His eyes strayed to the stockings and tunic hanging up by the fire. What the hell was a woman, dressed up as a Christmas Elf, doing falling from the sky? And what the hell hit him on the head? His hand involuntarily went to the scratch on his head; there was a nice lump forming there too. He’d been hit by something heavy.
He pushed his first thought away, and drowned it with another gulp of scotch. If he didn’t know better, he’d think he was on one of those hidden camera shows. It was the sort of thing his friends would think hysterical. If it weren’t for the atrocious conditions on the mountain, he’d be convinced that was what this was. Send an elf to wind up Barnabas. Make him believe his mate just fell from the sky, and into his lap.
Therein lay the rub. There was no way they could have known in advance that she was his mate. No way on earth.
Emptying the glass in one last gulp, he got up, checked Pepper was sleeping soundly, and headed to bed. He needed to sleep, and to think. He also needed to put some distance between him and his mate, or he might not be responsible for his actions. The scotch had loosened his inhibitions, and he seriously wanted to claim his mate; that side of him didn’t care that she wasn’t fully in control of her faculties. His primal side simply wanted to do what shifters do. Procreate.
***
The morning was cold, and Bas pulled the covers over his head, trying to ignore the weak sun filtering through the windows. His head thumped dully and since he didn’t have to work, he was going to sleep in.
“Shit.” Bas threw the covers off, grabbed his clothes, and dressed quickly. The ache in his head had suddenly reminded him of last night, and he had an overwhelming fear it had either all been a dream, or that Pepper would have gone, left in the middle of the night, trying to escape him, because she thought he had kidnapped her.
As he dragged on his shirt, he let his senses roam. Would he be able to tell if she were still here, in his cabin, without using his eyes? Yes.
His heart lurched. It had to be true, she had to be his mate: it was the only way to explain the connection between them. He opened his bedroom door and headed for the kitchen to get some coffee on. Then he would wake Pepper and ask if she remembered anything.
Until she did, he had promised himself he would not mention the whole fated mates thing, but instead take her down the mountain and once they reached his car, they would head for the hospital, where doctors could examine her. She’d need some of his clothes to wear, because there was no way he was taking her anywhere dressed as an elf.
But my, did she look good as an elf!
“You’re awake!” he said.
“Yes.” She held out her arms and did a twirl. “The costume fits.”
“In all the right places,” he agreed, before coughing to cover himself. “Sorry.”
He wasn’t lying, the tights clung to her curvy thighs, while the tunic was fitted and made her breasts look… He swallowed down his desire.
“Thanks. I think.” She shook her head. “I figured if I tried my clothes on, it might jog my memory. I mean, people don’t dress up as elves every day, do they?”
“You didn’t get your memory back overnight?” Bas asked, hiding his concern.
“No.” She smiled weakly and shrugged. “But I feel OK. My head doesn’t hurt. Maybe it will just take time.”
“Maybe. But we are going to get you to the hospital.” He wasn’t taking any chances, not with his mate. If she had a concussion, she needed to see a doctor. “You might have swelling on the brain.”
“Oh,” she said, putting her hand to her head. “I feel OK.”
“I’m not taking any chances.”
“Why? In case I sue you?” Pepper laughed weakly and then apologized. “Sorry. Bad taste.”
“Yes. It was. For all I know, you may have robbed a bank dressed as an elf, and made your getaway on Santa’s sleigh.” Her face fell flat. “That was a joke.”
“I know. But something in there feels familiar.”
“Feels familiar. In what way?” he asked.
“I’m not sure.”
“OK. I prescribe coffee and fresh croissants for breakfast.”
“That sounds wonderful.” She paused. “That’s one thing I do know. I like croissants.”
“It’s a start.” He put the coffee on and placed the ready-made croissants on a baking tray. It was cheating, but he wasn’t going to make them from scratch. He put them in the small oven to cook, and then said, “So what else do you like?
“I don’t know.”
“We know you like croissants. Are they your favorite food?” He poured coffee into two big mugs and handed her one, trying not to let the surreal image before him make him laugh. He was standing in his kitchen, in the middle of nowhere, with an elf.
She pressed her lips together and then licked her lips, which did strange things to his body. Elf or no elf, she stirred him in places no other woman ever had. “I like gingerbread.”
“Gingerbread, who’d have guessed?” he said. “Your favorite flower?”
“Flowers? Hmm,” she said, thinking. “I like poinsettia. And holly bushes. When their berries are red, we make them into wreaths…” She looked up at him quickly. “I remember making holly wreaths! That’s good, isn’t it?”
“It is. Now, name your favorite animal.” If she said reindeer, he’d know she was either obsessed with Christmas, or making fun of him.
She smiled. “I like bears.”
OK, that did it, he almost sprayed his coffee everywhere, but managed to swallow it down, which made him nearly choke.
“Are you OK?” she asked, concerned and then clapped him on the back to help him clear his windpipe.
“I’m fine. Wrong way.” He gasped. “Why would you say bear?”
“Oh. Because where I come from, there are polar bears.”
