Stolen By Her Bear by Felicity Heaton

Chapter 2

Holly had come to Ember’s lodge for some company, but it didn’t look as if she was going to get it as her best friend slid an appreciative look down the back of her mate, Cobalt, where he worked in the kitchen to fix them both a cup of hot chocolate before he went out to work on clearing the snow. When Ember had convinced her to come to Cougar Creek for the winter wedding as her plus one, Holly had been excited and eager to escape her family over the holidays.

A time when her three older brothers, and even her parents, loved to tease her about another year passing without her finding a male she was interested in.

It had only been twelve years since she had matured at a century old, but her family were eager for her to find a male. Her transition into cougar shifter adulthood should have awakened her libido.

It had done nothing.

She still didn’t feel any spark whenever she was around men, whether they were cougar, human or other. Some of the ones she had tried dating were handsome enough, and she had expected to feel something when she had been with them, a tiny spark of passion.

But she had felt nothing.

Not even an inkling of desire.

She was beginning to think she was dysfunctional.

Escaping to Cougar Creek to avoid another holiday season filled with jibes and interrogations, daily inquests into her dead-on-arrival private life, had sounded like a great idea when Ember had suggested it.

Only Holly had forgotten to account for the fact she was sharing the creek with mated couples only, and it was driving her a little mad to say the least. Ember and Cobalt did their best to include her in things, but she felt like a fifth wheel, as if she was getting in the way of the newly-mated couple all the time. Rath and Ivy were inclusive too, and Storm and Gabi, the other couple who had come here to participate in the joint wedding ceremony and celebration, tried their best but they were normally too busy giving each other moon eyes to notice her.

She couldn’t remember the last time she had seen Flint and Yasmin. She felt twenty-percent sure she had seen them arrive, but since then, the two of them had been holed up in Flint’s cabin deep in the woods across the clearing from Ember’s.

Holly was glad for one thing though—Cobalt had insisted on her staying in his own smaller cabin in the woods while he and Ember shared this one. Ember had done her best to convince her to stay here too, but Cobalt had given her the hard sell. His cabin had a modern kitchen and furniture, a running shower and a hot tub fed by a natural spring.

Ember had been worried Holly would feel isolated there, but she had always loved Cobalt’s cabin.

It was peaceful, the small parcel of land that stretched down to the creek always quiet, and it felt like a hundred miles away from the bustle at the main area of the pride’s territory and a million miles away from the craziness she would have been in the middle of had she stayed home with her family.

Ember paused at her work sorting through a tangle of white string lights and glanced at Holly, her grey-blue eyes warm as the firelight glinted off them. “So, what was this book about?”

Holly sank back into the wine-red couch in front of the large stone fireplace and pulled her feet up onto the seat of it. “Some cowboy riding in to save the day and whisking the heroine away to live on his ranch in Montana.”

“Sounds exactly like the last one you read.” Cobalt shook his head and she was tempted to pick up one of the unlit candles from the side table and hurl it at his back.

From the moment he had realised she was spending her time in his cabin reading romance novels, he had been rolling his eyes and shaking his head whenever Ember asked her about them.

“You need to get yourself a real man.” The big blond male twisted away from the kitchen and crossed the floor to them, set a mug down in front of her on the wooden coffee table and then one in front of Ember.

Holly clammed up.

Apparently, she couldn’t escape people probing into her private life at this time of year, no matter where she went. She knew he meant well, but it still rankled her.

“Cobalt,” Ember admonished, but there wasn’t any real anger in her tone.

He shrugged, rolling his broad shoulders beneath a thick, black cable-knit jumper. “I’m just saying.”

“I don’t need a male to make me happy.” Holly couldn’t hold back those words, ones she had said so many times to her family over the last few years. When Ember gave her a look, guilt churned in her gut and she was quick to add, “I mean, it’s lovely that you found your mate, but I’m happy as I am, for now.”

That was the first time she had admitted to herself that part of her hoped this whole situation was just that—for now. Not forever. Gods, she didn’t want to end up some spinster cougar rattling around lecturing the young like a few of the teachers who had been at her and Ember’s school. She would sooner die than spend her entire life without experiencing any sort of spark.

Without knowing the feel of a male’s hands on her, or his breath on her neck.

Or his lips claiming hers.

She grabbed her drink and sipped it, hid in it as Cobalt slid down from the arm of the couch to nestle against Ember. Heat filled his grey eyes, bringing out the gold as he gazed at his mate.

Jealousy writhed inside Holly and not for the first time since Cobalt and Ember had picked her up to bring her to the Creek. She tried not to look at them, tried to shut them out as they smiled at each other, as they toyed with each other’s hands and spoke in low voices.

They looked so good together, and they were clearly deeply in love, and here she was, unable to feel a damned thing.

Cobalt’s grey-gold eyes warmed further. There was so much love in that look.

She felt sure no one would ever look at her that way.

Holly set her drink down and stood, and Ember looked up at her, surprise in her grey-blue eyes that turned to guilt as she eased away from her mate and tucked her fall of wavy black hair behind her ear.

“I’m sorry,” Ember whispered.

Holly waved her away. “Don’t be. I think I hear another book calling.”

Before her friend could say anything else, she grabbed her purple jacket from the rack near the door by the kitchen and pulled her matching hat on, covering her own dark hair. She shoved her feet into her tall waterproof boots and slipped her arms into her coat.

