The Bear's Home

by Emilia Hartley

  Felicity hiked her shoulders. “Yeah, pretty much.”

  “You are so weak.”

  “What’s weak is letting that asshole get away. Who was he, anyway?”

  “My great-uncle, kinda sorta. Or so he says.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “You know, the two of you look a little alike, but you smell alike, too. That must be why you didn’t know he was stalking you.”

  “That could be.” Thorn’s eyebrows knitted in thought. “He turned my father. My father stole my mother away from him.”

  Felicity moved closer, putting a hand on his chest. “She’s still alive, Thorn.” She spelled out some of what Oscar had learned, and suspected.

  “I gathered that from the way the asshole tried to kill me.” He folded his arms, the memory of the psycho bear’s words lingering. “He’s got my charm. He’s stuck healing at a human rate until he can take it off under the full moon. But it’s the only thing that kept Sally from going full tilt mad-bear-in-heat on us.”

  “I can handle her,” Felicity said. “No way is anything coming between me and my bear again. Not even my own stupid greed.”

  He put his hands on her shoulders. “Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ve always heard of love at first sight, but never thought much of it. Probably because I’d never been in love before. But it’s true. Even in the crappy bar, I knew there was something special there. Maybe I’m just screwing this up.”

  “You’re saying you fell in love with me from the moment you first saw me?”

  He nodded. “That’s more succinct.”

  Felicity dropped her eyes. “Me, too, I think. I tried to escape it, tried to carry on like I didn’t need you. I feel like I didn’t come here by chance.”

  “The stars aligned, and we were brought together,” Thorn said.

  She raised her eyes again. “Yeah, like that. That’s beautifully put.”

  “Or totally fucking crazy.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Felicity walked outside and retrieved her briefcase. It was ruined. The deeds inside were still fine. She brought them back into the trailer, and handed them to Thorn.

  He didn’t take them.

  “I want you to keep them.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t need them. I need you.”

  “I need us,” he said. “All my life, I’ve been doing things the hard way, and I didn’t even know it until I met you. So hold onto them. For us. It’s funny. If I had tried to fight this asshole by myself, I’d be a bearskin rug by now. If you hadn’t shown up and kicked the shit out of Sally, I wouldn’t have gotten the shotgun away from that asshole. If the wolves hadn’t shown up, Sally would’ve kicked my naked ass. Why are the wolves being so nice to me, anyway?”

  “Maybe they figured out they had a good thing going with you as the apex.”

  “Maybe someone gave them a talking to.”

  “Maybe.” Felicity bit her lower lip and put the documents in the muddy case. “You forgive me for not really swindling you?”

  “Yep.” He put his hands on his hips. “You forgive me for not really cheating on you?”

  She lowered her voice, imitating him. “Yep.”

  “Do you feel weird talking like this, pretty much naked with an unconscious naked woman on the kitchen floor?”

  “Totally.” Felicity studied the trailer. “We should drop the bartender off and go to my place.”

  “Your place?”

  “It kinda looks like a cougar, three bears and a pack of wolves thrashed this trailer.”

  Thorn shrugged with his eyebrows. “My place kinda sucks right now. I do have lunchmeat and bread in the car.”

  “Where’s your truck?”

  “I butt-fucked it with a tree.”

  “Why do I believe you?”

  “Because you love me?”

  Felicity dropped the case on the floor and stepped into Thorn’s arms. “I am totally, absolutely, and definitely against my better judgement, in love with you, Lumberjack.”

  His eyes held hers. “I’m in love with you, too.”

  They came together in a kiss. Thorn felt his rod responding. He held her tightly, kissed her more firmly. She responded with breathless sounds and nails in his neck.

  “We can probably pull off a quickie before Sally wakes up,” he whispered.

  Felicity whispered back. “Just so you know, if you’re hoping she wakes up and joins us for a threesome, I’ll castrate you first.”

  “Let’s drop her off on the way to your place, then.”

  ***

  Three hours later, they lay together under Felicity’s satin sheets, panting in the afterglow of having made love.

  “Y’know, I don’t think there’s any reason the territory couldn’t have two apex predators,” Thorn said into her hair.

  “You don’t mean you and that asshole—do we even know his name?”

  “I never got it. I think it might be Asshole.” He snuggled closer to her, spooning. “But that’s not what I meant. I meant you and me. Bears and cougars don’t compete for the same stuff.”

  “I prefer the term mountain lion. Cougar sounds like I’m old.”

  “Puma?”

  “Hell, no. That sounds like some gross condition boys get during puberty.” Felicity lowered her voice and dragged out the words. “‘I can’t play basketball this year coach, I got puma.’”

  Thorn chuckled. “Mountain lion it is then.”

  Felicity rolled over. Even in the dark, her eyes were bright. “This might sound stupid and girly, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt so happy.”

  “Well then put a bra on me backwards and call me Cindy Lou. Nothing has made me as happy as falling in love with you.” Thorn smiled, and then let his face fall into seriousness. “I mean it.”

