Mated to the Wilde Bear

He looked from face to face, but none of his crew argued. Not even Harley.

Laurel hugged him and nuzzled her cheek against his. "I can wait outside if you need," she said.

"No." He shook his head and laced his fingers through hers. "Stay. You're one of us now." He kissed her full on the mouth, just in case there was any doubt among them. When he pulled back, Laurel beamed up at him, and the rest of the crew whistled and cheered.

"Can we just get on with this?" Harley grumbled.

"Yeah, Harley needs his beauty sleep," Jake said.

Nash snickered.

Lucas leaned his back on the couch and closed his eyes, but Xavier knew he heard every word.

"Here's the deal. We've talked about it for a while now, and everyone's made their opinions clear," Xavier began. "But the fact of the matter is that we need to hire a sixth. And we need to do it before the season opens, so we have time to train properly."

"We don't disagree, boss," Jake said, and Xavier shot him a glare.

"I've looked over the applicants and fact is, no one's more qualified than this Kyra. I want to bring her in, and before I do, I need to hear from all of you that you'll bite your tongue against any... opinions you might have about her joining us."

Harley shoved off the wall, arms crossed, glaring. "So we don't get to say what we think? I thought this was a democracy."

Nash sat up straighter in the chair by the window. "I can agree to that," he said.

Jake nodded. "Me too, boss."

Lucas slowly opened his eyes, also nodding. "I think we need to meet her."

Xavier was stunned. Laurel squeezed his hand, spurring him to search for words. "I thought all of you were determined to keep a woman out of the crew."

One by one, they all shifted their gaze to Laurel. "We had a chat about that on the way home from the call earlier," Jake said. "Laurel shifting to protect you showed us we were being idiots."

Harley muttered something, but Nash cut him off. "Laurel's as strong and fierce as any one of us. If this Kyra's anything like Laurel, we'd be lucky to have her."

Jake murmured an agreement.

"Lucas?"

"I agree with Nash," Lucas said. "Woman or not, Laurel just proved how much stronger we are with six."

"Come to think of it, boss, why can't Laurel be our sixth?" Jake asked. His eyes lit up, but Laurel shook her head, answering for herself.

"I've already told Gerald I want to keep my position at DOT," she said. "I think I can be of more help there with everything going on."

"The complaints," Harley said, his eyes narrowing.

Laurel nodded. "I'm going to try and find out who it is. And make sure they don't get any farther with the filings."

Harley lifted his chin, the closest to a nod Xavier had ever seen. "Damn right," Harley said the equivalent of his blessing. Xavier smirked.

"All right, it's settled then," Xavier said. "I'll call her in for an interview later this week."

"Now can we go sleep?" Harley asked.

Xavier squeezed Laurel's hand. "Now, we can go sleep," Xavier said.

Everyone filed back out and headed for the truck. Laurel waited with Xavier while he locked up. Just before they reached the truck, she tugged him back, winding her arms

around his neck.

She reached on her tip toes, straining to be tall enough to hold on. He smiled and bent at the knees, so they were eye to eye. "Yes, Mrs. Alpha?" he asked.

"I wanted to suggest you nap in the truck. Get some rest while you can," she said slyly.

"And why is that?" he asked.

"Because you and I won't be doing much sleeping when we get home." She grinned, kissed him on the nose, and pranced to the truck.

Xavier's bear sighed at the way she'd

called it home-not just his, but hers now too-and then he picked up his pace in anticipation. He needed to feel her. Inside and out. And he needed to have her pressed against him, Reassuring, yes, after the scare she'd given him, but mostly to cherish her. To show her that he could put her first, today and always. That he could love a mate, even with this job. And he could protect everyone he cared about while doing it.

He watched her ass shake as she walked away from him and climbed inside the extended cab of the truck. She was beautiful and sexy and

bossy. She belonged to him nowet

this fox. They'd fight, yes, but he looked forward to that. In fact, his pants tightened just thinking about arguing with her and the making up again. He grinned at the thought. His foxy Mrs. Alpha.>>>>>>>