“Lasko Corporation is going to buy you out,” Eric said simply. “We’re going to take all of your business—we’re on our way already—and then we’re going to buy up your company when it’s barely worth the price of its real estate.”
“Never going to happen,” Alex said with a shrug. “You don’t have the resources to outcompete us.” He had, after Eric’s call two weeks prior, put measures into effect that would ramp up development into new areas of business, and would increase the existing areas of business that Oberon Industrial had under its purview.
He was confident that there was little Eric could do to realistically bring Lasko up to speed—not with the size of their company as it presently existed, not with the resources they had available to them, and certainly not with their history in the industry.
Eric would have replied; but Daphne approached the table, and Alex felt a flicker of a smile curling his lips. Something flitted through Eric’s green eyes, but Alex didn’t notice. He could only take in the scent of Daphne floating towards him, the sight of her curves draped in the dress he had bought her for the occasion—over her protests. “It’s a fancy luncheon, you should look your best, and this particular design is amazing on you,” he’d said.
“I see your friend made it here,” Daphne said, her smile flicking from Eric back to Alex. Alex glanced at his former friend and business partner and saw the appreciation in Eric’s eyes. A low growl—lower than Daphne’s ears would be able to make out, but enough for Eric to hear—sounded in the depths of his throat; a warning, a noise that he had never made in his life.
The sound surprised him. He had heard it before from other bears, wild and shifter alike—it was the sound that a male bear made in laying claim to his mate, deterring another bear from attempting to mate.
Before he could think about the instinctive reaction, Alex realized that Eric was talking to Daphne, saying that he appreciated the work that Alex had done with ARC so much that he was interested in becoming a spokesperson as well. “But only if I could have you as a handler—you seem to be keeping Alex in line so well.” Alex heard the noise leaving his throat again and coughed to stop himself.
“Well Alex is the only spokesperson I’m working with,” Daphne said, giving him a quick, secretive smile. Alex returned it as moderately as he could—knowing that Eric was watching, that Eric would find a way to turn it to his advantage. Alex hurried Daphne away as quickly as he could, his mind spinning. He could prevent Eric’s attempts to destroy the business he had inherited from his father—but Eric’s desire for revenge wouldn’t stop there.
“She seems very sweet. Fitting name, Daphne,” Eric said, his eyes half-lidded. He leaned in towards Alex. “Does she know about your true nature?” Alex held his gaze.
“If she finds out about it from you, she’ll find out about your nature too. And the elders wouldn’t look kindly on the revelation.” Alex hated to bring the elders of the bear shifter people into the equation—but it was the only threat he could really hang over Eric’s head.
“Probably best to be careful how close you let her get,” Eric said, sitting back once more. “I can smell your mark on her—but she’s not a shifter. Somehow, I don’t think she’d be so thrilled to work with you if she finds out. Of course I won’t tell her—but you never know.”
*
Alex paced the floor in front of his desk, deep in thought, unable to stand still. He knew that he would have to do something about Eric. Since the luncheon, the Lasko Corporation had shifted into high gear; they were not in a position to do anything about the strategies that Alex had implemented for Oberon Industrial, but they were gaining market share and slandering the company with an open hand.
On top of that, he had heard from Daphne that Eric was spending an odd amount of time in his off hours at the ARC headquarters—cultivating contacts, getting to know her. At first she said it had almost seemed flattering; though she had made it clear to Eric that she was only Alex’s handler—that she wasn’t interested or slated for working with another spokesperson.
“He asked me if everyone else knew how closely we worked together,” Daphne told him as she lay in his arms, her dark eyes full of fear, her body’s sleepy, sexual scent beginning to take on the acrid note.
“He won’t say anything,” Alex had told her confidently. He had explained something of his history with Eric—keeping the full disclosure of how they had come together in the first place, friends bonded over their mutual dual natures, a secret. He explained that the business they had created together had all but folded, that his father had bought them out and that Eric was out for revenge against him.
