Alpha Rancher Bear: BWWM Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Bears of Pinerock County Book 3)

by Zoe Chant

  Vigorous scratching from the back door provided a convenient distraction just as her thoughts started to wander in the direction of blue eyes and big warm hands again. She let in Bucket, who came bouncing into the kitchen, his long wiry coat covered with snow.

  "Did you have a nice time?" she asked the dog, giving him a biscuit from the dog-shaped cookie jar on the counter. "Tell you what. Mama's got a whole afternoon to herself and plenty of daylight, so I think I'm going to gear up and go skiing. Not something you can come along for, I'm afraid."

  As she went to get her ski gear together, she firmly put all thoughts of Alec out of her mind. Exercise, she thought with determination. Exercise was exactly what she needed to take her mind off him.

  And if he happened to drive Saffron to the clinic for her next appointment ... well ... that wouldn't be a bad thing, would it?

  She plugged her phone into its charger before taking off, and checked her voicemail by habit. One new one. She usually had her phone in her purse when she was driving, so she hadn't noticed it come in. As soon as she heard Saffron's voice, she winced. She liked Saffron, but this family was haunting her; there was no other explanation.

  Green gloves. Hmm. That sounded familiar. She'd brought a satchel of papers and books home with her from the clinic, and she opened it up. Yep. There they were. Saffron must have left them lying around somewhere, and Charmian had packed them up along with her things.

  I could go up there, take them back to her ...

  As if Alec would be happy to see her at all. He'd left without even saying goodbye.

  Well, she thought, putting the gloves back on top of the things in the satchel, she didn't need to go today. She'd see how busy tomorrow turned out to be, and find out if Saffron was able to come in herself and pick them up. And if not, then ... then maybe she'd think about going up there.

  Right now, the ski trails were calling her name. Skiing was the only thing on her mind.

  Certainly not a big handsome man with blue eyes.

  Not in the slightest.

  Chapter Five

  "What in the hell," Axl Tanner asked, "is eating my brother?"

  He was talking to Remy, their cousin, beside the construction site where Remy and Saffron's new house was going up. But he said it loudly enough that Alec, doing chores in the cattle barn, could hear it all the way across the yard in the crisp winter air. Alec gritted his teeth and considered going over there to smack down both of them.

  My father would never have tolerated that kind of insubordination when he was running the clan.

  But Alec had tried running his clan that way. It didn't work. He wasn't sure what he was doing wrong. He knew he was a natural alpha; he had the strength of will to make others obey him, and he liked being in charge. He could only conclude that he'd somehow gotten off track during the years when he hadn't ever really needed to exert his alpha will over the rest of the clan. After his parents' death, nothing had really changed in the clan for the next fifteen years. Everything knew their work on the ranch, and they all got along, more or less. And now that he was having to make decisions and enforce them, like a proper alpha, it was nothing but insubordination all the way down.

  "You mean more than usual?" Remy asked.

  Alec threw down a sack of feed—he was unloading a trailer backed up to the barn—and glared across the yard at them. "You know I can hear you, right?"

  Axl stuck his hands in the pockets of his coat and sauntered across the yard. The two farm dogs, Beau and Chex, trotted along with him. "Want a hand?"

  Alec growled at him, a low rumble of warning that came from his bear as much as from him, and then took a step to the side, giving Axl room to reach for one of the heavy feed sacks.

  For a little while they worked in companionable silence. Their breath huffed out, steaming in the cold. Axl was the Pinerock County sheriff, but it was currently a Saturday and he'd been making an effort, since finding his mate Tara, to take weekends off rather than working through them like he used to. Which meant he was spending more time on the ranch.

  It felt good, Alec thought, working side by side with his brother like they used to. It almost felt like the old days, back when they were younger and the whole group of them—Alec and Axl, and their cousins Remy and Cody, and later the hired hand Gannon—worked the ranch together.

  Almost ... but not quite.

