Captivating the Bear Read online

  How the hell was he supposed to answer that question? If he told Khan the truth, his exuberant friend was likely to insist they set off right now on a quest to find the mystery woman. Because he was blissfully happy in his own marriage, Khan would seek the same thing for Ged.

  Ged didn’t want to be forced to make excuses or lie. He knew his friends sometimes speculated about his true identity. He was the man who had rescued them all from danger or captivity, the person who had brought this unique group together. They owed him an allegiance that went beyond loyalty, but he had never disclosed the details of his background to them. How could he? Sharing the details of his past would be on the same level of madness as trying to find himself a mate.

  “I’m fine.” He tilted his empty champagne glass toward Khan. “Do you think there’s any chance we might find some brandy in this place?”

  * * *

  To Lidi’s surprise, the crowd began to disperse as soon as the band was inside the theater. She turned to her companion, whose name was Allie. “Shouldn’t we wait for them to come out again?”

  Allie gave her a pitying look. “Rookie mistake. They’ve played nice and given the paparazzi what they wanted. It’s possible they’ll come out this way and sign a few autographs, but it’s more likely they’ll leave by a rear door and go straight to the after-party.”

  Lidi experienced a moment of panic. She couldn’t have come this far only to fail now. Clearly she needed to stick with Allie, who was suitably dressed for the weather with an embroidered scarf wrapped around her neck and long boots encasing her legs. The other woman seemed to know what she was doing and was willing to share her information.

  “What do we do now?”

  “The party is being held at the Palais Hôtel, where the band are staying—”

  Lidi brightened up. This was more like it. “How do we get inside?”

  “We don’t.” Don’t? Clearly Allie didn’t know who she was talking to. Telling Lidi what she couldn’t do was an instant challenge. “Oh, don’t get me wrong, some of these women will try it, but it’s a waste of time. Security will have them out of there so fast their feet won’t hit the ground. That’s if the hotel management don’t call the police and let them spend a night in the cells for trespassing.”

  Lidi allowed herself to be led along the street with the rest of the crowd. She took a moment to appreciate Allie’s unusual looks. Lidi came from a land where most people had the classic brown hair and golden eyes of the Callistoyan werebear, a close relative of the Siberian brown bear. With her silver-blond hair, pale skin and light gray eyes, Allie was striking.

  “So what are we doing exactly? Trying to get another glimpse of them?” Lidi hadn’t risked life and limb and traveled all this way just to look at Gerald Tavisha.

  Allie gave her a sidelong glance. “What else were you hoping for? Did you think one of the guys was going to look your way and fall instantly in love?”

  There didn’t seem to be an answer to that. Because although it wasn’t what she had expected to happen, the insta-love that Allie was joking about was exactly what had happened. However, maybe now she had been removed from the center of the furnace, love was too strong. She couldn’t seriously have fallen in love with a man she hadn’t even spoken to. Desire was probably a more apt description for what she was feeling. Good, old-fashioned lust.

  The initial wild exhilaration had subsided. Thank heaven. There was no way she could have endured that level of panting eagerness for long. Even so, her whole body was quivering. It was like the aftermath of her most strenuous workout, with an additional heat zinging through her bloodstream. Every impulse was urging her to return to that theater and find her mate.

  Lidi knew what arousal felt like. She was an adult shifter with a full range of both human and bear emotions. Although human and shifter time worked differently, thirteen years ago, her country had been thrown into unimaginable turmoil and she had sworn to devote her life to fighting to restore its equilibrium. Unusually for a bear shifter, Lidi’s human emotions were dominant. It was an inconvenience she had sworn to overcome. She was a warrior with no time to waste on feelings.

  That was what made her reaction to Ged so difficult to understand. He was the man she had come to find. She needed him. As she accompanied Allie along the seafront promenade, Lidi bit back a laugh. Oh, yes. She needed him; that had become glaringly obvious. She only had to think about the instant connection between them to experience a thigh-clenching response.

  She had to overcome these troublesome cravings and focus on the true reason she was here. Lidi always battled to maintain command over her feelings as well as her muscles. All those years of directing her energy into maintaining a mind and body that were at peak fitness had to be put to good use now. For some reason, her reaction to the man at the theater had been extreme. Maybe it was the stories she had heard about his bravery. Possibly it was the fact that he was the true ruler of her beleaguered nation. A legendary hero and a man of mystery.

  Lidi had spent years training her body. It was hard, strong and fast, and it served her well. As for her emotions...well, she was having to work a little harder than usual to get them under control. It was an obstacle she hadn’t anticipated, but she had never backed down from a fight. She wasn’t about to start now.

  They reached the Palais Hôtel, a dazzling white structure that faced the glittering waters of the Mediterranean. The imposing building consisted of a central block with two attached wings forming a U shape. Pretty wrought iron balconies were decorated with blue-and-white-striped parasols and lipstick-red geraniums.

  As they were ushered behind yet more barriers, Lidi surveyed the hotel thoughtfully.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Allie sighed. “One night in a top-floor suite costs more than I earn in a year.”

  “Is that where the band will stay?” Lidi shielded her eyes against the sun with one hand, viewing the rooms directly beneath the terracotta roof tiles.

