by Eve Langlais
“Who says I make any sounds?”
“You will.” Said perhaps a little more ominously than the moment merited. “I just need to find the right spot to lick.”
“There will be no licking.”
“Oh, there will be lots of licking. And touching. And other things involving less clothes.”
“No, there won’t.”
“You really need to stop arguing about it. I’ve already proved you wrong once.”
Her mouth rounded with a gasp. “The fact you’re a good kisser doesn’t make this right.”
“I’m good at a great many things. You’ll see. Most definitely feel, and did I mention enjoy?” He winked before rubbing his nose against hers.
“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” she grumbled.
“Why?”
“Because it’s cute, and I don’t want you to be cute.”
She thought he was cute? His pride swelled, as did his dick. Perhaps the seduction of his mate wouldn’t be as difficult as he’d feared.
The scream proved shrill and more chilling than cold water. Jade froze, her body tensing under his, but Ark acted, immediately rolling off Jade and moving to the door.
There was another shriek and a hollered, “Get away from me!” Then a bellow of annoyance, but a bellow more animal than man, which kind of described the sound Ark let loose as he went bolting from the room, stripping as he went, not pausing to answer as Jade yelled, “What are you doing?”
Doing? Why protecting his mate of course.
Upon hitting the main living area between the bedrooms, he scented another bear.
Who dares come so close to me and my mate? The need to protect drove Ark over the edge. He didn’t think. He didn’t pause. He shifted into his beast.
Of course, he might have forgotten that, while he was more than ready to take Jade as his mate, he might have neglected to inform her of his ability to change into a bear.
Jade screamed. Screamed. And screamed.
They all screamed for ice cream. Actually, his woman screamed, “Bears! There’re fucking bears in here!” as he roared a challenge at the dark brown beast lumbering around the living room.
For anyone else, anyone human, this might seem odd. Not to Ark.
Playtime.
Ahem, he meant protect as he charged the intruder, not holding himself back, even as something about the other bear seemed familiar.
He should have knocked. The rudeness of entering his territory unannounced, and, yes, hotel rooms counted. For the record, he didn’t give a damn if this wasn’t his usual den. You came in uninvited.
They met in a hard clash of furry bodies, hundreds of pounds of muscle and flesh pounding and grappling. Since his opponent didn’t immediately try to draw blood, Ark held back. It would make the fun last longer.
As they snapped their jaws and clacked teeth at each other, he caught a glimpse of his adversary’s eyes. The scent might not have jostled him, but those mismatched orbs did.
Matthias. What was that prick doing here? And here as a bear no less.
What an idiot. A total ilithios. Putting their secret at risk without thought. Ark cuffed him upside the head with a paw before stepping back and shifting. Crack, snap, and holy fucking pop of the joints. No one ever claimed shifting shapes was easy.
It might have enhanced his annoyance just a little. “You fucking moron, what are you doing here in the middle of the fucking night?”
“Did I scare the teddy bear?” Said with such mockery. Rubbing his jaw, Matthias stood, and they made a point of ignoring the naked junk hanging between them. Just two bros hanging, dicks swinging in the breeze. His was bigger of course.
“What were you thinking? Do you want to die young?” Ark would accommodate him if necessary.
“Would you believe I wanted a sniff of the girl?”
“And you couldn’t ask?”
“It was late. I figured I’d pop in, do a sniff test, and leave. But the girl woke up and saw me. Someone taught her how to have great aim. The alarm clock she whipped at my head hurt.”
“I think the tossing thing is a family trait,” he confided. Speaking of family, he noted the open door to the penthouse suite. “Ah fuck it.” The women had bolted, which meant finding clothes to get them back because naked men running with flopping pricks—not a pretty look for any guy—were somewhat frowned upon in public. So were bears, and all that screaming hurt his poor ears. Which meant … “I need my pants.”
“Toss me a pair and I’ll give you a hand wrangling the women.”
