Big Bear

  “These are beautiful,” Poppy said, running her hand over the sanded wood.

  “It’s cherry wood. These look real sleek with a nice red stain. Want to see the showroom?” he asked her.

  Angus was excited to show his mate his work. He was proud of what he did. Loved every minute of working the wood into something beautiful. Sharing his passion with Poppy was almost as exciting as licking her sweet core. The thought of what they’d done in the gazebo popped up in his mind and his bear got all riled up again.

  “It’s right through here,” he said.

  They walked through the warehouse shop area into a smaller showroom. He had his best pieces out on display here.

  “These are exquisite. They belong in a mansion somewhere.”

  “Thanks,” he said bashfully.

  Angus had never set out to make furniture for rich, fancy people. He just wanted to listen to the voice of the wood and bring out its greatest beauty. By following his muse, the rich, fancy people had found him. With Juliet’s help, he’d built a website to sell his things directly to the public, and he’d had a hard time keeping up with the new demand. “People seem to like them.”

  “I can see why,” Poppy said, going to sit in a rocking chair.

  “That one’s for my front porch. Want to build one that’s a might smaller to match it. For my mate.”

  “You mean for me,” Poppy said, standing up from the rocking chair. She came to stand close to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. “I’d love that.”

  “Yes. For you. You’re one hundred percent for me.”

  His bear rumbled in his mind. The urge to claim her was overpowering. Poppy wasn’t doing him any favors either as she pressed her soft little body against his growing hardness.

  Angus refused to go faster than he should with his mate. No matter how much his bear groaned and growled at him. His bear had always been so cooperative. Battling the beast was something he’d never really had to do.

  It was starting to get dark outside, and Angus had obligations that evening with his crew. If he didn’t have an excuse to take her home, he might do something he’d regret.

  “Would you like to go to a wedding with me tomorrow?” he asked. “My alpha and his mate are getting married in the atrium.”

  “That sounds lovely.”

  “Unfortunately, I’ve got to take you back to the lodge now. I’m the best man, and the crew wants to give Levi a kickoff party at the brewery tonight.”

  “Oh.” She looked up at him with disappointment in her eyes.

  He didn’t ever want to see her disappointed again. Damn it. This mating thing was way too hard. But it was worth it if Poppy would agree to be his mate forever in the end.

  “We’ll have a great time at the wedding tomorrow. I promise.”

  They held hands through the workshop. He closed the sliding door and locked it from outside. After climbing in his truck, they drove back to Fate Mountain Lodge where he walked her to her door.

  She stood in front of him, worrying her bottom lip. Her eyebrows were knit together behind the thick frames of her glasses.

  “You’re feeling a lot of things right now. Things that would make you do stuff you normally wouldn’t. It’s got to be confusing. But I’m not going to do that stuff with you until I’m sure you really want it. Okay?”

  “Okay, Angus,” she breathed, reaching up on her tiptoes to kiss him hard on the mouth. She wrapped her arms around his neck and put her whole body into the kiss. Pulling away from her kiss was torture to him.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow, Poppy,” he said, backing away.

  “Bye,” she said softly, turning to go into her room.

  Angus walked down the hallway, feeling torn up inside. He’d wanted to ask her to be his forever, but he knew it was too soon. His own instinct was almost impossible to control right now. He was used to living with such instincts; his mate Poppy was not. Angus propelled himself into the elevator and smashed the button for the first floor.

  By the time he made it back to the lobby, his agitation was hotter than it had been in ages. He felt ornery and unsettled. Zach, Drew, and Corey came up to him in the lobby, putting their arms around his shoulders.

  “What?” he snapped.

  “It’s the night before Levi’s wedding. He needs to be celebrated on his last night as a single man,” Corey said.

  “We’re going to fill him with Fate Mountain Lager and ask him if he wants to reconsider,” said Drew.

