by Dani Gray
Harvey and His Bunny
DANI GRAY
Copyright © 2019
Copyright © Dani Gray, 2019
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Cover Design by Lisa Oliver – pictures courtesy of Shutterstock.com
First Edition August 2019
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author, Dani Gray. [email protected]
No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the internet or any other means, electronic or print, without permission from Dani Gray. Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author’s rights and livelihood is appreciated.
Harvey and His Bunny is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Harvey and His Bunny
While heading to work, Harvey Ames followed the most amazing scent to the local park and stopped to give a small bunny a piece of an apple turnover that his brother had freshly made that morning. Imagine his surprise when the bunny shifted into the cutest man Harvey had ever met, one who the Fates had decided would make the perfect mate for him.
Trevor Murphy had been running after having escaped a kidnapping attempt and getting his leg broken in a trap while in his rabbit form. His family was missing and he had no idea where they were, or if they were even alive.
Working together to try and find Trevor’s missing family, the men discovered that the family they were building was just as important as the one they were born with.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue
About the Author
Chapter One
Harvey was so happy. Peter had managed to find them a home, and Liam helped him to get a job. He was so excited about working again. He missed it, making something with his hands, helping someone to have a home for their family. A home that someone would bring a new baby into, that would grow up there with loving parents. In his dreams, he always hoped the homes he helped make were overflowing with love.
Harvey knew he had some problems with his mind, but that didn’t mean he was stupid. It just took him a bit longer to understand some things, but he always worked things out eventually.
“Peter, I’m going to work now,” Harvey called out from the back door of the coffee shop that his brother worked in.
“Did you grab the lunch I left for you?” Peter yelled back. “Would you like a coffee to go and a warm apple turnover?”
“Warm?” Harvey asked, as his tummy rumbled at the thought of eating one of his favorite snacks. “Please?”
It was part of their morning ritual, and it helped to calm Harvey, knowing that everything in his life was safe. He was able to see that his brother was happy. He still sometimes woke up from a bad dream where Peter had died from the mating sickness. He would sneak over to Peter’s bedroom door and just listen to him breathing as he slept. When Eros asked him what he was doing one night, he told him that he was making sure Peter was still alive. Puzzled, Eros asked him why he thought his brother was dead. When he told Eros about the bad dream, the pretty man promised that Peter was fine and would be alive for a very long time. But any time Harvey had a bad dream, he was very welcome to peek in the door to check on Peter.
He grabbed the thermos of coffee that Peter gave him and put it in his backpack but kept the bag of the turnovers in his hand. He didn’t want them to get accidently broken in the bag. Besides, how could he eat them if they were in there?
Giving his brother a hug, Harvey turned to walk to work.
“Have a great day.” Peter called out, and Harvey gave him a smile and a wave as he turned the corner onto the sidewalk.
As he walked towards the job site where the construction crew was building a bunch of new homes, Harvey was wondering what smelled so yummy. He knew it wasn’t from just the turnovers, but it smelled even better.
Looking around, he wasn’t able to smell where it was coming from, but it seemed strongest over by the small forested area near the park.
Forgetting all about going to work, Harvey continued to follow the delicious scent. The only problem was he couldn’t understand why it seemed to come from a small bush.
Getting down on his knees, he was surprised to see a small nose twitching at him. A small nose attached to a cute little bunny. Harvey slowly put his hand out.
“Hi, are you okay, little bunny?”
Harvey was worried at how small the bunny was. The bunny smelled scared and he could be hurt. Harvey knew his big size made him seem intimidating to most people, and he struggled to think of how he could let the little critter know he was one of the good guys.
“Would you like some of my apple turnover?” He offered, as he sat down and held out the bag. “My brother makes them at a nearby coffee shop and they are the best thing ever. I’ll share them with you if you like.”
Harvey watched, barely able to breathe as the little brown bunny slowly limped out of the bushes, climbing up into his lap. His back leg seemed to be a funny angle, but Harvey couldn’t smell the nasty scent of blood. Wondering if rabbits even ate apple turnovers, he fished around in the bag and broke off a small piece, holding it in the palm of his hand.
There was a shimmer, Harvey remembered it happening when he shifted, and all of a sudden, instead of a bunny, there was a naked man on his lap.
“Oh, wow, shifter bunny.” Harvey’s face cracked open in delight.
“I am indeed,” the little bunny man said, plucking the piece of apple turnover from Harvey’s palm. “Hello, mate.”
“Mate?” Harvey was so excited, he had a mate!
“Hi, I’m Harvey,” he said to the brown haired man. “Are you okay? Your leg looks funny.”
“I broke it in a trap, but I wasn’t able to get out of it and when someone finally let me out, I had to run away just as I was. It was too late to fix it when I was finally able to shift. I don’t know of any shifter doctors who could help me. Do you know of one?”
