Their Grouchy Bear [Milson Valley 8] (Siren Publishing Menage Amour ManLove)

by Jo Penn

  There were going to be disagreements from time to time, relationships weren’t perfect even if they were fated mates. And Finn was right. All Uri wanted to do was dote on his smaller mate, keep Tristian safe and close.

  Tripp and Eddie left first, heading back to pack lands where Tripp would put the place in protection by having the guards and pack soldiers on high alert. Drax left next to get in position at Langlon Ridge. Drax was the legendary three wolf, one who could shift from human to wolf and something in between. He was powerful, and could probably beat Uri, but Drax didn’t want to be Alpha and Uri was born to be. Instead, Drax was the pack’s protector, the Enforcer.

  “So what did I do wrong?” Tristian scratched his longish, shiny light brown hair. “Why’d you get so angry at me?”

  Uri tapped the steering wheel as they drove. They had planted a bug in Finn’s car so he, Drax, and Tripp could hear everything and would know immediately if the plan went astray.

  “We all have instincts, right? Your bear gets feelings over situations, like if you went to go left but had a feeling you should turn right?”

  Tris shrugged. “I guess.”

  “I’m sure those instincts have kept you safe all these years and bears, as I’m aware from having quite a few in the pack, are big believers in karma. Anyway, I follow my instincts. I’ve led my pack for a lot of years, there have been challenges, insubordination, and disruptions. So I know what I’m doing, I know what risks to take, when to back away, when to push forward. We need to develop trust in each other.”

  Tristian nodded but didn’t say anything. They drove in silence for a time, Urian going over the plan in his head, reminding himself what to expect. Also, Bastion may do the surprising considering he was off the farm looney right now.

  “It wasn’t that I didn’t think you could defend Finn and Jude, or that you don’t know what you’re doing. I’ve observed a lot the last week, I see everything you do, and you’re damn good at it. Whether it’s right or wrong, I’m still getting used to being mated and living as part of a pack with all these rules that let me tell you, most of them don’t make a frigging bit of sense.”

  “Let’s not argue about the rules again, baby.” Uri smirked, remembering how over breakfast two days ago Tristian ranted for twenty minutes about the rules. His mate liked to pick and choose which rules applied to him. Finn had laughed himself silly when Urian endeavored to calm their bear down with an explanation about the rules, but gave up and just let the grouchy man rant. “I’m glad you trust me.”

  “Do you trust me?” Tristian asked quietly, blueberry eyes looking straight ahead.

  Uri felt his mate’s unease, the uncertainty. He reached out and slipped his mate’s slender hand into his.

  “With everyday rules like don’t use your gift on the security patrol? Nope, not at all. Do I trust you not to leave Finn and me, yeah, I do. Because, my sweet little bear, I feel your love for us through our bond. As for this situation with Finn, I’m finding it difficult to have both my mates in possible danger.”

  Tristian made a snorting noise. “What danger? Either you, Finn, or Drax will just drop Bastion.”

  “I like your faith in me. What if Bastion was smart enough to come with his own backup? He might have paid someone or got his own little minion. He’s determined they should all die and Finn’s visions show Jude is on the ground bleeding, yet Bastion wasn’t the one who harmed him.”

  “You’ve got a point. What’s your plan?”

  “Drax can cover his scent, which means he can sit quietly and still somewhere and keep watch. If anyone more than Bastion approaches we’ll know, we’ll be wired up with earpieces. While I’d like no one to be injured, there is always a chance, and Finn’s only working out recently how to change his visions.”

  “Hmm, probably can’t change it. Bastion is a seer, and those visions relate to him, too. He’ll have the power to alter the outcome in his favor. Jude doesn’t have visions.”

  No, the other triplet didn’t.

  “I don’t like the idea of you being there, but I will trust you to pay attention and use your gift. If it fails, use the gun I give you or pick up a tree branch and knock anyone out who is with Bastion.”

  “I can do that.” Tristian turned in the seat to face Urian. “Out there by myself, I had to fight, Urian. I didn’t just hide. I’ve been in knife fights, gun fights, used fists and anything that came my way, even a butterfly catcher once—nope, don’t ask.”

