“I’ll pick them up and take them to our apartment today,” she said. Her voice and face were strained.
“We were going to finish off the mudroom this afternoon,” Len protested feebly.
“I’m sure you can manage faster without them.”
So she didn’t trust her two darlings to a bear. He stood dumbfounded in his own hallway with luggage dangling from his big hands. He wanted to grab Erin and shake sense into her, but that would hardly make her think he was safe to be around.
“I’d never harm those boys,” he managed through numb lips. “What exactly bothers you about my bear?” he asked.
“The part where you become a bear!” Erin snapped.
“You can’t think I’d hurt you.” He dropped her bags and pulled her against his chest. “You seemed to like my kinfolks right enough.”
“Are they all bears too?” Erin was beyond disbelieving. “Maddie, Hannah?”
Len thought. “Well the Enrights are sure enough shifters. And Hannah and the Malcoms. Bascoms too. Only family you met that isn’t a bear was Maddie.”
“Shifters? Is that what you call yourselves?”
Len hugged her. “It is.”
“How’d you all turn into bears?” she asked suspiciously. “Did you get bitten by werebears or something?”
Len chuckled. “Werebears! No darling, it’s genetic. We are born like this. At puberty we start to be able to take bear form. Most men in my family can take bear. Lots of women too.”
Should he tell her about her darling brothers now? Probably not. Even if he hadn’t promised Cord to keep the secret.
“Do you live like bears?” Erin asked fearfully.
“Nah. We’re people who sometimes become bears. We like to live close to nature. And we like a little space, but other than that we’re just folks. Larger than most, but that’s about it.” Len kissed the top of Erin’s head.
“I want you to marry me,” he said desperately. This rushed proposal wasn’t what he’d planned at all but he didn’t know what else to do or say.
“Live with me on Yakima Ridge, and let’s have us some babies.” His voice was urgent, pleading. “Boys too, of course, I know you wouldn’t feature leaving them behind, and I wouldn’t ask it of you.”
But Erin had been thinking. “Is it because of being bears that your family is full of twins and triplets?”
Len squeezed her. “Yeah, that’s seems to be how it works. We do sometimes have singletons, but it’s rare.”
“So you’re asking me to go live in the backwoods and have five or six kids?” Erin demanded her voice rising even higher.
Len winced. “If you want to put it that way. You left out the part where I want to make you happy. And the part where I love you and you’re the only woman for me. Fact is, sweetheart, us bears is one-women men. If you turn me down, I’ll just be a lonesome, melancholy, old bachelor forevermore.”
“I can’t marry a bear,” said Erin, softening her declaration by snuggling a little closer.
“Sure you can. Look how happy Maddie is. I’d sure try to make you as happy as she is.” Len bent his head and kissed her gently. “You convinced yet?”
“It’s too weird,” she said. “I can’t seem to take it in properly.”
“It’s just a part of me,” he said. “Can’t change it, at all, at all.” He kissed her again. “We make good husbands,” he said. “We don’t stray, and we don’t get tired of our mates.” He punctuated his words with little kisses.
“You make it sound like the most natural thing in the world,” she returned. “But who ever heard of a family of people who are part bear?” She opened the front door and he trailed after her to her little car. She ducked inside so he couldn’t kiss her again.
Len opened the back door and set her bags inside. He closed the door softly and watched bleakly as his woman drove away.
She was right that installing the cabinets in the mudroom went faster without having to explain every step aloud to those two youngsters. But Len still missed them. He had been planning to show them again how to line up the new cabinetry he and Joe had made, where every line was square and true, in an old house that was all odd angles and settled floors and nothing was plumb.
He deftly screwed the custom cabinets he had made to the interior walls of the mudroom. There were cubbyholes for boots and mittens. A wardrobe with a hanging rail. A row of hooks above a bench that held more storage. The floor was tiled in the same porcelain as the kitchen. It only needed a coat of paint to look as inviting as one of them magazine photos.
