by Jessie Lane
Regardless if she had been the one to come looking for him, all of this debacle going on right now was his fault. His scent was driving her to distraction! It was taking all of her willpower not to bury her nose into the side of his neck and sniff away as if she were some sort of crack addict.
Borys smelled like a summer day. All warmth, sunshine, and lazy afternoon desire. It was ridiculous! Who in the hell could smell like an afternoon of seductive desire? She must have hit her head harder than she originally thought in that fall out of the tree. That had to be the only logical explanation for feeling the way she was and having these ridiculous urges, right?
Misha also refused to allow herself to analyze her own confusing feelings. Like the one she had when she wanted to curl up on his lap and cuddle. Or how that kiss in the tree had been the best kiss in her entire life. Nope! Not thinking about that at all.
Instead, she decided to slap him again. Except, this time he caught her hand before it could land on his face.
“Why in the hell do you keep hitting me, woman?”
At this point, Misha was so confused and angry she thought her head might explode. “Because you said you want to get mated and married, you idiot!”
The big, sexy bear that she was still trying to tell her hormones they couldn’t be attracted to only shrugged his shoulders. “Yep.”
His one worded answer had her head spinning with the feeling of insanity. “We can’t get married, you buffoon.”
Now he was the one who looked angry and confused as he demanded, “Why the hell not?”
The last bit of her sanity slipped away as she grabbed her cousin’s shirt collar, went nose to nose with him again, and yelled at the top of her lungs, “Because we’re cousins, you idiot!”
Borys shook his head as if he were trying to clear away his mental cobwebs. “Say what?”
Misha shook him. “Your mother, she is Marianna Wisniewski?” When Borys nodded his head silently, Misha continued, “My mother was her sister, Hanna Wisniewski. That makes us cousins, you imbecile.”
The infuriating man cocked his head to the side and started speaking to her slowly as if she were the one who was nuts. “So, let me get this straight, cookie.”
“Cookie?”
Putting a finger over her lips, he stopped her. “Shh, let me talk. Now, back to what I was about to say. Your mother is Hanna, my mother is Marianna, and because of that, you think we’re cousins?”
Misha didn’t a get a chance to tell him that she thought he was slower in the mental department than a snail running a marathon. As usual, her aunt jumped right in.
“Please tell me not all American bears are this stupid. If they are, afraid, I am, that you all will die out quickly. Faster than dinosaur even.”
The derogatory comment earned her a few glares and growls from the other bears still standing audience to her soap opera spectacle. Misha didn’t worry about any of them hurting her aunt, though, because one glance at the man still holding Arina from behind let Misha know her aunt was about to have her own crazy bear troubles soon. The man was giving a killing glare to every single bear who was silently snarling the tigress’s way.
She turned her attention back to the man who had a ridiculous grin on his face.
“Why are you smiling?” she snapped.
“Because I know something you don’t know.”
Misha snarled at the childlike comment. “What do you think you know, stupid bear?”
Borys’s grin only got bigger as he told her, “We’re not cousins.”
Suddenly, her stomach dropped and a wave of despair crashed over her.
Misha might have been confused as hell at everything she was feeling toward the crazy American bear, but she had still been elated to find her family. Now Borys was sitting here, telling her she was wrong.
“Is your mother not Marianna Wisniewski?” she asked in confusion.
“Yep, she’s my mother.”
Misha’s eyes almost went cross-eyed at this back and forth. Were all bears like this? If they were, she might be the one to drag Aunt Arina back to Russia. Dealing with her feline family was so much easier.
“If Marianna is your mother, then how are you not my cousin, then?”
The big oaf shrugged again. “Easy. I was adopted, darling. I’m not Marianna’s biological son, but she’s the only mother I’ve ever known. Since matings don’t count as legal paperwork, and Marianna and my father were only mated and never legally married, we’re not cousins by blood or law.”
It felt like someone had taken the wind out of her sails. Misha must have been in some sort of shock because she wasn’t mad anymore, but she was darn confused. Borys was her cousin, and yet, he wasn’t. Now with the thought that she might be related to him off the table, all of a sudden, her bear was surging forward, wanting out, roaring that this man was their mate. The sensation sort of felt like the time one of her uncles tried to teach her how to box and accidentally knocked her out with a left hook. She was stunned and her head was starting to throb from all of the information that turned out to be misinformation.
“Cookie?”
There he was, calling her that weird name again.
“What?”
“I asked you if you were okay, cookie.”
“Why do you keep calling me cookie? My name is not cookie. It is Misha.”
Borys leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “Because you smell as sweet as a cookie, sweetheart. Later, I’m hoping to find out if you taste just as sweet.”
The infuriating man leaned back as she gasped, her aunt snorted in disdain, and a few of the other bears chuckled. He might have whispered that, but in a room full of shifters with enhanced senses, most of them had still heard.
“Only you, little bear …” Arina sighed as she sat down on the couch next to her and Borys. “Only you can go to different country, find family yet not find family, and end up with a mate instead. I think this is what these Americans call ‘fuck of a cluster’.”
