5. Kodi

As the smell of melted cheese and grilled chicken fills the cabin, I give my mate a tour of the home I built in Fable Forest ten years ago.

"I love your home." She glances over her shoulder and smiles up at me as I lay her suitcase on the bed in the room she chose. I almost fist-bumped the air when Briella decided on the guest bedroom right next to my room.

"I hope you'll call it our home soon." I lean close, and her delicate scent causes my bear to stretch under my skin.

"I'd like that, too." The scent of her arousal wraps around us, causing my cock to grow rock-hard. "But first, I'd like to get to get acquainted." My inner bear pants heavily, and I have to inform the fucker she doesn't mean she wants to get acquainted in bed.

"Dinner is almost ready. Why don't we dish it up and we can talk while we eat?" I suggest, hoping to get the talking out of the way so we can move onto more pleasurable activities. Like marking her and planting my cub deep in her belly.

"That sounds great. All this fresh, clean air has me starving." She isn't the only one who's ravenous.

"I can't have my mate going hungry." I lead her down the long hallway past the four guest bedrooms toward the kitchen.

After plating our meal, I place the plates on my large oval table while Briella pours us each a glass of wine. While alcohol has little effect on shifters so most don't drink, I actually like the taste of this wine.

I sit across from my mate and watch as she digs into the casserole.

The vein pounding at the base of her delicate throat calls to me as I watch her dive into the food. "This is so good," she groans, and my cock grows even harder as visions of her moaning like that in my bed flash through my mind. "Did you make it?"

"No…" I clear my throat. "I have a housekeeper who cleans three times a week. She also cooks a week's worth of meals for me and places them in the refrigerator." For the first three months I lived in Fable Forest, I ate out nearly every meal. It didn't take long for me to miss homecooked meals.

"I love to cook." Briella smiles at me, and my inner bear sighs in contentment. "Maybe I can cook some?"

"You don't need to ask for anything." I reach across the table and take her hand in mine. "I'll give you anything you want. If you want to cook, just make a list of what you need, and we'll go to the grocery store to grab it."

"Great." She practically vibrates with happiness.

The driveway sensors that alert me to someone approaching sound in the distance, and I stand up and reach for the gun tucked into the back of my waistband. "Stay here while I see who's driving up."

"Oh my." Her gorgeous blue eyes widen as she stares down at the firearm in my hand. "I didn't realize you carry a gun."

"I keep it in case I run into an outlaw shifter." As a grizzly bear shifter, I'm bigger and stronger than most shifters and nearly all humans, but outlaw shifters are different. They trade all the humanity in their souls for more strength and a greater body size. Too bad, it's an uneven trade since they lose their ability to feel emotions. They can't mate or have children, and their boundless strength and lack of emotions make them formidable adversaries with nothing to lose.

"Jared told Brenna and me all about outlaw shifters." My mate's eyes widen as she swallows. "Do you think that's who's here?"

"I don't, but I refuse to take a chance with my mate," I call over my shoulder as I turn on the television over the fireplace and pull up the security feed.

I breathe a sigh of relief and tuck the gun back into my waistband when I see Kol's massive SUV slowly approaching.

"It's one of my employees," I reassure Briella. "Wait here and I'll see what he wants."

I step outside the house as Kol is parking in the circular drive in front of my cabin. "What are you doing here?" This fucker knows I was picking my mate up at the airport this afternoon.

"I need to talk to you, and I didn't want to do it over the phone." Fuck. This isn't good.

"Come with me." I lead him to the back of my garage where I have my home office. "Now, explain what the hell you mean."

"Lorcan caught a strange scent outside the office. He went to investigate and is almost certain it's a goddamn outlaw jackal." Motherfucking son-of-a-bitch. Lorcan Cross is a dragon-wolf hybrid with an unbelievable sense of smell. Somehow, he received both the wolf and the dragon genes for smell. His nose can pick up scents that other shifters can't. "That isn't the worst of it." Fucking hell. "Seth picked up on someone trying to hack into our server. I sent everyone home to work and told them to use the backup server to communicate until we figure out what the fuck is going on."

"You think they've infiltrated our work server?" It's never happened before. I don't take my business reputation lightly. I've always run a tight ship and have the strictest hiring policy. Everyone who has access to my business files has gone through several levels of background checks.

"I haven't seen any signs of it, but I want to be careful. I figure it's too much of a coincidence that you picked up Briella on the same day we found issues." That's the same thoughts that were just running through my mind.

"Did the outside cameras pick up anything?"

"Silas and Lorcan are going through the footage now to see while Seth deep dives into the server to make sure no one got through." I hired Silas Bates, a wolf shifter, and his best friend, Lorcan, to work as an investigative team. The former special forces members haven't failed me yet.

"It sounds like you have it all under control."

"We're handling it while you protect your mate," Kol reassures me before dropping his next bomb. "Jared and Brenna Linden were run off the road on their way back from the airport this morning." Shit.

