Mine to Bear: Icy Cap Den #2 (Alaskan Den Men) (5 page)

R
ika was
a succubus and clearly a psychotic bitch, but she had a great sense of style. We arrived at her chalet perched on the slope of Mount Noel. This was supposed to be a sacred place. No mountain climbers or vehicles were allowed. Apparently Rika disregarded this. Her glass lair was straight out of a spy movie.

“How can it be so easy to find?” I asked.

“Because she doesn’t care if you see it,” Max replied, pulling his snowmachine into a massive garage.

He could barely move his legs, they were so stiff with cold. He wasn’t getting any pity from me. I’d have stepped over his frozen body in a heartbeat if it would have helped me escape. When he motioned me through the door into the house, I was glad to leave his sorry ass alone.

The door opened to a staircase that led up without any other exits. The house was built into the side of the mountain, so the lower levels were in the earth and the all-glass upper levels faced the downward slope and the Arctic sea far beyond. I would’ve enjoyed it if I wasn’t a prisoner or it wasn’t owned by Rika. A jail is still a jail, even if it’s a nice one.

The inner main-floor walls displayed Rika’s taxidermy collection. It was disconcerting to see so many animals from the tundra on display. Had Gary unwittingly been doing her taxidermy for years? He’d mentioned a generous anonymous client. I was pretty sure I’d found her.

This was a terrible time to be tired, but I was. I sank down into a fancy midnight-blue armchair. It was surprisingly comfortable. I put my feet up on the coffee table. I might as well rest while I could.

I had no idea whether the baby would be a shifter, but it seemed logical that with two shifter parents we’d have either a kit or a cub shifter at some point. Now I really wished Meg was around.

A chiming bell startled me awake. I hadn’t realized I’d drifted off. Judging by my stiffness, I’d been asleep for a while. I followed the delicate chime to a long dining table filled with the most delicious-smelling food. I had no idea who worked for Rika. A few times I got a glance at the help, but they faded away like shadows.

“Motherhood agrees with you.” Rika regarded me, taking a seat at the head of the table. She wore a flowing floor-length gown. I couldn’t tell whether it was a fancy bathrobe or a ball gown. She was a ringer for a sweet little old lady, except for that murderous streak. Candlelight and fine china complimented the crystal stemware. I was getting the picture that she didn’t often entertain guests who weren’t glamoured.

“How come I’m not glamoured?”

Rika pushed her food around her plate. “Does anyone tell you anything? Never mind. I’m a succubus, dear. My power is drawn through energy. Ninety-nine percent of the time, my companion is glamoured as a result of our sexual activity. Quite simply, you see me as I am because we’ve not had sex.” She set down her fork.

I swallowed, hoping the revulsion didn’t show on my face.

“What I want from you is the energy of that baby you’re growing inside you. It’s been so long since I’ve had a fresh one.” She rubbed her hands together as if she’d just won at bridge.

This creature had destroyed Icy Cap once. She’d broken up the paranorm community. She’d tried to kill me. Now she wanted my unborn baby. One way or another, she was going down. Although I admit my circumstances just then weren’t promising.

My dinner smelled divine, but it tasted like sawdust. I chewed, unable to think of a single thing to say. How to escape was all that occupied my mind.

“You’re dining for two now. Eat up! You’re going to love the after-dinner entertainment.” Rika didn’t eat anything, but she drank several glasses of red wine—or maybe blood.

Outside, the snow had finally stopped. The clouds cleared away, leaving a starlit sky.

Rika cocked her head as though she was listening to something, but I couldn’t hear anything. “Sounds like the floor show is about to begin.”

For fuck’s sake.
This woman was a drama queen on top of everything else.

“Trudy!” Dane pounded on the front door. The china rattled on the table.

I slid out of my seat at the sound of his voice.

“He’s early.” Rika said, rising from her seat. “I’ll get it.”

She crossed to the double doors in the foyer. She opened one side, then blocked the entrance with one hand on her hip and the other on the door frame. I followed her.

“I want to talk to Trudy,” Dane greeted her.

“Manners, Dane. Don’t you even have a hello for me?”

Dane spied me standing behind Rika. “We’re leaving now.”

He was naked. He looked pissed as hell—and hot. He had shifted to his ice bear to rescue us.

Tears ran down my cheeks. I loved him. I always would. Nothing would change that.

Gary crept up behind him, nudging an envelope into Dane’s hand.