Borys laughed at Arina’s comment then corrected her, “It’s clusterfuck.” Holding his hand out to Arina, he introduced himself. “Hi, there. Looks like we’re going to be kin. I’m Borys. What’s your name?”
Running a hand over her hair, fluffing it as only a feline could, her aunt said, “Arina Vasiliev. Now get my cub off your lap. Mated not, you are yet, and until you are, you will remember my Misha is a good girl.”
Neither Misha nor Borys got a chance to respond to Arina’s demand because the bear that had been shadowing her aunt dropped down on the couch next to her and said, “Please tell me you’re a bad girl, kitten.”
Chapter Eight
The Itan came to stand directly in front of him and his Misha, the movement drawing everyone’s attention and causing the room to go silent. Ty didn’t bother to look at Borys, leveling his commanding gaze on Borys’s mate, instead.
“I need to know how you want to proceed, Misha. You came here looking for your family, and in a way, you can say you found him. Since you’re a guest on my lands, I’m going to ask you: are you comfortable getting to know Borys as your mate instead of your cousin?”
Borys’s lap full of cookie went silent. He watched as she bent her head and stared at her own hands entwined on her lap, wondering what she was thinking. Had he scared her somehow? Was she disappointed for some reason, like having him as a mate?
It was hard for him to hold in all of the sudden nervous energy he had as all of these questions ran through his head. Borys hadn’t exactly been actively looking for a mate, but he was damn grateful he had found her.
Finding your fated mate wasn’t a guarantee. Both he and his bear wanted their mate to accept them, and perhaps love them one day. From the second he had realized what this woman was to him, all of the primitive shifter instincts involving a mate had kicked in. His bear wanted to go kill the best deer they could find and present it to her to prove he could provide food for her. His bear also wanted to show, not just his clan, but the entire wo
rld that he was strong enough to protect what was his. The man in him even wanted to hold her tight in his arms to show that he could show her affection. His cookie already meant the world to him, even if it was just on an instinctual or primitive level.
He felt his fingertips start to grab her a little tighter and automatically loosened his hold. Borys had never heard of someone rejecting their fated mate, but his and Misha’s circumstances were not exactly that of the norm. Maybe she wouldn’t want him because she momentarily thought they were family as cousins.
He watched her think. Her face was a mask, and he couldn’t see her emotions, but he could smell the nervousness and confusion rolling off of her. It was hard to watch and see her debate their future without saying a word, but he would give that to her.
Just watching her as she thought things over, he took in the lines of her face, the way she bit her lips as she thought, and the way her long lashes curled up, casting a small shadow against her upper cheek, her eyes closed. Even though he couldn’t tell what she was thinking, and Borys was pretty damn terrified that she would reject him, he couldn’t help admiring how lovely she was. He was going to soak in these precious minutes that she spent thinking just in case his pretty little cookie decided she didn’t want to give him a chance.
Long, silent moments slowly stole his breath until his chest started to burn from not breathing at all, when finally, she lifted her head, looking directly at him, instead of at the Itan. Her face was still as expressionless as it was before, so he had no clue as to what she was about to say.
Projecting her voice so the whole room would hear her, Misha answered the question. “I came here looking for one sort of gift and find myself in the possession of another. Who would I be to turn down the blessing that is a fated mating?” Turning her head in the other direction, she looked at Ty. “I accept Borys as my mate and humbly ask your permission to extend my visitation on your lands so I may get to know my fated mate better.”
A small smile spread across his face as Ty nodded to her. “I look forward to celebrating the addition of a new Grayslake clan member. Now, I’ll leave you and Borys to get to know one another.”
The Itan left the room, taking his brother Keen and the other bears who had witnessed today’s events with him. There were only four people left now: Misha, himself, her kooky aunt, and his fellow clan member Paxton. Borys had no idea what was going on in Paxton’s head, but it seemed as if Borys wasn’t the only bear here panting after a Vasiliev female.
Speaking of panting, Misha wiggled on his lap again, and Borys groaned at the way her curves felt against him. Her scent was changing, the tang of confusion was disappearing, replaced by the luscious scent of her arousal. It seemed as though his mate was finally starting to realize just what was going on between the two of them.
Wrapping his hands around her waist, he pulled his cookie back so that she lay against his chest and he could whisper into her ear. “Sweetheart, if you don’t stop wiggling on my lap like that, we’re going to embarrass ourselves in front of your aunt.”
Misha arched backward, pushing her ass against his cock as she let out a frustrated moan. “I think we need to leave, Borys.”
Best words he had heard all day.
Running his nose up the side of her neck, he whispered, “Tell me where you want to go, and I’ll take you there.”
Misha turned her head so she could look him in the eyes. “I want you to take me somewhere we can be alone. The longer we sit here, the more I ache for you. I’ve never felt anything like this before, Borys.”
He nipped her bottom lip. “And you never will for anyone else, love. Your body is slowly realizing what mine did the moment I stepped out of that truck and caught your sweet scent. We’re meant to be together.”
Her breath hitched at his words. “It feels like everything is moving so fast between us.”
