by April Zyon
Chapter Four
Alaska couldn’t believe that she had actually offered to sleep with him. They barely knew each other but there was something there. There was something between them but she didn’t know what it was. She was shocked by how she felt around him, especially since he was a bear. She was terrified of bears and had been since her whole coven was wiped out so many years earlier. Each time he touched her, each time he spoke to her, she felt herself slipping deeper into his charms.
At her place, he helped her to pack what she needed. She packed enough clothes to last a week. She hoped that would be enough, because she wasn’t so sure she’d be able to stay with him for more than a week without falling for him, then getting them both naked.
“So, where do you live?” she asked Harley when they got into his vehicle.
“Outside town, lots of space and the forest around me. I know, I’m totally advertising what I am.” He got them moving from her house back toward the center of town and the biggest grocery store Shifter Falls had to offer. “But I like the quiet and the fact I have no neighbors to whine when I feel like walking around in the buff during my days off.”
She knew her mouth was hanging open when he said that and quickly gathered her wits. “Wait, you, huh?” Okay, so he might have broken her. Just the thought of him walking around in nothing but the skin on his body had her pussy dripping. Son of a whore, it made her wet, needy, and horny as hell. “I don’t know what to say to that.” She panted the words instead of speaking them normally.
He gave her a huge smile. “No need to say anything. I promise to keep pants on while you’re there. Wouldn’t want to send you screaming for the hills or anything. I think even that might be noticed by the few folks that live out that way.” Turning on the radio but keeping the sound low, he began to hum along with the song playing while keeping one eye on the road and the other on the mirrors.
She didn’t say anything for a long time. She finally said, very quietly, “And if I didn’t mind the nudity?” Then she shook her head. “I have a feeling that you would break my heart if you tried.” She didn’t want to think about how many women had been in his bed.
“I’d never break your heart, sweetheart.” Pulling into a spot out front of the store, he shut off the engine and turned to look at her. “The nudity is negotiable. Tit for tat, you might say.” With a smirk, he slid from the truck, whistling, and made his way around to open her door for her.
“Yeah, well, the first laugh you give me because I’m naked…” she warned. “And does that mean you’ll tell me about whatever this is that’s going on between us?” She knew he knew something and it was driving her nuts. There was definitely something between them. She wondered if it was what Phi had told her about. Surely she would know if he was her mate, though. Right?
“I would never laugh at you while you were naked. I might jump you, but laughing would be the last damn thing on my mind.” Taking her hand, he tugged her into the store and grabbed a cart. “I don’t know what’s going on between us, Alaska. I guess we’ll have to figure it out as we go along, together.”
“I like that idea,” she told him and started to grab food here and there.
“Since we’ll be living together for a while,” he leaned his arms on the cart while she picked through fruits, “what are your feelings about meat?”
“Unlike most witches, I love it. Beef and pork only, though. I hate lamb, dislike chicken and all that. Bacon is its own food group. Just FYI.” She moved along with him and added salad to the cart.
“Damn right it is, and we’ll be picking up lots of it. Steaks, too. Damn, you’re the perfect woman, Alaska Ceridwen.” Smiling at her, he let her lead the way through the rest of the store, occasionally tossing things into the cart but letting her do the majority of the picks with a side comment here and there along the way.
It warmed her body to know that he thought she was perfect. She kept up the casual conversation with him while they shopped. Once they were again in the vehicle, she reached out and put her hand in his. “I like you, Harley Ogden, and I think you are pretty perfect yourself.”
“Hardly, but thank you for saying so.” Starting up the truck, he pulled away from the store slowly, reaching out to lace his fingers through hers. “Now, where do you want to stop for take-out? Ladies choice.”
“Burgers and fries? And a large Coke for me, please?” She pointed to the burger joint that she wanted him to go through.