  Uri snapped his mouth shut, but he would be asking about that later, and a lot more about Tristian’s life. Apparently he’d assumed the man did his utmost to hide from those who stalked him for his gift, then used the entrancement to get away without causing damage to others.

  “Tristian, I want to know everything. Every single fight, every single time someone harmed you. You and me, Finn, as he needs to know and be involved in everything, which he should as our mate, will want to know all this, too.”

  “It’s not like I hide it. I’ve snuck into paranormal group lands with my followers and entranced guards to extract innocents. I’ve had guns pointed in my face and been shot in the back and gut five times. I’ve picked up a gun and shot a man as he raped a child.” Tris’s gaze didn’t waver, his blueberry eyes were full of pain. “I might have hidden, but I’m the sacred bear, and I choose to lead and help others. I just want a life, Urian. I want to do things, try things, like skydiving and making cupcakes! But I can’t change who I am. I choose not to kill, but I will damage.”

  Uri lifted their joined hands and kissed each of Tristian’s fingers. His mate was gorgeous and a marvel. A pure heart. He used his gift when he could have run and hidden from all those who wanted to capture and bend him to their will. Instead, he became a rescuer and helped those in trouble.

  “I don’t ever want you to change, Tristian. You’re my grouchy sacred bear, and I love you. Because you and Finn are my life, I want you to do all those things you’ve missed out on, to feel safe and not have to hide and fight anymore.” He raised their twined hands and stroked his fingers over his mate’s cheek. “We’ll work on my overprotectiveness, and you can take all the time you need to make cupcakes and paint pictures, maybe hide during a Renegade attack and entrance the bastards so we can arrest them and toss in jail for a few hundred years.”

  Tristian flashed a smile, and it looked so damn good on the man, no longer rusty and cagey, but natural and sexy, that Uri got an instant hard on.

  “I can do that.”

  “No skydiving though, my gorgeous mate.”

  “You can’t tell me what to do.” Tris smiled.

  “Sure I can.” Uri winked and smelled his mate’s arousal. Yeah, Tris got a little turned on when arguing with him and Finn. “We’re all going to come out of this alive, baby, even Bastion.”

  “I know. I trust you and Finn.”

  That was a beautiful thing to hear. His phone rang, Uri doing a quick look at caller idea then hit speaker.

  “Yeah?”

  Tredd Croggen, one of the bear triplets and mated to the greatest strategist alive, Trent Sanchez, spoke to Uri for a few minutes then hung up.

  “Shit.” Urian slapped a hand on the steering wheel.

  “That puts a kink in your plan. What are we going to do now?”

  Trent had been thinking about Bastion, and what the creature may do to get to his brothers and each time he planned it out, it came down to the same thing. He had an accomplice, and he’d take a hostage to get the upper hand.

  “We’re going to kick the looney seer’s ass,” Urian snarled.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Finn tugged his thick coat around himself and slipped on leather gloves. It was colder than a witch’s heart after someone dissed her spell casting. He hoped Bastion hurried up, Finn didn’t have the patience for this hide and seek crap.

  Drax and Urian could probably sit out here for days, patiently waiting. Finn was fairly sure he’d get crazy bored after half an hour.

  Jud
e wasn’t helping. They’d spoken in the car, or really, Finn had yelled a bit, and Jude said he was unreasonable and why couldn’t Finn understand him? Same old arguments. It wasn’t that Finn didn’t understand his brother, he just didn’t get why Jude had to go off without telling anyone and always wanted time alone, away from family and friends. Sure, sometimes the family was just plain annoying, but not so annoying Finn didn’t miss them every day and ring often. Jude though, didn’t call and didn’t seem to care about anyone back home on Hell Island.

  They were still currently arguing about that point.

  “That’s not true.” Jude hunched, hands in the pocket of his baggy corduroy pants, eyes downcast. “I can’t explain this properly, not, so any of you get it, Finn. No matter how many times I say in so many different ways, I only wanted to see the world, explore.”

  “We saw the world every frigging day.” Finn started shuffling his feet to keep warm. “Was it because of Bastion that you left?”

