Bearly Cooking (Pacific Northwest Werebears #1) (3 page)

The men that started trickling into the mess hall all stopped right at the entrance and took a deep breath. Some even closed their eyes and smiled before making their way inside and heading straight to the buffet tables.

Sophie introduced herself to anyone that asked. They all raved about the food, she had to stop and make more pancakes twice as she wasn’t quite prepared for the massive quantities of food these hungry men could put away. Something she was definitely going to have to plan for.

Halfway through breakfast, Wyatt managed to stop in. He took one bite of his pancakes drenched in honey butter and compote and picked her up and spun her around. He declared her the fairest princess in the land and the best cook in the country.

Blushing not only that he had picked her up, because no one had ever done that, but that he made the whole room look at her and laugh. They did all end up applauding which helped her feel not so chagrined at everyone staring.

Wyatt told her that Cage wasn’t going to be able to make breakfast. Something had come up with one of the machines and he needed to fix it before the men got started for the day. So she loaded up a Styrofoam container with a heaping helping of the breakfast and asked him to take it to him.

“Anything for you, sugar,” he grinned then gave her a smacking kiss on the cheek before striding out into the sunlight.

Hmm, Americans are a little more hands on than I’m used to, she thought. Turning to the tables she noticed most of the men were starting to head out. She realized that she had some serious cleaning to do before she could even think about preparing dinner. Lucky for her Amos and a few of the injured workers stuck around to help clean up and make the sandwiches. Sophie watched in awe at the mound of white bread and meat sandwiches the men threw together. They then laid out industrial size boxes of chips, cookies and a tray of fruit no one touched.

Across the lot and a few buildings down, Wyatt strode into the office and dropped the container onto a pile of paperwork Cage was sorting through.

“What’s this?” Cage asked, sniffing at the box. The sweet scent of vanilla from the pancakes hit him first, then the luscious aroma of honey.

“Our sugar cookie made breakfast this morning. I know we all agreed it was easier to wait for our mates, but I don’t know if I can resist sniffing around this one,” Wyatt said plopping his ass down in the chair across from Cage’s desk.

“Sugar cookie? Mates? Did you hit your head this morning?” Cage said grumpily. He flicked open the container lid and peered into the stack of pancakes covered in butter and berries and four huge sausages circling the tower of sweet starch.

“Yeah, our new cook, Sophie. You do remember you hired her right? You didn’t tell me she was all hips and ass and cute accent. And damn can she cook!” Wyatt explained.

“First, yes I remember hiring Sophie. I had no idea what she looked like. By her starchy accent I assumed she was older. And why are you even talking about hitting on her? You know you won’t ever be happy with anyone until you find your one true mate. Our family, our clan has never had any luck dating non-mates. Bears need to find The One, anything else isn’t fair to the other person. I know you’ve waited baby brother. Believe me, I’ve been waiting too, so has Conner. But it will be worth it, just look and mom and dad. They waited for their true mates and that’s what I want. I know it’s what you want deep down too,” Cage said giving his brother a sympathetic look.

“I know, I know, but when was the last time you were even around another shifter. Let alone a female bear? They don’t grow on trees you know,” he quipped.

“Smart ass, I know they don’t grow on trees, but your bear won’t let you bond with anyone else. So to tease some poor girl into giving it up just to have you dump her eventually isn’t fair to either of you,” Cage advised.

Letting his head flop back against the chair Wyatt let out a pitiful moan, “This one’s cute though bro’. Try the pancakes,” he taunted.

Cage shook his head at him and dug into the stack of fluffy pancakes. The first bite had his eyes rolling back into his head. A low rumbling groan tumbled from his chest. It was ambrosia, food of the gods. Whoever their new cook was, she was amazing.

Opening his eyes, he continued to chew as Wyatt gave him a knowing smirk. “Don’t you have work to do?” Cage growled.

“Don’t be a grumpy bear, eat your pancakes. I’m taking crew one out to the north ridge. We’re almost done with that section. Conner can have it for replanting after that,” he said standing and walking to the door.

“Fine, and don’t call me grumpy bear. I can take you and pound you. You know it and I know it,” Cage said letting his Alpha timber tinge his words. He watched the shudder hit Wyatt and saw his brother struggle to fight against it.

