Bear Their Secret: Wylde Den Three (Alaskan Den Men Book 12) Read online

  Mellowed sunlight brushed one side of his chiseled jawline, drawing her eyes from his all too kissable lips. God, did these men know how to fill out a pair of jeans, but she preferred bare chests to the T-shirts they had on. A girl could have her weakness.

  Kohl’s heat brushed against her right before his hand stroked the length of her arm. “Come here, baby girl.” Kohl stared at her like she’d said just what he wanted to hear.

  Her ears warmed and her damn heart swelled. Why did she have to be so weak for them? Roughened words never sounded better. They stoked the urge for another Alaskan sex-filled night with her pressed between both men under a blanket of soft sunshine.

  With a tug Kohl had her in his arms, legs wrapped around his waist. Not a single sign he’d been injured. Not Kohl, nothing ever fazed him. He was as rough and hard as that mountain he’d been on, but she saw the tender insides.

  He didn’t waste any time working her as close to him as possible. Just like men. Figures. His mind nowhere near today’s incident from the way he leaned back and propped a foot on the fender of his truck, his expression calm. Delicious pressure hit her center.

  “We need to fix the clothes issue,” he growled low for her ears only.

  “I agree, but not here.”

  She inhaled deeply at the carnal promises his tone carried.

  Lorne traced a finger up her bare arm and over her shoulder until he had her braid in hand, tugging her to face him for a slow glide of his lips across hers.

  Kohl cupped a hand around the back of her head, holding her steady for Lorne to kiss. Beneath his cotton tee, taut muscles rippled under her outstretched hands. Desire peaked in her core as her head fell back to rest on Lorne’s shoulder.

  Forcing her eyes open she fell under the wicked spell of Kohl’s gaze. Luscious intent crackled between them.

  Only witches worked stronger magick than what she felt tightening around her heart every second he peered down at her. As though a spell drew them to one another. Lorne had the same effect on her and she feared what it meant. She should fight it. One of two things needed to happen. Either she found a way free from their lust or found a way to get him inside her faster than they were moving.

  Devouring the Alaskan hunks sounded like the best and worst of the two options. They’d whisk her away, she’d dive into the illusion of their fantasy and damn, wouldn’t that be a fine ending to a freaking stressful day?

  Lorne’s lips found hers and Kohl gave a throaty growl as he watched. His stomach tightened between her thighs and that wasn’t all. Kohl leaned a little further back and shifted her to settle over his swelling shaft. The man knew the way around her hesitation. He made her weak, but only if she let him in on her little secret of how much he affected her.

  Audience be damned, she took the kiss deeper ready to have her Alaskan sandwich and eat it too while her thighs took on a thought of their own. They tightened, pulling Kohl snug.

  Lorne broke off the kiss. “Do you want something, baby girl?”

  “Oh, she wants,” Kohl stated with confidence. “Don’t you, baby? Those pretty eyes are lit with just how much you want.”

  He was right. She hungered for them. Savagely so.

  Lorne started then Kohl followed as each man licked and nipped as though they couldn’t get enough of her. Kohl pulled away a fraction. “I’m glad you waited for us.”

  Pine and fresh spring-scented soap clung to them both, and she drew the calming, familiar smell in until her her lungs nearly exploded.

  Kohl broke the comforting silence of simply touching one another. “I told you we’d be home for dinner.”

  She wanted to be dinner. As if hearing her thoughts, he growled, deep and throaty.

  “Keep looking at us like that and we’ll show you how fast we can break the speed limit getting you home.”

  Oh God. “Try it and I won’t be responsible for what happens when you get me alone.” She leaned in until her aching nipple brushed against Kohl’s chest.

  Damn him. There went her stern self-talk and plan. She unhooked her legs and moved to stand on her own.

  “Oh no. You’re not going anywhere.” Kohl tightened his grip.

  “You’re hurt.”

  “I’ll heal. But only if you stay right where you’re at.” She could feel the glances of all the Wyldes from the porch. Kohl pressed his hands into her backside while Lorne pinned her from the other side, full lips trailing soft kisses to the top of her head, his arms like tight bands around her.

