Red's Bear (Erotic Shifter Fairy Tales) (12 page)

Still shocked that she could have honey, Rena waited
for some kind of reaction, but none came—just a craving for more. That same
hunger had led her to try a taste of Greta’s fish. When nothing happened but a
warm glow in a belly and a sense of euphoria, Rena had taken another forkful, then
another. She would have been embarrassed by her poor manners if Greta hadn’t
laughed and ordered them another plate and a bowl of Gobi’s hearty salmon and
vegetable chowder. Which Rena recognized as tasting a lot like her
grandmother’s soup without the chunks of fish floating in it.

It didn’t take much effort for her to deduce that if
her grandmother was feeding her honey on the sly that more than likely Genma
had been doing the same with the seafood
. But why?
That simple question
was plaguing Rena.

“Well, this is Den County.” Greta teased as she weaved
them through all the activity to a booth with SHARDIK FARMS HONEYCOMBS painted
across the top.

“Hi, Lola.” Greta greeted the older woman inside the
booth.

“Greta, are those Genma’s muffins?” Lola’s face was lit
with a smile as she rubbed her hands together.

Rena couldn’t believe that this woman sold so many
honeycomb treats, but was still excited to get her grandmother’s muffins.

“They sure are.” Greta passed the container to Lola
over the side of the stand.

“Perfect, I have a nice dish and place for them.” Lola
carried the muffins to the large table where a man was working and set it down.

“Have you had a chance to meet, Rena, Genma’s
granddaughter?”

“Oh, my goodness. You don’t say.” Lola turned her million-watt
grin on Rena. “I haven’t seen you since you were a baby. How’s your mother?”

At the mention of her mother, Rena forced a smile on
her mouth and hoped Lola and Greta didn’t pick up on it and think it reflected
on her meeting the woman. “She’s fine. Living in Massachusetts.”

Lola stared off in the distance for a second as she
said, “Gracious, your mother and I went to school together. We used to run
around this town trying to get all the handsome males to sniff after us.” She
laughed.

The thought of sitting down with Lola and tapping her
brain about her mother’s childhood was tempting to Rena. Her mother was never
forthcoming about anything to do with growing up in Den County. It was as if
Lillian wanted to pretend that her hometown didn’t exist in her mind. Rena
thought it was a shame. Evidently her mother had friends and people in the area
who thought fondly of her, even if Lillian didn’t feel the same about them.

“You caught me that way.” A burly man in the back
cutting large blocks of honeycomb into smaller pieces called out.

“Yes I did.” Lola looked back over her shoulder and
gave the man a wink. “Don’t mind him. That big, bear of a male is my Ben.”

Rena waved at the man.

“You all headed over to Fur Field to the softball
game?” Lola leaned out of her booth window. “That’s where Gordon and Shayna
are.”

“I heard about that. I’m planning to head over and see
if they have any spots left,” Greta replied. “You okay with that, Rena?”

“Sure. I haven’t seen a good game in a while.” Not to
mention if she said no, Greta may take her back home and that would set Rena
the one place she was trying to avoid, around Cord.

“Let’s go then. Okay, Lola, Ben, we will see you two
later.” Greta began to move away.

“Nice meeting you, Lola…again.” Rena said as she
followed Greta toward the far end of the park area.

“Don’t be a stranger!” Lola called out to her.

Smiling back at the former friend of her mother’s, Rena
didn’t respond. She didn’t want to make any promises to the woman.

As she and Greta headed to the field, her grandmother’s
neighbor pointed out different people and families they passed. Explaining to
Rena what business they ran or how many offspring they had. Kids were running
everywhere through the fairgrounds. No one appeared concerned and it seemed to
her that they all pitched in to keep an eye on the children and elderly. Rena
liked this county, with its friendliness and fairs. There seemed to be more
camaraderie and support in this town then she’d seen in any city she’d ever
lived in.

“There’s the field.” Greta pointed to the large field
coming into view with groups of people gathered around.

“Is it over?” Rena lifted her hand over her eyes,
shielding them as she started off in the distance about a hundred yards away.

“I hope not.” Greta picked up her pace.

“Greta, perfect. We need another player.” A tall man
with dark brown hair waved them over.

Greta turned her fast walk into a jog.

Rena followed suit. She’d never considered how much
energy she would expend when she decided to come out to the festival. This was
the most exercise she had gotten in a very long time. She was happy that she
didn’t feel weak or exhausted yet.

“Great, Tim. I was hoping to join in.” Greta explained
to the brown haired man.

One of the things Rena had come to realize was that
every man in Den County over the age of twenty was both extremely tall and just
as bulky as Cord. She wondered what was in the water of the town to grow their
men so big. She would like to bottle it and take it back to North Carolina with
her.

Rena didn’t miss all the men checking her out and the
women eyeing her, not negatively but more out of curiosity.

“We need someone else because Shayna is breeding again
so she can’t play.” A man standing beside the one Greta had called Tim nodded
his head toward a set of bleachers where people sat watching the picking of
teams happen.

“Congrats, Gordon.” Greta told him then yelled a
greeting in the direction of the stands.

Rena spotted a pretty dark-skinned black woman in the
stands appearing to be in the middle stages of pregnancy holding her hand up
and giving a finger wave.

“You all have room for one more?” Greta asked. “This is
Rena, Genma’s granddaughter. She’s staying there for a little while. Rena this
is Kaley, Natasha, Blake, Gordon, Stephen, Lacey, Marcella, John, Chris, Rand
and Tim Bjorn, Cord’s cousin.” Greta ticked off each person in the large group.

Rena could see the family resemblance in Tim’s features
even though his hair was dark and Cord’s was wheat blonde. The women gave her a
friendly nod, but each of the men came to her and took her hand, she thought
they would shake it, but instead they all seemed to bow their heads slightly
and
sniff
it. She wasn’t even going to attempt to decipher the odd
custom.