Wyatt was strong and it gave Cage a huge sense of satisfaction to see his brother fight his Alpha voice. His clan needed to be strong. Bear shifters were few and far between. His family had managed to stay secluded and prosperous for generations by staying strong.

“Alright, boss man,” Wyatt grinned and kicked open the office door.

Leaning back in his chair, Cage continued eating through his breakfast. He did need to introduce himself to the new cook. But he also needed to figure out why the boom arm on the loader wasn’t working. It was fine yesterday and now today it was dead in the water. Introductions would have to wait.

Sophie took two solid hours to clean up after breakfast. She sat down at the tiny desk in her room to go over the inventory she had taken and figure out a meal for dinner. Distracted, her eyes would stray to the dirt lot outside. She watched men coming and going from different buildings. Some, hopping into work trucks, others carrying chainsaws over their shoulders heading to and fro.

Her eye caught on a large man coming out of the building that she now knew was the office. Even from this distance she could see how big he was. He had to duck through the doorway as he stepped out. He was even taller than Wyatt, maybe six foot six, and he was massively built. Broad shoulders and biceps that strained the fabric of his thick long sleeved work shirt.

He had bulging muscled legs she could see pressing against his jeans. He had on a pair of sunglass and his dirty blond hair was just long enough to fall recklessly over his forehead. A short tight beard graced what looked like a strong square jaw.

He was speaking to someone carrying a clipboard when his gaze spun around directly at her. She didn’t think he could actually see her since he was looking back and forth like he was searching for something.

Turning back to the man speaking rather animatedly at him he nodded a few times and started walking to a black pickup truck, the one Wyatt picked her up in last night. Giving the lot one last scanning look, he hopped in and backed out.

Sophie couldn’t help but wonder if this was THE Mr. Rochon. He was cuter than Wyatt if that was possible and obviously bigger. And when his gaze had scanned her direction, even through the sunglasses, Sophie felt a tingle flash through her.

Clearly she was out of practice in the man department. She wasn’t brave enough to fly with her favorite battery operated boyfriend in her luggage, so she would have to take care of any personal issues by hand so to speak.

Turning back to her menu plan, she got settled down to figure out how the heck to keep fifty men fed and happy.

A few hours later, Sophie started in on her dinner plans. Not sure what time the men would be getting back. She planned on meals that would keep tonight. She made up huge trays beef and mushroom lasagna with white sauce. She’d whipped up a couple dozen loves of French bread this afternoon to turn into garlic bread. She found bags of frozen string beans that she worked into a browned butter sauce, and for dessert she put together a lemon curd cake that she had to modify to fit into industrial size trays.

All in all she was quite pleased with her work. She wouldn’t be earning any Michelin stars, but she wouldn’t be ashamed to show her instructors what she’d managed to whip up in the middle of the woods either.

The men started trickling in around six thirty. Some stopped to clean up or shower before dinner. The latecomers came in dirty and exhausted. But they were all more than ready with a kind word and appreciation for the warm meal.

Wyatt stopped in to pick up another plate for Cage, saying that the boss rarely had time to eat with the men. Sophie started to feel bad for him, he must work very hard for his company. She made sure to cut an extra large piece of cake for him to send along with Wyatt. She got a wink and a cheek kiss for that.

Her evening was more predictable after she cleaned up from dinner. She was exhausted and now her jet lag was catching up with her. Her plan was for porridge with honey and scrambled eggs and bacon in the morning. So she didn’t need to be up too early.

She showered and managed to fall face first into her bed and was asleep in minutes. She dreamed about sandy blonde haired men and hot wet kisses.

Waking up at her alarm ringing, her dreams still clinging to her. She took a moment to remember how delicious her dream was. She saw the man that she assumed was her boss, stepping out of the woods. He wasn’t wearing any clothing, he had dirt and bits of leaves and twigs in his hair. He was walking like didn’t have a care in the world. Behind him coming through the brush was a large brown bear. Sophie wanted to yell out and warn him to look behind him. But she watched as he turned towards the bear lumbering his way and he waved.

Was he crazy? The bear slowed, coming up to him and in a shimmer of light the bear became Wyatt, standing just as naked as Cage. Cage gave Wyatt a cuff on the shoulder and they both walked towards the building marked as the lavatory.