Alex found himself troubled not only by the knowledge of Eric’s desire for revenge—and the apparent moves his rival was making against him—but by the fact of his reaction to Daphne’s presence at his side while Eric was putting on his best dominant bear traits; the low growl that had come out of him, warning Eric to back off.
The sound had been instinctual, something he couldn’t have prevented until after it happened. Later that afternoon, thinking back on it, and on Eric’s words, “I can smell your mark on her,” Alex had nearly broken the relationship off altogether.
He had refused to let himself think about why he had been so drawn to Daphne, and why he could barely control himself in her presence. Whenever she was around, he felt the conflicting urges to devour her, to destroy her, to protect her—until they had had sex for the first time. He realized, thinking about it after the luncheon, that his initial reaction to her pheromones, the delicious look of her body, the way she stood up to him and wasn’t cowed by him, were symptoms of his deep, animal attraction to her.
He couldn’t get her out of his head, even when she wasn’t around. He had imprinted her spicy, warm smell in his mind, the way a bear in the wild could immediately recognize its mate. When he had had sex with her for the first time, the desire, the preference, had solidified into an animal need.
He could even remember the moment when he had marked her, though he hadn’t noticed it at the time. A few nights before the luncheon, he had gone to Daphne’s apartment; she had paperwork to do, she had told him over the phone.
She couldn’t go out to dinner, she couldn’t come to his place, she had to keep her nose to the grindstone and get it done. Alex, his blood pulsing with the need to be with her, inside of her, had not quite resigned himself to taking no for an answer; he had taken her home before and knew just where she lived.
He had ordered up a four-course meal from his favorite restaurant, picking out items that he knew Daphne would enjoy and instructing the restaurant in the careful packing of the meal along with flatware and dishes; he spent enough money at the place that they were only too happy to oblige. He had carried up the meal and the dishes to Daphne’s door, and when she had answered, he had nearly forgotten all about it.
She stood there in an oversized tee shirt and little else, the worn cotton clinging to the swell of her breasts, barely covering her ass, giving a tantalizing view of the tops of her thighs. Alex had pushed down his instinctive urge to grab her and carry her directly to the bedroom. “I thought you’d appreciate not having to cook,” he had said instead. Daphne’s resistance had folded immediately.
During the meal, it was all he could do to keep his lust at bay—Daphne’s appreciation, expressed in breathless moans of delight and sudden sharp intakes of breath as she tasted each item, drove him nearly insane from the need for restraint. Once she had finished, he had taken her by the hand and dragged her to the bedroom, reaching up underneath the tee shirt to tug her panties down and tumbling her onto the bed with him, touching her body everywhere.
He had nuzzled into her neck, nipping and nibbling with lips and teeth, lapping at her velvety skin with his tongue, and he had felt a sudden tension in his body—unlike the tense mounting of arousal and pleasure that came just before orgasm, something more elemental. “Tell me you’re mine,” he had murmured in her ear, rubbing himself against her,
pressing her body to his.
“I am,” Daphne had murmured, her voice breathless and dreamy. Alex had felt the tension ripple through him again—passing as quickly as it had arrived. He had, without knowing it, marked her in that moment.
The sound of his phone ringing shocked Alex out of his distracted reverie. He snatched it up without even looking at the information on the caller ID. “Hello?” he said, keeping his voice neutral.
“Alex.” He cringed slightly at the sound of Eric’s voice. “We need to talk.”
“I don’t think we do,” Alex said, throwing himself into his desk chair. “You’ve made your position plain.”
“We need to talk because we can’t let this continue. I’ve gotten word from the elders that they’re unhappy with the situation. We have to hash this out.” Alexander stared at the base of his phone, considering it. He couldn’t trust Eric to not have something up his sleeve, but if he could resolve the situation with the other shifter, he could take a load off of his mind in regards not only to Daphne but also to his own company.
