Stolen By Her Bear by Felicity Heaton

Chapter 6

Saint was slow to shake off the heavy arms of sleep, his head foggy with the need to forget what he had felt and sink back into her waiting arms, into that delicious dream he had been having.

He blinked his eyes open instead, because he was sure the female had been close to him.

He lifted his head and looked around the room, but didn’t see her anywhere. He drew in a breath and caught her scent, savoured it as heat rolled through him, pulling his dream to the front of his mind again. His mouth watered, hunger for a taste of her flooding him, filling him with a need to know if she would taste of berries as well as smell like them.

Gods.

That was a sweet torment.

Saint lumbered onto his paws and focused, summoning the shift. He gritted his teeth as his bones ached, as his muscles burned as some contracted while others lengthened, and rose onto his back legs. The fur that covered him swept away from his limbs, leaving naked skin behind, and then his chest and back, and finally his head. He grimaced as his nose shrank at the same time, his jaw and teeth moulding into new shapes, and shook his head as his ears shifted downwards and transformed.

The shift took only seconds, but each one was agonising, had him wanting to roar out his pain as his body morphed.

When he was back to how he liked to be, he staggered forwards, clenching his jaw as his stiff leg muscles stretched and refused to obey him. His fault for sleeping with his backside against a flimsy door that did nothing to keep the cold out.

He grabbed the bottoms of his long johns and pulled them on, scrubbed a hand over his face and huffed.

Fatigue rolled over him, beckoned him to close his eyes, but he couldn’t. He was too deeply aware of the female as his senses locked onto her in his loft bedroom above him. Her rapid pulse drummed in his ears, her fast breaths breaking the silence. She wasn’t asleep then. Had she been contemplating escape?

Or just contemplating him?

He pulled a deeper breath into his lungs and her scent was so clear she must have been in the room a moment ago. She was the reason he had awoken, her delectable fragrance rousing him from a deep sleep.

A dangerous sleep.

With the winter calling him and a storm raging outside, making the world quiet again, it would be easy for him to fall back to sleep and not wake until spring, not even if she clambered over him to reach the door.

Scratch that.

His body ached, hunger riding him hard. He would definitely wake if she was on him. Just the thought of her pressed against him was enough to have him growing aroused.

What was it about this female that made her affect him so deeply?

He crept up the stairs, eased to a halt at the top of them and stared at her, replayed every moment with her as he gazed at her where she lay on her side on the bed, her black hair spilling across his pillow, her slender body curled into a foetal position.

When he had seen her in the woods, he had thought her pretty enough, but when he had brought her into his cabin and pushed her hood back and seen her in the light, he had been forced to re-evaluate his opinion of her.

She was stunning.

Beguiling.

Her beauty stirred his blood, made him want to growl and take hold of her, and bend her to his will, until she submitted to him.

Saint forced himself to turn away from her, knew in his heart he wouldn’t cross a line with her like that, but he was tired, on edge, and didn’t trust himself. He had frightened her enough.

He trudged back down the stairs and sank onto the couch, tipped his head back and tried to sleep but it eluded him now.

He stared at the ceiling, at the spot where she was on the other side of it, unable to stop himself from focusing on her. He lost track of time as he gazed at that point, as her breathing and pulse steadily calmed.

He wished he could be like that.

Calm.

Her scent was driving him crazy though and he felt as if the cabin was too small with her in it, as if he would go out of his mind if he didn’t get some fresh air. Her fault. She made him crazy, had him twisted in knots as he tried to purge her scent from his lungs and failed dismally.

He dragged a hand over his face.

Gods, he was sure she had been stood close to him while he had been sleeping.

Had seeing him in his bear form frightened her?

He chuckled softly at that. He doubted it. He drew his hand away from his face and looked at the bite mark on his palm that was healing now. The little female didn’t seem afraid of anything, not really. She was a bold one. A brave one.

Which only made him admire her more.

Saint shut down that dangerous line of thought because no good would come of it.

She was mated to another and he had taken her as revenge.

He needed to remember that, needed to get his head on straight and shut down the unruly part of him that wanted her.

He shifted his focus to the world outside as he looked at the window to his left. It was dark, but not because it was night. Morning had come, but the storm was stealing what little light they got at this time of year. Snow whirled past the window, and his bear side growled at him to stay inside, where it was warm.

But he couldn’t.

He needed air.

Space.

A moment to catch his breath.

Saint shoved to his feet, stripped off his long johns and tossed them aside as he went to the cupboards. He grabbed a pair of black trunks from one of the drawers and pulled them on, followed by his weatherproof trousers and then his black and green fleece. He grabbed a pair of thermal socks and his boots, sat on the end of the couch as he tugged both of them on, and then stood and snatched his black coat from the rack.

He paused at the door, looking back at the loft, his focus locking back on the female.

Outside, the wind slammed snow against the cabin.

