A Bride For The Bear (Bear Brides #1) (3 page)

And if the plan called for
putting up an ad for a mate, so be it.

He would bite the bullet and
do it.

“Come on, Tony. Your
turn.” Cole smiled grimly when Dalton vacated the chair with a
shudder. Dalton didn't seem to think that his plan would work, but
he still supported him as his Beta.

When Tony folded his arms,
Cole bellowed, “I've paid all your registration fees in
advance. All you have to do is fill out the goddamn online forms!”

“Fine. You're the
Alpha.” Tony sat down and picked up the computer mouse. “You
do know that this is an online dating site, right?” Tony asked
over his shoulder. When Cole glowered at him, Tony turned back with
a shrug and started to type. “Just checking. There is a
difference between dating and mating,” Tony mumbled. “Big
difference.”

Cole swore under his breath.
“Yeah. But the chances of finding a female werebear are close
to nil. There are so few of them and they're sniffed out and claimed
as soon as they reach maturity. If we're to find a mate, she would
likely be a human woman. And human women like to
date
first.”

Tony made a non-committal
sound as he straightened up for his mugshot. “How come it's
just us?” Tony gestured at the four of them standing in Cole's
spacious study. “How come the other guys in the clan don't
have to do this?”

Dalton put a hand on his
younger brother's shoulder. “The other unmated guys in the
clan are all in their twenties. There's no pressure for them to find
a mate, yet. The only single guys over thirty in the clan...are us.”

At that, Tony chortled at
Brad. “Tough luck, kid. You just turned thirty.”

To Cole's surprise, Brad
smiled and took his turn at the computer cheerfully. “I think
this is a swell idea,” Brad said, as he clicked through the
online questionnaire enthusiastically. “This might work. And
frankly, I'm hoping to find my mate soon. It'd be real nice to have
a family. A mate, cubs...” He trailed off.

Cole swallowed. He could
understand Brad's yearning for a family. The boy had lost his family
at a young age, had to run and hide and fight before he was a
teenager. His longing to settle down and find love and stability was
understandable.

Cole stared at his brother's
broad back and realized that his brother wasn't a scrawny, scared
little boy anymore. He was now a strong, responsible, mature
werebear, but he would always be his baby brother.

Cole glanced at his cousins
and exhaled roughly. They had been through so much together. They
were his family, but Brad was right. It would be nice to have a mate
and cubs, find a female who truly loved him and wanted to spend not
just one night, but the rest of her life with him.

“Let's go for dinner,”
Dalton suggested as soon as Brad logged off. “Grab a beer and
chill. It's been a long day. But it was a good day!”

Cole nodded as Tony and Brad
grinned. They'd just completed a major landscaping project and they
had secured another two lucrative contracts today. They would be
doing the landscaping and maintenance works for a park and a school.

The rest of the team had gone
out to celebrate. But Cole had ordered his brother and cousins to
get their asses into his study and hunker down in front of his
computer. He had an urgent mission for them, he'd announced.

There was no time to waste.

They had all bedded and dated
many females, but they'd had no luck in finding their mates. Female
werebears were rare. And there just weren't that many single human
women in Moonstone Creek either. Whenever Cole traveled to the
nearby cities for business, he had always found willing women to warm
his hotel bed. Some of the women he met through work. Others just
propositioned him in his hotel bar or lobby. They had all been
friendly and eager to please, but to his disappointment, he'd found
that most of the women were just after what was in his pants—his
dick or his wallet. They just wanted a good time in the sack, or
they wanted to be wined and dined and showered with expensive gifts.
As the founder and CEO of Nightfire Landscaping, he had no problem
taking a woman to a posh, expensive restaurant and buying her
sparkling precious gems to adorn every inch of her body. He would be
happy to lavish all these gifts on his mate, provide for her and
pamper her. He just didn't want to waste any more time and money on
groupies and gold-diggers.

Cole hoped his brother and
cousins would be able to find their mates through the dating site.
He had called the agency and the lady on the phone had told him that
as long as they answered the questionnaire honestly, they would be
matched with women who shared their values and outlook.

Well, Cole had answered all
the questions truthfully. He didn't know about the women who used
the site. He had done his part. Even if this online dating thing
turned out to be a mistake, at least he'd given his best shot.

If this failed, he would
think of some other way to boost his clan's numbers and come up with
some sort of renewal and succession plan. But for his brother and
cousins' sakes, he wanted this matchmaking venture to work. Brad,
Tony and Dalton deserved to be happy. They deserved to find their
mates, find a worthy female who would have them and hold them, and
build a warm, loving home with them.

He would be lucky to find
someone like that.

Cole always led by example,
so he had signed up with the dating agency just so his brother and
cousins would follow his lead. He never shied away from painful
decisions or hard, unpopular courses of action.

“Come on,” Tony's
voice cut into his thoughts. “You're buying dinner, Cole. If
the guys hear about this, they're going to laugh their asses off at
us. You owe us, Alpha.”

“But if this works,
then you'll owe him,” Dalton said soothingly. “If this
pays off and we do find our mates, then we owe you, big time.”
Dalton clapped Cole on the shoulder and quirked a lopsided smile.

“Yeah, the membership
fees aren't cheap,” Cole mock grumbled. “And they're
non-refundable. So even if they match us with some completely loony,
obsessive, shifter-mad female, I can't get my money back.”

There was a collective
shudder at his words. They'd all had their share of dealing with
obsessive, stalking females who thought that landing a Jameson bear
was the ultimate prize. Cole had founded the business, but his
brother and cousins were co-owners of Nightfire Landscaping. Each of
them was successful, rich and powerful, holding leadership positions
in the Nightfire clan.