“What do you have in mind?” He should know what he was getting into. At least, he should know what Eric wanted him to think he was getting into.
“We meet up in the Forest Reserve; we discuss this like civilized people.” Alex frowned. It was almost certainly a trap. He could count on Eric to attack him in some way, but he knew that he could take on the other shifter. He had transformed in Eric’s presence before; in his bear form, he was taller, heavier than Eric, with a greater reach. If Eric attacked him, he could fight his way out of the situation.
“Okay,” Alex said. “I’ll meet you there tomorrow night.” He had a date with Daphne that night—and he was not about to put that on hold, not even to potentially resolve the issue with Eric.
“It’s a deal.”
CHAPTER 5
Alexander looked up at the sky through the screening darkness of the trees, knowing that Eric would be there at any moment. He could feel his animal essence simmering under the surface of his skin, his bones already shifting around, preparing for the change that he expected to have to make. It wasn’t the full moon, but the moon was in its waxing phase—that would make it easier for him to change quickly. If Eric attacked him, he would be ready for it.
There was a muted rustling in the underbrush; a human wouldn’t have caught the sound of it, but it crackled in Alex’s ears as surely as the footsteps of an elephant. He stopped short, flexing his hands, falling into a steady relaxation. He took a deep breath, moderating his heart rate as best as he could, knowing that he would be exuding moderately dominant pheromones.
As Eric approached, Alex scented his rival’s pheromones—they were sharp, with a twang of fear and anticipation in them, the pheromones of an animal uncertain, wary, but potentially ready to attack. “Eric,” Alex said, looking in the direction from which he’d heard the sounds.
“Hello, Alex,” Eric said, coming out of the deeper darkness of the woods and into the clearing where Alex stood. The sun was just down, the moon not yet risen, but Alex was as aware of it as any animal—aware of its pull on the earth, the influence of it on the magic that combined his human and bear essences.
“What did you want to propose to hash things out?” The Forest Reserve was known to all of the bear shifters in the community that Alex and Eric both belonged to. It was not quite a sacred location, but was a landmark—a piece of land kept pristine in its natural condition, where groups of bears and wolves in the know could travel to be themselves, to hunt and forage. Mates came to bond; families brought their children there for their first transformation.
“I propose that we combine the two companies,” Eric said, crossing his arms over his chest. The smell of fear and uncertainty intensified, rolling off him in a miasma that filled Alex’s nose. There was much more to the situation than Eric was trying to let on. “Equal partnership, we would both still be in charge, we’d both still make profits.”
“I don’t believe you,” Alex said flatly. “I know for a fact that you want revenge on me, so what’s your game, Eric?”
“No game,” Eric said, shrugging. “The elders want our squabble ended, and they don’t care how we do it. I thought this way would give us both an out.”
“You’re lying. Eric—you really should know better.” Alex moved closer, standing tall, taking a deep breath and puffing out his chest. “You brought me here to attack me, so go ahead and do it.” Eric hesitated for a moment, looking around, the fear-smell intensifying yet again, tinged with the adrenaline of a coming battle.
His bones were shifting in his face, his hands—but the full transformation hadn’t started yet. Alex could feel his own body gearing up to make the change, his bear-essence charging through him, responding to the threat of violence and the prerogative to defend his territory.
There was the sound of more rustling in the underbrush, sticks snapping, but Alex was focused on his opponent. He decided to take matters into his own hands and began his transformation. He groaned as the bones in his body began to shift and move, stretching and realigning into new positions. He hunched over, his clothes tearing as his body built up, his face elongating, his teeth coming in sharp. His hands splayed out and Alex watched them transform into big, broad paws—the fingers thickening and the nails transforming into blunt claws, fur pushing out from somewhere underneath his skin, heavy pads replacing his palms.
Eric groaned and as his vision changed, becoming green-tinged in the darkness, Alex saw his rival beginning his own transformation, curling in on himself and trembling as the force of the change overtook him. Alex completed his transformation with a growling roar, announcing to the forest at large that a contest of wills was about to take place.
