Snowbound With The Bear (Bear Creek Clan 4) (3 page)

If he mated with her.

“Do you like what you see?” he asked, his chest rumbling as he spoke in a low growl.

“I ... yes,” she admitted.

“Good,” he said simply.

He turned to her and they locked eyes, but she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Although she hoped that it was how much he would like to stare at her body and explore it with his hands. But when he rolled out of bed, she knew he didn’t find her attractive. Her body was too round and her hair and complexion too pale. Next to him, she looked almost translucent.

“I am starving,” he said, going to the fire and stoking it before adding some more wood. “Stay there and rest and I’ll make some breakfast.”

“I can help,” she said.

“No. I want you to rest. Then when we’ve eaten, I would like to know all about you. And why you were out there in the storm.”

She huddled back down under the covers, suddenly cold now he wasn’t there beside her. Watching him pull on a shirt and then a sweater, she couldn’t believe he was hers. But he wasn’t, she reminded herself. Just because he had rescued her, didn’t mean he would claim her. When he found out the potential trouble she would bring to his door, then he would no doubt turf her out into the snow.

No, that was unfair. He seemed a genuine guy. He would probably take her back to her clan and think she was safe. But he didn't know they were her biggest danger. While she lay listening to him clatter around in the kitchen, she tried to figure out exactly what she should tell him.

Opening the cupboards, he tried to decide what he could make for her. Right now, he wished he had managed to get the pack back here with them. Although he didn’t beat himself up over it, he knew how close they had come to losing their lives. He could go out and retrieve it later today if the storm blew itself out.

“Porridge it is, then,” he said to himself. Getting a pan out, he mixed up some powdered milk with water and then added the oats. It wasn’t the best thing in the world but it was warm, and if he added honey and some dried fruit, it should give them an energy boost. Plus, it was quick. And he really wanted to lie in his bed next to her. He didn’t want any more than that, not until she was sufficiently recovered.

“If she’ll have you,” he said as he stirred the porridge. “I mean, who could say no to a lonely mountain bear?” Shaking his head at his own worthlessness, he fetched two bowls. They were old, the pattern worn from too much use, but thankfully not chipped, unlike the two mugs he poured coffee into. Everything in the cabin was old and tired, but he liked the familiarity of it.

Hal loved everything about living here. But he knew it was not to everyone’s taste, especially a woman who was the prettiest thing he had ever seen. Her hair was as silver as the moon that shone high above the mountain peaks. Her skin as pale as the snow outside. She was the opposite of him in every way. He was dark, his hands worn and hard from work. Chopping wood and moving rocks had left him with calluses which would be too rough against her delicate, soft skin.

Grabbing the pan and removing it from the heat, he poured it into the bowls, sweetening the porridge with wild honey. He knew the mountains so well. Every summer he would visit the wild bees, collecting honey they had made from the heather growing on the moorland areas on the lower slopes. It was one of his favourite things, tramping around his mountain with no one but the birds and deer as company.

Sighing, he sprinkled on the dried fruit. What did he possibly have to offer a woman? Especially since there was a good chance her wolf clan would disown her when they knew her mate was a bear. It was tough going outside of your clan. Even mixing between Bear Creek and Bear Bluff was frowned on—but interspecies, that would not sit well. Not that it bothered him. But he knew the wolves had a certain pride; they thought they were better than bears.

Juggling the bowls and mugs of coffee, he went back to the bedroom, to find her lying staring at the fire, deep in thought. For a moment, he paused and took in the beauty of her. Then she looked up, her blue eyes startling against her white skin.

“That smells good,” she said, sitting up and pulling the covers up to her chest.

“I’m short on rations. I need to go back out and get my pack when the weather breaks.”

“I’m sorry that you lost it.”

“It’s OK. We won’t starve, but it means that we might be eating a lot of stodgy porridge.”

She smiled and his heart skipped a beat. “That’s OK. I like porridge. Maybe I’m Goldilocks.”