  A catcall carried over the expanse of the yard and Lorne groaned. “Don’t you have anything better to do?” His chest vibrated against her back with the force of his deep voice and sent a flush of need through her. A few more of those and she’d have a full-on orgasm right there on the Wyldes’ front lawn.

  Everett only egged his brother on with another whistle, this time low and sensual, and she didn’t have to look at him to know he wiggled his brows at his brother while he wrapped an arm around his girl, Pepper as she hid a giggle behind her hand.

  Cherry needed to have a talk with that girl about privacy. And since she had two men, she needed double the privacy.

  Cherry snuggled into Kohl’s shoulder. He tightened his hold. “I can’t believe I almost ravished you both right in front of everyone.”

  “Pity you stopped,” Kohl whispered back. God, he was murder to her control.

  She paused with her hands poised to bury her fingers into the long length of his sable hair. Another habit she would need to break.

  She angled her head to see the crowd and threw a kiss to Everett who still nursed a nasty gunshot wound that was laced with poison after a run in with the ice bears yesterday. “Pepper’s gonna give you a spanking after you get better if you’re not careful.”

  “She’d like to more often than not,” he countered with a wiggle of his brows. What had she stepped into when coming to Claw Ridge?

  Lorne pulled Cherry in and whispered in a husky voice, “Just one more minute,” stroking a hand down her arm.

  Too much contact. One more…well, anything and she would come right where she stood, audience and all. Wouldn’t that be a great send-off? Just the thought made her face warm with embarrassment.

  “Boys, let that poor girl down to walk on her own two feet and get in here before the dinner gets cold.”

  “Boys.” She turned to both and cooed in her best Southern drawl meant to disarm them with a little charm. “I think Mrs. Wylde means business.”

  Lorne flicked her warning away and leaned in until his lips brushed the shell of her ear. “When we get you home I’d like an answer to something.” She feared as much. He wanted to know why she hesitated.

  He pulled back, his eyes hooded from hers, but the tight pull along his shoulders told her everything she needed to know. “But for now, let’s go see the family.”

  His family. Not hers. She couldn’t afford to let thoughts like that cross her mind. “Everyone whipped up one hell of a dinner for you. Potatoes, a roast, garlic bread and enough apple pie to feed half of Texas. According to Everett it would be just enough for the five of you.”

  “Sounds about right.”

  Lorne kissed the top of her head gently as Kohl eased her to the ground.

  Damn if her heart didn’t bleed. She wouldn’t be surprised if she looked down to see it beating on the long sleeve of her shirt right that second. Just how many times would she fall for Kohl’s quiet voice and Lorne’s practiced touch?

  Every damn time and you know it.

  Headlights from a beat-up Chevy broke through the pale evening light, and she turned to see a tight face and angered eyes peering out over the steering wheel.

  Oh, hell. Of course, he would show up now.

  Kohl stiffened beside her and Lorne settled a hand on her shoulder.

  “He’s just here because he’s worried about Kohl,” he reassured her.

  Dust rolled in from the lack of rain over the last couple of weeks as Blackthorn rounded the last
bend in the long dirt drive leading up to the Wyldes’ home.

  A sudden unease settled over both men as the Kohl’s father busted out of his truck. He didn’t even bother to kill the motor or close the door behind him. Anger boiled behind his eyes and tightened his face into a grimace so fierce she feared he’d have a heart attack if he wasn’t careful.

  “Let’s go, boy. Time to go home.” Blackthorne wavered on his feet and used the truck for balance. A shifter had to ingest more than a gallon of Moon Lust to feel a buzz. How much did he have to drink to reach his current level of drunkenness?

  “Father. You’re drunk off your ass and making one of yourself. Go home.” Kohl broke rank and approached his father. She could see the second every muscle in his body went rigid the closer he got. “Sleep it off and we can talk in the morning. Or not. I don’t care anymore.”

  Mr. Blackthorne stumbled forward and Kohl caught him. “Boy, you’re the one that almost died today. All because of that bitch you call a mate.”

