High House Ursa: The Complete Bear Shifter Box Set

by Riley Storm

  To his credit, Kincaid didn’t push. She’d thought he would call her out, or take her hand again, but he just nodded, his eyes filled with something she couldn’t recall seeing from him before. Compassion—directed at her.

  “May I ask why you decided upon an accountant then? It doesn’t seem overly related, is all.”

  “It’s not,” she agreed. “I like it because it has rules. It follows rules. More specifically, numbers have rules. They are either right, or they’re wrong. There’s no ambiguity, no gray area. It…helps.”

  “I see.” Kincaid didn’t sound overly convinced. “Someone who professes to like numbers like that has always struck me as being a little…”

  “If you say different, I’m going to hit you,” she warned.

  “Interesting,” he finished awkwardly, clearly not using the word he’d originally intended.

  “Better.” She felt her stomach rumble. “I was always just naturally decent with them. Even as a kid, it just…made sense.”

  “Right.” As if to answer hers, his stomach made a loud noise, audible to her across the table. “Shall we eat? Maybe we can be a little nicer to one another with food in our stomachs.”

  Haley shook her head. “I doubt it.”

  17

  “This place looks exactly like a restaurant,” he remarked, breaking the silence as he finished the last of his burger.

  Haley glanced at him side-eye. “My word, Watson, you’ve done it again. Your observational skills are off the page.” She bit into her own sandwich, some sort of chicken and barbecue sauce mixture.

  He scrunched up his face. “So much for you being hangry. Turns out you’re actually just a bitch.”

  Her mouth dropped open for a split second in shock, his comment just enough to make her forget she was still chewing a mouthful of food. Then she snapped it closed, her face going bright red at having shown him her half-chewed lunch.

  Kincaid, for his part, was doing his best not to break into great gusts of laughter that would have the entire restaurant looking at them. Haley would never forgive him if he did that, so he kept a hand over his mouth and shook silently, trying to get himself under control.

  “Rude,” she said after not only swallowing but taking a drink of water to wash it down with.

  “I agree. Eating with your mouth open like that is just poor table manners.”

  Glaring fiercely, she took another bite, not rising to his bait any further than that.

  “It’s a bust,” he said, dropping his voice. “I’ve been watching the place this entire time, and not a single thing has stuck out. It’s a restaurant. Maybe it’s a front as well, but it’s certainly a normal, functioning restaurant as well. I haven’t seen a single suspicious character anywhere.

  “A restaurant masquerading as a restaurant,” Haley said slowly. “Now there’s a new one.”

  “You’d be surprised how unlikely it is,” he muttered, unhappy that his suspicion hadn’t panned out. They’d uncovered precisely nothing, except that the food was acceptable, though not anything to brag about.

  “Well, what should we do now? Dessert?”

  Kincaid lifted an eyebrow. “Do I look like I’m made of money?”

  “According to your bank statement, you’ve got a whole bunch of extra money just lying around,” Haley said sweetly.

  His eyebrow dropped heavily, turning into a frown. “That was a low blow.”

  She smiled. “So was acting like you can’t afford a five-dollar dessert.”

  “We never said I was paying. What is this, a date? Are we going back to my house after?”

  Haley started to shake her head, slowed, then stopped outright, staring at him. “This is not a date Kincaid, so wipe that look off your face.”

  But he barely heard her. That wasn’t what he was thinking about at all. A date with Haley was an outrageous idea certainly, he knew that. “No, not that.”

  Haley had taken up her drink, pausing with the straw in her mouth. “Well, what then? Spit it out. You look like you’ve had an epiphany.”

  Strategically he paused a second or so before replying. “We’re going back to my house.”

  Cola spewed across the table as Haley momentarily choked on her drink. “What? Don’t you think that’s a little fast?”

  He smiled, handing a napkin to her as she wiped up the mess. “So, is that a no?”

  “Damn straight it’s a no.”

