Winston (BBW Bear Shifter Wedding Romance) (Grizzly Groomsmen Book 3) (12 page)

Custer stiffened, his smile suddenly cold. “And what did you tell them?”

“That it was a no-go. It’s understandable. We need their help to get Mason to stop sending people after us, but if we turn Delphine loose she could disappear—or worse, go back to Mason—and then they’re on the hook for being willing to testify against them and in the same position we are. I explained that we couldn’t risk giving Delphine to them in case they decided to try and garner loyalty with Mason. We agreed that, as long as we keep Delphine on a proverbial leash, they’d be willing to testify. The problem with our job is that the only reliable way to do that is keep you on the ship, which means you’d have to work for us. We don’t have the resources or, frankly, the inclination to take care of someone who isn’t contributing. Thoughts?”

“I…” Delphine shook her head, stunned. “I don’t understand.”

“The problem,” Ingram said, “is that you were raised to believe that Mason Corporation was omnipotent and infallible. In reality, neither are true and no one knows it better than the people who run it. The fact that we may or may not be able to cause an investigation is too dangerous. They’re backing off, at least for now. So the question remains. What do you want to do?”

“You’re really asking my opinion?” Delphine asked, carefully rearranging her understanding of her life.

“Of course,” the captain said. “We’ve already told you that we’re not willing to keep prisoners. Again, we don’t have the resources, and if you chose to you could make our lives very difficult. As it stands, we need you here, willingly, or we need to work out an acceptable alternative.”

Delphine looked at Custer, feeling truly, utterly helpless for the first time in her life. She would have been happy to die for him. The thought that she might get to live with him filled her with a terrifyingly intense whirl of emotions.

“Whatever you want,” Custer said softly, and Delphine knew he meant it.

She took a deep breath and smiled, small but true.

“I want to stay.”

Sam

Grizzly Groomsmen II

by

Becca Fanning

Raking her fingers through her short hair, Lorne looked around the room. She was in her element, surrounded by people, booze, and music, and ready to have a good time. Even if she had ended up becoming Dina's unofficial wedding planner, she'd still been looking forward to this party all year. This was her kind of occasion, glamorous, in that easy, laid-back way, and packed full of gregarious people who were all too ready to blow off some steam and actually have a good time for once.
 

When Dina had first mentioned the idea of having the wedding somewhere outside the city, Lorne had been looking up venues on her iPhone before the sentence had even come out of her mouth. She'd met Dina through her sister, who worked with the soon-to-be bride, it was rare that Lorne clicked so hard with someone else, but Dina and her just had an instant chemistry that never backed down. Ever since Lorne had spotted her across the room at one of her sister's boring work functions and Dina had responded with a half-smile and a raised eyebrow, she knew she'd found a kindred spirit.
 

That had been two years ago, and Lorne and Dina had become intense best friends, the kind who piss everyone around them off with their inside jokes and shrieking giggles. Lucky for Lorne, she'd always been fond of Tom, Dina's fiancé, too, so when they got engaged, Lorne was delighted. But she'd known them long enough to understand that a pair of scatterbrained flakes like Dina and Tom probably wouldn't do so well organizing a wedding by themselves, if they did, it would probably end up taking place in their back garden, with invitations sent the week before and a cake knocked up by her niece and covered in Christmas decorations because that's all they had kicking around. Dina had wheedled Lorne into helping pretty much every step of the way, and Lorne was happy to get involved. Organizing someone else's wedding was sort of the dream for her, she got to throw all her type-A sorting-out skill into something, but without the pressure of actually marrying someone herself. And that's how she found herself standing at the pre-wedding reception, watching a bunch of couples out on the dance floor, feeling like a puppet master as everything came together exactly how she'd pictured it.

Picking up her beer and taking a sip, Lorne caught Dina's eye across the room, Dina offered her a quick wave, then made her way through the crowd towards her. Lorne had been so busy putting this whole thing together that she kept on forgetting her best friend would be getting married in only two days, a terrifying thought for someone as single as she was. Sometimes, she couldn't believe they were the same age, now that Dina was getting married, it seemed as if she'd moved up to a whole other level of grown-up-itude.

"How's it going?" Lorne asked as Dina approached her, trying not to wobble on her stiletto heels.

"Pretty good, though I need to find some way to avoid all the family members who want to come and drunkenly tell me stories from when I was four," she pulled a face, and Lorne grinned

"Well, I'll do my best, but I'm not promising anything," she replied sternly, and Dina reached behind her to pour herself another glass of champagne. Lorne cocked an eyebrow at her, and Dina immediately protested.

"Hey, I'm allowed to be hungover tomorrow, it's not my wedding till the day after that!"

"I know. But I've seen you hungover, and it's not something I want to have to deal with again," Lorne shot back dryly.
 

"Yeah, fair point," Dina took a sip of champagne. "But why would you organize all this booze if you didn't want me to get a little drunk?"

"What's a wedding without a bit of social lubricant?" Lorne replied. "That's why everyone always hooks up at weddings, you know. It’s the mixture of booze and being reminded of the fact that you're tragically single."

"Aw, are you feeling lonely?" Dina turned to Lorne with a half-sympathetic, half-teasing look on her face.

"I've got too much to do to feel anything other than busy."

"Shame," Dina nonchalantly replied. "I noticed Sam was looking like he needed some company."

"Who's Sam?" Lorne asked, scanning the room, trying to set her sights on anyone who wasn't having a good time.

"He's one of the groomsmen," Dina explained, turning her back on the room so she could murmur directly into Lorne's ear. "He's sitting by the window, glass of red wine, kind of burgundy suit?"