Borys gripped the hair at the back of her head gently so she couldn’t turn away from him if she tried. “Cookie, I promise you we’re not moving fast enough. My body wants to know what it’s like to be buried deep inside yours. My bear wants to rub his scent all over you then give you a mating mark the whole world can see. My lips want to taste every inch of your skin, and my hands want to make you feel pleasure like you’ve never felt before. We’re going to leave here to do all of those things, but I don’t want you to worry, mate. We’ll give our bodies and our beasts the commitment and release tonight. Then, starting tomorrow, I’m going to show you that I can be worthy of your heart, too.”
“You would do that for me?” she whispered with vulnerability shining through her eyes.
Borys let go of her hair to run his hand lovingly across her cheek. “I would do anything for you, mate. I’m a lucky bear to have found my fated one, so I’ll spend every day of the rest of our lives showing you how much I cherish the gift that life has given me.”
Misha’s eyes watered up, and Borys worried he had pushed her too far too fast. He tried to think of what he could say to calm her down, convince her that he would do whatever she wanted him to do so he wouldn’t lose her. But it seemed his worries were for naught as his cookie leaned in and gave him a long, drugging kiss that sent his head spinning.
When they were both breathless, she pulled back just enough to say, “Take me somewhere private, my mate.”
Borys decided that those were now the best words he had heard all day. He only hoped she would continue to give him even better words once they were alone. “Take me” and “Do you want to see me naked?” were at the top of his list.
“Oh, for the Pete and all his love!” Arina hollered next to them, making both Borys and Misha jump. The tigress glared at them, obviously annoyed by their affectionate display. “Stop with the making out already.”
Borys and Misha didn’t get a chance to tell her Aunt Arina to calm down, that they were about to leave, because Paxton took that moment to make a roar of his own.
“Who’s Pete? And why do you want his love?”
As Borys took in the other bear’s crazy eyes staring down at the tigress, he knew one thing for sure: him and his cookie needed to get the fuck out of there.
Chapter Nine
“Are you sure my aunt will be okay back at the den with that crazy bear?”
Misha’s heart was hammering away in her chest. Borys had just swung her up into his arms and carried her out of the den, telling his clan mate, “Hope you two have fun! We’ll see you tomorrow,” before carrying her out of the Grayslake den and over to a truck.
Setting her inside on the passenger seat, his scent wrapped around her, so she knew this must be his vehicle. That didn’t stop her from trying to open the door and get out of the truck so she could storm back into the den and check on her aunt.
Borys caught her by the back of her pants before she could get of the truck and pulled her back in, leaning over to shut her door shut again.
With his sexy rumble, he told her, “They’re fine. I swear.”
“How can you be so sure?”
He started the truck and pulled away, turning onto the road that would lead them out the way they had come in. “Cookie, Paxton wouldn’t hurt a hair on your aunt’s head.”
Now she was getting good and frustrated with the man that the powers that be had given to her as her mate. “You don’t know that!”
He snorted. “But I do, sweetheart. Couldn’t you tell by the way they were acting? Paxton and Arina are also fated mates.”
Misha’s jaw dropped open in shock. She had no idea what to say. No, she hadn’t noticed such a thing! Probably because bears acted so differently than the tigers she was used to dealing with.
Tigers rarely mated. She could only guess it was more in their animalistic nature to be loners. The fact that they had a pride and didn’t have separate territories where they stayed isolated on their own was a miracle. Misha had never heard of any other tiger shifters living together like that before. Of course, her tiger family had done everything they could to keep
her shielded and protected from the world outside of their territory, anyway, so there might be a lot about shifters and mating she didn’t know about.
Borys interrupted her jumbled thoughts. “That’s because bears do it better, baby.”
Confused at his out of nowhere remark, she asked, “Wait, what? What do bears do better?”
Borys laughed at her. “You just said you hadn’t noticed such a thing because bears act so differently than the tigers you grew up with. I’m telling you; we act differently because we do it better.”
First, Misha hadn’t realized she had said that out loud. Secondly, she couldn’t help asking the burning question in her mind. “What exactly do bears do better than tigers, hmm?”
She watched as a cocky smile spread across his face.
“Everything, cookie. We do everything better. Just wait until I get you to my house. I’ll be happy to prove that point to you in the bedroom.”
This was probably one of those times an experienced woman would have a saucy comeback to give her partner as verbal foreplay. Problem was, Misha had never done any of this before. That was probably why she found herself saying, “But I have no one to compare you to. How will I know you’ll be better?”
Tires squealed as Borys’s truck came to a screeching stop. Misha barely managed to throw her hands out to catch the dashboard in time before her body hit it from the momentum.
When she looked over at the crazy man behind the wheel, she gasped. Borys’s eyes were almost glowing they were so bright, and they now looked so heated. The look was that of pure need, the likes she had never seen any man give a woman before.
“You’re a virgin?” he asked her in a guttural voice.
“Yes,” she whispered back softly before licking her lips nervously.
Borys’s eyes followed the track of her tongue and growled, not in warning, but in want. He still had that look on his face but, if anything, he now looked like he was ready to eat her alive in all sorts of delicious ways.