Bear-ly Loved

by M. L. Briers

  Bonnie noted the small movement that Karl made and kicked the door closed in his face. She dropped the bat from her shoulder and started snapping on bolts once more…

  “I somehow don’t think that’s going to keep the big guy out if he wants in…” Jenny said, stalking over towards the bottles of booze on the side cabinet and reaching for a bottle of Scotch.

  “It’s better than nothing…” Bonnie said, able to take a reasonable breath in as she turned back into the room, and placed her back to the door.

  “I say we get poop faced…” Jenny announced, holding up the bottle by the neck, and trying to shrug off the last fifteen minutes of her life.

  “I hear that…” Bonnie agreed with a nod. She pushed off with her backside from the door and started towards the sofa.

  Then she turned in place and dropped her backside down against the cushions like a dead weight.

  “I take it back,” Jenny offered, considering her words. “Living in the countryside isn’t dull at all.”

  Bonnie opened her mouth to speak, but there were no words that came readily to mind – at least, none that she was willing to repeat. She closed her mouth and dropped her head back against the sofa on a huff.

  Why is life conspiring against me?

  CHAPTER NINE

  ~

  With the laptop still open on the coffee table from hours of internet research, and both Jenny and Bonnie face down on the sofa sleeping – the sound of a heavy thud against the front door startled both of them from sleep…

  “They’re trying to get in…” Bonnie placed her palms down on the cushion and pushed upwards.

  The bright sunlight hit her square in the eyes and she groaned out a promise never to drink that much Scotch again, as she fought with her own body to get up from the sofa…

  “I think both men would just have to sneeze at that door, and it would come off its hinges.” Jenny bit down on her need to groan at the thudding against her temple … she was going to stick to beer from that moment on.

  “What?” Bonnie called, snatching up the bat from where it had rested against the coffee table all night, and walking a less than perfect line towards the front door.

  “I have coffee and cakes from Ma’s…” Bailey’s melodic tones reached deep inside of Jenny’s brain and his words snapped her awake…

  “Coffee…” she practically begged Bonnie as the woman turned a look of disbelief on her…

  “I suppose if you drink enough of it you can replace your blood with coffee and you won’t have to worry about your mate taking a bite,” Bonnie shot back.

  “That sounds good …” Jenny tried to shake off the thudding inside her head. “The coffee, not the bite, although…”

  “Hush…” Bonnie berated her, tapping her index finger against her ear and then pointing towards the front door…

  Jenny shrugged. Bailey being a vampire didn’t bother her as much as it bothered Bonnie – and neither thing bothered Bonnie as much as having a shifter mate…

  “It doesn’t matter how quietly I say it, Bon, he’s gonna hear me anyway,” Jenny said as she pushed up to her knees on the sofa and rolled her head on her neck to try to unstiffen her muscles.

  “Yes, I am, and the cinnamon coffee’s getting cold…” Bailey said, and Bonnie rolled her eyes in her head at her friend.

  “It had to be cinnamon…” she muttered, as her friend practically tripped over her own feet, making a beeline for the door. “You’d sell your own grandmother for a cinnamon coffee, wouldn’t you?”

  “Yes…” Jenny offered back, snapping off the locks with glee and grateful anticipation of that coffee…

  “Fine,” Bonnie shrugged, swinging the bat up and against her shoulder. “Just don’t invite him in.”

  When Jenny wrenched open the door; Bailey used his hand to waft the tantalising aroma right at her…

  “You can’t come in,” Bonnie bit out; just as Jenny sounded as if she was having a mini orgasm in her doorway.

  “Someone fell off the sofa on the wrong side this morning,” Bailey offered her a grin and she sneered back at him.

  “Where’s Lurch?” Bonnie shot back, looking around the vampire for his sidekick.

  “Ah, how sweet – you missed him already,” Bailey chuckled at her expense, but Bonnie was in no mood to play the vampire’s game. She offered him an old fashioned look. “He’s actually naked at the back of your property.”

  Bonnie’s head snapped back on her neck and she blinked twice before her eyes darted around the area, trying for rational thought and yet finding nothing…

  She couldn’t say the image of Karl butt naked in her mind was anything but warmth promoting – because something had certainly rushed to turning up the heat inside of her, but she had to wonder at it.

  “Why?” Was all that she managed to push out.

  “Shifters are shifty, and the bear has been patrolling around your property all night…”

  “Why?” Bonnie said again.

  “A woman of few words. I like it,” Bailey offered with his tone dripping with sarcasm, but the look that Bonnie gave him made him clear his throat and continue anyway. “Protection duty. Bears … do that.”

  “Do they now?” Bonnie shot back.

  She couldn’t say that the idea of someone looking out for her wasn’t a nice one, a good one, and something that might just make her sleep easier in bed of a night … and yet, it was also kind of freaking weird to think that a bear was out there prowling…

  “Yes, yes they do, and you need to get used to the idea, because Karl isn’t going anywhere with you being his mate.”

  The vampire looked back to his own mate, who seemed to be debating reaching out and just snatching the coffee from the carrier in his hand. Bailey held it out towards her and watched her eyes light up as her hand shot out and snatched a cup.