He turned into the lot and headed around to the drive-thru. He put in her order, then his own along with a couple extras. It didn’t take long for them to get their order and head out for his place—with his hand in hers as they chatted about nothing important. It was a comfortable conversation with no pressure and completely relaxed her as they left the Falls. The farther they got from the town, though, the more she wondered where exactly they were going.
“When you said that you lived outside of the town proper you weren’t kidding,” she said as the trees got larger and the road turned more into gravel than pavement. “Are we still inside of Shifter Falls or have we crossed into Shadow Valley?”
“We’re still in the Falls, right along the border.” He slowed and made a turn onto a side road that backtracked them toward the town a bit before curving around. One last turn and they were driving through trees, a lot of trees. Then she saw his house nestled in a natural clearing. Or at least, it looked natural to her. He pulled to a stop and shut off the truck. “Home sweet home.”
“It’s beautiful.” She was in complete awe of the home. “It has floor-to-ceiling windows. Incredible.” She was walking toward the house, forgetting the food and clothes and instead wanting to see his home. “It’s all open, too.” She was standing outside looking in, then shivered. “Please tell me that you have floor-to-ceiling blinds or something.” She didn’t like the fact that anyone could see in, and if he was going to be naked she didn’t want anyone seeing him but her.
“The windows turn opaque with the press of a button.” He tossed her the keys and waved her forward. “Leave the door open and go take a look around. Remember, I’m a bachelor so if there are any socks laying around ignore them. There won’t be any underwear because I don’t wear any.” Then he turned his back like he hadn’t dropped yet another bomb on her and began to pull bags from the truck.
She was still standing where he left her and swallowed hard. “You don’t wear underwear?” Once more her attention turned to the buttons of his jeans and she could see the outline of his dick behind the denim. Holy mother of God, he was growing behind that material again and she wanted to drop to her knees in the grass and take it out so she could lick and suck him. What the farking hell was wrong with her? She didn’t act like this, ever.
“Nope.” He breezed right past her with half the bags and disappeared around a corner. While she was processing his words, he came back and went to gather the last bags, including her luggage. “Inside is where you should be, Alaska. It’s cold out here and you’re standing there gaping like a fish.”
“Right, gaping like a fish.” She shuddered, then followed him into the house. When she stepped in, the scent of him surrounded her and she let out a sigh. “It’s perfect.” The kitchen was massive. It looked like a professional kitchen, actually, and the floors weren’t hardwood but something else. “What are your floors made of? Some sort of stone for if you are in bear form?” She could figure that would be hell on hardwood floors.
“Everything down here is concrete. It’s been stamped and painted to give the illusion of tiles, but it’s better because it contains in-floor heating for the cold days. Upstairs is all wood and actual stone in the bathrooms,” he told her. Stepping around her, he set the last bags down on the huge counter before going to the door to shut and lock it. “Go on, take a look around. I’ll get things put away and when you’re done we can sit on the deck to eat. I’ll even turn the heaters on so you don’t have to wear your jacket.”
Her magic kicked up into full gear as she saw
more of his house. Witches would recognize their mates by something they saw when they went through puberty and received their full power. This house was what she’d been shown in her dreams. She needed to know when he’d designed it to know if it had been when she was going through puberty and receiving her gifts or if it were after. Boldly she asked him, “How old are you? It’s important. Please, how old are you and when did you create this home?” She had to know if it was something that he’d created because he’d been subconsciously linked to her—to her dreams—for that brief time, when she’d went through puberty, when she’d gained full access to all of her abilities. If so, then she knew exactly what was going on with them. He was her fated one. He was the one created just for her, just as she was for him, and that led to a whole different can of worms.
He frowned at her. “I’m thirty-six. I started to design it when I was a teenager but didn’t actually start building it until I was, shit. Twenty-three, maybe. Why?” he asked, walking toward her. “What’s going on, Alaska? You have this weird look on your face and frankly it’s freaking me out a little.”
