Cursing, the man took over, and he rushed to her side. Gently picking her up, he hurried inside the cave. And in that moment his steps faltered, and both were brought to their knees as the sweet smell of honey and cinnamon invaded his senses. Shocked, he could only stare at the pixie-like features of the woman in his arms. A soft sprinkle of freckles dotted her nose and cheeks, giving her a mischievous look that perfectly matched her auburn hair, which reminded him of the autumn evenings in all their glory. He couldn´t wait to bury his face in it. He could hardly think straight because of the same overpowering need to bury himself in her and claimed his mate.
“My mate …,” he groaned. His bear was entranced with her. She was as delicate as a flower and felt too good against his body. “We were made to complement each other.”
Minding any possible wound she might have suffered during her accident, Kody gently laid her on a small cot in the shelter and hurried to remove her outer clothing. But as each layer revealed a little bit more of her skin, he found himself practically drooling and panting like a horny wolf. The instant her underwear was on display, he knew he was in deep trouble. His gums ache, and his bear was fighting for control, endlessly shouting for them to claim her. But he wasn´t going to behave like an inexperienced cub. She deserved better than waking up to find a complete stranger behaving like a hormone-ladened raving teenager.
With that in mind, he hurried to the stack of clothes, and after making sure nothing was broken, he redressed her. Without taking her eyes to long away from her, he built a small fire and hurried back to her side. She needed to drink something warm, and afterwards he would find out who was careless enough to let her wonder alone in that part of Kodiak territory. Fortunately, there weren´t any real life bears in those parts but tourists still needed to be careful. If she had went the other way and a little to the north, she would have eventually came across the Lapin state home but luckily, she literally almost ran into him. No bucks would die that day... Just the idea of any of those pesky and horny male bunnies made him see red.
“She´s mine!” his bear roared, high enough to awaken her from her slumber.
She jolted upright, probably startled by his roar, and seemed confused as it took her a while to really focus her beautiful eyes on him. And when she did, she seemed stunned for a moment. But her expression soon relaxed and Kody found himself gifted with a sweet smile from her delicate lips.
“Who are you?”
“Kody Cava—“
“Oh! The head grumpy bear from next door,” she mumbled more to herself than for him, but she soon blushed as she probably realized he had heard her “I´m Honey Evans.”
“Honey… like the honey?” All kind of wicked things crossed his mind the moment she introduced herself, one naughtier than the other, and all involving lots and lots of honey. His bear roared his approval inside his head. Luckily, they had a lifetime to try them out. First, he needed her to accept him, and she seemed to know all about the “grumpy next door bear,” which was a relief to him. Although he still couldn´t figure out what she was exactly, if she was aware of shifters, she was definitively not human. Which was quite a relief.
“Yeah. My mom craved it like crazy all through my pregnancy, so it sort of stuck,” she smiled sheepishly. “Although she would swear to everyone it was in honor of my late great-grandmother, who was a flower child in the 70´s.”
Kody could only smile as she kept talking nonstop, jumping from one topic to the next until she seemed to realize he wasn´t opening his mouth at all because, she blushed, grew silent and suddenly seemed to find the fire quite interesting. Worried, he hurried to her side, and knelt in front of her.
“What´s wrong? Are you in any pain?”
“According to my family, I could talk anyone to their grave,” she blushed even more, and bit her lower lip, unable to meet his gaze.
“I like it. I´m not to talkative myself so it´s nice to meet someone who´s not awkward with that.”
“O-M-G! I´m as awkward as you can get!” Laughing, she gently nudged his shoulder, obviously comfortable enough with him to initiate physical contact. This made Kody exultant with happiness. She was accepting him!
“Really? Why?”
“Well, for example, let´s say we meet in a bar and you start flirting with me. I wouldn´t realize you´re doing it unless you tell me straight to my face that you´re interested in me” still laughing she shook her head.
“And if I simply approach you and kiss you? Would you let me?”
“You? Maybe. Another man? No way!” Her words where immediately followed by the scrunching of her button-like nose, but Kody knew what she had said.
“So, then, would you let me kiss you?”
Before she could even muster an answer, he captured her small face gently between his big hands and kissed her. Just a simple caress of the lips. He wanted to savor every moment with her, but specially this first time, he wanted to be able to later tell it to their cubs when they asked about how they met.
Soon, their mouths erupted in a scorching heat, and Kody was sure his entire body was about to be lit on fire. The sweet scent of her arousal was driving his bear up the walls, desperate to claim her once and for all. They both agreed there was no way she was leaving the cave without their mark on her.
“Kody… Kody….” She kept saying his name between kisses, which only inflamed his desire even more until she finally managed to put some distance between their mouths, but as he followed her movements, she gently laid a finger on his lips. “Your phone is ringing.”
“Uhm?”
“Your phone is ringing.”
“Right… Damn! Right!” Still holding her close, he answered the call. “You better tell me someone died or the WWIII is about to fucking begin!”
