A Slice of Honeybear Pie (BWWM Paranormal BBW Bear Shifter Romance) (Bearfield Book 1)

by Jacqueline Sweet

  “I’ll get you another one,” Matt warned.

  “They don’t make them anymore. Limited edition, homes.”

  “Then I’ll get one off eBay. We have more important things to worry about than your ironic bear shirts.” He turned to Mina. “We need to get you some place safe. There will be more of them. Much more.”

  “What do I do with this guy?” Michael asked, poking the unconscious goon with a toe.

  “Hold him some place safe. We can turn him over to the authorities once we deal with his boss.”

  Michael nodded, then picked up the thug with one hand, slinging him over his shoulder like a bag of laundry before walking down through his junkyard, through the fence, and down a hidden path into the bones of the mountain.

  “Do you trust me?” Matt turned to Mina. “I need to know.”

  “He shot you.”

  “Yes.”

  “Did he miss?”

  “No.”

  “Does it hurt?”

  “Not even a little.”

  “Are you going to hurt me?”

  “Never. I swear by the sleeping fathers of the rock, I will never hurt you, Mina.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  Chapter 4

  Bearly Made It

  “How does this work? You just like flex and change?”

  Mina was trying to understand, but her mind didn’t want to. It was like grasping at smoke. The idea of a man who was also a bear, it was preposterous and yet she’d seen it with her own eyes. Or had she? After the junkyard attack they’d driven straight to Matt’s house, the big man taking the curves of the mountain at breakneck speed. He could do that. He grew up there. Mina wanted to know more, to discuss what had just happened, but Matt made it clear he couldn’t talk when he was being very careful about not driving off the edge of the world.

  Instead she thought about Harker’s man. If one of them was here, they all were. He had dozens of goons. Bearfield wasn’t that big. They’d find her. But running wasn’t an option either. There was one road into town and one road out. They’d surely be watching both.

  Her thoughts jumped from bears to Harker to bears and back again to Harker, neither topic comfortable enough to ponder overlong. So for the rest of the ride she planned out the pie she’d bake Matt as thanks for all his help. “In fairy tales,” her mother used to say, “no one ever says I love you. They give food and they kiss. That’s what love is made of.”

  Matt’s house was nestled deep in the woods, down a long winding dirt driveway that dropped away on either side precipitously into the thick forest. Built of redwood timber, the home nearly glowed with warmth. Mina caught her breath when she saw it. It was a modern take on a log cabin, with giant windows overlooking the surrounding wilderness. It stood three stories tall, at least, with the lower level partially hidden beneath the underbrush. She’d been worried. It could have looked like Michael’s shack—indefensible and tacky and lazy. But it was as far from the tumbledown shack as could be.

  A small part of her whispered, wouldn’t it be nice to live here? To make a life here? But she pushed that hopeful thought away. She just met Matt Morrissey. It was too soon to be thinking about a life with him. The last time she’d jumped when a man called had been Harker and that was still unraveling all around her.

  “What do you think?” Matt asked, trying to hide the concern in his eyes. What was he worried about? He was a giant bulletproof bear. He’d be fine. Mina, on the other hand . . .

  “It’s gorgeous. It looks very cozy.”

  Relief washed across Matt’s face. “It’s certainly that. I’m a bear, and bears love comfort.”

  “Michael’s place didn’t look very cozy.”

  “That’s not his real home. My little brother spends more time as a bear than as a man. He has a den out back of his junkyard that’s his real home.”

  “That’s why he’s always naked,” Mina realized.

  “That is exactly why he’s always naked,” Matt agreed. “Let me show you around.”

  The tour didn’t have the air of let’s-find-a-defensible-corner that Mina had been expecting. In fact, Matt hardly seemed worried at all. Instead it felt like he was pitching her on the house, proposing something. As he showed off the bathrooms with antique Victorian fixtures supplied by his younger brother and the energy saving modifications built by his older brother, he was more like realtor than a protector. Or like a suitor. Michael had said she was his mate. He was showing off his den to his potential mate. Mina grew dizzy at the thought. She was a fat girl from the wrong side of Chicago. Girls like her didn’t get things like this. It wasn’t on the menu.

