His to Bear (4 page)

“Ahh, hell,” Holt muttered, dropping his head down to his chest and rolling it

back and forth.

Jaeda crossed her arms over her chest and glared at her mate. She wasn’t moving

until she knew exactly who this kitten named Kenzie was.

Chapter Three

Holt blew out a breath and lifted his head, sweeping his gaze across the room.

Murphy and Finn were the only ones smiling. Leave it to the two Irishmen to find the

humor in all this. The Holloways in the hallway looked beyond pissed. They looked

fighting mad. Without thinking, he glanced at Jaeda and pointed to his side. He shook

his head at his own antics then blinked as she immediately complied.

What was up with that? He knew she was furious, felt her practically vibrating

with anger. Still, she’d followed his order without comment. Was that a bear thing?

He glanced back at the Holloways. Perhaps a female bear thing. God, he needed more

information about all this. He was mated? To Jaeda? None of it made sense to him.

Laramie met his gaze when Holt looked his way. There wasn’t any anger there,

more of a reluctant acceptance. There was also a warning, barely veiled. Holt thought

he understood perfectly with no words being exchanged. If he hurt Jaeda, Laramie,

and most likely the rest of the Holloways, would make sure he paid.

“Do you think you guys could give us a minute?” Holt said, focusing on

Laramie. “I think Jaeda and I need to talk.”

“You do,” Laramie agreed. “But I’m afraid it will have to wait. Until yesterday

morning, we had no idea there were any females alive. Jaeda needs to speak to us

right now. There are answers we need. Answers that cannot wait, even for you.”

Jaeda immediately clung to Holt’s side. He felt her shaking. He still wasn’t a

hundred percent sure why she was afraid of the Holloways. Something else he’d have

to ask her about when they had the time.

“I’m staying with her,” Holt stated matter-of-factly.

“You’re one of us now, as Jaeda’s mate. I’d expect no less,” Laramie replied.

Jaeda relaxed against him, and he draped his arm around her shoulders. She

nuzzled him through his shirt, and he wondered if it was an automatic thing for bear

mates to do. She got entirely too close to his nipple, and he stilled her by pressing her head against him and holding her there. The woman was driving him a bit crazy—

mentally and physically. From what he’d seen with his best friend Kenzie and her

mate, it was only a matter of time before he sensed an emotional tug. Hell! Was he

ready for that?

“Are we invited to this meeting?” Finn asked. “We are the only family Holt has

with him.”

Holt snorted even as Laramie shook his head.

“No one outside our pack is allowed,” Laramie told them.

“We’re shifters,” Murphy offered, but Holt saw the twinkle in his eyes and knew

he was merely teasing Laramie.

“You’re not bear,” Laramie countered then turned his gaze back to Holt. “We’ll

be downstairs. I’ll give you a few minutes to join us…only a few.”

With that he left. Every one of his remaining brothers followed him, making

sure to toss a glare Holt’s way before they did.

“We’ll head out for a bit,” Murphy said. “Give you guys as much privacy as we

can.” He nodded toward Holt’s bag on the floor. “Brought your stuff.”

“Thanks. No phone calls.” Holt thought to add and waited for Murphy and Finn

both to nod their agreement. “I’ll call Tah once I know more. Fill him in on what I

can.”

“And Ken—”

Murphy slapped Finn upside the head again, cutting him off, but it was too late.

Jaeda vibrated with anger as a snarl left her lips. Finn was determined to get Holt

killed it seemed.

The other man mouthed
sorry
to him when their gazes met. With a tilt of his

head, Holt indicated the door. They both took the hint and left, pulling the door closed behind them. Holt knew he and Jaeda didn’t have much time, but there was one thing

he wanted to make clear to her.

What he wasn’t prepared for was for the swift change in her. She turned into

another woman as soon as the door shut. She reached out and pinched him hard before

growling at him.

“You’ll tell me who this Kenzie is so I can decide if she gets to live or not.”

He blinked at the ferocity in her tone. Hell, she looked completely serious.

