Page 40 of The Bear's Fated Mate
Which would be a good thing because right then, the only thing he understood for sure was that Lara was reaching the end of her meet-and-greet, and he wanted to be at her side.
Okay, he also knew he wanted to find somewhere private so he could assure himself she was one hundred percent okay with what had just happened.
He also wanted to strip off her clothes and do wicked, dirty things to her because, holy hell, that display of power had been hot.
Hmmm. It seemed he hadquitea to-do list, and he’d like to get started on it as soon as possible.
“Maybe we should finish this later,” he suggested to Auntie Amethyst.
“No problem. One thing… You should know I don’t take advice from random strangers. But if you do things the right way, and we actually end up related, then I might consider looking into that patch thing.” She waved a hand in the air. “Everybody back up and give us some space. We got shit to do, so you all get started on what needs to be done.”
Wolves scrambled to get out of the way, vanishing down hallways as the old woman marched Crystal, Lara, and Alex into the pack office.
“Sit,” Auntie Amethyst ordered Lara, pointing at the chair behind the desk.
Lara arched a brow. “So much for the concept that nobody bosses the Alpha around.”
“Pshaw. I ain’t bossing you around. Just taking care of the details.”
She grabbed a folder off the top of the filing cabinet and spread a dozen pieces of paper on the desk in front of Lara.
Lara glanced at them, jaw slowly dropping. She met Alex’s gaze before turning to her sister. “Transfer-of-power papers. These are for the pack?”
Crystal was still trembling as if being slammed with power had drained the energy right out of her, but her grin was sheer mischief. “Humans don’t accept the explanation ‘her wolf is more powerful than mine’ when it comes to accessing bank accounts. All of this gives you legal control of the pack and everything related to Midnight Inc. that I used to control.”
Understanding was slowly rising. “You’ve had this planned for a long time,” Alex said, glancing at Lara’s sister.
Crystal nodded, still obviously proud of herself even as she collapsed into a chair. “Sorry. My legs don’t want to hold me right now.” She looked across at Lara, pride in her expression. “I knew you were strong enough to take over, and after fifteen years of leading the pack, I’m ready to do something different. But if I’d tried simply abdicating, you would’ve had a dozen or more challengers—that’s what happened to me when Mom and Dad handed over control. You were probably too little to remember what a pain in the ass it was, but I didn’t see why you should have to put up with that bullshit. I know you could beat them, but somebody might have gotten hurt.”
“Doing it the sneaky way meant less chance of bloodshed…” Lara nodded slowly. “That explains some of the things I overheard. Some of the rumours that got out are what set Alex tracking down information about hostile takeovers.”
A swear escaped Crystal, and she snapped her head to the side to stare aghast at Alex. “Oh my God, did you think we were trying to do something to Borealis Gems? No. Not at all. I would never dream of doing anything to hurt my sister’s ma—”
She went off into a coughing fit the same instant Lara did.
Auntie Amethyst rolled her eyes and slammed down bottles of water in front of the two women. “Ladies, if you could hold yourself together for another few minutes, Alex and I need to witness whatever needs to be signed.”
It took a few minutes to pass around the pens, but in the end, a stack of papers was lined up on the edge of the desk.
“I’ll get these to our lawyer first thing in the morning,” Auntie Amethyst offered. “Now excuse me. I need a smoke before I cut a motherfucker.”
She stormed out of the office without a backward glance.
Crystal rose to her feet and stood there on shaky legs, smiling benevolently at her sister. “For what it’s worth, I think you’re going to do a great job.”
“You’ll be here to tell me if I’m making mistakes,” Lara pointed out. “Please, though, use words not noises likehmmmmmmm.”
Her sister laughed but then shook her head. “I’m not going to be here. I told you that I’m ready to do the next thing, and part of that is… I met my mate.”
Lara squealed with excitement then slapped Crystal on the arm. “Get out. How come you didn’t tell me?”
“Sometimes people keep their mates secret because they have a good reason. Or at leastthinkthey have a good reason.” Crystal grinned. “In my case, she’s a cougar shifter from a clan based in Montana. She can’t immigrate, so I’m moving south. I obviously couldn’t say anything about leaving until we’d transferred power.”
Lara glanced at Alex, her cheeks flushed, before turning back to Crystal. “I met her, didn’t I? She delivered a note to me when I was at the spa.”
“She likes you. You’ll get a chance to meet her again soon, I promise. Now I need to go tell her what’s up.” Crystal tilted her head politely. “If that’s okay with my Alpha?”
Lara breathed out a sigh that was satisfaction and exhaustion all at the same time. “It’s okay with yoursister, who loves you very much. Get out of here.”
