his shed.”

  “He cut his neighbor Mr. Bennet’s lawn for him that day. Used it in the mower.”

  “That could be used either way. He could have been giving himself an alibi of sorts.”

  “Alain…” She protested at his accusation.

  “Elina, it’s not up to me to make these decisions. If it was me, I would agree with you, but as an officer of the law, I can’t. Evidence is evidence.” The sheriff shifted, and she could tell he was struggling to maintain eye contact with her.

  “And if I can find you other evidence?” she asked.

  “Like what?”

  “Like how about you come for a run in the mountains with me tonight.”

  “You’ve found something?” he asked.

  She placed the receipt on the counter top. “I’ll meet you at eight, you know where. And I had better be able to trust you, Alain, or I swear I’ll rip your wolf hide off your bones and use it as a rug.”

  He chuckled, and as she walked away she let her tiger come close to the surface.

  We can trust him, her tiger said.

  Chapter Nine – Artem

  Artem waited anxiously. This was the longest time he had been sat around doing nothing that he could ever remember. From when he was a child, Artem was a doer. If he wasn’t helping his family with the chores, he was studying, because that was how he was going to elevate his family out of poverty.

  Now he was stuck in a strange house, which belonged to his mate. That part was going to take a bit of getting used to. He also had to conquer the fear of losing her. Ridiculous, since they had just found each other, but thoughts of Vadik came back to him, and of the heartache the man lived with every day of his life.

  Hating inactivity, after half an hour of Elina leaving, he had vacuumed her carpets, washed her floors, and was now making dinner out of whatever he could find in her fridge and cupboards. Not bad, he could make a hearty mushroom stroganoff and some honeyed cake. So caught up in his cooking was he, he did not hear her come in, but by the time she was standing in the kitchen doorway, he could sense her, and turned to look at her beautiful smile.

  “That all smells wonderful. I can’t remember the last time I came home to have dinner cooked for me.” She looked shy as she came up to him, and he put the hot dishes on the counter top, before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close.

  “I want you to see that I will make a good mate.”

  “I thought that was what you had already shown me.” She kissed his neck, nuzzling him and inhaling his scent, which drove him wild. His cock hardened in his pants, but he didn’t want her to think he was only interested in her for sex, and because of the mating bond, even though right now, that was the thing uppermost in his mind.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked, releasing her and going over to the table and pulling out a chair.

  “You have manners too,” she joked.

  “Yes.”

  “Reminds me of my client.” She sat down and he placed his lips against her neck, his breath caressing her skin, and he was gratified to see her shiver, and her nipples harden beneath her dress.

  “I hope your client does not make you respond in such a way,” he said, the back of his hand caressing her breasts before he stood up and went to fetch the plates.

  “No, he doesn’t. He’s a simple man.”

  “What has he done?” Artem asked, beginning to ladle the stroganoff onto plates.

  “Burned the school down. At least that is what he has been charged with.”

  “And you think he is innocent?” Artem asked.

  “Yes. He’s simple, yes, but I don’t think he would ever be malicious. They’re trying to say he is responsible for a crime I don’t think he could have conceived.”

  “What happened? Or do you have client confidentiality.”

  “I guess I can trust you,” she said, and smiled.

  “Always.”

  “Does that mean you promise not to run out on me? No matter what.”

  He paused, his fork hovering in the air halfway to his mouth. “You mean, like Vadik? That’s not fair on him.”

  “I want to know. I understand he ran to protect his mate, but do you really think it makes it better?”

  “Don’t you?” He placed his fork down, wanting to defend his friend. “He’s been through hell.”


  “OK. So let me rephrase it. If I had a problem, and I was in trouble, would you want me to run to keep you safe?”

  “No. But I’m a man. I can take care…” He saw her raised eyebrows, and stopped. This was not exactly how he envisaged their evening going.

  “So it’s OK for a man to run to keep his mate safe, but not for a woman to run for the exact same reasons?”

  “I’ve never looked at it like that.”

  “Probably because you didn’t have a mate before today. I’ve been thinking about it, though, in amongst other things. Because I’m scared.”

  “Of me?”

  “Of losing you. I mean, you’re here, but are you actually going to leave the house? And if you do, will you come back, or simply disappear again? How on the run are you?”

  This had gotten a long way off her case; instead, she was asking questions he had never considered the answers to. He had lived in the peace and relative safety of Grizzly Hollows for too long, leaving had made him wary of capture. Getting on the plane, he had kept his head down, and worn a hat to try to stop any security cameras picking him up. He knew all about the face recognition software used in airports, because he had been on the other side of those cameras. Sitting there doing a job, without much thought for the person whose life he was spying on, and the repercussions of his actions.

  Looking back, he had probably caused a whole lot of trouble for many people, some who deserved it, and some who certainly did not.

  “Artem.”

  “I don’t know, do these places, these organizations, ever forget?”

  “Do you want me to look? I could do an anonymous search.”

  “No,” he said quickly.

  “Why?” she asked, and he saw she had stopped eating too.

  “Because of how it all works. How will you search without anyone knowing? Really knowing. The Internet is not safe.”

  “What if I ask the sheriff?”

  “No.”

  “Then what, Artem? How are our lives going to be? Do I have to go into hiding with you?”

  He shook his head. “No, of course not.”