Bearing the Midnight Sun (Ice Bear Shifters Book 3) (7 page)

“So serious,” Tyler said, leaning over to kiss her. “You’re amazing, and I have to pinch myself to believe that I’m lucky enough to have you in my life.”

“I’m the lucky one,” Kat said, returning the kiss. Before she knew it, she and Tyler were tangled up in each other’s arms again, starting round two of their non-sunset fun.

The next morning, Tyler went to talk to his alpha. After mating with Kat, Tyler was more confident than ever that she was his life mate. He was fully bonded to her now, and he wanted to run the idea of Kat being his life mate by Neal. As alpha, Neal had to approve any new clan members. Since becoming a shifter’s life mate automatically made someone a part of the clan, Neal had to approve any potential life mates.

Tyler wasn’t too worried about getting Neal’s approval. Neal had known that Tyler was deeply interested in Kat, and hadn’t expressed any worries about that. Neal had also relaxed about allowing human mates, thanks to the fact that Ryker and Eric had both already taken a human life mate. Tyler smiled, thinking of his fellow clan members human life mates. Kat was spending time at Kenzie’s cabin at the moment, having lunch with Kenzie and Delaney. The three women seemed to really be hitting it off, and Tyler hoped that Kat would be able to develop a strong, deep friendship with them.

The smile disappeared from Tyler’s face as he walked into the front door of Neal’s tattoo shop, however. The shop was empty, except for Neal, who was on the phone with an angry look on his face.

“Kenzie, calm down,” Neal said. “Are you sure they’re Blizzards?”

There was a pause while Kenzie spoke.

“Do you have a gun?” Neal asked, his voice strained.

Another pause.

“Okay. Just stay down and stay as quiet as you can. I’m on my way over.”

“What’s going on,” Tyler asked as soon as Neal hung up the phone. He tried to ignore the panic and anger rising in his stomach. All he could think about was that if any of the Blizzards dared to lay a paw on Kat, he would personally tear out the heart of every last one of their clan members.

“We have to go, now!” Neal said, running toward the door. “Kenzie said there are Blizzards by the cabins.”

Tyler ran out the front door after Neal, who didn’t even bother to lock up the shop or put a closed sign on the door. The men both leaped onto their four wheelers and sped toward the edge of town, neck to neck as they raced to where the clan’s women were hiding out in Kenzie’s cabin.

“Where are the other bears?” Tyler shouted at Neal. He knew Neal’s ultrasonic bear shifter hearing would allow him to hear Tyler’s question over the sounds of the four wheeler’s engine.

“Ryker’s at work. Eric and Alan took the day off from cabin-building to go hiking, since they were so close to finishing everything.”

Neal and Tyler sped through a stale yellow light, earning them irritated shouts from some nearby pedestrians about how dangerously they were driving. But Tyler didn’t care. He just wanted to get to Kat.

“Are the girls safe?” Tyler asked. Obviously, the answer was not really, since they were speeding toward the cabins at breakneck speed. But Tyler wanted to get a better idea of just how much trouble they were in.

“They’re hiding in Ryker’s cabin. Kenzie has a gun, but she’s not sure how many Blizzards there are. She said she saw at least three.” Neal paused for a moment as he and Tyler veered around opposite sides of slow moving pickup truck to pass it, then continued. “She doesn’t know what they were doing, but they didn’t seem interested in breaking into the cabin, at least not at that moment. It sounds like they’re vandalizing the new cabins we’ve been building.”

“Shit,” Tyler said, trying to urge his four wheeler on faster, but he was already testing the limits of how fast it could go. His heart pounded with nervous energy as they sped past the outer edges of town and toward the cluster of cabins owned by the Northern Lights Clan. As they cabins zoomed into view, Tyler counted five enormous polar bears. They were definitely Blizzards. As they turned toward the sound of Tyler and Neal’s fast approaching four wheelers, he could see their jet black eyes glittering with pure evil.

One of the Blizzards roared, and the rest of them answered with roars of their own. Then they started running toward the forest in a hasty retreat. Clearly, they had not been expecting any Northern Lights bears to show up. Since Northern Lights bears could each take out about five Blizzards on their own, it would take a whole lot more than five Blizzards to take down Neal and Tyler fighting together. Tyler followed Neal’s lead, staying on his four wheeler until just before the forest entrance. Then he braked hard, skidding sideways and jumping off of his vehicle at a full speed run. As he and Neal ran toward the forest, two loud roars sounded out, followed by two whooshes of strong wind. Suddenly, in the place of the two violet-eyed men, two violet-eyed polar bears were running. And they were angry.