“Here is what I borrowed. With interest. Give me Trudy.”

“I don’t want the money. What I have here is payment enough. Your debt is paid. Good-bye.” Rika slammed the door in his face.

I let out a breath that I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
Crap.
This rescue wasn’t going well at all.

Rika reached up and removed a rifle from where it hung above the front door. She turned, aiming the gun at me while she stared down the scope.

“What are you doing?” I squeaked, backing into the wall.

“What do you think?”

“You’re going to shoot me.”

“Have I ever given you a single reason to think I’m an idiot? Men like Dane never give up. They have to be stopped. Don’t look so glum. We can mount his head over the fireplace.”

“You can’t glamour him or something?” I stalled. Watching her load that rifle, I knew Dane was a dead man if he returned. And he’d be back. I’d seen the look in his eyes. He knew about the pregnancy. He would kill or be killed. All I could think to do was delay the succubus.

“A bullet leaves less mess. And believe me, I want his pelt intact for my collection.” She turned back toward the door, tucking the gun under her arm. Now was the time. Opening the door while hanging onto the gun distracted her.

“Stop!” I rushed Rika, but the succubus struck me with the butt of her gun.

I saw the damned thing coming, but I turned my head too late. It hit me square in the temple.

Fuucck.
That hurt.

I
ran back
to where Gary crouched in the trees. It was an excellent vantage point for the visible parts of the house. But I knew there was quite a bit in the lower levels we couldn’t see.

“We have to act now. Trudy is in the living room still. Stand back. I’m going to shift.”

“Why’d you bother alerting them to you? Wouldn’t it have been easier to attack her straight away?”

“Not knowing where Trudy is? No way.” I shook my head. I didn’t trust my ice bear spirit that much. It was all too new to me. Although, ironically, I’d spent years fighting it only to find it was a relief to be who I was. I liked being in ice bear mode.

“You still OK with the plan?” I asked.

Gary nodded. “Good luck.”

I didn’t answer him. I was already raising my ice bear spirit.

Gary trotted up to the front door. He knocked and looked around. Except for the rifle slung over his shoulder, he could’ve been selling magazine subscriptions.

I paced, waiting.

A blast from inside the house knocked Gary off his sandal-shod feet. I sprinted toward Rika. She stood on her front step, staring down at Gary. Black smoke trailed into the air over his body. She kicked him with her slipper. Gary didn’t move, but a puff of black smoke mushroomed from the hole in his chest. She raised the gun again, pointing it at his head.

“
N
o
!” I grabbed a carved Native American pipe displayed on the wall. Most likely it was stolen, I thought, as I heaved it across the room. I’d have to be a superhero to throw the thing through the door on the first try and nail Rika, standing out in the snow.

It didn’t even make it past the foyer, hitting the doorway edge.

“Ha! You missed!” Rika crowed.

“I wasn’t trying to hit you,” I said. My eyes darted to the right, where Dane’s ice bear was closing the distance between him and Rika.

It was my first time seeing his ice bear. He was beautiful. Even though I’d seen his twin, Ash, in his ice bear form, I would never mistake the brothers in their shifted states. Maybe it was all his years playing hockey, but Ash was more graceful.

Dane was all dark vengeance. He hunted to kill.

The succubus pointed the gun at Gary’s head. “Nothing that smells this bad deserves to live.”

Dane’s movement caught Rika’s eye. She jerked the gun up in surprise. I pushed open the other side of the double door and rushed to Gary.

Rika pointed the gun at Dane. “Even better.”

Dane leapt, roaring as he twisted his massive body in the air. I shrank back as the two-ton ice bear bore down on me, Gary, and Rika. In midair, Dane swatted at Rika.

She stumbled against me, knocking me over. “Get out of my way, you fools.” She headed for the side of her house. Dane followed.

“Dane, come back!” I crawled over to Gary. The ground around him was covered with a lot of sticky black ghoul blood.

The massive bear swung his head around.

“Leave her. We need the vamp to save Gary. Check the garage.”

Dane pivoted, surging off in the opposite direction. His massive head swung back to check on me.

“Gary, hang on. You’ll feel better with some vamp blood. Remember how much better I felt after Meg gave me some blood?”

Rika’s gun lay discarded in the snow. She was getting away. If she escaped, she’d still be out there—and be a threat.

“I’ll be right back.” I picked up the gun and headed for the side of the house where Rika had disappeared. The forest was thick, and the lights from the house didn’t extend into the trees.