  “They always have the best rooms, and in this hotel, that means the fifth floor.” Allie regarded her warily. “Don’t even think about trying to get in there.” There it was again. That word. Don’t. “The place is wall-to-wall celebrities this weekend. You won’t get a foot inside the gardens before you’re noticed. And while Beast’s security team are okay, you don’t want to take your chances with some of the others. Vicious thugs all of them.”

  Allie’s words might almost have been issued as a dare to Lidi, who was focused on the edifice across the promenade and in particular on those balconies.

  Many people believed that bears couldn’t climb. Some people had died while clinging to that hope. Lidi, growing up in the shadow of the Callistoya mountains, had spent her childhood scrambling up the steep slopes alongside the mountain goats. The hotel was busy, of course, and scaling a building always carried an element of risk. But those wrought iron railings were almost too good to be true. If they were replicated at the rear of the hotel, and if she waited until the early hours of the morning...

  Allie was still outlining the reasons why attempting to get into the hotel would be a bad idea. Tearing her gaze away from the building, Lidi cut across Allie’s explanations with a final, very important, question.

  “Will the band’s manager also have a room on the top floor?”

  Chapter 2

  Ged couldn’t sleep. The gamble he’d taken on the documentary had paid off. If the initial reviews were anything to go by, it looked set to be a huge success. He’d made the most of the party, renewing old contacts and developing new acquaintances.

  His hotel suite was comfortable, with every luxury at his fingertips, but it was 3:30 a.m. and slumber still eluded him. Even his online contacts had fallen silent. It was that strange, predawn time when it would be easy to believe he was the only person in the world left awake.

  The familiar restlessness surged through him, the need to do somet
hing stronger than ever. He glared at his electronic tablet, searching through his contacts. When he drew a blank, he tossed it aside in annoyance. Nothing? He wanted action and his usual sources weren’t helping.

  Stretching full-length on the bed, he willed his body into something that resembled a relaxed pose. Even if there had been a task for him, he was in no frame of mind to undertake it. Coiled tight as a spring, he needed to get his head straight before he went charging off on a rescue mission.

  Ever since he had been driven out of his homeland by his enemies, the urge to help others had been Ged’s driving force. There were many ways he could have done that. Working with children, donating a percentage of his earnings, volunteering in a deprived country...the list went on.

  He didn’t have to risk his life rescuing other shifters who were in danger, but that was what he had chosen to do. He knew what an analyst would say about his motives. Danger, excitement, risk...all of those were factors. But there was more to it. Ged had grown up knowing from an early age he was the heir to the throne of Callistoya.

  Monarchy and immortality were strange partners. The werebears of Callistoya had eternal life, but they were not invincible. Like other shifters, they could be killed by silver, fire beheading and some illnesses. Since their magical kingdom had always been peaceful, Ged had expected his father’s reign to last forever. Then everything had changed. Ged had barely reached shifter maturity when his father had been murdered and he and his brother, Andrei, had been forced out of their homeland.

  Driven into exile, his rightful place on the throne snatched from him, his reputation ruined, he had attempted to return and fight back. That was when he had discovered that his enemies had used magic, as well as villainy, against him. Though prepared to fight evil, he had been unable to combat the sorcery that barred him from entering Callistoya.

  Although his old life had been snatched away, Ged had been raised to serve and protect. His duty to others came first. Even though he no longer had a country over which to reign, those feelings of service and honor hadn’t gone away. They had simply found a new direction.

  Raised voices distracted him from his thoughts. Standards must be slipping if the tiniest sound was allowed to penetrate the luxurious corridors of the fifth floor of the Palais Hôtel. When the commotion continued, he paid closer attention, his finely tuned hearing distinguishing individual sounds. A woman’s cry of protest was followed by a scuffle and a grunt of pain.

  Frowning, Ged got to his feet. Pulling sweatpants over his boxer briefs, he went through to the sitting room and opened the door to the corridor. The sight that met his eyes was unexpected.

  One of Beast’s security guards was lying on the elegant rug, clutching his groin and groaning. At his side, a uniformed member of the hotel’s staff was slumped against the wall with both hands clasped over his nose. Blood was seeping through his fingers.

  In the center of the corridor, Rick, Ged’s friend and trusted security manager, was grappling with a tall, slender woman. From where Ged was standing, it looked a lot like the woman was winning.

  As if to confirm that judgment, Rick’s opponent chose that moment to break free of his grasp. Instead of escaping while she had the chance, she neatly spun around and delivered a back kick direct into Rick’s chest. Across a distance of several feet, Ged heard the air leave his friend’s lungs in a rush as he dropped to his knees.

  Torn between admiration for the neatness of the move and concern for his friend, he stepped forward. “What the hell is going on here, Rick?”

  Rick managed to gesture toward the woman and wheeze out a few words. “Climbed...the damn balconies.”

  Over the years, there had been some daring attempts to get close to the band. Fans had hidden inside delivery trucks, tried to stow away on board the tour bus, even disguised themselves as journalists or caterers. But risking life and limb to scale a building followed by an assault on security staff? It was a unique approach.