“I don’t mind at all if she joins in,” Rand, a café au
lait complexioned black man, announced still holding her hand.

With a tug, Rena pulled it away and took a small step
back. Realizing that Greta was referring to her as the extra, Rena chimed in,
“Uh, that’s not necessary. Seems like you all already have an equal number with
Greta, I can sit on the bench.”

“Come on, Rena, you will have fun.”

Shaking her head, Rena began, “I’ll be fin—”

“If you don’t play, Rena, then I’ll have to sit out.”

Cold chills of shock ran up her spine that turned into
hot sparks as the sensation spread into the rest of her body. Rena didn’t have
to turn around to see that the deep, husky voice belonged to Cord. The man she
thought she’d escaped hours ago.

“Cord!” The petite Asian woman named Marcella’s eyes
became extremely bright and the smile on her face almost made it from one ear
to the other as she turned and saw him.

Rena almost expected the woman to start clapping and
jumping up and down in a cheer of Cord’s unexpected presence. The heat that
previously was radiating through Rena’s body settled in her stomach and seemed
to cause her blood to boil at the woman’s response. Disregarding both the girl
and her own odd emotions, Rena slowly turned and faced Cord.

The man looked amazing in a navy blue shirt and light
colored denim jeans, different from what he’d been wearing earlier when she’d
left him leaning against his hoe—another white shirt and dark gray jeans.

“I thought you were working?” Rena tried to keep her
tone matter of fact, neutral as if she didn’t care where Cord was or what he
was doing with his time.

His dark gaze was fixed on her, the look he gave her
was so direct and intense she would have sworn everyone else around them had
disappeared.

She had to swallow and inhale several times to keep her
heart in check as it started to speed up. However, she wished she hadn’t
because she picked up the woodsy combination of White Fir and nutmeg—nature’s
erotic bouquet. It amazed her how Cord’s distinct earthy spice scent could be
detected by her among all the other people.

“Then it’s all settled. Cord you can be on Gordon’s
team and I will take Rena on mine.” Tim spoke up before Rena could voice
further objections.

Not wanting to appear like a killjoy, Rena said,
“Okay.” And hoped her strength held. Passing out before everyone would be an
embarrassment she could do without.

Everyone began to disperse, filing out to either one of
the two benches behind home plate or to the field to take positions. However,
Cord didn’t go either way, instead he took a few steps toward her making the
gap between them smaller. His scent enveloped her, making her mind hazy and her
body tighten.

Studying her for a moment, he asked, “Are you sure
you’re okay…with playing?”

The assessing look he gave her was making her
uncomfortable, he could possibly see too much. Personal things about herself
she didn’t want to reveal. Her illness had already caused one man to walk out
of her life and Cord wasn’t even hers.
Nor do I want him to be
. She told
herself.

“Of course, why wouldn’t I be?” Lifting an eyebrow she
dared him to question her decision. This man didn’t know her. No matter how
strong her body seemed to respond to him. “It’s just a simple community game of
softball.”

With a short shake of his head, he said, “Yes, but it
can be intense to say the least. Not to mention Den residents are extremely
competitive.”

Never really into sports before, she considered
changing her mind at his words. Last thing she wanted to do was to cost her
team the game and have to worry about disappointing the new associates she had
made. Proof she was the
weakest
link. Nervous, she licked her lips.

Cord must have picked up on her reaction to his words,
because he placed a wide, strong hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it.
You’ll do fine.”

“Hey, Cord, you going to let her play ball or mark
her?” Gordon called out from first base.

Mark me?

With a lopsided smile he winked at her then started
walking away, but not before she heard him say, “Maybe both.”

With a puckered brow, Rena walked to the bench where
most of her teammates were waiting to bat. Marcella was in position at home
plate waiting for the slow-pitch from Kaley, who occupied the mound. As soon as
Cord took up the outfield position, the game was underway with a round of
clapping from the people in the stands.

Chapter
Seven

Almost two hours later, Cord received slaps on his back
from his teammates for the grand slam he hit that took his ball well beyond the
boundaries of Fur Field’s fencing, lost in the Redwood forest behind it. It had
brought in three other players giving his team the lead and the win. His run in
was just gravy on top giving them a two point lead at the end. As the two teams
filed into separate lines and shook hands as they walked past each other with
the ‘good game’ dictum, he was glad to see that Rena, even with her earlier
reluctance, had gotten into the spirit of the game.

Before the game got started, he’d sensed something with
her. The concern she was feeling for whatever reason had almost been palpable.
He doubted that anyone else picked up on it, she had been doing a damn good job
of covering it up. However, he was too attuned to her to be fooled.

Soon, she had shaken off whatever it had been and he’d
watched as she laughed and chatted with her team, making friends with everyone,
excepted one person. Marcella.

Before he could make his way along the people of his
cousin’s team to Rena, Marcella grabbed his arm and pulled him to the side.
“So, Genma’s relative is staying at her house?”

Cord looked down at the white chalk line in the dirt
then up at the sky and to the trees, any place but at Marcella. He didn’t want
to encourage her. “Yup.”

“Aren’t you doing some work out there…while Genma is
away?”

Glancing toward the stands, he witnessed Gordon lifting
his wife off the bench and kissing her. He envied the honey farmer having a
life mate. Even though he’d heard that Gordon hadn’t realized Shayna was his
until he tracked down her scent during last year’s Bear Run.

“Yup,” he replied, almost positive where this
conversation was going. Unable to stop himself, Cord’s gaze was drawn to Rena
where she stood talking to Greta and Natasha, Sheriff Smokey’s receptionist.
The three tall black women, striking in different ways, looked as if they
should be modeling an African American fashion magazine.