  Later, Thorn lay awake, staring out at the dim city lights below Felicity’s high windows. Lost in the darkness beyond were his mountains, out of sight, but within his heart.

  He was happy. There were still a lot of things to take care of. Training Sally to be a shifter, and to stop trying to hump his leg; getting rid of Uncle Crazy Bear once and for all; perhaps even tracking down his mother.

  But for now, he drifted off to sleep, content. He had everything he needed. Wolves backing him up, the most beautiful country in the world where he could run free, and the cat he loved next to him in bed.

  Thank you!

  I really hope you enjoyed reading The Bear’s Home! If you enjoyed my book, I’ve got great news for you! I’ve included tons of bonus material for you! You don’t want to miss them. Flip to the next page to begin book 1 of the Fated Dragons Series.

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  Mated to the Dragon

  Emilia Hartley

  Chapter One

  Dakota flipped through the school’s flyer more times than she could count on the ten hour flight. There were only so many clouds she could bear to look at beyond the window. After browsing the highlights of the Art History program of Bangor’s University for the millionth time, she sighed and tossed it to the empty seat beside her. At least she’d gotten lucky in that regard.

  The person beside her had gotten a free upgrade to first class. She didn’t complain. As a college student, just having the extra bit of space to spread out felt luxurious. She hadn’t been raised with much. Both of her parents worked overtime through her childhood to put clothes on her back and food on the table. College had been a distant dream for her as a child, a thing that even in youth she knew that her
family could not afford.

  Then, in high school, she got her very first job. Every penny she earned while serving pizza to the kids in her class went into savings. She was determined to reach her dream, to go to school, and escape the grind that her parents seemed doomed to endure. She began with community college. Then, with scholarships and loans that made her cringe when she signed, Dakota took the plunge and applied to universities.

  When the grant to study Welsh art and architecture abroad nearly fell into her lap, she took it without a second thought. She’d worked so hard through her childhood and teen years that she wanted to do something that she desperately loved for the rest of her life and during a school field trip, Dakota realized that meant curating art for museums. She loved the almost religious air that filled museums, the wonder and awe as she moved from collection to collection. The study abroad program was a huge step in that direction for her, a new adventure that would look beautiful on her resume. She hadn’t been thinking about what else the world had to offer, what she should have been afraid of.

  Her eyes fell on the book thrown atop her backpack. She frowned. Her mother bought it for her when Dakota announced that she’d been accepted for the study program in Wales. She knew what lived in the Snowdonia territories, as did the rest of the world after the Occurrence.

  Dragons.

  The massive beasts that resided in Wales were masters of fire. They had born more than a few legends in Welsh myth, ones that Dakota had familiarized herself with only so that she’d have a leg up in her studies. Not because she was curious about the beasts that could take the form of humans, mostly men with violence in their eyes and tension in the muscles that could easily crush her thin frame.

  The day before she boarded the plane, Dakota’s mother had gifted her with the book. Dakota had felt a lump grow in her throat as she looked at it. Dragon Men and Their Urges was written across the cover. Bea, Dakota’s mother, had opened it right to the chapter on self-defense and escape should she run into one of the dragons.

  “Mom.” She’d snapped the book shut. “The school has a policy to protect the students from abroad. If a student should come across a dragon at all they’re forced to pack up and are sent on next plane home so that they aren’t in any danger. Besides, I did my research. There hasn’t been a reported dragon shifter sighting in Bangor in years. You have nothing to worry about.”

  Her mother hadn’t looked convinced at all, shaking her hands with worry. Dakota assured her that it was the very last thing she wanted, reminding her mother that she would likely be spending all her time sequestered in museums and crumbling castles. That had been the thing that convinced her mother to let her go. She did know her own daughter after all. Or, at least that’s what she told herself.

  Dakota wasn’t going to let anyone ruin her chance to see the world. She’d dreamed about visiting castles and rolling hills all her life, etching their lines in a moleskin journal so that she could keep them close. She’d be damned if she let anyone take this chance away from her, mother or dragon man.

  Now, Dakota reached out and picked up the book that her mother had purchased and flipped it open to a random page. A sloppily drawn dragon graced the page with wings spread in clumsy flight, flanked by text that described a dragon male’s urge to find a mate. It described how the dragons often used their human forms to take human mates, despite the availability of the opposite sex in their race.

  Once the author started to theorize about traditions of kidnapping and Stockholm syndrome in days past, Dakota shut the book and flipped it over. The author’s face grinned back from above the synopsis. His thick mustache made her think of Tom Selleck, but the author’s eyes were dark and serious, giving him an air of commanding authority. Below the photo was the symbol of the Order of the Guardians of Existence, better known as GOE these days.

