Brenin

by Skye Jones

  At the top of the stairs, Justin appeared, arms crossed over his broad chest. Oh great, another of the clan around to witness everything.

  He moved out of the way when Brenin reached him, but his scowl said it all. Brenin ignored them all and headed down the long corridor to the guest room.

  The place was huge. It housed nine bedrooms, and they only used four of them to sleep in. One of the spares, they’d turned into an office, and another became a games room for the guys. Two were untouched and still wore a cloak of heavy, musty wallpaper. The whole place had been covered in the stuff when they’d arrived. Thankfully, Aiyana used her decorating skills on the end room to turn it into a light, welcoming spare room. It might be nice to have another female around to break up the monotony of a house full of guys. Oh, no. There he went again.

  He kicked open the door and strode to the bed, where he lay the female down with as much care as possible.

  Justin hovered by, the scowl still painted across his features.

  “Make yourself useful and go fetch me some sweat pants,” Bren snapped then added on, “And some fucking underwear.”

  Justin narrowed his eyes but did as asked. He returned with the soft cotton sweat pants a moment later and a tee to go with it, along with some boxer briefs that he held out as if contaminated. Bren rolled his eyes and pulled the clothes on.

  “I heard you tell these guys you think this woman is your mate.” Justin didn’t beat around the bush. “She’s not. She’s human, and British, and so the idea is bullcrap.”

  “What does her being British have to do with anything?” Aiyana tossed her long, dark hair over her shoulders with a flick of her hand.

  “Bears don’t exist here. Haven’t for centuries. So why would a British woman have the gene mutation to make her a match for a bear shifter? Makes no sense.”

  Aiyana sighed. “First, the gene mutation theory isn’t proven when it comes to human and bear mates. Second, bears did live here. A long time ago maybe, but they did. So it’s possible a British female, or male, might carry such a gene.”

  “I still call bull.” Justin almost pouted, and if Bren weren’t so worried about the female, he’d kick his cousin’s surly ass.

  The woman moaned and her eyelids flickered.

  “Eric, can you fetch some water and a cool cloth?” Aiyana asked as she frowned down at their guest. “The rest of you guys clear the room. I’ll get her wet clothes off. They’ll give the poor thing hypothermia.”

  The males all shuffled out of the room, and once the door closed behind them, Brenin fixed each of the guys with a hard stare. “Not one more word about this female, okay? I won’t be keeping her here. I know bear and human matches aren’t always easy, and I have no desire whatsoever to repeat the clusterfuck that was my parents’ mating.”

  He didn’t need to go into details. All the clan knew the way his father fell for his mother and then spent a sad life watching his human wife age and eventually die, long before he would, because she refused to be turned into a shifter.

  Unlike some of the other shifter species, bears didn’t have the connection with their mates that stopped them from aging. Instead, they’d found a way to turn their human mates a long time ago. All shifters were magical beings to a varying degree. Whereas the wolves, for example, used magic to bond their mates to them and slow the aging process, bears simply turned their mates and made them part of the clan, slowing their aging that way. Unless said mate refused.

  The sadness he witnessed in his parents’ mating cast a long shadow and still affected him now.

  “However, whatever my views on taking her as a mate, she’s here now, as our guest, and I expect each one of you to treat her with the respect this status incurs. Once she’s awake and I’m sure she’s not concussed, I’ll take her home. If she starts talking about bears, we’ll simply suggest to her it was all nothing more than a vivid dream while passed out.”

  Take her home. The words made his bear sad. The damn fool animal already wanted to keep the human woman near. Maybe Bren ought to have left her out in the woods. It would have been simpler. Safer for him, if not her. But what kind of male left a defenseless female? Only a worthless one.

  “Might work. She’ll probably believe in nasty dreams more than she will in bears roaming around North Wales.” Eric spoke from the top of the stairs, where he’d paused, chewing his cheek. “Pity you don’t wanna keep her around, though. Aiyana would love some female company.”

  Christ. Brenin ground his teeth. Justin wanted her gone; Eric wanted her to stay. For the love of the gods, why did he accept the role of leader again? Oh, yeah, because Justin was too hot headed. Eric too laid-back. Aiyana would have made an excellent leader, better than him for sure, but their society forbade any turned bear from running a clan. Only born bears were allowed to lead. So it fell to him.

