Bear It All: McMahon Clan 2 (Fated Mates #5) Read online

  I batted his hands away and moved further into the office. Walking around the desk, I sat in the chair Carrick had been in when we’d met earlier. It was a power play, pure and simple, leaving the guys the two guest chairs on the other side of the desk. Carrick took the hint and sat down quickly with a deep sigh, probably relieved I hadn’t kicked his son in the balls. Speaking of his son, he didn’t do what I’d expected at all. He sat his fine ass down on the corner of the desk—pretty much as close to me as he could get without sitting on my damn lap.

  “This certainly complicates things.” Carrick’s comment was an understatement of epic proportions.

  “I can’t be mated to your son during this mission.” Although I directed my statement toward Carrick, I couldn’t force myself to tear my eyes away from his son. It was like he held me captive with his stare. I couldn’t help but think that no man should have this kind of power over me. It was unnerving as hell.

  “I guess introductions are in order.” We both snorted at Carrick’s statement. “Tahlia Griffen, this is my son Braden. Braden, meet Tahlia.”

  I breathed deeply, trying to draw Braden’s scent into my lungs as I considered what I’d heard about him during the years I’d served as a council agent. There wasn’t much. Most of what I’d learned was about Alasdair; he was the son who assisted his dad from time to time. Although I’d worked with Carrick off and on during the last five years, I’d never worked a case where he’d had one of his sons helping out, so I’d never crossed paths with any of them.

  It wasn’t something I’d ever considered odd in the past. But now that I was staring into my mate’s eyes while in the middle of a case where us mating wasn’t an option, I didn’t know whether I was happy we hadn’t met before now or upset about the shitty timing. If I knew more about Braden, I might have known how to handle this situation. As it was, I felt like I was at a disadvantage. The only thing I really knew about him was he’s Carrick’s son, his family owns a ton of strip clubs, and he’s the middle brother of identical triplets.

  “Tahlia.”

  The husky timbre of Braden’s voice as he repeated my name sent shivers along my spine. I could too easily imagine him saying it the exact same way as he surged deep inside my body right before he marked me. I shook my head, desperately trying to erase the image from my brain. It was an impossibility right now—something my lioness wasn’t willing to accept yet. She was roaring in my head; she wanted her mate and she wanted him now.

  “Braden.” Even though I spoke softly, I knew all the longing I felt was evident in my voice. I closed my eyes and stiffened my spine, determined to get a hold of my feelings before I did something incredibly stupid. Once I managed to gain a semblance of control, I forced myself to open my eyes and turn my gaze toward Carrick. “Unless we manage to do a bang-up job of damage control, this mission just went sideways. We only have three days to fix this. We need to figure out our game plan tonight if we want to have any hope of pulling this off.”

  “Our game plan is simple,” Braden disagreed. “My dad will pull in a different agent to take care of the situation here while you leave with me.”

  “If only things were truly that simple,” I sighed. “You want to explain it to him, or do I need to?”

  Carrick’s eyes held a hint of apology mixed with humor, as if he was getting some sick satisfaction out of the situation. He must have sensed how close I was to losing control because he quickly shut down his expression and turned toward his son. “I can’t call in another agent, Bray. Tahlia was selected for this mission because she’s the only agent the council has who could go undercover here without drawing suspicion.”

  “As a stripper.” The words sounded as though they were dragged from the depths of his soul. A quick glance in his direction showed me how close his bear was to the surface. His eyes glowed, his lips twisted into a snarl, and his elongated canines flashed.

  “You know as well as I do dancers come and go frequently, but the bar staff tends to remain the same. If we tried to send in a male agent as a bartender, we would have risked people asking questions—something we needed to avoid if we wanted the best possible chance of getting a lead on this guy.”

  “And do you finally have a lead after letting my mate strip in one of our clubs for a month?”

  “Let,” I huffed in irritation. My mom had raised me to stand on my own. Nobody let me do anything. I didn’t have a clue how to handle the idea of being someone’s mate. I’d always been my own woman. My upbringing had taught me a lot of things, but it left me completely unprepared for this.

  Carrick quickly shook his head in warning and I braced myself for Braden’s response to the news of exactly how we’d gotten our lead and what I was going to need to do this weekend. If the situation were different and our roles reversed, I knew I’d want to flip my shit, so I couldn’t expect him to respond any differently.

  “It’s entirely possible the bastard we’ve been hunting will be here Friday night.”

  As soon as the words left Carrick’s mouth, Braden’s body tensed. He reminded me a bit of a lion preparing to go into battle—coiled and ready to pounce.

  “That’s a damn specific timeframe. How did you come across this information?”

  “He was in the club asking questions about the family—about Annora. One of the dancers mentioned it to Tahlia today.”

  “Why did she think Tahlia would be interested in knowing about this man?”

  “Because he also expressed an interest in information about her.”

  “If he was asking questions about my mate, then we have even more of a reason to pull her out now. Did it not occur to you his interest in her means her cover has been blown already?”

  “If I were in danger, he would have acted before now. His attentiveness isn’t a new thing,” I explained.

  “Attentiveness?” Braden’s head tilted as he seemed to consider my choice of wording.

