Page 9 of Rough and Rugged
Warm, belly partially full, I went to bed hoping that I stayed safe and wasn’t found by Beare… or bear. Oh hell, I was too damn tired to distinguish the two.
I tucked myself in, my face nuzzled the pillow and inhaled deep. The smell that came off the pillow case soothed the uneasiness inside me, and I fell asleep dreaming of my handsome lumberjack turning into a bear and licking me to death.
Chapter Seven
Beare
“Axton,pleasecomeout.Let me explain.” Since Axton locked himself in the house, I hurried back to the camper, dressed, then rushed back to talk to him. I didn’t know how long I stood there, knocking on the door, but the stubborn man wouldn’t respond.
Honks from a distance caught my attention. As I turned, trucks and cars pulled up, each towing trailers or campers. All six of my cousins slid out of their vehicles with easy smiles on their bearded faces.
“What are you all doing here? You said Friday.”
Wolf frowned. Pike, the second eldest, shook his head. Hopper started chuckling. Anson and Robin glanced down at their phones. Ambrose pointed a finger at his watch and said, “ItisFriday.”
“What?” I countered, patting my pockets for my phone before I remembered that I’d left it inside the camper.
“What do you meanwhat? Ambrose is right. We said we’d be here on Friday, and we’re here.” Hopper gave me a thumbs up and headed to the back of his truck. “By the way, who owns that conversion van?”
My jaw ticked. Was I out in the woods for two days? Shit. I needed to let my bear out more often.
“What’s going on?” Pike stepped onto the stoop. “Wait, I thought Aunt Frances sold the property… unless the new owner sold it back to you. Am I right?” The excitement shone in his gray eyes.
“No. Axton won’t sell it to me,” I grumbled. “But we have bigger problems.”
“What’s that?” Wolf came up, carrying a large black bag, and dropped it in the front yard.
“The human. He saw me shift.” All my cousins, except for Robin, crowded me. They all talked at once until I settled them down.
Before I got a chance to explain, the front door opened and Robin, the youngest of the cousins, was standing in the threshold. “The back door was left open.”
“Shit. He took off on me.”
“This isn’t good.” Ambrose rubbed the back of his neck.
“Of course not, Sherlock,” I bit out. “I don’t know how long he’s been gone, but we all need to look for him. If he’s injured… or he tells someone…” Axton had no clue how important he was to me. Or the gravity of the knowledge he had discovered about the supernatural world.
“We get it,” Wolf said.
“No, you don’t. There’s something else.” I wasn’t sure how to explain, so I blurted it out. “He’s my fated mate.”
“What?” All six shouted at once.
“Not possible,” Pike added.
“That can’t be right,” Anson grimaced.
“It is. I smelled him. It’s so strange. I never experienced it before on any other,” I admitted.
“Not even with Hank?” Hopper asked, his upper lip curled up.
“No, thank fucking Goddess,” I growled.
“Then we’re wasting time standing here,” Wolf announced. “We’re going on a hunt.”
“Not a hunt. Do you hear me?” My alpha power surged forth, and my cousins tilted their heads down.
“Not a hunt, Alpha,” Wolf said earnestly.