  Kohl jerked away as if burned from his father’s drunken and slurred words, letting the older man stumbled forward.

  “I’ll forgive you once, but you ever call my mate another insult, father or not, you’ll eat the words before they leave your fucking mouth.”

  Mate? His words were a punch to the gut. Cherry’s lips parted as she fought to catch her breath. Her gaze rose to find Lorne’s. “That’s the second time I’ve heard that today. What does he mean by mate?”

  Kohl faced his father head one like a wall of protection blocking his view of her. “I didn’t die. You see me here, breathing. Now if you’re done putting your nose into my business, get in your truck and sleep it off.” Kohl walked past his father and yanked the key from the truck.

  She’d never heard such disgust come from him. Could this be the man she knew, because his usual soft tone was gone. The command in his tone held no room for negotiation. She feared what would happen between father and son if he knew the confrontation they had earlier that day.

  “I’m your family. Along with your mother and sisters,” Blackthorne continued his slurred argument.

  “No one said you’re not,” Kohl roared, slamming a fist down on the hood of the truck. Anger tightened his muscles in a way she’d never witnessed before and she could tell from the intense look in his eyes that Kohl wanted to pound something, someone.

  “You put the Blackthorne mark on that bitch and you’re out. Forget coming home. The den will belong to one of your sisters. The Blackthorne name lost. Is that what you want?”

  Only a flicker of movement was the only warning. Kohl grabbed his father by the collar and hauled back.

  “No!” she yelled, fear at the regret he would suffer later from striking his father pulling her into action.

  Kohl had him bent over the hood of his truck, and every word Kohl uttered came out rougher than the one that followed. “You have her to thank, old man.”

  Lorne let out a long-winded sigh. “I’m sorry, baby. This really isn’t how this should have happened. It’s not really about you.”

  He can’t be serious. Who the hell did he think it was about? She gave him a hard side-eye. Neither Lorne nor Kohl knew the Blackthorne Elder had come at her in the bar earlier. And did Lorne really believe that this entire argument between Kohl and his father wasn’t about her? She twisted her braid and looked down at her shoes, willing her the dampness rimming her eyes away with all the might left in her. It took all she had not to jump in the truck and burn rubber all the way back to Houston this second.

  Kohl released his father and stepped back as Jasha walked up between them. “Blackthorne, why don’t you come inside and we can talk about this.”

  Cherry didn’t need to hear any more or see what her presence did to Kohl’s family no matter how Lorne wanted to paint it.

  “Take me home,” she whispered to neither in particular.

  Kohl slammed his fist into the hood of his truck, his eyes leveled on nothing in particular as he rounded his shoulders.

  “Yeah, let’s get back to the house. Dad can help Blackthorne settle down. Everything will work out.”

  “No.” She looked up into the eyes of a very pissed off werebear. “My home. Take me home. On second thought, you know what, I can drive myself.” She swiped the keys out of Lorne’s hand.

  The look in Kohl’s eyes cut her like a razor blade as his gaze tracked her progress to the driver’s seat of Lorne’s truck. Settled behind the wheel, her gaze connected with the hurt she saw and killed a little bit of her heart. But it didn’t change what she had to do next.

  She didn’t dare look back as she pushed the pedal to the floorboard, dust kicking up in her wake. Tonight she took control over her unruly heart.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  They were mavericks among deeply rooted traditional thinkers. How the hell Blackthorne knew Cherry was their mate or the fact that they planned to claim Cherry if she would have them baffled him, but Kohl swore to Lorne he didn’t tell his father. That was all he needed to know. But the fact still remained. They’d wasted the last two weeks waiting for the perfect time and now they wouldn’t get it.

  Lorne’s blood pressure shot up to dangerous levels as he walked the lengths of the wooden floors of their cabin. It had been in the family for over a hundred years, and the home had seen its share of both happy times and problems. Funerals and weddings. “You can’t be in the same room with her without wanting to fuck her up against the wall, the couch, the kitchen table. That’s your problem. She’s bound to think she’s just another toy. You don’t see that as a problem?”

