Polar Opposites Read online

  Polar Opposites

  A Barvale Clan Tale #1

  by C.D. Gorri

  For the readers who still believe in a little holiday magic!

  Edited by T.P. of Book Nook Nuts

  Copyright 2019 C.D. Gorri

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, places, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either part of the author’s imagination and/or used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to a person, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights are reserved. No part of this book is to be reproduced, scanned, downloaded, printed, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of any materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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  Table of Contents

  Title

  Tagline

  A Message from the Devlin Brothers

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Epilogue

  About

  Connect

  More Books

  Tagline:

  "She's got a thing for bad boys, and he's as bad as they come!"

  Blurb:

  Bowie Atiqtalaaq was new to Barvale, but not to the prejudices of man and Shifter alike. He'd heard the vicious slurs against him for the way he'd been conceived for most of his life. Keeping everyone at bay is a full-time job, but with his reputation for being wild and brash, Bowie never expected to care about what anyone else thought of him ever again. Until he laid eyes on her.

  Roxanne Winters, the legendary ice queen herself, journeys to Barvale during the Holiday Lights Festival to seek rights for her Skulk to run on Clan lands during the winter solstice. Her father, Alpha Fox of their Skulk, is depending on her to act with the grace and flawless manners that had been pounded into her brain since birth to get the rights for their annual mating celebration.

  Will Roxanne be the good girl Daddy always told her to be, or will she let her hair down and go wild with naughty Polar Bear Shifter, Bowie, her guide for the week? Find out if opposites really do attract in this holiday read!

  A Message from one of The Devlin Brothers…

  Hello Barvale Clanmates,

  This is your Alpha speaking, Marcus Devlin.

  My brother and head Enforcer, Daniel, along with our younger brother Nate, are pleased to officially announce the new Barvale Clan Enforcer Security Unit. You’ve seen these four Polar Bear Shifters around I am sure, and you may have even met them at our Clan gatherings.

  Bowie Atiqtalaaq is the team leader and he is joined by his cousins, the Nanouk triplets, Locke, Tonic, and Bolder.

  With the current political environment being what it is and since it is election season for the Council of Shifters, these Polar Bears are here to ensure our Clan’s safety and to offer each and every one of our members protection against any upstarts. We welcome them with open arms to our New Jersey Clan.

  That said, the Barvale Holiday Lights Festival will move along as planned. The normals and city officials have no reason to shut it down and we will aid them with our Enforcer Security Unit just to be extra cautious. Afterwards, all Clan is welcome to convene at Lake Ursa for a run.

  Any questions you may have can be directed to our Clan Keeper, my brother Taylor. Or stop on by the Bear Claw Bakery, one of us is typically in the vicinity. Feel free to drop in at the Den, Clary will be there baking some of her famous Christmas stollen and cookies. Warning, she only gives them to good Bears (ask Bowie if you don’t believe me).

  Thank you and Happy Holidays everyone,

  Marcus Devlin, Barvale Clan Alpha and co-owner of Bear Claw Bakery Inc.

  PROLOGUE

  “Bowie Atiqtalaaq,” sneered at the Alpha of the White Bear Clan, “You and your cousins are no longer welcome on Clan lands. You are hereby banished.”

  The voices of the Polar Bear Shifters who had gathered for their trial sounded like waves breaking on a rocky shore to Bowie. Some cried others yelled. The cacophony of noise growing to such fervent pitch with each one overlapping the other, it was hard to distinguish who was happy with the Alpha’s decision and who wasn’t.

  Not that it mattered. Bowie looked at his cousins, Locke, Tonic, and Bolder Nanouk and wanted to grimace but he wouldn’t give the Alpha the satisfaction. Instead, he kept his face blank.

  The three triplets wore the same hard expression, revealing none of their feelings on the judgement. It had been building since he was a boy.

  The bastard son of a rogue Polar Bear Shifter who had mated a woman against her will. Both hated and feared, Bowie had been a wild cub. Always getting into trouble and causing fights.

  He’d known the elders were not going to put up with it for long, but he hadn’t counted on getting his cousins involved in his mess. Shame threatened to send him to his knees, but he stood tall.

  Now wasn’t the time, and it certainly was not the place for regrets. Surrounded by his enemies, he would show them nothing. Not one iota of emotion. Wheezing with the effort it took to breathe, he waited for the weak assed excuse for an Alpha to continue.

  Five busted ribs, a broken nose, and a split lip were his souvenirs from this latest and final debacle. Only this time was different. His fight had been with the Alpha’s son.

  The fat preppy fuck sat next to his father with both eyes nearly swollen shut. A thick white cast circled his shoulder and continued to his hand. It held his left arm in a strange sort of high-five solute after Bowie had nearly torn it from the sonovabitch’s body. The fat lip his Shifter abilities hadn’t been able to heal just yet was icing on the cake. Fucker got away easy.

  His supernatural healing abilities were too busy working on the other bumps and bruises Bowie had given the miserable excuse for a Bear. Fucker should have kept on walking.