  “Tell me something,” Mina said, interrupting Matt’s honestly-not-that-interesting discussion of how he built the guest bedroom floors by hand. “You live alone.”

  “Yes?”

  “No secret wives or girlfriends or doddering old mothers around?”

  “Just me.” Matt cocked his head. “Where are you going with this line of questioning, councillor?”

  “You built a five-bedroom, six bath home by yourself in the middle of the woods.”

  He nodded. “And you want to know why a guy who lives alone builds a house this size?”

  “I do. I really do. Do you plan to sell it? Are you going to turn it into a B&B? I’m sure you could make a killing at it, though you’d need to improve that driveway. You wouldn’t want any sleep-deprived tourists rolling their cars off the edge.”

  “Could mean more business for Michael. He always needs the money.”

  “How can you afford this? It’s too big. It’s too much.” What was she doing? He was protecting her, keeping her safe at his home, but she knew he wasn’t saying everything. What if he was another Harker with devious plans? What if he wanted to make her fall in love with him just to rip the rug out from under her when he got bored with the novelty of dating a curvy girl like her?

  “My family has owned this corner of the mountain since forever,” he shrugged. “I felled my own wood with my own two hands. I worked with my brothers to plain the wood and treat it. It took a long time.” Matt leaned against the frame of the guest bedroom. The doors were all bigger than usual, built for a man of his size. They made Mina feel small in a way she found appealing. “I don’t like lying, Mina. I don’t like dancing around the truth.”

  “But you’re an attorney.”

  “I’m not a trial lawyer. I help people with their wills and deeds and that sort of thing. But look, here’s what I’m trying to say and I apologize if it freaks you out.”

  “It’s freaking me out,” Mina backed away across the bedroom. She realized there were no other exits, except the bathroom and a window with a twenty foot drop. Matt blocked her only way out of the room. He had the keys. He had her isolated in the woods, miles from anyone else.

  Matt sniffed the air and a wounded expression creased his big handsome face. It hurt Mina’s heart to see the pain so plain.

  “Let’s go down to the kitchen,” Matt said. “I can say my piece after we’ve eaten.” His belly rumbled in agreement and Mina wondered for the first time if it was his stuck or the bear inside him making the noise.

  # # #

  For a guy who didn’t know how to cook more than three things, Matt kept a well-stocked kitchen.

  “Tell me how it works,” Mina said, a giant Matt-sized sandwich clutched in her fingers. Seeing her in his home—in the home he built for her—brought an electricity to Matt’s blood. He wanted to impress her. He wanted to charm her. But every time he started to open up, he smelled the fear explode from Mina’s skin. She was terrified, of this Harker guy, sure, but also of Matt. He needed to fix that.

  “It’s like the bear always wants to come out and I just have to let it.” He shrugged, making himself two giant sandwiches with spicy mustard and swiss cheese and lettuce and cranberry sauce. “But also if I get really angry, it comes out. Its important for us bear shifters to stay calm and happy as much as possible. It’s one of the reas
ons we all live in the country, away from crowds of people. Isolation helps. Quiet helps. Being free of the city stresses helps. But sometimes you just need to bear out and see the world through bear eyes.”

  Mina shook her head. “I still don’t understand how you can protect me. These guys have guns. Guys with guns kill bears everyday. And I’d hate for anything to happen to you, I really would.” Her eyes sparkled as she said it. When she ate, the woman glowed. Her guarded expression melted away to reveal the even more stunning Mina beneath the shield. “This is really good,” she said, nodding at the sandwich. A dab of cranberry sauce clung to her lower lip and just as Matt reached out to wipe it away, she licked the sauce and grazed his thumb with her hot little tongue. Matt felt like he’d been struck by lightning, like a circuit connecting his thumb to his now half-hard cock had been completed.

  He couldn’t wait to claim her, to mate her. Why did these gangster pricks have to get in the way?