  It had been two days since Saffron's appointment with her midwife, and in that time, Alec hadn't been able to get Charmian off his mind. He wasn't hungry, and he couldn't sleep more than an hour or two before jolting awake from ... dreams.

  Charmian writhing against him, her soft brown skin warm on his body, her lush breasts with their darker nipples brushing his chest—

  Gritting his teeth, he beat down his bear, and tried to ignore his burgeoning erection.

  "So what I hear," Axl said conversationally, picking up a fifty-pound feed sack effortlessly with each brawny hand, "is that you've spent the last couple of days stomping around, snapping at people, and pretty much driving everyone around you crazy. That sound about right?"

  "I don't see how it's anybody's business," Alec snarled.

  "Look, man." Axl dropped his feed sacks into the storage bin, and grabbed Alec's arm. Alec growled, but Axl stood his ground. "It's our business because we all live here, and what affects you affects us, okay? If it's something to do with the ranch, the rest of us need to know."

  "It's nothing to do with the ranch."

  "Okay, something personal, then?"

  "Which is still none of your business," Alec snapped.

  Axl gave his arm a little shake. "Alec, I know you're my alpha, but you're also my brother. Whatever it is ... man, you've got dark circles under your eyes, and Cody says you're not eating. Anyone looking at you can tell you're upset about something. You wanna talk about it?"

  Alec bared his teeth instinctively.

  "Or not." Axl pulled his hand away, letting his brother's arm drop. "But, hey, you wanna get drunk some night and vent, or, hell, just go back in the woods as bears and spend a day or two working out our aggression on random trees like we used to when Dad got mean, when we were kids—"

  The last thing Alec wanted to talk about right now, or think about, was their childhood. Their father had been the clan alpha. That didn't make him a nice person, or an easy one to live with—but Alec was his heir now. And that was half the problem, wasn't it? "I want to be left alone and have people stop badgering me to talk about things."

  Axl raised his hands in a peacemaking gesture. "No trouble here. Actually, Remy and I were going to take our mates into town this afternoon for a little shopping. Cody might come too, and we were thinking about getting dinner in town. You're welcome to come if you want, but from the sound of things, you'd probably rather stay up here alone."

  "Right now," Alec growled, "that sounds great."

  ***

  This is nuts, Charmian thought.

  She downshifted as the road got, impossibly, even steeper. She'd driven many hair-raising driveways in her years as the midwife in a mostly rural county, but these mountain ones were the worst, especially at this time of year.

  And she wasn't even going up to Alec's ranch for a medical emergency, which was usually the only thing that could get her to drive these awful back roads in this kind of weather. The huge blizzard the weather forecast predicted had been pushed back for a couple more days, but they were still getting flurries, an inch here or two inches there, on top of the foot and a half of snow they already had—enough to make the roads constantly slick and treacherous. Worse, it was unplowed, and the Jeep slithered around as she tried to stay in the ruts packed down by vehicles that had gone before her.

  Whenever she could take her eyes off the road, she cast reassuring glances at the green gloves on the seat next to her, to remind herself of her reason for coming up to the ranch. She was just going to return Saffron's gloves. It was a perfectly reasonable ...

  Excuse?

 
Because, yes, if Saffron were terribly concerned about getting them back, she would've come down to the clinic herself. They were only a pair of gloves, hand-knit from the look of things, but still not expensive and probably not an important keepsake. When Charmian had called Saffron to let her know she'd found them, Saffron seemed relieved but not concerned. "Oh, hang onto them for me, will you? I'll pick them up the next time I'm in town."

  Now it was Saturday and Charmian was driving up to the ranch to return a pair of gloves that Saffron didn't even seem that eager to retrieve. As she struggled with the road, Charmian muttered under her breath, desperately rehearsing vaguely plausible-sounding opening lines.

  "Hey, I was in the area and thought I'd swing by ..."

  No, that wouldn't work, unless in the area were taken very loosely. The Circle B Ranch, Alec's ranch, was literally the only thing on this road.

