Bearlebrity: (BWWM) Paranormal BBW Bear Shifter Romance Standalone (12 page)

It wasn’t exactly how she’d planned the night with him going. She felt his forehead. He’d be okay. His wounds were already healing. The other bear had gotten the worst of it, and any blood had been wiped away with the snow when he’d fallen.

She’d gotten her mate safely home, and now her body was tired. She curled against him and let herself fall asleep, holding the blankets tight around them, and listening to the gentle winter wind outside.

She was with him, so for now, everything was all right. She just hoped things worked out in the morning. There was a lot to talk about. And there was so much more she wanted to do than talk.

L
eslie woke
the next morning to see two curious, almost accusing, hazel eyes staring down at her. But they were beautiful eyes, and she was happy to see them.

“Riley,” she said softly, happy to see him looking better, even if he did seem a bit confused.

He rubbed his head. He was wearing a loose tee shirt that nonetheless clung to his powerful shoulders and bulging pecs, and wool pajama pants. He was sitting with one leg on the ground and the other tucked under him on the bed. “I don’t remember that much after the fight. How did we get here?”

She swallowed. “I saved you.”

He let out a rough laugh. “No, really. Did Ryan come after me?”

She snorted and sat up against the headboard. “What, is it so unbelievable that I could come after you? I’m a bear, too, you know.”

He shook his head, not even hearing her. “I know what you saw terrified you. I’m sorry, when I saw Rex threatening you, I couldn’t even think. But I promise, I’ll keep that part of me under wraps—”

“I’m a bear,” she said again, tilting her head at him curiously, wondering why he seemed not to hear her.

He ignored her, gesturing with his hands. “I’ll take good care of you. I’ll make sure I never scare you, and I’ll keep every last male away from you, even if I have to—”

He stopped only when she kneeled in front of him, holding his face in both of her hands, forcing him to look at her.

“Riley, I’m a freaking bear.”

He blinked. His lashes were long enough that any woman would envy them. But she could feel his masculine heat, his strong, arousing presence, even just being this close to him. He was all man. Well, half bear.

“What?”

“I’m a bear, too. That’s how I came after you.”

He blinked again, his face totally blank. “Well, that makes a lot of stuff make more sense,” he said weakly. He pulled her away from his face and ran his strong hands over her shoulders, down over her legs, as if reassuring himself that she was okay, every part of her. “Are you all right?”

“Yes,” she said, smiling. “Better now that I know you’re fine.”

“Thank you for coming for me,” he said. “I was being stupid.”

“I’m assuming there’s a reason,” she said patiently. Then her stomach let out a growl, and his answered.

“Well, it can wait until after breakfast,” he said. “I owe you.”

“I owe you, too,” she called after him, as he bounced off the bed and strode into the kitchen. She pulled the robe tighter around her, grateful for the belt that had held it closed during the night. As much as she wanted to get naked with Riley Hart, this wasn’t the right time for it.

She followed him into the kitchen and saw him rummaging in the fridge. “What do we have?”

“Not a lot,” he said. “Just Ryan’s typical snowboard grub. We have eggs though, and cheese. I can make up an omelet.”

“Great, sounds fancy,” she said, grinning.

“Great.”

She settled at the small kitchen table and looked out over the snowy mountain. This would be a perfect morning, alone in an isolated mountain lodge with everything they needed. Except for the fact that both of them had just found out that the other was a bear, and now they needed to talk about it.

But food first, of course. She needed to keep up her strength for the make-up sex. She smiled at that thought and looked up when he let out a little growl at the stove.

There was something sexy about a tall man in his pajamas cooking breakfast in the morning. Something settled and domestic about it. “What’s wrong?” she asked, amused by how flustered he seemed to be.

“It might not be an omelet.” He made another attempt at flipping and she heard a hissing sound like cheese on a pan. “It might be scrambled eggs,” he grumbled.

“Well, it’ll still taste good, I’m sure,” she said, as he served it onto a plate and brought it to her.

“My kind of woman,” he said. “Not picky.”

“Oh, I can be picky,” she said. “I’m quite picky, for example, in my choice of men.”

“Oh, are you?” he asked. “I hadn’t noticed.”

“Yup,” she said. “So I’m glad you came between me and Rex. I was coming over to see you, you know.”

