Juneau Heat (14 page)

Shiya lay
still as he claimed her, and a subtle orgasm rocked her to her core.

Seconds
after, Birk grunted, “I’m coming!”

Neither of
them moved until long after he found his release, and Shiya’s eyes drifted
closed as she lost track of time and the world.

Snow
crunched beneath Shiya’s booted feet as she stepped outside of the cabin. A few
feet ahead of her, Kotori strode with the ease of a man who had done this a
million times, and Birk brought up the rear. She stumbled in the spots with
deep snow and uneven ground, amazed at the terrain up here as opposed to
Juneau. Sure, the weather there would turn soon enough, but it still seemed
interesting, probably more so because of the guys than anything else.

After some
time of walking, Shiya’s leg muscles began to ache, but just when they did, a
stretch of water appeared just ahead. She gasped and stopped moving. Polar
bears dotted the landscape, some nosing along in the ice and snow and some
slipping into the water to search, no doubt, for seals. Her heartbeat kicked up
a few notches. Birk stopped behind her and cocooned her in his arms. His and
Kotori’s coats weren’t as thick as hers. They had dressed her like a Christmas
goose with all the layers, but she hadn’t complained.

“Don’t be
afraid,” Birk said somewhere above her head.

She tilted
her head back to look at him. “Are they shifters?”

“No.”

She
wondered if he lied to protect the others, but she detected no hesitance as he
spoke. “They’re regular bears who spend a great deal of time in this area and
farther north. This is a safe spot for them—and for us.”

She didn’t
need to ask him what he meant by “safe spot.” From the interference of humans,
probably. “Won’t they pick up my scent and be annoyed or whatever?”

“You’re
with us. They know we’re different than what they are, but they respect us as
we do them. They will not touch what we’ve claimed as our own.”

Claimed as their own? Temporarily, I
guess.
Thinking that this would end in a few
days lowered her mood, but she shook off the feeling. On impulse, Shiya broke
from Birk’s hold and bent down to form a snowball. She chucked it at the back
of Kotori’s head and hit it spot on. That’s what came of being Kasen’s sister.

Kotori
rubbed the back of his head and spun slowly on his heel. The look of confusion
made her crack up, and then he was on her. She screamed and ran, but his long
legs ate up the ground between them. He caught her around the waist and did
some kind of twist in the air. Shiya landed on top of him in the snow. She
wiggled to get free, but his embrace was a vise.

Kotori
picked up a handful of snow and held as if he would smash it in her face. “You
deserve this. Take it like a woman.”

“No, no,”
she shrieked, laughing.

She sat up
on his lap, pulling at the arm he held her to him with. Birk charged up and
smacked the snow from Kotori’s hand. “You’re not hitting her with that, you
idiot.”

Shiya took
advantage of Kotori’s distraction and got free. She rolled to her feet and
started running again. The wind bit at her skin and was so cold, it seemed to
freeze her lungs, but it liberated her too. To let go and just enjoy herself
felt incredible. Her mukluk boots crunched the snow beneath her feet, and her
toes stayed warm. The coat Birk provided her with did the trick to keep her
cozy, but didn’t weigh her down too much as she ran. Behind her, the guys
argued, Kotori insisting he wouldn’t do anything to hurt Shiya and Birk
accusing him of not liking to lose.

Shiya
stopped running and bent over holding her side as she laughed at them. Stupid
men, they wasted time slinging around testosterone when they could have been
pursuing her. Now that she thought of it, though, Birk and Kotori never seriously
argued with each other. They seemed to exist in harmony, and she considered
whether it was because they understood each other’s place in the friendship and
respected it. They never seemed to compete to pleasure her or got jealous of
the other.
If they were human, would it
be different between the three of us?

“Shiya!”

The anguish
in Birk’s tone sent a chill of fear crawling up her back. She looked at him,
but he stared past her, and so did Kotori. Shiya went still, almost scared to
turn around. From the corner of her eye, she noticed the polar bears walking
farther down the shoreline, as if they’d all agreed to vacate the area as one.
Some backed away as if they were giving the right of way to something. She
licked her lips and swallowed, bringing to mind all she knew about the
beautiful animals.

Polar bears
were the largest land carnivores. They were the biggest bears, the male growing
up to fifteen hundred pounds. While they easily outweighed the brown and black
bears, they tended to move out of the vicinity of another type of bear rather
than confront it. Shiya’s knees grew weak, and before she could move a step,
the chuffing sound told her she’d guessed right. A bear was behind her.

A tremor
started throughout her body, and she looked toward Birk and Kotori. Their
clothes lay in a pile on the snow, and two polar bears charged toward her. This
was the first time she’d seen them in their animal forms, and she wished she’d
focused on them earlier so she could watch the change.

They were
both bigger than all the other bears, and their coats were thick and silvery
white. Long black claws cut into the snow and ice as they ran, and their growls
of anger sent chills down her back.

Shiya spun
around and screamed when the black bear rose up on hind legs. The beast stood
closer to her than she thought. While bears were heavy and bulkily built, she
knew they were more agile than they appeared, and not even the fastest human
could outrun them.

Although
she knew she should keep still, fear had her stumbling backward. The black bear
growled and swiped a powerful paw toward her. All she could see was those claws
ripping her face apart. Seconds before it hit, a locomotive smashed into the
bear, and it and the polar bear rolled in a tangled heap over the snow. A white
paw swung and then a black one. They growled and chomped at each other, and
Shiya’s heart hammered so hard in her chest it hurt.

She
struggled to her feet, still shaking. The second polar bear walked in front of
her, blocking her from the fight, but he kept his eyes on the two warring
bears. She wondered which was which—who guarded her, and who fought. Either
way, she worried about him getting hurt, or worse, killed.