  “Thanks,” Jenny brightened.

  Then she lifted the cup to her nose and sniffed – there was another mini-orgasmic sound that caught in her throat and Bonnie shot her a sideways glare as the vampire cleared his throat once more…

  “Sounds … tasty…” Bailey grinned and his mate batted her long eyelashes at him. Bonnie groaned long and hard. “I have one for you,” Bailey offered Bonnie a cup and she turned her nose up at it.

  “Thanks, my affections can’t be bought,” Bonnie assured him.

  “Then Karl really has his work cut out for him in the wooing department, doesn’t he?”

  “There’s not going to be any wooing…” Bonnie assured him.

  “I beg to differ…” Bailey offered back, and then he nodded his head towards the side of the house. “Here comes the bear now.”

  Bonnie’s face dropped at the thought of having a big bear prowling up towards the door, but in the moment of sheer panic that it took her to decide to slam the door and batten down the hatches… Karl, the man, appeared next to Bailey…

  Bonnie wasn’t sure if she was disappointed or not. A part of her had rushed to panic over coming face to face with the man’s bear, but she’d never seen a bear up close and personal, and not one that was tame enough not to kill her … and then there was the whole him not being naked thing … she’d been kind of curious about that as well.

  “Ah, the look of disappointment…” Bailey’s grin widened and his eyes were teasing. “I’m not sure if it’s because you’re you, or because you’re fully clothed…” Bailey watched Bonnie snap her eyes on him…

  Butthole vampire … she thought.

  So what if I wanted to see his bear…

  So what if I wanted to see him naked…

  He doesn’t have to point it out to the whole damn world…

  “Hmm, fifty –fifty,” Bailey said with glee and Karl grunted at the man before he turned his sole attention on his mate.

  “He reads minds,” Karl warned his mate and watched the colour deepen in her cheeks until they were practically glowing.

  Bonnie shot him a nervous gaze and his heart kicked h
is ribs, and his palms suddenly grew sweaty just at the sight of her eyes on his…

  “Morning…” Karl said for want of something more…

  “Well,” Bailey announced, turning his attention towards his mate. “As I’m not allowed in, want to come out and have a morning picnic with me?”

  “I…” Jenny shot a quick look at Bonnie and the woman rolled her eyes in her head once more.

  “Don’t look at me, it’s your blood…” Bonnie bit back.

  “Ok,” Jenny said quickly with a shrug as she started out the door.

  Bailey snatched up one cup of coffee and offered the other two and one box of cakes towards Karl.

  “Feed the bear,” the vampire said and Karl shot him a glare. “Both of them.” He turned his eyes towards Bonnie and she sneered back at him once more.

  Karl took what was offered from the man, before the vampire lifted his elbow and offered his arm to his mate, and she giggled as she took it.

  “Now what?” Bonnie asked, and Karl looked down at his hands – then he shrugged…

  “I guess it would impolite not to eat?” He said.

  “Is there any danger of you shifting into your bear in my living room?” Bonnie asked, turning her head and giving him a sideways, curious look.

  Karl grinned. Then he shook his head…

  “No, I can control my beast…” he assured her, but Bonnie didn’t look too assured.

  “Beast…?” She said, raising her eyebrows high on her head and swallowing down hard.

  Karl could have kicked himself for his choice of words.

  “My bear is tame, tamer even around his mate,” Karl assured her, and her eyes flicked up and down his body as she mulled that one over. Then she gave a single nod…

  “Ok then … you can come in,” she said. “Don’t make me regret it.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  ~

  Bailey was on unfamiliar ground. He’d found the mate that he’d been searching many lifetimes to find, but now that he had her; he wasn’t exactly sure what to do with that.

  The woman was feisty and not exactly a shrinking violet, and she didn’t seem to have a problem with the fact that he had a taste for blood … but that was before the stupid bear had declared her to be his mate, and before he actually unsheathed his fangs.

  He knew that things like that could be changed in a heartbeat when a human was actually faced with the real life vampire and not some romanticised version from a movie.

  He was tempted to read her mind, and yet, now that he knew who she was to him – it felt like a step too far. One that he should only implement if wooing her proved to be too difficult or if he was in danger of losing her altogether.

  The fact that Jenny was human was a challenge that he could overcome. He hoped that eventually, he could persuade her to let him change her – a forever mate didn’t work so well for a vampire unless it truly was forever and not the lifespan of the average human.

  “So, I guess you’d rather be drinking blood than coffee?”

  Bailey had the cup to his lips, but he hesitated to drink it. He could honestly say that he’d been taken back by her question.

  He eyed her thoughtfully for a long moment before he said anything.

  “You like getting straight to the point. I like that.”

  He did. It was refreshing, most people were cagey around him – not sure if he was going to take a bite at any moment or not.

  Most weren’t sure if they should mention the word blood for fear he would suddenly become ravenous at the sound of the word – like the constant beating of a pulse wasn’t enough to get his taste buds craving the red stuff…

  “The pointy fang point,” she grinned back at him, and he liked that her eyes were smiling too.

  She didn’t look nervous of him, and he didn’t feel any negative emotions coming from her.

