A Grizzly Kind Of Love (The Mating Game Book 3) Read online

  “Hey, you left your groceries! That’s littering!” Wynona shouted. The woman shut the door and backed out.

  Cursing under her breath, Wynona set the groceries down on a bench and grabbed the papers. Maybe a homeless person would find the bag; she hated to waste food.

  Then she looked over the sheaf of papers. She was somehow not surprised to see that she was being sued by the Shepherds. Back at the restaurant, Cecily had been awfully sure that Wynona would be forced to do what she wanted.

  But why were they suing her for fraud? This had to be some kind of ridiculous mistake – she’d never had any business dealings with them.

  That text from Hartford, though… A sudden clutch of anxiety squeezed her breath away. Why didn’t he want the Shepherds to know where he was? What had he done?

  She went straight back to the office and called Roland Brown, an attorney she knew. He was a lion who had ended up marrying a gazelle after she’d fixed them up on a date. Weirdest pairing ever. But now they were expecting.

  Roland stopped by a couple of hours later. He went into Wynona’s office, sat down on her couch and read through the paperwork with a scowl on his face. “Hmm,” he muttered as he read.

  Wynona sat at her desk and watched him with alarm.

  “Don’t hmmm. Don’t look like that,” she said. “Why are you shaking your head? What’s going on?”

  “Well, according to this lawsuit, you and your ex-husband got the Shepherds to invest in a building project in Florida. It was supposed to be a beachfront resort, but that lot of land turns out to be swampland, which was why you were able to purchase it so cheaply and pocket the profits. You bought the land using a shell company that was posing as a construction company. The land itself is worthless.”

  “I did nothing of the sort!” she said indignantly. “Why would I do something like that?”

  “I don’t know, but your signature is here on the contract,” he said.

  She got up and walked over to look at the page he was pointing at.

  “That could be forged,” Gillian called out from her desk in the other room.

  “And your paw print. And your thumb print.” Roland tapped each spot.

  “That’s just on the final page of the document,” Wynona protested. “The rest of the document has been changed. There’s only one property deal that my ex and I were involved in. We bought one condo unit that we were going to rent out during the year and then vacation in for two weeks every summer. When we split up, we got our ten-thousand-dollar deposit back and split it.”

  Roland’s brows drew together. “Hmm.” She hated it when he said that. “After you signed the document, who took it down to the courthouse to file it?”

  She suddenly went cold. “My ex-husband did.”

  “So maybe he swapped out all but the last page of the contract.”

  “That’s not possible!” she spluttered.

  “Well, we can take it to court. Where is your ex-husband?”

  The hair on the back of her neck lifted. “He left the country after we divorced several years ago. I have no idea where he is right now. He just sent me a text saying that if the Shepherds ask where he is, I should say I don’t know – which would be the truth.”

  “Well. That’s awfully convenient for him, isn’t it? One might almost say suspicious. Basically, your ex-husband apparently defrauded the Shepherds of five hundred thousand dollars, and he may have left you on the hook for half. We’d probably have to go to court to prove that the contract was a forgery.” He shook his head. “Well, hopefully we could prove that.”

  “Incorrect use of hopefully!” Gillian yelled from the other room.

  Wynona ignored her. “I see. Is there any good news here?”

  “Certainly,” Roland said, and she brightened. “Since I’m indebted to you for introducing me to my lovely bride, I’m happy to offer my services at fifty percent of my usual rate.”

  Great. His usual rate was a ten-thousand-dollar retainer and seven hundred dollars an hour.

  “Thanks, Roland, that makes my day,” she said with a grimace. “Well, I’ll call you.”

  Minutes after he left, Cecily called her at the office.

  “Yes, your process server found me, and she’s just as slimy and devious as you are. This is all a scam – it’s a set up,” Wynona fumed at her.

  “Well, you can certainly take it to court,” Cecily said, sounding so amused that Wynona wanted to reach through the phone and slap her. “I imagine that the publicity won’t be that great for your business. Also, it’s a criminal matter, because you committed fraud. We haven’t gone to the district attorney yet; that’s tomorrow. However, all you have to do is agree to spend three weeks getting Zane civilized enough to start courting Tiffany, and we will let you off the hook and we won’t press charges. I will have a contract delivered to your office, spelling out our terms.”

