Boss Bear

  Sylvia craned her neck to see who was speaking. The man in the doorway was taller than Leland by an inch or two, with shoulders so broad she doubted he could pass through the door without turning sideways. His face was so similar to Leland’s that she knew they must be related.

  “Buck, this isn’t a good time.”

  “I was trying to order supplies this morning and my company card kept getting denied. I need an explanation, Leland. Did you freeze my card?”

  “It wasn’t me.”

  “Who then?”

  Leland turned to Sylvia where she sat startled in her chair. Buck, the man in the doorway, pushed past Leland and walked into the house.

  “Who is she?” Buck demanded.

  “Hi, I’m Sylvia Becker,” she said standing to offer him her hand. “I’m with the auditor.”

  “Sorry I forgot my manners, ma’am,” he said, rubbing his hand over his denim jacket. He reached out to shake her hand. “Buck Kincaid. Leland’s brother.”

  “Pleased to meet you.”

  Buck sniffed the air and looked from Leland to Sylvia and back again.

  “Is there something going on here I should know about? Beside the fact that there is an auditor in Dad’s living room, and my credit card is frozen. Because you two smell…funny.”

  Leland sighed heavily, his tone revealing his deep exhaustion. Sylvia wanted to reach out and touch him, but part of her felt like the enemy here. The fact was, she was the enemy, in a way, and it was killing her.

  “Sylvia is my mate.”

  “Whoa, mate?”

  “We met on Mate.com last night.”

  “Okay. This is too much for one bear first thing in the morning. I was supposed to be up on the mountain half an hour ago. All I needed was a new nut for the rigger. Now, you’re mates with our auditor, and I didn’t even know we were being audited. Figures this would happen the minute you come back home after seven years.”

  “You think this is somehow my fault?” Leland objected.

  Sylvia felt awkward being in the middle of what looked like a budding family feud.

  “Dad never said anything about an audit.”

  “You have no idea what’s going on with the family finances, do you?”

  “Dad took care of all that. You know what he was like.”

  “Well, Dad was not doing a very good job. There are years of unpaid debts to unravel. And that’s not even the half of it.”

  Buck collapsed onto the red sofa, looking dazed.

  Sylvia stood near the fireplace, clutching her briefcase. She wished there was more she could do. She didn’t know Leland that well, but the night before had connected them on a level she’d never felt before. She felt a deep sense of loyalty to him, which she knew she wouldn’t be able to shake any time soon, even if she wanted to.

  “I can’t believe it,” Buck said, running his hand under his baseball cap. “Dad was always so sure of himself. He never let me or Jessie in on the business side. It was a lot like the herd. You know, Leland. If I’d had any idea, I would have said something a long time ago. We could have hired someone to help him.”

  “I think it was beyond hiring an accountant. Dad was hiding something. What? I have no idea. But I intend to get to the bottom of it.”

  “Gentlemen, this may not be the best time to start the investigation. Maybe we can reschedule.”

  “No,” they both said at the same time, finally turning to look at her.

  “You two seem to have a lot to talk about right now,” Sylvia said.

  “What happens next with the audit?” Buck asked.

  “I look at your books, assess your assets, and take it from there. I am a certified CPA and tax preparer. I can help you get caught up on the paperwork. Although, I’m afraid this situation is…a conflict of interest now. I should probably hand the case over to another agent.”

  “And go back to Portland?” Leland asked, his face contorting into a shocked and worried expression.

  “That would be the most appropriate thing to do at this juncture.”

  “No one needs to know you two are mates,” Buck said thoughtfully.

  “I’m not sure I can do my job objectively.”

  “I’d never ask you to do anything you were uncomfortable with,” Leland said, crossing the room to her.

  The irritation in his face had melted away, and all she saw now was the sweet man she’d given herself to the night before. The tender look in his eyes made her weak at the knees, and she nearly fell over when he gathered her in his big, strong arms.

  “Somehow, I already know that,” she whispered into his ear. “But if I’m going to be objective, you’ll have to be able to accept the outcome.”

  She hated to say it. Because what she uncovered could ruin their lives. This kind of debt was a serious issue and they were in real danger of losing everything. She didn’t want to be the person who had to tell him that.

  “I know we can work this out without you ever having to compromise your integrity,” he said.

  “I’m not sure you comprehend how serious this is,” she said. “Depending on what your dad owes, the lien could be too high to ever pay off. You could lose Timber Bear Ranch. And there is nothing I can do to stop it. It’s all numbers. I can’t fudge them or be more understanding about it. The entire decision is black and white with no gray. I don’t want to be the one who has to do that to you.”

  “Sylvia. I’d rather it came from you than anyone else. Besides, I’m not letting you get away.”

  She giggled softly and stepped to the coffee table to open her briefcase and retrieve her files.

  “Okay, then. Let’s get to work.”

  Chapter 8

  Leland and Sylvia spent the rest of the day digging through his dad’s old paperwork, trying to make sense of his books and the disorganized mess of his life.

  Leland couldn’t believe his dad had been able to continue running the ranch as long as he had. As they sat across the dining room table from each other—the place where he and his brothers had fought over the last one of their mother steaks or biscuits, and the place where they had their family holidays—he knew more than ever that she was the one.

