Knox (BBW Bear Shifter Moonshiner Romance) (120 Proof Honey) (14 page)

For starters, she was lost in the woods. Elise had entered the wilds of Fairhaven Park about an hour ago, chatting away to her agent about the disaster of the night before, only to find that when she hung up the call, she had veered off the path. The sun had long-since settled into the blackness of night, turning leafy green trees into heaps of shadow. Elise’s spine tingled with cold, despite the balmy air of a summer night in the California countryside. Something was very, very wrong.

And that something was a bear.

Elise wasn’t sure what she was looking at, at first, but she froze on the spot, staring into the forest ahead. The huge lumbering shape made a move, just a few steps forward, and suddenly it was fully defined. Elise saw the impossibly wide, shaggy head of brown fur, and the huge paws with long, curling claws. The bear had small, dark eyes, which caught the moonlight and reflected it in silver discs. It took a few more steps, out of the foliage and straight into Elise’s path.

Frozen with fear, Elise could only imagine the horror of being mauled to death by a bear. It was a grizzly too, which was totally impossible for California, yet there it was in all its hefty glory. People wouldn’t believe that this was how she’d died. They’d imagine that she had faked her own death, rather than face the backlash of the biggest mistake of her modelling career. When the bear took a sudden lunge, a deep growl caught in its throat, Elise lost her thoughts completely.

And then, as if fate didn’t hate her enough, another bear entered the small clearing.

It was even larger than the first, and slightly darker in color. The fur seemed to glisten as if it was wet, picking up silver strands of reflected moonlight. Elise’s body shivered, her breathing escaping in stunted puffs of air. The new bear glanced her way, and its eyes were golden. Even in the depth of night, those two shining orbs burned like sunlight. It was both the most beautiful and terrifying thing she had ever seen. The two grizzlies faced off, each eyeing the other for a long, silent moment.

Elise took one step, daring to try and back away. At her movement, the golden-eyed bear leapt in front of her, teeth bared to its smaller adversary. Elise heard the clash of gigantic muscles as the creatures started to tussle, and her breathing gave way to a cry. Every blow was powerfully violent, and Elise willed her shaking legs to work again. The golden-eyed bear was beating the other one back, but that surely meant that he wanted this tall, blonde woman for his very own midnight snack. Elise couldn’t afford to be around when that moment came.

She ran for all she was worth, racing desperately towards any sign of life.

“You poor thing,” Anina soothed. “Here, have another sip of cocoa.”

The morning sun was peeking over the horizon by the time that Elise found the Rangers’ Lodge. Shaking and terrified, she’d been welcomed into the three-story cabin by an elderly lady with small, hunched shoulders. Her face was streaked with silver wrinkles, and behind her glasses there was a kind gaze that shone through milky-amber eyes. The woman had introduced herself as Anina Best, and at first glance, Elise felt safe with her.

“I guess I can afford the calories, after all that running,” Elise said in a hoarse tone.

“Who thinks about calories after a bear attack?” Anina asked in reply.

Elise gave a shrug, her disheveled blonde hair flicking out at strange angles.

“That’s the model mentality,” she supposed.

Elise had only been modelling in LA for the last year, after leaving college with a degree she probably wouldn’t use and a huge pile of debts to pay back. She’d been getting pretty good at it too, until she’d put her foot in her mouth at the Shine Awards. She tried her hardest to push the embarrassment back again, burying her face in the steamy mug of chocolate heaven. When the warm, gooey liquid had calmed her nerves, her voice became smooth and bright again.

“Thank you so much for your kindness,” she told Anina. “I’m supposed to be renting a cabin on the West Ridge. I didn’t realize it’d be so far to get to on foot.”

“Are you the last minute booking? Miss Davenport?” Anina asked.

Elise gave a nod. Anina pulled herself to her feet, shuffling gently over to a large door made of pale wood. The room they were in was decked in the same timber, and filled with comfortable easy chairs and coffee tables. It was a place designed for guests. It even had a flickering fireplace, despite the total lack of a need for extra heat. Anina had called out into the hall from the doorway, and Elise quickly realized that she hadn’t spoken in English.

