Wylde Den, Book Three
Alaskan Den Men Collection
TALINA PERKINS
Bear Their Secret
Copyright © 2016 by Talina Perkins
Excerpt from BEAR HIS BOND
copyright© 2016 Talina Perkins
Excerpt from SNOWBOUND WITH HER CHRISTMAS BEAR
copyright© 2016 Talina Perkins
WWW.TALINAPERKINS.COM
Edited by Em Petrova
Cover Artist: Bookin' It Designs
All rights are reserved. No Part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s permission.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Bear His Bond, Wylde Den #3
As search and rescue and partners in Wylde Excursions, breaking hearts and loving wild is what Lorne Wylde and Kohl Logan do best. Inseparable from childhood, both bear shifters share almost everything. Including their women. But the second they meet the new linguist teacher in town the heat of the mating season hits them harder than an iceberg. No one warned them Cherry’s luscious, curvy body and alluring taste would become so addictive.
Newly single Cherry Kennedy loved everything about the vast, wild state of Alaska. Especially the way they grew their men. Dark-haired, chiseled to perfection, and the sexiest whiskey eyes. Cherry is hesitant to risk her heart, but her body is ready for a hot one-night stand with Claw Ridge’s most eligible werebear bachelors. Basking in the magic of Alaska’s midnight sun, Cherry’s one passion-fueled night turns into two scorching months.
But the magic stops when reality crashes in and threatens to take her away from the men she’s falling for. After an accident results in a trip to the ER—and some unexpected news—she quickly discovers walking away isn’t an option. But is Cherry strong enough for the bond of two alpha werebears and can she survive risking it all for a family she never thought possible?
A Paranormal werebear romance featuring TWO possessive alpha shifters and a woman learning to trust for the first time.
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Wylde Den Book 1: Bear His Mark – Out Now
Wylde Den Book 2: Bear His Bond – Out Now
Wylde Den Book 3: Bear Their Secret –Out Now
Wylde Den Book 4: Snowbound With Her Christmas Bear – Out Now
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title
Copyright
Foreword
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Note From Talina
Excerpt: Bear His Bond
Excerpt: Snowbound With Her Christmas Bear
Other Books by Talina
Talina Writing as Roma Frost Hart
About Author
Complete Alaskan Den Men Collection
CHAPTER ONE
“So you’re saying there’s no such thing as a half werebear?”
Cherry pressed her lips together in the attempt to smother a laugh. With her cell phone balanced between her shoulder and chin, it proved to be a challenge to wipe leftover food off tables, gather empty plates left behind by the lunch hour crowd and convince her younger sister shifter babies didn’t come out looking like mythical centaurs with claws.
“I’m just saying I haven’t seen one running around the backwoods of Alaska anytime in the past ten months I’ve been here.” Not that she’d had a lot of time on her hands outside of teaching and working part-time as a waitress to help her sister through med school. As it was, school loans would be haunting them for the next decade.
“What a shame. Now that would be something worth seeing. Instead of kicking up dust ’round here.” Restlessness strung across the wires and Cherry did everything not to sigh too heavily in her sister’s ear. Over the last few months something had changed with each phone call home. Every time she pushed the subject Sabine became cagey and ended the phone call before they really had a chance to talk. Something was up, but she wouldn’t get any answers over the phone. So she went for neutral ground.
“Mrs. Silva still giving you trouble about Jinx?” Their black cat earned the infamous spot at the top of their landlord’s shit list the second day they moved in and remained number one ever since.
“This time the little rascal found a way out to dare sit on her balcony. The chaos that ensued earned me a solid ten-minute balling out. Timed it too.”
Cherry shuffled the phone to the other ear and propped it up with her shoulder as she moved to another table. “Sabine, we can’t afford to get kicked out of this apartment.”
“I know I know. I’ll keep the little fur ball inside.”
“Please. I don’t want to come home to miles of boxes and bubble wrap.”
“When do you get back into town?”
Cherry cleared her throat and scraped at a piece of something on the polished surface of the table. “Soon.” She gathered several empty plates and stacked them in her tub rather than talk about leaving or what—or rather who— awaited her back in Houston.
Obviously, her sister didn’t get the silent memo. Her sweet, Southern drawl did not come close to softening the bomb she dropped. “You know he still calls here asking for you? It’s gotten to where I’ve canceled our landline. A couple of your friends spotted him circling the parking lot outside your former school, too.”
Cherry shuddered as though the reaper raked his deadly claws over her cold grave, looking for the soul he’d nearly collected. Instinct drew her hand to her lower abdomen where the knife her ex used to convey to her that if he couldn’t have her, no one could. He’d left a jagged scar on more than just her body.
Stick to the facts. The facts provided safety, she always told her sister and it would do good for her to remember as well. He couldn’t reach her anymore. He couldn’t hurt her again. No one would have that power over her again.