"Why didn't I hear about this before now? And why didn't Brenna call Briella?" The questions keep popping into my mind. "Are they okay?" This fucking stalker is becoming an even bigger pain in my ass.

"Jared called me and asked me to come out and tell you. They didn't call Briella because they didn't want to worry her. And, ultimately, they are fine. The car has some damage, but Jared managed to steer them off a ramp before the other car could make another try at them." He sits on the edge of my large wooden desk and shrugs. "Jared thinks the reason the stalker did it was to get Briella to turn around and head back to New York."

"It makes sense." I rub my bottom lip as the severity of the situation slams into me. Up until now, there was a strong possibility of Briella's stalker being dangerous, but we didn't know for sure. "How the fuck did he run them off the road this morning in New York and get here to leave his scent around the office this afternoon?"

"I'm thinking we either have two problem shifters or our one shifter outsourced the attack on Jared and Brenna. Jared told me the perp didn't seem to know what he was doing."

"Fucking hell. I'm going to lock this place down when you leave, and then I'll tell my mate what has happened." I refuse to start my new mating off with secrets between us.

"Jared figured you would want to tell her." Kol stands up and paces the large room. "He wanted me to remind you to make sure she knows they are fine."

I automatically kick into work mode. I press a few keys on my keyboard, and Henry, my security system, switches on the emergency protocols. This is the most important case of my life, and I refuse to let anything happen to my mate. "I turned on the three-factor authentication for the gate around the property. You'll have to stop and let it scan your eyes to get out and have the backup code ready if you want to get onto the property."

"I figured as much." Kol nods. "I have the code stored up here." He points at his green head. "And my eyes are always with me." Kol and Seth Stark, my head of IT, set up my system so no one can get past it unless I want them to. If an intruder attempts to bypass the gate and scale the fence around the property, there's a nasty little electric shock surprise waiting for them.

"Thank you for taking the lead on this. Until we figure out what we're dealing with, all information is on a need-to-know basis. Right now, no one else in the company needs to know shit."

"I'm one step ahead of you. I already wiped all of Briella's information from the work servers and told the other operatives to start searching for this asshole." The Orc is one efficient motherfucker.

"Good job." I step over to my home computer and type in the emergency lockdown code. There's no way this fucker will get anywhere near my home and my mate. I reach into my desk drawer and pull out a burner phone. "Keep me updated on this." I toss it over to Kol. I trust all my operatives, but I can't be too careful with my mate. "I want to know everything."

"I'm heading out to my cabin." Kol lives on the Arch Orc Settlement right outside Fable Forest. "My computer system has a firewall from hell. The CIA can't even get past it."

"Be careful. I used to think the same thing about our offices, but this asshole is attempting to prove me wrong," I warn my friend.

"Let the fucker try to come onto Orc property to get information from me." Bloodthirst flashes through his unusual eyes. "My Orc brothers will tear him to shreds and feast on his remains." He heads for the door, and I follow him out into the warm summer night.

"Remind me to never piss off an Orc." I whistle through my teeth.

"Never piss off an Orc," Kol calls over his shoulder and glances back in time to see me lift my middle finger to him.

I take a deep breath and head into the cabin to relay all this information to my mate.

"Is everything okay?" Briella rushes over to me as I step in the door.

"It will be," I tell her as an idea flashes through my mind. In our shifter world, nothing is more important than protecting our mates, so we have very severe punishments for attempting to harm or causing harm to a soulmate. There is nothing off-limits when it comes to protecting your soulmate.

"I know I promised you time before we seal our mate bond, but things have changed." Worry flashes through her clear blue eyes. "Everyone is okay, but your stalker has been busy." I take her in my arms and explain about the accident and the fucking scent of outlaw shifter outside of my office.

"Are Brenna and Jared okay?" The air of fear emanating from my mate causes my inner bear to growl his displeasure.

"They are fine," I reassure her. "But we can't take any chances." Now, here comes the part she might not agree with. "So, I want to seal our bond today. The shifter society recognizes protecting our mates above all other priorities. I can get help dealing with this asshole from other shifter authorities if we're mated."

Briella takes a deep breath and shrugs. "Let's do it."

"Are you sure?" I'm shocked she agreed so easily.

"I thought my sister was nuts when she met and mated with Jared all in one day, but seeing them together proved to me that fated mates do exist," my mate breathes out. "Jared treats her like a queen."

"And I'm going to do the same with you." I pull her curvy body tighter against mine and lean over to place a kiss on the vein pounding at the base of her neck.

"Then what are you waiting for?"

"Not a damn thing." The last two days feel like an eternity, and my bear is nearly feral with the urge to mate. I cover her soft lips with mine and devour her sweetness before pulling back to lay my forehead against hers. "You won't regret it. I promise I'll protect you with my life, and I'll do whatever it takes to make you happy."

"I know."