Page 16 of Bearnapped at the Altar

I sent her off with a kiss emoji and slipped my phone in my pocket.

“I have so many questions.” Bellamy chuckled as he handed me a coffee. My second in command was far too experienced to show up without it. “Why do you look like you’re doing the walk of shame, and how come we’re starting work before the sun is even up? Is there some sort of emergency where you have to pose as a male exotic dancer?”

“Funny.” All I had on was my suit jacket. I’d be asking questions too. “Tegan needed something to sleep in. I gave her my shirt. I couldn’t sleep, we have no supplies, and I figured we’d be a lot more efficient if we didn’t wait for a clock to tell us when it was time to get to work.”

“Did she give you any dirt on Silverclaw?”

I shook my head as I took my first full sip of coffee. It was strong and a little sweet, and I groaned as my brain immediately went to an image of Tegan, with her pink hair splayed on the pillow, her lips slightly parted… “Not anything we didn’t already know.”

Bellamy grunted. He wasn’t a morning bear, but I’d been telling him for years that he needed to get over it if he wanted to work in this business.

“I take it you’ve seen the Moonlight Mates social media page,” he said.

“Not yet.”

“I say this with respect, because you sign my paychecks, but what the fuck did you do last night?” He raised a suspicious brow as he turned onto Main Street. “Scratch that. I can come to my own conclusions. So since one of us actually worked on the case last night, let me tell you what’s going on. The show’s using Tegan’s abduction, as they’re calling it, as the best free publicity they’ve ever had. They’ve been live streaming all night, splicing it with canned footage of Tegan and interviewing her fellow contestants live. The website has crashed a few times because it can’t handle the traffic. They’ve got a vague description of you and the getaway car, but because I switched out the plates, they’re unable to trace it. But they’re doing their damnedest to find us.”

I took another sip of my coffee and digested that information. “Not surprised they went that route, but it’s interesting they wouldn’t try to cover it up, since they know what Silverclaw is up to.”

“Do we know?” Bellamy grunted. “Right now, we look like the criminals. Silverclaw looks like the poor groom who got stood up by the runaway bride. All the momentum’s on his side. Which means as soon as we get back to the cabin, Tegan needs to tell us every single detail of what she knows, and we need to find a way to go public with it.”

“She’ll talk. She just needed some time to decompress after last night. And for me to convince her I’m not working for Silverclaw.” I grinned before I took another sip to wash away the vision of her in my shirt.

That tattoo.

“Your face lights up when you talk about her.”

“She’s just a client.”

“Like hell she is. She’s dangerous. She’s pissed off Silverclaw, and to be perfectly honest, there’s a possibility that she could be working with him,” Bellamy said as he pulled into the parking spot. “You bested his ass last time you saw him.”

“He still got our land.”

“But you sent him away with many wounds to lick. I’d bet they left scars. And this reality show is eating up the drama like it’s a hot fudge sundae. They’ll try to push him over the edge if it means better ratings. And if they could catch a shifter fight on camera, it would give them the jackpot. I’m just saying, be careful. I’ll be more than happy to kick some wolf ass if I need to, but let’s try to keep that from happening.”

Chapter

Seven

Tegan

“What if I was a vegetarian?” Maybe I was used to nothing but salads and smoothies on the set of Moonlight Mates, but I shouldn’t have been surprised that two big, burly bear shifters came back with takeout containers full of sausage, bacon, hash, and eggs. But it wouldn’t stop me from giving them a hard time about their very manly choices.

Barrett’s eyes widened. “Are you? I didn’t even think to ask.”

“Told you we should’ve got more than the fruit cup,” Bellamy added.

My traitorous stomach growled at the scent. I’d been too nervous and upset to eat much of anything in the days leading up to the wedding. I was usually someone who didn’t hesitate to feed their feelings, so the reappearance of my appetite was a good sign.

“Not really,” I said, reaching for the bacon. “But I could’ve been.”

“Might have gone a little overboard. Natalie, my daughter, lectures me when I bring meat into the house. Never know what she’s gonna eat. Guess I might have had some cravings,” Barrett said. “We got cinnamon rolls too.”

“I definitely deserve one of those after being forced to almost marry Gideon and getting bearnapped.” My mouth dropped when he pulled the pink bakery box out of the bag. “Is that from Sawtooth Sweets?”

Barrett narrowed his eyes at me.

“How would you know about that place?” His words were so growly. “I brought you here because I didn’t think you’d know anyone here. You need to tell me right now if that’s not the case.”

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