“What? What else were you hoping for?”
“That we could somehow work together instead of against each other?”
“In what way?”
He sighed. “I don’t know. In a perfect world? We form a company and all take part. With twice the manpower and resources, we could produce a lot more. Expand our market reach, expand our products. Be one big team instead of fighting for business.”
She laughed. “My clan would never go for that in a million years. We came here with plans to chase you guys out of town.”
His eye twitched as he glared. “Yeah, I sort of figured that after yesterday. I don’t know why you think you can just come in here and chase us out. Our roots are much deeper. And in two years, your business is the one suffering, not ours.”
Veronica hung her head. A lot of that was her fault. She hadn’t been working nearly as hard as she should be working. But she had so little fight left in her. There was too much pain for there to be enough room left for strong motivation and a good business sense. “I know,” she said quietly.
“Then why let this go on? At least stop trying to chase us out, and focus on your own marketing. That would be much better for business.”
“They won’t agree to that. They like the fight. They like the challenge.”
“Veronica. You have to take charge.”
She shook her head. “This isn’t my clan. That’s what you don’t get. That’s why they don’t listen, and I can’t do anything about it. It was my sister’s clan. She was the alpha. She was also my twin. She was killed three years ago and the clan fell to me. But I never wanted them. She put the clan together, not me. I was happy being on my own, or with just our family. She wanted to expand, she wanted a business group. She brought me in and I joined willingly, but I never would have started a clan with half of these ladies.”
His mouth parted slightly. “Oh.”
“Yeah.” She looked across the room, staring at the neon beer signs and dingy mirrors high on the wall. They had timed it just right so that the place was pretty dead. The lunch crowd had gone and the after work crowd hadn’t yet arrived. They were nearly alone, and the perceived intimacy had made her say far more than she should have. She forgot, when she looked into his sparkling eyes, that their clans were enemies. Which meant he was technically her enemy, too.
“I guess I see why that’s hard for you,” he said softly and with compassion.
“So, I don’t know what to tell you. I’d love to merge, but it’s just not going to happen. Hopefully they’ll stay off your property like I told them to. I’m sorry. They’re just out of hand.”
He sat quietly for a long while, running one fingertip along the rim of his glass. It looked like he was just drinking a soda, but she didn’t know for sure. Maybe he’d added whiskey or rum. Finally, he looked up at her.
“I know it must be hard. But even if you didn’t want them to begin with, they’re your clan now. You’re going to have to step up and learn how to lead them properly. Or they’ll just keep walking all over you. Unless you want to step down, you have to step up.”
She nodded slowly. “I might step down.”
He looked at her, surprised. “Don’t do that. You’re a natural leader, Veronica. I can feel it. Maybe you don’t see it, but you have what you need to do this well. You’re just too consumed by pain to see what you have to do to change your life. To take a risk on something that might be…” He broke his gaze from hers and looked down at his hands for a minute before meeting her stare again.
She raised an eyebrow at him.
“Some risks turn out to be worth it in the end,” he said.
They shared a long gaze. The feelings she had for him earlier seemed to be growing. He was so calm and cool. Even now, he sat back in the booth, casual and chill, like nothing in the world could shake him. Yesterday, he’d been confident and strong. In charge. And his clan listened to him. They didn’t step out of line. One or two spoke up, but they didn’t overstep. They didn’t make decisions. And it seemed like what they said was in line with what Slade said. He was a real leader. She wasn’t. But she deeply admired him for it.
“If it means fighting with your clan, it’s not worth it to me,” she said. “I’m happy to make honey and moonshine and any other products we come up with, but that’s it. I can lead in business. I never had trouble with that. Our workers follow my commands with no trouble. But I don’t want to wrangle a bunch of crazed bear women who just want to tear something apart. I’m more interested in building.”
“I’m not sure where that leaves us,” Slade said. “I feel like we really didn’t accomplish much.”
She shrugged. “We got to know each other better. That’s not nothing.”
He pulled up his mouth in a half smile. “No. That’s not nothing.”
“I’ll talk to them again. Maybe eventually I can get them to see the light.”
“Let’s hope.”
He stood and dropped a $5 bill on the table. Must be just soda then. She stood as well and followed him out of the bar. He waved to her as he walked in the opposite direction.
