KIKO (MC Bear Mates Book 3)

by Becca Fanning

  “I’m sorry,” she confessed. “I-I don’t know why I find it so hard to talk about this stuff.”

  “Because you’re a teenager at heart and in your head where love’s concerned.” He jerked a shoulder. “I don’t have to like it to understand it. And the words aren’t important. You show me you love me all the time. I just wish we’d had more of that to explore one another.”

  She shook her head. “No. I think this has all worked out perfectly.”

  “You do?” His surprise was evident. “We barely see each other.”

  “That’s not true. We sleep together, wake together, eat together. I know where you are, and you know where I am. If I need you, I can find you. Easily. We’re together more than most people. And I think this space your business has given us has actually helped. Just because I was ready to be claimed doesn’t mean I can deal with normal stuff. This has given me time to grow.

  “I like that you kiss me in the morning now. I didn’t at first. I was hesitant and uncomfortable about it. Now, I like holding hands, where before my palms were sweaty and I was worried you’d feel it. You’re right when you say some parts of me are like a teenager. This time where we’ve both been so busy is helping me catch up.”

  He blew out a breath. “If you say it’s for the best for you, then it’s the best for both of us.” He pulled back a little then started to sink back against the mattress. When he was staring up at the ceiling, he asked, “Will you be happy here, Mischa?”

  She joined him, staring up at the same view as him. “At the MC or in America?”

  “Both, I guess.”

  “In America, yes. Because you’re here. In the MC, same thing really. I’ll be glad when you have more legitimate businesses. We always went out of our way to avoid this kind of thing in Ukraine, so it goes against the grain for me to be handling it as Annette’s assistant. But I like it, actually. It’s different. And when things are on a more legal footing, there will be more businesses and more things to do. I like to keep busy,” she admitted. “It keeps me on my toes.”

  When she reached for his hand, he squeezed her fingers and allowed a silence to develop between them. It was something special he’d noticed the two of them could share—peace. They didn’t need to always be talking, always chatting about some shit or other. They could sit together in peace and quiet, letting their thoughts overtake them with no acrimony.

  Kiko’s head was filled with thoughts of the future. He knew she could read his mind and knew she might fear what would likely be happening in the upcoming days, but she surprised him. She sat up, and in two smooth moves, lifted her leg, swooped over him, and came to a sitting position in his lap.

  He stared up at her in shock and asked, “Couldn’t get into a comfortable position on the bed?”

  She chuckled, pressed her hands either side of his head, and murmured, “I think my mate needs distracting.”

  “Always,” he teased, knowing where she was going and grateful she was indeed taking his mind off what had just happened in the yard. “Especially if it involves you on my lap.”

  She smirked and lowered herself so that her hair fell into cascading curtains around their heads. He could smell wildflowers from her shampoo as well as the clean scent of jasmine from her perfume. It was like being wrapped up in her, and he fucking loved it.

  She nipped at his bottom lip, teasing him with the promise of a kiss. After, she soothed the nip with a quick flutter of her tongue before doing it again, this time on the upper lip. When she traced his Cupid’s bow, he shuddered, never having realized how sensitive he was there.

  Trust her to have discovered it.

  He let her taste him, let her explore him. If she needed time and space to get used to the sexual side of her nature, then he’d give it to her. She was his now, and that was all that mattered. He could wait, would always wait for her to be ready for him.

  All he’d done all his life was wait for her, and it was his honor to let her grow, to let her ready herself for being his mate fully.

  He fought temptation when she started to kiss him in earnest though. His hands craved to lock onto her hips, to guide her frustrated rocking. When she mewled against his mouth, impatience and frustration combining in the one sound, only then did he help her settle into a smooth motion that had the length of her pussy rocking against his denim-covered shaft. Through her thin linen pants, she would undoubtedly feel every inch of him, and he got off on the idea of her climaxing in this way.

  In his head, he prepared himself, wanting to capture the moment she came as she used his body for her pleasure. It was his turn to groan against her mouth, to stab his hips up, countering hers so that she could feel the full impact of him against her.

  When her breath turned into sharp pants and her hands were tugging at his hair, he knew she was close. He wanted to help but also wanted her to find the pleasure for herself. But just as she seemed to find the right spot, a knock sounded at the door.

  Before he could tell whoever was behind it to fuck off, it slammed open, and Mundo appeared in the jamb. He’d kill him. Kiko would throttle him for daring to look upon his mate as she sought her pleasure. But as he focused on his brother, he saw the glassy shock on his face and knew that it didn’t come from seeing Mischa on his lap.

  “Mundo?” he bit off when the younger man seemed incapable of speech. “What the hell is it?”

