"We have to do it, Rocco, or we lose some of our females. Can you imagine having to tell Mihaila or Riana that they're not part of our clan any more? But more than that, I think it's a great thing for you to do. It's time you found your mate."
"Then I should have the right to select my own mate. You picked yours, our father picked our mother. Why should I be the only one to have some female forced on me that I might not even like?" Rocco clenched down on his bear, tensing every muscle in his body in an effort to prevent it from forcing its way out of him. "I'm not going to mate some stranger. I won't do it, Xander. I won't!" he finished, his voice becoming a vicious snarl. He was dimly aware that he was being inappropriately aggressive toward his Alpha, but inside, he was howling in pain. He'd always imagined that he'd mate for love, at some distant point in the future. A forced mating of convenience was the worst possible news for him.
Xander continued to sit in front of him calmly.
"Rocco, I didn't expect you to accept this immediately, but I need you to do this, for the clan. And I truly think that you'll be happy with your chosen mate. I wouldn't ask you unless I thought it was a strong match. Take some time, think it over, and come back to me when you're ready. I think you'll change your mind when you find out who the girl is."
Xander had barely finished his sentence before Rocco was striding to his motorbike and starting up the engine. Red fury and pain exploded behind his eyes as he roared off into the mountains again. This can't be happening. It just can't. He'd known love before, and he knew that it was a precious thing to find the one who was perfectly compatible with him. And now he was going to be cheated out of it. Forever. Stuck with a mate he might not even love or desire, for the rest of his life. His bear urged him to ride all the way to the Black Paws and tear apart whoever had allegedly unearthed this dumb law, and he was minded to do it. Take down the whole lot of them, so they never bothered the Broken Hill Bears again. Who is this female who's been chosen for me anyway? he thought as he took a bend onto a rundown dirt road that led up to the highest peak of the territory. A Pine Bluff Bear. He didn't know the clan well. He ran through the members of the ruling family. And then he stopped dead, his bike skidding dangerously on some loose rubble. The Alpha of the clan was named Tarkus, and he had three sons. And no daughters. Rocco knew the sons slightly from his teens. They didn't have a sister. He would've known if they did. Xander was mistaken.
He turned the bike around and sped down the hill again.
This time, Xander was inside the cabin, leaning on the window ledge of an upstairs bedroom, gazing out, as if he'd been watching for Rocco's arrival. He came downstairs again and met him at the door.
"Tarkus doesn't have a daughter," Rocco said. "He only has sons." One corner of Xander's lips curved up in a half smile.
"That was the case until a couple of years ago, when Tarkus found a new mate, and adopted her daughter. She's a strong, good-hearted bear, and a beautiful one too, and I have no doubt that when you get to know each other again, you'll prove compatible." Rocco shook his head.
"Again? What do you mean? Who is she?" And then, as Xander spoke her name, his breath hitched in his throat, and his brain was hijacked with a sense of utter disbelief.
"No! Not her!" he yelled. "Anyone but her!"
2
Harper Waverly's mind was reeling as she taught the final lesson of the day to her kindergarten class. She'd done a good job of keeping her emotions in check, ever since her stepfather had give her the news that morning, but with five minutes until the final bell, they were threatening to boil over.
At last, the bell went, and fifteen little shifter cubs jumped all over her, demanding their last hug of the day before they went home. She hugged each one of them tight, as she always did, making sure that they knew they were loved equally, and then she watched them scampering off with their drawings and collages to show to their parents. When the last one was gone, she left the building quickly and headed for the the secluded forest trail that led to her home, eager to have some time alone to think.
As she entered the sun-dappled woods, her bear let off a long, confused roar. It was urging her to shift, to release her pent up tension in her animal form, but she repressed it, knowing her human form allowed her to think more clearly. So that was it. She wasn't going to choose her own mate. She wasn't even going to be mated to a complete stranger, with the possibility that they'd fall in love in the future. Her mate was going to be the last man she would ever have expected, and someone she knew she could never love. And while every nerve in her body rebelled against it, Tarkus had asked her, and making him happy was one of her main priorities.
Tarkus was her stepfather, and he'd adopted her when he'd mated her mother only two years previously. He was a good-hearted Alpha, who'd accepted her into his family and treated her as an equal to his other children, and she'd always be very thankful to him for that. This morning he'd explained to her, while they were having breakfast together on the porch of the grand family cabin, that he'd been approached by the Alpha of the Broken Hill Bears, a very old and famous clan, who asked if the Pine Bluff Bears wanted to unite with them in a blood bond. The Alpha was keen to mate his younger brother with a female from the ruling family. Obviously, she was the only eligible female, and Tarkus had asked her if she'd be willing to accept the mating. He hadn't forced her, or ordered her, as he was well within his rights to, but had fixed her with his kind gray eyes and asked if it was acceptable to her. She understood that it was a huge privilege to the Pine Bluff Bears to be bonded with such a powerful clan, and something that they'd been wanting to do for years, as it greatly strengthened them and protected them from being attacked or taken over by their enemies. She also understood that it was an honor for her to be asked, as it meant that Tarkus truly considered her to be his daughter.
But all the time, her stomach was knotting so much that she couldn't finish her breakfast. She'd made out to Tarkus that she barely knew the youngest son, Rocco Silvester, but in fact, just the sound of his name choked her up with sadness and pain. The truth was, she knew him very well. He'd hurt her more than she'd thought possible, and she never wanted to see him again. And now, if I say yes, he'll be my mate, she reminded herself. The thought made her dizzy. She stopped in a small clearing and sat down cross-legged, releasing her long brown hair from its ponytail, and letting it cascade down her back. We're going to live together, in the same cabin. Sharing the same bed? And we'll have to make out to everyone that we're happily mated. While all the time, the sight of him will be unbearable to me. Her bear howled in sorrow, and she gave into it, letting it cry until it was spent.
When she was done, she felt a little calmer. She took some deep breaths, filling her lungs with the sweet, damp scent of the forest. Harper was a stoic bear. Life hadn't dealt her the best hand. Her birth father had mistreated her all of her life. He left her and her mother when she was very young, but kept demanding to see her during weekends and vacations, out of some notion of ownership. They weren't happy visits. He was always criticizing her and telling her that she wasn't good enough to be his daughter. He'd often forget to call her or send her gifts on her birthday. When she was 14, she made the decision to cut him out of her life to save herself from the ongoing pain, but the hurt he'd caused her was a scar that would never heal, and made her very vulnerable to rejection. And just as she was recovering and trying to put it all behind her, life had brought more suffering, most notably in the shape of Rocco Silvester. If she could change one thing in her life, it would be not to have had a father at all, and if she could change another, it would be to have never laid eyes on Rocco.
Then, when it had seemed like her mother was the only one who'd ever love her, Tarkus had chosen to be her father and restored her faith in shifter nature.
As Harper gazed at the numberless trees stretching into the distance all around her, she imagined telling Tarkus no. No, she was going to refuse to accept her mate, and prevent him from uniting the two clans and bringing everlasting peace to the Pine Bluff Bears. He would accept her words, but there would be great disappointment behind his eyes. She couldn't live with that. She had so much respect and gratitude toward him and his entire family, who had shown her so much care. I'm just going to have to make the best of it, she decided.
"I'll do this," she said aloud. "I'm strong enough. I'll say yes and give Tarkus his heart's desire."