  "I had some time this afternoon and thought I'd bring back your gloves and do a home visit ..."

  Better. She usually tried to stop by her clients' homes at least once during their pregnancy. She always reassured them that she wasn't checking up on them; she wasn't a social worker, although she did keep an eye open for any obvious hazards to either the baby or mother's health. Mostly she wanted to make sure they didn't need any help with childproofing, acquiring an appropriate stock of things for a new baby, and tasks of that nature. A lot of first-time moms-to-be ended up completely overwhelmed by everything they had to do, and forgot to do important things, or simply didn't think of doing them in the first place. And it was much easier to walk through the house with them and work on a list of baby-preparation tasks than to try to think of everything in a clinical setting. Some women were also much more relaxed and willing to talk about potential issues at home than in the clinic. She'd even helped women get out of domestic violence situations that way, though she could easily tell from seeing Saffron with Remy that there were no problems of that sort here.

  So, yes, that would work. She was just bringing back Saffron's gloves and doing a home visit. And the reason why she hadn't called ahead of time was ... was ... well, it was a rural county, and cell service was spotty.

  If she was going to be strictly honest with herself, she really should have called ahead—it would just serve her right if she made it all the way up this horrific driveway and the whole family was out for the day—but as long as she didn't call, she could try to fool herself as well.

  I just happened to be out this way. I always go for long drives on awful roads during snowstorms on the weekend for fun.

  It looked like fresh tire tracks had passed this way recently, probably today. It was impossible to tell if they had been coming or going.

  The joke is totally on me if they're all in town. At least she knew it wasn't anything to do with Saffron's baby, because they certainly would have called her.

  She navigated the last hair-raising turn with a death grip on the steering wheel, trying not to notice the depth of the canyon falling away beside the road. She thought for a minute that the Jeep wasn't going to make it, but her winter tires and four wheel drive managed to get enough traction to lurch to the top of the hill. Here, thankfully, the road flattened out, and a few minutes later she was driving into a huge yard, a field of trampled snow and half-frozen mud, surrounded by ranch buildings.

  Wow, how many people live up here, anyway?

  She wasn't quite sure where to go, so she pulled in beside a truck parked in front of the biggest of the farmhouses. She killed the engine and got out, looking around.

  Across from the big house was a smaller house, with a neatly shoveled front walk. There were cattle barns along one side of the yard, and at the other side, the mostly finished shell of a house bundled in snow-covered Tyvek house wrap. A trailer was parked beside it. That must be Remy and Saffron's house, Charmian thought. Saffron had told her during their appointments that she and Remy were building their own house, but the snow had put a damper on the construction season, so the house was going to remain unfinished until spring.

  Well, Remy and Saffron's trailer should be her first stop, then. Saffron would probably love to show off their new house.

  Charmian was reaching back into the Jeep for the green gloves when the door to the big house opened and shut. "Oh, hi," she called. "I just stopped by to ..." and then her voice trailed off and her brain stuttered to a halt when she saw who had come out onto the porch.

  He wasn't bundled for winter weather this time, though he'd stamped into a pair of boots. He was wearing low hip-hugging jeans and a plaid shirt, halfway unbuttoned so she could see he wasn't wearing anything underneath; black curls of chest hair peeked out. His dark hair was just long enough to tousle, and looked like it was scruffed up from having worn a hat earlier. He had a cup of coffee in one hand, and for a minute he just stopped and stared at her, his face perfectly blank.

  "I—" Charmian swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. "I was looking for Saffron."

  "She's in town," Alec said. His voice was the same low, sexy rumble she remembered from the clinic. "When I heard you drive up, I thought they were back early. Thought there might've been some kind of problem."

  "No ... no, I just came back to return ..." She waved the gloves at him. They flopped limply in her hand. "... these."

  Alec held out a hand. "I'll give them back."

  She started for the porch steps, but he came down to the bottom before she could climb them, meeting her halfway. She'd forgotten how very tall he was. She had to tip her head back ... and back. Otherwise she'd be on eye level with his chest, and those tantalizing curls of chest hair peeking through the gap in his shirt.