  “Too bad,” he said, pulling his wallet out and throwing enough cash on the table to cover whatever the bill might come out to. “We’re doing it anyway. Let’s go.”

  Haley protested—thankfully quietly—following as he headed for the door. “What kind of woman do you take me for? I’m not going to your house just like that.”

  “Oh, relax, will you? This isn’t about some sort of pseudo-sexual conquest. Besides, you’ve been to my house before.”

  “Right. That was before I knew your secret.”

  “Good. Great. Now you can look around and appreciate it for how beautiful it really is. You can understand all the history it encompasses.”

  “And see people getting naked and changing into giant bears all the time too,” she whispered.

  Kincaid snorted. “I have two things to say about that. First and foremost, if my memory of your eyes is correct, you had no objections to the nakedness when you saw it happen this morning, and two, we don’t just get naked and shift willy-nilly.”

  Haley tried to protest, but the bright red flush of her cheeks made it a pointless endeavor and she soon gave it up entirely. “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Yes, it is. It’s fine, don’t worry. You’ll have lots of questions, I’m sure. This will give you the chance to look around, understand the truth behind it all, and then you can ask them as well.” He unlocked the SUV as they approached. “The more you know and understand, the easier it will be to keep our secret.”

  Haley walked around to her door and slid in, buckling up as he fired up the engine. “Kincaid,” she said, and for the first time, he heard uncertainty in her voice.

  “Yes?”

  “How much trouble am I in now I know the truth?”

  Frowning, he stayed silent, guiding the SUV into the street and making a beeline for the edge of town. “For knowing? Not much,” he admitted. “I’m honestly somewhat surprised you hadn’t already been informed, considering how close you work with us. It would probably have made doing your job easier. I would hazard a guess that’s the work of our former King. He was a very secretive sort.”

  “Why do I feel like I’m still in some danger?” Haley was looking over at him, concern writ all over her face and into her eyes.

  “We don’t take well to people sharing details of our true nature,” he said, picking each word carefully.

  “Why Kincaid, that sounds like a politely-worded death threat. Either that or I’ve watched too many thriller movies.”

  She giggled, but he remained silent, and slowly the laughter faded.

  “I wouldn’t tell anyone if I were you,” he said heavily, trying to put as much weight into his words as possible without making them too harsh.

  “I’m not an idiot,” she snapped. “Just because I’m only an accountant doesn’t mean I haven’t thought through the consequences of your secret getting out, or of all the people out there that would want to get their hands on your DNA—to copy it, to take advantage of it. If just one wrong person…” she trailed off. “Sorry, you probably know all this and have to think about it on a daily basis. I…I didn’t mean to bring it up like that.”

  “It’s fine,” he said dismissively. “You get sort of inured to it after a certain amount of time to worry about being discovered. The truth is, most of the world doesn’t want to know about us. There are videos online, of rash members being caught. Not many, and not great videos. But everyone always brushes them off. A hoax, they say. Like Bigfoot. Or these days they call it CGI.”

  “Bigfoot?”

  “Want to know
the real story? It’s not that exciting.”

  “Wait. You know the real story of Bigfoot?”

  He chuckled. “Distant family relative.”

  “You’re related to Bigfoot?” Haley was leaning forward, her hands on the dash, mouth wide open.

  “No!” he sighed. “Well, yes. Except Bigfoot isn’t real. It was just one of us, caught midway in the change, running across a field into the forest. Piss drunk, I might add.”

  Haley was laughing now. “That makes so much more sense!”

  Kincaid smiled. He enjoyed the sound of her laughter. It was refreshing, uplifting to his spirits, and precisely what he needed to keep going, to push through and clear his name before word got out.

  “So why are we going back to your house?” Haley asked, bringing the subject back around. “What are you hoping to find there?”

  “My Queen. I want to inform her of what we’ve found, and our suspicions. Keep her informed, but also to see if she has any other thoughts. Anything we’ve missed. She’s a wise woman.”

  “What have we found?” Haley asked slowly. “And you mean your suspicions. I don’t have any. I’m neutral in this, remember?”