She put a hand to her forehead and gulped. “And when you began building it did you by any chance have dreams that made you need to build it? Three nights’ worth of dreams?” He had to have been who she connected with during those three days of hell. “Please, it’s important.”
He looked absolutely baffled by her question but he started to nod slowly. “Now that you mention it, I did. They were the same each night, a bit here about a balcony and then floors? I can’t recall what they were exactly but the need to build this place became intense until I broke ground. Then it eased off. Now, what the fuck is going on, Alaska?”
“I know that you know Jagger.” She was pacing now. “He mated to a human, so there was no supernatural involved with it but with witches it’s different.” She felt like crying. “I’m terrified of bears, but not you. The second you touched me all my fear of bears was gone—well my fear of you, that is.” Okay, so she wasn’t making sense. She took a deep breath and told him her story. “Starting at the beginning. My entire coven was killed by polar bears when I was seven. I barely escaped and only did because my mother died spelling me to transport from our home to my aunt here in Shifter Falls. My last time seeing her was when a polar bear tore her head off.” She gulped. “But I learned from my aunt, who was also a witch. I embraced my heritage and tried not to let my fears get in the way but I admit that more than once I would cross the street when I saw a bear coming because they terrified me. Anyway, when I started to go through puberty, a time where a witch gains all of her power,” which sadly was a hell of a lot for her, “I connected with a man. He stood behind me on a hardwood floor and we looked around us at a beautiful home with a fabulous balcony. He shared my pain but my dreams as well. This house, this setting…” She was crying, openly allowing the tears to roll down her cheeks. “It’s from the man I connected with. A witch doesn’t know her fated one by scent but by that connection that’s formed when they go through that hell. There is pain, so much pain. Jesus H. Christ the pain that a witch goes through in order to gain her power is intense. The more powerful the witch, the more painful but also the easier for her to connect to her fated mate. It’s the smallest of things that we connect over, the most mundane things, and the thing that I connected with my mate with was this house. Our home. That’s why there is this electricity between us. It has to be. I connected with you and you with me.” God, she was making such a mess of explaining this. “Harley, I’m so sorry for you but I think that I’m your fated mate.”
He grabbed her hands and pulled her toward him gently. Wrapping her up in his strong arms, he stroked her hair while she cried harder. “Shh, Alaska, don’t cry. There’s no need for tears. I’m not angry or upset.” He picked her up and carried her from the kitchen, cuddling her to his chest the entire time. When they stopped, she was in his lap.
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to cry, I really don’t, but I don’t want you to hate me. The home is beautiful. It’s absolutely perfect, actually, and made for both a bear and a witch to live in harmony.” From the massive stone fireplace in the living room to the floor-to-roof windows that would let all sun and moonlight in, all of it was perfect for them. “Are you sure that you aren’t angry with me? You can walk away, of course. We all have a choice.” She just prayed he didn’t.
Cradling her cheek in his palm, he leaned in to press a kiss to her other cheek. “I’m not angry, Alaska. Not by a long shot. And I’m also not going anywhere unless this is your way of telling me you plan on making the mad dash back to the Falls. I should warn you that running only excites me, especially when it would involve this gorgeous body. Actually, anything involving your body would excite me. Hell, I’m getting all wound up just thinking about the possibilities right now.”
Alaska laughed, smiled, and nodded all in one action. “I’m not running. Not unless you want me to.” She rubbed her cheek against his, then leaned back slightly. “I would really like it if you kissed me right now.” She would ask him before they got into bed how many women he’d had in it. If he’d had any, she would burn it and order them a new one. And yes, she was just that damn jealous.
“With great pleasure, sweetheart.” His lips brushed to hers. Then he applied more pressure. The stroke of his tongue had her opening up to accept the deeper kiss from him, his tongue sliding over hers as he tipped her back over his arm.