  “She knows now. But, that gives me an idea.” Kohl’s indifference worked his nerves.

  “See what I mean?” He stalked by Kohl, his tone clipped. “She means more than a casual fuck to me, Kohl.”

  “And what? You think I’m not eaten alive with the need to claim her? Since the turn of the season, my damn eyes won’t stop fucking glowing like I’m some freak, and I’m pretty sure my blood has been replaced with lava.” He raked his nails down the length of his arms. “Even now they burn and that’s only with her lingering perfume on our clothing. Tell me I’m lying.”

  He wasn’t. “It doesn’t matter. She doesn’t understand all the shit we deal with. Your father, mating…hell, shifters in general. And tonight’s little bomb drop didn’t help.” Lorne tossed various containers and bottles of water and juice that Cherry favored on the island counter.

  “Yeah, we might as well have packed her bags for her after everything Father said.”

  “It gets worse,” Lorne mumbled and immediately wanted to bite his tongue.

  “What do you mean? I does it get worse than our girl believing she was nothing more than a fuck bunny to warm our bed over the winter. And now that summer is here she’s oblivious to the fact our bears are in full mating mode and she is our sole target.”

  Damn it. He didn’t want to mention this now. It would steer them off topic and lead Kohl to a dark place.

  He knew what it meant to lose family. So did Cherry. But Kohl didn’t lose the father who’d rather beat him into submission than take the time to teach him. He had to see him day in and day out. If Lorne told Kohl the Blackthorne Elder had come within five feet of Cherry, much less threatened to strike her while they were out rescuing those damn teenagers today, Kohl would lose his shit. If it ate him alive, it would kill Kohl. He needed him focused right now on how to solve the bigger problem, Cherry leaving them.

  “Stop fucking around, man, spill it.” Kohl slapped the bread on the oak table.

  “Never mind. We don’t have the time right now.”

  He looked like he didn’t want to argue the point for a beat longer, but he finally nodded. “We’ll find time. But I agree. Later.”

  “We can’t let her leave without knowing she belongs here with us, Kohl.”

  “She’s not a piece of meat, Lorne.”

  “No. She thinks she’s a problem and I have a feeling it goes deeper than that
. There’s something bigger keeping her closed off from us.”

  Kohl was moving around the kitchen but stalled on the last of his words. “And now my father has driven the wedge deeper.” The man who didn’t share many words looked like he wanted to shout out his frustration. He got that.

  “I’ll handle him. But first, we have to make sure we don’t lose her. I’d rather have plummeted down Death Gulch today than face a life without her.”

  There it was, that cold, calculating gleam to his eyes that said Kohl wouldn’t let their girl go without a fight. “I know that look. It got us grounded for a month in grade school when we and Adam took on a whole pack of teenagers when they bullied his mate and her friends. Landed me with a summer-long gig shoveling muck down on the Grady farm. Nothing is worse than shoveling shit, man.”

  “Unless you’re me. My dad busted my hide. Couldn’t shift for a whole summer.”

  “That was messed up.”

  “But it turned out all good. Adam eventually got his girl.” Kohl brushed off his bleak past like a pesky fly.

  “Funny how that came around. Hope the same is for us.” Lorne scrubbed a hand over his two days’ worth of stubble. What they were about to do would either be the best time of their lives or shit was about to hit the fan.

  Kohl pulled up a stool, popped the top to a beer and took a swig. “What do you have in mind?”

  In the early hours of the morning, they came to a stop behind Lorne’s borrowed truck parked outside of Cherry’s apartment situated above Rone’s bar and bakery. Everett had tossed him a set of keys as soon as Cherry had peeled out. While she took the ten-minute trip back to town, they turned right and opted for the two-hour trip back to the Wylde’s land to regroup.

  Pools of soft light poured out of the large second-floor windows. “She must have stayed up all night.”

  Wafts of sweet, floury goodness made their stomachs rumble in unison as the hired baker, already hard at work, had fresh treats going in the oven.