“Thanks for the drink.” She regretted turning to say that when she found Cobalt kissing Ember, his right hand framing her face.

Holly hurried out of the door, needing the air.

She stepped off the raised wooden deck of the L-shaped cabin, the snow crunching beneath her boots as she banked right, heading past the huge lodgepole pine that stood in the bend of the cabin. She kept her steps light as she walked, nimbly crossing a patch of slippery compacted snow, and glanced up the sloping clearing towards the far end of it, where the forest was untouched, covered the base of the mountain that watched over the Creek.

Smoke curled lazily from the chimney of the cabin tucked beneath the trees at the top of the clearing, a small lodge with a deck below the pitched roof. Someone moved around inside it, stepping in front of the picture window to the right of the door, and in the triangular window that filled the space right beneath the roof, warm light flickered.

Rath opened the door and stepped out, turned back towards the inside of the cabin and said something she didn’t hear. He pulled a black hat on and grabbed the two snow shovels on the deck, and stepped down onto the patch of grass he and his brothers had already worked to clear.

It looked as if Cobalt was about to get another disturbance.

She slipped into the woods to her right, slowly relaxing as she breathed deep of the crisp air, as her gaze darted over everything. Cougar Creek was beautiful in the snow. Peaceful. Sunlight filtered through the trees, caught on the snow that had made it through the branches of the evergreens and made it sparkle like diamonds.

Holly listened to the world, enjoying the quiet of winter, the bite to the air and the chill on her skin. Birds sang in the distance, and more than one creature moved through the trees ahead of her and above her.

She reached Cobalt’s cabin but rather than taking the steps up onto the raised deck of the smaller L-shaped wooden lodge that faced a patch of open land and the river, she picked another path, heading down towards that creek.

She listened for it, smiled when she heard it trickling beneath the ice and layers of snow.

Holly stopped close to the concealed bank of it, drew down a deep breath and sighed it out as she gazed at the snow-draped forest that covered the other side of the river, followed the trees up to the point where they thinned. She canted her head as she took in the mountains, struck by their beauty as their white peaks met clear deep blue sky.

Winter was beautiful.

She always had loved this time of year, despite how hard her family tried to ruin it for her.

She could spend hours just standing in this one spot, taking in the forest and mountains, feeling nature surrounding her, and she was sure she wouldn’t feel the cold. She tensed as a breeze swirled snow around her boots, caressed icy fingers across her face. Fine, maybe she would feel it.

She was already missing that hot chocolate she had left behind at Ember’s. Maybe she should have brought the mug with her, could have been enjoying it right that moment as she took in the view. A thought pinged into her head. She could make herself a hot drink to stand on the deck with or bring back to this spot. It would keep the chill off her and allow her to spend more time out in the fresh air.

Holly looked over her shoulder at the cabin, tempted to head inside and make her own, aware that if she did she would end up curling up in front of the fire with it rather than coming back out to take in the view.

She looked back at the world around her. Just a little more time outside. The air would do her good and it was better than sitting indoors all day. Although, she might end up napping on the couch, worn out by the cold and the walk.

She stamped her feet to warm them and then set off again, following the concealed river to the other side of Cobalt’s small territory, heading into the woods there. Animal tracks cut through the thin snow, stealing her focus as she picked out which species they belonged to, and mused over ones she didn’t recognise.

Holly lifted her head and stilled as she found herself in a part of the woods she didn’t recognise.

When she had first arrived, Cobalt had warned her not to stray too far north of the Creek, had told her scary stories about the bears there when everyone had been drinking beers around the fire Rath had built in the clearing, close to Ember’s home.

Storm had assured her that she could wander all she wanted. The bears who remained at Black Ridge slept through the winter like their animal counterparts. It had reassured her, but only a little. Her walk back to Cobalt’s cabin in the pitch dark had been swift, and she had made sure to lock the door behind her. Her mind had run wild that night, filled with fantasies about running into one of the bears, ones that had turned to nightmares.

Mostly because Rath had told her to get her butt straight back to the Creek if she ever crossed paths with any of the bears.

Or yell for help.

When she had looked at the others, none of them had contradicted him. Everyone had looked grave.

Holly had decided not to stray far from Cobalt’s cabin, to keep firmly away from the bears’ territory. She was sure they were all sleeping just as Storm had said, but she didn’t want to risk it. She didn’t want any trouble with them.

A bird flitted overhead and she turned and lifted her head to track it, raised her hand to shield her eyes as she tried to see it. It was long gone, disappeared into the trees.

She had been trying to catch sight of birds for days now, had only heard them so far.

A sudden sensation that something wasn’t right hit her, had her instincts rushing to the fore, flooding her with awareness of the world around her.

Holly’s spine stiffened.

She wasn’t alone.

Her breathing slowed as her senses sharpened, as she listened hard for a sign that she hadn’t imagined that someone was out there.

Watching her.

A bear?

Panic was swift to set in, the tales the brothers had spun about them filling her mind, making her heart race.

She did exactly what her alpha had told her to do.

She hurried back towards the cabin.

Prayed to the gods that whoever was out there, they wouldn’t chase her.

Her heart jolted into her throat as a twig snapped behind her.