  Aiyana opened the door and beckoned him back in. The female lay under the covers now. With her red hair fanned out across the pillow and a pink glow in her cheeks and on her lips, she looked like something from a fairy tale. Which reminded him.

  “I think the fae have something to do with this. I heard their whispers and laughter when I found her.” He kept his voice low. When the clan first arrived in Wales, they’d made sure not to step on any toes. A lone pack of wolf shifters lived up in the mountains. A few ancient but powerful Druids made the area their home, and of course, there was the dragon clan, which none of them went anywhere near. You didn’t mess with those bastards. Their nearest neighbors were the fae folk, the light and the dark, good and bad, and so they’d learned all about the fairies. So far, they’d all lived in peace with one another.

  “Possibly. They like to lure people off course.” She frowned. “Bit naughty to lead her right to our land, though. They haven’t created any mischief with us before.”

  Eric came back into the room, carrying a tray with a jug of water, some ice cubes in a bowl, a tumbler, and a cloth. Aiyana took it from him and placed it on the bedside table. She sat on the bed beside the still sleeping woman and dipped the cloth into the bowl of water, squeezing to wring out excess liquid. Gentle as can be, she ran the cloth across the woman’s brow.

  After wiping the woman’s face, she took one of the ice cubes and swiped it across her full lips. After a few passes, the woman moaned and her eyes fluttered.

  Bren held his breath as her thick lashes seemed to almost pry themselves apart. Damp tendrils of hair clung to her forehead and the side of her face, and a smattering of freckles dotted her cute, upturned nose.

  Her naturally pale skin complemented her red hair and ruddy, full lips. She looked like a flame-haired angel to him. He turned away. He didn’t want her here. Spending his time cataloging her beauty did him no favors at all.

  Finally, her eyes wrenched open and she sat up with a gasp, one hand clutched to her chest.

  “Easy.” Aiyana put a restraining hand on her shoulder. “You’re safe, honey. Just focus on taking some nice, slow breaths.”

  The others filed into the room.

  The female’s panicked eyes flicked around the space, and when they landed on Bren, they scorched his skin. Laser beams of soft, sky blue, they reflected all her fear and uncertainty.

  The strongest urge to go to her and hold her swamped him, rendering him unable to speak. Only his strength of character stopped him from crossing those few feet of wooden floor and doing something irreversibly stupid. He needed to get her out of there as soon as possible because his pull to her grew stronger by the second. He’d never experienced the mating call before, and he realized now he’d been foolhardy to think it so easily overcome. For the first time, he felt some understanding of why his father stayed with his mother despite her refusing to turn.

  “Where am I?” she asked.

  “Safe,” Aiyana said again.

  “How did I get here?”

  Bren cleared his throat. Time to explain.

  Chapter 3

  Charlie fought her fright. She didn’t
want to freak out, but God help her, the men surrounding her were scary as hell. Big, brawny, and serious-faced, they made her tremble where she lay. The woman, though, appeared friendly and warm in her countenance. Charlie swallowed and winced. Her throat ached, dry and scratchy, and her head pounded. Nausea roiled in her belly. She moaned when she moved.

  “I found you.” One of the huge guys spoke up. The one to her right and the biggest of them all.

  She turned and looked at him, and despite her fear and pain, something about him soothed her a little. His build and stance might be downright intimidating, but his face was open and relaxed, and his rich brown eyes were warm and friendly. She swallowed and focused on his face and the odd sense of familiarity about him. Had she met him before? She didn’t think so.

  “You were passed out. I think you fell and hit your head. So, I carried you back here. I couldn’t leave you in the woods. Once you’re feeling better, we’ll get you home.”

  An image flashed into her mind, potent enough it made her cry out. A huge bear loomed over her, so close its breath heated her cheek. She reared back against the headboard instinctively.

  “Oh my God. A bear. There was a huge bear. I remember it coming toward me… It looked like it wanted to kill me.”

  She reached up to her face with shaky hands and rubbed at her eyes.