“No, but maybe my brother’s mate can help you.” Harvey thought about it and nodded. “Let’s go ask him.”
Chapter Two
Trevor Murphy was in awe at the sheer size of his mate. The man was like a walking mountain. He didn’t think the word huge could even fit how big the man was.
“My name is Trevor Murphy.” The smile he got from Harvey melted some of the tightness in his chest. Being on the run for so long had him suspicious of everything and everyone. He hoped that the brother and his mate were the good guys.
Sitting naked on the man’s lap probably wasn’t the best thing for him to be doing, at least not in the public park, or where, what felt like other eyes in the bushes could see him. Although, after being on the run for so long, those other eyes were probably just his imagination.
&
nbsp; “I need to change back to my rabbit. I don’t have any clothing, and I don’t want anyone to call the police about me.”
Trevor held his breath as he waited to see what his mate would say.
“You don’t have any clothes?” Harvey looked around as if to make sure that no one was seeing his naked mate. “Would you like to wear my shirt?”
As much as Trevor would love to be enveloped in a shirt that smelled like Harvey, he wasn’t into looking like a kid wearing his dad’s clothes.
“No, let me shift, then you can take us home.”
“Hang on, I need to call work.” Harvey pulled a phone from his pocket as he said this. “I need to let them know I’m not going to make it to work today.”
Trevor quickly shifted back to his bunny form, but he didn’t even try to hide that he was listening to the phone call.
“Hi Jerry, it’s Harvey Ames. I’m not going to be able to come to work today. I found a friend who is hurt, and I need to take them home so I can help make him better.”
“Are you okay, Harvey? You aren’t hurt too?” Trev could hear the man ask, assuming this was Jerry.
“Nope, I’m all good, but Trevor’s leg is hurt. I’m going to take him home and see if Peter or someone else can help him.”
“Okay Harvey. You take care and let me know if you can’t make it to work tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Jerry. Bye.”
Trevor was relieved that Harvey was not in any trouble with his boss. He was going to bring enough trouble to his mate without making him lose his job.
Impressed at how such a large man could be so gentle, Trevor was carefully picked off Harvey’s lap and put on the ground so his mate could stand.
“I’m going to pick you up and carry you home,” Harvey told him as he put the words into action. Trevor was picked up and held in one massive hand, Harvey tucked him close to his body, shielding him as they made their way back to Harvey’s place.
“I hope you will like our place. I live with my brother Peter and his mate Eros. I think you will like them, and I’ll ask Eros if he knows of anyone who could help fix your leg. Even though you never said, I think it must still hurt you. I don’t want my bunny to be hurt, that makes my heart hurt when I think of it.”
Harvey stopped and looked down at him. “Are you in any pain, bunny?”
Trevor knew he couldn’t lie to his mate, so he nodded his head.
“You are!”
Suddenly Harvey’s grip tightened around him and the big man began to run. Trev didn’t think Harvey noticed that he dropped the bag of turnovers, which was a shame. The one bite he had was so good.
“Peter! My bunny is hurt.” Harvey yelled as he turned the corner beside a place that smelled amazing.
“Peter! Eros! Please help, my bunny is hurt.” Harvey cried out and seeing the tears on his face caused a pang in Trevor’s gut. He never would have told Harvey if it was going to upset him like this. His poor gentle giant needed to be cuddled once Trevor had some arms he could wrap around the man.
“Harvey?” a small blond man asked, who smelled similar to his mate. He assumed this was the brother. “What have you got there? I thought you were going to work.”
“Mate. Bunny. Hurt,” Was all he could say. Trevor was wondering if there was something wrong with his mate, the way he spoke made him seem like he was simple.
“Peter, fix.”
“Come on, Harvey,” Peter said as he moved to stand beside Harvey. “Let’s get you guys upstairs and we can see if Eros can help.”
Harvey kept constantly petting him while they went upstairs to what Trevor assumed was their home.
“Eros!” Harvey called out. “Help.”
Trevor was shocked at the feeling he got when a beautiful blond man hurried out of one of the bedrooms. This man wasn’t a shifter, but he was something other.
“What’s wrong Harvey?”
“Bunny mate hurt.” Suddenly Trevor was thrust into Eros’ arms. “Please, fix.”
“Okay, but where is he hurt?” Eros calmly inquired.
“Leg caught in trap that broke leg.” The tears in Harvey’s eyes upset Trevor.
Trevor began to struggle to be let down.
Once he was on the floor, he hobbled over so he would have room to shift back into his human form.
“Hi, I’m Trevor Murphy.”
“Naked mate.” The scowl on Harvey’s face was cute, but suddenly he was clothed.