  His brother’s mouth worked, helplessly or so it seemed until he cracked out and blew Kiko’s world wide open. “It’s Justiss. Kiko, I-I think he’s dead.”

  FIN

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  Dietrich

  Bear Dating Agency I

  by

  Becca Fanning

  The night of June 4th was horrific, embarrassing and terrifying. On June 5th, Elise Davenport thought that her life couldn’t possibly get any worse. She was wrong.

  For starters, she was lost in the woods. Elise had entered the wilds of Fairhaven Park about an hour ago, chatting away to her agent about the disaster of the night before, only to find that when she hung up the call, she had veered off the path. The sun had long-since settled into the blackness of night, turning leafy green trees into heaps of shadow. Elise’s spine tingled with cold, despite the balmy air of a summer night in the California countryside. Something was very, very wrong.

  And that something was a bear.

  Elise wasn’t sure what she was looking at, at first, but she froze on the spot, staring into the forest ahead. The huge lumbering shape made a move, just a few steps forward, and suddenly it was fully defined. Elise saw the impossibly wide, shaggy head of brown fur, and the huge paws with long, curling claws. The bear had small, dark eyes, which caught the moonlight and reflected it in silver discs. It took a few more steps, out of the foliage and straight into Elise’s path.

  Frozen with fear, Elise could only imagine the horror of being mauled to death by a bear. It was a grizzly too, which was totally impossible for California, yet there it was in all its hefty glory. People wouldn’t believe that this was how she’d died. They’d imagine that she had faked her own death, rather than face the backlash of the biggest mistake of her modelling career. When the bear took a sudden lunge, a deep growl caught in its throat, Elise lost her thoughts completely.

  And then, as if fate didn’t hate her enough, another bear entered the small clearing.

  It was even larger than the first, and slightly darker in color. The fur seemed to glisten as if it was wet, picking up silver strands of reflected moonlight. Elise’s body shivered, her breathing escaping in stunted puffs of air. The new bear glanced her way, and its eyes were golden. Even in the depth of night, those two shining orbs burned like sunlight. It was both the most beautiful and terrifying thing she had ever seen. The two grizzlies faced off, each eyei
ng the other for a long, silent moment.

  Elise took one step, daring to try and back away. At her movement, the golden-eyed bear leapt in front of her, teeth bared to its smaller adversary. Elise heard the clash of gigantic muscles as the creatures started to tussle, and her breathing gave way to a cry. Every blow was powerfully violent, and Elise willed her shaking legs to work again. The golden-eyed bear was beating the other one back, but that surely meant that he wanted this tall, blonde woman for his very own midnight snack. Elise couldn’t afford to be around when that moment came.

  She ran for all she was worth, racing desperately towards any sign of life.

  * * *

  “You poor thing,” Anina soothed. “Here, have another sip of cocoa.”

  The morning sun was peeking over the horizon by the time that Elise found the Rangers’ Lodge. Shaking and terrified, she’d been welcomed into the three-story cabin by an elderly lady with small, hunched shoulders. Her face was streaked with silver wrinkles, and behind her glasses there was a kind gaze that shone through milky-amber eyes. The woman had introduced herself as Anina Best, and at first glance, Elise felt safe with her.

  “I guess I can afford the calories, after all that running,” Elise said in a hoarse tone.

  “Who thinks about calories after a bear attack?” Anina asked in reply.

  Elise gave a shrug, her disheveled blonde hair flicking out at strange angles.

  “That’s the model mentality,” she supposed.

  Elise had only been modelling in LA for the last year, after leaving college with a degree she probably wouldn’t use and a huge pile of debts to pay back. She’d been getting pretty good at it too, until she’d put her foot in her mouth at the Shine Awards. She tried her hardest to push the embarrassment back again, burying her face in the steamy mug of chocolate heaven. When the warm, gooey liquid had calmed her nerves, her voice became smooth and bright again.

  “Thank you so much for your kindness,” she told Anina. “I’m supposed to be renting a cabin on the West Ridge. I didn’t realize it’d be so far to get to on foot.”

  “Are you the last minute booking? Miss Davenport?” Anina asked.

  Elise gave a nod. Anina pulled herself to her feet, shuffling gently over to a large door made of pale wood. The room they were in was decked in the same timber, and filled with comfortable easy chairs and coffee tables. It was a place designed for guests. It even had a flickering fireplace, despite the total lack of a need for extra heat. Anina had called out into the hall from the doorway, and Elise quickly realized that she hadn’t spoken in English.

  “Are you European?” she asked as Anina came back to her chair. “I thought I heard something in your accent before.”