Suddenly metal grated against the hardwood flooring, tearing her attention away from the past. She jerked her head around as several rowdy tourists, muddied and pumped full of adrenaline from a successful morning climb, kicked back from their bar stools, cheering for a brave soul who was just dared to try the limits of his manhood with the drink that carried the bar’s namesake.
She let out a shaky breath and dragged in another for good measure. One sign of weakness in a crowd like this and her whole past would become headline news in a town this small.
Poor sucker.
To put it nicely, the showoff would be in the bathroom in less than ten minutes heaving, but it sure as hell made for good entertainment. Cherry smiled. He wouldn’t forget Claw Ridge anytime soon.
Another fact, nor would she.
Feet pounded the wooden flooring and roars bounced off the four walls until she thought the hanging glasses would vibrate loose from the fixed strips above their heads. As it was, bottles rattled on their shelves as five guys the size of linebackers
knocked their glasses against the polished wood of the bar before tossing back some hardcore alcohol.
“There’s enough commotion there to wake the freaking dead. In Russia.”
It helped pound out the bad and lifted a smile from her. “Crazy tourists fall for it every time.” Shot glasses rimmed with Habanera pepper juice and filled with home brewed shine so damn pure it put the Southern boys’ hooch to shame. The man responsible for the ‘experience of a lifetime,’ as he called it, tossed a knowing wink her way. Rone, the quiet one of the Wylde siblings, had a bit of a dark, humorous side to him not many witnessed. He and Kohl, Lorne’s best friend, had a lot in common. Even their quiet voices were similar, but neither needed a booming voice to be heard.
Rone leaned against the back bar, arms crossed over a barrel chest with his sleeves rolled up to reveal bits of tattoos on his large forearms.
Cherry shook her head at his antics and turned her attention back to the phone as she moved to the other end of the bar and grill to clear the last of her tables before her break.
“So, back to centaur shifters. If there are no half werebears...”
Clearly aware of the fact her sister was teasing, Cherry took it over talking about him. Her abusive ex didn’t hold enough respect for the power of a restraining order. She shuddered at the thought of seeing those dead black eyes and that sneering smirk of his again. Maybe if she had been the kind of woman he wanted. Quiet, dainty, and a good little politician’s wife with a servant’s heart, things would have worked out.
That was as likely to happen as it was to snow in Fiji. Still, she hated looking like a failure when her little sister looked to her for guidance. Another reason she needed to cut ties here and move on before saying goodbye became too hard.
One week wasn’t a lot of time to mentally prepare, but she couldn’t blame anyone else for her procrastinating the inevitable. Her final paycheck cleared in five days and there wasn’t anything else tying her to Claw Ridge. Neither Lorne Wylde nor Kohl Blackthorne made a move beyond enjoying her company in the evenings and she didn’t voice anything in the contrary or try to hold them back as they slipped from her bed long before morning.
She swallowed the lie, the lump hardening into a ball of weighted dread before she could work it past her throat. She dreaded the sound of the deadbolt sliding into place as they retreated yet lived for the whispered promises of their return. Both men occupied her thoughts every free minute of the day which meant one cold hard fact: she’d formed a connection despite her efforts to the contrary. How did she end up in this mess?
Two sets of sexy whiskey-colored eyes and husky voices is how.
“You there? Did you hear my question? What makes the men there so special?”
Cherry pressed the phone close to her mouth and whispered, “There is one thing. The alphas here have two penises.”
Silence fed through the line before a string of bubbly laughter met her ear.
Snickers and a few sputtered laughs sounded from a few tables down. She dared a look over her shoulder. Heat climbed the back of her neck as Rone shot her a quizzical look from across the bar with a smirk to match. The Wylde smirk as she liked to call it. Every single one of the six siblings had it and used it like a weapon of mass destruction on the poor female population of Claw Ridge.
Whether tourist or homegrown, the effect was the same on everyone that came in contact with a Wylde. She should know. Lorne used his all the time to get out of things he didn’t want or, more recently, things he wanted to get into, such as her panties. Kohl was the perfect partner to complete their trio with his warm golden eyes and heart-melting ability to peel her clothes off with his tender words. The man didn’t talk much, but lawdy, he knew exactly what to say to her when it counted.
With a single shoulder shrug, Cherry wiggled her eyebrows at Rone. She turned on her heels and shuffled to the last table in her section, nearly dropping her cell phone in the process. Thank God she was out of teasing distance on that one.
Gasping for air, Sabine asked, “So how does the oral sex thing work?”
Now she had to laugh. “You’re impossible.”
“Apparently you’re insatiable. How did you ever land two of those bad boys?”
She scanned the booths next to her to make sure it was all clear of eavesdroppers, not that many could hear over the racket from the front of the bar. Everyone in town knew her business with Lorne and his best friend Kohl, but she didn’t have to openly talk about it in front of them and feed the gossip. Old men could sling dirty laundry better than the potluck ladies any day of the week.