He laughed. “You might well be, but just remember—there is only one bear for you.”

She froze at his words. He had blown it by talking to her as though she was already his. Just because they were bonded, did not mean he could force himself on her, no matter how much his bear demanded it.

Had she somehow misread his words, or did he really mean she was his? Her throat contracted and she struggled to breathe. This what she had always wanted, to be loved by her true mate.

Her grandmother had often sat her down and told her tales of how she would meet the right man. Then, as years turned into decades and decades into centuries, she had given up hope. Yet he had been here, all along, only a short climb over a mountain, the same mountain she had sat and stared at for years. The place where she had always been forbidden to go because to cross the mountain pass would be to trespass into Bear Creek. The last clan alpha had said the bears there were mean-spirited and angry at being born as lesser beasts.

Wolves always thought so much of themselves. Except Fiona, who knew all her shortcomings; they stared back at her every time she looked in the mirror. No man in Wolf Valley looked at her twice, not that it bothered her. Then Kurt had been fed up of her “being on the shelf.” In a bid to gain rank within the pack he had put her forward as a mate to a tiger shifter who was in need of a willing virgin. Well, she hadn’t been willing, although she was a virgin.

“Eat it before it gets cold.”

His words broke through her thoughts, and she spooned some of her breakfast into her mouth. It tasted a lot better than it looked, the warm sweetness spreading through her body, giving her renewed energy. They sat together in the warm bed, silent as they ate. She was sure they were both thinking the same thing. What happens now?

He took her bowl from her and passed her a mug of hot coffee. “Thank you,” she said. “That was just what I needed. It feels as though I haven’t eaten for days.”

“Do you want to tell me about it?”

She studied the steam coming off her coffee. “I don't know where to start.”

“The beginning is always the best place. I’m a simple man with nowhere to go, so take your time. I need all the facts so that I know what I am up against.”

She sighed, trying to sort her thoughts out into some coherent form. Where did it start?

“First we should introduce ourselves. I don’t even know your name,” he said, when she didn't speak.

“Fiona,” she said.

He held his hand out for her to shake. “Hello, Fiona. Pretty name. I’m Hal.”

“Nice to meet you, Hal.” She shook his hand, watching as he took hers and squeezed it gently, and then pressed his lips to the back of it. Shuddering, she felt the first tendrils of desire begin to uncoil in her stomach. She wanted to feel his lips pressed against hers. To taste him and know him, everything about him.

“So why were you in Bear Creek?” he asked gently.

Fiona wanted to pull away from him, was this his way? Make her at ease and then try to get information from her? No. He wasn’t her cousin. Hal was honest and wanted to help her, because it was his duty. She would have to get used to that.

“Members of my clan chased me here.”

“Why?”

“I have been searching for ... you, for a long time. My cousin, Kurt, wanted to do a deal with a tiger. So he thought that seeing as how my mate had never appeared, that I should be given to the tiger in exchange for power.”

“What power?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. There is trouble among my clan. The old alpha died some time ago and there has never been a new one.”

“Don’t they vote on that kind of thing?”

She laughed. “Vote? Wolf Valley is not a democracy. There is a chosen one. But for some reason, no one in Wolf Valley was chosen. So the traditions have fallen by the wayside and there are constant power struggles.”

“And this tiger?”

“He offered Kurt something that would give him leverage. That’s all I know. In return, the tiger wanted a willing virgin.” She stopped short. Now she had told him how inexperienced she was. Ducking her head, she blushed.

He stroked his finger under her chin, sending shockwaves through her body. Tilting her chin up, he said, “I’m so glad you told me that.”

His thumb brushed her lower lip. She opened her mouth and sucked it in, drawing back so it slid out slowly, her lips maintaining their pressure. She might just as well of slapped him in the face, she thought. He pulled back, getting up and taking the bowls out, leaving her feeling foolish. This was why she should have given herself to another man first, so that when she met her mate she would be able to please him in the bedroom. An old virgin was never attractive.

