Bear's Gold (Erotic Shifter Fairy Tales) (9 page)

Taking a deep breath, she pushed it
out forcefully and headed out of the room. Just a couple more days in Den
County and she could leave and start working on a new life. The only thing she
needed to do was avoid the sexy man in the house and treat her time in the area
like a much needed vacation. Simple.

Yeah, right.
Her body screamed as she pulled the
door open and stared at the tall, attractive man who seemed to dwarf everyone
else in the room around him. Including the man in a tan uniform that was
standing beside Theo. As if knowing she was staring at him, Theo looked over
his shoulder and held her immobilized with his arresting dark gaze.

Heat infused every cell of her body
and her stomach clenched tight with need. She wanted to fan herself or jump
naked in a lake to cool off. Instead she rolled her shoulders back and kept her
composure.

“You reach everyone you needed to?”
Theo asked, shifting his body in her direction.

“I did. My brother was happy to hear
I was okay.”

Giving a brisk nod, Theo introduced
her to the man he was speaking with. “Sheriff Smokey, this is Riley…”

When Theo frowned after he said her
first name, she realized that was all she’d given him. With Fred always
following her moves, trying to finding out everywhere she went, she'd gotten
used to just giving what was necessary. However, she would be residing in this
man’s house and with his kids, so the least she could do was provide her full
name.

“Gold. I’m Riley Gold.”

Sheriff Smokey moved closer to her
and held his hand out with a smile. A good looking man, younger than Riley expected
for the head law official in a town. He looked to be around late forties.

Wrapping his fingers around her
hand, the officer smiled. “Well, it is a treat to meet such a pretty visitor to
our county.”

The sheriff was charming and Riley
could not help returning the smile. “Nice to meet you.”

There was a low toned sound from
Theo who still stood beside the other man. Riley ignored the intense man and
the strange sound.

However, she did notice a subtle
twitching and wiggling Sheriff Smokey was doing with his nose and she pulled
her hand away. Nervous that he may attempt the ‘Den County custom’ of sniffing
the back of her hand.

She shoved her hands into the small
pockets of her jacket, just to keep them away from the men in town.

“I hope you plan to join us for the
festival. You’d be a delight on the last day,” Sheriff Smokey said.

“She’ll be gone soon.” Theo spoke
first, the texture of his voice gravelly as if he had a handful of rocks in his
throat.

Staring in his direction, she ground
her teeth. This overbearing man was beginning to get on her last nerve. She
could speak for herself. His adamant demands that she wasn’t staying for whatever
the excitement of this festival was made her want to contradict him and stay.
She’d always lived life on her own terms and when someone else tried to control
that she did whatever the hell she wanted to do anyway.

If it weren't for the fact she was
on borrowed hospitality of the infuriating man, she would have announced that
she planned to stay, just to show him she was in charge of her comings and
goings.

Rolling her eyes, she looked back at
the lawman. “Sorry, Sheriff, I do have pressing plans. Maybe the next one since
I’m just a little over three hours from here.”

“Next time then.” Turning to Theo,
he said, “I’m sure this lovely lady would like to see more of Den then my
office.”

“We’re on our way out. Come on,
boys, let’s go and see what entertainment is happening at the fairgrounds.”

“Yea!” The twins, who had been
chatting with Natasha as they drew on sheets of paper the receptionist had
given them, began to jump up and down.

“Thanks again for allowing me to use
the phone.” Riley said to the receptionist as she walked past her desk and out
the front door.

Chapter
Six

Theo didn’t know what in the hell
was wrong with him. He was acting as if he’d never been around a human female
before. Even though they didn’t get many visitors to Den, he still traveled to
various areas to pick up supplies or other items on occasion and had contact
with other females. But, he felt as if he was going to crawl out of his own
skin around Riley. Last night had been bad enough. His reaction then he
couldn’t sort out, but if that wasn’t fucking bad enough, now he was acting as
if he had some type of claim to Riley.

A claim that he as a Were-bear
should not be trying to make on a human woman. Fuck. It was too complicated to acclimate
a taker to their way of life; especially with winter home hibernation coming
up. He’d heard stories of how newly transitioned Were-males and females became
claustrophobic being stuck in the dwelling for six months. Some going insane or
even leaving. Those first six months were important for gestational time of a
pregnant female as well as securing the family unit. Because of their species
bear and human genes everything within them was accelerated and most women only
carried for six months, bringing forth two to three children before the Fish
Moon in late Spring. Most new parents took their infants out and bathed them in
the river before the moon and experienced the baby’s first shift with them.

Shifting from his shoulder to his
back against a tree at the edge of the playground where Riley was pushing both
the boys on the swing as other children ran around them, a vision of the
beautiful black woman swollen with his cubs made his spine tingle and his gut
ache.

Riley Gold. Her name fit her. With
all that beautiful soft brown hair and golden highlights sparkling in the sun.
Even the honey gold brown of her skin was remarkable, tempting his eyes to
feast on her. His tongue recalled the taste of all the warm, smooth flesh when
she was bare before him. His cock twitched and stretched.

Exhaling he shook his head. This
woman was not the one. He needed to be fixing his sights on the available
females in the county. Maybe selecting a Were who would be experiencing her
first outing on Friday night. He’d heard talk that the Grizwalds youngest
daughter would be joining in this year. Shayna was young, twenty-two as most ‘first
outer’ women, but pretty with her deep ebony skin. He hadn’t missed the few
skittish looks she’d given him along with a few other males in town as she
sashayed by them.

For some reason his mind didn’t
display a picture of her carrying his seed.

Yup, his mind was truly messed up.

“Papa, I’m hungry!” Bernie launched
himself out of the swing and came sprinting to him.

