Chapter Two

“I’m not having this conversation,” Brock snapped, pushing to his feet and facing Laramie across the desk between them.

“You need to have it with someone, and since you’ve been ignoring your mate, you’ll have it with me,” Laramie thundered.

“I don’t fucking have a mate.” Each word was growled in anger.

“You’ve got to let it go,” Laramie said as he stood and walked around the desk to join Brock.

“Let it go,” Brock mused. “Like you would if Em had hit on one of us? If she’d snuggled up to my chest and rubbed against me, purring about how she could give me anything I needed?”

Laramie growled, fists clenching tight as he glared at Brock.

“Yeah,” Brock agreed. “Let it go, my ass.”

“Maybe, if you’d claimed her from the beginning,” Laramie snarled at him.

“She was only eighteen when she got here. Thirteen when our elders decided the best choice after the attacks on our den was to hide the surviving females. She was hidden away for five years from those who should have been providing protection, and you think the first thing I should have done when she arrived was jump on her? Jesus! Is that what you think of me?”

“I think you make a lot of excuses,” Laramie said. “And if you don’t claim your mate soon, brother, you’re going to lose her.”

Brock shook his head but wasn’t sure which statement he denied. That Jemma was his mate, or that he would lose her.

“Take the time to get to know her,” Laramie pressed. “A mate is a treasure. One you’ll regret losing.”

“She drives me insane,” Brock muttered.

Laramie laughed. “A good mate will. Do you think Em doesn’t drive me insane? In the best ways. Being with her has made me realize what I was missing. She and little bear and the baby on the way… My life means nothing without them, and it’s everything with them. I want that for you. Talk to Jemma, Brock. Claim your mate.”

Brock shook his head. How did he claim a woman, barely nineteen now, who’d done everything she could to seduce his brother? How did he trust her? Without trust, there couldn’t be anything else. Did he want her? Yes. Just the scent of her had his heart racing and his body primed and ready to rut until their scents were one and the same. His bear pressed against his skin, more than ready to put that thought into action. The man wasn’t willing, and it was the man in control.

“I can’t claim her.”

“Can’t or won’t?” Laramie questioned.

“Leave it,” Brock ordered.

“She’s going to leave. Think about that. Think about her out there. Alone.”

“She’s not going anywhere,” Brock snarled.

“Keep telling yourself that,” Laramie murmured.

Brock shook his head, more than done with the conversation. Jemma might threaten, but she wasn’t going anywhere. One, she had nowhere to go. Two, she had no way to get anywhere. Three… Fuck! He couldn’t let her leave the safety of Holloway land. Knowing her, she’d run right into danger the first chance she got. That didn’t mean he’d claim her, though. Chain her ass to the lodge? Yes. Mate her? No. Not happening.

He jerked open the office door and headed toward the front. He’d go check in with one of his other brothers and see if they needed anything. Jensen would. The doctor of the den was always in need of help. With the female shifters who’d been rescued recently, they had numerous cabins set up for both triage and hospital stations. Plus, Jasper, one of his father’s former enforcers had turned up in a recent rescue made by the cat shifter pride in Oklahoma.

When Jensen had flown back with Jasper the day before, Brock had wondered if the other male would even make it through the night. He’d been bad off. So bad, Jensen had stayed with him. Brock would go check in there. If nothing else, he could stay with Jasper while Jensen got some food and rest. Despite Jensen’s actions, he was not invincible. Lately, he’d been running himself ragged, trying to save everyone.

Decision made, Brock left the lodge and headed toward where he knew Jensen would be. With every step he took, Laramie’s warning replayed through his head.

She’s going to leave.

Why did that one thought bother him? He and Jemma couldn’t be within ten feet of each other without one of them growling. If they spent any time alone, he wasn’t sure both of them would survive. Yet, he wanted to get his hands on her. The few times he’d touched her, he’d felt the spark, the burn that went further than skin deep. The one that ignited his soul and made his whole body burn with a need he did his best to ignore. One he pushed deep and pretended didn’t exist. Until he slept. She filled his nights. Hell, he was certain he’d awoken more than once with her name on his lips as his hand pumped his shaft, imagining it was her instead.

“Earth to Brock.”

He glanced up and found Matheus standing in his path. Just who Brock needed. His younger brother, Jemma’s number one supporter.

“What has you so lost in thought, brother?” Matheus asked then smirked. “Or should I say who?”

“Don’t start,” Brock ordered with a sigh.

“Did big brother finally order you to get your head out of your ass and mate you mate?”