“Are you European?” she asked as Anina came back to her chair. “I thought I heard something in your accent before.”

“The Bests are a German family originally,” Anina explained with a nod. “Ah, and here they are.”

As her words faded, four huge guys entered the room. At once Elise thought of how awful she must have looked after fleeing through the woods, and she tried to calm her wayward hair with a nonchalant hand. Two of the young men looked fairly similar, both with shaggy blonde hair that was in need of a cut, and they were flanked by a darker, more lithe guy and a brown-haired man with a look of contempt on his face. None of them were past twenty-five, and they all had muscles bulging beneath their Park Ranger uniforms.

“My grandsons,” Anina said, beaming. “Benedikt, Kurt, Hartwin and Reinicke.”

They were standing in that order, and each one nodded at their name. Except for the last one.

“Ry-ni-ka,” Elise said, sounding it out, “that’s an interesting name.”

“I’m an interesting guy,” Reinicke replied, in a tone flatter than roadkill. “Gram, can I go? You don’t need all of us to handle a bear scare.”

Anina gave a rueful little nod, and the one called Reinicke made his escape. On his way out of the room there was the sound of a clash, and suddenly a fifth man pushed his way through the middle of the group. He was bare-chested, a towel clinging to his huge shoulders. Elise let her eyes travel over the rippling muscles of his abdomen as he heaved for breath.

“You called, Gram?” he asked, in a deep, smooth voice. “What’s happening?”

His eyes travelled to Elise, and it was not the fact that he was tall, dark and handsome which took her breath away. When he looked straight at her, his eyes were golden. Elise knew that she had seen those deep, burning eyes before. Silenced by her shock, Elise’s gaze travelled to Anina’s other grandsons, and now they were all looking straight at her too. All of them had those golden eyes. And perhaps, behind her glasses and the pale cloudiness of old age, Anina had them too.

“Why are you all wet, Dietrich?” Anina chided. “You should be in uniform for morning patrol.”

Dietrich looked down at his bare chest, one hand raised somewhat protectively over his damp skin.

“Night swimming,” he explained, “but something came up.”

Elise caught sight of something dark as Dietrich moved his arm. She must have mistaken it for a shadow initially, but the light of the fireside suddenly revealed its true nature. Dietrich had a huge, fresh bruise emerging down his right side. Benedikt, who appeared to resemble Dietrich closely, gave a wince and sucked his teeth.

“How in the hell did you do that, bro?” he asked.

Dietrich’s eyes flashed to Elise for the briefest moment. Another flash of gold.

“That’s not important right now,” he replied. “Gram, who’s this young lady?”

“Young lady,” Anina said with a grin. “You’re so formal, Dietrich. Why, I’ll bet she’s your age. Twenty-two.”

Anina looked to Elise, and she gave an apologetic shrug.

“Twenty-one,” she corrected.

“Close enough,” Anina replied. “This is Elise Davenport. She’s taking a little vacation from LA, but she encountered two of our grizzlies off the Northern trail.”

“I’ll bet one of them was Silo,” said the guy called Kurt. “He was a rescue from a Russian Circus. He doesn’t understand that he shouldn’t get so close to people. Hey Ben, you wanna put fifty bucks on it being Silo?”

“This is the hardly the time, Kurt,” Ben replied. He ran a hand through his dark hair. “I ought to draw up a report.”

When Ben moved to the far end of the room, heading for a wide wooden desk, Kurt followed him with a burr of low chatter. Elise found her eyes drawn to Dietrich again. He stood tall now that he’d stopped panting for breath, and his body was peppered with black hairs, the same dark shade as those on his head. He had a shadow of stubble on his square jaw, which he scratched at with a large, strong hand. Another flash of gold shot her way.

“Can I ask about the grizzlies?” Elise said tentatively. “I mean, I didn’t think we had any outside of San Diego Zoo.”

