Page 9 of Stolen Mate

Knowing when to bow to feminine opinion, he grinned and said, “Why don’t we put it where you think it goes.” He shrugged his shoulders. “If I don’t like it, I can move it later.”

“That’s probably best,” said Annie enthusiastically. “We know what else is coming.”

Inwardly groaning, Derek hefted the heavy iron footboard and carried it into the house. The headboard was at least half again as heavy, and the iron railings weren’t light either.

The girls directed him to place the bed much closer to the bath and the smaller fireplace, which made some sense. He just hadn’t gotten around to moving it.

“Isn’t it time for you to go?” asked Annie, pointedly looking at her watch.

He shook his head. His big sister was up to no good, but she and Sienna did have excellent taste. He only hoped he’d recognize the place when they were done.

“Right you are,” he said, pulling on his baseball cap and giving both women a kiss on the cheek. “Try to remember I’m a bachelor polar bear…”

“Which is what you’ll remain if we don’t get this place looking good. You need to have a cabin or a den or a whatever that makes her know you’re a grown ass man, not some hoodlum teenager.”

“I was never a hoodlum,” he said. Annie arched her eyebrows, and Derek relented. “Okay, but only the one time. I love you both. Just try to remember I have balls.”

He left them laughing as he got in the Jeep and headed into town. He had just enough time to hit The Workshop for breakfast.

CHAPTER 5

TESS

Journal Entry, January 1st

Today is the day. I will wrest my destiny back from those who stole it from me. There is now no doubt that I am pregnant. I will not have my child born within the walls of this compound or subject to the laws of the tyrant who rules here. God forbid I give birth to a girl. How could I raise her knowing she would have little more choice than I have had? Will she be born a shifter, or will she have to suffer the transition only to be considered an outcast?

I have no idea what will happen. I was not born this way, and that is not my fault. I was given no choice in any of this. A stupid one-night stand, and the next thing I know, I wake up in Otter Cove as the mate to a bear-shifter. Will the baby have teeth and claws? Will it rip itself from my body? Is this why the taking of human females is condoned here?

I have no answers. I am terrified, and there is no one here I trust. I should be planning to run away and terminate the pregnancy. I’ll admit I was tempted, but there is a part of me that understands that the life I carry within me is part of me. He or she is my child, and I will protect him or her to the best of my ability, even if that means I must give up my life to do so. I will not allow my fear to make me falter; I will risk everything for my baby.

If you ever read this, little one, know that your mother loved you enough to gamble her own life so that you could be free. Although you were forced on my body, you will be born and raised in love—I promise.

After reading the journal entry that her mother had directed her to start with, Tess found there were journals that predated it. Choosing the journal dated immediately before the one she started with, she began to read. The entry she read first had unsettled her and had brought up so many questions that seemed to have no easy answers.

Taken at face value, the entry was hard to read. Forget the fact that the woman seemed to believe she had been kidnapped or taken by some non-humans, she believed that she had been forced to carry a child she clearly didn’t want. Although it seemed the process of writing down her thoughts allowed the woman to clarify her own feelings. If nothing else, she was unflinchingly honest about those feelings.

The journal was a mixture of unanswered questions, fantastical beliefs, and sheer desperation. That was the real takeaway. Her mother, whoever she might have been and whatever she truly believed, had been terrified—not just for herself but for her unborn child.

Not only didn’t this entry answer any of the previous questions, but it also raised even more. Taken from where to where? It seemed the answer to the latter was some place named Otter Cove. A simple Google search revealed there were a lot of places named Otter Cove. But given her mother had always told her she was from Alaska, Tess decided googling Otter Cove, Alaska, might refine that search… but what exactly was she searching for?

Tess had never been one of those adopted kids who wanted to know her birth parents. For Tess, the mother and father who raised her were her mom and dad. She’d been grateful to those people who had given her life, but the only parents she’d known had been those who had brought her home, raised her, and given her the life she loved.

Her fingers hovered over the keys to her laptop. She paused, forcing her fingers to refrain from typing anything. What was she afraid of? Regardless of what Google showed her, knowing there was an Otter Cove, Alaska didn’t commit her to anything and would only answer the question about whether or not it even existed. Haltingly, she typed in O-T-T-E-R C-O-V-E A-L-A-S-K-A. She stared at the screen for the longest time, not sure if she hit some dark portal wouldn't open up and suck her into another reality.

Hesitantly, she hit and waited. Finally, her body urged her to release the breath she hadn’t known she was holding. Nothing happened. That wasn’t true. Google pulled up Otter Cove on the Alaskan Peninsula. But nothing bad—like being swallowed up by a vortex-bad—happened. Just pictures of a pretty little town that was established back before the first gold rushes or the Hudson Bay Company first entered the fur trade.

She clicked on the Wikipedia link and was directed to an article that told her the population, the geo coordinates, and little else. There was no effort put in to try and promote the place, which if they really did condone kidnapping, would be smart. Going back to the search results, she found an array of photos showing a small, picturesque town, a lighthouse, and pristine wilderness.

Tess glanced at the clock. Where had the morning gone? She’d thought to only read a journal entry or two before getting back to work. She’d taken more time away from her work than she had intended. The journal had once again raised questions and thoughts that were uncomfortable, and she’d gone down a rabbit hole trying to research Otter Cove and bear-shifters. As she’d suspected it would, the only result on Google for bear-shifters was for romance books about bear-shifters and non-fiction books about writing bear-shifter romance books. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of her biological mother’s mental stability.

She questioned why she even bothered with the journals. They were doing nothing to help her get to know the mother who had just died—her real mother, the one who raised her—and only provoked dark and brooding thoughts about the other. Perhaps this morning’s little foray into alternative thinking and beliefs should be her last.

Tess had deadlines, some of which were looming. She left her comfortable couch behind and made her way over to her office area. Firing up her main computer, she began to embrace her illustrating, hoping it would help her re-establish a routine, settle herself, and perhaps lift her out of the well of sorrow that watching her mother die and then burying her had cast her into.

The only problem was that it neither settled nor lifted her mood. Instead, as she tried to escape into her drawing, her mind wandered back to what she’d read. When she tried to focus on her work, instead of finding drawings of a polar bear, she found rugged coastlines and distorted pictures of bears surrounded by some kind of maelstrom.

Enough of that shit. If she wasn’t going to get the work that paid the bills done, she might as well go about getting her loft cleaned up—thoroughly cleaned, the sheets changed and laundry caught up. All the little things that had sort of fallen to the wayside or gotten a spit and a polish for the past few months. She’d made her fridge toxin-free, so it was time to check the pantry for expiration dates. Tess wondered if this was what her life had fallen to—would there ever come a time again when she felt the wind in her hair and as if she was one with the universe?

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