  “He hasn’t approached me yet, but apparently he likes to come in on nights he knows I’m dancing.”

  “Let me get this straight,” he growled. “You’re telling me this man is interested in you sexually? The same man we think is connected to the attempted kidnapping of my sister and niece? A man we know nothing about, except he’s coming here for you on Friday? And you both expect me to sit back and allow him to get close to you so we can catch him?”

  “Yes,” I confirmed, my voice wavering slightly at the end as the scent of his pain and frustration hit my nose.

  “Fuck!” he roared, his head dropping into his hands. “How the hell am I supposed to do this? You’re my mate. Every instinct in my body is urging me to protect you.”

  I wanted nothing more than to be able to give him what he wanted, but it wasn’t possible. Not now, and maybe not ever, considering the kind of woman I was. My soul felt like it was ripping in half. I wondered if fate had us meet this way so we had time to decide whether we could manage to live together for the rest of our lives. Maybe the necessity of delaying our mating was a blessing instead of a curse. I had no doubt Braden would never look at it that way once he knew—which was something I’d better take care of sooner rather than later.

  “I’m not yours yet.” I tried to inject apology into my tone, attempting to soften the blow I was sure my words would cause—even though I figured the effort was futile.

  I hesitated long enough for Carrick to decide he was going to be the one to deliver the final hit. “And you cannot mate each other until after this mission is over.”

  Chapter 5

  Braden

  I finally understood Alasdair’s shocked expression when we’d talked about how I thought finding my mate would give me some peace. I had no doubt Tahlia was a hell of a lot of amazing things, but peaceful sure as shit wasn’t one of them. And that was before she tried to say she wasn’t mine or my father told me we needed to wait before we could mate. As if I’d ever be willing to wait.

  “Leave us,” I barked at my father, barely able to form t
he words and sound semi-human. In all my life, I hadn’t even thought to try to tell him what to do. He wasn’t just my father, he was the head of our clan and a member of the council. Normally, his word was law—except now. This involved my mate and I was damned well not going to let anyone keep her from me. Not even the man I’ve loved and respected since the day I was born. She was mine. Period. End of story.

  “If he leaves the room, then I leave, too.” Tahlia’s statement was softly spoken, but there was a thread of steel to her words, which told me she wasn’t joking around.

  I didn’t appreciate the threat—I’d never responded to them well in the past and had no plan for doing so in the future—but I wasn’t ready to challenge her. Not yet, anyway. Not until I had a better idea of where she stood on the subject of our mating. There were signs she was feeling the same pull as me. Subtle things like the way her eyes kept straying back to mine, the flush on her cheeks, and the faint scent of her arousal in the air. Her mouth might have been saying no, but the message I was receiving from the rest of her body was clearly a yes.

  “The only reason I’m even here right now is because your father asked for my assistance. This isn’t a mission I would normally even consider, but I respected him and didn’t want to see anything else happen to your sister, sister-in-law, or niece. This situation is bigger than you and me. It impacts your family and as such, your father deserves to have a say in what happens.”

  Her reminder of the danger to my family was a punch to the gut, but the steadfastness with which she spoke was an arrow to my heart. I was fighting hard to keep my bear restrained while she looked like meeting me had hardly affected her. I didn’t understand how she could speak so calmly about our situation. I’d never been accused of being overly emotional before, but I could barely push down my bear enough to do anything other than growl. It hurt like hell to think she was so easily able to resist the pull between us. I knew my brother and his mate had their fair share of troubles with their mating, but at least he never had reason to doubt she wanted him. Didn’t most shifter women spend their lives looking forward to meeting their mate like Finley had dreamed of Alasdair?

  I shifted my focus to my dad and immediately felt guilty for the thought. At least my fated mate was standing in front of me, unattached. He never stood a chance with his. I wrestled with my bear for some much-needed control before trying, and this time succeeding, to speak again.

  “Why do you think we need to wait until after the mission is over?”

  “We don’t know whether the guy we’re looking for is a shifter or not. If he is and you’ve mated Tahlia, he’s bound to scent you on her as soon as she gets near him.” The thought of any guy getting close to my mate was enough to have a growl rumbling in my chest. Knowing the ways in which she could get close enough for him to smell me on her made me want to do more than just growl—I wanted to roar. It was a rare thing for me to lose my temper, but my dad quickly recognized the look on my face. I was slipping toward the end of my patience—and quickly.

  “You have to know how much it kills me to ask this of you, Bray. I know I didn’t talk about the mating thing much when you were growing up. It was just too damn hard back then. But now, with Annora in our lives and seeing how happy she is with Parker...watching Alasdair find Finley only for us to help fuck up their relationship and risk leaving him mateless like me...” His jaw clenched, the skin rippling with the effort, and his eyes darkened, narrowing in pain. “As much as I want you to find the same happiness your brother and sister have with their mates, I need you to fight the pull to mate with Tahlia until after we know more about this man. We can’t risk him being a shifter and catching your scent on her, especially without knowing how deeply involved in this mess he is and whether or not he’d recognize a member of our family by scent.”