“Fairhaven’s a sanctuary for the grizzly bear,” said Hartwin. He had a softer jawline than the other grandsons, and he smiled whenever he spoke. “Most people who come here go trekking to try and spot them. But you didn’t know?”

Elise shook her head.

“Then why did you come, dear?” Anina asked. “Peace and quiet in the cabins?”

“Something like that,” Elise answered. “I, uh… The place was actually recommended by my friend Karina. Karina Vasquez.”

Anina’s face lit up like the roaring fire behind her.

“Oh, we know Karina Vasquez!” she exclaimed with delight. “All of my boys are signed up to her dating agency. Well, all except Reinicke, but we’ll fix that one of these days.”

“Good luck!” Kurt chipped in from the far end of the room.

Anina shook her head, and reached out to take hold of Elise’s hands. Her gaze was conspiratorial, greedy even.

“Does that mean you’re looking for a new man, Elise?” she pressed.

That had been the plan, actually. After the disaster at the Shine Awards, Elise had hopped in her car and driven as far north as she could get in one night. She remembered Karina telling her how beautiful Fairhaven Park was, and that it was the ideal place to meet someone new. Elise had imagined that a new man might be a welcome distraction. She wondered if she could hide away with some summer romance, until the heat had died down back home. It seemed that Karina had been right about the selection of guys on offer, but there was just one problem with the situation.

Those golden eyes were something else. Elise couldn’t place what was so unusual about them, for she’d seen the occasional man or woman with a golden gaze before, and clearly the Best family had those eyes in their gene pool. The connection to the bear was what really concerned her. She was lost in thought for a moment, so when the arm of her chair suddenly sagged with weight, she almost jumped out of her skin.

Dietrich gave a start, for he had perched on the arm. A fleck of cool water leaped from his damp, dark hair, landing on Elise’s cheek.

“Sorry about that,” he said, “my skin takes forever to dry.”

He reached out, one thumb gently pushing the droplet away. Despite all the fear and uncertainty Elise had been through on that long, dark night, Dietrich’s touch sent warmth through her body. He was gorgeous on the outside, all Anina’s boys were, but there was something more to him than just his dark looks. Something calming and protective lived within that perfect shell of muscles.

“I’m sorry that your first night was a little alarming,” Dietrich continued, “but Fairhaven’s a great place. You’ll love it here.”

The ranger’s smooth words washed over Elise’s nerves, and she hoped that he was right.

“What do you mean ‘coming for me’?” Elise yelled into the phone. “Who even says that anymore, Jane?”

Jane Walsh was Elise’s agent, a woman who never stopped working. She and Elise had been on the phone from the moment that Elise checked into her cabin on the West Ridge. There was a complimentary fruit basket on the kitchen counter, which provided Elise with both breakfast and lunch during the conversation. It was necessary to keep going over the facts. Elise was desperate to process the scale of her mistake.

“Chantelle Picard is not happy about what you said,” Jane confirmed for the hundredth time. “She tweeted that she’s coming for you, and encouraged all her brainless fans to do the same. Your feed is full of abuse. Don’t look it at honey, promise me.”

Elise rested her brow on one hand, trying to soothe her tension.

“Oh God, it’s all over isn’t it?” she replied. “I’m never going to get a gig again.”

“Are you kidding me?” Jane shot back. “The whole internet’s talking about you. You’re ten times more well-known than before. We just have to let things die down, then plan a relaunch. You got to the park okay?”

“Not really,” Elise sighed. “I mean, I’m here now, and the cabin’s stunning. But last night I almost got attacked by a bear.”

“A bear!” Jane exclaimed.

“But then this other bear showed up and started fighting it.”

“So… you were rescued from one bear by another bear?” Jane asked.

Elise paused. In her frantic dash to escape, she hadn’t really thought about it like that.

“I guess I was,” she mused. “This other bear was a little different. It had these weird golden eyes.”

On the other end of the line, Jane choked on her coffee.

“Golden?” she repeated.

“Yeah, and-”

“Don’t you realize what that means?” Jane cut in.

“Clearly not,” Elise answered. She waited, listening as Jane took a deep breath in.