A Bear's Protection

by Dakota West

  “I’ve got a good teacher,” he said.

  He leaned down, utterly unable to resist the short, fiery human in front of him.

  You probably shouldn’t do this, he thought. Yesterday she’d never dated a shifter before, and now she’s dirty dancing with two of them.

  She didn’t look overwhelmed, though. She looked perfectly as home, like a natural, dancing to the boombox in the woods.

  She looked incredibly sexy.

  Ash couldn’t hold himself back and longer.

  In one motion, he pressed his lips to hers, hard, finally feeling her soft, plump mouth on his.

  She kissed him back instantly, opening her lips below his, running her delicate tongue along his bottom lip, at the same time grabbing the back of his head and pulling him into her, pressing their bodies together even harder.

  Ash had to force himself to go slow. His bear was growling at him to yank her top off, push her skirt up around her waist and mate her hard, right here, but he resisted.

  Instead, he ran his tongue along her lips. Cora moaned, just slightly, and Ash pushed his tongue inside her mouth, finding hers, tangling them together as his hands wrapped around her back, nearly lifting her off the ground.

  Then Hunter wasn’t behind Ash anymore. He was in front of him, on the other side of Cora, her jaw in his big, thick hand, and Ash watched as his mates kissed.

  It was hotter than anything he’d ever imagined.

  Cora was still in his arms, and he could feel her heartbeat speed up as Hunter’s mouth worked against hers, the rumble coming from his chest that told Ash they were having the same struggle.

  Cora’s head turned to one side as she kissed Hunter, and Ash bent down and applied his lips to the smooth, pale expanse, licking and sucking along her jawline, listening to the tiny noises she made in her throat.

  She had one hand on Ash and one on Hunter, pressed between the two men.

  When she and Hunter parted, her eyes were half-closed, heavy with lust, and Ash could smell her arousal, hanging heavy in the air.

  His bear growled and clawed at him from the inside, roaring to be let out.

  He took Hunter’s jeans by the waistband, his fingers sliding just inside, and pulled the other man to him. Where the backs of his fingers touched Hunter’s hips they nearly burned with heat and desire, and Ash kissed his mate roughly, seeking out the other man’s tongue with his own, biting his lip hard.

  Hunter growled, and the scent of Cora’s arousal that hung in the air intensified. He nearly wanted to tear his own skin off — he’d never felt more turned on, more electric than he did at just that moment.

  He ended the kiss with Hunter and leaned their foreheads together, looking down at Cora. Her eyes shone in the firelight, her mouth partly open.

  Then she bit her lip and blushed, looking down for a moment. Ash reached down and took her chin gently in his hand, tilting her face back up.

  “Watch all you want,” he said.

  He kissed Hunter again, feeling like he might nearly crush the other man with the force of his desire. Better him than Cora, though.

  Hunter was at least as strong as Ash, and Ash knew exactly what he could take.

  Then Cora’s hand was on his neck and on Hunter’s, and Ash broke off the kiss again. Hunter got to Cora first, kissing her ferociously but gently, and ever so slightly, she turned her head toward Ash, inviting him in as Hunter began trailing kisses down her neck to her shoulder, Ash savoring the delicious warmth of her perfect mouth, his hand sliding down her waist to her hips, still moving just in time with the music...

  Out of nowhere, the music cut out.

  “Hey!” someone yelled.

  “Sorry!” someone yelled back.

  Ash frowned and came up for air, glaring over at the kid who was running the boombox and now fiddling with something on its back panel. Hunter had one arm around him and one around Cora, the three of them still standing close together, even as the other couples and triads drifted away from where the dance floor had been.

  “Let’s head back to the blanket,” Hunter murmured. “There’s brownies. We can have dessert.”

  He winked at Cora and Ash, then took Cora by the hand.

  Just then, a shifter kid came up to her. He couldn’t have been more than thirteen: pimpled face, hands and feet too big for his body.

  When he saw Cora, he seemed to blush over his entire body.

