Alpha Bears And Brides (Red Lodge Bears) The Complete Collection

by Vivian Wood

  “You’re gonna have to sear that. The oven doesn’t work, just smokes like crazy,” Finn told him.

  Noah rolled his eyes and turned the oven off. He heated a cast iron skillet, adding a little oil and the red potatoes that Finn had cut up.

  “You need to fix this place up, for starters,” Noah said. “Women don’t want to live in a hole in the ground.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  “Think about what I said. The wooing,” Noah said.

  “She keeps bringing him up. I don’t think it’s a casual acquaintance,” Finn insisted.

  “I’m telling you. She’s a reasonable girl. Wyatt’s a jackass. Even if she did think she was getting him in the bargain, she’ll figure out how lucky she was soon enough.”

  Finn huffed, tossing the asparagus spears into the pan with the garlic, shaking the pan in a smooth motion to keep it from burning over the high flame. He turned the whole mess with Nora over and over in his mind as he worked, trying to see every angle. Nothing was coming up in his favor, as far as he could see.

  “It’s starting to smell really good in here,” Charlotte said, entering the kitchen. Nora followed her, and they settled at the rickety dining room table.

  “Good, because it’s all ready,” Noah announced.

  They ate together at the dining room table, keeping the conversation light. Charlotte filled the awkward pauses, telling stories about Max, the son she and Noah had adopted last year. Apparently Max was into baseball in a big way. Charlotte and Noah nearly radiated happiness as they talked about their family life. Finn forced away the bitter feelings that crept in, seeing their shared joy.

  “How ‘bout we swap? Maybe Nora and I can chat and do dishes. Wait, is it rude for me to ask you to do dishes?” Noah asked Nora, cocking his head.

  She laughed.

  “Nope. I’m a pro,” she said, grabbing a dishcloth and a stack of plates.

  “I made another round of drinks. Wanna sit on the porch with me?” Charlotte asked Finn.

  “Alright,” he agreed, sliding her a curious look.

  She tugged him outside, pressing a Collins glass in his hand, and sat with a sigh.

  “Am I about to get a lecture?” Finn asked.

  “For being dumb enough to trust Wyatt?” Charlotte asked, eyeing him. “No. I’ll save it. I figure you know.”

  “Hah!” Finn said.

  “No, I wanted to say… I think you have an opportunity here. Nora’s actually really cool, from what I can see.”

  “It’s hard for me to tell. We’re kind of just… jammed together, here,” Finn said.

  “Yeah. That part sucks. But she seems like a decent enough person. Smart, considerate, nice. You could turn this into a positive.”

  Finn shot her a long look.

  “Are you going to start in on me about how I wasn’t making any progress with women on my own? Because Wyatt already made that argument.”

  “Well… not word for word,” Charlotte said with a smile. “Just, you know. You really only get one shot to start in the right place, so…”

  “Woo her,” Finn sighed. “Noah’s words, not mine.”

  “He’s smart, that mate of mine.”

  “I have a hundred stories to contradict that,” Finn pointed out.

  “Come here,” Charlotte said, setting her glass on the porch. She threw her arms around his shoulders, giving him a tight hug. Finn stiffened a little at first, but her concern was nice. He hugged her back, letting it linger for a long moment before pulling away.

  “It’s gonna be okay, you know?” Charlotte said.

  “It’s going to be, at least,” Finn said.

  Sipping his drink, he tried to figure out how to proceed with Nora. What did he know about wooing, anyway?

  91

  Six

  Nora finished drying the last dish from their meal, stacking it neatly on the kitchen counter before folding the dish towel.

  “Thanks for your help,” Noah said. Nora glanced at him, giving him a soft smile.

  Looking at Finn’s twin was a little jarring. They were so similar, but despite only knowing them for a small time she could also see how different they were. Noah was much more clean clean cut, but he also seemed… darker, somehow. Finn’s smiles were brighter and more frequent, and talking to him was easier.

  With Noah, it seemed that there was something just below the surface… Perhaps he was just lacking the camaraderie that Nora felt with Finn. Seeing how Noah acted with Charlotte, Nora couldn’t feel uncomfortable around him, but she felt no real sense of connection. He was just a handsome stranger.

