Page 4 of Kodiak's Heart

Chapter Two

“I’m not choosing,” Laramie Holloway asserted.

The words were like a bomb detonating in the room. Everyone grew quiet, then the shouting began.

“What the fuck do you mean you’re not choosing?” Koby, Laramie’s brother and second in command, demanded.

“Of course, you are,” Jensen declared.

“The fuck you aren’t,” Declan growled.

Slade and Brock threw out similar comments. Even Matheus, the youngest of the seven Holloway brothers and often the peacekeeper of the family, made his ire at Laramie’s words felt.

“Enough!” Laramie roared as he stood, bracing his hands on his desk and staring down each of his brothers until the muttering subsided. “As of right now, we can confirm only seven females from our pack survived the attacks. Three of them are already mated. Two to Holloways.”

Seven out of an entire pack of bears. There wasn’t a day that went by that Laramie didn’t remember the strategic attacks that had wiped out the lifeblood of his pack. First, with the death of his father, the alpha before Laramie. Then, with well-timed attacks that crippled them by appearing to wipe out all the females. They’d still been grieving the loss of their father when the attacks had taken place.

For five long years, they’d believed no females had survived, a death sentence in a bear den. Their females were the heart of the pack. Though male bear shifters could and did marry humans, only a female bear shifter could carry bear shifter children. By taking out their females, their pack had been as good as erased.

Only there had been survivors. Females the elders of the pack had hidden in a bid to keep them safe. Females that should have been brought to the alpha for protection. Immediately. Laramie was still angry the elders had chosen not to trust him. It didn’t matter that they’d all been advised to do so by the very man who’d betrayed them all—one of their elders, Lawrence Walker, a man who’d looked his alpha in the eye and lied. Numerous times.

“Koby and Declan getting mated has nothing to do with you selecting a mate,” Holt countered. The human was a great addition to their pack and was turning into a trusted friend. Holt saw things in a different light than the rest of them. Probably because he was new to bear shifters.

He’d first met Holt when he’d brought Gabriel’s mate to the Holloways for protection. Gabriel was the liger who’d brought their father’s body home. There wasn’t much Laramie wouldn’t do to help the cat. Unfortunately, there’d been a rogue shifter traveling with them who’d planned to take Gabriel’s mate back to the hunters who had experimented on her as a baby. The pride of cats had managed to prevent that from happening. Holt, along with two other members of the pride, had come back to the Holloways to offer help. They’d worried the bears might have been compromised during the cats’ brief stay on their land. Laramie liked the pride of cats—at least all the ones he’d met. They were good people, solid and trustworthy. He’d offered help when they’d needed it and knew they’d always return the favor if he asked. Especially now that one of their own had joined Laramie’s pack.

“It does,” Laramie countered. “The three surviving Blackstone sisters have chosen their mates. Sidia mated Koby, and Xandra chose Declan. The Holloway line will live on through them. The Blackstone line will live on through Jaeda since she took you as a mate.”

Jaeda Blackstone had been the first to arrive. She’d been stalked all the way to the Holloway land. The hunters chasing her had forced her to travel the final distance on foot, running hell bent for leather. Koby and Holt had been watching, along with Holt’s friend, a cat shifter named Murphy Dockery. Koby had shot the men chasing Jaeda, but not before they’d managed to strike her with a dart laced with a muscle relaxer and something stronger to knock her out.

She’d recognized her mate instantly, making a beeline for Holt and throwing herself into his arms. The minx might have tricked the human into mating her, but even Laramie could see the love that grew daily between the two. He watched it flourish for his brothers and their mates, too.

“There are only four females left that we know of. Not nearly enough for all the bloodlines in this pack. I won’t diminish other bear lines by choosing. I’ll select the males I believe are the strongest among us and let the four women choose from them.”

There was rumor there were more surviving females, those Lawrence had given to the hunters for God only knew what purpose. Laramie and his brothers had no idea where the females were or if they still lived.

“If that’s how you feel, then none of the unmated Holloways should be among the candidates,” Jensen declared.

Slade, Matheus, and Brock all nodded in agreement.

“I’m not asking that from any of you,” Laramie began, but Brock cut him off.

“You don’t have to. It’s the right thing to do.”

Laramie blew out a hard breath. It broke something inside him to think of his brothers never having cubs of their own.

“It’s a nice gesture, but you don’t have a choice, Alpha,” Koby stated.

Laramie merely crossed his arms and glared.

“No other male in this pack will pick a mate until their alpha does. We all know it. It won’t matter to the rest of the pack that two of your brothers are mated. Because none of them know the truth about the Holloways and how the Kodiak DNA works,” Koby reminded them.

“Not to mention, the Kodiak gene is recessive in both Koby and Declan. It’s not in you. There’s no guarantee either of them will sire a Kodiak cub,” Jensen interjected quietly.

Laramie growled in frustration. His brothers were right. No one outside of the family knew that any of the Holloway brothers could sire the next Kodiak bear. Laramie was the only one of the brothers who’d been born with the Kodiak inside him. His brothers were all grizzlies. But that meant nothing when it came to the next generation. Hell, if they were lucky, more than one of them would create a cub with the Kodiak gene. That’s the way it should be with seven of them.

The key was they had to mate a bear shifter female to have a chance. That was the thing about their breed of shifter. Only female bears could carry bear shifter children. A male bear could mate with another species, but he wouldn’t have children who carried his genes. Koby and Declan had both married female black bear shifters, which meant the Holloway line would continue. One or both of his brothers could create the next alpha. Yet, Koby was right. No one in the pack, outside of them, knew it. That meant none would mate if Laramie didn’t.

Keeping his lips firmly closed, Laramie conjured the words that had played over and over in his head since the remaining females had arrived safely to Holloway land.

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