  He imagined their life together, living on the ranch as husband-and-wife. Her every gesture and move made his inner grizzly growl to make her his own. They had fallen prey to Fate Mountain Lager, as had many couples before them, but Leland had not gone so far as to claim her the night before.

  Part of him regretted that. But another part of him was glad he’d held back. He knew there would always be more to discover with Sylvia. She was like uncharted territory and he wanted to explore each and every little corner of what was inside her. He had to snap his mind back to the matter at hand as she clicked away at the keyboard on her laptop, organizing the income and expenses for his father's business for the previous year.

  His father hadn't filed a return in six years, and Leland knew that the debt must be monumental. It was hard to conceive the amount of debt that the family would have to pay. Or if it would even be possible. With Sylvia sitting so close to him, it was hard to be afraid of anything, even losing the family ranch that had been in the Kincaid clan for five generations.

  It should have made him dark and brooding and angry, but it didn't. Maybe it was because he'd been gone for so long and was coming back to find his father's mess had gotten out of hand. But he was more interested in watching Sylvia's prettily painted fingertips click on her keys as she looked back and forth between his father's terrible record-keeping and her computer.

  "This isn't looking good, is it?" he asked.

  "I'm only halfway through last year, and…" she said, going silent. "It's not looking great."

  "These mountains of debt don't make sense. I don't see where any of the money went."

  "To be honest," she said, "neither do I."

  "When my mother was alive, my father had been an excellent businessman. He's capable of running this ranch. He ran it for thirty years."
>
  "Things happen," Sylvia said.

  "But when?" Leland asked.

  He sat back in the kitchen chair and scratched his chin. He and his brothers had been away at war for four years and after they'd come back, his father had been in frenzied state. Everything had changed on the ranch during the time the Kincaid brothers had been away. Whenever Leland had tried to discuss it with Hank, his father had blown him off and pushed him away, which had been the biggest reason that Leland had left to go work in Texas. He couldn't work with a man who wouldn't work with him. But Jessie, Buck, and even Cyrus had all stayed.

  He hadn't talked to Jessie about the debts yet, but it was clear that Buck didn't know anything about it. What about Cyrus? Cyrus had taken to the mountains right after they'd come home from war, not wanting to participate in society any longer. He'd been living deep in the forest on Fate Mountain. Jessie said he'd seen him a few months ago, but Cyrus hardly ever came down from the mountain.

  "It probably started while we were gone. While we were away during the war," Leland said.

  "Your father would have had to run the ranch himself at that time, wouldn’t he?" Sylvia asked.

  "Yes. Back then there was less timber business."

  "Why don't you go do some more digging while I continue organizing the income and expenses for last year?" Sylvia said.

  Leland nodded and stood from his chair. Every second he spent with Sylvia, he liked her more. She was sweet and understanding, but also organized, efficient, and practical. It was everything that he needed in a mate and he thanked the fates that brought them together. Even if it had to be under the worst possible circumstances.

  Leland left the dining room and went back into the parlor where his father kept his files. He knelt beside the filing cabinets and started to pull out the stacks of disorganized papers. Nothing was in its appropriate file or sorted by year. There were thirty years of documents all stacked together without any sense of organization.

  Leland didn't even know where to start. He took the papers back into the dining room and set them down in front of him. As he went through the stacks, he organized the documents by year and then went back and organized them by type. Half of it turned out to be garbage, a quarter of it turned out to be irrelevant, and the rest of it just didn't make any sense.

  Leland had run a ranch before and had dealt with the business side, but he had never unraveled a mess like this. He was happier than ever that Sylvia was here to help him.

  "That's about all I can take before noon," he said. "Would you like to take a break for lunch?"

  Sylvia looked up at him from her accounting spreadsheets as if she had been lost in a daydream.

  "I could use a bite to eat," she said.

  "I'll fix you something," Leland said.

  He went to the kitchen and started rifling through the cabinets. He knew there was barely anything in the house from when he had made his coffee that morning. He looked in the fridge and was hit by a terrible smell and quickly closed the door.

  He walked back into the dining room and let her know he was going to town for groceries. On the way out to his truck, he saw his youngest brother Jessie in the machine shop across the gravel yard, working on a dirt bike in a white T-shirt, cut-off jeans and work boots. When he saw Leland, he stood up and approached his brother.

  "Buck told me we’re being audited," Jessie said, running his hand over his forehead, leaving a faint smear of grease.

  "Yes, we are," Leland said.

  "And the auditor is your mate?" Jessie said, raising an eyebrow.

  "That is correct.”

  Jesse chuckled as if he were responding to an inside joke.

  "What's so funny?" Leland asked.

  "It figures that big brother Leland's fated mate would be an auditor," Jessie said, still chuckling.

  "Ha ha ha. I'll have you know that Sylvia is probably the sweetest woman I've ever met," Leland said.

  "Sweeter than mom?" Jessie countered.

  "Maybe just about as sweet as mom," Leland said, acquiescing to the look of pain in his brother's eyes.

  "I checked on the cattle this morning," Jessie said.

