by M. L. Briers
CHAPTER EIGHT
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The moment that the front door closed behind him she almost collapsed into a heap on the floor right there in front of that damn tree.
Tammy buried her face in her hands and groaned long and hard until all of the breath had left her body. She was an insane woman of the worst kind – she’d had a hot willing, sexy bear shifter guy in her house, and she’d sent him away…
But she’d done it for a damn good reason – she told herself – to save her sanity, and her pride, but mainly her sanity.
Hell, he’d rejected her once and then he’d took pity on her and shagged her against the kitchen wall. Letting that happen again would be bad, very bad, very, very, very – so good in a bad way…
Nope, she needed to see him on his way, let him know that was a one time thing, before she became Mrs Clingy Paws, and be done with it.
She was done.
It was done.
Better to end like this…
So why the hell was she still picturing him naked and laid out on his back on the bed with her climbing up his rock hard body to lick his…
Oh, boy. She had it bad.
He’d been giving her that sexy grin and she could almost feel his hard length still inside of her…
Maybe she had some sort of shifter bear fever…?
Maybe they were just addictive – she had an addictive personality – if she ate one chocolate bar then she wanted another, and another, and another of his wild rides…
Damn. She really was losing her mind.
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Aidan turned his head back to look over his shoulder at her cabin. His heart hurt a little – like he’d taken a blow to his chest and that ache resounded within him.
He’d messed up big time.
He’d found his mate and he was supposed to woo her, not shag her in the damn kitchen.
Maybe he’d lost her for good.
Maybe he’d rushed in cock first and had screwed everything up.
He should have talked to her, told her – explained what a mate was…
His beast roared within him, but he clamped down on that anger, that rage within. The last thing that she needed to hear was his bear – from the looks of her she was already freaking out.
A lot of women did that. They wanted the beast side of the man and then they got scared – couldn’t handle the thought of there being more – like a real man that went along with the whole package…
Aidan turned at the treeline and dropped down to his backside in the snow. He linked his hands around his legs and pulled them upwards – then he dropped his forehead to his knees and closed his eyes…
He was sitting on his butt in the damn snow when all he wanted to do was be in the warmth of her cabin with her. Have her inside his arms warming him on the inside…
Now he had to figure out a way to make things right, and he didn’t even know what the hell he was making right or where to start.
Females were just so… confusing. Complex.
Soft and warm and delicate… he could still scent her on his body – he liked that. It was comforting.
The sound of crunching snow behind him sent him bolt upright. Heavy footsteps were coming his way and something felt wrong – very wrong.
His bear rallied within him – growled long and hard at the approach.
He scented the crisp night air and found what had triggered his beast’s reaction. The scent of fur clung to the icy fingers of the breeze, and he knew that scent – knew it well.
Aiden’s eyes flicked towards the cabin. The thought of his mate inside unknowing of the danger that lurked in the woods…
A heartbeat later and his bear had reacted to that thought. It burst from within him and roared a warning to the intruder to stay back.
This was his territory now and he’d defend it and his mate with his life.
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Tammy heard the roar of the bear and jumped back from the tree as she reached out to hang another bauble. Trimming the tree had become a chore.
Her mind had constantly gone back to the whole Aidan thing – she’d been replaying it over and over in her mind, trying to concentrate on the short conversations that they’d had.
He didn’t speak much, grunted more, and yet as she tried to replay those conversations; the memories, the images, the thoughts and feelings of screwing against her kitchen wall kept intruding…
Her heart hammered her ribs and her eyes turned towards the front door. Funny, because she didn’t really think that his bear was going to pay her a house call, and from the sound of that roar, she didn’t much want it to either.
She replaced the bauble in its holder and turned towards the window. Fisting a handful of the thick curtain, she scooped it aside and peered out into the dead of night, and dead it was. All that she could see was darkness and shadowy trees.
No Aidan.
No bear.
No idea why he had roared the way that he had…
Or maybe that wasn’t him, maybe there were other bears on the mountain.
Or maybe she’d just miffed him off enough that he’d lost it. She’d heard plenty of stories about how shifters just turned, were unpredictable, maybe he was like that.
She had to ask herself what she really knew about him, and the answer was – not so much. Not personality wise.
Maybe he was up on the mountain alone because he was dangerous.
Maybe, just maybe, she’d had a lucky escape.
CHAPTER NINE
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“Is this how you greet your brother?” Luke demanded.
He braced his feet in the snow, held his arms out to his sides to show Aidan’s beast that he had nothing to hide, but that he was ready to shift into his beast should Aidan attack.
‘I don’t see my brother.’ Aidan could still tap into the clan’s psychic link if he chose too.
He’d had no need of it in the last few years since he’d been run off by his brother’s, Luke and Elijah, left for dead more like. He’d just wished that he didn’t have a reason to use it now.