  “Are you Cora the human?” he asked, obviously nervous. Ash could smell the sweat on him, and rolled his eyes.

  “Yes,” said Cora. Her eyes sparkled with amusement — probably at being called “the human,” Ash guessed.

  “This is for you,” he said, handing her an envelope.

  “Okay, that’s enough, thank—” Ash started.

  Then he stopped.

  Cora’s face had gone from a slightly flushed pink to white, her whole body rigid as she stared at the envelope the kid had handed her.

  “What is it?” Hunter asked. Ash could sense every muscle in his mate’s body tense up. His own bear growled, ready to strike.

  “It’s, uh,” Cora said. Her hands shook as she turned it over, from the front which simply said Cora Leighton in lovely cursive handwriting, to the back. “It’s nothing.”

  She pulled out a card, and Ash and Hunter both read it over her shoulder.

  Sweetheart,

  Why didn’t you leave a forwarding address? Terribly impolite. It took me almost a whole day to find you, you silly thing.

  Don’t worry, I know you didn’t mean anything by it. I forgive you. See you soon!

  Very soon!

  Love and kisses,

  Neil

  Fear practically rolled off of Cora in waves, and it was obvious to Ash that no matter how the card sounded, there was something deeply wrong. See you soon was a threat to Cora.

  He roared.

  Heads turned.

  In three steps he’d caught up to the kid who’d given Cora the envelope, over at the dessert table now, piling a plate high with brownies.

  “WHO GAVE YOU THAT?” he shouted.

  The kid’s eyes went wide as saucers, and he didn’t answer.

  “I SAID—” Ash roared, grabbing the front of the kid’s shirt and lifting him off the ground, “—WHO. GAVE YOU. THAT ENVELOPE?”

  “It was just some guy,” gasped the kid, kicking his legs, trying to tear Ash’s hand away from him.

  “What guy?”

  “I didn’t know him, he gave me ten bucks to deliver the envelope!”

  Ash growled.

  “What was he wearing?”

  “A gray shirt? I think?”

  “What did he look like?”

  “I don’t know!”

  Ash lowered the kid to the ground but didn’t let him go. Instead he got his face close, letting the rage and menace pour off of him.

  “What,” Ash said, enunciating every syllable very slowly, “Did. He. Look. Like?”

  The kid swallowed. “I don’t know,” he said. “He had brown hair, and he looked clean, sort of? No beard. Human, so not that tall. He seemed nice enough, I guess?”

  “When?” Ash demanded.

  “Ten minutes ago? He said give it to her when she got done dancing.”

  Ash snorted and let the kid go.

  He didn’t know what was happening, but he knew that something had terrified Cora.

  His Cora.

  And like hell that was going to happen on his watch.

  Chapter Ten

  Cora

  Reading the message from Neil, made Cora lightheaded. The world began tilting, and she put one hand to her temple, trying to right her vision.

  How did he find me here? she wondered.

  Her hands started trembling.

  This can’t be happening, she thought. Not here. Not now.

  Not when I was just getting used to not looking over my shoulder.

  She could hear her blood rushing through her ears, her vision beginning to narrow. Ash roared
and went after the kid who’d delivered the letter, but she could barely hear him as she read and reread the note.

  Love and kisses! she read, over and over again.

  This asshole, she thought. She crumpled the heavy envelope in her hand, the fancy paper a reminder that Neil was rich — and he thought that since his parents had money, he could get away with anything he wanted.

  Love and kisses!

  “Fuck you,” Cora growled at the note. “Fuck you and your fancy paper and your sports car and your boat and especially fuck your sense of goddamned entitlement!”

  “Cora?” asked Hunter’s voice from behind her. He squeezed her shoulders again.

  She exhaled, hard.

  “Sorry, not you,” she said. “It’s this asshole. He’s been... well, it’s kind of a long story,” she said.

  “Can I see it?” Hunter asked.