It didn’t take a genius to recognize the subtle jab by his cousin that Ark couldn’t handle the situation on his own. It was only two women. Piece of cake. His mother’s cake of course, maybe soaked in a bit of rum.
With whipped cream.
And three cherries.
Not that he was craving it or nothing.
Before he could tell his cousin to fuck off, Stavros marched into the suite, wearing pants and a shirt—which totally gave him an advantage—and he didn’t arrive alone. He prodded Ruby in, her belly leading the way, and a scowling Jade followed, feet dragging, arms crossed, and lip jutting mutinously.
Very cute.
Her eyes widened at the sight of him and then widened some more as they also spotted Matthias. Her eyes started at his face and moved down.
Oh hell no. “You will cease looking at him,” he growled, jealousy prickling his furry side.
Her gaze flicked back to Ark, but she didn’t give him the same once-over. Some guys might have thought she wasn’t interested. He knew better.
She’s not looking because she doesn’t want to publicly lust after my eminent virility. He couldn’t blame her. He was very well endowed. And proud of it, which meant he had to put his hands on his hips, throw his shoulders back, and puff his chest a little.
Another grand gesture wasted on his mate of the stoic expression.
Her gaze never once wavered from his. “There you are, in the flesh. Is it me, or weren’t you a lot hairier a few minutes ago?”
“He’s still pretty hairy if you ask me,” Matthias interjected. “Have you seen his back?”
“My back is not hairy.” Yet. He’d seen his father’s, who claimed the same thing at Ark’s age. Nowadays, any attempt to wax would hurt.
A crease marred Jade’s perfect brow. “Stop twisting my words instead of answering the question: Were you or were you not a bear a few minutes ago?”
Lying would serve no purpose. As his mate, she’d find out eventually. “Yeah, I was a bear. A real one as opposed to a grumbly one when we run out of honey for my coffee.” An office without honey was like peanut butter without the jam. Good thing bread was optional.
“You’re a bear.” She crossed her arms and cocked her head. “You know that’s impossible.”
“But you saw it.”
“Did I? What I saw was you run out of the bedroom. Then I saw a bear. Not you. A freaking giant ass bear. So I ran from the room and lo and behold, when I return the bear is gone and you’re here standing buck ass naked.”
“Because I was a bear. He is too.” He jabbed his finger at his cousin.
Oops. That caused her gaze to flick to Matthias. Not long. She glanced over at Stavros. “I suppose he’s a bear too.” A slender finger pointed.
“Yup, but he’s not as big as me.” Seemed best to get that out there now.
A small tic jumped by her eye, and she said nothing. Ruby, on the other hand, rubbed her belly. “Does this mean there’s a possibility I’m carrying Yogi?”
For some reason that drew a half-snort, semi-laugh from Jade. It also drew her ire. She whirled on her sister. “Are you joking about this? Were you not paying attention? These guys turn into fucking bears. Which sounds utterly insane, even if I kind of saw it with my own two eyes.”
“You did see it because I saw it. And now having seen it”—Ruby flicked her gaze at Matthias then Ark—“I’m wondering about the baby I’m carrying.”
�
��Dear God, if your mutant sperm kills my sister…” Jade jabbed a finger in his direction.
“I didn’t touch your sister.” But given his cousin’s sudden urge to smell Ruby, it looked like Matthias was worried he might have.
“Well, someone did,” Jade snapped.
“The baby is fine,” Ruby assured. “I’ve seen him on ultrasounds. Hands and feet, not paws and claws.”
“Of course it doesn’t have bear parts. It’s just a baby. As human as you are,” Stavros said. “Our condition isn’t hereditary. It comes from the transmission of the ursinethropy virus. It’s usually passed on from father to son, although, in some rare cases, outsiders are considered for inclusion to the sleuth.”
“‘Sleuth’ as in detective?”
Ark grinned. “As in a clan. A bear clan.”
“And you make your members?” Jade made the sign of the cross. “Don’t you even think of changing me or my sister.”
