by M. L. Briers
BEARLY CHRISTMAS
BY
M. L. BRIERS
And
A. B. LEE
Copyright © 2016, M L Briers. A. B. Lee.
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced whatsoever without written permission of the author, except for brief exerts in reviews. Any unauthorised reproduction or distribution of the material herein is illegal and may result in criminal proceedings. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to the internet or distributed via electronic or print without prior consent.
Note from the Author;
All names, places, and incidents contained herein are purely fictional and have no basis in actual events or linked to actual Humans, Witches, Vampires, Werewolves, Lycans, Werebears or persons living, dead or undead.
Copyright © 2016. Cover Design; Maisie.
Table of Contents
BEARLY CHRISTMAS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINTEEN
CHAPTER ONE
~
The snow was coming down thick and fast as Tammy huddled inside layers of clothes and trudged around the outside of the log cabin for yet more wood to keep the place warm.
She was painfully aware that she’d signed up for this – a winter wonderland of snow – snow – and more snow, but now that she was living the dream, that dream seemed like a bit of a nightmare.
She wanted out of the rat race for a while. Had decided that connecting with nature was going to be fun… hmm, she reserved judgement on that.
Tammy had come prepared. She’d stocked up with enough food to see her through the winter months of almost complete isolation, but without even a basic internet connection most days, and with nobody to talk to except herself – the grim reality of rural living was sending her slightly loopy.
She’d even imagined seeing a bear.
A bear!
Nobody had said that there were any shifters around these parts, but she guessed that some of those people might have chosen to live out in the middle of nowhere for the fun of it – or lack thereof.
She wouldn’t have blamed them for wanting to turn their back on society as a whole – after all, since coming out of the darkness a few years back, they’d managed to walk right into the spotlight of scrutiny – shifters had been pretty much hounded as a whole.
There were shifter fan clubs, shifter groupies, and the general consensus of leave the shifters alone to get on with it types of humans, but the real problems were with the people that just couldn’t accept that they’d been downgraded on the whole food chain of society thing – that there was a species of people who were stronger, faster, had healing abilities, and fur, claws, and fangs.
In her mind; if shifters wanted to take over the damn world then they would have done it already. They’d been among humans since the beginning of time – had thought to have been hunted to extinction by our medieval ancestors – and hadn’t been going around on an all you could eat human diet since re-emerging a few years ago…
Live and let live. And hey, if they did want to take over the damn world – there wasn’t much humanity could do about it.
Tammy had only ever met one shifter in her life that she knew of. The guy apparently turned into a wolf and he’d had the most startling crystal blue eyes that she’d ever seen, and he hadn’t tried to eat her – although, he had said something about her scent being off…?
Whatever that meant.
She’d spent the next few days randomly sniffing her armpits.
So, if she did have a local neighbourhood bear shifter somewhere on the mountain, as long as it kept itself to itself and didn’t try to snack on her – that was ok with her.
With her arms full of rough cut wood, she turned her snow boots back the way that she’d come and gasped in a breath at the sight of him standing there.
The man was well over six foot tall – built like a brick outhouse – and even covered with winter clothing, she could see the definite outline of muscle upon muscle stuffed into his frame.
Not exactly her type, but hey-ho.
With chocolate brown eyes that stared at her with the kind of scrutiny that she would have given to a nice prime cut of meat when she wanted to make sure that she was getting value for her money, she felt slightly intimidated. Hell, his size was enough for that without the extra layer of gawking.
Her arms dropped downwards and the wood cluttered to the snow all around her feet as she tried to still her heart rate from galloping away. He was… something of a sight to behold, especially after not seeing another living soul – or dead one – in nearly three weeks.
Everything about him screamed danger. Maybe it was just the sheer size of him – his broad shoulders – the expansive chest loaded with muscles, the way he stood with his hands fisted as his sides breathing clouds of vapour from his nose like a fireless dragon… there were just so many things to choose from, and yet, she hoped that it was just the fact that he’d startled her that set off the alarm bells.
The realisation that she was very much alone without another person for miles became suddenly even more real to her.
“I didn’t mean to scare you.” Aidan’s eyes took her in. Drank her up, and he felt the rumblings of attraction within him.
It was true that up on the mountain life was pretty much a lonely existence, and on the whole he liked it that way. Ever since his kind had shown themselves to humans; the curious stares, the scent of fear, the whole female bed a bear shifter thing had become frustrating.
It wasn’t as if he could hide what he was. He was big – bear shifters were – and humans could pretty much spot them from a mile away.
He’d come to the mountain to get a little peace and get his head back on straight after what had happened to him – but that didn’t mean he didn’t miss people.