  “I can protect you. I really can. Let me prove it to you, yeah?” The urge to show off, to perform for his mate was overwhelming. The man and the bear both craved her approval on a visceral level. Wolves might steal a mate and force themselves onto her, but a bear never would. Matt searched around his airy, expansive kitchen until he found his knife block. He selected one of the biggest sharpest knives. “Here’s a chef’s knife.”

  “It’s actually a santoku. The chef’s knife is one more slot up.”

  Matt laughed. He wasn’t used to being corrected, but he liked it. He wanted a mate who was sharp, who was intelligent, who would make him a better man, who would challenge him. He’d seen men settle for the first woman who could put up with them, the first woman who was comfortable to be around, and it never ended well. Marcus had done that, and look at how miserable he was. A man needed a partner in life, someone to force him to grow and strive and be better.

  “Just take the knife please.” Matt handed it to her like a knight presenting his sword to his king.

  “I don’t think I like where this is going.”

  “Just trust me,” Matt flashed his best smile, the one that caught everyone off guard with its warmth.

  Mina narrowed her eyes at him. “Okay, fine. What do I do?”

  Matt backed up across the room ten feet and spread his arms wide. “Throw the knife at me.”

  “What? No. No! Are you crazy?” And then Mina’s face darkened as she entertained the possibility that he might be crazy. She’d seen him bear out, but that wasn’t enough. The magic that let him change had a defense mechanism. A sort of disbelief that came when anyone saw the shift. Most people ran screaming when they saw it, but even afterwards they wouldn’t recall that Matt had changed in front of them. Their memories would be hazy, clouded by terror and magic. Mates were different though. As were any blood kin. Certain other people had a natural immunity to the terror for some reason Matt had never figured out. But even with mates, it took a gradual process of easing them into the knowledge or they’d just forget. If Matt didn’t show Mina his hidden self often enough, it’d fade away from Mina’s memory like a dream.

  “No weapon forged by man can pierce my skin or rob me of my breath,” Matt intoned with a voice like a cartoon wizard. “At least that’s what they say.”

  “I’ll aim for an arm,” Mina said. “That way if you’re crazy I at least don’t kill you.”

  “If you kill me, the house is yours though.”

  “Maybe I should aim for your head then.”

  “Please do, it won’t matter.”

  “I’m really not comfortable with this, Matt.” Hearing her say his name put a fizz in his bones. He could listen to his name on her lips for the rest of his life, especially if they were parted and slick and moaning it over and over again.

  Matt shook his head. The mating impulse was overpowering. “Wait, before you throw it let me change out of these clothes. Michael would be pissed if I got a knife wound in his Pooh Bear shirt.” He peeled off the shirt and stood half naked and exposed in front of her. Mina stared at him like he was an oncoming train.

  “Okay, throw the knife.”

  Mina stared, eyes wide. The knife dangled absently from her fingers.

  “I’m ready. Throw it!” Matt jumped up and down, excited to show off his trick. But Mina was frozen. He sniffed the air, and caught her scent. Lust, overpowering, knee-shaking lust. Her heart raced in her chest. Her breath came quick and shallow. Her pupils were dilated so that her warm brown eyes were almost entirely black. Every one of his heightened animal senses told him that she was ready to mate, that her body was making itself ready for him, that she craved everything he had to offer.

  He could take her. Right then, on the polished wood of the kitchen island, he could sweep the food to the floor and spread her open on the table. He could lick the honey from between her legs with long slow deliberate licks until her toes curled and she cried out his name. How would she sound when her pleasure took her? Would she scream or whimper? Would she moan low and deep? Would she be one of those quiet girls who came in a chirping squeak? He needed to know.

  And then Matt’s phone buzzed, breaking the spell. Goddamn technology.

  Mina looked down at the counter. “It’s Michael. He says twenty dudes came by the junkyard looking for me.”

  There was no time for mating.

  “We should run,” Mina said. “We could make our way through the woods.”