  “You’re saying that this mating is worth a quarter of a million dollars?” Wynona said incredulously.

  “It’s worth considerably more than that. Besides, we’ll just pursue your ex-husband, and we’ll say that the whole thing was his idea. His family will have to pay up.”

  “If this contract even exists, then it was all his idea,” Wynona said indignantly.

  “Whatever.”

  Wynona pondered the idea. Zane, from what she’d heard, was a rude jerk, and Tiffany was a spoiled twerp. She didn’t think it was a great idea to pair them up, but they were both adults, and it sounded as if they were both willing to enter a mating of convenience.

  “Are you sure she really wants him as a mate?” she asked.

  “She doesn’t care who she mates, since it will be a mating of convenience. Her clan wants it. There is considerable prestige attached to being a Shepherd. The Shepherd males are known to be the physically strongest among all bear shifters. And our family name goes back generations; we’re among the First Shifters of Virginia.”

  Wynona let out a disgusted sigh. “Fine,” she said. “Send the paperwork over and I will have my attorney take a look at it.”

  She hung up and saw that Gillian was standing in the doorway.

  “You’re going to go ahead with it?” Gillian asked.

  Wynona shrugged. “How bad could it be?” she said.

  * * * * *

  Pretty bad, it turned out.

  After the contract was signed, Cecily showed up at her office the next morning with Tiffany in tow, along with two of Tiffany’s personal assistants, whose names Wynona instantly forgot, and Tiffany’s yappy purse dog, a long-haired Chihuahua named Sprinkles.

  The assistants were middle-aged women who fawned over their employer as if she were royalty. Tiffany was reed-thin, with frosted blonde hair styled in an artful razor cut that hung around her narrow face. She wore a billowy Dolce & Gabbana ankle-length dress with a red and black geometric print, and tottered on stylish red platform shoes. She glanced at Wynona, who was wearing a flower-print dirndl dress from Target, with a lip-curl of disdain. Gillian, who stood next to Wynona, seemed to escape Tiffany’s notice completely.

  “Here’s my list,” Tiffany said, slapping down a lined piece of paper on Wynona’s desk. Then she plopped her skinny butt down in the chair facing the desk and stared at Wynona expectantly.

  Wynona looked at it.

  “Must buy me flours every day. Must say I’m beatifull minnamum five times a day but must say it in diffarant ways and be convinsing. Must buy ten thoussend dollars of joowelry minnemam every month exseppt my birthday and Chrismiss and other holladays then must buy more. My cloathng alloence fifty thouzend a month. He takes care of the cubs I doant chang diapers we get three nannees for kids.”

  She couldn’t read any further; it was making her queasy.

  “I thought you graduated from college,” she said, looking at Tiffany. Tiffany was glaring at Sprinkles, who was skulking in her purse and snarling at her.

  Tiffany spared her a glance. “I did. Summer cum loudly,” she bragged.
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  Gillian twitched and massaged her temples with her index fingers.

  “Summa cum laude?” she said, which earned her a scornful look from Tiffany.

  “That’s not how you say it,” Tiffany scoffed. “Laude’s not even a word.” She glanced at her two assistants, and they both dutifully brayed with laughter.

  Wynona felt the beginnings of a headache. “Okay. Did you take your own classes?”

  “Of course not,” Tiffany said, looking offended. “As if. My parents paid someone to take them for me. I just went so I could be in a sorority.”

  “And your parents donated a wing to the college?”

  “A new library. How’d you know?” Tiffany looked mildly curious, then scowled at Sprinkles again. He was yapping at her angrily, tiny fangs bared. “Shut up, you rat,” she hissed at him.

  “Lucky guess,” Wynona said with a pained smile. She glanced at Cecily.

  “This list…” she said.

  Cecily frowned reprovingly. “You signed the contract.”

  Yes, according to the contract, the Shepherd family would forgive the debt and not prosecute if she could make Zane gentlemanly enough that Tiffany would find him at least tolerable.