Luke’s jet black eyes narrowed to slits. He took in the beast before him. He’d give Aidan that – the man had kept his bear in shape – he would make a formidable opponent.
“You wound me, brother.” Luke offered a wry smile to go with his bullshit.
‘Get off my territory or I’ll do more than that.’ Aidan promised.
His bear pawed the ground, eager to fight, eager to continue what they had started many moons ago, but this time it would be one on one, because he didn’t pick up Elijah’s scent anywhere in the air.
“I came to offer the hand of friendship.” Luke bit out.
There was a darkness that danced within his eyes – more lies – he could taste them on his tongue, sour, like his last memories of his clan, of his so-called brother.
‘I think not.’ Aidan growled back.
He’d accept that hand of friendship before. When their father had been killed by a rival clan and the brothers had united in revenge with other members of their clan.
He wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
“That always was your problem, Aidan. You think too much.” Luke’s upper lip twitched in annoyance, and his eyes spoke of deceit, and yet he kept his voice light, as if he was a friend…
He was kin. Aidan knew only too well that didn’t mean he was a friend or friendly.
‘Leave and I won’t kill you.’ Aidan’s beast mourned that statement.
The beast was only too happy to bite, to claw, to take on Luke’s bear and die if necessary. It had been a long time coming.
“You’re still sore about Elijah’s little plot to oust you…”
‘Elijah?’ Aidan snorted his contempt for both of his brothers.
They’d fought together their whole lives. They’d bleed together.
They bled together the night that they sought their revenge on
the clan that killed their father, and then…
Aidan didn’t want to think about that now. He wanted Luke as far away from his mate’s cabin as possible…
“You thought it was all me?” Luke tried for surprised.
‘It was the both of you. I fought both of you that night.’ Aidan ground out.
The memories still stung. The pain of his wounds had long since left his body, but not his soul.
Brother turning on brother, and for what? So that they could assume the crown of alpha and second to the clan – a position that should rightfully have been his.
Aidan had been the strongest of them, and they both knew it. Their father had known it, had groomed him to be alpha from an early age – but they’d taken that from him that night, left him for dead…
“I was just following Elijah’s lead-”
‘So Elijah became alpha to the clan?’ Aidan knew better. He’d heard on the grapevine…
“Not exactly-” Luke was about to explain, bullshit him some more, but Aidan didn’t need to hear it.
‘Go back down the mountain before I kill you.’ His beast started to move to the left, started to circle its prey…
“Elijah’s dead.” Luke bit out, and Aidan stopped in his tracks.
There was a part of him that rushed to anger, felt the need to strike back, to take down whomever had killed his kin… and yet, there was the other part that remembered that bloodline was severed within him the night they had turned on him.
‘And you’ve been challenged to the death.’
Now Aidan got it – why he was there on his mountain – in his territory. A threat to the woman that was his. That he already loved…
Luke dropped his arms to his sides. He chewed it over… the lies, the truth.
Aidan knew that look well – he’d seen it a million times growing up – only now he hated the thought of what would come out of his brother’s mouth – more lies…?
“I need your help.” Luke bit out and looked sour face doing it – like it disgusted him.
Good. Aidan felt the exact same way.
‘I don’t know who you are, but you’re not my kin.’ Aidan growled.
Two years worth of raw emotions, of hate, of disgust, and disbelief rallied within him. Feelings that he’d buried for what he’d thought was forever rising back to the surface.
Hurt.
Pain.
“That’s where you’re wrong, brother. If they’re coming for me then they’ll kill you too.” Luke ground out, although there was a light within his eyes – like victory – like he’d won something…
‘Not if I kill you first and leave you down the mountain for them to find.’ Aidan growled out.
His beast liked that answer. Like it a lot.
Revenge would taste good on his tongue. Vengeance would feel good beneath his claws.
“And what if you’re wrong, brother?” He nodded towards Tammy’s cabin, a victory smile taking his lips. “What if they kill you and your mate?”
Aidan didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.
That was wrong. That was so damn wrong that it didn’t even compute within his mind.
“How did I know?” Luke lifted his arms and spanned his hands. A cruel smile took his lips. “I can scent her on you. It was just a guess until I heard your heart race – I can feel you sweating from here.”
‘I’ll take my damn chances in killing you…’ Aidan roared…
“And leave your mate unprotected if you die? Or we fight together, kill the danger to your mate, and I leave you and Goldilocks in peace.” He ground his point home.
Aidan stopped in place. His mind racing like his pulse.
His bear had been ready to take his brother down. Kill him, without thought or hesitation…
Now – not so damn much.
CHAPTER TEN
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‘She doesn’t even know that she’s my mate.’ Aidan growled.
This was all wrong. This was all bad.
He never should have taken her. He never should have been near her. He should have stayed the hell away.