  Ged’s intention, as he stepped forward, was to take over where Rick had left off. Whoever this woman was, she was a formidable fighter. Even so, she wouldn’t stand a chance against him. As she swung around, it hit him. It was the same rush of arousal he had felt earlier, concentrated now because she was so close. The overload of pure sensation made him feel slightly dizzy.

  Twin realizations, both equally potent. She was a bear shifter. And she was his mate.

  Dark brown eyes, flecked with gold, regarded him for a moment or two; then she smiled. The expression had the same effect on him as the kick to the chest had on Rick. It drove the breath from his lungs. Unlike Rick, Ged managed to remain on his feet.

  “I needed to see you.”

  He gazed down at her, unable to speak. This couldn’t be happening. The fates couldn’t be this unfair. It was bad enough that his mate appeared to have come storming into his life in search of him—and he would have to turn her down—but why did she have to be so damn gorgeous?

  He became aware that Rick, who was getting to his feet with difficulty, was talking.

  “Shall I call the police?”

  The woman took a step closer to Ged, placing one hand flat on his naked chest. “Please. I have to speak with you.”

  He half expected to look down and see her palm print burning its way into his flesh. That was how her touch felt against his skin. She branded him in that instant, and it was the most perfect thrill he had ever felt. Oddly, it brought his senses back into clarity.

  Yes, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen...but she was in trouble. Although that was apparent from the plea in those incredible eyes, there were other, more tangible clues. She wore flat, leather ankle boots that had taken such a beating they were almost useless. Her jeans were faded and stained and the long-sleeved T-shirt she wore over them had a tear that left one sleeve hanging half-off. The exposed flesh of her arm was a mass of scratches and cuts, some of them deep enough to appear serious. Her long, dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, but the sheen was long gone, as though it hadn’t been properly washed for some time.

  In their human form, both male and female bear shifters were generally above average size. This woman was tall, her head reaching almost to Ged’s shoulder, and her build was similar to that of an Olympic swimmer, long and lean with endless legs, broad shoulders and slim hips. But she was too skinny for her frame. It was the false thinness that follows illness or extreme dieting. The pallor of her skin and dark shadows under her eyes seemed to confirm Ged’s assumption that she hadn’t been eating properly just lately.

  Yet she kicked the hell out of three guys? All because she wanted to see me? Even a bear shifter had limits, and she looked like she had been pushed to the end of hers, yet she had found that inner strength. This had to be a story worth hearing.

  “No police.” There was a good chance he would regret that decision later, but she was a shifter and she was in trouble. Helping in these situations was what he did. Ignoring the look of reproach in Rick’s eyes, he held the door of his suite open for the woman to step inside. “Do whatever it takes to cover this up...” They were familiar words to Beast’s security manager. “I’ll speak to you later.”

  When he entered his suite, his unexpected guest had discovered the hospitality tray. Having already devoured half a pack of cookies, she was gulping mineral water so fast it was running down her chin.

  Ged closed the door, leaning against it as he watched her. “I think you’d better tell me what this is about.”

  She nodded, leaving a grimy mark as she wiped the back of her hand across her mouth. “I am Lady Lidiya Rihanoff. My father is the Count of Aras...and I have come to take you back to Callistoya.”

  * * *

  Lidi sat on the floor as she ate. Ged had ordered several items from the room service menu and was slouched in a chair watching as she worked her way through them. Ordinarily, the sight of his naked upper body mi
ght have proved a distraction, but she was too hungry to care. Or perhaps she was growing accustomed to being in a near-permanent state of arousal.

  “When did you last eat?”

  She gave it some thought. “Two days ago. I think.”

  “You think?” Until now, she had been under the impression that all bear shifters had the same brown eyes. But Ged’s were different. Darker and more intense, set under heavy lids, with a gleam that made her want to check how her hair looked. Since she already knew the answer, she didn’t bother. Her hair, like the rest of her, looked awful.

  She paused with a donut halfway to her mouth. “I didn’t have time to think about food.”

  “Clearly.” He nodded at the remains of her repast. “What happened to your arm?”

  Lidi glanced at her torn T-shirt, wincing slightly as the memory of breaking a window and scrabbling through it came back to her. “This?” She managed a shrug. “It’s nothing.”

  It wasn’t true. It actually hurt like hell, but he didn’t need to know that.

  Ged leaned forward, his clasped hands between his knees. “Let’s get one thing straight, shall we? You broke in here and beat up two of my employees and a hotel security guard. I could have handed you over to the police, but I didn’t. Start lying, or keeping information from me, and I may change my mind.” He kept his gaze on hers, letting the message sink in. “Let’s start again. What happened to your arm?”

  “I hurt it when I escaped from the dungeons beneath the grand palace.” Lidi tried out a defiant head toss. It didn’t quite have the flourish she intended. Up close, Ged was too imposing, too attractive...too everything. She attempted to regain her composure, not an easy thing to do when she was sitting at his feet, tired, dirty, and aching all over. “You must remember that place. It used to be your home.”

  If there was a flicker in the depths of his eyes, it was momentary. “Why were you in the dungeons?”