Vega Brothers: Alexander: BBW Paranormal Romance Reluctant Bride (The Bear Shifters of Vega Ranch Book 3) (2 page)

“Two marriages in a month?” Elena asked. “Is there something in the water around here? I better watch myself.”

“Hannibal is looking for a wife if you’re interested,” Khan said. “It would really help us out.”

Bailey slapped his arm. “Will you shut up? She’s been here for five minutes and you’re already trying to marry her off.”

Khan just shrugged.

“We’re going riding,” Ava said, pulling Elena away.

Bailey waved. “Say hi to Mad Max for me. It was nice to meet you, Elena.”

Ava rambled on the rest of the way to the stables, barely taking a second to stop talking in order to breathe. Elena walked into the stables with wide eyes. There were so many beautiful horses.

“Hello,” she said, gently scratching the side of a beautiful brown horse’s face. He neighed in response.

“Ava,” a teenager boy said, running up to Elena’s sister. “The tractor won’t start again.”

“Sorry, Elena. Can you wait a few minutes while I go fix it?” Ava asked her. “The thing is always breaking down. I have to take apart the whole engine and put it back together properly one day.”

Elena smiled. Ava was always so good at repairs, just like their father. Who would have guessed that there was a talented mechanic hiding inside her?

Ava walked off with the young kid, leaving her alone with the dozen or so horses inside the stables. She smiled as she stood on her tippy toes and peeked in the stalls at the different horses.

“Gambit,” she said, reading the sign over a stall with a gorgeous brown horse inside. He looked a little too wild for her.

Elena stepped back when she felt the ground shaking. It sounded like a stampede of buffalo outside as the vibrations under her feet got stronger.
What the hell?

She bit her bottom lip and stared at the entrance to the stables, feeling her heart ready to explode out of her chest. “Ava,” she whispered as the noise got louder.

An enormous black stallion with a shirtless rider on top burst through the door and skidded to a stop only a hair away from her face.

Holy fuck!

She gulped as she looked up the huge, heaving chest of the giant black stallion. She barely came up to its shiny black neck. He was breathing heavily with hot air shooting from his nostrils onto the top of her blonde head. She could feel the heat radiating off him.

Elena stepped back on shaky legs with her heart pounding. She slowly raised her eyes up the horse’s body to the rider on top.

Holy double fuck!

The man was enormous. And gorgeous too. His flexed forearms with the leather straps wrapped around them were thicker than her legs. He was shirtless, showing off his massive chest and ripped abs. Elena gulped as she continued to drag her eyes up his mountainous body. His face looked dark and cruel yet handsome, with fierce eyes that bored into her.

Elena stepped back and bumped into the fence behind her making Gambit the horse jump back with an irritated neigh.

“Who are you?” the man snapped in a deep booming voice that vibrated through her.

That was the question that was on her tongue.
Who is this guy?
He looked like he was straight out of a comic book with his huge frame, gorgeous face and muscular arms. He looked like he was born into the wrong century. He would have fit in ancient Rome perfectly, crushing skulls in a Gladiator arena or swinging a two-headed ax next to Attila the Hun.

“I’m Elena,” she said, her voice coming out shaky and broken. “I’m Ava’s sister. She invited me here to stay.” She glanced behind her at the empty stables.
Where the heck is she?

“Another female?” he asked, glaring at her with his dark brown eyes. “Are you here to marry Hannibal?”

She jerked her head back. “Why does everyone keep asking me that?”

He just stared at her, making her uncomfortable.

“I’m here to visit my sister.”

Elena couldn’t take her eyes off him. His shoulders were as round as boulders and looked just as hard. She always liked her guys big and rugged with an air of danger to them. This guy didn’t have an air of danger, he had a whole fucking sky.

“Too many fucking females,” he muttered.

“Hey!” Elena said, getting her firm voice back. He caught her off guard when he came barreling in through the door but Elena was no pushover. She was one of the top reporters in the country and lived by herself in New York City. She had visited war zones, interviewed drug kingpins and sat down to talk with serial killers. She could handle a bully like him. “That’s really fucking rude! I’m an invited guest staying here.”