  “How long could we run for? If we stand and fight them, this ends now. If you run, it only ends when you make a mistake.”

  “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “No weapon forged can hurt me, remember?”

  Mine chewed her lip and studied the knife. “No weapon forged? So what about like a tree branch? Or a meteor? Or a really big fall?”

  Matt laughed. She was so quick, so fast on her feet. “It takes most bears weeks—if not years—to see the loophole. But yeah, I’m not invulnerable. When the ancient men who would become my ancestors made their pact with the great bear spirit, the bear promised them protection from all weapons and the man promised the bear their knowledge and cunning.” He shrugged.

  “Let me get this straight, you’re saying the entire natural world is your kryptonite?”

  “Well when you put it like that it doesn’t sound so impressive.”

  “It’s still impressive, kind of.” Mina narrowed her eyes as she thought, she rested one hand on her hip and Matt’s temperature crept up as his eyes took in her fullness again. What would it feel like to bury himself in all of that softness? To roll around and kiss and nuzzle and thrust into it? “How does the magic know? How can it know whether a tree branch was naturally sharp or sharpened to be a spear by a man?”

  “Spirits?” Matt offered with a grin and shrug. “Honestly, I don’t have the answers beyond the stories my pop-pop told me.”

  “What if you choked on like a plastic toy? I mean, it’s forged by man but not a weapon. Would it kill you or just turn to ash or what?”

  “Just throw the knife, Mina.”

  “I don’t think I want to. What if you’re crazy?”

  He fixed her with his best bear stare and let the beast into his eyes for a moment. “Throw the knife,” he growled, his voice shaking the glasses in his cabinets as if ten trucks were driving by.

  In one sharp motion, Mina hurled the knife forward. She’s a chef, Matt remembered, of course she can throw a knife. It flew straight and true at his chest at whip-crack speed. If he’d been a mortal man, he would’ve been dead. On some level, she must have believed him or she would have thrown wide. When the point of the knife harmlessly bounced off his naked chest with a whisper, whizzing off to clang against a chair, an end table, and finally the floor, Mina raced to look at him. She peered at his skin, running her fingers over his chest.

  “There’s not even a scratch.”

  “And there never will be.”

  At her touch, electricity spread across his skin.

  “Wow,” Mina said, loo
king up at him with her huge brown eyes. “Do you feel this, too?”

  “Yes,” Matt whispered, cupping her chin in his hand.

  “What’s going on?” she asked, lips parted, eyes closed, stretching on her tiptoes up to reach his lips.

  “You’re my mate, Mina. We’re destined for each other.”

  “That’s what Harker told me. Said we were fated to be together forever.”

  Matt smelled the men before he heard them. Gun oil. Saltwater. Fresh blood. He barely had time to curl himself around Mina before the front door burst in and the sound of gunfire roared in his ears. He felt the thumping of bullets against his flesh, like being struck with a hammer. He’d overstated his invulnerableness to Mina somewhat. Sure, bullets couldn’t kill him, but they still hurt like the devil.

  Chapter 5

  Bearly Survived

  In one moment, Mina went from admiring the carved muscular chest of the man protecting her, fingers tracing the stark ridges where his muscles curved and dipped, to cowering in fear under him as the world exploded around her. Splinters of wood exploded all around her. The far window shattered into a thousand points of light. All of Matt’s beautiful, probably-hand-made furniture was destroyed in an instant. Mina should have been terrified, but instead she was furious.

  How dare Harker come at her like this? She’d done everything he asked, had dieted for him, had changed her business into something cold and soulless for him, and it still wasn’t enough. The man had to find more beautiful things in the world to ruin, because he had under it all a very ugly soul.

  The gunfire stopped. The air hung thick with smoke and sawdust. The smell of the guns was improbably foul, a chokingly putrid smell that Mina hoped wouldn’t linger long. Crouched under Matt, she couldn’t see the men but she could hear footsteps. The slow clunk clunk clunk of Harker as he approached. He’d always loved these ridiculous boots with silver heels, like a cowboy who’d struck it rich and just had to show off.