  Noah’s phone chirped, and he dried his hands before pulling it from his pocket.

  “Oh… this is the nanny. I have to take this, it’s about Max,” he said.

  “No problem,” Nora said, waving away his concern.

  Noah walked off toward the back hallway, and Nora could hear him answer and begin speaking to someone about his son. Nora wanted to give him privacy, so she headed for the front door, intending to join Finn and Charlotte on the porch. She stopped a few paces from the door, looking out the unfettered glass.

  Finn said something to Charlotte, his voice low. The pretty blonde grinned and laughed, wrapping Finn in a tight embrace. Watching them made the fine hairs on Nora’s neck and arms rise, made alarms ring in her head. Adoration was clear on both their faces, and their affection was unreserved.

  Several things clicked into place in Nora’s mind. Of course Finn would be hesitant to take a mate at first; it was obvious that he was already enamored with someone. But his acquiescence made sense, too. If he had feelings for his brother’s mate, he might feel that the selection for his own mate mattered little. Or he might want to hide the situation from his twin by taking a mate, using the relationship as a sort of shield.

  Nora bit her lip. For all she knew, Finn and Charlotte were still involved with one another. And Noah might or might not know about any of it. It wasn’t as if Nora had been in any position to ask, standing up there at the altar with all her relations looking on. Finn had been backed into a corner, too, with no chance to disclose anything personal.

  Finn and Charlotte separated, Finn patting Charlotte’s leg. Nora’s stomach sank, because it seemed to obvious to her now. Finn might be her mate, but his heart seemed to belong to someone else. During lunch, Nora had felt comfortable with Finn and his family, had allowed a little hope to grow. She’d thought that perhaps she was lucky, that she and Finn might be able to kindle something new between them…

  “Hey,” Noah said, touching her shoulder. Nora jumped and gave him a guilty glance.

  “H-hey,” she stuttered. “I was just… going outside.”

  Noah gave her a measuring glance, then shrugged.

  “Charlotte and I have to go, actually. Max isn’t feeling well, so we’ll have to cut our vacation short.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Nora said, her brow furrowing. “Is it something serious?”

  “I’m not sure. Max has been in and out of hospitals for a few years. He’s in remission now, but we are hyper vigilant just in case.”

  Noah opened the front door and walked out, squatting down next to Charlotte. Nora followed him out, but stayed back a little as Noah explained the situation to his mate.

  “Oh… guys, I’m sorry,” Charlotte said, looking worried. “We should go right now. I’m going to book a flight home as soon as we’re in the car.”

  “God, no. Don’t worry about that,” Finn said. He gave Noah and Charlotte each a brief hug, concern plain on his face.

  “Nora, it was so nice to meet you. I hope you’ll come visit soon,” Charlotte said, giving Nora a quick hug.

  “Of course,” Nora said.

  In less than a minute, Nora and Finn were standing on the porch, watching the rental car vanish into the distance.

  “Shit,” Finn said.

  “Yeah. Do you think Max is going to be okay?” Nora asked, wrapping her arms around herself.
/>   “I hope so. The kid’s been through a lot.” Finn didn’t sound too convinced of Max’s well-being.

  Nora nodded and yawned, stretching.

  “Sorry. I guess it’s been a long day already,” she said, shooting him an apologetic glance.

  “Yeah, absolutely. How about I change the sheets on my bed and tidy a little bit, and then you can settle down and rest for a while?” Finn offered.

  “That would be awesome,” Nora agreed.

  An afternoon nap was just the ticket. After all, Nora had learned a lot in the last two hours, and most of it hadn’t quite sunk in yet. She needed a game plan, a way to move forward from this point, a direction to take the rudderless ship of her new life.

  Sighing, she trailed after Finn, relishing the idea of a little peace and quiet in which to mull over the mess she’d landed in.

  92

  Seven

  Nora sighed, shifting in place, trying to find a comfortable position on the living room couch, the only truly nice piece of furniture in the house. She capped her favorite felt-tipped pen and closed her journal, frustrated. Usually writing in her journal was a release, a way to get out all pressures of her life. At her father’s house, with prying eyes around every corner, it was her only recourse to purge all her anger and fear and sadness.

