Page 3 of Bearnapped at the Altar

“Congratulations again, Tegan. Being chosen as the Moonlight Mates Beastlerette is truly a life-changing experience, and I’m excited to see what comes next. But first, we have some paperwork for you to sign.” She handed me a tablet. “I hate to drop boring formalities on you on such an exciting night, so I’ll give you the TL;DR version: it’s the same stuff you signed in your contract…”

She was still talking, but I was much more focused on the paperwork as I flipped through the pages.

“This looks like a marriage contract,” I said.

She nodded eagerly.

“Like a real one.” My heart was in my throat. Sweet moon, this was exactly what it was. And Gideon had already signed it! All it needed to be official was for me to sign where they’d highlighted in fluorescent yellow. “If you expect me to actually marry Gideon Silverclaw…”

“You’re contractually obligated to actually marry Gideon Silverclaw.” Larrie’s tone was icy enough to give me frostbite. “As I said, everything in this paperwork was already in the contract. You agreed to be the fated mate of this season’s beast, if you were lucky enough to be chosen. It’ll be considered a breach of contract if you refuse, and all our obligations to you will be considered null and void.”

Translation: kiss that sweet payment goodbye.

But my lawyer had gone over the contract in painstaking detail. Okay, my lawyer was my niece, who was studying to be a paralegal, and she would’ve definitely mentioned that I was on the hook to spend forever with a beast I hardly knew—let alone totally hated.

Something was very, very wrong.

“Give me a minute.” The words barely had volume as I pushed myself away from the desk and ran out of the tent.

There was a bench outside and I sank onto it, holding my head in my hands. The crisp night air had little chance of actually clearing my head, but I needed a moment to collect my racing thoughts. I needed to come up with a way out of this, effective immediately. This wasn’t a game anymore. They wanted me to marry this wolf for real.

There was no way I could do that.

I hated his guts—not only because he fired me. He had done really shitty things to unsuspecting local packs that thought the money that Wild Adventures brought in would make real change. Which it did, just the worst possible kind.

And his inner wolf had to be dense if he really thought I was his mate.

Gideon strode toward the production tent with purpose. Like he did with everything else, he was about to make this worse. He was chatting with one of the producers, too absorbed in the conversation and himself to notice the recently declared love of his life was sitting outside.

Thank the moon.

I got up fast, clasping my hand over my dress to make sure the bra didn’t slip into oblivion as I scrambled to the back of the tent.

After a few weeks at the campground, everyone knew the canvas walls of the yurt were far from soundproof. Since it never stopped anyone one from speaking their mind, it was how the show obtained some of its juiciest material. Which was what I planned to do right now.

“Did she sign it?” he asked once inside the yurt. “Now we can drop the façade and get this bitch in line.”

“Not yet.” Larrie let out a heavy sigh. “It’s not looking good. Of course, she’s asking a lot of questions. She’s onto us.”

Damn straight I was. It took everything I had not to burst into the tent and demand answers. But Gideon Silverclaw was a dangerous wolf and confronting him when I was this furious could backfire.

Or they had set me up to film my implosion.

I refused to give them what they wanted.

Gideon growled. “You’re one of the best producers in the business, and considering the generous donation I made to your company, I’m confident you’ll find a way to get Tegan to cooperate. Do I make myself clear?”

Gravel crunched in punctuation to that statement.

“Gideon!” Larrie called out, but it was futile. He was already out of the tent.

My heart raced. This might be my only chance to get him one-on-one, to get him to answer my questions without his pack, his lawyers, or the cameras. Find out why he thought I was such a problem. Sure, I was onto his plan to buy shifter land and displace the packs who lived there, but really, what did he think I was gonna do about it? I was unemployed and not very business savvy, since the best plan I’d come up with was to come onto this show to expose him.

Sweet moon. This was a bigger mess than I thought. When Gideon magically appeared as the fated beast on Moonlight Mates, I tried to convince myself it was a coincidence. But there was no way he would want to fall in love in the most public way possible, especially with me.

But I was right all along about his intentions. He was here to silence me and love didn’t have a single thing to do with it.

My resources were limited and my choices sucked even worse than that. But that didn’t mean I had any plans of giving in.

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