Theo pushed away from the tree and
his wayward thoughts and scooped up his son and hugged him. “Hungry. Didn’t I
already feed you today?” Theo tickled him.

A peeling laugh came out of his son.
“But, grandma said I’m a grown boy.”

“A
growing
boy,” he corrected
as he moved closer to Riley and Aubrey who were leaving the swing. “You ready
to eat, too, Aubrey?”

“Two plates. I’m grown, too.”

Setting Bernie down, he poked Aubrey
in the belly. “Then if you’re so grown how about you pay for lunch.”

“But, I have no money.” Aubrey
pulled out the insides of his jean pockets showing that they were empty.

“That may be a problem.” Theo rubbed
his chin as if he were pondering the issue.

“Maybe Mrs. Riley can pay,” Bernie
volunteered.

Theo looked from his sons’ cheery
faces with their wild black hair to Riley. She didn’t hold his gaze long;
instead she looked off toward the other families playing in the park. He’d
never have her pay, but for a moment he wondered what kind of financial state a
woman would be in if she could place all of her belongings in a small sedan. He
hadn’t missed that her car had been packed as if she were headed to a new life.
Believing that whatever was going on with her was her business and he had no
right to pry, he didn’t ask.

“Now, what kind of men would we be
if we allowed a woman to pay for lunch for us?”

Bernie shrugged.

Aubrey said, “Nice ones?”

Ruffling Aubrey’s hair, Theo shook
his head. “Not even close, son.”

“Can we go to Gobi’s?” Bernie asked.

“Sure.” Looking back at the
mysterious woman before him, he asked, “You hungry, Riley?”

Shifting her pretty hazel eyes
toward him, she nodded. “Amazingly I am. I think it must be all the woodland
air. I usually only eat a light breakfast and dinner.”

“That’s not nearly enough substance.
Whatever you do for a living must not be very strenuous.”

“Actually, I’m a preschool teacher.”
She nodded toward his twins. “I spend my day chasing fifteen children like your
boys around a room.”

As they left the park and headed
back to Paw Tracks Street, he tilted his head and observed the woman walking
beside him. Theo tried to picture her as a teacher and having multiple children
tugging on her for one thing or another. He realized that she had seemed
extremely comfortable with his boys from the moment she walked into the kitchen.
Now he knew why. It fit her.

“I bet the little ones in your
classroom love you.”

A shadow crossed her features then
disappeared. “I’ll miss them.”

“Why?” Glancing at the road before
he allowed his boys to cross after a truck went by, he moved their small group
to the other side.

She ran her hand idly over her hair,
pushing back the few strands that had escaped the plait. “I’m sure you figured
out that I’m moving. I’ll be getting a new job, so the kids I’ve grown attached
to last year, I will not see anymore.” She exhaled loud. “Most of them would
have been going to kindergarten next year anyway.”

He wasn’t fooled for one moment that
she was taking leaving those kids lightly; he could see the sadness she was
trying to hide.

Remaining silent on the subject, he
escorted them down the sidewalk, waving and calling out hellos to his neighbors
until they arrived at Gobi’s Diner.

“It’s about time you brought these
little guys to see me, Theo.” A short, slim woman with long brownish-red hair
came from around the front counter wagging her finger at him. Once she was in
front of them, she bent over and kissed both his boys on the cheeks.

After giving the small woman a hug,
he made introductions. “Riley Gold, this is my Aunt Ann, my father’s twin.”

Whacking him on his arm with the
towel from her apron, Ann chided him. “Don’t say twin, people will think your
father and I look like each other. I like the term womb mate.”

Theo chuckled. It was an old
argument he heard often from his aunt. His father and aunt were a
representation of most of the children sets in Den, fraternal twins. Few people
had identical cubs as he and his late wife had. Only three others in town.

His aunt pulled Riley into a hug.
“Welcome to Den. That big lug in the kitchen is my husband, Paul Gobi.”

Hearing his name, his uncle waved
his spatula in the air and gave them a big smile.

“Nice to meet you both,” Riley said.

“Well, I know these Kodiak men are
hungry. I hope you brought your appetite, too, Riley, because I just finished
my famous stew, some homemade bread and my honey walnut cake should be out of
the oven and cool by the time you all are done eating.”

“Oh, goodness. If I wasn’t hungry
before this moment, I think I am now.” Riley smiled.

“Excellent.” His aunt ushered them
to a booth and hustled away.

Before they could even settle into
the seats, Aunt Ann had a waitress bring them all steaming bowls of food and a basket
filled with warm bread.

The boys shoveled stew into their
mouths as they colored on the large sheet of paper covering the table with
restaurant crayons.

Halfway through the meal, Riley
said, “Everyone in town has been really kind.”

That had shocked Theo a little. Not
because the Den residents weren’t nice, but usually they kept to themselves
when it came to strangers. Shifters were a tight knit group because of their
small numbers. However, people had treated Riley as if she were a Were. But she
wasn’t, he reminded himself.

“I’m glad. I wouldn’t want the days
you’re going to be stuck here to be miserable.”

Taking another bite, she chewed
slowly, thoughtful. Lifting her gaze to his, she said, “I haven’t told you
thanks for opening your home to me last night.” She swallowed, looked away for
a moment then back at him. “And until my car is ready.”

“No problem. It will be nice having
someone else at the house to talk to who’s conversation ability is a little
higher than four.”

“I make no promises.” She smiled.

His heart slammed into the back of
his chest. Locking his eyes on her plump lips, he wanted to lean over the table
and kiss her. Reacquaint himself with the taste of her.

“Is everyone ready for dessert?”Aunt
Ann’s cheery voice broke the spell.