Staring at the ceiling, Sophie first tried to figure out why she was thinking about her boss naked. And secondly why on earth did she think about him as a bear? People weren’t bears, did she miss some kind of memo? Was this just the norm in the rugged rainforest of the Pacific Northwest?

Clearly she’d heard too many Bigfoot stories before she moved and her poor brain mushed them all together with her clearly hot boss, equally hot baby brother and the need for a serious orgasm or two.

Looking at the clock Sophie decided fresh air was much more her priority this morning than an orgasm. Jumping up she managed to throw on some warm clothes and headed outside to take a walk before she had to get busy in the kitchen.

Stepping out in to the cool crisp air, she took a deep breath. The air was so fragrant and clean here. It made a body feel good, just letting it seep into your lungs.

She took off to walk the tree line outside the edge of the buildings. She didn’t stray far into it, just enough that she could still see the buildings, but far enough to enjoy the brush of the ferns across the forest floor flowing over her legs.

Seeing a small bunny scamper to her right, Sophie kept her slow pace. She realized for the first time she was truly on her own. No family to fall back on, she couldn’t even go home without a huge amount of effort. This was her new start, her own choices and she was going to grab this experience and grow. She wanted to show them just because she didn’t look like them or make the same choices as they did, didn’t mean she couldn’t succeed.

Feeling rather puffed up and ready to take on the world, Sophie headed back through the path she’d made to the empty lot. Except it wasn’t empty, there was a huge semi-truck idling in the middle with a full load of lumber spread between two trailers. The smell of fresh cut timber coated the air.

She saw a man arguing with another man who had a truck parked next to the semi. A man in dirty coveralls was climbing up to the loading arm that was attached to the truck trailer. Some trucks she noticed had them, others were loaded with separate cranes. The man seemed to be pulling a hose up to the crane to work on it.

The driver below was still yelling at him about getting it fixed, that he was late for his run. As Sophie made it up to the repair truck, a loud bang sounded through the courtyard. Sophie barely managed to see the large hose with a metal cuff swinging toward her as she turned. With no time to react she felt the impact of the hose strike her in the chest and then her body flew through the air.

For a moment she didn’t hurt, even though she knew the impact of the hose on her chest had to have hurt. She was weightless for a fraction of a second before she came slamming down to the earth, her head cracking back against the hard dirt of the lot.

There was a buzzing in her ears. Her head hurt, her chest hurt and she felt hands roaming over her body. They went up and down her legs and arms, over her ribs and circled her head.

Those hands came into contact with what she could only assume was a watermelon size lump and she moaned. The moan hurt too.

“Sophie, honey, open your eyes for me, please.”

She heard this from a deep voice that made her shiver. She knew that voice, she just couldn’t remember where she had heard it before. Where was she? Home?

No, it smelled liked trees. Right, she was in Washington, she was a cook. Then why was someone trying to wake her up? Was she late?

“Honey, open those eyes for me, we’ve got help coming, but they’re pretty far out. You need to wake up and show me you’re okay,”

Sophie liked that voice. It was warm and sweet and made her think of spiced milk with honey.

Rough hands cupped her cheeks, she could feel thumbs brushing over her cheekbones.

“Open your eyes for me, honey,” the sweet voice pleaded quietly.

He sounded concerned, worried even. Sophie tried to open her eyes, they fluttered a few times, but the bright sun hurt. She moaned again cringing away from the painful light.

“Show me you’re awake and okay, we’ve got the ambulance on its way but they want to know if you’ve woken up. Let’s give them some good news, open your eyes, Sophie,” the voice ordered. The sound was grumbly and gruff, Sophie tried again to open her eyes. She blinked a few times, squinting to adjust to the aching glare. A shadow moved into the path of the light and gave her a moment to adjust.

Looking up to see who was cupping her face and who talked in such a sweet voice, her eyes locked onto a pair of ice blue eyes, that widened dramatically back at her. It must be Cage, and he was staring at her with so many emotions flicking across his face, Sophie couldn’t keep up.

The ice blue eyes roamed her face in an almost frantic manner. She felt the hands cupping her face tighten slightly. He leaned down and took a long sniff near her neck. Okay, that was weird. He pulled back and still stared at her with a look of wonder and utter possessiveness.

“Mine,” he growled down at her.