Page 1 of The Bear's Fated Mate
1
July 2, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
Lara Lazuli tilted her face toward the sun and shoved her lingering annoyance away. The sky was clear, the sun was shining, and the motor of her bright red Maserati was purring like the proverbial kitten.
She was determined to appreciate the good moments when they appeared, and with the windows down and warm fresh wind whipping her long silvery-white hair around, this was a good moment.
Focusing on the beauty of the summer day meant it didn’t matter that she’d had to put up with all sorts of bullshit at the Orion pack house late last night. Or early morning, to be honest, since it had been nearly three a.m. when she’d finally made it home, only to be shouted at for acting irresponsibly. Didn’t matter that at breakfast this morning they had simply picked the theme up again, this time with added nonsense tossed in from her aunt about fraternizing with the enemy.
Her older sister and their aunt were so annoying at times. Crystal and Auntie Amethyst thought they were the cocks of the henhouse—
Deep breath. Deep breath.
Nope, not going there. Today was all about doing something for herself. Instead of protecting and promoting the family diamond business, the class she was about to teach was strictly because she enjoyed the topic, and enjoyed working with beginners.
And who knows? If things ended up going south with Midnight Inc. or the Orion pack, maybe she’d have to look into a new career.
Right now she was expending a lot of energy to fight off the crushing urge her inner wolf had to take her immediate family apart for being jerks.
Jerks, of course, spelled
C-L-O-S-E
L-I-P-P-E-D
A-S-S-H-O-L-E-S.
We could take over,her wolf offered.Lead the pack.
Great idea. Which of their throats do you suggest I rip out first?Lara responded.Crystal is acting like a typical Alpha combined with an overprotective big sister. Not to mention Auntie Amethyst is sure to taste like smoke. You hate smoke.
Disgusted, her wolf snarled,We could still do it. Just fast, then eat a good steak.
Lara snorted in amusement. That other part of herself was always there, always her, and yet distinctly wolf while she was human. The wolf saw solutions in a far more black-and-white light and while there were times she appreciated the reminder to not get too tangled up in details, actual shredding of familial throats wasn’t going to happen simply because the matriarchs in her life were beyond annoying.
If they ever crossed the line to dishonesty or cruelty, Lara wouldn’t hesitate to fight back.
But that was the kicker—right now she wasn’t sure what mischief was going on in the secret back rooms of the Orion pack leadership. For some reason, the highest ranking powers-that-be, a.k.a. Sis Number One and Auntie Number Three, had not yet reopened the doors to include her in their inner circle.
Secretive jerks.
She slowed her car and eased into the parking lot of the high school.
There were many places in Yellowknife big enough to host an information session like the one she was about to present, but most locations had affiliation issues she wanted to avoid.
She could have held the session at the Orion pack’s pub, Sirius Trouble, but half her target market wouldn’t have come for fear of offending the local bear shifter population. She doubted Diamond Tavern, owned by the highest-ranking polar bears in town, would have allowed her to book space for fear of wolves rampaging in their hallowed halls.
The supposedly neutral convention center was a little too tangled up with sponsorship frombothMidnight Inc. and Borealis Gems—“the enemy” as her auntie had put it—to work, either.
Jerk.
Her aunt, not the convention center.
The high school, however, was sacrosanct nonaligned territory. Nostalgically, Lara eased her car into the open space where she used to park when she’d attended six years earlier. It was the one time in her life she’d truly enjoyed school because her family had moved to Yellowknife the summer before her grade twelve year, and there’d been no lingering reputations from her older sisters to burn her. Yes,sisters—Lara was number five of the bunch.
She stared at the familiar building. Good memories arose of time with friends, although most of them had moved away.
The curse of a northern town. Those who stayed, stayed for good. The rest passed through like a winter blizzard, there for a moment before melting into memory and frostbite.