Hunter had done a good job with the floor tiles. No one looking at them would guess a lad of eleven had laid them. They were straight and level and the grout lines were neat and even. Lenny was proud of the boy.
Cord had finished the insides of the cupboards and there wasn’t a drip of glue on the satiny wood. He had drilled the holes for the hardware too, and the handles were level. He had handled that tricky job well. Seemed a shame they weren’t here to take satisfaction in all their hard work.
Tracker got up from his spot in the hall and went to the door wagging his tail. The door opened. Cord’s happy, excited voice called, “We’re home, Mr. Lenny. Erin wanted us to go to the apartment, but me and Hunter told her we had stuff to do.”
Hunter was murmuring softly to the dog and Tracker was greeting him with excited whines. “Do you need a walk, boy?” he asked. “I’m gonna take Tracker out for a bit,” he called to Len.
Cord rushed into the kitchen and stopped dead. “You hung them without us,” he accused.
Len smiled apologetically. “Your sister said she was taking you straight home,” he explained. “But you know how it goes, son. There’s plenty left to do. We still gotta put up some trim to cover the gaps between the wall and the cabinets, and then we have to caulk and paint to match the kitchen.”
Cord went to the sink and washed his hands. He poured two glasses of milk and brought a package of cookies to the table. “Mrs. Hughes said my map was excellent,” he confided. “Wanna see?”
“You know I do.” Len joined the boy at the table.
Cord dashed into the hall for his backpack and returned with a crumpled map of America. The states and their capital cities had been neatly filled in. “She said we had to do twelve states and their capitals for the test,” Cord said excitedly. “But I did them all, because after I finished there wasn’t anything to do but sit.”
Len examined the dog-eared paper. “How did Hunter do?” he asked.
“He got them all too. Mrs. Hughes moved us so we don’t sit beside one another, so we didn’t cheat or nothing. See,” he pointed. “She gave us extra credit for filling them all in.”
“Well, now. I guess we should put these on the fridge,” Len said. “I know Mr. Joey will be impressed at how hard you studied.”
“Yeah!”
* * *
“Erin went home because Mr. Lenny is a bear,” said Cord to Hunter as they lay in bed that evening. “I thought they were going to get married.” His voice trailed off disappointedly.
Hunter grunted. “She probably don’t want to have bear babies,” he said sadly. “Who’d want to have a bear around?” he asked dejectedly.
“Wouldn’t be so bad. Mr. Lenny gotta be a good bear, don’t you think? We gotta do something,” Cord insisted. Should he tell his brother about his own bear right now? He didn’t think he could take it if Hunter ran screaming back to Erin. He sighed in the darkness.
“Like what?” Hunter asked.
“Dunno. Something.” Cord lay silent until he fell asleep.
Beside him, Hunter lay wakeful. How could he tell Erin he too was turning into a bear, when he had seen her reaction to Len? He thought he ought to tell Cord, but what if Cord turned on him? He had thought his problem was making sure Erin didn’t go off to French Town and leave him and Cord behind, but this was a bigger problem. He sure wished he knew how to solve it.
Lenny was also wakeful. He had placed his
little peach pit in the far corner of the master bedroom. It had been a mistake to move back into the room Erin had so recently occupied. The mattress was redolent of her enticing feminine aroma. He was beyond horny as well as savagely angry. He wanted desperately to force his mate to accept his dream loving, but in his present mood, he thought that was flat out foolish.
He had known that telling Erin about his bear was going to be difficult. He had asked Dougie Enright how he had managed his own revelation. Doug’s cheeks had flamed and he had refused to answer. So that wasn’t any help. Wasn’t like he didn’t already have warning of how bad the telling could go.
Hadn’t his own cousin Asher come back like a whipped puppy from Pullman after he told his college sweetheart about his bear? Poor old Ash, he was a fine man, had a good job with the Forest Rangers, but in the six years since graduation, he hadn’t so much as looked at another female. And his sweetheart hadn’t ever come round either.