  “No. He’s got issues, but I…I’m different. Everyone knows that. Out here, away from all the seers, I’m not odd and looked at as though I’m defective. Do you know I heard some of the seers say once that I got none of the seer gifts because in the womb you and Bastion were stronger? That I should have been born dead?”

  Finn stared at his brother in shock. “No! Tell me who they are, and I’ll turn their brains to piles of mush.”

  “Thanks, but it’s cool.”

  Finn hugged his brother, sighing. “It’s not safe out here by yourself, Jude. You have to go back. Legally, you belong to Pa. He has full control over you—”

  “I’m sure that’s illegal. Like, for real? I’m a living breathing being. Sure, we don’t know what type of being I actually am as I don’t fit any of the paranormal categories, but still. Owning me?”

  Jude had a legitimate point.

  “How about I talk to Pa? Perhaps we could arrange it so you can have extended visits here. There are a whole pack and Alliance to help protect you.”

  “Do you think Pa will go for it?”

  Not without a lot of persuation and probably some underhanded manipulation, but Finn was sure he was up for convincing the egomaniac old coot. Jude was such a sweetie, and a ditz that their father worried his son would break himself walking out of the house, or someone would snap him up and hurt his soft heart.

  Just the thought of anyone hurting Jude made Finn see red. He’d have to watch out for his brother, it was different here from Hell Island. Everyone always went on about how snobby and elitist vampires were, which could be true, though Finn felt those creatures put on airs, but seers weren’t a lot different. They knew they were unique and rare and their gift highly prized, so they became a bit full of themselves, especially floating around on Hell Island not associating with many other paranormals. Seers ended up living in their own little bubble world of how perfect they were. One of their kind who was different could be ridiculed unless they were strong enough to stand up for themselves. On the floating island, he would have thought no one dared say anything about Jude or picked on him. Their father would have strung the seer up and torn out their intestines if he caught them.

  That was just it. Finn didn’t get it. Jude was unassuming, a little shy, so sweet he could give you a toothache, he couldn’t understand why anyone would say anything against his triplet. He sighed, except for snobby seers.

  “I would like to stay here for a little while. It’s been fun seeing the world, but Brad’s gone back to the army, and I don’t really know where to go next.”

  “Aha! I knew it! That bloody wizard! He put you up to leaving, didn’t he? Brad always had the hots for you, always following you around even after I had a chat and gave him a fat lip.” Finn paced, annoyed. “It was his idea to take the sceptre, right?”

  Jude puffed out a breath and smiled, pointing at a tree. “Look, a squirrel.”

  Finn barely gave the squirrel a glance. “Yeah, a squirrel. We get a few of them around here. The sceptre, Jude.”

  “Hmm?” Jude blinked his violet eyes and yawned. “Oh, yeah, he suggested the sceptre, and he was right, it worked!”

  “I can’t believe he left you out in the world all alone. When I get my hands on him, he’ll wish he never came to Hell Island,” Finn grumbled, plotting the wizard’s demise.

  “Oh, he didn’t actually leave me…” Jude frowned. “Well, I guess he did leave me, but that was after I said I wouldn’t mate with him.” Violet eyes widened in panic. “Can you imagine what Pa would do if I mated anyone?”

  “He’d go ballistic and kill them. Okay, let’s stop and go back a bit.” Finn waved a finger at Jude who pouted. “If Brad didn’t leave you, how did you two get separated and how do you know he’s in the army?”

  “I guess I don’t. Brad said he was going to join the army when he got on the train.”

  Finn took a deep, cleansing breath. This was what Jude was like. Sweet as fuck and such a ditz.

  “Right. So was he here in Milson Valley with you?”

  “No, we parted in New York. He got a train to some army camp, and I took the train here.” Jude’s face lit up excitedly. “Trains are so cool! There were sleeping compartments, a restaurant, a shop and it stopped at all these places. I’m going to go for another train ride soon…unless you send me back to Hell Island.”

  “Don’t worry, brother, none of us will be going back there.”

  Finn shoved Jude behind him, clutching his brother’s hand and squeezing gently. Jude trembled and pressed his body close, gripping Finn’s jacket and ducking his head. Finn let go of Jude’s hand with one last pat. His brother didn’t like it when Bastion and Finn were mad at each other.