  GOE was the only force that stood between humanity and the dragons. They were briefly covered during Dakota’s global history class in high school, expanded upon in college if only barely. GOE had existed since the time of knights. Back then, they were only a few, but with time they spread across the earth. In the mid 1900’s when Dragons were forced into the light, the Guardians were the ones that stepped up to defend the humans from the beasts. Since then, the UN has worked closely with the Guardians to ensure that peace and, sometimes, justice remained between human and dragons.

  A voice chimed over the communication system above Dakota’s head. Through crackling static, the voice claimed that they were preparing for descent. Dakota’s stomach lurched in excitement for the drop in altitude. The clouds parted outside her window and a foreign city appeared. She couldn’t stop the silly smile that crossed her face as she looked outside the window.

  The plane lurched and jumped, finally touching ground. Soon, she would be taking her first step in another country, a whole new world. She had gone from a girl with nothing to finally being able to see her dream on the horizon.

  ***

  After the short bus ride to Bangor University, all the study abroad students had been herded into an introductory seminar. Dakota chose a seat toward the back and flipped open her black, moleskin journal. The pencil fit between her fingers like it belonged there. She studied the profile of a guy a few rows ahead of her. His fair hair launched like a wave over his forehead and his nose sloped up to meet it at the very tip. The pencil scratched those striking lines into her journal while she waited for the seminar to begin.

  She had not been expecting to see a familiar face walk across the stage. The man with the thick mustache on the book her mother had given her strode out before the assembled students. A close-lipped smile was pasted on his lips, but his eyes were still dark. His gaze swept over the crowd. Dakota thought that his gaze had lingered on her a little too long. She shook her head. There was no reason for something like that. She was simply exhausted from her flight. It was so much earlier here than it was back home.

  Professors that Dakota recognized from the website followed the man out onto the stage. A man wearing a tweed vest stood back with his hands in his pockets, his eyes hidden behind the glare on his narrow glasses. A woman followed them out. Her gray streaked hair was tied back into a braid that flowed over her shoulder. Perhaps it was the distance between them, but the woman appeared too young to have graying hair already. She lowered herself into a folding chair and glared at the back of the Guardian’s head as if it was personal.

  Before Dakota could wonder what the Guardian had done to piss her off, the man launched into his speech.

  “Welcome to the University at Bangor!” His voice boomed through the room, his hands thrown into the air to encompass them all. “While we know that you all came here to devote your time to your studies, there are other things that we must address today.

  “As many of you know, Bangor is dangerously close to the territory of Snowdonia, the home of the Welsh Dragons. These dragons have a long history with the people of Wales and might see themselves as their protectors, but they are still predators. No matter how glamourous you think they are, keep in mind that if provoked, they can kill you with very little effort.

  “We advise all women travelling this semester to remain within the city limits, if not on Campus altogether. Dragons have always had a desire to steal young women away from their lives and keep them for their own as if they were property.”

  Dakota heard the words that the man was speaking, but her eyes were drawn to the woman behind him. Clearly under the impression that no one was watching her, she mocked him by dramatically mouthing his words every now and then with her arms crossed over her chest. She stopped once she realized that one of the students was watching her. Their eyes met and the woman began to nervously chew on her lower lip.

  Dakota dropped her gaze, but her pencil picked up and started to trace the lines of the professor’s face. She racked her memory to place the professor. She knew that she’d seen her face at one point in time. That was it, she was the history professor. Dakota was sur
e that she had at least one class with the woman during her semester. It made her wonder why she thought the man’s warnings were garbage. What did she know that no one else did?

  Or, was she simply crazy? One of those women who fantasized about being taken away by the dragons. There were claims every so often that women had been kidnapped by the dragon men. Usually, those stories boiled down to grabs for attention or wives that simply left their husbands in the middle of the night. Dragons didn’t kidnap women anymore, if they ever did at all.

  Dakota found herself dreading her upcoming class with the female professor. She didn’t want the woman to wax poetically about dragons for hours a week when she should be teaching history.

  The man in the tweed jacket stepped forward, thanked the man from the Guardians and took the podium. “This conversation is purely for legal purposes. The chances that any of you will run into one of the dragon shifters is slim to none. They have not been seen off the territories for more than two decades.”

  Behind him, the woman snorted and looked away. No one paid her any attention the whole time.

  “The dragons near Bangor University have not been involved in violence anywhere in or around the city. None of you have anything to worry about while you study here. Now that that is out of the way, we can move on to your studies.”

  The students were introduced to the heads of the departments they’d be studying in. The head of the art department was a woman with long blond hair that fell in waves and reminded Dakota of the paintings of Aphrodite on the shell. She spoke with a soft voice and was entirely forgettable to Dakota.

  It wasn’t until the woman with the gray streaked braid stood that Dakota found herself rapt. She introduced herself as Makenna Llewelyn, the head of the History department as Dakota had known.

  “I know that not all of you are here to study history, but tomorrow I am hosting a trip to see some of the old castles that are still standing near the city. If that is the kind of thing that interests you then you are more than welcome to join me in my adventure.”