  Kincaid glanced over at her, letting his doubt show. She could pretend not to care all she wanted, but he wasn’t going to act like he bought it. Her acting wasn’t that good.

  “I am!” she protested half-heartedly. “Now spill.”

  “You know this already. We’ve found that Granted Holdings is more important to Canis than we thought. Encountering a full-blooded Canim there is unusual, and it means either they expected us to go there, or they permanently have a guard there. Either way, that needs to be noted by more than just you and me.”

  “Okay. I’ll buy that. What else?”

  “We think there’s a connection between Krawll and whoever is trying to get rid of me. We don’t know if it’s the Canim or not, all we know is the restaurant has something to do with it.”

  Haley shook her head. “No, you don’t know any of that. You can’t prove it. Maybe he did a favor for the owner of the restaurant?”

  Kincaid was speaking almost before she finished. “A generic ‘family restaurant’ like that does not make three million dollars a year gross, let alone in profit that they can spare. Tell me that nothing about that smells a little fishy to you?”

  “I admit, it seems unusual,” she said after a moment. “But not enough that I’m willing to say it has anything to do with you.”

  “Fine. It does, but you do you and keep thinking that. Either way, this should be enough to at least shed some doubt on my situation.”

  Haley was quiet for several long seconds. “Or it makes it worse. It could make it look like you’re fully in league with them. It confirms that Granted Holdings is an important Canis operation, and they funded you. That’s pretty damning for people who aren’t inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt.”

  Bristling at the challenge to his loyalty, Kincaid tried to keep his calm. Haley was just playing devil’s advocate. She wasn’t saying he was a traitor, just pointing out how it looked to some people.

  “You’re right,” he said gruffly. “Though I’m trying not to think of that.”

  Haley reached out and patted his arm gently, her fingers lingering longer than he would have expected. Then, to his surprise, they dragged up and down as she gently stroked his arm for two or three seconds. “It’ll be okay, Kincaid,” she said softly.

  But his mind was still on his forearm as it continued to tingle from her touch, long after she’d taken her hand away.

  Now, what the hell does that mean?

  18

  “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this,” she said, staring out the window in awe.

  She didn’t have her face pressed to the glass, but it was pretty darn close. The mansion was huge. So huge, that mansion really didn’t do it justice. Palatial was the only way to describe the building that revealed itself after a miles-long drive through forested lands to get there.

  “There is a certain charm to it, isn’t there?”

  “Charm?” She shook her head, staring at the sprawling building. “Size, yes. It’s so big, it must feel almost haunted. So much space.”

  “Not nearly enough sometimes,” Kincaid muttered.

  She mulled that over. “Okay, I suppose if everyone is the size of you, and has to accommodate a matching ego, it might feel a bit tight.”

  Kincaid didn’t say anything.

  “You probably need it. If there’s a bunch of huge horrible beasts wandering around, you don’t want territorial fights I guess.”

  The growl from the driver’s seat was unexpected. “We’re not beasts, Haley. Even in animal form, we’re in total control. It’s still us. Still me.”

  She tore her gaze away from the looming manor, noticing for the first time the hurt on his face. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to insult you. That’s not what I was going for.”

  “It’s okay. I’m used to it,” he said, trying to sound tough.

  It didn’t disguise the fact it was a lie, but she let it slide. She’d done enough damage and didn’t want to do more. Her focus was still on him as he brought the car up to the front entrance, and so she was able to see him visibly tense up.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked automatically

  “Nothing,” he said, his voice still deep, but this time, the toughness was all real. “I’m just not particularly fond of the asshole standing outside.”

  Swinging her head around, she caught sight of a tall male, broad shoulders and big build, much like Kincaid. Unlike him, however, the newcomer’s hair was long, black and braided, falling well past his shoulders. Thick black eyebrows and a goatee he probably thought of as fancy added to the contrast of his fair skin. He seemed somewhat familiar, but she couldn’t place him.