“No problem, I couldn’t help myself,” he said. “Wait, you were?”

“Yes. I was just trying to get up the courage to come tell you I’d screwed up. My friends pointed out that I tend to sabotage things when it seems like they’re getting too good.”

“You’re afraid of getting hurt,” he said, turning off the stove and joining her at the table with his plate of eggs. He looked out the window and silence settled over the table, along with a feeling of anticipation, and an awareness that only came over her body when he was hear her.

She tingled all over at the thought of touching him again. But as hard as the emotional stuff was, it had to be dealt with first.

“So, um, you’re a bear?” she asked, poking at her eggs when she’d eaten enough.

“Yes,” he said. “And you’re a bear too?”

“Yes.”

He laughed, leaning back with a hand on his flat stomach. “Don’t that just beat all.”

“I know. How did we miss it?”

“I guess we both are just really repressed. And really care about each other.” His warm eyes met hers, and there was a hint of a question in them, as if he was asking her if she felt the same way.

“Definitely,” she said. “Why did you run away after the fight, though?”

“I’ll tell you that if you tell me why you dumped me for no reason. Why you run away from commitment.”

“Deal,” she said. “I already knew we had to discuss both those things, if I came up here with you.”

“And you came,” he said quietly, leaning forward and resting his chin on his hands, intertwining the long, tan fingers. “So here we are.” He took a deep breath and looked out the window again. “My mother was human. My dad never mate-claimed her. When a shifter mates with a human, there’s a ritual. He or she has to accept the shifter’s form. Kiss it, to be specific.”

“And that’s all?”

“Well, and then the typical mate claiming. Mutually orgasmic, unprotected sex.”

“Ah,” she said.

“But once one part has been performed, the other is sure to follow soon thereafter.”

“I see.”

“So anyway, he never showed her who he was. I don’t know if he was afraid to show her, or what. He married her, but back then, bear society was very intense about trying to persuade the males to mate as much as possible in hopes of continuing the species. Bears aren’t the most fertile of animals, generally. Bear shifters are a little better, but there are fewer of us to start with.”

“Wait, so what are you saying?”

Riley closed his eyes in a pained expression, and she regretted asking. But she had to know. “He cheated on her. Frequently. One night, while he was gone, I wanted to cheer her up. I was little. I had just learned how to shift. Dad had told us never to show Mom, had warned us against it harshly, but I was never good with rules. And I was faster to shift than my other brothers. Looking back with a clear head, I guess if I hadn’t revealed myself, eventually they would have. But, after what happened…”

Leslie felt dread coil in her stomach. “What happened?”

He sunk his face into his hands and then dragged them down his face as he looked back up and out the window. Then he sighed. “I don’t know if I can talk about it. Well…let’s just say it didn’t go well. I scared her. Again, with clear eyes, it makes sense. But as a kid, it was just…rejection. She screamed, and she ran. She got in the car.”

“Oh no.”

“Oh yes,” he said, eyes looking glazed with pain. “It was icy on the roads. Someone had been drinking. I didn’t know that until I talked to Ryan last night, when he was trying to talk some sense into me about you.”

Leslie sighed. “That boy has sense about everyone but himself. You should have seen him with Kylie the other night. He was quite the possessive bear himself.”

Riley laughed. “Really? I wanted to ask him about that, when he mentioned it, but I got distracted by the fact that he said you were leaving the cabin with Rex.” A dark expression went over his face at the memory, and she reached out to touch his hand.

“It’s okay. Anyway, what happened that night?”

“We got a phone call.”

“No.” At the thought of him, sitting there, blaming himself for what happened, she felt like her heart was being wrung out like a dishrag. “I’m so sorry.”

“She was gone. No one knew what I had done, but I knew it was my fault. I knew I could never show a woman that. And in order to claim a mate, you have to. And I didn’t even know if there were female bears out there. It doesn’t help that the promiscuity of male bears meant that there were potential half shifters scattered around willy-nilly.”

She laughed bitterly. “Like me.”

“Oh,” he said, wincing. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I guess I’ll just tell you now, then. My dad left us before I was even born. I don’t think he even knew if I was a shifter. My mother was bitter. So bitter. She’d known he was a bear, but he hadn’t mate-claimed her. I don’t think she knew what that was.”