  Both of those were a plus in his book, but again, the proof was in the pudding, and she’d yet to be confronted by his fangs.

  “Do you want to see them?” He lowered the cup and wiggled his eyebrows at her, a smirk on his lips, and more nerves than he’d felt in a very long time within him.

  “Not right now,” she wiggled her eyebrows back and he had to chuckle at her antics.

  The woman was bold and daring – not the usual run of the mill human that he met, but then – she was his mate. She’d have to have something of a backbone and not intimidate a shrinking violet in order for them to be truly a match by fate.

  “You don’t seem too worried to know that you have a vampire mate.”

  He was more than curious by her attitude. She’d either known a vampire before … was a vampire groupie … or maybe she wanted to be one.

  He wasn’t sure that he liked any of the above.

  “I read up on vampires last night,” she shrugged.

  “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. We’re not all good guys that rush in to save the maiden in distress,” he offered back and she snorted a chuckle.

  “I read both sides of the coin,” she assured him.

  “So, you know what being a mate to me means?”

  “I think I’ve got a good idea,” she replied before she took the time to sip her coffee, and he watched her truly savour the taste…

  He knew that he’d feel that exact same way that she was feeling whilst drinking that coffee when he tasted her blood, and he didn’t want his mind going off in that direction. His length was already rock hard and aching just by being in her presence, and he didn’t need to be any more uncomfortable around her…

  Then there was the problem of how good her scent was. He was slightly distracted by the fact that his damn fangs were bordering on elongating every time he stopped concentrating on keeping them at bay…

  “From the … internet.”

  “Yes.”

  “Hardly.”

  “Enlighten me then.”

  That sounded like something of a challenge, and the smirk on her lips goaded him a little. He didn’t want to scare her – it was too soon in their relationship for that.

  “The supernatural world mates for life…”

  “Not witches.”

  “Ok, most of the supernatural world – the cool ones…”

  “I think witches are pretty cool.”

  “Do you know any?”

  “No.” she shrugged again.

  “Then best you meet the little zap happy muppets before you make a statement like that.”

  “Especially once you turn me into a vampire?” She asked, and it sounded so innocent to his ears that he almost choked on his own tongue at the thought of it.

  “I…” He was truly at a loss for words. His eyebrows drew downwards and he stared back at her.

  He couldn’t believe that she wasn’t screaming and running for the safety of the cabin that she knew would keep him out…

  “So, that bit is true,” she said with another shrug.

  “It’s not … untrue,” he offered, trying to choose his words carefully.

  “Does the bite hurt?”

  “You mean when I feed?”

  “Drink my blood…” she offered in what had to be the worst Transylvanian accent that he’d ever heard in his life, and he’d heard a lot. Say vampire and someone had to mimic Vlad…

  “Yes, and no…”

  “So, yes when you sink your fangs into my vein, but no once you start feeding…?”

  Bailey had to hold on with everything that he had to keep his fangs from pushing down. She’d created that image within his mind and if he wasn’t careful then he might just be lost to it.

  “That about covers it…” Bailey tried to shake that image off.

  “Is this bothering you?” She teased.

  “A little temptation is never a bad thing…”

  “How little is little?” Her eyes dropped to the bulge in his jeans, and he cocked an eyebrow back at her in surprise.

  “I think we’re going to get along just fine…” he grinned.
/>
  “That depends how little it is…” she teased back.

  ~

  ~

  ~

  “I know I make you nervous…” Karl tried to keep as much of the bass from his voice that a rumbling growl in his chest would provide, but it was damn hard to keep his bear side at bay when he was faced with his mate and in such close proximity.

  Especially when that bear wanted out to claim their mate.

  “Not … nervous,” Bonnie offered back.

  “Worried.”

  “Not…” Bonnie sighed. She didn’t even like to share her feelings with Jenny, even though the woman had been by her side through thick and thin. “A little apprehensive.”

  “Worried…” he nodded.

  “Fine, have it your way…” Bonnie wasn’t about to argue the toss with him over a word.

  “Jenny said that you weren’t fond of men…”

  “Oh, Geez….” Bonnie rolled her head on her neck and her eyes away from where he was sitting on the sofa opposite her.

  She muttered something under her breath that even he couldn’t hear, but he had a good idea what she was saying.

  “She didn’t tell me why…” Karl assured her.

  “Oh … good.”

  Bonnie was on the defensive and he knew that he’d hit a raw nerve. He needed to make that right before she tossed his backside out of the cabin, but he also needed to know what she was so afraid of.

  He couldn’t make it better if he didn’t know what the problem was, and it was his job to make everything better for her.

  Karl wasn’t sure that he could be that man – that mate – not considering the upbringing that he’d had with his father, but he wanted to try.

  He didn’t think he knew what love was – having barely been loved by anyone his whole life. Although, he did know what it was supposed to mean, but maybe that idea along with how he’d imagined his life to have been if his mother had lived, was all just in his cotton filled head.

  His father had barely any love in his heart for him after his mother had died. The man had been as hard as nails and Karl guessed he hadn’t been the easiest child to raise alone – the constant fights – the attitude problem that his father like to constantly reference … he was pretty unlovable…