by Terra Wolf
Text copyright ©2016 by the Author.
This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Three Cats, LLC. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original Grayslake: More than Mated remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Three Cats, LLC, or their affiliates or licensors.
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UnBearable Secrets
A More than Mated Novella
Terra Wolf
Family drama and bear politics have driven Olivia Bradwick on a vacation to Grayslake. Finally, she can enjoy some peace and quiet, or so she thinks. When the handyman at the local B&B stumbles into her bathroom, she realizes he might be the escape she came looking for. But Sam isn’t as innocent as his seems and Olivia must decide if she can trust him at all.
Sam Hunter is running. He’s left home and all of his Louisiana comforts behind for a life of solitude. He truly believes it’s the only way to not end up like his blood thirsty father. But when a cute little werebear shows up at the B&B he can’t help but fall for her. He knows that if he claims her though, it’ll ruin everything.
Olivia and Sam both have skeletons in their closets. Together they must decide if they can overcome their past to be together in this Romeo and Juliet-esque landscape.
Prologue
Olivia
The water was dark as the moon reflected onto their faces. There were five of them, like always. Her parents had always wanted a soccer team full of cubs. More children to leave their little kingdom to.
She could remember how cold the water was. How the ripples felt like ice against her skin.
“It’s too cold!”
“You’re all being pansies. We can take it, can’t we, Bianca?”
“Sure.” She heard her sister’s teeth chattering.
“We’re going in. You two crazies can stay out here for all we care. But you’re going to be sick tomorrow, and Mom won’t care about your crying.”
That was a good point—she wouldn’t. Not that her mother didn’t care about them, but she was all about natural consequences, and she had told them it was too cold to swim tonight.
But they didn’t listen; they never did. And her mother didn’t argue, probably for fear of a full mutiny.
“Last one in does the dishes for a week,” her youngest brother called, and the three boys took off, making a small wake behind each of them.
“Bianca, we did it! No boys for once!”
But when she turned around, Bianca was gone. Lost in the water.
Drowning.
Chapter One
Olivia
Olivia Bradwick’s bags dropped onto the ground as dust wafted up around her. God damned heat was more than she could bear. She watched as the taxi sped away in front of her. In its place was an old bed-and-breakfast. She had seen it online, but it looked so much bigger in person.
Now or never, I guess. She picked up her bags and took a deep breath as she ascended the steps onto the covered porch. Her hand rested on the metal doorknob for no more than a moment before she pushed it open and was welcomed by fresh blueberry muffins sitting on the reception desk.
Could she take one? She looked around the room, a parlor of sorts, but no one was around. It was still sweltering. An old air conditioner struggled to combat the heat off to her left. Her bear’s senses were on high alert. She had grown up around other shifters, and Grayslake was very well known among her people. It was the only place she could think of to come to. The only place to escape.
A vast white reception desk sat in front of her, a small bell on top of it next to the enticing muffins. Just one wouldn't kill anyone. Though it would totally ruin her diet. But so did the pizza last night, and the hamburger she had for lunch yesterday. Screw it.
She grabbed a muffin off of the tray and hit the bell with her other hand. The buttery goodness of the muffin was practically gone by the time a woman walked through what Olivia assumed was the dining room to come to the reception desk.
“You must be our new guest!” she said with a broad smile on her face. She was an older woman, maybe in her late fifties, with light chestnut hair piled high on top of her head. She looked like she wasn't sweating at all in the damn heat. Freaking Southerners. Whereas Olivia's dark, curly, massive hair was sticking out in every single direction and she had sweat coming out of places she didn't even know could sweat.
“Yes, that's me!”
“Perfect, we’re very happy to have you here! Things have been a little bit quiet here lately. Now this is the parlor, and we have books in the library off to your left. Breakfast is served back in the dining room each morning until 11 AM. I'm afraid you've missed it this morning but I'm glad to see that you've taken a muffin, these were leftovers. We just haven't had a lot of foot traffic through here lately,” she said with a sigh.
“Well I don't really know how long I'm saying.”
The woman tapped an open reservation book in front of her. “I see that. Well, you don't need to worry about your room—we’ll make sure not to sell it out from under you!” she said with a small laugh. She was too sweet, sweeter than the muffin that had been in Olivia’s hand and was now taking up residence in her stomach.
Olivia tried to smile back at her, but the innkeeper beamed a little too eagerly again and so Olivia stopped.
This woman was on some serious drugs. Or maybe she was just happy to see someone. Either way, it was overwhelming. “Great. And which way would my room be?”
The woman dangled a key in front of her hanging off of a four leaf clover keychain. Yep, nuts. “You're just upstairs and off to the left, and of course, we gave you the room with the bathroom included. And your deposit is already down so you'll just pay the rest whenever you leave.”
Olivia licked her fingers before wrapping them around the keychain. Ladylike behavior was not her strong point—three brothers did that to her. “Sounds good. I'll just grab my bags and head on up. I need to take a shower!”