They all piled noisily into
his S-Class Mercedes-Benz, everyone talking at once as they shouted
out their preferences for dinner and drinks. Cole started the engine
and grinned.

They might disagree and
argue, even fight and brawl, but their bond was solid. They were
bound to one another by love and loyalty, pain and laughter. They
had shared so much, gone through so much together.

Without them, Cole knew that
he might not have survived all those dark, perilous nights. They had
stood by him, fought with him, kept him alive and sane.

“The votes are in! We
want seafood buffet and beer!”

“All right!”

“Hey, Alpha, I think
Bruno's grandmother can drive faster than you.”

“You are buying dinner
tonight, Cole. No amount of slow-driving will get you out of that!”

“You think this is
slow, eh?” With a smirk, Cole revved the engine and the big,
powerful car picked up speed with elegance and efficiency.

Brad turned on the radio and
loud, thumping music filled the car. His Mercedes was sturdy and
spacious, but the four of them seemed to take up every inch of the
roomy, cushy interior.

Tony and Dalton took turns
shouting out jokes, and Cole was reminded of how strong and resilient
his cousins were. Back when it had just been the four of them,
huddled against the elements and hiding from their enemies, Dalton
and Tony had whispered jokes to Brad and told him stories and amusing
fables to distract him from the horror of their situation. Tony was
just two years older than Brad, but he took it upon himself to look
out for his young cousin. Cole knew that beneath that quick-tempered
and loud-mouthed exterior beat the heart of a Jameson bear, strong,
solid and courageous.

The four of them were closer
than brothers.

They were clan, family and
blood.

And Cole was going to make
sure their bloodline survived.

Being Alpha meant he got the
job done, even if no one wanted to do the job.

Cole killed the purring
engine of his midnight blue Mercedes-Benz and stepped out. He had
dropped his brother and cousins off after dinner. They lived on the
same street, but they each had their own place. Dalton had a corner
bungalow like him, while Tony and Brad preferred smaller terrace
houses that were easier to maintain and upkeep.

His sturdy pickup truck was
parked beside his Mercedes. He used the pickup for his landscaping
work, but for fun and pleasure, he preferred the comfort and luxury
of the Mercedes-Benz.

Stepping through the front
door of his sprawling bungalow, Cole headed straight for his study.
He always made it a point to check his emails and reply to his
customers' queries promptly and professionally. Nightfire
Landscaping had built up a solid reputation through word of mouth,
and Cole was grateful for the support and recommendation of his loyal
customers.

He switched on his laptop and
checked his work email first. There weren't any new emails in his
inbox. He had already replied to all his customers' queries via his
mobile phone.

After a moment's hesitation,
Cole logged into his personal email. The messages from that dating
site would be directed to his personal inbox, but he didn't think
there would be any response. Not so soon anyway.

“What—”
Cole blinked in shock at his overflowing inbox. What in the world...

Frowning, he clicked through
the list and scanned the messages. They were all from that dating
website. In less than twenty-four hours since his profile went live,
he had received more than a hundred messages.

Cole's frown deepened as he
read through the messages. The women's opening lines were all
flirty, saucy and even blatantly sexual.

Swearing under his breath,
Cole began to delete the messages. These women were all looking for
a good time, a sugar daddy. They wanted to be wined and dined,
pampered and pleasured. Some asked point-blank how much money he
made and what car he drove. Others were more explicit in their
demands. They wanted to experience shifter sex, have a beary good
time, howl and growl, and be devoured between the sheets. The animal
puns left a bad taste in his mouth.

Cole left the rest of the
messages unread. He didn't even bother deleting them. New messages
kept coming in. The very first message he received was at the bottom
of that long, tedious list of messages, but Cole never got to that.
He had seen enough.

Cole clicked on the button to
de-activate his profile from the dating site and pushed back from his
desk. This was a big mistake. He thought he had been clear enough
when he specified that he was looking for a mate. He had even stated
that the woman had to be willing to relocate to Moonstone Creek and
build a family with him. Where in the world did these women get the
idea that he was after a one night stand? He'd thought that if he
stated clearly and unequivocally exactly what he was looking for, he
would weed out the unsuitable candidates. Obviously these women
didn't bother reading through all the information in his profile.
They just wanted what they wanted, not caring what
he
wanted.

Cole hoped his brother and
cousins would have better luck with this dating site, but he was
done. He'd had quite enough of gold-diggers, groupies and crazies.
He had been young and wild once, but he was no longer a horny, angry
young bear. He had worked all that pointless rage and lust out of
his system. He had bedded enough females to know the difference
between fucking and mating, lust and love.

He pushed his hand through
his hair as he stood at the door of his study and stared out at his
large, tastefully furnished living room. His house suddenly felt too
big and empty. Cole closed his eyes for a moment and allowed himself
to imagine his beautiful mate pottering about the house, and calling
out to a bunch of lively, rambunctious bear cubs. It was a beautiful
image, and the thought made him smile. He could almost see the face
of his longed-for mate in his mind. He could see her lush, curvy
body, her wavy brown hair and pretty side profile. She was laughing,
turning around to smile at him...

He opened his eyes, and the
image vanished just as he caught a glimpse of her face.

Cole shook his head with
a growl. He must be getting old and senile. Either that or his
brother's words had affected him more than he'd let on. Brad's
simple but heartfelt words had struck a chord with him.