“I’ll think about it,” he replied flippantly, which was apparently the wrong

answer.

She stepped into him and shoved against his chest. She kept shoving as she

spoke until his back touched the wall. “You’re my Holt. Mine. You may not realize it

yet, but you need to understand that I won’t share. Bears don’t share. I’ll kill another female if she tries to touch you. You. Are. Mine.”

He grabbed her shoulders and spun with her, exchanging places so that he

loomed over her. “I want you to listen to me because I’m only going to say this once.

I’m not yours until I say I am. This mating, whatever it was. It doesn’t mean anything

to me until I agree.”

She opened her mouth, and he promptly put his hand across it.

“Until I say. There will be no tricking. No asking questions I don’t understand

the hidden meaning of. No binding to any of this until I decide there is.”

She mumbled against his hand. With a sigh he removed his palm.

“You said I didn’t trick you. You said.”

She had him there.

“There will be no more attempts on your part to trick me into something. I

understand you’re afraid. Soon, I’ll know exactly why. We’ll talk, Jaeda, and you’ll

tell me everything. I can’t help you if I don’t know what I’m up against.”

“Will you set me aside?” she asked in a whisper.

“I’m not setting you aside,” he promised then shook his head when her eyes

started to light up. “That doesn’t mean I’m accepting the fact we’re mated. It means

I’m not going to leave you on your own.”

“You have to accept it,” she pleaded. “We’re mates.”

“Up until a few years ago, I always thought I’d end up with another woman,”

Holt finally admitted. “You’re going to have to give me some time here. I don’t have

an animal ruling me. I’m just a man.”

“You speak of this Kenzie kitten,” Jaeda sneered.

Holt couldn’t help it. He grinned at the thought of Kenzie’s reaction to being

referred to as a kitten. Wrong move on his part. Jaeda leaned in and bit him hard on

the chest.

“What the fuck!” he exclaimed, pushing her gently to break the hold. He didn’t

want to hurt her, but the bite wasn’t exactly tender. “What the hell was that for?”

Her gaze snapped fire at him. “I bit you. Do you feel more mated, now?” She

yelled the challenge at him.

He almost laughed, almost, but the spot hurt like a bitch.

“No, I don’t,” he said with a grunt. “Fuck! I probably need a rabies shot.”

“I do not have rabies!” she screamed.

Jesus! She was easy to rile. He had to admit, he got a kick out of it. The color it

brought to her face, the way her chest heaved. Hell, the way her green eyes darkened!

It all worked to make her even sexier, which shouldn’t be possible.

“Shh,” he crooned, pulling her close then turning her head with his hand so her

cheek lay against his chest.

He wasn’t stupid. She wrapped one arm around his waist and placed the other by

her face, partially covering it.

“Calm down. I know you don’t have rabies. I was teasing you.”

“Oh,” she said, but her fingers muffled her voice.

A yell carried up from somewhere below.

“We have to go downstairs, or we’ll have every Holloway back up in this

room,” he warned.

She shivered against him.

He tilted her head up to him and dropped a soft kiss on her brow. “There’s no

need to be afraid. Nobody’s going to hurt you here. I promise you that. Do you

believe me?”

She slowly nodded. The woman was a mystery. Frightened and shaking one

minute and spitting fire the next. She was definitely going to keep him on his toes

while he worked to figure everything out. He took her hand, gave it a squeeze and

started walking out of the room with her slightly behind him.

Mated. He couldn’t get the thought out of his mind. How the hell did he end up

mated to a female bear shifter who wasn’t supposed to exist? It appeared Laramie and

Jaeda accepted it, and she at least found it binding no matter what the others thought.

God! This was a complete clusterfuck of epic proportions. How the hell was he going

to handle this situation?

He stopped at the bottom of the stairs, and Jaeda ran into him. He heard the

slight grunt as she collided, felt the fullness of her breast where it pressed against him, and caught his breath. His dick responded instantly. Not necessarily a good thing. As

much as he wanted her, he’d be damned if he gave into his body’s desire. Not when

he wasn’t certain of anything between the two of them. He wouldn’t do to Jaeda what

Kenzie’s mate had done to her.