  “Why would he reconsider?” Angus asked Drew and Corey, feeling confused. “Juliet is his mate.”

  Drew shrugged. Corey rose an eyebrow.

  “Angus, isn’t your fated mate here?” Zach said, patting Angus on the back hard.

  “Wait, you found her?” Drew asked.

  “We got matched the night of the wedding rehearsal. And she came here the next day,” Angus said.

  “She came here after one day, just like that?” Corey asked.

  “Juliet and Levi texted for weeks before she came up here for Charlotte’s wedding,” Drew said.

  “Quinn knew you for less than a day,” Zach said to Drew.

  “All right, men. What are we doing?” Levi said, coming from his office.

  “Waiting for Shane,” Angus said, still feeling irritable.

  “He’s been training the new cooks. It hasn’t been pretty,” Levi said. “Shane is still as growly as ever in the kitchen. He wants the food to be as good when he’s not cooking. So he can do his thing as long as no one gets hurt.”

  “Shane’s changed,” Angus grumbled. “He’s got his bear under control. And his mate.”

  Shane came walking into the lobby, slinging his leather jacket over his arms.

  “What up, bitches?” Shane said.

  “Time to party!” Zach said, slapping his hands together.

  Everyone piled out of the lobby and climbed into a few cars to make their way over to Drew’s Fate Mountain Brewery. This was prime time for the brewery, and there would be men and women hanging out at the bar. Angus had refused to hire a stripper, but he had no idea what the other men had planned.

  “Isn’t Juliet having a bachelorette party tonight?” Drew asked Zach. “Why aren’t you dancing?”

  “I’m not grinding my hips in Levi’s mate’s face,” Zach said.

  Angus and Drew started to laugh and all three men were chuckling as they climbed out of the truck in front of Fate Mountain Brewery. The sound of the jukebox sang out into the air through the swinging front door.

  The entire rescue crew walked into the brewery and sat down at big table in the corner. A server came to confirm with Drew what he wanted for the party. She walked away and brought them two pitchers of beer and a plate of warm salted pretzels.

  Everyone had a pint in his hand. Zach watched the jukebox like he was going to jump up and do something. Angus drew a long swig of beer, trying to calm his inner bear. His heart still palpitated at the memory of Poppy’s scent. He could still taste her on his lips.

  “Is Juliet having a bachelorette party?” Angus asked Levi.

  “Back at the lodge.”

  “Do you mind?”

  “No. She wants the memory with her friends.”

  “Zach’s not working,” Angus teased.

  “I don’t know who or what is going on back there, and I don’t care. Juliet is mine.”

  Zach stood up and went to the jukebox. Angus was sure he was up to something. Maybe one of the cute human women at the bar was a dancer for Levi. Zach chose a song on the jukebox and turned around. Angus could tell by the look on the blonde polar bear’s face that something was about to go down.

  A very loud, aggressive techno song came on over the speakers. Zach twirled around on his heels. Angus looked back over at the girls, but they were looking at Zach. He gave them a grin and sprinted toward the bar. In a split second, he was on top of the bar, grinding his hips to the beat of the music.

  This. Was. Not. Happening.

  “Z
ach! No,” Angus bellowed over the loud music, but Zach would not be stopped.

  The women below him were eating it up. He stripped of his shirt and gyrated his pelvis against a pole. Angus scrubbed his hand over his face and groaned.

  “Well, you did say you didn’t want to see a woman dance the night before your wedding,” Angus said, looking over at Levi.

  Levi just raised both eyebrows and took a long swig of beer. “I’m off duty tonight,” Levi said. “Someone else can stop Zach from embarrassing himself.”

  “And everyone else,” Corey said.

  “Those women seem to like it,” Drew said.

  “Zach, you stud,” Shane shouted.

  “Can’t you put a stop to this?” Angus asked Drew.

  “The customers are enjoying it.” Drew shrugged. A flock of women walked in the front door, dressed in sexy dresses. “See what I mean?”