“I can’t believe it either, but it’s just a passing thing. Not like it’ll last forever.” She flicked her towel and wiped at a ketchup splatter before gathering leftover bread baskets. “It’s just a little fling to clean my palate.” Another fact she repeated to herself more and more.
“Right. Totally a typical move. You know. Happens to all of us.” Sabine’s voice dripped with sarcasm.
“After Mom died, I had to raise you. Followed by a rotten ass marriage. What’s holding you back?”
“That’s easy.” Her sister snorted. “People.”
She agreed. Until Claw Ridge. Despite the abrasive winters and plummeting temperatures, the people were open and friendly. But Sabine didn’t trust easy smiles and friendly people. Truth be told, neither should she, but Cherry never could be as cold and calculating as her little sister. Probably the reason she danced with the reaper and wished he’d finished the job off right on more than one lonely night.
“Lucky duck is all I’m saying. Two men? Damn, where do you put it all? I mean, you know?” Despite the undertones, her sister’s words struck her hard.
Cherry fumbled and caught herself as a sudden wave of heat struck her in the midsection. Some of the men beside her stood, hands outstretched to help her.
“Hey, sis, everything okay?”
“Yeah.” Cherry waved off her rescuers with a smile as they helped right her and the massive tub of dirty dishes she carried.
“I just tripped,” she answered, “I’m more worried about you. What’s up? You okay?” She deflected her sister’s worry.
“Yep. Dazzling,” Sabine drew out, no doubt kicking back in her favorite chair with some kind of action flick playing in the background of their apartment.
Being dumped at an orphanage and passed around from home to home from the age of ten had a way of hardening a girl’s heart to the world. Cherry understood her sister’s reservations. But she could see through the tough act. Always had.
“Look, I’ll be flying back home by the end of the month. Then maybe we can have a full weekend of just us, some pizza and beer and Die Hard.” Nothing stood a chance against a Kennedy girl’s night of cheap, cheesy food and drinks.
Cherry waved at an older couple coming in for the early bird special before she turned the corner and walked to the back part of the kitchen. “Hey, Mave, got another round for you.”
“Thanks, Teach.” Her former student threw up a sudsy hand and tossed her a smile before returning to his task. His head bopping to the tune in his earbuds. Ah. The bliss of being a teenager.
Cinder blocks weighed down her steps the longer the day dragged out, and her fingers still throbbed from slinging all the frosted mugs and piping hot plates she handled.
Cherry dodged a couple of waitresses and eased out of the way.
“It’s a date, but you sure you wanna come back for old movies when you have two men waiting for you?”
She rounded the corner to the right into the storage room.
“I can hear the hesitation and you didn’t even say anything, sis. You like them, don’t you?”
Like them? She was pretty damn sure she was head over heels for them and that was the problem.
Lorne was the alpha. Pure 100% panty-melting male who took control with both hands and not an ounce of regret. Kohl was fine with being second in the pack, but that didn’t make him any less of an alpha. He knew exactly
how to take control without her realizing until it was too late and she was deep under his spell. The way he worked her body with his whispered words meant only for her had a way of releasing the weight of the world from her shoulders.
Together her men were a lethal combination that she didn’t think she’d shake. Now or ever.
Several waiters bustled behind her, busy preparing for the dinner crowd due in a couple of hours. Cherry tucked herself around the corner and lowered her voice.
Keep to the facts, she reminded herself. “It’s time to cut loose,” Cherry began. “I never planned for this. All I had to do was one year. Collect my bonus check to pay off your tuition for the year and then be back there with you.”
“I’m a grown girl, Cherry. Plus, you can’t keep everything tidy and by the book all the time. Nothing ever goes according to plan, anyway. Life’s messy as fuck. You already know that. Or at least you should.” Her words came softer. “Or when things don’t go right, you just end up hurt.”
She snorted fidgeting with the plastic wrap protecting a stack of paper napkins on the shelf beside her. “That’s a freaking understatement. Since when are you the reasonable one?”
Glass dishes clanked followed by bellowed orders one after another from the cook overseeing evening prep work. Cherry winced.
“I’ve soaked in a few things despite many efforts to the contrary,” her sister teased, and out of nowhere a punch of nostalgia hit Cherry head on. A memory of them as little girls, her sister clutching her hand as the lady from child services with the steely eyes and clipped tone led them away from their mother’s slumped body. As the older sister, she understood the needles and pills spilled across the coffee table, but to Sabine, their mother had left them. Abandoned them to live or die. In a way, she was right.
“You know it's okay, right? To be happy for once?” It seemed her baby sister had grown up in the last year and found a few answers of her own.
Bear Their Secret: Wylde Den Three (Alaskan Den Men Book 12) Page 1