16
CALVIN
When we were putting away the dishes after dinner, Barclay paused with a towel over his shoulder, gazing at me inquiringly.
“You’ve been cooped up in here for days. Now that the heat is over, I was wondering…”
“Yes?” I prompted.
“How about we go to the pub tonight? You can meet my friends.” He grimaced as if he was already reconsidering the suggestion.
I blinked with surprise. “Um. Are you sure? You don’t look sure.”
Barclay’s chest expanded, and he gave me a grim nod. “I’m sure.”
“Why do you look like you’re steeling yourself?”
He snorted out a short laugh. “They can be a lot to take sometimes, but they’re good people. Except for Monty. He’s a pain in the ass.”
I frowned. “We don’t have to…”
“I’m kidding. Mostly. I want you to meet them, and they’ll be nice to you, don’t worry. They’ll only give me shit, not you.” He winked, making me grin.
“I’d love to see the town and the people. But…” I didn’t have to finish. Barclay hugged me around my shoulders.
“I thought about that. The pass to Green Peaks is closed because of the weather, and the road won’t be cleared until morning. And even if your father appears out of thin air, you’ll be as safe as ever at the pub. Nobody will dare to come close to you with Monty and Jordy looming behind us.”
It sounded tempting. Then I looked down at my borrowed, cinched-up sweats and deflated. “Barclay, I have nothing to wear.”
“It’s just a local pub, sweetheart. Your jeans are clean and dry. You can take my parka over your jacket, and we’ll ride the snowmobile. It’s barely five minutes from here.”
Meeting new people could make me anxious as hell, but not with Barclay at my side. I was even cautiously optimistic about the plan.
“Let’s go out.”
Half an hour later, we zoomed through the forest toward the flickering lights ahead. The trees opened, but I didn’t see much as I was hunched behind Barclay with a helmet on my head. We rode up to a cleared parking lot and stopped on the edge next to a group of other snowmobiles. Barclay pulled my helmet off, and the world around me brightened.
Beauville looked exactly as I’d imagined. Log cabins huddled together, their roofs covered with snow blankets and lined with icicles. Only a few buildings were taller than one story, and even those were built in the rough lodge style. Squat cottages dotted the steep slopes surrounding the town, illuminated by yellow porch lights. The mountains hugged Beauville from all sides, their silhouettes silver in the moonlight against the inky sky.
“It looks like a Christmas postcard,” I breathed.
Barclay chuckled. “I guess. Just wait until they put up the decorations next week. Our mayor goes full-on Santa’s Village.”
He pointed out the town hall, the school, the grocery store, and the road leading to the B&B on the forest’s edge. Then he pointed at the door behind us. The wooden sign dangling on iron chains simply said Pub .
“Ready?”
I squared my shoulders. “To meet a bunch of bear shifters? Not really.”
“They don’t bite.” Barclay grinned, flashing his teeth, and I laughed.
I entered the pub tucked under Barclay’s arm and did a double take.
A few seemingly human patrons sat at tables and idled by the bar, but I barely noticed them. A group of alphas dominated the space, all of them huge like Barclay. The guy leaning on the bar closest to us seemed even bigger—as tall as Barclay but wider in the shoulders with legs and arms like tree trunks. When he moved toward us, he filled my entire field of vision. I tilted my head back to look into his face, and my mouth fell open.
“Mr. Grump is here!” he exclaimed, his voice like thunder.
The man flashed two rows of white teeth, the canines just a bit bigger than what seemed normal, and moved closer, his ginormous paw outstretched in front of him.
“Montgomery Wolf, at your service, dear sir. You can call me Monty.”
He engulfed my hand in his and squeezed firmly but carefully enough not to crush my fingers.
“You must be Calvin. It’s a great pleasure to meet you. Welcome to Beauville.”
He radiated so much warmth I couldn’t help but grin up at him.
“Thank you.”
“My goodness, you’re sweet. Are there more of you wandering about in the woods? Should I go look?”
Barclay growled next to me, but Monty chuckled breezily. If he laughed any harder, he might cause an earthquake.
“You’ll have a difficult time of it with Mr. Grump here, but fear not. We have your back.”
“He’s not that bad,” I piped up.
Another man approached from the side, smaller than Barclay, but still three times my size.
