Page 2 of Bearing North

The office had a little lobby with some chairs and a water cooler. A few wildlife paintings decorated the walls. The secretary’s desk was cluttered with personal effects and stuffed moose. Mooses?

Orson refused the temptation to make a joke out of this.

He wasNew Orson, and he made himself scowl harder and cross his arms instead of trying to break the ice with a good laugh. He was absolutely not going to start outsoft.

Two women stood by the front desk with a handful of uniformed guards.

The guards snapped to attention at Orson’s entrance. He remembered to keep glowering, even though he thought the show of respect was a pretty good start. This was what he wanted. He was theboss, not the screwup little brother.

I got this.

The woman behind the desk was a plump, smiling woman who must be the secretary. She had an earpiece and was dressed in what Orson was coming to recognize as Alaskan chic—cargo pants and a flowery blouse.

The second woman was holding a clipboard and wore a short semi-professional skirt with a blouse that wasn’t quite see-through but definitely thin enough to hint at everything beneath it. She was looking away, but as the door slammed behind Orson, she seemed to draw in a bracing breath.

Then she turned to greet him with a sunny smile. “Mr. Davison! Welcome to the new Alaska branch! I hope everything is to your pleasure!”

Pleasure…

For a moment, that was all Orson could think of.

She was the most gorgeous thing he’d ever seen, with loose black hair and golden-tanned skin. She wasn’t a shifter, he could tell by instinct, but she was tall and strong, with sparkling brown eyes, and Orson thought she was about his age. Was she a secretary, too? Maybe a bookkeeper? She had a welcoming smile on her red lips, and her neck was like a swan’s. She smelled like cinnamon and pine and warm stone.

Orson’s bear rose up in him with a roar better than any that Orson had yet managed.Our mate! This is why we’re here and now!

Oh shit oh shit oh shit.

Orson definitely didn’t have this.

2

ALEXANDRA

Alex was utterly pissed, but absolutely determined not to let the new co-owner of the company know it.

Sparkle!she reminded herself.I am sweetness and light! I am a cupcake with sprinkles! I am a zen flower of agreeability. I am harmony and softness!

The problem? Alex wasn’tanyof those things.

Snafu River Security had been her baby for nearly five years, ever since her previous boss tried running it into the ground. When he made drinking his full-time work, Alex turned the business from a struggling butt of local jokes and disdain to a respectable company that won high-profile contracts.

She was the one who had gotten them gold-level ratings. She was the one who refined their training program, and put their finances in order. She was the one who upgraded them to the digital age technology they needed to be competitive. She was the one who knew every security guard they employed, down to the names of their children and their pets.

She was the one who had secured the pipeline contract.

And now, thanks to a sell-out she wasn’t even consulted about, thiscomplete jerkfrom the lower 48 was barreling in to take all the credit and glory…and probably fire her as part of the turnover.

“You gotta be nicer, honey!” Sandra had advised Alex. “This guy isn’t going to want a second in command who could kick his ass and take his name. You need to giggle at his jokes and maybe wear a skirt. A cute, short skirt. And don’t glare like that! You’ll make him fire you out of self-preservation!”

So here she stood, in an uncomfortably short skirt and a ridiculously sexy shirt feeling like a side of meat trying her best not to bite the head off her new boss.

Speaking of meat, if Alex hadn’t been so mad about the business sale, she might have had some appreciation for the slab of beefcake that was representing the new owner of Grizzly Protection Services.

He had a short, tidy beard and well-muscled arms crossed over the kind of chest that publishers put on dirty books. His hair was neatly cut, and his face would have been breathtakingly handsome if he wasn’t scowling so ferociously.

Who pissed inhisoats? He was getting a successful business—hersuccessful business!—handed to him on aplatter.

The more Alex thought about it, the madder she got, so she forced a giggle, like Sandra had suggested.