The woman's mouth dropped open a little bit. “There's actually no shower in that room, just a tub. And it can be a little bit temperamental, but I think the handyman was already up there today. So it should be fine for you.”
Handyman? Why was it that her new tub needed a handyman? “But it's going to work, right? I need water on my body as soon as possible.”
“Oh yes, dear. I'm sure it will work.”
Olivia wasn’t convinced. “Great. So I’ll see you later.” She picked up her bags and trudged up the stairs behind the reception desk before hearing the cheery voice call to her, “I look forward to it!”
Her room really was just off to the left. It was the first door. She hadn't realized how small this place was when she looked at the website. But considering they had no social media presence, she should've known better. And when she entered the room, what she found was even worse.
There was an entire wall of cat plates. What was this woman smoking? She tapped one with her finger before putting her bags at the end of the bed and turning around to close the door. They didn't move or anything, but they definitely made her feel little bit creeped out. Sure, she could shift into a bear pretty much at will, but a hundred cats staring at you while you slept? Not her idea of relaxation.
But after she closed the door and examined the rest of the room, she found the bathroom. It was the holy grail of ensuites. A gigantic claw foot tub sat directly under a window which had been frosted so no one got to s
ee all the guests’ goodies. There were granite countertops throughout the whole thing and multiple vases of flowers. It was perfection.
She immediately started to strip and run the bathwater. She left the temperature icy cold, just to calm her body down. She took a look in the mirror as the water filled up the tub and saw that she had been completely right about her messy hair. Her dark ringlets were sticking out at every end. She tried to contain them within some sort of ponytail, but that was now off to the left and the majority of her hair was on the right. “I don't even know how this happens,” she said to herself. She removed what remained of the once existing ponytail and turned off the water before breathing in the scent of the fresh flowers. She was exhausted from traveling.
She had never really ever left home before. This was the first time she vacationed alone, but she needed the escape. Constant questions, people giving her shifty eyes wherever she went, and these were people that knew that she was part bear. She felt like she couldn't go anywhere anymore without someone walking up to her and giving her condolences or patting her lightly on the shoulder and calling her sweetheart or honey. She just couldn't handle it anymore. She had to get away.
And that was how she found Grayslake. A simple week away to decide what she wanted to do with the rest of her life was certainly allowed. Even though her parents disagreed with it. They wanted her to stay close to home, where they also could keep an eye on her and question her at every turn. It was like living in a prison. So two days ago she had packed her bags and left a note for them, promising she would return. But she didn't give a deadline. She couldn't, not until she figured out what she wanted for herself.
The icy water surrounded her skin and filled her with relief. It was supposed to be fall, didn’t the southern states know that? For a moment she missed the vibrant colors of the north, the leaves abandoning their trees. She was just about to close her eyes and dip her head under the water when she saw a gigantic man come barreling into her bathroom.
“Oh my God!” she shrieked, covering her upper body the best that she could.
The man turned toward her, clearly not realizing that someone was occupying the bathroom. “You're naked!”
She nodded. “Yes I am! And you're in my bathroom. What the hell?”
“I'm Sam,” he stammered. “I'm here to work on the pipes.” He held up a tool box as if to prove that he had a purpose for being there.
“Hi Sam, I'm Olivia. And I'm still naked.”
The giant man turned around and Olivia couldn't help but admire the view. He had shoulder length wavy blonde hair that led down to his mountainous shoulders. A slim waist allowed her eyes to follow down onto an even tighter ass. Those jeans were killing her slowly. And here she was in a tub full of icy water, probably looking like a drowned rat. Great introduction.
“Sam, turning around is probably not going to work. You should probably go.”
He grabbed a towel from the dresser in front of him and backed up slowly with his arm extended toward her. “Or you could just cover up and then I can do my job.”
She was outraged. “Are you kidding me?” she said as she stepped out of the tub and snatched the towel from his hand. She quickly wrapped it around her, stealing a glance at herself in the mirror. Yup. Drowned rat.
“I'm staying in this room. You can't just barge in here and work on the pipes.” He stayed facing the other direction. “I wrapped the towel around myself, you can turn around now.”
As he did, she could further examine his face. Okay, so maybe she wasn't ready for him to work on the mechanical pipes, but he could certainly help her warm up hers. He had thick, dark eyebrows that sat just above dark brown eyes. He was super tan and his chest looked almost restricted against a gray T-shirt. He was built like a statue, with chiseled features and arms bigger than Olivia's head. If Olivia hadn't been so angry at the intrusion, she would've dropped the towel right then.
“I didn't mean that I needed to finish the job now. Maybe I could come back this evening and check on the pipes. I was supposed to do it this morning, I got tied up. I really don't want Lucy, the innkeeper, to realize that I wasn’t doing my job. Can't you cover for me?” His dark chocolatey eyes pleaded with her. He knew she couldn't say no.