“Now that he has you, he’s not. You probably don’t remember me.” He offered me his hand too. His skin was smooth compared to Barclay’s and Monty’s coarse palms. “Hunter Black.”
“You’re the doctor. I haven’t had the opportunity to thank you.”
Hunter waved dismissively. “Just doing my job. Come and have a drink with us.” He gestured to the bar.
“I can’t drink alcohol,” I said.
Monty guffawed and slapped Barclay’s shoulder. “Damn right, he can’t!”
Barclay gave Monty a withering look and tugged me closer.
I probably shouldn’t start explaining to them that I wasn’t yet twenty-one and hadn’t even considered the pregnancy angle. I kept my mouth shut, but my cheeks heated anyway.
Another alpha, obviously a bear too, stood behind the bar, watching us avidly. He was leaner than the others, but not by much. His black T-shirt hugged his wide torso and mighty arms, which were covered with colorful tattoos of green leaves, flowers, and bugs. He had black tunnels in his earlobes and a thick ring in his nose like a bull. With those black eyebrows, he looked the scariest, but then he gave me a sweet grin.
“That’s Jordy,” Barclay said, nudging me forward.
“Hi, Calvin. Nice to meet you in person. We’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Fair warning—bears gossip,” Barclay hissed into my ear. “A lot.”
The door opened, and a waft of cold air washed over us from behind.
“Chickie!” Monty exclaimed. “Just on time.”
Barclay and I turned to the newcomer.
This alpha was older than the others, his bushy beard streaked with white, making him look like Santa’s younger, buff brother. He was in full sheriff’s uniform, the oversized kind. He had to go sideways to walk through the door.
“Chickie?” I whispered. Who in the hell nicknamed this man Chickie ?
“Hawke Klondike,” the sheriff said gruffly, taking off his glove to shake my hand.
“Good evening, sir.”
The older alpha’s lips twitched with a small smile. “No need for formalities, Calvin. You’re a part of this family now.”
“Thank you.” I was about to call him sir again but swallowed it at the last moment.
“Let’s sit down. I believe we have some issues on our hands.”
I never would have expected to feel comfortable in a room with five monstrous alphas, but I was as chill as I’d ever been. We sat with Monty, Hunter, and Hawke—no way was I calling him Chickie, not even in my head. I snuggled to Barclay’s side, and Jordy poured the beers.
Hawke went straight to business.
“Barclay told me what your ex did. You could sue him, you know.”
I glanced around at the grim faces. “I’d rather avoid that. It would just prolong the whole thing.”
Hawke nodded in acknowledgment. “Your call. He’s been asking around, and now I hear two men are looking for you. They didn’t report you missing, though.”
“I told my father that I’m safe and want them to leave me be, but he’s not used to hearing no from me.”
Even Monty’s expression darkened. Jordy set the beers on the table and handed me my glass of juice. He stayed looming above us with his arms crossed over his chest as Hawke continued. “I see. Because word has spread already, and the good people in town have been happily sharing the story about how Barclay found an omega in the forest around Red Creek.”
Barclay groaned, shaking his head.
“That’s our fault,” Monty said, looking sheepish. “We were making fun of Barclay here at the bar, and folks must have heard us.”
“I can’t be hiding out here forever.” I surprised myself with my bravery, but it was true. What would I gain by cowering behind Barclay for another week or two?
Out of all the worries and questions in my mind, one thought prevailed. I wanted this over with. As soon as possible. If these men could help me, if I had Barclay by my side, I could get rid of the ghosts from my past for good.
Hawke raised one eyebrow. “Are they going to cause trouble? This ex and your father?”
“Not in the way you might mean. They won’t get into a fistfight or anything like that. Their threats are more about money and lawyers.”
“But you’re afraid of them finding you. You must have good reasons for that.”
My stomach clenched, but it didn’t feel like the usual fear, more like a memory of it. A habit—which I needed to break.
“They never stooped to physical violence. But I used to be dependent on them, and up until recently, I thought I’d have to face them alone.”
Barclay kissed my temple and squeezed where he held me around my back.
“I’m not sure how far they’ll go to get me to return with them,” I admitted. “But they can’t do anything to me, can they? Not really.”
Monty smirked. “I’d like to see them try.”