  When she placed the gloves in his hand, they both lingered for a moment. His skin was not quite touching hers, but she could feel the warmth of it. He was so ... close. His eyes caught and held hers. She didn't think she could have looked away if her life depended on it, any more than she could let go of the gloves.

  And—she didn't think it was just her imagination—his eyes were a blue so intense it was almost electric, shot through with filaments of gold, as if the sun had touched them for a moment. Except there was no sun; it was hidden behind thick snow clouds.

  That's right, he's a shifter. I've read you can sometimes see their animal in their eyes. That must be what it looks like.

  "Do you—" he began, just as she said, "Can I—?"

  There was an awkward pause, and then Alec started to smile. He did the same thing he'd done at the clinic, where it wasn't quite an actual smile, but rather a little tug of his lips before the corners of his mouth tightened, suppressing it.

  It's like someone taught you not to smile, long ago, Charmian thought, and was suddenly so sad she could hardly bear it.

  She finally remembered to let go of the gloves, but her hand felt too cold when she pulled it back, no longer warmed by his skin.

  "You first," she said, offering him a smile of her own.

  "I was just going to ask if you wanted to come in and have a cup of coffee before you drive back down."

  "I would absolutely love to."

  Chapter Six

  Charmian stepped cautiously across Alec's doorstep. She felt a little like she was trespassing, which was ridiculous because not only did she have an invitation, but she was used to going into strangers' houses. She did it all the time as part of her job.

  But she didn't usually go into bachelors' houses. That's what was different this time. In the course of her job, she dealt almost exclusively with women. All the men she talked to were husbands and boyfriends.

  Gosh, no wonder my dating life has been a dismal wasteland for my entire adult life.

  The house was a lot nicer inside than she was expecting. It wasn't fancy, of course, but everything was solidly built, the sort of construction that was made to last through the generations. The hardwood floors were polished to a shine, with rag rugs on them that looked handmade. All the furniture was big and solid—but of course, if Remy and Alec were typical of the re
st of the Circle B bears, they probably needed big furniture.

  Unlike a stereotypical bachelor pad, there was very little clutter. The messiest thing in the room was a desk in front of the big picture window looking out on a white pasture; it was covered with papers, with a laptop computer open on top of it.

  After the chill outside, which even the Jeep's heater could not dispel, the room felt almost oppressively hot. Charmian stomped the snow off her boots in front of the door and took them off, leaving her in sock feet on the chilly wood floor.

  "You can hang your coat by the stove," Alec said. "I'll get coffee. Do you, uh, take anything in it?"

  "A little sugar, please."

  He nodded and vanished through an open door to the right.

  Stove? No wonder it was so warm in here. There was an old-fashioned, iron-sided wood stove near the window and the desk, pumping out heat. Hooks on the wall beside the stove had other people's coats hanging on them, and there was a line strung above the stovetop where several pairs of gloves and mittens were clothespinned.

  She hung up her coat and padded over to the window to look outside. There wasn't much to see except for snow. A scattering of black dots in the pasture were probably Black Angus cattle.

  "The view is much better on a sunny day," Alec said behind her, and she jumped. "The mountains are so sharp and clear, it's like they touch the sky."

  "That's one of the things I love most about living here. There's so much gorgeous scenery. I love the mountains."

  She accepted the cup of coffee he handed her and took a sip. It was good coffee, she discovered, not the overbrewed mud she had smiled and accepted at many ranchers' homes. For most ranchers, all they asked of their coffee was that it should be a) hot, b) plentiful, and c) strong. But Alec's coffee tasted like it was gourmet quality, and somehow, without even asking, he had sweetened it exactly the right amount.

  Alec, it seemed, had hidden depths.

  He had already retreated to stand by the stove, as if he didn't want to stay too close to her. "Are you local?" he asked. "Grew up around here, I mean."