  “The Bests are a German family originally,” Anina explained with a nod. “Ah, and here they are.”

  As her words faded, four huge guys entered the room. At once Elise thought of how awful she must have looked after fleeing through the woods, and she tried to calm her wayward hair with a nonchalant hand. Two of the young men looked fairly similar, both with shaggy blonde hair that was in need of a cut, and they were flanked by a darker, more lithe guy and a brown-haired man with a look of contempt on his face. None of them were past twenty-five, and they all had muscles bulging beneath their Park Ranger uniforms.

  “My grandsons,” Anina said, beaming. “Benedikt, Kurt, Hartwin and Reinicke.”

  They were standing in that order, and each one nodded at their name. Except for the last one.

  “Ry-ni-ka,” Elise said, sounding it out, “that’s an interesting name.”

  “I’m an interesting guy,” Reinicke replied, in a tone flatter than roadkill. “Gram, can I go? You don’t need all of us to handle a bear scare.”

  Anina gave a rueful little nod, and the one called Reinicke made his escape. On his way out of the room there was the sound of a clash, and suddenly a fifth man pushed his way through the middle of the group. He was bare-chested, a towel clinging to his huge shoulders. Elise let her eyes travel over the rippling muscles of his abdomen as he heaved for breath.

  “You called, Gram?” he asked, in a deep, smooth voice. “What’s happening?”

  His eyes travelled to Elise, and it was not the fact that he was tall, dark and handsome which took her breath away. When he looked straight at her, his eyes were golden. Elise knew that she had seen those deep, burning eyes before. Silenced by her shock, Elise’s gaze travelled to Anina’s other grandsons, and now they were all looking straight at her too. All of them had those golden eyes. And perhaps, behind her glasses and the pale cloudiness of old age, Anina had them too.

  “Why are you all wet, Dietrich?” Anina chided. “You should be in uniform for morning patrol.”

  Dietrich looked down at his bare chest, one hand raised somewhat protectively over his damp skin.

  “Night swimming,” he explained, “but something came up.”

  Elise caught sight of something dark as Dietrich moved his arm. She must have mistaken it for a shadow initially, but the light of the fireside suddenly revealed its true nature. Dietrich had a huge, fresh bruise emerging down his right side. Benedikt, who appeared to resemble Dietrich closely, gave a wince and sucked his teeth.

  “How in the hell did you do that, bro?” he asked.

  Dietrich’s eyes flashed to Elise for the briefest moment. Another flash of gold.

  “That’s not important right now,” he replied. “Gram, who’s this young lady?”

  “Young lady,” Anina said with a grin. “You’re so formal, Dietrich. Why, I’ll bet she’s your age. Twenty-two.”

  Anina looked to Elise, and she gave an apologetic shrug.

  “Twenty-one,” she corrected.

  “Close enough,” Anina replied. “This is Elise Davenport. She’s taking a little vacation from LA, but she encountered two of our grizzlies off the Northern trail.”

  “I’ll bet one of them was Silo,” said the guy called Kurt. “He was a rescue from a Russian Circus. He doesn’t understand that he shouldn’t get so close to people. Hey Ben, you wanna put fifty bucks on it being Silo?”

  “This is the hardly the time, Kurt,” Ben replied. He ran a hand through his dark hair. “I ought to draw up a report.”

  When Ben moved to the far end of the room, heading for a wide wooden desk, Kurt followed him with a burr of low chatter. Elise found her eyes drawn to Dietrich again. He stood tall now that he’d stopped panting for breath, and his body was peppered with black hairs, the same dark shade as those on his head. He had a shadow of stubble on his square jaw, which he scratched at with a large, strong hand. Another flash of gold shot her way.

  “Can I ask about the grizzlies?” Elise said tentatively. “I mean, I didn’t think we had any outside of San Diego Zoo.”

  “Fairhaven’s a sanctuary for the grizzly bear,” said Hartwin. He had a softer jawline than the other grandsons, and he smiled whenever he spoke. “Most people who come here go trekking to try and spot them. But you didn’t know?”

  Elise shook her head.

  “Then why did you come, dear?” Anina asked. “Peace and quiet in the cabins?”

  “Something like that,” Elise answered. “I, uh… The place was actually recommended by my friend Karina. Karina Vasquez.”

  Anina’s face lit up like the roaring fire behind her.

  “Oh, we know Karina Vasquez!” she exclaimed with delight. “All of my boys are signed up to her dating agency. Well, all except Reinicke, but we’ll fix that one of these days.”

  “Good luck!” Kurt chipped in from the far end of the room.

  Anina shook her head, and reached out to take hold of Elise’s hands. Her gaze was conspiratorial, greedy even.