“Kody!” His brother seemed nervous, more so than usual, so he managed to keep his temper from exploding. He also didn´t want to scare his mate away. “One of the Lapin… lost, she was with… name’s Honey…. “
“She´s with me!” He really wanted to tell his brother the good news face to face, but apparently the storm was bad enough that even the cell reception was malfunctioning. “I found her, Killian! They were right! It´s everything we´ve been told and more.”
“What?! No… She´s…. Kody! Don´t….!”
“Once the storm goes away, I´ll take her to our house. Tell Micah and the rest to fucking behave and not scare her.” There was no answer from the other side, so Kody wasn´t sure if his brother understood anything at all.
“Is everything all right?”
“Yes. Just, the storm.”
Her gentle caress on his cheek immediately gained all his focus, and he soon found himself on the cot, their clothes everywhere and she was anxiously waiting for him to take her.
“Would you have me?” He knew his bear was showing in his eyes, but it was customary for their animal side to also be “present” in that particular moment.
Her smile was sweet as she gently bit his lower lip, and she answered with a whispered “yes.” That was all he needed, because as he lost himself in her body, his bear sunk his fangs on her neck, taking them both to oblivion.
3
At first, Honey thought she was dreaming, or at least unconscious, in the middle of the forest because there was no way a man who looked like that was real. He was 6 feet, 5 inches of solid masculinity. Broad shoulders, muscles everywhere and an amazing pair of blue eyes and copper hair so vivid that had it been any other man, it would have made her think it was salon fabricated. But Kody Cavanaugh was a man who obviously lived in the wilderness and was perfectly attuned with it. And she had slept with him.
Suddenly she was filled with anxiety. Had some kind of craziness possessed her the previous afternoon? She who had always avoided going too far with any other man only to lose her virginity in the middle of an Alaskan storm? And with a complete stranger! Covering her eyes, she whimpered softly. Amy would have a field day with what happened!
Strong a
rms immediately enveloped her, and she soon became aware of the solid chest against her back. Kody had not left her.
“You stayed,” was all she managed to say.
“Of course I did. Why wouldn´t I want to wake up next to you?” Even his morning voice was sexy.
“Maybe because men usually sneak out right after the hanky panky,” she mumbled, feeling shy and very aware of her inexperience.
“How the fuck do you know that?”
Honey was pretty sure she had never heard a man get livid so fast or sound so sexy while doing it. Even when she found herself trapped under his body, and his face looming close to hers. His eyes blazing fire, she simply smiled.
“That´s what Amy always says.”
And just as quickly, his temper seemed to deflate and soon he was embracing her again, laughing at his own reaction.
“I don´t want to hear about other men in your life.”
“That won´t be difficult considering I don´t have any family left,” she admitted.
“But now you have me”
Honey knew she should be concerned by his words, but instead could only find them reassuring and sweet. Hiding a yawn, she snuggled closer to him, and almost immediately fell asleep protected in the warm comfort of his body heat.
When she next woke up some time later, it was only to discover light was filtering into the cave and that she was alone. Unsure of what might have happened, she sat on the cot and looked around but found no traces of Kody. The fire was no longer burning and the chill of the day was creeping into the cave and into her.
Uncomfortable, she hurried to get dressed. If he was really nowhere to be seen, she would just borrow the phone to try and call for some help or at least get someone to help her back to the Lapin´s cabin.
With that on her mind, she dug through the items he left near the fire, but couldn´t find anything useful until she heard the male voices outside the cave. The voices grew louder as they drew closer. A soon found several men standing next to a very angry Kody.
“You´ve got to be kidding me!”
“Why the fuck didn´t you tell me before?”
“We tried, you idiot! But since you could only think with your dick, you even ignored the mind link!”
“I was right here in that cave! You knew it and you still didn´t come and stop what happened!”
“Maybe because we like our faces the way they are … and …”
“We are happy that you found her, brother,” a younger looking version of Kody approached him and embraced him. “And she´s here.”
Honey had never seen such a group of intimidating men. There were four of them and they were all looking at her as if she had hanged the moon.
“I´m sorry for the interruption, but Amy must be worried about me.”
“They told her that I found you,” Kody interrupted her words, but refused to look her in the eyes. “My brother Killian will take you back to her house.”
“But …” She had no idea what had just happened, but she didn´t like it. “If you don´t want to see me again, you could at least be civilized about it and not hide behind you baby brother´s ass.”
“Excuse me?”
“You´re excused.”
“It was just a one night thing, buttercup.” The tall blond giant approached her. “Kody, my man, just needed to find some relief and you crossed his path. Nothing else.”
“Xander! Shut up!”
“Come on, Killian. We all know Kody just slept with her to get his rocks off.” This time the raven-haired giant spoke. “You´re just another notch on his post”
“Enough, Micah! You can´t just let her believe that, Kody!” The young man was clearly angry with the rest, but they just ignored him and Kody approached her, but the moment he tried to touch her she flinched away from him.
“Honey! Honey!” Her friend Amy’s unexpected appearance saved Honey from embarrassing herself in a sea of tears.
She knew what she was getting into. She had witnessed it time and time again with her friends, but she still wanted so badly to believe Kody was different. But in the end, he wasn´t, he was even worse.