  They all headed straight for Zach who was now pumping into the bar like it was his lover. Angus’s face went hot. He turned away. Zach had his own life to live. Angus didn’t really care, but his inner bear was already over stimulated. Smelling all those aroused human females was going straight to his head. He growled and refilled his pint glass.

  8

  After Angus left Poppy at her room, she was too wound up to rest. The real reason she’d left Seattle was still weighing on her mind. She hadn’t heard anything from work since she’d left.

  In the last few days, Poppy had combed over all the company’s books for the last three years. But Poppy had gotten access to the archived files before she left. She was looking for clues. There had been something going on behind the scenes, something she had been to blind to see before.

  With the archived files, she was able to analyze the data for trends. The first thing she looked for was anything that might have more information about those miscellaneous expenses. When she opened the old files and added them to her own, she was able to see that the anomalies went back for a long time.

  Each uncategorized expense was the same amount. Only a few hundred dollars, but it repeated. What she found was that after every fifth unaccounted for expense, there was a huge deposit that then went straight out again. She couldn’t find where the money went, but she found one receipt that said the name of the bank where it originated.

  It was something. Poppy pushed her glasses up her nose and started to research online. The bank on the receipt was owned by a larger conglomerate bank. That bank was connected to the enemy country they had been fighting against for five years. Poppy put her fingertips to her lips, gasping. Was Sound Import/Export involved with the enemy?

  This was much bigger than she’d thought. Should she take it to the authorities now? She still wasn’t sure. If only she knew what oruzhiye meant.

  Closing her laptop, she stood up and got into bed. Thoughts of Angus filled her mind and heart, crowding out her worries about the Chekovs. She still didn’t have any hard evidence. She would comb the files again, looking for more traces of information. That was all she could do. They seemed to not mind that she’d missed two days of work. Now that it was the weekend, she had a little bit more time.

  But as pressing as it all should have been, all Poppy wanted to do was lie on Angus’s chest and listen to his heartbeat. Under her blankets, she thought about his dreamy face. She was falling hard and fast. She knew she wanted him. Really wanted him. But did she really want to be with him? She had to ask herself that question. That’s what he wanted her to do.

  Poppy had been lonely a long time. Angus was the best man she ever could have imagined. Hell, if he didn’t have pheromones that made her all gooey, then she’d probably be just as into him. Maybe more. At least then she would know for sure that it was how she really felt. She wanted to give herself to Angus. She was sure of it. She didn’t care that they’d only known each other a few days.

  She had everything she needed here in Fate Mountain. She had a savings account. She could start over today and not mind one bit. Even if the Chekovs were innocent, Ivor had still grabbed her arm aggressively. She didn’t want to work for them anymore. Poppy went to sleep, determined to find out once and for all if her employers were crooked and to finally decide if she was going to stay in Fate Mountain.

  She woke up the next day, feeling slightly distressed. There was something she was missing in the books. She had to use all her smarts to find it or she wouldn’t be able to relax. In some ways, she was responsible for what was happening at work. There had been signs for a long time that there was something going on there.

  This was all happening because she hadn’t trusted her gut in the first place and called Mr. Chekov on his uncategorized expenses. She thought maybe she was being too hardnosed and didn’t want to rock the boat. But now here she was, unsure if she could go back to Seattle or not.

  Before she could look at another spreadsheet, she needed to get some coffee and clear her head. Poppy went down to the main dining room and got a cup of coffee to go. She then headed out onto the grounds of the lodge, taking a deep breath of the fresh mountain air.

  The sky was a crystal blue that made her feel alive. It had been a good idea to go for a morning walk. She’d needed to take her mind off her job and her relationship with Angus. Her phone rang in her pocket, and she pulled it out. She was expecting Angus, but the number was from Seattle.

  “Hello?” she said.

  “Poppy Robins, this is Investigator James Fredericks from the King County District Attorney’s office.”