Now he looked to be just such another sorry screwed bear. He had been wooing Erin as hard as he was able. He had shown her a hundred times he was to be depended on. And he had shown her some fine loving—in her dreams and in his own body. He wasn’t an expert, but he had a lot of love to give and the strength to do it all night long. She was a hard woman to please if he hadn’t pleased her.
Also, he had turned those two blamed, hard-headed cubs around. The brooding angry thought buzzed in his melancholy brain. Well, shoot and damn. Erin was going to have to make peace with bears right enough. Her own two hellions were going to be sprouting more than body hair sooner than later. Could be that was a way to make her see, that bear shifters could be husband material?
He fell asleep mulling that fact over, trying to turn it into a plan.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Erin’s job had never seemed harder than it did tonight. It seemed to her that every building she entered the security guard was new and suspicious of her dolly of foodstuffs. Every single place she had had to show her ID and refill the vending machines under the suspicious eyes of some halfwit newbie. This guy lounging against a wall talking at her while she worked was typical.
“You’re removing sandwiches,” he accused.
Erin didn’t look up. “Pulling the stale ones,” she said.
“Oh. How’d do you know they’re stale?” he asked suspiciously.
“Best before dates. Plus, I put them in last Tuesday. We always take the old ones away. Company policy.”
“Huh.” Dumbass thought up another question. “Raleigh know you take their sandwiches?” Raleigh was the name of the company where this machine was situated.
“This machine and everything in it, belongs to Diamond Foods,” she responded patiently. “We have a contract. We supply nice, fresh food that won’t make your fellow employees sick. In return we get to keep the money in the machine.”
“You didn’t say nothing about money.”
Erin pulled out her key and opened the money compartment. She put the specially made box in place and let the coins fall into the container. She showed Dumbass that there was no way for her to get at the money that was inside. His eyes got big. He had another idea.
“What you going to do with those sandwiches?”
“Food bank.”
“Can I have some?”
Erin didn’t know how she got out of the building without smacking Dumbass, but she did. The evening didn’t pick up after that. In between deliveries and dealing with cretins she ruminated despondently over Leonard Bascom. She had had the mother of all fights with the boys this afternoon. They had been outraged and then defiant when she told them they were to come home with her.
“He only took bear to save you,” Cord explained earnestly his blue eyes big and sincere.
“He didn’t even bite Blow. He’s not going to bite you,” added Hunter. “He’s a good bear.”
“Yeah!” Cord agreed. “There are good bears, you know?”
Showed how much they knew. It was a horrifying thought that she had permitted a bear to nuzzle and lick her lady parts. Suppose he lost control? The very idea should have made her squirm in terror, instead of start to throb and ache.
And yet, all she could think about was Lenny’s big burly body and the way his eyes lit up and his mouth fell open every time she took her clothes off. She hadn’t been able to sleep after work today because she was thinking about him. Brooding really. She missed the way he met her at the door even though he wasn’t going to accompany her to her room. He was just making sure she got indoors safely.
Somehow, even though she had seen it with her own eyes, the sight of him turning from a bear into a man had not cured her of her infatuation. If she had half a brain, she would not be clamping her legs together remembering how he had responded to the sight of her in her new thong. She had never owned such a thing before—but she had hoped he would like it.
If jumping her from behind, and acting even more excited than usual was any indication, Len had liked her spicy underwear just fine. The memory of his big strong hands gripping her butt to use them as love handles made her entire body prickle and her nipples peak. She could hardly believe that big, hard cock was never again going to bring her to bliss. But who but a fool would have sex with a bear?
A little voice reminded her that Len even at his most primitive and basic had never hurt her. His passion could be earthy and rough, but he was never brutal. He sometimes left marks on her hips and love bites everywhere, but he had never caused her pain. And the only reason he didn’t walk around with the marks of her nails on his back, was he kept his shirt on. They were well matched in bed, for sure.
