A Paranormal Easter: 14 Paranormal & Fantasy Romance Novellas

by Tiffany Carby

  “Well, well, well, looked what the bear dragged in. What are you doing here, Killian Cavanaugh?”

  “I … just … wanted to help. With the eggs!” Both bunny shifters stared at him for a few seconds, but finally Nana accepted his offer and handed him a basket full of colored eggs. Aware of what had happened, she pointed for him to go and stand next to Honey. She needed an explanation about everything that went down in the cave.

  “My brother really likes you.”

  “And behaving like a moron is his way of showing it? He might as well pull my hair and make me cry. Oh, wait! He already did!” Honey couldn´t believe it — he was actually pleading a case for his brother.

  “Honey, please, he´s not so bad.” Something in her stare gave her thoughts away because he flinched. “Not always. You see, our parents were killed when I was just a cub. Kody was older and was out hunting. He couldn´t save them and had never been able to forgive himself for it.”

  “I´m truly sorry for your loss. My parents died in a car crash four years ago. I know how that feels,” she whispered, “but that doesn´t explain his shitty attitude.”

  “The ones who killed our parents where hunters. Human hunters. The same thing happened to the rest of the older adults in our sleuth.”

  Unsure about how to interpret Killian´s explanation, she let it hang between them for a few minutes.

  “I´m not a hunter, Killian. I would never hurt something as beautiful as the bear I came across after falling down the slope.”

  “You really saw him?”

  “Yes! He was so big and strong! I think he was just as surprised as me. Imagine having a human fall to your … paws? ... practically from out of nowhere.”

  “But, you fainted.”

  “I think I might have screamed, but I wasn´t as scared as I probably looked. Everything was just a bit jumbled.”

  “You´ll be a great mate for Kody.”

  “OK, I need to know. What´s with you people and the animal references? I have never heard so many of them before in my entire life.” She hoped Killian would clear all her doubts.

  But, instead, his bronze skin suddenly got pale and he seemed about to pass out.

  “Killian?”

  “You don´t know. You have no idea.”

  “About what?”

  “About everything. Kody told you nothing, and neither did the Lapins!” Suddenly he seemed more than upset and forgetting his basket by her side, Honey saw him stalk towards the two other women, exchange a few harsh words and finally leave without even a backward glance towards her.

  She had no idea what had happened, but Amy´s and Nana´s tense body language told her it wasn´t something good. If she didn´t before, she certainly was beginning to regret accepting her friend’s invitation to spend Easter with her family. Things were getting weirder and weirder by the minute.

  Hurrying up, she managed to finish hanging the rest of the eggs by dinner time. She wanted a shower and some food. In a day and half, she would be able to go back home and forget about the craziness that had happened, and especially about a certain tall and handsome “grumpy bear.”

  5

  The next morning, after a night of restless sleep full of dreams all having Kody as the star, Honey sipped from her cup of tea. Nana did have an amazing stock of herbal tea. She could already feel the relaxing effect it had on her. She desperately needed it.

  Early in the morning, she had seriously considered asking Amy to take her to the nearest airport and hire a bush plane pilot to take her to the mainland. Although the Lapin has been nothing but amazing, her nerves had reached a breaking point and she would have follow through with her plan if it hadn´t been for certain bear.

  She was packing her things when he appeared from nowhere, just roaming near the bedroom window. Stunned, it took her a while to react and by the time she did, she found herself opening the front door and stepping on the wrap around porch.

  Unfazed by her presence, the giant bear had wandered around the front yard, every now and then sitting down and just steering at her with an intensity you could only see in human eyes. But his eyes seemed full of intelligence. So, there they sat, together, in amicable silence. Until dawn broke and the house slowly awoke to the day. And that´s when her new friend silently left.

  Yawning, she smiled when he heard the sound of small pitter patter on the old wooden floor. And soon, she found Dexter, one of Amy´s older brothers, standing next to her, coffee cup in hand.

  “Long night?”

  “You have no idea.”

  “I can assure that I can. I have been there, Honey.” He has always been nice to her, so when he approached her, and embraced her, Honey didn´t complain. It was a nice feeling, although nothing compared to being in Kody´s arms. Even her bear visitor was more of a comfort, but beggars can´t be choosers. She held Dexter and allowed his heat to relax her.

  Both heard a strange noise from the yard a few meters away, but ignored it until the same bear inexplicably barged from the tree line carrying a bag full of eggs in his giant mouth. Honey was sure she had gone bonkers finally, and could only stare at the scene in front of her.

  When the bear suddenly turned into a very naked Kody, still carrying the same basket, she knew she was certifiable. Bears didn´t turn into man in a blink of the eye!

  “I fucking told the Lapin fluffle to stay the hell away from my territory,” he roared, throwing the basket on the porch and smashing most of the eggs in the process. But instead of feeling scared, something else sparked inside of her and, before she knew what she was doing, she flew down the stairs and got in Kody´s face.

  “You don´t own the forest!”

  “Yes, I do!”

  “No, you don´t. You´re just a grumpy ass moronic bear who apparently has nothing better to do than ruin other people’s lives.”