  “Yes?” she stuttered.

  “I’d like to ask you a few questions about your employer.”

  “Okay…” Poppy gulped.

  “I’d like to meet with you,” Investigator Fredericks said.

  “I’m out of town, Investigator Fredericks,” she said. She wasn’t sure if she would be in trouble too. She’d been doing the books for the Chekovs for three years. “What is it about?”

  “The Chekovs are part of a known crime syndicate. We haven’t been able to catch them for years. Their last bookkeeper disappeared without a trace. I need to know if you’ve seen anything suspicious at work.”

  Poppy kept walking along the path and into a dense grove of trees that wound through a woodland area beyond the lodge. Her cell reception started to break up so she stopped.

  “I’ve found anomalies in the books,” Poppy said. “Ivor Chekov also threatened me after I heard him talking with his father about getting a shipment of oruzhiye. I can’t for the life of me figure out what oruzhiye means.”

  “That word means weapons in Russian,” Investigator Fredericks said.

  Poppy stopped in her path. “Weapons?” The other end of the phone went silent. “Hello?”

  “Can you hear me?”

  “What were you saying, Poppy?” said a low, accented voice.

  Poppy spun around to see Ivor and his cousin Boris. Ivor pointed a gun at her. She gasped and dropped her phone. Ivor shot the phone at her feet, and she jumped back with a screech.

  “What are you doing here?” she said, backing away.

  “I know you’ve been accessing the archived files. I know what you heard. I never expected you to turn on us like this, Poppy.”

  “Turn on you?” she said, continuing to back up.

  “Talking about us to an investigator like that? I thought we took care of you.”

  “It’s been a great job, really,” she said, yelping as he grabbed her by the arm.

  “We’re really going to take care of you now,” Boris said, laughing to Ivor.

  The chuckled at each other as they started to drag her up the path.

  “Where are you taking me?” she demanded, struggling against the two huge men.

  “Where no one will find you.”

  “Please. Let me go.”

  Ivor slung a gag around her mouth. They tied her hands behind her back. She screamed at them as they yanked her down the trail. They pushed her into the back of a van parked at a dead end road.

  Fear cla
pped like thunder inside her. They were going to kill her. She’d never really lived her life. These last few days had been the first time when she felt truly happy. Now that she’d found Angus, she would never have the chance to be his mate.

  A tear slid down her face. Poppy lay on her side in the back of the van. The men slammed the doors closed and then quickly drove away.

  She heard them talking to each other in the front, using a mixture of Russian and English. Poppy couldn’t understand a word they said over the rumble of the engine and the clanking of the van as it tore down the road. She wouldn’t let herself be killed by these creeps. There was no way Poppy Robins was going down this way. She struggled up to sitting and looked around.

  She could see trees passing by out the window on the other side of the van. It was a blur of green with nothing to give her any indication of where she was. She’d have to bide her time and try to run away at her first opportunity.

  The van continued upward. She could tell that they were gaining elevation. Then the van turned and started to bump over a gravelly road. When it finally stopped, the men got out and flung open the back of the van. They pulled her out into the sunlight. It was colder, and she could see patches of snow still on the ground.

  She groaned under the gag as they pulled her bound arms to yank her across a secluded parking lot. There was a trail that led into the forest, and Boris pushed her toward it. She saw their guns and had no choice but to do as they wanted.

  Poppy had put on a pair of light sneakers to go walking at the lodge that morning. Her footwear was far too delicate for the rocky, wet trail that led straight up the mountain. She kept slipping and couldn’t get her balance with her arms tied behind her back.

  Ivor grabbed her arm and pulled her up the trail. Poppy scanned the environment for anything that could help her escape. She wasn’t some kind of survival expert. She was a nerdy bookkeeper. She had no idea what to do or where to turn. All she knew was that she would not be going down like this. She’d just met her perfect match, and she intended to have a full life with him.