  Today, though, it gave her nothing. She’d woken from her nap to find Finn gone. She’d shifted and gone for a short run, trying to exercise away some of her stress, but to no avail. Usually nature was calming, but Finn’s farm was strange territory and it had only unsettled her more.

  “Hey, you.”

  Nora looked up from her journal to find Finn entering the kitchen. She blinked, confused.

  “Where did you come from? I thought you were gone,” she said with a frown.

  “I was upstairs, working on the spare bedroom. I figure with two of us living here, we’ll need to start fixing up the second floor, give ourselves a little more room.” Finn cast a glance around the living room. “I’ve been living here, but I haven’t put any work into it.”

  Nora nodded, her mind instantly filling with ideas for the renovation, but she held her tongue. She still wasn’t certain where she stood with Finn, and she didn’t want to push too hard, ruin what little peace they had between them now.

  “I thought maybe we could go for a walk,” Finn said. Nora looked up at him, surprised.

  “Uh… sure,” she agreed. “Let me just put on some shoes.”

  After slipping into a pair of flats and a light jacket, Nora joined Finn on the porch.

  “I found something cool a few days ago, out past the tree line,” Finn said, pointing east toward the heavy woods that grew around the land he’d cleared for his hops plants. “If you’re up for a bit of a walk.”

  “Okay,” Nora agreed, curious about his intentions. If he was in love with Charlotte, as Nora suspected, she didn’t know why he would bother to spend time with her. That said, he’d made it clear that they would still live together, so maybe he just needed to get to know her, make sure she was trustworthy. That made sense.

  Finn led her outside and around the house, leading her down the well-worn path she'd explored earlier in the day. The path was only five or six feet wide, with a thick wall of dense greenery on each side, rising as high as ten feet in some places. As they went, Finn told her a little about his business.

  "So I have a handful of guys working here on the farm. They're all great guys, and I trust them. I thought maybe we could have a cook out soon, introduce you to all the regulars. I also have some seasonal help during planting and harvest, though. I vet everyone, but I want you to feel safe, even if I'm not here," he said, pausing here and there to touch a leaf or pull a caterpillar from a vine.

  "I can handle myself. I don't have a weapon here, but I know how to handle a gun. And I took a lot of self-defense classes when I first moved to Seattle."

  Finn shot her a frown.

  "It won't ever come to that," he promised. "I don't know what your life was like before, but you'll always be safe here."

  Nora gave him a vague nod.

  "I'd like to help with things on the farm, if you need it. I want to be useful," she said. She might not be able to be a mate to him in all the ways she'd hoped, but she could at least contribute to Finn's business.

  "In time, maybe. Right now we're steaming along pretty well." Finn paused. "I was thinking, actually... you said you used to have an interior design business, right?"

  "Well, I worked for an architectural firm. But yes, I did well for myself."

  They reached the tree line and entered the woods, and Nora instantly felt at home among the towering redwoods and Ponderosa pines. It had rained in the last couple of days, and the whole forest was lush and verdant and welcoming. At a fork in the path, Finn led her left, the elevation rising as they walked, leading them onward and upward.

  "Would you want to start doing that here?" Finn asked, drawing her attention from the glorious scenery all around them.

  Nora gave him a startled glance.

  "I-- Well, yes. But I don't have a huge portfolio, so I'd almost be starting from scratch."

  "So start with the farm house. I'll be your first client. I can pay you and everything," Finn said, looking uncertain.

  "Oh, Finn. You don't have to do that. It's nice of you to offer," Nora said, shaking her head.

  "I mean it. I want us to have a comfortable home, but I don't know the first thing about renovating a house. I have some ideas, but I'm never going to do it on my own."

  Nora pursed her lips, thinking.

  "I think it would be counterproductive for you to pay me, don't you?" she asked.

  Finn gave her a curious glance.

  "Don't you think you'd like to have some money for yourself? I mean, I can pay for all your necessities, food and clothes and whatever, but everyone should have some spending money."