  “You have no idea what you´re talking about!”

  “Are you sure? Because I know for a fact how hard Amy´s nieces and nephews worked to have all those eggs ready for tomorrow. How excited they were to discover what the rest of the …” she paused for a few seconds before remembering the word he had used “…fluffle has prepared to surprise them with. And now, because of you, that won´t be happening. So, please, go ahead and tell me how I´m the one who doesn´t know what she´s talking about.”

  Crossing her arms, she simply stared coldly at him, even though her heart was practically about to burst out of her chest. Not only because of the fact that he was completely naked, but also because she could see how his eyes seemed to glow with a mysterious light from within.

  Kody wasn´t sure whether to puff his chest out in pride of the mate fate had given him, or just roar out all his anger and frustration until she realized what an animal he truly was. His bear, on the other hand, just wanted to have her again. Her delicious smell was driving both of them crazy, so much so that as soon as he fell asleep last night his bear had taken over and — aware of the distress their mate was going through — brought them to the Lapin´s yard.

  He knew that as a human, she would miss his presence but never to the extent of not being able to sleep properly. He genuinely thought that for them it was just an “itch,” apparently it wasn´t if the purple bags under her eyes were any indication of it.

  “What are you doing here, Kody?” Dexter´s voice reminded him exactly what had compelled him out of his hiding in the woods. That fucking buck touching Honey as if he had every right in the world!

  “I live here, bear.”

  “So do I.”

  That immediately got a reaction out of the other male who seemed about to launch himself over the rail, but thought better about it and instead hurried back into the cabin, probably to get Fred to deal with the situation at hand.

  When Honey´s warmth vanished from his proximity, he frowned and saw her kneeling on the floor saving the few eggs that remained intact. He knew he overreacted and would probably have to come up with something to repair the damage he had done, but seein
g the sideway glances she was throwing his way was really starting to get his bear restless in a way it had never happened before.

  Shouts were soon heard from inside the cabin and the sound of feet approaching them alerted him that the entire Lapin fluffle was about to come out and face him. When the front door banged against the wood, he growled lowly.

  “Alpha Kody, Dexter told me we had a problem.” His calculating gaze traveled from the broken eggs to this nakedness, to the way Honey stood in front of him covering certain part of his male anatomy.

  “He wants to throw us out of our lands,” Dexter whined like the little bitch Kody knew him to be.

  “My clan lands, buck. You better remember it.”

  “But, your great-grandfather granted us permission to live here.” Something changed in Fred Lapin´s demeanor because he suddenly seemed very worried about the entire situation. “What the hell did you do, Dexter?”

  “Me? Nothing! He´s the one who barged into our land, and brought a basket full of our eggs claiming that we had trespassed into clan territory.”

  “I´m going to ask you one more time, boy, and you better tell me the truth or I swear to God I´ll send you and Yazmin to live with my sister in Montana!”

  Kody had seen the fluffle leader upset in several occasions, but this was definitively the first time the male had been this furious.

  “But … but ….”

  “Choose your words carefully, boy.”

  “He did nothing wrong, sir.” Honey´s intervention immediately got everyone´s attention. “We were here out on the porch talking…”

  “And hugging,” Kody said, gritting his teeth.

  “Yes … when Kody …”

  “You what?” Fred advanced on Dexter causing everyone to step away from both of them.

  Kody knew that while Fred protected his fluffle, he would still never allowed one of his own to mess with a mating.

  “What did you do?”

  Suddenly, he once again had Honey angry at him. She was spitting mad and the way she narrowed her eyes at him told him better than anything she meant business — and it wouldn´t end well if he didn´t grovel, and soon.

  The man knew when it was a good idea to back up from a fight, the bear didn´t agree and instead, shortened the distance between their bodies.

  “I swear that if you touch me, I´ll neuter you.”

  “You seemed to like that part of me last night.”

  “Until I discovered how much of a moron you could be.” She grew more upset. “First you treat me like trash. Then you destroyed all the kids’ hard work. And now you´re threatening my friend’s family with the loss of their home. What is wrong with you?”

  “Honey …”

  “Don´t you Honey me. Stay away from me. I really thought you were different, but in the end you´re just as much an idiot as everyone had told me about.” Tears glistened in her eyes as she turned around to run back into the cabin.

  Growling, he barely acknowledged the arrival of his clan, as he allowed the bear to take over. He had messed up royally with his mate and was about to lose her, if he hadn´t done so already.

  6

  Yawning, Honey stared at the cloudy sky. It was quite a gloomy day to celebrate Easter. And after what happened the previous day, no one was really in the mood to do it either. Without the eggs hidden in the forest, they all felt something was amiss and couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to fake it.

  A few minutes later it began to rain, and she sighed. Maybe she should leave after breakfast and spare everyone having to put up with her any longer. She blamed herself, feeling everything that had happened was her fault.

  Even though Nana sat her down and explained everything related to mating, Honey couldn’t help but feel sad. If what the old woman told her was true, then fate had royally screwed her over because it gave her the one male that was entitled to have resentment towards humans. And she couldn’t blame him for it.