  Finn watched Bastion walk out of the forest, pulling Dalton roughly along beside him. Dalton was one of Finn’s best friends and the pack’s only hedgehog shifter, and he looked pissed enough to throw one of his whopper tantrums, which most of the pack curled their lip at and ran from.

  “Now why are you hiding from me?” Bastion snapped angrily, waving the gun in his free hand around. “I come all this way to find you, Jude, and you can’t even say hello?”

  “Hi, Bassie, can you please put the gun down and leave the cute man alone?”

  “He is cute, but he’s got a nasty mouth on him and tried to spike me.” Bastion glared at Dalton and put the gun to the hedgehog shifter’s head. “Now, brothers, it’s time to make things right.”

  “Bastion! You should have let me know you were coming.” Finn held out his hands and made to move to his brother. “I would have made a cake—”

  “Stop, or I put an end to this hedgehog.”

  Finn stopped and looked at the gun in Bastion’s hand. Not a great choice, but he could work with it.

  “Bassie, do you really want to do this? Wouldn’t you rather have a triple shot of Prozac and take a little nap?”

  “You were always a smart ass!” Bastion yelled, waving the gun around. “Why couldn’t you just stay on Hell Island? Why’d you have to go and get yourself mated to some stupid wolf? Wasn’t I enough for you? Me and Jude? Our family?”

  “Bassie, I love you all, but it’s different with mates. It’s consuming and amazing, and unlike any feeling you can imagine. Mates bring—”

  “Gods! Rub it in, why don’t you!”

  Finn grimaced. “That wasn’t my intention, bro. Let’s sit down and talk, okay?”

  “No, not okay.” Bastion pointed the gun steadily at Finn, eyes narrowed, lips thinned.

  It wasn’t an attractive look. Finn sighed. When Bassie was manic like this, there was no talking him around, and by the looks of things, his brother was getting worse. That left fighting. They’d done it before when Finn couldn’t talk his triplet into calming down, but usually their father or one of their older brothers stepped in to make sure neither got hurt. Now one of them was definitely going to get hurt, and Finn wasn’t going to let it be him.

  Nope. As much as Finn loved Bastion, he had two mates, another triplet
, and Dalton to protect. Bastion was going to have to go down hard this time. Without talking, Finn focused his seer gift and flipped it, taking images and pain he experienced when he had a vision and sent it to Bastion with force.

  The impact had Bastion stumbling backward, the gun jerking up and going off. Pissed off by that, Finn rushed his brother and jumped, kicking Bastion directly in the chest and knocking the crazy son of a bitch directly on his back. Landing, he knelt over Bastion and grabbed the other seer’s hands that were clenched, ready to hit.

  “Dalton, pick up the gun,” Finn ordered.

  “No way! You know I don’t touch weapons.” Dalton backed away, hands up.

  Finn rolled his eyes. “Jude, best you don’t touch it either…Jude?”

  “Oh, shit Finn, he’s been shot!” Dalton exclaimed.

  Fear and worry shot through Finn and at that time, Bastion yelled and with a jerk, pulled free, and used his elbow to smash into Finn’s nose.

  “You can’t stop this, Finbarr,” Bastion snapped and pushed him over before leaping up. “You shouldn’t have left! None of you should have! Now I’m going to make it so neither of you ever leave again.”

  “Keep dreaming in your messed up head, brother.” Finn sprung up and would have laid into Bastion, but Urian was there, plucking Finn from mid-air and swinging him around, so he was safely behind. “Shit! Don’t hurt him, Uri.”

  Uri growled, holding Finn behind him with one hand. “You didn’t stick to the plan, angel.”

  “Sorry, it all happened so quickly. Where were you?”

  “Bastion brought along an accomplice, one talented in explosives. The forest is covered in traps. Sebastian and his teams have been called in to disarm and remove them.”

  “Oh shit.” Finn frantically looked over to Jude who was lying on the ground, his head in Dalton’s lap. Blood covered his stomach. “We’ve got to get Jude to the Armstrong coven for healing.”