“Polar bears,” he repeated. This was getting weirder. “You must be a long way from home.”
“I think I am.” She nodded. “I wish I knew where that home was.”
The smell of warmed pastry filled the kitchen. Deciding not to ask any more questions until they had eaten, he took the croissants out of the oven and set them down on the small kitchen table. “Sit. Eat. Then I’ll poke my head out of the door, and see if it’s safe for us to try to go down the mountain.”
“Do we have to?” she asked. “I’m beginning to remember some things.”
“Are you?” he asked. “Or are you imprinting on that costume of yours?”
“What does that mean?” she asked with a frown.
“Everything you say you like makes it sound as if you really do believe you are an elf from the North Pole.” He set a croissant on a plate and passed it to her. “I think you need to see a doctor.”
Chapter Six – Pepper
Was she going insane? She’d answered all his questions truthfully.
Pepper sat down at the table, sipped her coffee, and picked at her croissant, which was delicious, but her appetite had faded. What was going to happen to her if she couldn’t figure out who she was?
“Eat. Drink your coffee,” Bas encouraged. “You’re going to need your strength when we walk out of here.”
“I don’t know if I want to go,” she said. Her eyes misted with tears, which she wiped away quickly. “They’ll put me in an institution. Or a circus. Hey look, here’s a Christmas Elf.” She looked down at her clothes. Why the hell had she put them back on?
“No. They won’t.” He paused, putting his half-eaten croissant down on his plate. “I want you to know, I am not leaving you. I’ll look after you.”
“You have your lawyer life to go back to. I don’t think I’ll fit into that.”
“Pepper. We’ll fit our lives together somehow…” He realized what he’d said, and closed his mouth. There was that familiar sensation he was hiding something from her.
“You said we didn’t know each other, before yesterday?”
“That’s correct,” he said, and went back to eating.
; “Then why will you help me, no matter what?”
“Because I feel responsible for you.”
“Why?” she pressed, and she was sure he squirmed in his seat. “Do you feel responsible for every waif and stray who comes your way?”
“No. And you aren’t a waif or stray. You came from somewhere and I’m going to help you figure it out.”
“Again, I’m going to ask why?” She took a mouthful of pastry and thought things over while she chewed, waiting for him to answer.
“It’s what I do. And if you don’t get your memory back, and I’m positive you are going to, then I have a friend who will make enquiries.”
“Enquiries. What is he, a PI?”
“No, he works undercover. He’s a cop. But he knows people.”
“I remember, you told me last night. What kind of people does he know?”
“Some bad people,” Bas suggested.
“And you think I’m bad?”
“No.” He looked up at her, not quite meeting her eyes. “But what if you were running from bad people?”
You had one job. The voice echoed in her head. Bas might be right, she’d had a job to do, and she’d messed up. Now bad people might be after her. “If you believe bad people are after me, then the hospital might not be the safest place for me.”
“I’m going to be with you every step of the way. I swear I won’t leave you, that I’ll protect you.” He reached out for her hand, and took it in his. Bas didn’t exactly wince, but he felt something from their connection too. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, a memory surfaced. A face, a woman and her bear. And then it was gone, like the early morning mist when the sun breaks through, and she was left with nothing, only echoes of thoughts and memories that were out of her reach.
“I believe you,” she said, nodding.
Bas relaxed, as though that was all he needed to hear from her. “Eat, have some more coffee, I’ll dig through my pack and find you something to wear.”
She looked down at her green tunic. “Why would I be dressed like this?”
“I’m going with fancy dress,” Bas said. “I think you must have been at a party, and something happened.”
“How far to the nearest house?” she asked.
He sighed. “Too far for you to have just wandered off.”
“And you honestly saw me fall from the sky?” she asked.
“I did, but I don’t think we need to tell anyone about that. In fact, I think it might be best, when we go to the hospital, if we tell them you are my girlfriend and you fell and hit your head.”
“Because there might be bad men? And we need to lie so they don’t find me.”
“Possibly.”
“But you also believe I may be crazy?” she asked.
“No, I don’t. Last night I did. But then, last night I thought I was crazy too. Today, I’m going with it’s a mystery that will have a plausible explanation.”
“I’m ready to go when you are,” she said. “Although I may eat one more croissant.”
“Go for it. I’ll get my pack.” He left the table and went to the sitting room, where she heard him rummaging around. After she’d eaten, Pepper went to join him, feeling more herself. Food and coffee had given her energy and made her more alert. The only thing it hadn’t done was give her her memory back, but she was willing to be patient.
“Here. A sweater that will go over your tunic. You can put your woolen coat on too. It’s long enough to keep you warm. I’d give you some of my pants, but they will be too big. Boots are going to be the real problem. We’ll just have to pad a pair of mine out with socks.”
“What did I have on my feet?” she asked.
He stood up from where he was repacking everything into a backpack, and raised his eyebrows. “Do you have to ask?” He dug in his pack and pulled out a pair of what looked like pixie boots, with turned-up toes.
“Wow. I really went the whole hog, didn’t I?” she asked.