  Everything had been just fine until this jackass needed a lesson in why everyone in the Clan left Bowie alone. He’d been handling the guy just fine until his asshole buddies showed up.

  Bowie had been drinking a couple of shots and a few dozen beers, but who was counting anyway? Drinking, throwing darts, and fucking were all the entertainment the shit hole town had to offer. He’d been doing the first and was working on the third when the asshole walked in.

  Bowie had been getting cozy with Sheila for months now. The sweet little Seal Shifter who worked in the town’s only bar was cute and not clingy like other women.

  Unfortunately, he didn’t know Junior had staked his claim on the woman. Certainly didn’t give a fuck either way. She didn’t act like she belonged to anyone. Didn’t smell like she’d been mated either. Far as he knew, that made her fair game.

  Junior thought otherwise. After he’d beaten the brat, Bowie thought it was over and done until his buddies objected. Loudly.

  It had taken five grown ass men to hold him down so that Junior could give him a beating. He’d just started to black out when his cousins arrived. The triplets were known supporters of Bowie’s and
Sheila had made the call. When they showed up, all hell had broken loose.

  Locke managed to escape sans bruises. Not surprising given the size of the man. Tonic was the fastest of the three, but he’d gotten caught with a barstool and had a broken wrist as a souvenir. And Bolder, well let’s just say the other two guys looked much fucking worse.

  Damn. Guilt assaulted Bowie as he took in their appearances, quickly followed by humble gratitude. The Nanouk family was well-liked and respected in the White Bear Clan, not outcasts like Bowie and his mother had been before she passed.

  As if she had somehow been responsible for her rape by a rogue Polar Bear Shifter and his consequent birth. The thought made his anger flare back to life. His three cousins had risked a lot to come to his aid and now all four men were being cast aside. Like they were nothing.

  “You’re just a piece of fucking trash like your crazy ass father,” the Alpha’s son snarled, “That fucking shiteater looks good on my cabin floor. Maybe I’ll have my men skin you like my father skinned him. You’d make a good rug.”

  The bastard’s words had stuck in his head as he’d continued to kick Bowie again and again while his men held him down. Bowie hadn’t bothered replying, not when he knew the story was true.

  Even now as the elders circled the ruling Alpha and glared at him, he felt their judgement. Banished. So fucking what?

  It wasn’t as if that shithole of a Clan ever did anything for him. Hell, the closeminded people there hated him for things he had absolutely no control over. Even his own mother- no. He wasn’t going there with these pricks looking down at him.

  The entire Clan knew the story. They knew what had happened to the young woman who’d been walking in the woods late at night some thirty years ago. She’d been attacked, raped by a crazed rogue Polar Bear Shifter. As if that was not horrible enough, she’d discovered she was pregnant months too late to abort the fetus.

  She’d been forced to keep the baby. After having Bowie, she’d tried to work through the trauma of the incident, but it had proved too much for her. She’d taken her own life before he was old enough to walk.

  Fuck. He hated the memories. Hated knowing he’d come from such a sad and tragic beginning. All his life he’d been jostled and hustled from one cot to the next. Always on the outside looking in. No real home. No real place in the Clan.

  He couldn’t understand as a child why no one had liked him. But he knew now. And Bowie did not give a shit. Not about the fucking hypocrites of the White Bear Clan or their bullshit laws. This entire mess wasn’t even his fault, but he’d take his punishment like the man he’d raised himself to be.

  With honesty and integrity. He was a hard worker and he played equally hard. Shifters weren’t known for their abilities to keep their tempers in check. Bowie’s own control had been called into question for things other Shifters got away with all the damn time. Simply because of how he was born.

  Not my fault. None of this shit is my fault. But no matter how many times he told himself that, Bowie Atiqtalaaq always wondered if maybe there was something inherent in his blood that made him simply unlovable.

  Fuck that, his Bear growled. The piece of shit deserved what he got. Bowie had only been defending himself. His only regret was dragging his cousins into his mess.

  Despite the emotions raging through his veins, he kept a straight face while hiding his feelings from the others in the room. Not an easy thing since as Shifters they could scent the emotions of others. But Bowie had plenty of practice keeping his thoughts and feelings buried within.

  He stood in the center of the hall as everyone filed out after the verdict had been delivered. His cousins remained, backs against the wall. He could only guess that the reality of their situation had left the three brothers in shock. All of their personal effects had been packed and loaded into a few suitcases and waited in a van outside.

  Fuck. He was now responsible for them all. He didn’t know where they’d go or who would have them. Four big ass Polar Bear Shifters weren’t exactly inconspicuous. Especially Bowie with his shock of white hair. Doubt and unease began to take hold. What would the four of them do now?

  Just then, a senior member of the Clan ambled towards him. He recognized Viktor Snowden and nodded at the man cautiously. He was old, but Bowie knew better than to dismiss him. Shifters were always a threat despite age.

  “Easy there, Bowie,” he said.

  Bowie read the concern in his black eyes, but he didn’t trust it. He’d seen Snowden around over the years. The man had never said a word to him before. So, why now?