  “Who is he?” she asked.

  “The Ass…an ass,” Kincaid replied. “He’s a dick, but the Queen likes him for some reason.”

  “The Queen likes you too,” she teased.

  The stairs to the front door rose up on their right as they drove under the giant awning covering much of the ground, but Kincaid was slow to hit the brakes, forcing the big man with the braid to step aside, disdain on his face.

  “Don’t antagonize him,” she chided. “Right now, you need all the friends you can get until this is over.”

  “He’s not and will never be my friend.”

  “Right, and all the others?” she asked, as more men came filing out of the house.

  “Yeah,” Kincaid said, but his voice was distracted.

  Something was wrong. Alarms started going off in her head, but there was nothing they could do now. She got out, Kincaid doing the same.

  “We’re here to see the Queen,” he said calmly, projecting his voice.

  Eight more men in total joined the man Kincaid hated, fanning out on either side of them.

  “Kincaid?” she asked nervously, unsure of what was going on.

  “What’s the meaning of this Kvoss?”

  She wanted to go over to him, to hold Kincaid back, but the additional men all had a firm set to their jaw that showed they meant business. Whatever was happening, it was going to happen. There wasn’t anything she could do about it.

  “Get these men out of here, Kvoss. I don’t know what the hell you think you’re doing, but it’s not cute. Understood?”

  The man with the braid finally spoke. “Kincaid, you are under arrest.”

  Her mouth dropped open.

  “What?!” Kincaid roared, taking a step closer, getting right into the face of Kvoss. “What the hell is the charge?”

  “Treason.”

  Haley cursed. They had come back to the manor to report in on what they’d found, to discuss the next steps with the Queen. Instead, Kincaid was getting himself arrested, putting any hope of proving his innocence in extreme jeopardy.

  “I’m sorry, Haley,” Kincaid said, barely able to constrain his a
nger as the other anonymous men stepped in close, clearly there to act as an escort in case he tried anything violent. “I’ll figure this out. Please, go talk to the Queen. Then come find me. I assume I’ll get a fair trial.”

  Kvoss flicked a finger at her. “You two, escort Miss Menard to the Throne Room.”

  The two indicated detached themselves from Kincaid’s group and came over to flank her. Neither said a word, but she got the idea that trying to do anything but go with them would be bad.

  “Miss Menard,” Kvoss said politely. “If you would be so kind as to remain our guest for a while, we would appreciate it.”

  “Kvoss! What the hell do you think you’re doing? Let her go. You have no authority over her.”

  Kvoss motioned for the men with him to follow, and he headed inside.

  This was the second time in forty-eight hours that Haley had been inside the massive main hallway of the manor, but this time, she didn’t feel like an honored guest. This time, she felt like a prisoner. There was no wait at the Throne Room doors either. She was ushered inside, along with Kincaid, and the massive metal panels now swung closed behind them with a ringing finality.

  Kvoss walked across the open floor and to the raised stone dais at the back, taking a seat. All of a sudden, Haley recalled she’d seen him there the first time she’d come to this chamber. Whoever he was, he held some actual authority within the House.

  “Kincaid. Miss Menard.” The Queen spoke in slow, measured tones, inclining her head ever so slightly at Haley while remaining dispassionately neutral toward Kincaid.

  “Why am I here?” she asked, surprising herself by the boldness of her speaking without being addressed. Around her, the guards shuffled uneasily as well.

  Good. Just because they happen to act like some sort of aristocratic tribe from five hundred years ago, does not mean that I must. They don’t know I am aware of their secret, and thus they have no actual power over me. So, damn their rules.

  “You are here,” Kvoss said, speaking up. “Because you are charged with aiding and abetting Kincaid in his treason against House Ursa.”

  Haley sputtered and protested, trying to form a coherent argument, but the surprise was too great. Her, a traitor? And charged how? These were not men of the law. They could not do this to her! Looking around at the size of the men, she wondered if they would listen if she said she was walking out of there or calling the police.