A faint smile tugged at Ark’s lips. “You don’t have to worry. The awesomeness that is animal-thropy is something that affects only those with a Y chromosome. In other words, girls can’t catch it. It’s rather sexist if you ask me, but that is just how it is.”
“I don’t believe all this. This can’t be happening.” Jade shook her head, and her hair bobbed in a wild dance. “I am obviously sleeping and having a dream. I am so totally hallucinating. When I wake up, I’m going to laugh at all this. Shape-shifting men. Insane.” She closed her eyes.
And she kept them closed.
“Jade?” He waved a hand before her face “This isn’t a dream. I’m still here.” He angled his head before asking Ruby, “How long will she stay like that?”
Ruby rolled her shoulders. “I don’t know. She’s usually the sane one in the family.”
“And the sane one doesn’t believe in fairy-tale monsters,” Jade muttered, eyes still clamped shut.
“I’m only a monster to my enemies.” He stepped close to her, close enough that her skin noticed and reacted, heating, and her heart picked up its pace. “There is no point in hiding, koukla. I’m not going away.”
“You should.”
“I can’t.” She might not understand it yet, but she was stuck with him for life. He just needed a nicer way of explaining that to her, a way that wouldn’t have her throwing knives.
She cracked open one lid. “I wish I’d never sent those cards.”
“I would have found you anyway.” He gave her a gentle chuck of the chin. “It’s fate. Before the end of this year, you’ll be bearing my name.” It slipped out. Okay, maybe he did it on purpose.
She looked so cute when her eyes sparked. He was also prepared to catch the fist she aimed low at his gut. It hit hard rock. She looked down, made a small sound, and then leaned over to grab a cushion from the couch and shove it at him.
“Cover yourself,” she snapped. “It’s indecent—”
“—ly large,” he corrected. “I know. But I promise it will work.”
“But obviously has done brain damage in the past. Lack of oxygen and all.”
He grinned. “Yes. It is that big.” And her recognizing it meant he sneered in triumph at Matthias.
As if his longtime foe would let him win without a fight. “What about me?” Matty asked, holding his hands wide with a grin. “Do you need me to cover up? Or I could cover you?” Wink.
Oh hell no. Ark dove on his cousin. By the time they finished wrestling, which didn’t last long given their lack of pants, the women had disappeared again, this time the pair of them into a single bedroom, which left three men in the room, two of them naked.
A grin stretched Stavros’s face from ear to ear. “Look at you bloody morons. Swinging your dicks around like clubs. No wonder the ladies left. Probably worried you wouldn’t have anything left for them.”
“Fuck off,” Ark grumbled as he left to find pants, a new pair since he’d kind of ruined the last ones when he’d charged out of the room. When he returned, also sporting a shirt, they were all more or less clothed. Stavros, one side of his face ruddy and puffier than the other, glared at Matthias.
Damn, he’d missed it. Ark flopped in a seat and eyed his cousin. “So care to explain, again, why you came over in the middle of the night?”
Matty shrugged. “I tried calling.”
Which he’d never heard because Ark had shut off his phone. He’d hoped to avoid interruption, but cockblocking knew ways around a simple trick like that. “So when I didn’t answer, you thought you’d drive in from the big city and break in for a visit?”
“I was planning to be in and out, with no one the wiser.”
“As if I wouldn’t have smelled you.” Any bear worth his weight in honey would know if another crossed his path.
“Only after the fact.” Matthias grinned. “Alas, the woman was a light sleeper.”
“Don’t give him too much shit. I knew he was here,” Stavros added to the conversation.
His killer glare moved to his other cousin. “You let him in?”
“The man wanted to see if he recognized the pregnant one. In a sense, you could say I was trying to help you with your mate.”
“I don’t need help with my mate.”
The other two guys snorted.
Since there was no hiding it, and it was best to let them know before he had to murder and dispose of them for looking at her, he admitted, “Okay, so I’m having a few issues. Mainly that she wants nothing to do with me. And then, when I finally get her to melt a little, you go and interrupt.”