  “There are no bears in Wales, honey,” the woman said.

  “I know what I saw.” Charlie wanted to get out of there as fast as possible and back home. Everything seemed so strange here in this room, as if she dreamed the moment. Her rational mind screamed at her to get away from this place and these people, but her instincts told her somehow she’d be safe here.

  “I need to find my team. I lost my team, and my boss and colleagues will be looking for me.”

  “What the hell were you doing out here in the middle of winter?” The big guy spoke again, and his gruff voice flayed her skin like sparks of fire, sensitizing all her nerve endings and setting her ablaze.

  She swallowed hard and focused on making her mouth work as raw lust, the likes of which she’d never experienced before, roared in her veins. “My company organized some sort of team-bonding week, and we were staying at the hostel near Conwy. Today, they sent us on an orienteering task. I spied a red squirrel, and I’ve never seen one before. I stopped to look at it and rest my leg. The others meandered away but didn’t go far, but the next thing I knew, they were gone. It was so strange.”

  Yeah. Strange. Like this place and these people.

  “How weird. Almost as if this is all meant to be.” Another of the men spoke, and his striking blue eyes landed on her to stare with cool appraisal.

  “Not now, Kyle,” Mr. Gruff said with a bite to his words. The blue-eyed one hitched one shoulder in a lazy shrug and inclined his head in a half nod. The gesture seemed oddly insolent. Gruff huffed out an annoyed breath and they stared at one another a moment, as if having some sort of silent argument.

  “Are you hungry?” the woman asked, snagging her attention. Her long, dark hair gleamed as it fell to her shoulders in a straight sheet.

  At the idea of food, Charlie gagged.

  “I’ll go fetch a bowl in case she’s sick.” A red-haired man spoke from beside the pretty female. His hand on her lower back made Charlie guess they were a couple.

  “Bring some pain killers too,” the woman instructed. She turned to Charlie. “I’m Aiyana. The redhead is Eric, my…erm, my partner. This is Kyle.” She pointed to the blue-eyed guy. “Justin.” Another gesture toward a man with wavy brown hair. “And Brenin.” She pointed lastly to the big, gruff-voiced man standing by the bed.

  “You’re Americans.” Charlie coughed as she spoke.

  “Canadian, actually. But we live here now.”

  “All of you, here in this house?” It struck her as somewhat unusual. Where were they anyway? Still in the middle of nowhere? They must be. No matter how strong the guy looked, no way he’d be able to carry her as far as civilization.

  “Yes. We’re family,” she replied simply. “We’ll make sure you’re okay, and then one of us will take you home.”

  “I need to call my employers.” Her tongue was thick and unwieldy in her mouth as she spoke. She dug around in her pockets but couldn’t feel her phone.

  “Did you take my phone from me?” It came out sounding like a wild accusation.

  “Of course not.” Brenin frowned. “Why would we?”

  “Because it’s not here and I definitely had it on me.”

  “Perhaps you lost it out there.” He shrugged, noncommittal and casual.

  She sighed. This whole thing got weirder and weirder. “Fine. Can I use your house phone?”

  “We don’t have one,” the woman…Aiyana, said.

  “No phone? Okay, erm, a mobile then?”

  “Nope,” Brenin said. “We do have them, but we don’t get a signal out here. We did have a satellite phone, but Kyle here broke it.”

  “Jeez, still on about the damn satellite phone.” Kyle rolled his eyes.

  “It means we have no way of communicating with the outside world without taking a three-mile drive down the lane to where we can pick up damn reception,” Brenin snarled. “Never mind the phone was the only internet access we had.”

  “I can lend you some porn vids if you’re getting needy.” Kyle made a lewd motion with his hips, and Brenin moved toward him, fists clenched.

  She pressed back farther into the headboard at the aggression rolling off the huge men. Maybe she wasn’t so safe after all.

  “Boys. This isn’t helpful.” Aiyana clicked her tongue, and immediately, the two men backed down, the aggression bleeding out of their stances.

  God, these men were Neanderthals, but it seemed the petite, and beautiful, Aiyana managed to exert some control over them.