“Then appearing out of thin air might not have been the way to go.” Tammy frowned when he took a step forward.
“Let me help you gather the wood…”
“I’ve got it.” She knew that she’d rushed out the words a little too fast when he pulled up short.
Aidan knew that he’d scared her. That he was probably still scaring her.
Her eyes showed fear – he didn’t need to scent the air to confirm that fact. He knew that scent too well, and it made him sad to find another human – one of his neighbours on the mountain – thinking that he was dangerous.
He guessed she was right. They all were. Shifters were dangerous given the right set of circumstances, but this wasn’t one of those times.
He had perfect control over his beast now. He just wasn’t sure how to tell her that.
“I’ll leave you to it then.” Aidan started to turn away. His bear grumbled – he guessed it was lonely for a little company too.
Tammy held in place. She’d seen something within his eyes… something that looked like hope, and then she’d seen it fade away when she’d been short with him.
He’d scared the hell out of her – just being there when she’d turn around, but when those broad shoulders sagged as he turned on his heels and started away from her, all she felt was guilt.
“Wait.” Tammy grimaced.
She might have been in the m
iddle of nowhere that was far enough away from civilisation to feel isolated, but that was no reason to forget her manners. If anything, out there, neighbours were more dependent on neighbours than anyone probably wanted to admit.
Aidan made a slow turn back. He eyed her.
The woman obviously had something to say – he just wished that she’d spit it out – things were awkward enough as it was.
“Sorry, I snapped. It’s been a while since I’ve seen anyone, let alone spoken to anyone but myself.” She winced at her own words. She guessed she sounded either stupid or pathetic, but there it was…
“I know that feeling.” Aidan nodded.
His eyes narrowed a little on her. There didn’t appear to be fear in her eyes anymore, just a little embarrassment.
“I could use your help.” She admitted. She figured that she’d already made a hash of their first meeting, she might as well jump in with both feet. “And in return…” She thought about it.
Aside from the whole money thing, she knew that out there things worked on the barter system – she kind of liked that. “I’ve made cookies…”
Aidan’s eyebrows lifted a little, just enough for the light to shine in his eyes again. She guessed he liked home baking.
He looked interested… which probably meant that he didn’t cook, or didn’t have a women to cook for him, or didn’t have a family… At least, that was her reasoning.
“Cookies…” He lifted a large hand and stroked over the stubble that clung to his square jaw. “I like cookies.” He gave a small nod of his head as he cracked a small smile that lit up those brown eyes even more.
Tammy couldn’t help but smile too. She guessed it was infectious.
“Done deal then.” She started to bend at the waist to pick up the firewood, but he was already there. For such a big man, he moved fast. “That’s not what I need help with.”
He turned his eyes up towards her. That smile was still on his lips and his eyes showed amusement.
“This is being neighbourly. I don’t expect cookies for this.” He had the kind of deep, gentle chuckle that called to her ears and felt warming, as in, a deep heat that spread within her body.
“Well, ok then.” Tammy shrugged, watching him stuff the wood into his arms. Then he pulled up, sidestepped her, and reached for more from the woodpile. Stocking his large arms to capacity before he turned back towards her.
“Lead the way.”
CHAPTER TWO
~
“I chopped the tree down myself…” Tammy rocked a little on the balls of her feet with pride.
She’d not only chopped the damn thing down, she’d hauled it all the way home… Then she’d spent a good long while trying to wrestle the stupid thing into a bucket…
Christmas trees – definitely not a girl’s best friend. The damn thing had scratched her skin up worse than being locked in a sack with ten angry cats – and then she’d admitted defeat.
When the snow stopped she’d been planning on trying to chop it back some more, but the snow was showing no signs of stopping… so she’d dragged it back outside to keep it fresh.
“Hacked it to death more like.” He snorted a chuckle and bit it off the moment that she scowled back at him.
She lifted up on the tips of her toes to look over his broad shoulder at the bottom of the tree… It did look a little… mangled, but that was only because she couldn’t seem to manage to get the axe to hit the same place more than once.
“At least I had the decency to put it out of its misery.” She muttered, gripping her hands in front of her and rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet again – this time as she looked anywhere but at him or the poor pine tree that she now felt guilty about.
“Eventually.” He chuckled again and that deep, velvet over gravel sound rolled towards her in the frosty air and made her cheeks hot with embarrassment.
“Fine. So, I’m never going to make a living as a lumberjack, but right now I just need the thing in a bucket.”
“So you can put your glittery Christmas balls on it?”
“Yes.”
“Because that’s what a tree is for…” He snorted.
“You have something against Christmas?” She asked and he shook his head.