She was almost to her car when she turned around. “Slade! Wait!”
She ran over to where he was unlocking his car door. He turned to face her. She stopped in front of him, leaving just a foot or two of space separating them. Then she reached up, took a fistful of his shirt, and pulled him toward her as she leaned it.
She pressed her mouth to his hard, not letting him back away easily. But he didn’t back away. He put his hand at the small of her back and drew her closer. He kissed back just as hard.
She laughed when she ended the kiss. “Sorry, I… I guess I’m so starved for time with men and you’re just so hot.” She winked at him. “I spend way too much time in a household of women. They get on my nerves. It’s really refreshing to hang out with you. If you ever want to do it again, let me know. You have my number from when I called you.”
“Okay.” He nodded. “I just might call you then.”
“I hope so.”
He kissed her again, short and sweet, before she hopped off to her car.
Maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but she really didn’t have a choice. She wanted him so badly and he just sat there, looking all sexy. It was the first of anything she’d felt since Valerie died and if she didn’t act on it, or do something to keep it going, then it might fade and she’d be right back in her grief, lonely. She was sick of feeling lonely. And she wanted Slade.
Well, that was one way to show her leadership abilities, wasn’t it? To take charge and make the first move? He had to like that. Most guys did. Found it hot when the woman acted first. Usually it was because the guy didn’t want the pressure of making the first move, of the chance of rejection, but that couldn’t be true in Slade’s case. He had far too much confidence to be one of those guys. No, with him, it would be about the challenge. She’d challenged him by making the first move. Now, he had to step up and take charge unless he wanted to let her run the show. And she was pretty sure that, being a man, his alpha was stronger than hers.
Good then. Let’s see what he does. See what move he made. See how much he really wanted her in return. She hoped it proved to be as much, or more than, she wanted him.
Veronica was on her way home when her phone rang. At first, her heart skipped. Was it Slade? But when she looked at her phone, she saw Beth’s name on the caller ID.
“Hey Beth,” she said.
“V? Where are you?”
“On my way home. What’s up?”
“You should probably hurry.” Beth sounded worried and her voice was hushed.
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Did you go to meet Slade?”
“What? Why would you think that?” She hadn’t told any of them, and she’d been careful. How did they find out?
“That’s what Christina said. And now, she’s got everyone going over there to attack them.”
“What?! Attack them
how?”
There was a muffling sound, like someone was covering the phone.
“Beth? You there?”
The call ended. She must have hung up. Beth probably called without the others knowing. She could have endangered herself if they’d told her not to tell Veronica. They might have attacked her as well.
Well, Veronica wasn’t going to allow this. She pressed harder on the gas and scrolled to Slade’s number on her phone.
“Hey,” he said when he answered.
“We have a problem.”
“Okay. What?” He already sounded ready to handle the situation. Ready to take charge. She liked that.
“I just got a call from my clanmate. She said Christina is leading an attack on your guys.”
“What else do you know?”
“She just told me to hurry, so I’d guess it’s going on now. She seemed to know I was meeting you.”
“Let me know if you get any more information,” he said.
“I will. You too.”
“Veronica?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you.” Then he hung up.
She drove as fast as she could back to her house. When she got there, she found the place empty. No note, nothing to say what was going on. It looked like it could be any normal day with them scattered off dong their own thing, their own parts of running the business.
If it weren’t for Beth’s call, she would have no idea what was happening right now. She quickly stripped down, then ran out the back door, changing into bear form before her feet even hit the grass.
She picked up their scent instantly. She knew it so well, it wasn’t hard. The problem was stopping long enough to really concentrate. Their smells were all over the woods. They were all through there all the time, so finding the most recent trail took a second, though she had an idea of which way they had headed.
She picked up their trail and booked it, running at top speed for several long minutes and until she heard a distance growling sound. The sound of a fight maybe.
She ran harder, her heart ready to burst from the speed. “What’s going on?” she thought to them.
There was no response. So, they’d agreed to keep her in the dark. And it looked like Beth was playing along to appear like she was with them. Veronica tried to reach their minds, but they were shut off to her.
She finally saw the flashes of black fur up ahead. There were more than four bears in the woods, wrestling and jumping on each other. But then she saw several bears run off, away from the group.
“Stop this fighting now!” she shouted in her mind.