  I caught movement out the corner of my eye and watched as Tahlia trailed her fingers over the spot between her neck and shoulder. “Even if he’s human, he frequents the Honey Pot. The odds are high he’ll know the significance of a mating mark. Since I didn’t have one the last time he saw me dance, it might be enough for him to lose interest in me before we can pinpoint who he is.”

  They were talking like she was going to be up on that stage for this guy to see come Friday night. As though I was going to allow my mate to get naked in front of a crowd of men in a bar I fucking owned. As if I’d ever let her show an inch of her delectable skin to any man but me. I didn’t have any control over what she’d done in the past on a mission, but as her mate, I damn well should have a say now.

  If they expected me to go along with this plan, then I was sure as hell going to put some limits into place. And I was also going to get something in exchange for my cooperation. From both of them. I turned to my dad first, figuring I had a better chance of handling him than Tahlia. I couldn’t possibly predict how she’d react to anything, let alone what I was about to suggest.

  “We have three days before she needs to be on stage again, right?”

  “Yes.” Although he was answering my question, he managed to add enough inflection to his tone for it to sound like he was asking me instead.

  “If we’re going to do this, then she doesn’t go on until we know he’s in the building. She does one dance, and one dance only. And she doesn’t take off all her clothes for her number.”

  “Don’t you think if there were a way for me to do this job without stripping, I would have thought of it already?” Tahlia sputtered. “This is a strip club for God’s sake! Men come here expecting the dancers to take off their clothes.”

  “It’s something we can work around if we’re smart about it,” I argued. “We’ve done themed weekends before.”

  “Never under this kind of timeframe,” my dad muttered while tilting his head like he was considering what I was suggesting. “But that doesn’t mean it isn’t doable now. If I make the announcement today and put Derek on it, he should be able to pull off an Arabian Nights theme. Tahlia can do a veil dance without going fully nude and still keep the audience’s interest. You and I can stick around the club for the next couple days to help set everything up. On Thursday, we’ll head out of town due to a problem back home. That way, if our guy is getting any inside information, he won’t have a reason to suspect us still being here.”

  “And what about the spectacle Braden made of both of us out there tonight, huh?” Tahlia asked. “How are we going to explain that away? Even if our guy doesn’t have an inside man, he still might hear about it. The staff gossips worse than a bunch of schoolgirls when it comes to talking about each other. The owner’s son, the same man who all the dancers were fawning over all night, stormed the stage and dragged me off it. There’s no way they aren’t going to be talking about it for days. Weeks even.”

  She’d brought our attention to an important obstacle to my plan, one I’d caused. And yet, I couldn’t help the smug grin tugging at my lips at the apparent jealousy in her tone when she talked about the other dancer’s behavior around me. Lucky for me, my dad addressed her concern before she had a chance to notice my satisfied reaction.

  “There’s only so many explanations people will accept for his behavior, and we can’t use the simplest one because it’s a truth we need to avoid for now. We might even be able to turn this to our advantage, make Tahlia appeal to him even more if we’re clever about it.”

  My dad was nobody’s fool—he’d built the family business from nothing, raised three sons on his own, and been handpicked to represent the bear community on the council. He could be cunning when the situation called for it, and this one certainly did.

  “You’ve already got an idea for how to pull that off, don’t you, Dad?”

  “I do,” he confirmed. “We’ll lay the blame entirely at your feet, giving her a reason to dislike you—something our guy should appreciate since he’s out to hurt our family. And we’ll do it while spreading bad information, which will make him think we’re hunting down false leads.”

  I didn’
t have a clue what he was talking about, but apparently, my mate was a hell of a lot smarter than I was. “We spin it as a simple case of mistaken identity. You guys got a tip one of the prides were involved in the attempted kidnapping and they’d recently inserted someone on the inside for information. You planned to visit each of your locations, meet any new staff members, and figure out who they sent.”

  “Braden saw you on stage. He knew you were new to the club. When he caught your scent, he put two and two together, assuming you were spying on us,” my dad continued for her.

  “We go out there now, he apologizes in front of everyone, briefly explains the misunderstanding, and then you guys smooth over any questions before you pretend to leave town on Thursday,” Tahlia finished.

  I didn’t have a problem with anything they’d just outlined, but I hadn’t addressed what I wanted from Tahlia in order to hold off on mating her now. “I’m okay with the plan, except one part.”

  “Let me guess,” Tahlia practically hissed, “you’re too much of a man to stage a public apology?”

  “I’m perfectly comfortable apologizing to you in front of the whole club if that’s what it takes. But I won’t be here to help Dad plan our themed weekend, or to douse any fires tonight might have caused.”

  “Where will you be?” she asked.

  “I’ll be busy showing you exactly how much of a man I am. We’ll be spending that time alone—just the two of us.”

  Chapter 6

  Tahlia

  I was torn over how to respond to his demand. My lioness purred her approval in my head, but the independent woman my mother had raised me to be wanted to punch him in the face. Or the throat. Or maybe even his balls. But then, there was also the whole panty-melting factor. I didn’t even want to think about why his show of dominance would turn me on—not when I’d never had any interest in being submissive in bed.