“We have all been so worried about you! Claudine got hysterical when she realized you were lost!” Letting Amy hug her, Honey hid her face against her friend’s neck. “Not to mention what Nana had to say about that.”
She remembered the frail looking old lady, who happened to have an iron core and ruled his grandchildren with the air of a queen. She was probably the only person capable of dealing with her friend´s uncle shitty attitude.
Allowing Amy to guide her away from the group of men, she didn´t even glance once towards them, especially not Kody. She didn´t want to see his relief by being finally “safe” from having to put up with her any longer.
“Are you all right?” Her friend finally seemed to realize that something was wrong.
“Yes, just a little shaken by the entire thing,” Honey mumbled. “I had no idea there were bears this close to the house.”
“You saw a bear?” Amy´s steps faltered as she asked.
“Yes! He was huge and so beautiful … his fur was copper.” Despite scaring her half to death, the bear she saw was truly an impressive specimen, obviously strong and healthy. She had wanted to touch his fur and see if it was as soft as it had looked.
“They sometimes get curious about new smells,” Killian quickly explained, “but he specially would never hurt you. He´s familiar with us. Knows we would never hurt him.”
If Honey thought the explanation was a little odd, she didn´t mention it but simply nodded and allowed her friend to guide her away from all of them. She didn´t want to be close to Kody.
They were a few meters away when they hear it. A roar, an angry roar soon followed by others, and the sound of bodies crashing against trees. Stunned, she almost turned around and walked back to the cave, but Amy stopped her.
“Bears need to fight things out when they disagree.”
“But …”
“They do it from time to time. Don´t worry.”
But Honey didn´t feel any better, and by the time they got back to the cabin, she was in tears and Amy had to prepared her one of her calming herbal teas and settled her in her Nana´s bed while she went to get the old woman. They needed a solution and quickly if what she had finally smelled on her friend was any indication of how things were going to be the next few days. Easter was two days away. The last thing they needed was some grumpy ass bears destroying all their hard work.
4
Kody smashed Xander one last time against a giant tree, but only released his death grip on him when the enforcer exposed his neck showing submission. He wanted blood. Needed it. He couldn´t believe what had happened!
“You do know she´s the innocent party here, right brother?” Killian seemed to be even more upset about the entire the situation.
“You know how we feel about humans, Killian.”
“I do? Because I´m quite sure mom and dad never mentioned anything against having a human mate.”
“Humans killed our parents! Don´t you forget it, boy!”
“Go and fuck yourself, Micah! I remembered it every day!” Pulling his shirt up, he exposed the long scar along the right side of his torso, the result of a hunter´s trap. “I saw my parents die that day and if it weren´t for Kody, I would have suffered the same fate.”
“Then, you understand.”
“I understand shit! You´re scared because humans feel a different the mate pull than us.” Killian was beyond pissed “In the end, you´re all a bunch of cowards. You talked and talked about mates but now that one had finally arrived, and just because she´s human, you go all bear on her. Morons!”
“Killi….”
“No! I don´t want to hear anything you have to say unless it involves you going to get her and claim her because…” Suddenly his eyes opened wide. “You already did it! And you let her go? Are you out of your fucking mind? She´s human! She won´t understand what´s h
appening to her!”
Without saying anything else, he dashed through the woods, in a hurry to get to the Lapin´s cabin. If they were lucky, he would get there in time to do some damage control, at least until his brother unstuck his thick head from his ass and realized the gift he has been given.
“Are you sure you are feeling better, Honey?” Nana Daphne had been mothering her since Amy brought her back from wherever she might have been.
“Yes. I´m fine. I took quite a tumble down the slope, but nothing got broken,” she answered to the woman´s repeated querying. To be honest, Honey was beginning to worry because she seemed unable to stand still for more than a few minutes. So, after trying everything else, the old lady finally suggested they could go and finish hanging the colored eggs from the trees.
“They are all so beautiful,” she whispering gently, caressing one with the tip of her finger.
“It´s an old family tradition. Each and every single one of them has the key to a little surprise in them,” Nana explained. “It´s how we share our blessings.”
“You just wait and see tomorrow when the Easter Hunt begins.” Amy laughed at some distant memory. “We are all adults up to that moment.”
Both women laugh while they told her some of their fondest memories. The seemed to be so close, and Honey yearned for that. Losing her parents four years ago was hard on her, especially because they were all the family she had left.
“Don´t you worry, Honey. You´ll soon have a family of your own. A loving husband and arms full of cubs.”
“Cubs? Like bear cubs?” Stunned, she tried to find the reason for that use of words.
“Kit, cub, it´s the same thing. A baby is a baby,” Nana said, waving her hand around, dismissing the comment as if it had no relevance. “I was told that Kody Cavanaugh was quite taken with you.”
Blushing, Honey was at a loss for words. Kody had just wanted an easy lay, and she had obliged by behaving like a complete slut, opening her legs for him after just a few kisses. Mumbling something incomprehensible, she turned around and was hanging another egg when a huge figure rushed out of the woods.
A Paranormal Easter: 14 Paranormal & Fantasy Romance Novellas Page 7