Her four women turned and ran toward her, now that the bears they were fighting ran off.
“What are you doing?” she demanded. “I forbid you from coming here.”
“And we decided to take matters into our own hands,” Christina thought back, not pausing as she ran right past her. “We taught them a lesson. We’re not pushovers. We’re not weak girly bears.”
Veronica turned, and now she was chasing after them. “Tell me what happened.”
There was only silence in their heads. She knew Beth would tell her later probably, but she wanted them to fess up.
“Did anyone get hurt?” she asked.
“None of our clan,” Christina thought proudly.
“And the Walkers?” Silence again. “You have all deliberately disobeyed me. I should fight and kill every one of you.”
Christina laughed in her mind from several feet ahead of Veronica. “Go ahead. You think you can beat any of us? You wouldn’t even try. You’re all talk.”
Anger flared again inside her. Slade was right. She had to do something. They were going to keep attacking. Keep stepping out of line. But the thought of taking the action she should take overwhelmed her. She wasn’t the best fighter, it was true. And though being alpha gave her some advantage in size and strength, it wouldn’t be enough. She didn’t want to fight them, either. Didn’t want to hurt them, even if they had done something horrible. There was enough pain in her life. She didn’t want more.
When they got back to the house, they changed back to human form and Veronica shouted at them, standing naked on the back porch. “This is unacceptable, all of you! You have gone against my commands and you have attacked innocent men. I hope they press charges. I hope you all wind up in jail. Don’t think I’ll come to bail you out.”
Christina glared back and Abby had a hard look, but Beth refused to look at her and Robin looked ashamed. At least she knew where she stood with each of them.
“They won’t press charges because we’ll just attack again,” Christina said. “I’m not afraid of jail time and besides, what are they going to say? That I turned into a bear and clawed them? He has obvious animal injuries. No one will believe him.”
“Who?” Veronica asked.
“One of the Walkers,” Abby said.
“We went after one of the bee guys,” Christina said. “He wasn’t so tough after all.”
“With four on one?” Veronica shrieked. “I guess not. I don’t know how many people would be, even those big men. How unfair and unethical. You fought one of them? All four of you?”
“We waited until we could get one alone,” Robin said quietly. “It was Christina’s idea.”
Christina turned and glared. “Well, someone had to take charge around here. Clearly you weren’t going to do anything.” She gestured to Veronica.
“I was, actually,” Veronica said. “When you launched into your disobedient plan, I was talking with their leader, trying to come to an agreement. You know, the proper and civil way, like adults.”
Christin huffed. “We’re bears, V. Don’t forget that. Our animal nature changes things.”
Veronica snatched up her clothes from the floor where she’d left them and yanked her shorts on. “Yeah, well, our human nature doesn’t.” She pulled on her shirt next. “None of you will leave this house for the rest of the night. Do you understand me?”
They all nodded except Christina. She narrowed her eyes and watched Veronica walk away.
She dashed to her room and called Slade. He didn’t answer. When his voicemail came on, she said, “Is everyone okay? I have my clan here, and I’ve forbidden them from leaving the house. Please let me know what’s going on. I’m sorry, Slade. Christina just went behind my back and did this, and she doesn’t care that I commanded them to stay away from you. I hope everyone is okay. I’m so sorry.”
She hung up and paced her room. Should she go over there? See what was wrong? But they might be hostile. They didn’t know the whole situation, unless Slade had managed to tell them some of it. But if he got home when they were in the middle of a fight, how much had he told them?
And if one of the guys was hurt, they might be going to the hospital now. Maybe that’s why he didn’t answer. She felt so bad about the whole thing. She didn’t want anyone getting hurt, and somehow, she felt worse that it was one of the men who had. If one of her women was hurt, it would be their own stupid fault. They would deserve it. But the men had only been trying to make the situation better.
She hoped whoever it was would be okay. She didn’t know which was the beekeeper, or even any of their names, but it didn’t matter. Whoever he was, he was one of Slade’s, and that’s what mattered. She didn’t want Slade to be hurt by this. And she really didn’t want him to turn against her through all this. What if he did, though? What if somehow, he thought she’d planned it that way, to get him out of the way so her clan could attack?
Winston (BBW Bear Shifter Wedding Romance) (Grizzly Groomsmen Book 3) Page 30