They nipped at the Blizzards heels as they zigzagged through the forest. Neal’s bear caught one of them and wrestled him to the ground. Tyler’s bear left his alpha in the dust as he continued to chase the other four. He wasn’t worried in the slightest about Neal’s bear. That Blizzard didn’t stand a chance. Tyler’s bear tried to swipe at the back paws of the fleeing Blizzards, but each time he swiped at one of them, they managed to just barely escape his paw. Panting, and filled with adrenaline and frustration, he let out a roar. One of the Blizzards glanced back at the noise, and it delayed the bear just enough for Tyler’s bear to catch its back paw with a good, hard swipe. The Blizzard went tumbling head over heels, stopping with a hard thud when it hit a large tree trunk. Tyler’s bear pounced, and he closed his huge teeth over the neck of the Blizzard before the other bear could even react. In just moments, the Blizzard’s body went limp and lifeless. Tyler’s bear batted his paw at the bear’s face one last time for good measure then turned his back and started walking back in the direction he had come from. A few moments later, Neal’s bear came bounding through the forest. When they saw each other, they shifted back into human form with two loud whooshes.

“I got one,” Tyler said. “The other three just kept on running. They’re long gone by now, so there’s no point in going after them.”

“Bunch of lowlife cowards. I can’t believe they didn’t even stop to help their own clan members,” Neal said. He kicked a big stick out of the way as they walked through the thick forest brush.

“We should hurry back,” Tyler said. “I want to make sure the girls are okay.”

Neal nodded and quickened his pace, but he didn’t look too worried. “They’re fine. The Blizzards weren’t there to go after the girls. It looked like they were there to try to ruin the cabins we’ve built. They’re scared of us all being together next winter. They know taking us down that way will be difficult.”

“Bunch of pansies,” Tyler said.

“I agree,” Neal said. “But what I really don’t understand is how they’re managing to stay down here during the summer, given how sensitive they are to heat. I thought they had just left a bear or two here while the rest of them went north, but I’m starting to think that they all stayed around Glacier Point. I don’t know how they’re doing it. Obviously, they’re trying to lay somewhat low during the summer. But they’re not hiding completely. They want us to know that they’re here.”

The men walked in silence for a few moments, then Neal glanced over at Tyler with a smirk on his face.

“So, are you still going to ask me if you can ask Kat to be your life mate?”

“What the heck? How did you know that’s what I was coming to the shop to ask about?”

“You smell like Kat. And you look like bear that’s bonded to his mate. It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together.”

Tyler looked at Neal sheepishly. “Well? What do you say? Will you accept Kat into the Northern Lights Clan?”

Neal smiled. “Yes,” he said. “I’ve seen the happiness you’ve felt this summer as you’ve spent time with Kat. And Kenzie’s talked about Kat a lot. She seems quite impressed with her. If Kat’s okay with your being a bear shifter, and she thinks she can put up with you for a life mate, then she’s welcome to join the clan.”

Tyler grinned from ear to ear as they stepped back into the clearing near Ryker’s cabin. He could hardly wait to pop the question to Kat. He knew she would say yes, but he wanted to make the occasion special. He immediately started devising plans for how he would surprise Kat.

* * *

If anything surprised Kat, it was the way Neal and Tyler walked into Ryker’s cabin, naked as they day they were born, and no one seemed to give it a second thought. Kenzie was lying down on her bed, holding her pregnant, swollen stomach and taking deep breaths to try to relax after their distressing ordeal. She had finally been able to reach Ryker at work, and her life mate had promised to return to the cabin as fast as he could. Delaney started filtering through a dresser, and she handed the men some clothes as though this happened all the time.

Maybe it did. Kat felt way out of her league here. She had been sitting there, talking and laughing with Kenzie and Delaney, when Kenzie suddenly hushed them and hissed out, “Blizzards!” Delaney had grabbed Kat’s arm and dragged her into the new spare room that had just been added to the cabin, while Kenzie grabbed the cordless phone and rushed after them.