“I didn’t interrupt. I was just going about my business when you came barging out.”
“You scared Ruby.” Which, in turn, meant the cockblocker had put a stop to his seduction of Jade.
“She wasn’t supposed to wake up. Blame her.”
“I can’t blame her, so I blame you.” Ark went back to glaring.
“Go ahead. Be a little cry bear about it. Maybe I’ll make it my life’s mission to make sure you never get laid again.”
“Don’t make me start a war when I rip your head from your shoulders.”
Stavros stepped in at this point. “Why don’t you both settle down and discuss what’s important?”
“He’s right. We should discuss the pregnant girl.”
Given she was practically his sister now, Ark had to growl, “Her name is Ruby.”
“Whatever. Am I the only one peeved she called us Yogi?” Matthias grumbled.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have sniffed her like a picnic basket,” Stavros replied.
“I wasn’t sniffing her that hard and she still screamed.”
“My mate screamed too when she saw me.” His bear was still offended.
“What did you expect?” Stavros asked.
“Admiration. Maybe some thanks for protecting her.”
A snort left Stavros. “You are so whipped, and you haven’t even bitten her yet. So pathetic. I am telling you both right now, I am never letting that happen to me.”
“Or me,” Matthias chimed in.
“When fate brings the right one your way, you won’t have a choice.” But that wasn’t a bad thing. Left to his own devices, Ark would have probably never gotten around to settling down.
“That sister is awfully violent. She called me a bad bear.” Matty pouted.
“Were you nosing around her crotch?”
“No!”
Stavros held out his hands. “Just wondering. For some reason, that freaks the ladies out, and yet dogs get away with it all the time.”
“No, I did not sniff her girl bits, and she still yelled at me, and then threw something. Who does that?”
“She’s feisty.” Almost as feisty as his Jade.
“And she is also in demand,” Matthias added. “That’s the other reason I came here. I heard through a certain police grapevine that your girlfriend’s apartment got hit. It looks like a tornado went through it.”
Was it that bloody investigator again? Did it really matter? They’d invaded
his woman’s place. That meant war. Also known in bear terms as more playtime. Grawr.
CHAPTER 10
“You knew about them, didn’t you?” Lying alongside her sister in the hotel bed, Jade found herself unable to sleep.
“Knew about what?”
“You knew they were bears.” Bears! Just saying it aloud made her want to commit herself to an asylum and ask for drugs.
“Not exactly, but I heard things while living in L.A. Saw stuff too. So I wasn’t surprised, no.”
Implying she’d met other kinds of … What had Ark called them, something thropy something or other? “Exactly what kind of freaks were you hanging with out west?”
“They aren’t freaks. Just people in touch with their animal side.”
“In touch is pretending you’re a cat. Or dressing in pony costumes and prancing around. They changed into fucking bears.”
“Don’t swear in front of the baby.”
“Sorry.”
Ruby snickered. “You do know I’m screwing with you, right?”
“You’re right though. I should watch my tongue. Once junior gets here, no more potty mouth.”
“No more lots of things,” Ruby grumbled. “No more sleeping in. No more taking off to do cool shit when someone calls with an offer. No boyfriend.”
Ruby fell silent and Jade reached out to grab her hand. “It will be okay. You won’t be alone.”
“Yeah, I will be because I’m not into incest.”
“I’ll buy you plenty of batteries for your vibrator.”
“A vibrator can’t give me a hug.”
Jade didn’t have a reply for that.
Ruby tugged her hand free. “I’m tired. I’m going to sleep.”
“But what about—”
“It can wait until the morning after breakfast. I need my sleep.”
Sleep? Who could sleep when the world had tilted on its axis and tumbled all her long-held beliefs? There were shape-shifting men in her new reality.
Bears. Maybe other weird werewolf-type creatures.
And I was making out with one.
She should probably preface that with she enjoyed making out with one.