  “I knew your mother back when she was young and bright. Had the chance to mate her, but I did not love her. I chose to wait for my fated mate. She never came and I have lived with that all my life. I have always felt responsible for what happened to your mother. She was a sweet and kind woman.”

  Bowie nodded as tears choked him. This could have been his father had he only mated his mother. But he understood the dream of finding your fated mate. It was one he’d secretly harbored as a child. Of course, he knew now he was unworthy of such a dream.

  Bastard sons of rapists and suicide victims don’t get mates. He had bad blood. No one in their right mind would ever want him. Hadn’t he heard those taunts and worse often enough?

  “Why are you telling me this Snowden?”

  “Because she deserved better. I think you do too. I’ve reached out to a place in the lower states. A Clan of Black Bears in a place called Barvale. It literally means valley of the bears, so, yes I think it is a place for you boys. The Alpha there is young, but he is willing to take you on.”

  “You did what?”

  “The old Alpha is a friend. His son rules now. The Devlin’s are good Shifters, and the Barvale Clan are happy to extend you, and your cousins, an invitation. They need Enforcers.”

  “But that’s a position of honor, I’m not-”

  “Son, I vouched for you. You and your cousins will do well there. Here are the coordinates and contact information. Take the van to the airfield, Henry will fly you to Washington for your connecting flight. It’s all booked, son. You just need to go.”

  Bowie’s throat constricted. He didn’t know what to say. Never had anyone in this Clan ever taken an interest in him other than to tell him he was tainted and unwanted.

  “I, uh, don’t know how to thank you.”

  “Live a good life, Bowie Atiqtalaaq. Find a mate. Have many cubs. Be happy where your mother was denied that opportunity.”

  He swallowed hard. It was a pretty tall order. He didn’t know if he could ever fill it, but he knew one thing. He could go to the Barvale Clan. He could bring his cousins there. And he could do his duty to the best of his ability.

  A mate? Nah. Not Bowie. He would never find a mate, but he could watch out for his cousins and make sure they were happy. They were grown men, but they were three years younger than Bowie.

  The Nanouk triplets had led a pretty sheltered life. After their parents passed away, they’d sought out their outcast cousin. Yes, he could make sure they stayed out of trouble.

  He would work harder than he ever had. He could become the best damn Enforcer this new Clan had ever seen! Bowie could try to lead a good life once he was finally away from all the pain of his youth.

  He nodded his head as he left the building, the triplets following in his wake. No, he couldn’t predict the future, and he wasn’t going to make promises to the old man, but he would accept his help this one time.

  Right then, it was the best plan he had.

  CHAPTER 1

  “Are you shitting me?” Bowie raised his eyes as Daniel Devlin handed him the bright red security vest with the words “Santa’s Special Helper” in bright green block letters across the back.

  “No, Bowie, I am not pooping you,” the Head Enforcer for the Barvale Clan narrowed his eyes as he patted his toddler daughter’s back and glared at Bowie.

  Fuck. He’d forgotten the no cursing in front of the cub rule Lacey
had installed the month before. Now that the baby was talking more and more, she didn’t want her first sentences involving words of the four-letter variety.

  “Sorry, bossy,” Bowie murmured, “But these fu- fun, these fun vests are a little bright don’t you think?”

  “Yes. That’s the point. Marcus wants the younger Clan members to be able to find you in case they need anything. He says the Enforcers need to be more accessible. That’s why we have you four now, the new Barvale Clan Enforcer Security Unit.”

  Behind him the Nanouk triplets scowled as they tried on the bright new vests over their usual attire. The Enforcers tended towards black long-sleeved shirts, cargo pants, and steel toed boots. Practical and serviceable in the surprisingly white New Jersey winter.

  Not that the Garden State had anything on the kind of winter weather Bowie, Locke, Tonic, and Bolder were used to. Alaskan winters were in an entirely different category.

  “Accessible I understand, boss, but this makes us look more like Santa’s elves than fierce Enforcers for the local Bear Clan,” he balked.

  “Exactly the point. There will be a ton of normals at the Holiday Lights Festival. Just because the mayor of Barvale knows about us, doesn’t mean anyone else does. We need to fit in without drawing attention to ourselves.”

  “Um, but boss, how could bright red vests help to not draw attention to us?”

  “Because you will look like extra security employees brought in by the town for the parade and lighting ceremony.” The duh at the end of that sentence was implied.

  Bowie sighed. He tugged on the hideous vest and tried not to shudder.

  “Okay, boss,” he nodded at Daniel. He wanted to argue with the big Black Bear, but he’d learned to bite his tongue. Daniel Devlin was one tough motherfu-, uh, guy. Great. Now he felt guilty even thinking curse words in front of the tyke. Just then Mia turned her luminous eyes on him and smiled.

  Okay, so he wouldn’t cuff her father across the head with the stupid vest. She needed a daddy and Daniel wasn’t so bad as far as bosses went. Besides just because Bowie’s Polar Bear had a couple of hundred pounds on the man’s animal, didn’t mean he was about to go challenging him.