When they parted, she was panting. She couldn’t seem to help it. “Gracious, that’s a kiss.” But he still hadn’t said that he believed she was his mate. Crap. “I have a strange question.” She would table the thought of mating and being fated until he was ready to admit it to her as well. “How many women have slept in your bed, have you brought home with you?” She felt her cheeks heat in embarrassment, then cool at the look he gave her. “I’m finding I’m a little jealous,” she admitted bluntly.
“Other than my mother, sister, and a couple pack mates there has never been another woman in the house. The only one to ever use my bed was my sister the one time when she wasn’t feeling well. I have never brought anyone here, Alaska. It never felt right to me.”
“Thank goodness. I don’t know why that makes me so happy but it does. It could be because of the pure torture that I went through when I was so young and envisioned this as a home for, well, forever, but yes, that makes me happy.” She moved so that she could give him a huge hug. “Now, we should put groceries away and eat?” She had just bared her soul to him but she needed normal, at least until he was able to bare his soul to her as well. “I like you a lot, Harley, and I’m not afraid of you. Just be ready because I likely will be afraid of any of your other family and for that I’m sorry. Some things just imprint on us and never leave us. Do you understand?”
“It’ll be fine, sweetheart. I’ll be right there beside you, and I’ll have a talk with them before you meet them. They’ll understand and hopefully make it all easier on you. But I’m glad you’re not afraid of me anymore. It would seriously suck to have my mate afraid to be alone with me. Talk about a punch to the family jewels.” Another kiss, this one quick and hard, and he lifted her to her feet before popping up onto his own and heading for the kitchen.
She watched him as he walked away and found herself smiling. “I like hearing you say that. Your mate,” she confessed, helping unload the bags of groceries so that they could get to their food faster. Most of it was probably already a congealed mess because of her and her long-winded explanations but at least it would be food and it would reheat.
He pointed to where things went and she soon discovered the pantry. Or as she would likely call it, their own grocery store. It was massive! Every now and again he would catch her around the waist to drop a kiss on her that left her head spinning for a few seconds before she was able to focus again. Not that it seemed to slow him down. He kept moving around, putting things away even while she stood distracted.
Once everything was put away, she
sat with him at the table while they waited for the oven to reheat their burgers and fries. “You are a good man but sometimes you give off a don’t-fuck-with-me vibe. I think that’s the only reason that I had never been in your vicinity before. Sure, I saw you around town, but I never walked over to say hello. I lusted after you like whoa but the whole you being a bear thing had me terrified of coming near you. I’m sorry.” She had been a scared child when she first came to the Falls and now she was a grown woman who had a fated mate and she couldn’t be happier. “I’ll have to call Phi and have her put mated on my profile, and yours as well, if you want?” They didn’t have to go through with the mating for her to see herself as permanently off the market.
“Absolutely, although I still intend to give Phi hell for putting me up there in the first place. I never once agreed to it. Hell, I didn’t even know about it until you said something.” Reaching over, he ran a finger down her arm before catching her hand in his. “And yours better have mated on it by the end of the day tomorrow or I will raise holy hell. You’re mine now and I want the world to know it. At least our corner anyway.”
“Just make sure you give Jagger the issues, not her. She’s got that too-freaking-cute cub to look out for.” Oddly enough, Alaska hadn’t been scared of the baby that shifted uncontrollably into the most adorable little bear cub ever. It was also odd that she was okay with Jagger, who was also a huge bear, odd. “And yes, mine will have mated on it. Promise.”
“I won’t even raise my voice. Besides, Jagger would just smirk at me and give me some line like it was good for me or some shit.” Shaking his head, he pressed a kiss to her palm, then let her loose to get up and go get their meals from the oven. He brought them back and fell into his seat next to her. “Doesn’t really matter. One way or another, it will be fixed. I’m a one-witch type of bear.”
“I like that. I never thought that I would be a bear anything, but I am. With you, I’m totally a one-bear kind of gal. You are mine and I really am fine with that. I love that you’re a bear and that you’re so warm. It’s pretty awesome.” She also loved the fact that she wasn’t afraid of him, at all.