He followed the bellows and shouts coming from the rear of the lodge the

Holloways called home. Jaeda’s grip on his hand tightened the closer they drew. Her

fear tugged at him.

Silence descended over the room as soon as they entered. Holt noticed Koby

was with them, though he looked anything but happy about it. He was obviously

agitated. He kept shrugging as he prowled around the back of the room. Laramie sat in

a leather style chair to the side of a huge fireplace in a rather large sitting area. There was an empty chair beside him. Jensen, Declan and Slade sat on one of the two

couches in the room. Matheus and Brock sat on the other. The only other piece of

furniture was a really short couch, bigger than the chair but still not roomy enough for him and Jaeda to sit comfortably.

He knew that was where the Holloways planned for the two of them to sit.

Instead, he led her to the chair next to Laramie’s and pushed Jaeda to sit in it before

leaning against the arm at her side. He let his gaze meet every single one of theirs

except Koby, who was still pacing.

“Are we ready?” he asked when none of them spoke. He addressed his question

to Laramie. He knew who was in charge.

Laramie glanced at him, and Holt knew the other man was taking his measure in

a way he never had before. He’d been with the cat shifters before. Inconsequential in

the long run. That had all changed with the arrival of Jaeda. There was hostility in the air Holt had never felt before. Luckily, he wasn’t a man prone to fear. Didn’t mean he

had a death wish, either. He held his tongue and waited for Laramie to get things

started. This wasn’t his first rodeo with a room full of shifters. He held Laramie’s

stare until the other man finally nodded. Then he seemed to dismiss Holt in favor of

Jaeda.

“You have nothing to fear here, little bear,” Laramie tried to assure her.

Her response was to curl her fingers around Holt’s wrist where it rested at his

side. Holt watched Laramie take note of her action. Hell, every Holloway in the room

probably noticed.

“We’ll start with the events that brought you here then go back from there,”

Laramie said. “We have much to discuss, and I expect you to meet my gaze, Jaeda.”

Her head snapped up at the tone of Laramie’s voice. She glanced at Holt, but he

refused to acknowledge her look. He wanted answers as much as the Holloways did.

Perhaps more so considering he was the one suddenly mated to her. Besides, Laramie

was only questioning her. Holt wouldn’t interfere unless she really needed him to. At

the present, she didn’t.

“Where were you staying?” Laramie asked.

“With my Uncle Emmett.”

“Emmett Blackstone?” Jensen wanted to know.

Jaeda nodded.

“Wait until we know more,” Laramie said, and Holt realized Jensen had been

ready to leave.

“You were attacked,” Laramie stated, and Jaeda nodded again.

She certainly didn’t seem ready to expose the Holloways to the temper she’d

shown him. The hellion was docile as a lamb in here. It was almost laughable how

quickly her personality had changed.

Laramie lifted a brow at Jaeda, waiting none too patiently until she began

speaking.

“We were training when we realized they were close. Uncle Emmett said it was

important for me to know how to defend myself in case anything ever happened. We

trained every day for six hours first thing in the morning. No exceptions. I was on my

back, trying to catch my breath, when we first sensed them.”

“Why were you on your back trying to catch your breath?” Holt demanded.

“Uncle Emmett had just thrown me from him. I landed a few feet away. I curled

to protect my head so my back took the brunt of the fall.”

She said it so casually, as if that were normal, and the Holloways said nothing.

Holt seethed with anger. He noticed she was still watching him and nodded for her to

continue.

“He ordered me to go to the den. I didn’t want to, but I knew I didn’t have a

choice. Staying would have only gotten us both killed. I thought he might have a

better chance if I wasn’t with him.”

“Your uncle knew it was important for you to stay alive. You did the right thing

by hiding,” Laramie assured her.

Holt wondered where the den had been and how she’d remained hidden from the

hunters.

“I…” She stopped and swallowed.

Laramie glanced at Brock and the youngest Holloway rose and crossed the