“What?” Trevor looked down at his body, “How?”
Peter giggled and pointed to Eros. “Allow me to introduce you to my mate, the god Cupid, or as we call him, Eros.”
“Whoa.” Trevor looked at the god in surprise. “I didn’t think you were real! I mean, I guess the Fates must be real, but I honestly wasn’t sure about the gods. That is so cool.”
Trevor limped over to Harvey, leaning into the man to try and take some weight off his bad leg.
“Hi, my mate. How are you?”
“Mate okay?”
Trevor was upset at seeing the tears still in Harvey’s eyes.
“I promise, I am.”
Trevor really wanted to put his hand on Harvey’s cheek, but the man was just too damn tall. Instead, he patted him on the chest.
Holy hell, my mate has one massive body.
Trevor was also beginning to realize that there was something about his mate that he should have noticed before. While he seemed like the sweetest person you could ever meet, he seemed to speak like a child.
“How can you help me?” Trevor looked over to Eros, “I don’t know if you know of any shifter doctors who might be able to help with my leg. I’m guessing it will need to be rebroken and properly set.”
“Shifter doctors are in short supply around here, let me see who I can get to help.” After saying that, Eros disappeared.
“I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to that.” Peter sighed as he mumbled to himself.
After a moment, Eros popped back into the room with another man with him.
“Peter,” Eros said, turning to his mate. “I would like you to meet Asclepius, he’s the god of healing.” Eros turned to the stranger, “This is my mate, Peter.”
“How very nice to meet you,” Asclepius said. He had a deep voice that was at odds with his tall, slender appearance. The god of healing had the look of a poet, rather than a fighter and Trevor felt calm just looking at him. He had dark hair, almost black, with deep brown eyes that reminded Trevor of a rich chocolate. He really did have the classic Roman look, with the curly hair that you would see on the statues in the museums or in the books. “We had all heard how Cupid, or as you call him Eros, had found his mate. It’s giving the rest of us hope that there are mates for us out there too.”
“Nice to meet you too,” Peter said. “I’m glad to help.”
“So, why did you bring me here?” Asclepius looked to Eros.
“My brother-in-law found his mate, but when he had been in his shifted form of a rabbit, his leg had been caught in a trap. The leg had broken, and by the time he was able to get away, the leg bone had set wrong. He needs it fixed.”
Asclepius looked over to Harvey and himself, so he stepped forward.
“Hi,” Trevor held out his hand, “I’m Trevor. I was asking if anyone knew of a shifter doctor who could help me get my leg fixed. When some strange guy let me out of the trap, I got away as quickly as I could, but by the time I was able to shift to my human form, the bone had already healed wrong.”
“Would you mind if I took a look?” Asclepius asked.
Suddenly, Trevor was looking at the huge expanse of muscle that was his mate’s back.
“No hurt mate,” Harvey growled.
Asclepius stopped and stared at Harvey, then turned to look at Peter.
“Who hurt him?” Asclepius demanded. “His injuries were done to him while he was still a child.”
Peter sighed, then looked to Asclepius. Trevor could see the tears in his eyes. “Our mom was alone, w
e found out later that our dad had been killed. She had us at a daycare so she could work. One of the ladies there lost her patience with him and shook him badly. Only later in life did we find out he had shaken baby syndrome.”
Trevor looked at his mate with new eyes. Now he understood why Harvey sounded as he did, but he never thought for one second his mate was stupid.
“May I touch you?” Asclepius asked Harvey.
“Mate first,” Harvey firm voice sent delightful shivers down Trevor’s spine. He almost forgot about his bad leg. Almost.
“Can I sit down?” Trevor asked. “I have a hard time standing for any length of time on my leg.”
What he hadn’t expected was for Harvey to grab him and carry him into his bedroom. Trevor knew this was Harvey’s room from the way it smelled. It reminded him of a warm summer afternoon, after the morning showers had disappeared.
Once Trevor was laid out on the huge bed, he watched as Harvey went to the other side and crawled onto the bed with him. Harvey got as close as he could, without touching him.
“I’ll be okay, my mate.”
Harvey didn’t even bother to respond, he just reached out and held Trevor’s hand.
What he hadn’t expected was for Asclepius to reach over him and put his hand on Harvey’s and simply whisper one word. “Sleep.”
“Why?” Trevor’s protective instincts might not be much as a rabbit, but seeing Harvey’s head drop on the pillow like a stone agitated man and bunny both.
“He was distressed at knowing you were hurt; this is the easiest way for him.” Asclepius simply told him. “This could be painful, so you can either be awake or I can put you to sleep as well.”
“Can I sleep?” Trevor looked at him, letting him see the truth in his eyes. “I’ve been in so much pain for so long, that I just don’t have it in me for more.”