  Nora gave a dry chuckle.

  "You really couldn't be less like my father, could you?" she asked him.

  "God, I hope not. And if you start a business and it thrives, you'll be happy," Finn said. "That's important to me."

  Nora wasn't sure what to say to that. It was sweet, and his words seemed genuine, but she didn't know what to make of him yet. Finn changed the subject before she had time to figure out her response.

  "Hear that?" he asked. They began to climb a sharp slope, the trees thinning and dropping away as they went up. Nora cocked her head to listen.

  "Water?" she guessed, her brow furrowing.

  "Yep. Check it out," Finn said.

  The ground leveled out suddenly, putting them out on a flat, smooth stone ledge that curved in a broad arc. Right in the middle of the stone plateau, a small stream gushed up from the ground, spilling over the edge.

  "A waterfall!" Nora said, delighted. She moved forward, moving cautiously over the damp, rocky ground, and peered over the edge. The stream tumbled downward for twenty or so feet to splash in a shallow rock pool below.

  "Yeah. I found this place a couple of months ago. I come here a lot to think," Finn told her. "We can sit over here on the far side, where it's dry."

  Nora followed him over to the very left edge of the stone ledge, settling down to sit beside him. They dangled their feet over the side, both watching the waterfall. Nora was lulled by the trickling and pattering sounds, entranced by the sun glinting off the falling water. They sat like that for a long time, the silence going from awkward to comfortable after a bit.

  "Be right back," Finn said, climbing to his feet. He was gone for a few minutes, and Nora could hear him rustling around in the brush. When he returned, he held the hem of his t-shirt with one hand, bunching it up to made a sort of container.

  Finn sat down again, this time close enough that they were nearly touching. Nora could actually feel the heat radiating off his skin through his jeans and t-shirt. Suddenly Nora was aware of him as a man, aware of his tanned, muscular forearms and his broad shoulders, the sharp line of his
stubbled jaw, of his piercing aquamarine eyes and perfectly shaped, very kissable lips.

  "Blueberries?" he said, showing her the treasure he held in his t-shirt. He gave her a heart-stopping grin, and Nora's stomach tumbled to her feet. "They're not poison, I promise. I eat these all the time."

  "Thanks," Nora said, giving him a tentative smile as she reached out and took a handful of the ripe berries. She tasted a couple of the berries, sighing with pleasure when the bright juice flooded her tongue.

  "Mmm," Finn said. Nora looked up at him and found that he didn't seem focused on the berries at all. His eyes had darkened with sensual interest, his gaze dropping to her lips.

  "They're good," Nora said, fumbling for something to say, embarrassed by how breathy her voice sounded. She couldn't help it; being this close to Finn made her blood heat, her breasts tighten, made her shift against the subtle heat growing between her thighs.

  When she broke the eye contact and reached for more berries to ease the tension in the air, Finn stopped her by covering her fingers with his.

  "Let me," he said, picking up a few of the blueberries and holding them up to her lips.

  Nora's gaze snapped up to meet his once more. Her lips parted as she accepted the sweet fruit, his fingers grazing her mouth. Her breath hitched as she saw desire flare on Finn's face, undeniable and hot. She swallowed the berries and watched him as he licked his fingertips, never breaking their shared gaze.

  Nora leaned a fraction closer to him, want pulling her to Finn like a magnet. His hand came up to cup her jaw, his touch tender, and in that moment Nora knew she was done for. Her lips parted in invitation, and Finn's expression made it clear that he was going to accept.

  He leaned down and brushed his lips over hers, the sensation shocking her to her core. His lips were warm and firm, his kiss gentle and curious. She opened to him and Finn deepened the kiss in languorous movements, exploring her slowly.

  Nora could feel the pulse at her throat fluttering beneath his fingertips as Finn tipped her head back, angling her to his satisfaction as his tongue delved into her mouth, consuming her in sweeping thrusts. A tiny mewl of pleasure crawled up from her throat when Finn's free hand came up to cup her breast through her shirt, his thumb brushing her pebbled nipple through the layers of fabric.