He’s a fricking bear she reminded herself as her wanton imaginings made her heart soften. What sort of fool willingly picked a partner who was some sort of werebear? Likely he was going to turn her into a monster too one of these days. Probably she should have been firmer with the boys and made them come home with her. Only there was part of her that refused to believe that Lenny would harm them in any way.
How could she still be in love with a freak who could turn into a bear? If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she’d have thought she dreamed it. But it was no dream. More like a nightmare.
* * *
Hunter came pounding up the front path. Tracker heard him and was woofing softly before Hunter had his key in the lock. Len heard something off in both dog and boy. He came into the hallway to check, his paintbrush still in his hand.
“Hey,” he said in his deep, calm voice to the flushed and perspiring boy. “Where’s your brother, Hunter?”
“Isn’t he here?” Hunter sounded frantic.
Len shook his head, and Hunter rushed past him to the stairs. He raced up them three at a time and looked in all three bedrooms and the bathroom. He walked slowly back down to Len.
“He isn’t here,” the boy said disconsolately.
“Let me stick this brush in a bag,” Len said. Cord might just be at the corner shop, but it was unlike him to not come home. And the boys were partners—in and out of crime. Hunter’s panic was infectious, but he needed direction not matching irrationality.
“When did you see him last?” Len asked, trying to calm the boy with his demeanor.
Hunter screwed up his face in concentration. “Gym class. Mr. Parker he’s put us in different squads, and ours screwed up. He kept us back to do squats. Cord wasn’t in the change room when I came out. Not in the showers neither. “
Hunter took a deep breath. “I figured he would wait for me in the hall or outside, but he didn’t. I hung around and then I came home. I thought if I ran I’d catch up with him.”
Eleven-year-old boy missing. Len glanced at his watch. Three-forty-three. Not late by much. Not yet time to call the cops. “Think he went to see Erin?” he asked Hunter.
“Maybe.”
Len pulled out his cell and sent a text. Is Cord with you?
No. Where is he? Erin texted back.
Good question, Len thought.
He didn
’t come home with Hunter. We’re going to look for him, Len replied.
“You got any ideas?” he asked Hunter as they set out.
“He might have gone to buy gum.” Hunter didn’t sound confident.
“Hmm.” They looked in at Speedy Convenience, but although the guy behind the counter knew Len and both boys, he hadn’t seen Cord that day.
If Blow hadn’t been in jail, Len might have worried that Cord had been snatched. But that didn’t seem likely.
“Did you guys have a fight?” he asked Hunter.
“No.” Hunter walked faster. “Where are we going?”
“School. Maybe he was sent to the office or something?” Lenny suggested.
“Huh.”
But the school knew nothing either. Mrs. Adamson the school secretary buzzed the principal. Mrs. Chu suggested paging Cord before calling either his sister or the police. But Cord did not respond to the announcement requesting his presence in the office.
Together they went down to the gym. Mr. Parker had locked it but Mrs. Chu opened it up and they searched it. Nothing. She unlocked the boys’ change rooms, and the girls’ and found them funky but empty.
“Now, I’m worried. We need to call Ms. Salter and the police.” Mrs. Chu told them firmly. “He may just have taken off, but I don’t like that he disappeared from my school.”
Officers Hallahan and Boswell recognized Hunter and Len, but a quick check of their onboard computer revealed that neither of the twins had been back in trouble since Len had taken them in hand. They split up to question Len and Hunter
“You and your brother have a falling out?” Boswell asked Hunter.
“No, sir. We sat together in computer class. And we changed for gym next to each other. We didn’t fight or nothing. Cord was on Squad C and I got put on Squad D. He was finished first, but when I got to the change room, his pack was gone.”
Hunter’s shoulders slumped. “But we didn’t have a fight, honest. He should have gone home.”
Bearly Begun (BBW/Bearshifter Romance) (Bachelor Bears of Yakima Ridge Book 1) Page 11