Eric’s form shifted, fur blossoming on his arms and legs, his clothes falling away in tatters. His shifted form was that of a black bear—impressive, not exactly small, but not as large or as heavy as the grizzly bear that Alex was.
As they completed their transformations, Eric and Alex circled each other slowly, snarling and growling, letting out intermittent roars. Alex’s blood pounded in his veins, his night-adapted eyes picking out Eric’s sidling, circling form easily. He didn’t want to wait, but he knew he had to.
Eric would have to make the first move. Once he could gauge what Eric thought he could do, he would be able to counter it. The wait was interminable. Alex fought back the urge to simply put the other bear on its back, to knock it down and find the tender spot in the throat and close his jaws around it.
Eric took a fast swipe at him, and Alex danced away, snarling and snapping his teeth. He knocked aside the next swipe, and then charged at his rival as soon as he saw his opening, his legs powerful underneath him and his body low to the ground. He bowled Eric over and pinned him to the ground, growling and snarling, feeling the full force of his anger—his animal rage, the instinctive response to another bear trying to encroach on his territory.
Eric scrambled out from under him, twisting and writhing to break his hold. Alex tightened and Eric somehow snaked his head around, sinking his teeth into Alex’s shoulder. Alex roared in pain, scratching at Eric’s face and head wildly, batting and pounding to get the bear’s head away, to knock his teeth. There was the feeling of his skin tearing—the sharp, hot pain in his shoulder, and Alex pulled back, ignoring the sensation; he would attend to it later.
He knocked Eric clear as the blood began to flow into his fur, hot and stinging. Eric scrabbled at him with his blunt-clawed paws and Alex countered with mowing, swinging blows, growling and lifting himself up onto his hind legs exclusively.
Finally, he’d had enough; he was in pain, the wrestling and boxing of their fight was exhausting him. There was a sound nearby—the breaking of branches, the rustle of leaves—and Alex identified the sound as that of a human. Snuffling the air, he would have gasped as the familiar, spicy-warm scent drifted to him. It was Daphne. She was in the woods with them, somehow.
Alex let out a roar, archi
ng up, throwing out his arms and throwing himself at Eric. He scrambled for a grip on the other bear and darted his head in, savagely biting wherever he could sink his teeth in, over and over again, in a blind rage of animal passion. He finally succeeded in getting purchase on the other bear and lifted him up, preternatural strength fueling his movements. He threw Eric, as far as he could, and watched with night-tuned eyes as the black bear tumbled through the air, rebounding off of the nearby trees and down into the underbrush, falling end over end.
Alex panted, sinking down onto all fours, groaning and growling from the pain that burned at his shoulder. He could still smell Daphne nearby; what was she doing in the Forest Reserve? Who had sent her there? He let out another roar of pain and anger. It was Eric who had done it. Exhausted, pain working away on his mind, Alex felt the transformation starting up again. He was shifting back to a human—and Daphne was nearby.
Had she seen him turning into a bear? Had she seen Eric? He thought that if she had there would have been a much more obvious indication of her presence in the woods—he couldn’t imagine that she would have remained quiet, as a human who had no idea of the existence of shifters. There would have been something.
Alex realized he had lost more blood than he had thought as his consciousness began to swim with darkness. He was changing back to a human as his mind began to slip away, the whole world spinning.
Daphne’s scent filled his nose and he struggled to pull himself out of the tangling, tidal morass that threatened to claim him. He needed to be awake to explain—he needed to tell Daphne, hope against hope that she could somehow accept what she would now know about him.
***
Alex awakened slowly, coming back to himself bit by bit, with slowly increasing awareness of his body. His shoulder throbbed and burned with pain, and his back felt sticky where the blood had flowed and trickled. His legs and arms ached, his head was pounding. All at once he realized that he was moving, the ground shifting underneath him, the crunching and rustle of leaves filling his ears.
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