Feeling awkward, and fed up of feeling like an invalid, she got out of bed and wrapped herself in a blanket. Then she padded out to find him, to apologise for her behaviour. Following the sound of him washing dishes, she made her way along the short hallway. Noting another two doors leading off it, she figured one of them must be the bathroom. That had to be her first stop.

The first door she tried opened up into a small but serviceable bathroom, clean and warm. Switching on the tap she was glad to find the water hot and spent a while cleaning the dirt off her face. Why hadn’t she known she had smudges all over it?

Rubbing them off, she went over what had happened in her head. When Kurt had surprised her, she had fallen to the ground before changing into her wolf. It had been a lucky escape; she remembered sliding through Kurt’s hands as he grabbed her. It was only by luck she had avoided his buddies.

Taking off into the forest, she had run swift and fast. All her life she had been one of the fastest wolves in Wolf Valley. It had meant they had no chance of stopping her, and she had just kept on running, which was why she had ended up in Bear Creek.

Feeling better now she was clean, she pulled the blanket back around her and went to find him. If nothing else, she was going to have to ask him for some clothes. Hers were not warm enough. She had been at home when Kurt had called and she hadn't even had time to pull on a coat. She was lucky that at least when she changed back from her wolf that she was dressed at all. There were stories that some other animals shift naked. Now, that might have been a problem. How would he have reacted if she had appeared naked in front of him last night?

About the same as he had reacted now: when she had practically thrown herself at him, he would have turned her down. Despite his words he didn’t want her, wasn’t attracted to her. It was only the bond between them that made him want to protect her. It was an obligation, and he was too much of a gentleman to turn her away. That did not mean he intended to claim her anytime soon. She would never be free of her clan.

Back out into the hallway she walked, closing the bathroom door quietly behind her. She could still hear him moving around, but now he had moved into the sitting room. Once more, he was tending the fire.

He looked up as she came in. “There’s plenty of wood. I think while the temperature is so low it makes sense to keep the fires fed.”

She went into the room and sat down on the sofa, holding her hands out to capture the warmth. “Are you sure it’s OK with you for me to stay here?”

He placed his tools down, turning to look at her, with a frown on his face. “You know it’s OK.”

“I was worried, you know, with me being the reason you don’t have your pack.”

His frown deepened. “It’s more important to me that you're safe. You’re my mate, Fiona.”

“I know, but it doesn’t mean you want me. There’s no real choice in this thing, is there? I show up, lying in the snow and your instinct kicks in. I feel that I’ve put you in danger.”

“Because of the food?”

“That ... and I don’t know if they will come looking for me.”

“If they do, then they’ll have to go through me to get you. You are my mate and no one will hurt you.”

“I hate that I’ve brought this on you.”

He left the fire and came to her, kneeling down and clasping her hands in his. “Why don’t you say what you mean?”

“I ... I don’t know how.”

“Shall I say it for you?” he said gently. He stared into her eyes, right into her soul. She wanted to press her lips to his and have him accept her for what she was. “You’ve waited a couple of centuries for your mate, and you can’t work out how you ended up with a bear.”

There, he had put her concerns into words. She must feel strongly about being cheated where her mate was concerned. If he were a better catch, with a nice house and a good job, then he wouldn’t feel so bad. But look at him, stuck up the side of a mountain because he didn’t like mixing with people. He’d been a loner for so long now, he doubted he could change. Yes, he had friends, always showing up if one of them needed him. Yet, given the choice, he would stay away from the town. He ventured down every couple of weeks for supplies, trading in his carvings and game he had caught for the necessities he couldn’t find or make himself. The mountain always called him back.

“It’s OK,” he said, “I understand. But until I can make sure you’re safe, you’re stuck with me.”

She placed her hand on his cheek and leaned forward to press her lips to his. At first, he froze, but slowly his mouth thawed and his lips moved against hers. He sighed, his hand going to the back of her head and pulling her closer. She wrapped her arms around him and clung to him while he explored her mouth with his tongue.