  She had three weeks.

  In the meantime, both Gillian and her lawyer’s private investigator were doing their best to track down her ex-husband, and looking into her ex-husband’s shell company that had defrauded the Shepherds.

  “Well, I…”

  “Ewww, he peed in my purse! I hate this dog!” Tiffany screamed. She shoved the purse at one of her assistants, who reluctantly took it, holding it out at arm’s length. Sprinkles’ enraged yapping pierced the air.

  “Then why do you even have it?” Wynona snapped at her, exasperated.

  “Everyone has them! They look good in pictures!” Tiffany jumped up. “Did he pee on my phone? No way! He’s going back to the store!”

  Wynona was supposed to be kissing up to Tiffany, but she found she couldn’t stop herself.

  “What store?” she gritted out.

  “Elegant Accessory Pets, of course. At the mall.”

  “What the hell’s wrong with you?” Wynona glared at her client. “You don’t buy from a mall! You buy from a breeder or you adopt from a shelter.”

  “A shelter?” Tiffany drew herself up in utter horror. “Oh, and should I go buy my clothes at a thrift store?” She glanced at her assistants, and they both brayed out some more laughter, on cue.

  Gillian marched up, reached into the purse, and picked up Sprinkles, who instantly settled down. She set him down on the floor, knelt next to him, and stroked his fur. “We are keeping him. He will now be the office canine companion.”

  “The office what?” Tiffany’s eyes widened in confusion and her gaze swiveled back and forth between Gillian and Wynona.

  “All right, I am meeting Zane tonight, and I will call you tomorrow to report on my progress. Go. Just go,” Wynona said to Cecily, who scowled at her.

  “You’re not making a very good first impression. And you should remember that prison stripes aren’t flattering on larger women.” She gave Wynona’s figure a nasty glance, then screamed and hopped back, glaring at Sprinkles. Gillian snatched him up protectively.

  “He bit my ankle!” Cecily shrieked.

  “I’ll wash his mouth out with soap,” Wynona said. “So he doesn’t get food poisoning.”

  Cecily, nose in the air, stalked out of the office with Tiffany and her assistants following her. Tiffany was loudly complaining. “My purse smells like pee! Take me to the Coach store. New rule for my mate. He has to hate dogs!”

  Gillian picked up the list and started to read it, then turned to Wynona with tears in her eyes.

  “He takes care of the cubs I doant chang diapers we get three nannees for kids. Wynona, this woman is a monster!”

  “I know, right?” Wynona’s lip wrinkled in disgust.

  “I mean, look at her spelling! And the punctuation! Don’t get me started on the punctuation!” Gillian let out a small, miserable sniffle.

  “Riiiight.” Wynona buried her face in her hands. “Forget about how she’s going to mate a man for his money and prestige and then farm their cubs out to a nanny. The punctuation – that’s the true mirror of the soul.”

  “Precisely.” Gillian dropped the list as if it were dog poop. “I mean, if she could find a mate, anybody could find a mate. Right?” She looked at Wynona with that odd expression on her face again.

  “Time will tell.” Wynona looked down at Sprinkles, who had just lifted his tiny leg to wee on her desk. Then he looked up at her and grinned, with his little pink tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth. Wynona sighed. “Yes, Sprinkles, that about sums up my day,” she said.

  Chapter Three

  The first thing Wynona had to address was Zane’s wardrobe. She personally loved the scruffy, sexy bad-boy look, but Tiffany wouldn’t. They were going to have to get him some custom-tailored suits if he was to take Tiffany out to the type of restaurants she normally frequented. Cecily and Hubert agreed wholeheartedly; they were mortified by his regular attire and were more than ready to pay for a new, more respectable wardrobe for their troublemaking nephew.

  There were three gentlemen’s tailor shops in Cedar Park that made bespoke suits for bear shifters. She had booked a ten a.m. appointment at the most prestigious one, and was standing in front when Zane roared up on his Harley Road King, parked, and took off his helmet.