“Fine. Well, can I finish my bath first? I was kind of enjoying the peace and solitude.”
“By all means,” he said as he put his hands up in surrender. They stood for a moment staring each other down.
“You're still in my bathroom,” Olivia shouted at him.
“Yeah, bye.”
Sam quickly exited the bathroom before shutting the door behind him. She then heard the bedroom door close as well, but peeked out of the bathroom door just make sure he was definitely gone. Once the coast was clear, she dropped the towel and slipped back into the icy cold water once again. She was glad that it was nearly frigid. Now she had more than one reason to cool down.
Chapter Two
Olivia
As Olivia finished getting dressed, there was a knock at the door. “At least someone around here knows how to knock,” she said aloud.
As she pulled open the door she saw Lucy's smiling face back at her. She had a little twitch next to her right eye—clearly something was bothering her. “I'm here to apologize. I heard that you had an unfortunate interaction with our handyman Sam. I wanted to invite you to dinner tonight, to make up for his mistake. I hope that this won’t affect your review.”
So Sam had spilled the beans. Olivia wouldn't have to cover for him later, good. Though looking at Lucy's strained expression, Olivia felt sorry for him too. He had clearly gotten in a heap of trouble about it. “Dinner would actually be great. I'm starving and I have no idea what's available in town.”
Lucy clapped her hands together in front of her chest. “Wonderful, I'm making chicken Alfredo. Does that sound good to you?”
Olivia nodded. “Sure. Will I be dining alone?”
Lucy tapped on her chin for a moment. “I think the Winterbournes might be joining you. But you’ll have your own table of course, as private as you would like. Or I can even deliver room service.”
Olivia shook her head. “The dining room is fine, Lucy, thank you. And really, the whole thing with Sam before was just a misunderstanding. I hope he didn’t get into much trouble for it.”
“Then I will see you in the dining room in about an hour?”
Olivia noticed how she had specifically excluded the part about Sam from her response. “Wonderful. See you in an hour.”
Lucy waved as she left and Olivia closed the door behind her. She made her way over to her suitcase and began to put some of her items into the dresser located across from the bed. As she pulled out a dark purple sundress, she realized that maybe her shorts and T-shirt weren’t appropriate for dinner. She slipped into the dress and decided to take a blow dryer to her hair. She wasn’t trying too hard, but just in case a certain handyman was also around for dinner, she wanted to make sure he saw her with clothes on.
When Olivia arrived down at dinner, the Winterbournes were already seated. She assumed that they were the older touristy couple who were sitting in the middle of the dining room. They waved to her and asked her where she was from, but she hated that part about bed-and-breakfasts, the chitchat. She quickly answered the questions but didn't ask them anything about themselves and scoped out the table situation. There was only one table far enough away from them to not continue the conversation, and it already had an occupant. Sam sat at the table poring over a book, flipping through the pages furiously. She sighed heavily before waving to the Winterbournes and pulled out the chair across from Sam. He didn't look up.
“Reading something vastly interesting?”
Suddenly Sam's eyes darted up, resting right on her breasts.
“I'm up here. Eyes up here. Now what’s so great about that book?”
“I saw you naked.”
Olivia nodded. “You sure did.”
Sam closed the book in front of him a
nd slid it off the table. She thought she heard him set it on the floor. The handyman was hiding something. “I saw you naked and I didn't even apologize. I'm really sorry about bursting into the bathroom like that. And once I was in there, not having any idea what to do.”
Olivia laughed. “You have no idea what to do with a naked woman in a bathtub?”
A growl whispered across the table. “I know exactly what to do with a naked woman in a bathtub, I just didn't know what to do with you.”
“What does that make me?”
Sam shook his head, his blonde hair shifting back and forth with his movements. “That makes you a stranger. You're clearly not from around here, are you?”
Olivia evaded the question; she wasn't ready to talk about home, about why she was here. “You're right, I'm not. Just a little vacation. What about you? Born and raised?”
Sam took his fingers and pulled them through his mane. “Not me. You can’t tell by the accent?”
“You have a southern drawl, we’re in Georgia. No, I couldn't tell.”
“I'm from Louisiana. Just north of New Orleans.”
“Mardi Gras, fun.”
“Yeah, something like that.”
“So what brings you here? I mean, why Grayslake?”
Sam shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “A vacation, just like you. I've been traveling a lot lately, so I needed a job to make up for a little bit of the cash I’ve been losing. Lucy here was kind enough to offer me one.”
“She seems… interesting,” Olivia admitted.
“Interesting is one way to put it. Kind is another.”
Olivia set her lips into a thin line while she fingered the tablecloth in front of her. Each one was a different color, another of those cutesy things that they only did in bed-and-breakfasts. Luckily, this one didn't have flowers.
“So do you always eat by yourself? This is a pretty dark corner to read.”
“I'm not a guest. I'm a hired hand. I always eat by myself. And usually there aren't any other guests for dinner. Actually, there's hardly any guests at all.”