Now he’d put her in danger and she didn’t have a damn clue why. What she was to him. How she’d just become a pawn in his brother’s games.
His beast wanted blood and it would have preferred Luke’s, but right then it just needed to rip, bite, and tear into something, someone…
“Awkward.” Luke shrugged just one shoulder in apathy. “You might want to have that conversation, and sooner rather than later.”
Aidan’s beast rallied. It needed a reason – just one – or maybe not. Luke’s jugular was looking pretty damn tasty right about then.
‘I will kill you.’ Adrian wanted nothing more.
“I have no doubt that you really want to try right now, but think of someone other than yourself for once, like your mate.” Luke motioned towards her cabin and Adrian was torn…
‘Don’t…’ Adrian warned.
“It’s not me, brother.” Luke’s palm flattened against his chest as he tried to look sincere. They both knew that he was far from it.
‘She’s nothing to do with this, with us…’ Adrian said the words but even he didn’t believe them.
As his mate she was now kin. Kin fought and got caught up in warring clans. That was just the way it worked…
“You know that the clan won’t see it that way. She’s collateral damage.”
Luke might have been using Aidan’s worst fears against him. Might have been using the bonds of matedom in his favour, but that didn’t make the threat any less real.
What choice did he have?
Together, they stood a chance.
If he killed Luke then he might be able to see this threat off before it got underway…
On the other hand – he could have been cutting off his nose to spite his face.
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Tammy rolled over onto her back and stretched out in the big bed. Everywhere other than where her body had been laying felt cold to the touch and she retracted her arms and legs, wanting to stay in that warm cocoon for as long as possible.
Her first thought was for Aidan. She berated herself for it and yet she couldn’t exactly escape it.
She’d been dreaming of him. He’d been laying right there with her – his big old muscled arms wrapped around her body keeping her warm – making her feel safe, but that was all it was, a dream, a fantasy that she should forget about.
The man was a love ‘em and leave ‘em shifter. What more needed to be said?
She huffed as she dragged her body up in the bed. There was a sound outside the window that caught her attention. A dull thud…
Tammy slipped from beneath the duvet and slipped into her super fluffy, super warm housecoat. She pushed her feet into the booted slippers with the little pompoms on the side, and crossed to the window.
Her jaw dropped open when she spotted Aidan outside. The man was dressed in a cut off shirt and faded jeans, and he was swinging an axe like a pro…
Thud!
His axe cut straight through the log and her heart hit her ribs at the exact same second.
Thud!
Her mind snapped her backside into gear and she dropped the curtain and rushed to pull on some decent clothes. Fleece pyjamas, a fluffy housecoat,, and pom-pom slippers weren’t exactly super sexy and meant to entice… unless she was trying to seduce his bear – then maybe, at an outside…
Seduce?
She stopped yanking clothes off of her body and stood there frozen to the spot… was that what she wanted to do? Seduce Aidan.
It had a nice ring to it. Crazy cabin fever lady seduces local bear shifter for nights of passion and days watching his super sexy self chopping wood…
She grinned on a small, decidedly dirty sounding chuckle and continued to throw off her clothes, swapping them out as she went for something a little sleeker, a little more…. She was tossing out clothes from her wardrobe left, right, and centre…
A skirt! Yuck! But perfect for not having to be ripped down or off…
She stopped with the skirt halfway up her thighs and narrowed her eyes…
Either I’m turning into a sex maniac or it’s been a long winter, and autumn, and summer, and spring, and…
She gave an affirmative nod of her head and yanked the elasticated waist of her skirt to her waist, pinging it against her skin, before she reached for the shirt that showed more cleavage than a stripper…
Long winter, sex stared maniac indeed!
She ran a brush through her shoulder length hair and left it down. She put just a little lip chap on to make her lips glossy, and a tad of mascara, because almost everyone’s eyelashes needed that extra zing. Then she nodded at her reflection in the mirror…
…Before rolling her eyes to the ceiling and groaning inwardly, berating herself for putting on a show for him – for Mr Growly. Mr Wood Chopper when she hadn’t asked him to do it…
She practically growled at herself without meaning too and then rushed to the bedroom door, yanking it open and throwing herself out into the living room…
The scent of coffee filled the air along with heat from a roaring fire… but the most amazing thing of all was the fact that the Christmas tree… her Christmas tree that she had abandoned decorating after he’d left – the one she had the urge to toss out in the snow after him – if she’d thought she could lift it by herself – was decorated!
Fairy lights flashed and hit the glitter on the baubles, and she released the breath that she’d been holding – more like purged it from her lungs, and went all gooey stupid inside.
Hell, not only was she a desperate, maniac, sex fiend – but she was a soft gooey one.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
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“Damn it!” Tammy bit out on a deep frown on knowing. He’d done something nice, and after she’d practically tossed him out in the snow and all… “Poop!”
She started for the front door…