He shuddered at the thought of going out there, of leaving this place, when all he wanted to do was climb those stairs, crawl onto the bed and tug her against him, moulding her body to his, holding her while he slept. That need pounded inside him, growing stronger with every beat of his heart, an irresistible urge that took all of his will to shut it down.

He pulled his coat on and opened the door, resisted the urge to slam it behind him as he stepped out onto the frigid deck of his cabin. His face twisted as snow blasted against his side, as he peered into the haze of it, just about able to make out the forest and the cabins to his right. If it continued like this, it would be another whiteout. He trudged down the steps to the path the twins had made in the snow—a path that was already covered in four inches of fresh powder.

Saint tugged his hood up and zipped up his coat, huddled into it as he marched along the path, veered right at the firepit and headed towards the two cabins nestled against the edge of the forest.

A light was on inside the one on the left, the older of the two buildings. Knox lived there alone now, but he and his brother had shared it once, before Lowe had decided they both needed some space. Lowe’s newer cabin was a replica of the old one, a touch larger than Saint’s own cabin but similar in style, with a raised deck covered by the extended pitched roof but two windows on the lower half, one on either side of the door. Above that door, there was a smaller window that allowed light into the loft bedroom.

Smoke curled from the metal chimney to the left of the roof, was caught in the wind and swiftly merged with the constant flurry of snow.

Saint knocked his boots against the side of the steps up to the deck, clearing some of the snow off them before he ascended the few stairs.

He rapped his knuckles against the door and waited, looked back at his cabin, squinting at it through the snow as a need to go back speared him, had his mind filling with thoughts of the female.

When Knox didn’t answer, he knocked again, harder this time, impatient to have someone guarding Ember so she didn’t get ideas about escaping.

The door opened.

Knox rubbed the back of his hand across his eyes and then upwards, over the unruly wild waves of his dark blond hair. The male was already dressed, wearing weatherproof trousers and a thick black cable-knit sweater, and he had trimmed his beard too, leaving just a light scruff on the lower half of his face.

The fatigue in his stormy blue eyes and the fact he had washed up told Saint that Knox hadn’t been able to sleep, had been finding ways to pass the time in his cabin and had run out of things to keep himself occupied so he had settled on some personal grooming.

Knox grumbled, “What’s up?”

“I need you to keep an eye on Ember while I go for a walk.” Saint looked back at his cabin, wanting to curse as the snow grew heavier, trying to steal it from view.

“A walk?” Knox arched an eyebrow at him as he leaned his right shoulder against the doorframe and peered out. “Have you seen the weather?”

“Walked through it, didn’t I?” Saint growled and folded his arms across his chest, straightened his spine and made sure Knox got the message that he wasn’t messing around. “I just need to work off some energy. Thirty minutes tops.”

Knox looked beyond him to the snow. “It’s dangerous. Weather is getting worse by the second.”

He was aware of that, and appreciated Knox’s concern, but it wasn’t going to stop him. He needed to get some air and some space. Standing on the deck of his cabin wasn’t going to be enough. He had to get away from the female for a moment and get his head on straight, and that was something he couldn’t do with her scent taunting him.

“I won’t go far. Just a few laps around the property. I’ll stick to this side of the creek.” Saint hated to compromise, but Knox was looking as if he wasn’t going to agree to watching Ember for him, and he didn’t like how long he had been away from her already. He didn’t have time to argue with Knox about this, or ask Lowe.

He doubted Lowe would help him even if he ordered it.

He had seen the look the older of the twins had given him, had heard in his voice that he thought Saint had made a mistake by snatching Ember.

Saint was starting to feel the same way.

“Fine.” Knox grabbed his black coat and shoved his arms into it, his face darkening as he zipped it up. He pushed his feet into his boots and stepped out onto the deck. “But if you turn into a popsicle out here, I’m not saving your ass.”

Saint chuckled. “I’m sure I could rouse a shift if I get that cold.”

Although there was always a chance he would be too cold to make it happen. He wouldn’t be the first bear to die because he had left it too long before attempting a shift to keep himself warm.

Knox closed his door and stepped past him, and as Saint turned to watch him walking towards his cabin, a fierce need to growl and roar blazed to life inside him, born of the thought of Knox being near her.

Saint forced himself to take the steps down from Knox’s deck and to walk away, heading in the opposite direction, past Lowe’s cabin. The blind on the door twitched as he neared it, and Lowe stared out at him, a hard look in his blue eyes. The male still wasn’t happy about this turn of events. He averted his gaze and huddled down into his coat as the wind blew against his back.

It swirled around on him and caught his hood, pushing it back and blasting snow into his face.

He growled and tugged his hood back up, yanked on the elastics to tighten it against his head and looked at the untouched snow ahead of him as he walked, picking up pace.

His pace began to slow as a feeling built inside him with each step, setting him on edge.

The greater the distance between him and the female grew, the stronger his need to return to her became.

He looked back over his shoulder at the hazy cabin.

And he had the feeling it wasn’t because he feared she was going to escape.