The next morning, after a night of restless sleep full of dreams all having Kody as the star, Honey sipped from her cup of tea. Nana did have an amazing stock of herbal tea. She could already feel the relaxing effect it had on her. She desperately needed it.
Early in the morning, she had seriously considered asking Amy to take her to the nearest airport and hire a bush plane pilot to take her to the mainland. Although the Lapin has been nothing but amazing, her nerves had reached a breaking point and she would have follow through with her plan if it hadn´t been for certain bear.
She was packing her things when he appeared from nowhere, just roaming near the bedroom window. Stunned, it took her a while to react and by the time she did, she found herself opening the front door and stepping on the wrap around porch.
Unfazed by her presence, the giant bear had wandered around the front yard, every now and then sitting down and just steering at her with an intensity you could only see in human eyes. But his eyes seemed full of intelligence. So, there they sat, together, in amicable silence. Until dawn broke and the house slowly awoke to the day. And that´s when her new friend silently left.
Yawning, she smiled when he heard the sound of small pitter patter on the old wooden floor. And soon, she found Dexter, one of Amy´s older brothers, standing next to her, coffee cup in hand.
“Long night?”
“You have no idea.”
“I can assure that I can. I have been there, Honey.” He has always been nice to her, so when he approached her, and embraced her, Honey didn´t complain. It was a nice feeling, although nothing compared to being in Kody´s arms. Even her bear visitor was more of a comfort, but beggars can´t be choosers. She held Dexter and allowed his heat to relax her.
Both heard a strange noise from the yard a few meters away, but ignored it until the same bear inexplicably barged from the tree line carrying a bag full of eggs in his giant mouth. Honey was sure she had gone bonkers finally, and could only stare at the scene in front of her.
When the bear suddenly turned into a very naked Kody, still carrying the same basket, she knew she was certifiable. Bears didn´t turn into man in a blink of the eye!
“I fucking told the Lapin fluffle to stay the hell away from my territory,” he roared, throwing the basket on the porch and smashing most of the eggs in the process. But instead of feeling scared, something else sparked inside of her and, before she knew what she was doing, she flew down the stairs and got in Kody´s face.
“You don´t own the forest!”
“Yes, I do!”
“No, you don´t. You´re just a grumpy ass moronic bear who apparently has nothing better to do than ruin other people’s lives.”
“You have no idea what you´re talking about!”
“Are you sure? Because I know for a fact how hard Amy´s nieces and nephews worked to have all those eggs ready for tomorrow. How excited they were to discover what the rest of the …” she paused for a few seconds before remembering the word he had used “…fluffle has prepared to surprise them with. And now, because of you, that won´t be happening. So, please, go ahead and tell me how I´m the one who doesn´t know what she´s talking about.”
Crossing her arms, she simply stared coldly at him, even though her heart was practically about to burst out of her chest. Not only because of the fact that he was completely naked, but also because she could see how his eyes seemed to glow with a mysterious light from within.
Kody wasn´t sure whether to puff his chest out in pride of the mate fate had given him, or just roar out all his anger and frustration until she realized what an animal he truly was. His bear, on the other hand, just wanted to have her again. Her delicious smell was driving both of them crazy, so much so that as soon as he fell asleep last night his bear had taken over and — aware of the distress their mate was going through — brought them to the Lapin´s yard.
He knew that as a human, she would miss his presence but never to the extent of not being able to sleep properly. He genuinely thought that for them it was just an “itch,” apparently it wasn´t if the purple bags under her eyes were any indication of it.
“What are you doing here, Kody?” Dexter´s voice reminded him exactly what had compelled him out of his hiding in the woods. That fucking buck touching Honey as if he had every right in the world!
“I live here, bear.”
“So do I.”
That immediately got a reaction out of the other male who seemed about to launch himself over the rail, but thought better about it and instead hurried back into the cabin, probably to get Fred to deal with the situation at hand.
When Honey´s warmth vanished from his proximity, he frowned and saw her kneeling on the floor saving the few eggs that remained intact. He knew he overreacted and would probably have to come up with something to repair the damage he had done, but seeing the sideway glances she was throwing his way was really starting to get his bear restless in a way it had never happened before.
Shouts were soon heard from inside the cabin and the sound of feet approaching them alerted him that the entire Lapin fluffle was about to come out and face him. When the front door banged against the wood, he growled lowly.
“Alpha Kody, Dexter told me we had a problem.” His calculating gaze traveled from the broken eggs to this nakedness, to the way Honey stood in front of him covering certain part of his male anatomy.
“He wants to throw us out of our lands,” Dexter whined like the little bitch Kody knew him to be.
“My clan lands, buck. You better remember it.”
“But, your great-grandfather granted us permission to live here.” Something changed in Fred Lapin´s demeanor because he suddenly seemed very worried about the entire situation. “What the hell did you do, Dexter?”
“Me? Nothing! He´s the one who barged into our land, and brought a basket full of our eggs claiming that we had trespassed into clan territory.”
“I´m going to ask you one more time, boy, and you better tell me the truth or I swear to God I´ll send you and Yazmin to live with my sister in Montana!”
Kody had seen the fluffle leader upset in several occasions, but this was definitively the first time the male had been this furious.
“But … but ….”
“Choose your words carefully, boy.”
“He did nothing wrong, sir.” Honey´s intervention immediately got everyone´s attention. “We were here out on the porch talking…”
“And hugging,” Kody said, gritting his teeth.
“Yes … when Kody …”
“You what?” Fred advanced on Dexter causing everyone to step away from both of them.
Kody knew that while Fred protected his fluffle, he would still never allowed one of his own to mess with a mating.
“What did you do?”
Suddenly, he once again had Honey angry at him. She was spitting mad and the way she narrowed her eyes at him told him better than anything she meant business — and it wouldn´t end well if he didn´t grovel, and soon.
The man knew when it was a good idea to back up from a fight, the bear didn´t agree and instead, shortened the distance between their bodies.
“I swear that if you touch me, I´ll neuter you.”
“You seemed to like that part of me last night.”
“Until I discovered how much of a moron you could be.” She grew more upset. “First you treat me like trash. Then you destroyed all the kids’ hard work. And now you´re threatening my friend’s family with the loss of their home. What is wrong with you?”
“Honey …”
“Don´t you Honey me. Stay away from me. I really thought you were different, but in the end you´re just as much an idiot as everyone had told me about.” Tears glistened in her eyes as she turned around to run back into the cabin.
Growling, he barely acknowledged the arrival of his clan, as he allowed the bear to take over. He had messed up royally with his mate and was about to lose her, if he hadn´t done so already.