  As she pondered the dynamics of the group in the room, real fear began to claw at her, undermining the lovely, soothing feelings she’d experienced earlier. It didn’t make sense. What sort of people lived out in the middle of nowhere with no working phones or other modern technology? Unless… She looked at the woman’s simple dress and then at the guys. They all wore stubble or short beards. They came strongly built, as if they worked with their hands. The room contained some lovely wooden furniture, too. “Are you Amish?” she asked.

  The blue-eyed guy, Kyle, burst out laughing. “No, honey. We’re not Amish, but we don’t have much call for modern technology. I’ll take a drive out to where we can pick up a signal and call your employers for you. If you give me a number, I’ll go in a minute.”

  “I’ll come with you.” She sat up and ignored the way the room spun around her.

  “No.” The word was harsh on Brenin’s lips. “You’re hurt. You need to rest up. Kyle will call your people for you, and as soon as you are feeling better, we’ll take you home.”

  “Oh, crap.” Kyle looked out of the window, his brow furrowed.

  “What?” Brenin sounded bored.

  “That snow’s getting real heavy, it’s blizzarding out there. Unless it eases off, neither I, nor she, will be going anywhere soon.”

  Brenin looked out the window and then back to her. Did she imagine it or did alarm flicker in his eyes?

  Chapter 4

  Brenin cursed the weather. He’d not thought this through. Bringing the female here put temptation in his way every single damn minute she remained. Already, her scent taunted him. He needed to get out of the room and take care of himself. Which…just no. Way to feel like a teenager with no control whatsoever all over again.

  He’d had plenty of relationships before, but he’d never met someone who was such a perfect physical match for him. He didn’t believe in the fated mates bullcrap. It was mere biology, and biology could be overruled, so he’d make sure he didn’t give in to the feelings. After all, the mated thing was simply a shifter version of the human eyes-across-a-crowded-room, only stronger. It wasn’t some sort of edict set in stone whereby the couple had to get
together.

  He turned and stared out of the window. The blizzard only seemed to get worse as he watched the dizzying dance of a million unique flakes. Perhaps if he took the off-roader, he’d make it.

  “Don’t think about it.” Kyle came to his side, gaze fixed out the window. “You’ll end up getting stuck, and then this one will really panic.” He kept his voice low so the female wouldn’t be able to hear.

  “She doesn’t seem particularly soothed by my presence.” Brenin hated to admit his mate didn’t benefit from their hormonal link.

  “Trust me, she is. You leave, and she’ll likely freak out. Don’t need the hassle. It’ll clear soon enough.”

  Bren frowned at the scene out the window again. He didn’t think so.

  “I’m going to make some soup,” Aiyana announced. “We can all have some in a while.” At the door, she paused and turned back to their guest. “What’s your name, my sweet?”

  “Charlotte. Although, friends call me Charlie.”

  Charlotte. Her name rolled around in his head, immediately making itself at home. He loved her name. Both versions of it. Charlie sounded cute, and she certainly had a lot of cute going on. Charlotte rang with sophistication.

  Her accent did a number on him, too. All lilting, soft consonants. Coupled with her husky voice, it went straight to his cock.

  “I’m going to go see where Eric is with those painkillers,” Kyle announced.

  Brenin immediately shot Justin a look, demanding he, at least, stay. But the insolent brat merely shrugged and followed Kyle out of the room with a grin.

  Utter bastards. Bren’s rational, human side screamed at him to follow the others out of the room. His instinctive, animal side wanted nothing more than to stay and glory in the female’s presence. His internal tug-of-war already exhausted him and she’d only been around for an hour or so. How would he cope with maybe a day of this?

  “Can I have another sip of water, please?” Charlie’s soft voice ghosted across the room, teasing the hairs on his arm.

  “Of course.” He rushed to her side, his bear already wanting to do everything in its power to keep her safe and comfortable. Sometimes, he hated being a bear; they were more protective of their mates than the wolves, big cats, or even the dragons. Bears were fearsome but also soft as shit beneath the aggression and hard demeanor. Not all bears; some were utter bastards, of course. But most…scratch the surface and they were more teddy bear than grizzly, at least when it came to the females. Look at Eric, utterly gone for his woman. Do anything for her.