  "You actually checked on the herd?"

  "Well, now that dad's gone. I won't have anybody bitching me out for saying anything about it," Jessie admitted. “But it doesn't look like the shots you gave the cattle are working."

  "What makes you say that?" Leland asked, becoming worried.

  "I saw a couple head out there that looked pretty lame," Jessie admitted.

  "Well, God dammit," Leland said, taking his cowboy hat off his head and slamming it against his leg. "I was just going into town to get my lady some lunch. That medicine should've taken care of it by now."

  "We should get the vet out here," Jessie said.

  "I'll look into it in town while I'm getting lunch. Do you need anything while I'm gone?" Leland asked, feeling for the first time like he was being a good brother.

  "No. Buck and I keep our fridge pretty well stocked. But I did want to invite you to my next motocross race. Bring your lady friend. You know how I like someone to cheer me on," Jessie said with one of his brilliant smiles.

  Jessie was one of the most talented dirt bike racers that the Northwest had ever seen. His shifter agility was above par, his athleticism and sheer bravery set him apart from even other shifter racers. He had been like that since he was a kid. His dad used to encourage it, even more than he'd encouraged Leland to be a leader.

  Jessie was used to having people there to clap for him when he showed off. And why not? Jessie was an entertaining guy. Sylvia might enjoy watching his brother race.

  "I'd love to. I'll ask Sylvia if she'd like to go. It'll give us something to do besides wade through the mess that dad left us."

  "Awesome," Jessie said, giving Leland another one of his big bright smiles.

  Jessie walked off back to the machine shop and Leland climbed into the cab of his pickup, closing the door behind him.

  On his way into town, everything he had experienced and discovered in the last two days whirled inside his mind. His father's debts, his fated mate, the audit. His brothers. Being an Alpha was much more difficult than he'd ever imagined. The weight of the family on his shoulders made him think of his mother.

  When Jessie had mentioned their mother in the driveway, Leland could sense the sorrow beneath his humor. It was a deep wound that they all shared, and Jessie still blamed himself, even if no one else did. He’d held onto it for a long time.

  Leland still missed his mom. Anytime he smelled the scent of her perfume or saw a lady in a sundress, memories of his mother at barbecues or at Christmas flitted through his mind and made his heart ache. Leana Kincaid had been a great woman. She was a human, like Sylvia, and his dad had never turned her. She'd given birth to four grizzly sons and still retained her soft human form. If he wanted to blame his dad for yet another thing, he could have blamed him for not shifting his mother and making her stronger, but he couldn't do that. His mom had wanted to stay human, and that was one of the most precious things about her. Her soft human frailty hadn't seemed like a weakness, but strength.

  Now that he had found Sylvia, he knew that his life would now be complete. After this audit was done, he didn't know what would happen, where they would go, or what they would do. He didn’t know if the Kincaid family would even be able to keep the Timber Bear Ranch. But one thing he did know was that Sylvia belonged to him. He would do anything to keep her safe beside him. He didn't need the ranch to be happy, he just needed her.

  They could move back to Texas or he could find another position somewhere near where she worked in Portland. They could start a new life together. Whatever it took, he was willing to do it.

  That didn't mean he didn't want to save the ranch. It had been in his family for generations, he didn't want to be the Alpha that finally lost it for everyone. Of all the places in the world where he would want to raise his family, Timber Bear Ranch was it; with his brothers,
his community, and the peak of Fate Mountain looking down over all of them. It made his heart ache just to think that they might have to give it up.

  He made it into town and parked in front of Fate Mountain Grocery. Getting out, he strode across the parking lot, feeling the spring air begin to warm his skin as the sun beamed down from overhead.

  He walked into the grocery store and grabbed a cart. He started down the aisle, throwing things in the cart. He knew there was most likely a freezer full of stakes at the ranch, but that didn't tend to be great for breakfast or lunch. He picked up all the essentials and went to the deli for some prepared sandwiches so we'd have something to feed Sylvia as soon as he got back. When he stood in the checkout line, he smiled at the checker as she scanned his items.

  "Leland Kincaid," the woman said. "I haven't seen you in...how long has it been? Ten years?"

  "He squinted at her and realized that she was a human girl he had gone to high school with. She was pregnant and had rosy cheeks and two braids going down the sides of her shoulders.

  "McKenzie, it is so good to see you."

  "Where have you been keeping yourself?” she asked.

  "I've been working at a cattle ranch in Texas.”

  "You always were quite the cowboy," McKenzie giggled.

  "How have things been with you?" he asked.

  "They're going well," she said, rubbing her belly. "With all the shifters in town, it’s hard for a girl not to get pregnant.”

  "I'll take your word for it," he said, tipping his hat at her. "You take care now.” He lifted his bags into his cart himself, saving her from having to lift anything in her condition, and then wheeled them out to the pickup where he put them in the bed of his truck.

  On the way back to the ranch, he stopped at the veterinary clinic. He had lunch and frozen things in the truck so he couldn't take too long. Inside he found the vet tech sitting behind his desk.

  "I need to get the large animal vet out to my ranch as soon as possible," Leland told the young man.

  "Our large animal vet is out of town," the technician said.