  Cleaning a lone tear from her cheek, she hurried to make herself a cup of tea. The sooner she finished, the sooner she would be able to leave Kodiak territory. No matter how the thought broke her heart, it was for the best.

  A knocking on the door distracted her until she remembered Amy had asked for more eggs. Since the owner of the grocery shop was a badger, and good friends with the family, he promised to deliver them first thing in the morning.

  “Honey, there´s something here for you, I think.”

  Leaving the kitchen, she stepped out on the porch.

  “There must be a mistake.”

  Honey wasn´t sure what she was staring at, but it seemed like someone had put bunny ears on a young bear. Not only that, but as she approached the shifter — because she was sure no real life bear would be caught dead wearing something like that — she also noticed the gigantic pink bow around its neck and a turquoise basket in his mouth.

  “Killian?”

  The bear grumbled in response, turned around and showed everyone a fluffy white tail on his rear that caused everyone to laugh.

  “I think he wants us to follow him,” Nana said, right before shouting for everyone to join them.

  Nothing in life had prepared Honey for the surreal moment unfolding before her. She never before thought she would be following a bear wearing a bunny costume on Easter morning. Shaking her head, she couldn’t help but laugh softly. She had no idea what Killian´s intention was, but either way it was sweet of him to try and bring back the Easter joy for them.

  After a 20-minute walk, they came into a small clearing and Honey stood mesmerized by what she saw. Standing in the middle of it were two huge bears, both wearing bunny ears and surrounded by different sized colored eggs. A large table was covered in Easter decorations.

  “What? How? Who?” She didn´t even know what to ask. That was the silliest and sweetest thing she had ever seen.

  “Happy Easter, fluffle and Honey,” the first bear turned into human and smiled at her.

  “We stayed up all night, and although we know they aren´t as good as yours, we hope you like the surprises in them,” said the second bear, now in his human form.

  “Kody came up with the idea. We just helped him out” an overenthusiastic Killian informed her while dashing back to join them — still wearing his bunny ears… an carrying clothes for all the males to cover themselves with.

  Touched, Honey tried unsuccessfully to blink back tears, which proved to be impossible as she heard the Lapin children squealing with happiness as they kept on finding more hidden eggs in different places.

  “Where is ….”

  A soft growl to her left told her that Kody was approaching her and when she turned slightly and saw him, she threw herself on the bear’s large body and covered his snout with kisses.

  “This was supposed to make you happy. Why are you crying, love?” Turning into a human, Kody held her close.

  “Because I am happy!” she beamed at him among her tears. “This is the best Easter ever! And you all looked so cute with bunny ears!”

  “We are so never living that one down, Kody. You own us big time,” Micah mumbled while shuffling embarrassed from one foot to the next.

  Kody was shifter enough to recognize he freaked out big time when he saw Honey crying. For a moment, he thought that that was it, she was leaving him, until she covered his bear in kisses and proved she was not the least bit afraid of getting closer to the huge monster he knew he was.

  “Why did you do it?”

  “Because I don´t want to lose you, and it was unfair of me to treat your friends the way I did just because I wasn´t bear enough to deal with my hang ups.” He knew he screwed up big time.

  “So …”

  He could sense Honey´s nervousness and he knew what she wanted to hear, but now he was the nervous one. What would he do if she still wanted to return to the city? Could he really do it?

  “I heard that Kodiak territory is as wild as the bears it was named after.” She blushed.

  “And what
else have you heard?”

  “That every season has its own charm, and that shifter bears don´t hibernate like their counterparts.”

  “True …”

  “Kody! Just ask her already! I want to take these fucking ears off!” Several males’ voices reached them from the forest and he saw the rest of his clan, still wearing their bunny costumes, approaching them.

  “OMG! You made all of them wear the ears?” Honey seemed genuinely surprised.

  “Of course! It’s not every day our alpha meets his mate, screws up and has only a few hours to get back in her good graces,” an older looking male with salt and pepper hair informed her.

  Blushing, Kody noticed the way she was looking at him, like he had suddenly hung the moon and the stars.

  “So …”

  “Would you stay with me, Honey?”

  “Do you promise never ever to behave again like a moronic ass?”

  “I do.”

  “In that case, I do too.”

  Hitting him on the shoulder, she managed to topple him over and covered his entire face with kisses.

  “For real?

  “Not. I´ll just leave tomorrow instead of today.”

  Laughing, Kody tickled her until they were both laughing so hard they could barely breathe.

  “So, I guess we can now finally congratulate you, Kody,” the silver-haired man told them as he kneel next to him. “And to you too, Honey, you´ll be an amazing mother.”

  “Thank you, but isn´t it a little too soon to be congratulating us about kids?”

  “I´m sorry. Is there a human tradition we are not aware of?” All the bear shifters seemed confused about that turn of events.

  “We usually wait for the couple to officially announce that they are pregnant before congratulating them.”

  “Oh! My apologies! We thought Kody already sensed your three cubs growing in your belly.”