She was in there. Watching. Waiting. I
had
to go after her.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” Dane called.

I turned around. My mate was standing naked in knee-deep snow with a barely conscious vamp still dressed in BDSM gear. “Leave her. Gary needs your help.”

Had I been glamoured to some extent by association with her?

“Trudy,” Dane called again. “Come here.”

I turned around, trotting back to join Dane, Gary, and Max. Rika watched me from the shadows. I knew it.

T
hat’s my mate
, chomping at the bit to take on a creature that can crush paranorms. Trudy is not just my mate; she’s the mother of my unborn child. I’ll be damned if I’d watch her take on the succubus alone.

Luckily Gary’s wound distracted her. I’d found Max collapsed in the heated garage near the snowmobile. He was still suffering from hypothermia. If it wasn’t for needing his blood to help Gary, I’d have left Max alone.

Max wasn’t a thrilled donor, but given his weakened body he didn’t have a choice. He winced as Gary greedily sucked blood from his wrist.

Watching Trudy help Gary, I marveled at her. I’d wasted so much time focusing on myself that I’d missed years with this amazing woman. No more. I wasn’t going to miss anything if she could forgive my past actions.

If not, we’d co-parent our child and for the rest of my days what I lost with her would haunt me. I’d been young and stupid and self-centered, but her generous heart would have forgiven that. If I’d only come clean to her myself.

After he’d ingested a significant amount of Max’s blood, I noticed Gary’s odor again. “He’s feeling better.”

Trudy turned to me. “We have to smoke her out.”

“What?”

“The only way to weaken her is to destroy whatever she has. I bet her nest is inside. She’s trying to lure us away. Who else is in the house?”

Max said, “Only the two of us.”

“Someone was making food and taking care of the house. You can’t tell me that Rika was scrubbing her own toilets.”

“She employed ghosts.”

“Slutty, evil, and cheap.” Trudy sounded impressed in spite of herself. “I’m going to get a match.”

“I’m going with you,” I said. But first, I placed my hand on her forearm to stop her. “Are you pregnant?”

She turned to face me. Her cheeks colored, and her eyes darted away from mine. “I think so. All of a sudden, a lot of things make sense. I’ve been tired and nauseated. My fox spirit is so quiet, I think she’s asleep. What do you think?”

“I think Icy Cap has been a lot better to me than I deserve. I came back here to end my silent partnership in the inn and to pay back Rika. The second is no longer possible.”

“And the first?” Trudy asked.

“It’ll be impossible for me to be a silent partner while I’m living here. You might decide you’re sick of having me around. I probably deserve that, after all I’ve put you through. You’ll never get rid of me, though.

“Having a baby is the best gift I can think of.”

“No,” I said, taking her hands in mine. “Trudy, you are the best gift. Will you be my mate? We can have something official later. Whatever you want, big or small.”

“Yes I’ll be your mate, now and forever. In the meantime, let’s burn this place to the ground. First, though, I wonder if there’s any real food inside? I’m craving s’mores.”

B
ook
1 His to Bear (Icy Cap #1)
My Book

Book 3 Theirs to Bear (Icy Cap #3)
My Book

T
hank
you so much for reading
Mine to Bear!

I hope you enjoyed Dane and Trudy’s story. I loved writing about a couple who were both shifters from different species. Probably the most fun though was when I discovered Trudy was an armchair detective like myself. I’m looking forward to writing more paranormal detective heroines. But my favorite character for this series is Gary the ghoul. It looks like he won’t get his Happily Ever After until a special Halloween edition but he’ll be sticking around town for a while until then.

Stay tuned for
Theirs to Bear
. This is my favorite Icy Cap story of the series. That just might because Gary is pressed into babysitting duty. Or maybe because Tristan and Liv struggle to find true love while dealing with a murderous succubus and Liv’s active four year old son.

In the meantime, I hope you’ll keep in touch. To catch up on all the books in the Alaskan Den Men Collection, you can sign up for the ADM Newsletter here:
Newsletter
. And you can join the ADM Facebook fan group here:
The Alaskan Denettes
. It’s a lively group where we share pictures of chiseled male chests and bear sightings.

For information about all of my books, please visit my website at
www.jenniferhilt.com
. You can sign up for my not too frequent newsletter here:
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Being a talented procrastinator, I hang out at Facebook
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H
appy Reading
!

Jennifer Hilt