  Zane was even more stunning in person. Tall, broad-shouldered, with a commanding presence. He was wearing a black T-shirt, motorcycle boots, and jeans with motor oil on them, and he had a sexy scruff on his square jaw. She stood there watching him swing his leg off the bike; despite his muscular bulk, he moved with the grace of a panther.

  Behind him, the sun blazed brightly, casting him in a golden light that made him look even more like a Greek god. He stood around six foot five and weighed at least two-fifty.

  He stalked over to her and took off his dark mirrored sunglasses to stare down at her. She looked up at him and blinked in the sun, wondering what he thought of her. She’d spent far too much time thinking about what to wear, and finally opted for a simple ensemble; a pink scallop-necked T-shirt and a flowing flowered skirt of light jersey material, with pink low-heeled strappy sandals.

  She desperately tried not to hear her mother’s voice in her head – Wear dark colors to hide your size, and don’t wear anything that clings to your rolls. And she mostly succeeded.

  “You ready?” he grunted, glancing at the shop’s mirrored window.

  She stifled a flare of annoyance at his ungracious greeting.

  “Hello, I’m Wynona Bennett,” she said, extending her hand. He looked down at her hand, then up at her.

  “I know.” Another grunt.

  Well, this was going to be even more delightful than dealing with Tiffany. What a fun three weeks she had to look forward to.

  She looked up at him. “Do you want me to teach you how to be an acceptable date, or not? Because it starts with first impressions, and so far, you are making a terrible one.”

  “Is that so?”

  Screw this – she wasn’t going to waste her time being grunted at by a sexy Neanderthal. No, just a Neanderthal – forget the damn “sexy” part.

  “Listen,” Wynona said, struggling not to lose her temper. “Are you all right with this arrangement?” Because if not, she could just turn around, go home, and pray that the court would allow her a work release program. Or that she’d be found not guilty, but she wasn’t feeling that optimistic this morning.

  Zane shrugged and looked her in the eyes, his expression cool, mildly amused. “Are you?”

  What an odd question. Why should he care what she thought of the arrangement? “What do you mean by that?”

  “Just what it sounds like.”

  She stifled a groan. “I mean, you and Tiffany are both adults, and nobody is holding a gun to your heads. As long as you want to enter
into an arranged marriage with her, then I’m willing to work with you so you can behave in a semi-civilized manner.”

  He snorted at that. “Nice of you.”

  I should be getting hazard pay for this, she thought with annoyance.

  “And I didn’t say I wanted to do it,” he continued. “Bear clan law says that I have to pick a mate by the end of my thirtieth year if I want to inherit my family’s property.”

  “So why let your family do the choosing?”

  “I don’t care who they pick. It’s not meant to be a love match.”

  “Shouldn’t you have picked a mate earlier?”

  He met her gaze, his expression giving away nothing. “Didn’t really come up until now. The Coventry Clan found out that I wasn’t mated, reported us to the Bruin Council, and I was given until the end of the year to pick a mate.”

  “Well, if you want to have the slightest chance of mating with Tiffany, or any other eligible shifter, then you’re going to need to greet her politely. Please shake my hand when I hold it out, and after I introduce myself, tell me that you’re pleased to meet me.”

  She stuck out her hand. “Hello, I’m Wynona Bennett.”

  He took her hand and pumped it once. “So you told me.”

  “That’s it! Screw it. Even Tiffany Charles doesn’t deserve to be mated to a jackass like you.” She turned around and stalked back to her car.

  “Where you going?” he called after her.

  “Anywhere that you’re not!”

  She got in the car and pulled out. A minute later, she saw him following her on his motorcycle.

  She pulled over to the side of the road, fuming, as he glided to a stop next to her. She rolled down her window, ready to rip him a new one, and he stuck his hand through the open window.

  “Hello, I’m Zane Shepherd,” he said politely, looking her right in the eye.

  She hesitated, then took his hand and shook it.

  “Wynona Bennett,” she gritted through her teeth. “I’m very pleased to meet you.”

  He raised an eyebrow, and his lip quirked up in a charming smile.

  “Well now, Miss Bennett, it don’t sound like you mean that.”