Lorne glanced across the room, trying as hard as she could not to look like she was staring at anyone. Then she saw him, he had tightly cropped slick of blonde hair, a carefully fitted suit, and his fingers drumming up against the glass on the table in front of him.

"Oh, that's him?" She nodded towards his table. "It's kind of weird, putting a face to all these names."

"You should go talk to him," Dina prompted, grinning mischievously.

"Look, just because you're getting married, it doesn't mean that you have to find someone for me to have a happily-ever-after with," Lorne scolded her playfully. "Besides, the groomsman and the bridesmaid? Do you want me to be a walking cliché?"

"Yes," Dina pouted. "And it's my wedding, so I get whatever I want."

"Tell me about it," Lorne muttered pointedly, slyly eyeing Dina out of the corner of her eye to watch for her reaction. She tried to keep a game face, but ended up grinning.
 

"Right, okay. I suppose I don't want one of the groomsmen sitting there all miserable for the night. So one dance, okay?" Lorne smoothed out her dress, black and white, with no halter, even if she did have to find an industrial-strength strapless bra to keep everything in place. "Anything I should know about him?"

"Um, Tom and him lived together before he met me, and I think he works in publishing or something?" Dina wrinkled up her nose. "That's not important. He's cute and you look like you need to relax."

"I'm fine," Lorne replied firmly. "Really, I'm having a good time."

Dina raised her eyebrows at her skeptically.
 

"Yeah, okay. Well, go and have a better one."

"But-"

"The bride decrees it to be so!" Dina cut across her before she could form any kind of protestation. Lorne shrugged, picked up her drink, and headed across the crowded room, weaving in and out of people dancing and drinking to get to his table.

"Sam?" She asked, raising her voice so she could be heard over the music. He looked up, an expectant look on his face.

"Yeah?"
 

"Can I join you?" She gestured towards the empty seats surrounding him, and he shrugged, looking resigned.
 

"If you like."
 

Lorne stepped past him and into one of the seats, he had picked a good spot, next to the window, where she could make out the distant water lapping gently against the beach.

"So, you're one of the groomsmen, right?" She leant across the table.

"Yeah, Tom invited me a few months ago. I've never done it before, so I'm kind of nervous." He glanced at her as he spoke, and she noticed his eyes, a deep, wooden brown, flecked with a shimmering bronze color.
 

"Yeah, it's my first time doing this whole thing too. I'm on bridesmaid duty, and I'm pretty much certain I'm going to trip over my dress or forget my flowers or something."
 

"Oh, how do you know Tom and Dina?" he asked, turning to her. "I'm trying to find the logic behind all the people they invited, because I don't recognize, like, any of them."

"I met Dina a couple of years ago. We're just your regular, run-of-the-mill friends, I guess."

"I saw you talking to her over there," Sam nodded to the spot where Dina was now nonchalantly watching them and sipping champagne. "Looked like you guys had good banter."

"We do. Even if she's insisting that I find someone to spend the wedding weekend with," Lorne rolled her eyes, and he flashed a knowing grin her way.
 

"Yeah, Tom's pretty much been doing the same for me." He admitted. "Hey, you think that's the logic behind the wedding party?"

"What, just getting all their single friends together?" Lorne laughed. "I wouldn't put it past them."

"It seems like exactly the kind of shit they would do," he nodded, turning to her with a glint in his eye. "I bet they've been planning this for years, getting married is just secondary to pairing off all the single people they know."

Lorne looked at him for a moment, incredulous, until she scanned her brain back over the guest list that Dina had given her all those months ago. Every member of the wedding party, and she had checked, because it had seemed strange to her at the time, was single.
 

"You know, you could be right," she nodded. "How do you know the rest of us were single, though?"

"Oh, I know the other groomsmen," he waved his hand vaguely, apparently speaking without really giving much thought to his words. Lorne wrinkled her brow, this was the first she was hearing of this.

"How do you know them?"

"Um, squash team?" He offered up hopefully, as if Lorne would swallow his answer without question.
 

"Come on, you can tell me," she leaned in conspiratorially. "What is it?"
 

"Nothing that you should get burdened with," he looked away, his warm expression dropping away, as if he knew he'd said too much. Lorne was intrigued now, and she wasn't exactly the type to let someone brush her off like that.

"Look, I've been burdened with putting together pretty much this entire wedding," she pointed out. "I'm pretty sure I can handle whatever it is that you're keeping from me."

"It's just that Tom and Dina don't know," he looked at her seriously, and she leaned in closer.

"Trust me, I'm good at keeping secrets." She kept her voice low, her interest piqued. "Now will you just tell me what the hell is going on?"

"We're shifters," he shot back, and for a moment Lorne was knocked off-balance-which was not a feeling she tolerated with much joy. Then she took another look at him, the metallic flecks in his eyes, the wiry build, the solitude. Now that she thought about it, it seemed obvious.

"Oh." She replied, taking a sip of her drink and thinking for a moment. "How does Tom not know that?"

"We met through him. We sniffed each other out."

"Literally?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Sam grinned sheepishly, obviously used to a bigger reaction than the one he got.
 
"That doesn't bother you?"

"The only thing that could bother me right now is the caterers getting stuck off the island or something," she raised her eyebrows at him. "Provided you're not planning a twenty-one groomsmen shift or something, I'm pretty sure we'll be okay."

"Huh," Sam commented, running his finger round the rim of his glass.
 

"Not what you expected?"
 

"Most people tend to be at least a little rattled when I first tell them, you know?" He admitted.

"Would you rather I fell to the floor in a dead faint and had to be revived with smelling salts?" She rolled her eyes. "You've been around for more than seventy years now. Meeting a…shifter, one of you, it's not the big deal it was."