“Apart from the fact that’s its pointless consumerism fodder – no, not really.” He pushed up to his feet and reached for the middle of the tree, bringing it up to stand beside him as she scowled at him.
“Well, I like Christmas.” Tammy shot back.
“Well, then I guess this noble tree made a sacrifice for a reason.” Aidan didn’t see the point in it all. Hanging baubles and lights from a real tree left him with little joy or happiness – he’d much rather the tree be in the ground and left to grow, but that was just him.
“That’s…” She started but stopped when he moved.
He lifted the tree as if it weighed nothing and turned towards the door to her cabin. “Where’s the bucket?” He asked over his shoulder as he stalked towards the house.
Tammy pulled a face behind his back. The man was a Christmas humbug, and that was fine with her. If people didn’t like Christmas then she was fine with that, but being berated for having a Christmas tree was another matter entirely.
It wasn’t like she’d murdered anyone.
“You know what? That’s fine – I can do it.” She rushed around him towards the front door.
Planting her feet in the snow she stared up at him, and a sudden look of confusion took his eyes…
“Obviously not or you wouldn’t have asked for my help.” He went to take a step to the left and she did too, blocking his way.
“Yes, but I realised that I’m fine now.” She rushed out. Then she held up her finger to silence him as he eyed her. “I’ll just get your cookies…” She turned towards the door. “Just leave the tree there.”
“I’ve already got the tree. I might as well put it in the damn bucket.”
Tammy spun back towards him, a frown on her face, and a look of uncertainty in his eyes…
“Really. It’s fine.” She saw him take a step to the right and countered it. He pulled up short and took a long, deep breath.
“I’ve got it.” He informed her and she reached out and wrapped her fingers around the trunk.
“Me too.” She offered back.
“But I’m stronger…” His voice sounded a little deep, a little tinge of annoyance taking grasp.
“And I’m more determined.” She bit out. “Trust me. I have the damn tree – let go!” She snapped, and he did…
Just like that, he let go of the trunk and snatched his hand back as if it had burnt him. His eyes looked more than confused, but that was the least of her worries… the tree had already started to pitch away from her, and with a squeal of knowing what came next, she tried to plant her feet against the snow and hold it upright, but it just took her down with it…
There she was. Lying face down over the pine tree on the ground, huffing and mumbling curses… and then the deep rumble of laughter started like thunder above her head.
Tammy’s head snapped up and her eyes took him in, and there he was, laughing like a damn hyena at her expense. Maybe at another time and in another place, she might have found it funny, but right then her pride dictated otherwise.
“Such a damn gentleman…” She huffed out as she tried to plant her hands against the tree and climb backwards from it… obviously her impression of an idiot went down a treat as he roared with laughter…
“Let me help you…” He was still laughing, and she still wasn’t, as he reached down and placed his hands against her waist… then as if she weighed nothing; she was being lifted up and tipped upright onto her feet…
Her hands reached for the stability of anything that she could get her fingers on, and that just happened to be his biceps. She came face to chest with him and had to tip her head back on her neck to be able to scowl up at him…
“You are…” She bit down on the myriad of c
urse words that flowed through her mind like a fast running stream.
“Do I still get my cookies?” He grinned.
She smelled good. Like baking cookies and the sweet scent of spices.
His bear rallied within him, paid attention.
“Yes…” She let go of his muscles and knocked his hands down from her waist. “But only because I made a deal and I don’t welch.” She bit out.
“Me either. I’m putting that tree in a damn bucket.” He growled a little, the sound catching her off guard for a moment, and she snapped her eyes back to him.
His eyes narrowed again as he tried to judge her mood.
He knew he’d growled. He hadn’t meant to do it, but it had been a good while since he’d had to worry about keeping his beast in check.
He berated himself. He didn’t want to see fear in her eyes again, but she did take a little step back away from him.
He got it now. He understood.
“You don’t want me in your house.” He nodded his head as he took a long step back from her. He’d seen that reaction before from people who’d seen him for who he really was.
She’d told him to put the wood by the front door. She’d had second thoughts, but didn’t know how to get out of it.
Well, he’d let her off the damn hook.
He didn’t stay where he wasn’t wanted, and it was obvious that she didn’t want him around.
“That’s not…” She started, but he was already stalking away. “Wait.” She called out, but to no avail. He was already disappearing through the trees.
Tammy tossed her hands up in the air and shook her head as she bit down on a curse… She didn’t know what had happened there, but she had to wonder if it was all her fault.
Bears were big, growly, moody beasts, or so a documentary that she’d half been watching on television said. But did that follow that bear shifters were the same way?
Maybe she’d hurt his feelings?
Maybe he’d gotten the wrong end of the stick?
There wasn’t much that she could do about it now that he’d taken off.