  Cora turned to face him and handed over the card, crossing her arms firmly in front of her chest. Hunter read it quickly and then held it up to his nose, inhaling deeply.

  Despite her towering rage, Cora raised her eyebrows. She hadn’t been expecting him to smell it.

  “Anything?” she asked.

  Hunter shook his head. “Just smoke. It’d been near the bonfire for long enough to obscure anything else I might be able to smell.”

  Cora opened her mouth, only to hear Ash roar, and she looked over toward him.

  Just as she found him, he transformed.

  Cora gasped. It was like Ash had simply exploded into fur and teeth and claws, and where he’d been standing a moment before was an enormous grizzly bear, its fur the exact color of Ash’s hair.

  “Holy shit,” she whispered, so surprised that for a second, she forgot how angry she was.

  Hunter stroked her hair and chuckled.

  “He’s probably going to try and track whoever left you the note,” he said. “Bears have very good noses.”

  “I’ve never seen someone shift before,” Cora said, wonderingly. “Only on TV and stuff.”

  “First time for everything, I guess,” Hunter said.

  He read the note again, shaking his head. Cora could see the muscles in his jaw flexing.

  “Ex-boyfriend?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “Not even,” she said. “We went on two dates, we never even kissed—”

  Before she could get any further into the story, the bear came back, crashing through the trees, and stood next to the dessert table, snorting.

  Then he raised his enormous, furry head, and scented the wind, sniffing deeply twice.

  The bear seemed to collapse in on itself, fur turning to skin, and seconds later, there was Ash, naked as the day he was born.

  Despite herself, Cora raised her eyebrows, trying to get a better look, but Ash was focused. She could see his perfect chest and abs, and that V in his hips that made her weak in the knees, but the other partygoers made it impossible to see anything else.

  Cora closed both of her eyes for a moment.

  Focus, she told herself. Neil was here. He gave you a creepy note. It’s not the time to try to see your date’s junk.

  Ash pulled on his pants, grabbed his shirt, and started walking toward them. As he walked, he pulled his shirt over his head, and by the time he’d reached Cora and Hunter, he was clothed again.

  “Gone,” he said, his words clipped. “Kid said he left as soon as he gave him the envelope. Couldn’t even describe the car or the guy. I couldn’t find anything.”

  Hunter handed him the card, and Cora watched him read it, his eyes narrowing, a growl emanating from his chest.

  “Okay,” he said. He had his head up and his back straight, his jaw flexing as he thought.

  Full cop mode, thought Cora.

  “First, you’re coming back to our house with us,” he said.

  “You don’t—”

  “That’s where you’ll be safest.”

  Cora jutted her chin out, standing a little straighter.

  “You don’t have to take care of me,” she said. “I’ve been dealing with Neil for months now.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Ash said, frowning. “He could be dangerous.”

  “Thanks, I hadn’t thought of that,” Cora snapped.

  She felt bad immediately.

  “Look, he’s not your problem,” she said. “He’s already ruined our date. You can just take me back to my motel and I’ll lock the doors tonight and go somewhere else tomorrow. He’s never actually done anything.”

  “And then what?” demanded Ash. “Then you move again the next night, and the next, until you’re out of motels in Granite Valley? Do you get another job again?”

  “You don’t have to tell me that he’s ruining my life,” Cora snapped. She felt dangerously close to angry tears, and she dug her nails into the skin of her arms, trying to keep her rage from welling out of her.

  Ash opened his mouth again, his eyes flashing, but then Hunter was putting a hand on his chest, and Ash closed his mouth, fuming.

  “Cora, please,” he said. “Let us protect you.”

  “I barely know you two,” she protested, weakly.

  For the first time since she’d gotten the note, Hunter smiled.

  “Weren’t we just changing that?” he said.

  Just like that, Cora felt her resolve crumble. She looked from Hunter to Ash, one smiling, the other glowering, his face utterly serious.

  They can shift into grizzly bears at the blink of an eye, she thought. What on earth is Neil going to do to them?