I turned to Barclay. “The more I think about it, the more I believe you were right. I need to face them and tell them to leave me alone for good. I could message the address to my father tomorrow morning.”
Barclay made a surprised sound. “You sure?”
Was I sure? Not really, but I didn’t see many other options. “It’s better than waiting around, not knowing when they might accost us.”
I thought of how many more breakdowns I could go through before my father suddenly stood on my porch. What if I knew for sure when he was coming? Then I could handle it. With Barclay at my side, I could handle anything.
“How about I happen to visit you when they arrive?” Hawke said. “I could stand by and observe.”
“Maybe we can all come visit,” Jordy said ominously.
I let out a nervous chuckle. “It’s not an invasion, you know.”
“We’re small-town people, dear Calvin.” Monty lifted his beer glass and took a gulp. He wiped his beard with the back of his hand. “We impose on our neighbors and gossip. Sometimes, we carry various pieces of equipment with us too. In case we need to chop trees and shovel snow on the way to said neighbors.”
“And sometimes we punch strangers in the face if they mess with one of ours,” Jordy added.
Hawke glowered. “Orson Jordan, I’ve put you in jail once, and I’ll happily do it again.”
Smirking, Jordy shrugged and returned to the bar. There was a story hidden in there. I’d have to ask Barclay about it later.
“So, what time are we coming?” Monty urged. He looked excited.
I could see it in my head. Hawke in his uniform with the gun holster showing, Monty leaning on a shovel, Hunter with an axe, and Jordy… Jordy would hold a chainsaw in his hands. They would stand lined up in Barclay’s yard, scarier than the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. I covered my mouth with my hand, torn between terror and laughter.
“The roads should be clear by morning,” Barclay said. “If you message your father at eight and they leave immediately, they could arrive around ten.”
Hunter checked his phone. “I have a patient in the morning, but I’ll come at quarter to ten.”
“Jordy and I will be there,” Monty confirmed.
Barclay then cleverly redirected the talk to Beauville and its residents. As if with a press of a button, Monty started telling me all kinds of stories about the town—when and how it was founded, about the gold rush times, and how it almost got abandoned before the bear shifters discovered it a century ago.
“The word spread about a place in the mountains, far away from the nearest human city, where you could get a fixer-upper cabin dirt-cheap. Twenty bear families moved in over the first few years, and more followed later.”
“How did you manage to keep it secret from the tourists?” I asked.
“It’s not secret, but try to get accommodation here,” Hunter said.
Monty waggled his eyebrows. “I got six rooms only, and I rent them out when I want to whom I want.”
Barclay leaned in conspiratorially. “The last time we had developers looking around for new hotel sites, Frey chased them out of town in bearskin.”
“What? Who’s Frey?”
“Our mayor,” Monty said proudly. “And he didn’t exactly chase them. He told them nobody in town would sell them a single acre and then ensured they had a few chilling wildlife encounters during their stay.”
“He only had to do that because you let those fuckers sleep at the B&B,” Hunter muttered.
Monty threw his hands in the air. “They lied to me when they booked! Said they were visiting a cousin on his birthday. Am I to check every guest’s family tree?”
Hawke shrugged. “It wouldn’t hurt.”
I might have been clumsy about it, but I asked Hawke about his mate, Phil, and the daycare. Hawke got the sweetest smile on his otherwise frowny face as he told me about it. I learned that Phil took over the daycare twenty years ago and that they’d gone from only nine kids to more than twenty now, half of them shifters. The daycare was at the edge of the forest where the bears had built a wooden playground and even regulated a part of the creek where the kids could splash around in the summer.
Barclay nudged me under the table and said, “Calvin has a degree in early childhood development.”
I blushed.
“You do? Have you considered working as a daycare teacher?”
My cheeks burning, I stammered, “Yes. Um. I’ve always wanted to do that, but I… um…”
Hawke patted my shoulder. “You have to meet Phil. He’s been searching for new people all over the mountains. This year, we’ve had thirteen babies born in Beauville, more families are moving in, and with the locals bringing their mates, the daycare and school will burst at the seams.”
Overwhelmed, I managed to thank him and tell him that, yes, I’d love to meet Phil and that I hoped I could help.
Barclay looked smug as he lifted his beer to his lips.