“He must have been an asshole,” Riley said. “To risk missing out on a daughter like you.”

“Thank you,” she said, smiling up at him. They remained silent for a minute, letting the pain of the past hover over the table.

“So what now?” she asked, when he didn’t speak.

He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry, was lost in thought. It’s been a lot of change in a very short period. I mean, Ryan knows now, and presumably Ryder knows, too. I always thought they would hate me. And now the woman I was determined to stay with forever even if I had to hide that side of me, turns out to have the same side to her.”

She nodded, a slight smile curving her lips as she drank orange juice from her mug.

“So, it’s like, my mind is just blown,” he said, gesturing to match and making her smile.

“Mine too,” she said. “But then again, you’ve been blowing my mind since I met you.”

“So, we’re good?” he asked, scooting his chair closer so he could take her hand in his. “Because, as much as I am willing to be with you otherwise, being with you like this is some kind of a dream come true.”

She looked up at him, her eyes feeling wet. She blinked to make sure no tears showed up. “We’re good,” she said. “If you can forgive me for dumping you. And for making you think I was like your mother, making you run off after the fight.”

He nodded. “Nothing to forgive, and I wasn’t going to let you dump me anyway.”

“Oh, really?” she asked skeptically, leaving her hand in his but leaning back to look at him. “Just what did you plan to do about it, Riley Hart?”

“I—”

“Because you certainly didn’t fight me on it when it happened.”

“I had to retreat,” he said, pulling on her hand to draw her closer so he could put a hand up to catch the happy tear that was welling on her lashes. He brushed it aside and kissed her where it had been. “I had to go strategize. I won’t hurt you again.”

She laughed happily. “Unlikely. People hurt each other. Especially when they love each other.”

He pulled back with a quick intake of air. “What?”

She looked up at him. Too late to take it back now. And why hide it? They’d already been as vulnerable as they could be to each other. And they were both of the same kind, so there was no point denying each other anymore. The only thing that remained to be seen was if he would mate-claim her. But instead of running, she was just going to tell him how she felt and let him respond however he would.

“I love you,” she said sincerely, looking up into his eyes. “I think I loved you instantly. I know it sounds crazy. But it’s like my bear knew before I did. I know you probably don’t believe me.”

“I believe you,” he said quickly, putting his forehead to hers. “Because my bear felt the same way. I was just determined not to listen to him. From the moment I met you, before I even realized it consciously, I was telling my brothers you were mine, and warning them away.”

“Really?” she asked.

“Yes, I think I told them the one with the curls would be warming my bed.”

“Ah,” she said. “I see.”

He nuzzled his nose to hers. “Don’t take it wrong. I was a douche. I’d never even had a thought about committing to a woman back then.”

“I get it,” she said. “We think things in whatever mindset we’re in at the time.”

“And after that, I knew I couldn’t stop until you were mine. I had that party, and even with all of those friends around, I just wanted to see you. I hate Ben for what he did to you, but I’m glad I got a chance to be close to you.” He wrinkled his nose. “I should have known, though, that I was gone for you, when I got into a fight in your hallway just at the thought of him touching you. Not to mention how I responded to Rex.”

“Do you think that happened because you knew he was a bear, subconsciously?”

“It’s possible,” he said, lowering his head. “I can’t
believe
I didn’t know you were one. I’m so dumb.”

“We’re both pretty ridiculous,” she said. “But you can push things really far down when you want to. When you’re really motivated.”

“I can’t push down how much I love you,” he said, cupping her face in his hands, looking into her eyes with an intensity that set her blood on fire.

“I’m glad. I don’t want you to push that down, because I can’t push it down either.”

He grinned. “I’m glad.”

“So, what happens now, Mister Hollywood Celebrity?”

He shrugged, still holding her face gently. “I have enough money. I think I’ll go out of the industry while I’m still hot. Just mysteriously disappear. Fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be anyway. It’s just a way to be alone while surrounded by people.”

“You don’t have to be alone anymore,” she said, wrapping her arms around him.

“I know,” he said, lowering his mouth to hers until they were just a breath apart. “Can I mate-claim you, Leslie?” His lips tickled hers, and she burned for him.

“Yes,” she murmured, and his lips closed over her answer.