Constable Leif Björn’s voice cracked, desperate and pleading, as I shoved him and Hawk—the Iron Claw cofounder—through the station toward the holding cell in the back.
“I didn’t even get her name!”
Only years of training myself never to show emotion kept me from rolling my eyes. This was the bear they’d sent to serve under me at the detachment station?
It didn’t matter that the fight had taken place during his off-duty hours. An official arrest on the brand-new constable’s recordwould mean automatic suspension from the RCMP—and his probable removal from the Bear Mountain detachment.
Truth be told, I wouldn’t mind that last outcome at all. I’d been just fine running the detachment alone before command decided to send this overlarge, blond grizzly to “assist” me by asking too many questions, eating way too much food, and taking up way too much room in the timber-log cabin we’d been given as sleeping quarters. Getting into a fight during denning season was a good thing. For me.
So why did irritation prickle at the back of my neck as I listened to him whine about the human woman he’d just met?
“Get in the cell,” I growled, shoving him into the space behind Hawk. The metallic clang of the barred door echoed through the small station as I slid it shut, ignoring the constable’s kicked-puppy expression.
“You’re making a mistake,” Björn insisted, wrapping his large hands around the bars. He and Hawk had beared out their heads on the walk over, so his face was pristine now, the fight damage healed, leaving behind the patrician features I’d been forced to grow familiar with since the RCMP saddled me with another officer at my detachment. But his desperation remained wild and frantic. “She’s my scent match. What about this are you not understanding?”
I ignored the uncomfortable twinge in my chest and focused on changing the lock code on the holding cell’s keypad to one Björn didn’t know.
“She’s my scent match too, Goldilocks,” Hawk said from behind Björn, his gravelly voice steady and unbothered.
I looked up from the keypad to find the town’s second-largest black bear—after me—leaning lazily against the far wall, smirking at Björn, and a flicker of unease went through me.
It had been over a decade since I’d last seen Hakan—or Hawk, as everyone in the village and his motorcycle gang called him. Ten years ago, I’d personally escorted him to the shifters-only jail in the Yukon for one of my first assignments as the Bear Mountain detachment officer. Back then, I’d felt a pang of guilt handing over someone I’d once respected and admired—right up until he pleaded guilty to a long list of criminal charges.
When I got the message about his early release, I’d even debated waking his family to tell them the news.
But now? That familiar smirk was just one more thing to set my teeth on edge. I clenched my jaw to keep from saying anything.
Unfortunately, the new constable wasn’t nearly as skilled at masking his emotions.
“You? You’re joking, right?” Björn whipped around, taking Hawk’s bait like a giant yellow fish. “You seriously think she’d pick someone like you over me?”
“Someone like me?” Hawk pushed off the wall, his amber eyes gleaming with a predatory edge. “You think you’re better than me, Goldie?”
Björn didn’t hesitate. “Yeah, I know I’m better than some criminal who could never offer her a life filled with stability and love like I could.”
Stability and love.
I punched the last number into the keypad with more force than necessary, bitterness bubbling just beneath the surface. The newoutsider constable didn’t even have a maul—or the faintest idea what taking on a mate in Bear Mountain actually meant. Yet here he was, squabbling with a full Ayaska over a human who didn’t even belong here.
A human who…
My bear stirred, and I shoved him down hard before that thought could unravel—both him and me. Tonight was already a mess. I wasn’t about to make it worse by letting emotion—or anything else—get in the way of doing my job as a Peace Officer.
But Hawk had no interest in keeping the peace.
“If you’re such a great match for our mate, why are you in here with me?” Hawk’s smirk sharpened. “Why aren’t you out there with Koda, trading maul bites and going to get our girl?”
Björn’s condescending expression faltered, confusion flickering across his face. “Sergeant Takoda doesn’t have anything to do with my scent match.”
“Sure he does.” Hawk’s sharp amber gaze shifted to me, his grin twisting wider. “He’s just better at hiding it. Aren’t ya, Koda?”
Only friends and family called me Koda. I was estranged from most of my family, and after Ash, I no longer did friends.
“I don’t know what you did to get your sentence halved.” My voice was tight as I glared at Hawk. “But they should’ve buried you under that jail.”
“Bet you’re wishing that had happened. Then you’d have our cute little box of chocolates all to yourself.”
The silence that followed was heavy, a third presence in the room, watching and waiting.
