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Chapter Sixteen

Barrett

Tegan steeled herself, those amber eyes full of fury, like they could ignite and burn this entire operation to the ground. “What could I possibly owe you?”

“Your hand in marriage, for starters.” Gideon stepped toward her, and my bear let loose with a growl that shook the foundation of this building. His gaze snapped to me. “If it isn’t the bear who thinks he can stop that from happening.”

“You should be thanking him for saving you from the public humiliation of me telling you to go fuck yourself in front of the entire world. Your plan was never gonna work, Gideon. It was always going to come to this. I just hoped we could do it in a more civilized fashion.”

Gideon scoffed. “What does a white trash, good for nothing?—”

“Don’t you say another word.” My hand was on his throat, and I had him backed against the wall.

“You’ll pay for this.”

“No.” I tightened my grip, rattling the wall. “It’s about time you start paying back the packs you destroyed. The clans you ripped apart.”

The bastard managed to grin. “Like yours?”

“Did you get that on camera?” Tegan poked the show host. “He finally admitted what he’s done.”

“I did no such thing.” Gideon’s face was turning a purplish shade of red under my grip. I could feel his wolf under the surface.

But he hadn’t shifted.

I realized I’d never seen this asshole in his wolf form.

“We have the proof.”

“My wolves will destroy it. And you.” He swallowed hard. “Doesn’t take a genius to figure out you’re outnumbered.”

“And apparently it does take one to call for backup. I’ve got a dozen bears in the parking lot just waiting on my call. So why don’t you shift, and we can settle this like animals?”

He nodded to his pack. “You heard him, gentlemen. Give the bear the fight he thinks he wants, and send him out of here on a stretcher.”

He tried to knee me in the groin, but my bear was faster than his sluggish wolf. I managed to land a punch to the side of his cheek before my bear ripped through my human skin.

Tegan screamed as bones cracked and skin ripped all around her. I didn’t need to tell her to make a break for it. She jumped over an approaching wolf and ran down the hall.

I didn’t like having her out of my sight, but this office was tiny, and with two fully shifted bears, more wolves than I could count, and a painfully human CEO, it was better that way. Tegan was scrappy and innovative, and if it came down to it, she’d be able to hold her own in a fight.

Mate , my bear thought as he clawed at the approaching wolves. These annoying ankle biters didn’t like to quit, but I wouldn’t have any problem making them beg for mercy.

Gideon watched over everything, like he was some sort of deranged wrestling team owner.

“Why don’t you fight?” I asked.

“Don’t have to.” Smug bastard. “I have enough money to pay wolves to do my dirty work for me.”

That was more than a bragging point. I filed it away as a serious clue. Once the dust settled in this fight and we had a chance to look at the documents Tegan stuffed into her bra, I had a feeling he’d give us a major key to breaking this wide open.

Kicking his ass would be just as effective, but not nearly as satisfying if he didn’t shift.

I took a step forward, backing him into the corner. “What’s wrong with your wolf?”

“Absolutely nothing.” His voice was thin. “He refuses to dignify this spectacle with his presence.”

“Or is it because he’s weak, and you need to overcompensate with a bunch of thugs who help you steal land?” I bumped him with my snout, hard.

“Everything in my business is above board. Don’t be fooled by that little slut?—”

He didn’t have to say anything else, and he’d run out of chances—my bear wasn’t letting him talk about my mate like that. Human or wolf, Gideon Silverclaw had made choices, and now he was gonna have to back them up.

Fur broke through his skin as my jaws closed in on his body. He screamed, like the shift was painful. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve pitied him, but he didn’t deserve it.

I closed my jaws, letting my teeth break his skin. His wolf was thin and weak.

“No. Please,” he pleaded. “I’ll cut you in. Make you a partner. You don’t understand what you’re doing.”

“Oh, I understand everything. But I wonder what you’re hiding that you’re so afraid to let go of.”

He scratched and clawed at me, but I barely felt it. Gideon Silverclaw was a weak wolf in so many ways.

“The old pack structure…it doesn’t work anymore. I want to give power…back to the packs.” He stopped every few words to gasp for breath. “New ideas. New life. Don’t you want that?”

“Do you even know who I am?” I pulled away from him enough so he could get a good look at me. “You stole the land from my mate’s clan.”

“Your mate?”

“She’s gone now. Cancer.” I had to focus, and not give him any opportunity to pour salt into my wounds. “Watching her family go through losing everything didn’t help her. You robbed her of the peace that she needed in the end. I’m gonna make you pay.”

I could snap this wolf in half, and I’d given him enough chances. There was chaos all around us. Blood splattered on the glass partition that separated the office from the hallway. Fur floated in the air. The sound of my bears taking care of business in the place that needed to go out of business…priceless.

“No,” Gideon pleaded again. “We could use a security company like yours.”

“You don’t get to bargain with me, when you stole my clan’s land and tried to abduct my mate.” That was his last warning. I planned on spending the rest of the night picking this wolf out of my teeth.

And then taking Tegan to my bed.

“Tegan can’t be your mate.”

Fuck, he knew exactly what to say to keep himself alive, at least for another moment. His wolf was fading, skin showing through the already thin fur. I stared at him in disbelief as he shifted back to human.

“Why not?”

“Because she belongs to me.”

“Like hell I do.” Tegan strode into the office. Her hair was wild and there was a bit of blood on her cheek. I liked it. A fucking goddess in the midst of chaos. “If I’m going to be with any man, it’s because I want to be. Not because he’s forcing me to be with him.”

“You signed a contract.” Gideon cupped his hands over his junk as the room filled. His balls, as suspected, were wrinkly. I’d forever tell myself that Tegan had just made a lucky guess.

She put her hands on her hips. We had a full house. Tegan had been followed closely by the show host, Josephine, and a posse of bears and wolves, some shifted, some human.

“I signed a contract to be on the show. Not to marry you. The security team I hired to stop you has also had a chance to contact my legal team, who has the original contract on their computer, since you wiped mine clean.” Tegan grinned as Gideon squirmed.

I nodded to Bellamy. I’d asked him to have someone on the team handle it, and I’d been so busy falling for Teagan I’d almost forgotten about it. But the important thing was he didn’t. Because the timing of this announcement couldn’t have been more clutch.

“While you boys were fighting, I had a chance to talk to Larrie. The two of us came to an understanding. I think you might be interested in hearing the terms,” Tegan said.

Gideon let out an exasperated sigh, and I growled, lunging at him. To be honest, I was glad I didn’t have to kill him. As horrible as he was, he was weak, and nothing about it would’ve been satisfying. Having Tegan pull his character apart string by rotten string would be so much more deadly.

“Fine. What are they?”

“We’ve already alerted the press that there will be a tell-all press conference tomorrow morning,” she continued. “They’re very excited that we’ll be appearing on stage together. That’s the agreement. You go on stage, and you tell the world every terrible thing you’ve done.”

His eyes widened. “What if I refuse?”

She shrugged. “I’ll be there, telling everyone all about your sorry ass. I have all the evidence I need to ruin you, whether you’re man enough to show up or not. What do you say, Silverclaw? You give me the happily ever after I wanted all along, and then watch me leave with a real beast.”