He huffed out a breath and yanked the horse to the side. The giant stallion grunted as his head was jerked around.

“You weren’t invited by me,” he said as the horse turned towards the exit.

“Nice to meet you too, asshole,” Elena called out as the horse took off, disappearing in the direction that it came from.

Elena could feel her heart pounding as the sound of the black stallion’s hooves faded in the distance. Her body was tense and the hair on her arms were standing tall.
The fucking nerve of that guy
. She stepped to the side to watch him as the horse galloped away.

His rolling back muscles were jacked with a gleam of sweat on them as he rode away like an army was on his tail. Elena’s nerve endings were stirring and tingling as she watched him go.
Don’t even think about it, Elena.

Against her better judgment, she had always been attracted to the dark, dangerous types. She always liked a challenge.
This guy is not a challenge. He’s a disaster
.

He disappeared into the forest and Elena took a breath of relief as the warmth that had been flooding her body was starting to dissipate.

She was still watching the forest when Ava finally came back, rubbing her black, oil-stained fingers on her jean shorts. “Are you okay?” Ava asked, stopping in her cowboy boots when she saw Elena’s face.

“Yeah,” Elena said, trying to act natural. “There was a huge guy on a black horse that came in here.”

Ava’s face dropped and her eyes narrowed. “That was Alexander. The not-so-nice brother. Did he say anything rude?”

Elena shrugged. “I live in New York City,” she said with a tight laugh. “I hear rude every day.”

Ava walked over to her horse and opened the gate. “Just ignore him,” she said. “He’s leaving at the end of the week anyway.”

Ignore him.

Elena had many talents and abilities but ignoring something or someone that intrigued her was not one of them.

two

Alexander raced full sprint through the forest crashing into thick branches and snapping them off the annoying trees. He had left his horse, Aristotle, by the edge of the forest when he felt the need to run. He closed his eyes and pumped his legs until they burned, letting the branches of the thick forest whip across his face as he ran.

The pain was good.

Pain was always good.

It was the only thing that would take his bear down a notch, and right now his bear needed to come down more than a few notches. Alexander’s polar bear was all amped up inside him, thrashing and snarling, desperately trying to get out. Alexander flexed his body tight and gritted his teeth. His bear lunged forward, enraged and bitter. He was just able to hold him back.

“No!” he screamed as he plowed into an old tree, snapping the thick trunk in half. He lowered his head and kept running as it tumbled over into the forest. “You’re not coming out!”

All of these fucking women around!

Their scents all over the house were making his bear even worse. He couldn’t even sit in his own bedroom anymore without his bear acting up. He was staying in his grandfather’s abandoned hunting cabin more and more these days. It was the only place to get some peace.

And now another one!

Another girl. But this one wasn’t like the other ones. As soon as Alexander saw her, he knew that she’d be trouble. She had big, curvy thighs that he had noticed immediately. His bear had noticed too. He had perked up the second that he saw her.

She had blue eyes and long blonde hair like her sister, but Elena’s hair had darker streaks. Alexander had started to get a little lightheaded when he smelled the grapefruit scent of her shampoo mixed with the sweet scent of her skin and he had to hold onto the reigns of his horse a little tighter.

He plowed into another thick tree with his shoulder, sending it flying through the air as he shook his head, trying to erase the intoxicating scent from his memory.

Today was going to be another bad day. He could feel it.

He could feel it in the form of a furious polar bear thundering around inside him, growling and snapping.

Alexander’s bear hadn’t always been like that. He was normal once and they lived together in relative harmony. Then one day, a few years ago, his bear started pining for a mate. And everything went to shit.

Now not one day would go by without his inner polar bear sulking around in a stormy and sullen mood, constantly whining for a mate, infuriated that Alexander always refused.