  She bit her lip.

  Do you really want to go back to that motel alone right now anyway? This date was going awfully well...

  “Okay,” she said. “Thanks.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Hunter

  An hour later, Cora stood in the living room of Ash and Hunter’s cabin in the woods. The ride back had been mostly quiet, as Hunter sat in the back seat, fuming and wondering what the hell would make someone think they could send a note like that.

  He found it really unnerving, and he tried to put his finger on what, exactly, was wrong with it. Was it the very nice handwriting and the expensive paper? Those made it seem like the writer was totally in control of all his faculties — and a nutcase would be easier to deal with, frankly.

  Was it the weird, almost antiquated way the letter had been written? Darling? Who even said that word anymore?

  Cora paced back and forth in front of the enormous fireplace, barefoot since her shoes were muddy from the woods.

  “All right,” said Ash’s voice from the door to the kitchen. “My famous hot chocolate is ready.”

  He carried three mugs very delicately in his enormous, paw-like hands. Hunter saw Cora’s lips twitch into a smile at the sight.

  “Why’s it famous?” she asked.

  “Secret ingredient.”

  “What is it?”

  Hunter took a mug from Ash and took a long sip. Ash did make amazing hot chocolate.

  “It’s a secret,” Ash said, very seriously.

  Cora also took a sip.

  “Is it whiskey?”

  Hunter laughed.

  “I told you,” he said. “The secret ingredient’s not a secret if even humans can smell it from a mile off.”

  Ash shrugged, looking slightly miffed.

  “Just tell us about this asshole,” he muttered.

  Cora paced back and forth one more time, one hand on her mug and the other tugging on her hair.

  “I don’t even know where to start,” she said.

  “How about the beginning?” Hunter suggested. He took another sip, the whiskey in the hot cocoa tingling just a little down his throat and into his belly.

  “About six months ago, I went on a date with a guy I met on a dating website,” she began. “I was nervous about the whole online dating thing, but it’s really normal now. All my friends do it.”

  She took a sip of the hot chocolate.

  “For the first date, we just met at a burg
er joint,” she said. “It wasn’t like a date date, but we had some burgers and some beers and we talked, or, he talked and I listened, really. But it wasn’t all that bad, so when he asked me out again, I said sure, because, I mean, it’s been a while.”

  She turned slightly pink, and Hunter frowned to himself. Just watching her walk back and forth across his living room was giving him half of a hard-on — what did she mean, she hadn’t been on many dates?

  He looked over at Ash. It was pretty clear that he was thinking the same thing.

  “So, we went on another date, and it was the same thing. Not terrible, but he mostly talked about his job, his rich parents, golfing, boats, that stuff.” She shrugged. “He was just really uninteresting, so when he asked me on a third date, I said no thanks.”

  “And he exploded?” asked Ash.

  “Nothing happened,” Cora said. “He asked me over text, so after I said, basically, ‘You’re nice but no thanks,’ I didn’t hear from him at all.”

  “Rude,” Ash muttered.

  Cora shrugged. “That was fine,” she said.

  She took another sip.

  “I forgot about the whole thing, until flowers showed up on my doorstep. From Neil.”

  Hunter felt a spark of rage start inside of him, just listening to Cora tell the story.

  What is wrong with people? he wondered.

  “For a while, it was just stuff like that. Flowers, chocolate, cards, and even though it was really creepy, it was hard to put my finger on why. I’d tell people that I had this guy sending me tons of stuff, and they’d act like I was crazy not to enjoy it, but I really didn’t.”

  “Because he couldn’t take no for an answer,” Hunter said. By now his grip was tight on his mug of hot chocolate, and what he really wanted to do was chuck it against the wall, shift, and go tear this fucker limb from limb.

  Calm down, he told himself. You can’t protect her if you’re tearing through the woods when he comes for her.

  He ground his teeth together and took another sip.

  “Then, one day there was a picture of me, sleeping, in my mailbox. Taken from across the street or something.”