“She’s not my mate.” He said the words, but they suddenly felt wrong on his tongue.

“She wasn’t drugged like Xandra was, but Jemma wasn’t allowed to shift once the entire time she was hidden away,” Matheus told him as he began walking beside Brock.

“What?”

Xandra was their brother Declan’s mate. She’d been held by Lawrence Walker, the elder who betrayed them. He’d drugged her to keep her bear suppressed and make it easier to control her. He’d also threatened to give her twin sisters, Sidia and Jaeda, to the hunters he was working with.

“Jemma wasn’t drugged, but the room she was kept in was tiny. She couldn’t shift. She had a cot and a lamp and not much else. A thirteen-year-old girl locked away for five years. Do you remember what we were doing at thirteen? I’ll tell you. We were balls of energy that mom would kick out of the house, ordering us to go run it off. Jemma had nothing and no one.”

“How do you know this?” Brock asked quietly.

“Because I listen,” Matheus replied with a cutting look. “Because I pay attention to the way she trembles when you threaten to lock her up. I see the uncertainty in her gaze when she’s around too many people. I see the look on her face when she stands under the trees and the breeze blows over her skin. I think she’d sleep outside if she thought she could get away with it.”

Brock stopped, turning and facing his brother. “Are you in love with her?”

Matheus laughed. “She’s your mate or she’s not. If she is, claim her. If she’s not, then you have no right to comment on another man’s interest.”

“Matheus,” he growled.

“I like her. More importantly, I see her. She’s more fragile than you realize, and if you push too far, you just might shatter something you can’t fix.”

Brock shook his head. Jemma? Fragile?

“Also, think about this,” Matheus continued. “Even when she chased Laramie, it was your scent that comforted her. Your sweatshirts and jackets she grabbed. You she looked for when she entered a room. Fear makes people do things they might not do otherwise. And, honestly, you never gave her a reason to look your way, instead. Hell, even I could see she was desperate for a sense of belonging, of never having to fear being locked away again. What did you offer?”

“What did Laramie offer?” Brock demanded.

“That’s something you should ask her.”

“She’s…” This time, he couldn’t finish the rest of the denial. “She makes me so crazy.”

Matheus laughed. “Have you seen our mated brothers? Or Holt? Lord, do you remember when Jaeda claimed him as her mate.”

Brock laughed, feeling some of the tension easing from his frame. Jaeda had thrown the former Marine when she’d said he was her mate. It had been amusing to watch the human male fall for his little black bear mate. She’d flipped his world upside down, but looking at them now, Brock knew Holt wouldn’t change anything. Then Koby, the second of the seven Holloway brothers, had mated Jaeda’s twin sister, Sidia. Declan had fallen for Xandra. Laramie had fallen hard and fast for his mate when she’d arrived to seek protection for herself and little Ruby, who turned out to be the daughter of Malachi Blackstone, the brother of Xandra, Sidia, and Jaeda. He’d gone to Washington to check into the possibility of another den of bear shifters. He’d met his mate, who happened to be Em’s cousin. Unfortunately, his mate had died while giving birth to Ruby. Then Slade, the fifth brother, had fallen for Rissa, who’d followed Em from Washington to Wyoming.

More recently, Brock had been there when Fletch Calderson had found his mate, Helen, during one of their rescues. Fletch had known before he even saw her. He’d said her scent called to him immediately. He’d told Brock that if the attacks on the Holloway den had taught them anything, it was to grab onto every moment of joy life offered and there was nothing more sacred to a bear shifter than their mate.

“It might be too late,” Brock admitted. Hell, he’d done everything he could to chase her away.

“It’s not,” Matheus said, sounding more confident than Brock felt.

“She’s so young.”

Almost ten years younger than Brock. And according to Matheus, she wasn’t just young but had yet to experience much of life. She’d spent five years basically caged. How did he turn around and lock her to him? Because if he mated her, she’d never be far from his side. He’d always known he’d be a possessive bastard, even for a bear shifter. There was a darker side to him, a dominant one he wouldn’t be able to repress if he took her. She was young, na?ve, untouched. He’d rather have her hate him than fear him.

“She can handle you,” Matheus said. “All of you.”

“I’m not so sure,” Brock admitted.

Before he could say anything else, a scream split the air.

“What the hell?” he asked, gaze flying around.

He and Matheus were already shifted with paws on the ground when the first group of hunters surged through the trees. They were under attack, and Brock had no idea where Jemma was.