Kenzie had called Neal, speaking in hushed, terrified tones. After she hung up the phone with Neal, she tried calling the superstore where Ryker worked as a security guard, but she hadn’t been able to get a hold of him right away. The next several minutes felt like an eternity. Kenzie got a rifle and readied it to shoot, pointing it in the direction of the door. Delaney’s face looked drawn and pale. Kat wanted to ask for more details on what the Blizzards were doing, but she didn’t dare speak. The silence in the room felt deafening, but it was finally broken by the sound of roaring four wheeler engines and shouting men, one of whom sounded like Tyler.

When two whooshes of powerful wind shook the cabin, Kenzie and Delaney visibly relaxed.

“They’re here,” Kenzie said. “They just shifted.”

Delaney even dared to go peek out the front window. “They’re chasing them into the forest. Holy shit, though, those asshole Blizzards really messed up the work Eric and Alan have done on the cabins. Scared to move, but overcome with curiosity, Kat had edged toward the window and peeked out as well. Logs lay scattered and shredded across the clearing, and she could see that the front face of the cabin that Alan was building for Tyler had been demolished.

The sound of voices bursting through the front door of the cabin startled Kat back to the present moment, as three angry men stormed into the room. Eric and Alan had arrived back from their hike to see the devastation at the same time that Ryker had made it back from the store. The entire clan was present, and for a moment chaos filled the cabin as everyone talked at once. Finally, Neal’s voice rose above the rest.

“Everyone, quiet down and listen up,” he bellowed. “Obviously, despite our promises to take the Blizzard threat more seriously, we’ve been pretty slack about it lately. That has to change. And the first thing that needs to happen is that we need to get these cabins finished, pronto. We need to move out of the city and all be out here together. We can’t leave our new homes unattended anymore, and we definitely can’t leave Kenzie unattended anymore. If the Blizzards want to harm her or the new Northern Lights cub, they’re going to have to do it over my dead body.”

“Mine too,” Ryker growled, putting his arm around his pregnant life mate. The room filled with a chorus of agreeing growls.

Neal nodded and raised his hands for silence. “It’s still early enough in the summer that we have almost twenty-four hours of uninterrupted sunlight. I want these cabins done tonight. Do any of you have a reason you can’t work here for the rest of the day?”

None of the men spoke, so Neal started for the door. “Alright then,” he said. “Let’s get to it.”

For the next twenty hours, the men worked nonstop. Kat had no idea where they found so much energy, but they didn’t stop until the last nail on the last cabin had been hammered in. Luckily, the majority of the damage the Blizzards had managed to inflict was cosmetic. With most of the other work already completed, five angry, motivated Northern Lights bears made quick work of the remaining tasks.

Kat helped in whatever way she could. She cooked large pots of food with Delaney, and tried to make Kenzie as comfortable as she could. With only two months left until her due date, Kenzie’s stomach was full and round, and Kenzie constantly felt uncomfortable and exhausted. Kat didn’t envy Kenzie’s discomfort, but she did feel jealous of the fact that Kenzie would soon get to be a mother. Kat hoped that one day relatively soon she would get to share that same joy. Delaney felt the same way. As they washed dishes up after the men had scarfed down food and returned to their work, Delaney cast a wistful glance in Kenzie’s direction.

“She’s so lucky,” Delaney said. “I hope I can have a little cub soon, too.”

“Me too,” Kat said with a smile. “Wouldn’t that be so fun? All of us with little cubs about the same age running around.”

Delaney returned Kat’s smile. “That would be perfect,” she agreed. “Tyler needs to hurry up and officially ask you to be his life mate.”

Despite the seemingly constant threat of the Blizzards, the clan held a lot of hope for the future. Kat breathed a happy sigh for the thousandth time that evening. She had lost her only family when her dad died and her ex broke up with her. But now she had a new family. The Northern Lights Clan had taken her in as one of its own.

When the men finished working, Kat drove Tyler’s four wheeler back to her cabin, since Tyler didn’t even have energy left to drive. He put his arms around her and leaned his head against her back, and she breathed in the feeling of his body snuggled against hers. He had taken a few days off from the gym, and tomorrow they would pack up both of their cabins and move over to the new cabin in the woods. Kat had never been a big fan of packing and moving, but she found herself looking forward to the next few days, anyways. Several days of unlimited time with Tyler sounded like heaven, even if all that time would be spent moving.