Page 36 of Bearnapped at the Altar

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.”

Chapter

Seventeen

Tegan

“Never seen you done up before,” Barrett said from the makeup chair beside me. “I like it.”

“You did on my fake wedding day.”

He shook his head. “Doesn’t count because it had been ruined by the time I had a chance to really get a good look at you.”

“So which one is better? Hot mess express or just plain hot?” A piece of me wanted him to vote for door number one because this level of glam was a lot of work every day, and the last thing I wanted to do was disappoint the bear when he saw me in my ripped jeans and vintage concert T-shirt collection.

But I could probably get used to this bombshell thing too.

He rumbled. “They both have appeal.”

The last place I ever expected to find myself was back on the set of Moonlight Mates. Today, the crew had an energy I’d ever seen before. It was magnetic.

I wondered how long Larrie had been making terrible deals at the expense of everyone on the show. She wouldn’t be able to do that any longer. Rumors were flying around that The Real Werewives were interested in taking on the future Beastlerettes, and were already in talks with some former contestants to see if they could give them the happily ever after they deserved. There were a lot of fictional stories that came to life on the set of reality shows, but I really hoped this one was true.

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