“Yes. Bells and everything.” He jingled the pixie boots, then put them back in the pack before passing her three pairs of socks and a pair of walking boots. “If they don’t fit, I’ll have to carry you.”
He said it as a joke, but she couldn’t stop wondering what it would be like to being his arms, resting on his chest, as he carried her down the mountain. “Does this mean you don’t bring women here very often? Because you have no spare women’s clothes.”
He looked up sharply. “I’ve never brought a woman here.”
“Oh.” She pulled on the first pair of socks, her head bowed as she reached for the second pair. “Any particular reason?” None of your business, she chastised herself. “I mean, are you gay?”
He burst out laughing. “Is that what you’re worried about?”
“You mentioned you had friends… I assumed, since you never brought a woman here.” She looked around the small cabin. “It could be mistaken for a love nest.”
He laughed some more. “I’m not gay, although I have no problems with gay people. And the only reason I have never brought a woman here, is that I have never met the right woman.”
“Oh,” she said, keeping her head buried, since she was blushing profusely. Why was she even asking him these questions?
“You don’t know me. But I am a one-woman man. It’s one of my favorite places when I have time off. And I decided that I did not want to make any memories in this cabin, unless it was with my mate.”
The last sentence was left hanging in the air, as if he was testing her, to see if she had any idea of what he meant.
“Your mate?” she asked, a stirring in the back of her mind conjuring up a bear and a reindeer, side by side in the snow. Pepper kept her face neutral as she looked up at him. She wasn’t ready to let him know she had the shadows of memories in her head. When she had something more concrete, something she could use to work out who she was, she’d tell him.
“Yep.” He watched her, a look of hunger on his face.
“And how do you know when you meet your mate?” she asked.
“People like me. We just know.”
“People like you…” She knew what he was, without him having to say anything else. The bear in her faded memories was the same as Bas. The bear and the reindeer, they were mates, in the same way Bas and Pepper were mates. She knew it in the same way she knew the sky was blue, or the snow was cold. It was a deep knowing, a thread that connected them. It had nothing to do with her past, or her memories.
As she pulled the oversized boots on and stood up, she felt the weight of her fears evaporating. Bas hadn’t been simply trying to make her feel better. He’d been telling the truth. He would stand by her no matter what, no matter where her past pulled him, because they were meant to be together, and he had no choice in any of it.
A wave of sympathy passed over her: he was wrapped up in her life now, whether she was being chased by bad men or not. He would stand with her. But, she promised herself, she would run from him if her past put him in danger.
No matter how hard that would be for either of them.
“I’m ready.”
“Then let’s get going. The snowstorm’s passed, the sky is clear.”
“Great,” she said. But as she followed him out, walking awkwardly in his boots, she wished they could stay tucked up in his cozy cabin, and let the world pass them by.
You have one job to do. Make sure you do it right. Those words spurred her on to leave; she had to know if she had failed, and if she had, she was going to try to put things right.
Chapter Seven – Bas
“Warm enough?” Bas asked Pepper as they left the cabin.
“Yes.” She stood shielding her eyes from the bright sun, which was reflecting off the snow. “It’s beautiful out here.”
“Beautiful and deadly, if you get caught in a snowstorm. You were lucky last night.” He stepped down off the porch. The trees had kept the snow from banking up against the cabin, and if they were careful with their route, there would only be a couple
of places that would have deep drifts.
Still, they couldn’t take any chances. Stepping back on to the porch, he went to where he had a couple of pairs of snowshoes leaning against the side of the cabin. “We’re going to need these. I don’t want to take any chances.”
“Good idea.” Pepper took a pair from him and fit them over her boots. He tried not to smile at the oversized boots she wore; they were better than her pixie—no, make that elf, boots—but they made her feet look disproportionately big. “If you think I look funny, what do you think other people are going to say?”
“How did you know that’s what I was thinking?” he asked.
“I could sense your humor.” She cocked her head on one side. “Can you sense me?”
He stalled with fitting his own snowshoes. “Why would I be able to sense you?”
“Because we’re mates. Aren’t we?” She adjusted the last strap like a pro—she’d worn these before, he was sure of that—and then stood up. “It’s true.”
He could have denied it, but there seemed little point. Pepper would have to know sooner or later, and if he was going to have any control over what happened to her at the hospital, he was going to have to tell them they were more than client and lawyer, and lying wasn’t his thing.
“Yes. I knew the first time I saw you.”
“As I fell from the sky?”
Was she trying to catch him out? “Yes. I sensed something, something that made me feel off, in a weird way. Then I felt it … you, getting closer. I looked up, and there you were, and then something hit me.”
“And now?”
“Now I can tell where you are.” He stood up and came over to her. “This morning, I thought you might have left the cabin, run away from me. But I knew you were still there. I could feel you in the cabin.”
“So we’re mates?” she asked again.
He came to stand in front of her, invading her space, wanting to invade other parts of her body too. “We’re mates.” He lifted his hand and brushed her hair back off her face, feeling the coolness of her skin against his warm hand. “Do you know what that means?”
Sleighed: BBW Holiday Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Christmas Bears Book 1) Page 3