Without
thinking, Shiya curled her fingers into the hair of the polar bear in front of
her and leaned against his big body. All at once, she realized which of the two
men fought on her behalf. An image of Kotori zipping past her to throw Joe
against the wall came to mind. Kotori, the one scarcely containing his
emotions, the more dangerous of the two. Now that she compared the polar bears,
she saw that the one fighting was built bigger.

She inched
along Birk’s expanse and wrapped her arms around his neck. His small ears
twitched, and he chuffed in annoyance, watching Kotori fight.

Something
told her he wanted to jump into it, but he didn’t want to leave Shiya alone in
case this bear wasn’t by himself.

“Please,
Birk, don’t let him get hurt,” she begged. She had no idea if he understood
English in this state. “This is my fault. I shouldn’t be out here. I’m sorry.”

Tears
sprang to her eyes when, over Birk’s head, she saw blood staining the pristine
white of Kotori’s fur. “No, no! Birk, help him.”

The bear
growled, but he ignored her. Kotori reared up on his hind legs and came down
hard on his enemy. The black bear dropped to the snow and didn’t move. She
thought he’d killed it, but when Kotori took a few steps back and then growled,
it struggled to its feet, turned, and walked off. Shiya waited until the black
bear was far off before she ran around Birk and scrambled over to Kotori.

“You’re
hurt.” She touched the spot where the blood stained his coat, but she couldn’t
get past all the hair to see the cut. He nosed her hands away.

“Don’t be
grumpy. You have to be treated. Let’s go back to the cabin.”

She stood
up and went to gather their clothing. Both Birk and Kotori stayed in bear form,
and she knew it was to be sure there were no other threats.

When they
arrived at the cabin, both men shifted. Shiya stood in awe of the way the white
hair seemed to melt off their bodies while their bulk decreased as if by magic.
One minute they were gigantic beasts with elongated bodies, and the next they
were men—very
naked
men. She hurried
them into the cabin and slammed the door. After tossing aside their clothing,
she rushed to try getting the fire stoked in the fireplace, but Birk nudged her
aside.

“I’ll take
care of it.” He nodded toward Kotori.

Shiya dug
through their supplies and wasn’t surprised to find a first aid kit. She knelt
on the couch beside Kotori. The slash lay on his side, but it wasn’t as bad as
she’d thought. “This is my fault. If I weren’t—”

“Stop,”
Kotori interrupted. “This isn’t your fault. It’s a way of life for us.
Sometimes there will be fights. It’s not a big deal.”

She
frowned. Knowing all the facts about the animals didn’t help her to understand
their nature. “He shouldn’t have been there.”

Kotori
shrugged. He didn’t even wince when she touched the iodine-soaked cotton ball
to his skin. “I am more impressed that you weren’t afraid of us.”

“Well, you
were protecting me, weren’t you?” She kept her eyes on his wound, embarrassed
for some reason.

He stroked
her cheek. “I’m glad you weren’t afraid.”

“She also
knew us apart,” Birk announced, and Shiya heard the pleasure in his tone. He
sat down behind her, his thigh brushing her ass. Neither man had bothered to
put on clothes. This was another natural state with them, she realized.

When she
finished treating Kotori’s wound, she placed gauze over it, and secured it in
place with medical tape. She touched the scars on his neck, a stir of emotion
making her throat hurt. “Was this a bear too?”

He
stiffened. “No.” Kotori’s gaze flicked to Birk and then back to her. “Another
fight, a wolf. I tried making a claim for someone already taken.”

Shiya
frowned. Kotori left out a lot of details, but she thought she could piece it
together. He didn’t want to say, but the wolf, she guessed, was another
shifter. “You went after his girlfriend, and he had a problem with it?”

Kotori’s
brows went up, and Birk laughed. “That’s our baby, very astute.”

“Under
normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have been a problem for me, but he laid in
wait and sprung out on me with his pack. Very nearly took my voice.”

Shiya
shivered at the violence he’d suffered and marveled at the calm with which he
shared it, again as if it were no big deal. From his hesitance, she knew it was
much more than that. Kotori blamed himself for what had happened. “It wasn’t
your fault, you know.”

He pierced
her with an angry stare, but she blinked at him, not intimidated.

He
grumbled, “If I had not let my emotions get the better of me, I wouldn’t have
tried to take another man’s woman. We respect the claiming of mates above all
else no matter what species of shifter we are.”

“We’re all
weak at some point,” she assured him.

He made no
response.

“No rules
apply when we’re fighting for our mate,” Birk added, and then he grinned. “But
we got them back later, ran the entire pack out of town. Haven’t seen them
since.”

Shiya shook
her head. “I feel like I’ve learned a lot about you today.”

Birk
touched the top of her head, and she twisted around to face him. He pulled her
onto his lap, and she nuzzled beneath his chin. “There’s always a reason for an
attack, Shiya. Remember that.”

Did he say
it in reference to her mother’s attack? She didn’t know, but resentment rose
inside her. Birk had no right to comment. He couldn’t know the facts or the
devastation she felt about how her mother suffered before she died, as well as
the rest of them having lost her.

She climbed
off his lap and went to the kitchen area. After all the excitement, she was
starving. Birk walked in behind her and took the eggs from her hands that she’d
just removed from the refrigerator. She said nothing to him, but he went about
making the three of them something to eat.

Kotori went
to his room, and when she accepted there was nothing for her to do to help
Birk, she followed Kotori. In the room, he lay on his bed, an arm thrown across
his eyes. She watched him from the doorway.

“Did you
love her?” she asked.

He didn’t
start at her voice, and she remembered she couldn’t sneak up on them because of
their sensitive hearing and their strong sense of smell.

“No. She
played me for a fool. She wanted to push him to make her his mate. She was not
alpha material, so I doubt it worked out in the end.”