Page 23 of The Alpha Grizzly's Mate

I growled, not ready to give up the form that protected me the most.

“Shift back. We need to talk, not growl.”

Not wanting to be bled, I obeyed, taking my skin and hating that it immediately put me at a power disadvantage that wasmore pronounced than normal. I was standing naked while he was all dressed up in his “be scared of me” clothes.

But I didn’t care because I wasn’t going to be scared of him. I refused. And maybe if I kept telling myself that, I’d believe it. Because if you scratched the surface, I was terrified of the man and this entire situation.

“I don’t want you here, Dad. I found my life, the one I deserve.” I attempted to make my voice as strong and assured as his was. I failed, sounding like the nerdy college student I had been not too long ago.

“What you found was my property, Son, and I want it back.”

My stomach dropped.

“What do you mean?” My voice quaked, and I hated myself for it. “I don’t have anything of yours. I came with the clothes on my back.”

“You have my property. Should I remind you which, since you seem to have amnesia.” He turned his phone around and showed me a picture of the cubs.

He knew they were here.

Fuck.

“You can’t have them, Father. They belong here. They’re mine.” My wolf was so close to the surface, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to hold him in.

“That’s not how this works. They are my property. You can’t just steal them from me and decide they belong to you.”

“How about we make a deal?” I still hadn’t fully formed what the deal would be, but I refused to let him win. I couldn’t win with force, but I’d be damned if I didn’t beat him.

My father was big on making deals—ones he always ended up on the right side of. And today, I was going to give him that. At least, I hoped he would see it that way.

“What could you possibly have to offer me? You have nothing. You refuse to do what is necessary in some feeble attempt to keep your hands clean. What’s left?”

“Money.” That caught his attention. “My trust fund’s coming due soon. And when it does, it’s a lot of money.” I hadn’t looked at it in years, but just the interest alone was more money than most people could fathom. Even to my father, it was a huge amount.

“I can take it from you.”

For a long time, I’d believed that to be true.

“No, you can’t. You can have control now and not give me early access, but you can’t take it from me. It wasn’t set up that way. Grandpa made sure.”

“Wait—you want to buy the cubs? Doesn’t that make you as bad as me?”

“No, I don’t want to buy the cubs. That’s way too much money just for those cubs.” They were priceless, but I refused to give my father the upper hand.“I want the cubs, and I want you to stay the fuck away from my den.”

“Your den? What a joke. You’re a wolf, not a bear.”

I turned so there was no mistake—I was marked.

“I’m mated to a bear from this den. It. Is. Mine. Those cubs are mine. So, do yourself a favor. Take the money. Call us even. Or the people who took those cubs are going to come after you. Because it wasn’t me, Dad. They were already gone when I went to rescue them.”

Let him fear my friends.

“You went there to do what?” He was livid.

“Don’t act surprised. You know I don’t belong in the business.”

He was pissed. There was no doubt about that. But also, I saw something in his eyes for the very first time in my life. Pride.

My father was proud of me.

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