He had heard about bears bypassing the wishes of their humans and bonding to a mate regardless. Alexander knew the tricks that a bear could pull but he refused to let it happen. He stayed away from women whenever he could, and it was working out fine until lately when his brothers had decided to turn the family ranch into a goddamn sorority house. There were women all over the place now. And it was spurring his polar bear on even more.

Alexander leaped over a log and pushed forward beside the slow moving river that ran through their property. The cabin wasn’t far now and he pushed himself faster, longing for the peacefulness that always came when he stepped inside.

Even though his bear had been aching for a mate, Alexander wasn’t about to give in. He had seen how his mother treated his father growing up and he absolutely refused to let a mate do the same thing to him. The yelling and the swearing and the embarrassment. That wasn’t for him. He truly didn’t care about losing the ranch if he didn’t get married by the end of the year. The price of taking on a mate to keep it was just too high. He was fine living in the woods by himself. That’s what he’d been doing lately anyway.

The polar bear paced within his chest, urging him to turn back towards the ranch.

For the millionth time! You’re not getting a mate!

He pressed forward gritting his teeth as he ran.

Alexander just had to last the week. Seven days and he’d be shipped off to war. General Samson was coming to pick him up after he had volunteered for reenlistment so that his brother Khan could stay with his mate and cub. He didn’t mind; he was actually looking forward to it. War was the only thing that would settle his wild bear.

Killing was the only thing that took the edge off of his bear’s relentless raging. The end of a day of fighting was like the eerie calm at the end of a storm. But Alexander could never fully enjoy it. He knew the storm would be even worse in the morning. It always was.

His brothers didn’t understand. Nobody did. They just thought he was cranky and disagreeable for no reason. They didn’t realize the fierce, untamed polar bear within him was slowly torturing and crushing his spirit. It was hard living with a savage bear. He was always on the offense, always punishing Alexander for ignoring his primal needs.

It was affecting his mood. He couldn’t remember the last time that he smiled or laughed. Just the sound of laughter made him cringe these days. It was always better to just be alone. Just him and his heated, tormenting bear.

He sighed in relief as he arrived at the private cabin. Private cabin was a bit of a strong word. It was more of a shack. And an abandoned one at that. His grandfather used to use it as a hunting shack but abandoned it a long time ago. Alexander had discovered it as a teenager and now it was his favorite place in the world.

It was simple and small with only a bed that barely fit him, a tiny dresser, and a sink that didn’t work. There was a raccoon living in the cupboards when he first found it but he left when Alexander claimed it and he never came back. The scent of a polar bear inside was enough to send him packing for good.

He ducked in through the door and dropped down on the squeaky bed. He stared up at the straw ceiling and groaned. This place a sanctuary for him. His inner polar bear knew that when Alexander was here there was no hope of getting a mate. The bear would finally get the hint and settle down and relax a little. His constant nagging and whining would cease and Alexander could finally think.

Only today his bear wasn’t playing ball.

He snapped inside his chest with a vicious snarl, pacing around trying to surge out every few minutes.

Alexander could feel his blood pressure soaring as he pinched his lips together and his eyes tightened. Yup, today was going to be a bad day.

The curvy Elena popped back into his head and the thought made his bear charge forward. Alexander pulled him back, almost letting him slip.

“That was close,” he whispered to himself. He hadn’t lost control of his bear since he was a kid but that was a little too close for comfort.

Alexander rolled on the bed, restless and stressed out. He ran his hands through his hair and breathed out long and hard.

He began wondering what it would be like to talk to Elena but then shut that down.
She’d hate you. She already does.

Normally Alexander didn’t care if someone hated him but the thought of Elena hating him bothered him to his core. He had been unnecessarily rude to her but that was only because he had been thrown off guard by the effect that her beauty had on him. He had hardened in his pants and his heart started pounding like a jackhammer on speed.

The memory was causing his bear to react again and he tried to think of something else but all he could think about was Elena.

He pushed off the bed and walked outside to get some air. He tried to distract himself by looking around at the forest. “Wow this bush is so big,” he said, staring at a bush and trying to convince himself that he actually gave a shit about it.
I wonder what Elena’s bush looks like.