He looked at the people in the room, his face darkening.
“Who in the hell is Sebastian?” he demanded.
Chapter 8
“How did I get stuck with the cat?” Liam asked. Aleks laughed.
“Because the cat clearly likes you more than me,” Aleks replied.
“Because you already have a litter box at home.” Connor smirked.
“We’re lion shifters, you asshole, we don’t use litter boxes!” Liam growled out.
The cat in question rubbed his face against Liam’s chin and purred madly. Connor and Aleks turned away to hide their smiles. Connor and Liam were the last to leave the clinic. Ma, Bran, and Kate had already headed to the diner to discuss the possibility of hyena confrontations. Leona, Ashby, and Nicholas had gone earlier. While Rian and Damian left to patrol the town hoping to find some hyenas to play with.
“I’m heading home. Aleks, tell Rebecca I’ll bring Sebastian by when she is feeling better.” Liam put two fingers to his temple, gave a small salute, and walked out.
Connor turned to Aleks.
“I’m heading to the diner for the dinner rush then I’ll come back here to help keep an eye on things. Liam is right, the hyenas will be causing trouble. Dr. Claybourne has rolled out two bear-sized cots for us,” Connor said, pointing to where one cot was set up next to Rebecca and the other in the waiting room.
“Thanks, Connor, I really appreciate you coming back,” Aleks said.
“No problem, I’ll bring back some to go boxes when I return for the night, it should tide us over till breakfast.” He waved then headed back to the diner.
Aleks walked to where Rebecca lay sleeping and looked at her face. With her eyes closed she looked different. He realized how much her large eyes dominated her face and how much of her heart you could see in her eyes. He sat down, took her small hand in his, and started telling her about himself.
* * * *
When Rebecca woke up later that evening, Aleks was speaking softly. She loved hearing his deep voice tell her stories of his childhood. She almost laughed out loud a few times when he was retelling his stories regarding himself and his brothers. They sounded like they were still close and possibly still getting into trouble, especially the twins Duncan and Emmett.
When he fell silent, she shifted her legs and opened her eyes, pretending to wake up. He was sitting in the chair next to her, staring at her with a smile on his face. She smiled back.
“Are you hungry?” he asked, pointing to a couple of to-go boxes on her nightstand.
“I’m starved. What do we have?” she asked, looking around for the remote to her bed. Aleks lifted the remote and brought the bed up to a sitting position.
“Smells like Ma’s meatloaf, garlic mashed potatoes, and unless my nose deceives me, chocolate cream pie.” He carefully opened the box to reveal a made-up plate and set it before her. She immediately went for the pie. He reached over her and lifted the pie out of reach. She gave a growl and reached for the pie. He grinned at her tiny growl.
“Food first, then pie,” he said, pushing the box forward.
“Fine,” she said, lifting her fork. Her anger faded as she started moaning in appreciation. It was the best food she had ever had. Bite after bite she was in dining heaven. It wasn’t until she had plowed through half her meatloaf and polished off all of her potatoes did she look up to find Aleks watching her with a pained look on his face.
“What?” she asked, her fork halfway between her plate and her mouth.
He shifted uncomfortably in his chair, growled, then continued eating.
“Nothing,” he said.
She saw the reason for his discomfort and blushed. She didn’t mean to get him hot and bothered by moaning over the food. It was just that damn good. She kept peeking over to where the evidence of his arousal was obviously straining the integrity of his uniform zipper. He caught her looking. She gave an impish grin as she blushed, and she saw the tips of his ears turn scarlet.
“Okay, all my food is gone. Pie!” She smiled and handed him her empty plate.
He grinned and passed the pie plate back to her. He still had his sly grin when she picked up her fork and bit into the pie.
“Oh my fucking God!” she yelled. Aleks’s mouth dropped and Dr. Claybourne and Connor appeared in the doorway at a run.
“What is it?” Connor asked.
“Are you okay?” Dr. Claybourne asked, moving to her bedside he checked her pulse.
“I’m not mating you, Aleks, I’m mating with your mother. This is the most amazing pie I have ever had!” She wrapped her tongue around her fork and continued to writhe on her bed in foodgasm ecstasy. Connor watched in fascination as Rebecca inhaled her slice of pie. She looked up at the three men with a pout.
“It’s gone,” she said mournfully. Connor rushed to his cot and got a slice of “extra” pie he had brought for himself. He handed it to her with a smile.
“You are awesome!” She took the pie and dug in, this time eating a little slower. Connor grinned as Aleks frowned at his brother. Only he should get her smiles and gratitude.
“Since I’m here anyway, let me check your chest.” He maneuvered around her fork and plate since she did not stop eating. He placed a hand between her breasts and pressed lightly. She winced a bit and continued to eat her pie. Aleks gave a low growl. Dr. Claybourne rolled his eyes.
“Not taking into account that I am a doctor and would never inappropriately touch a patient, I’m also gay. So this really does nothing for me.” He took a pen light and had her look up as he checked her pupils. Aleks relaxed a fraction.
“You look good. I’m confident you should be able to go home tomorrow. You’ll be sore, but overall you’re doing well. Now if you’ll excuse me, I also have a slice of Ma’s pie waiting for me in my room. If you need me, press the nurse call button. It’s connected to the room I have here for when patients stay overnight. Goodnight, everyone.” He smiled down at Rebecca and nodded to Aleks and Connor then left.
Rebecca had stopped eating her pie and was looking down at her plate. Aleks did not like the sadness he saw in her eyes.
“What is the matter, sweetheart?” he asked, taking the pie plate, placing it to one side, and sat next to her.
“I don’t have a home to go home to. Not really. After the fire I didn’t buy another house. I took a furnished apartment. After my boss became my ex-boyfriend, it was determined that my position as head librarian was redundant. That jerk put his “assistant” in charge. That ditz undid all the major changes I had made including the Children’s Reading Hour and the tutoring program. She turned the lower level into an internet café. I couldn’t watch the years of work I dedicated to the library after my father’s death become undone, so I packed up what little I owned and started driving. I haven’t had a real home since my father died.” She twisted her thumbs around each other.
She felt the mattress dip on the other side as Connor sat down, effectively smushing her between the two brothers. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in to kiss the top of her head.
“I’m not sure if Aleks has had the chance to explain this to you, but you are his mate. That is a bond closer than human marriage. That means you not only have a home now, you have family. So tomorrow when Dr. Claybourne checks you out, you come home to the Arkadion ranch where you will have six brothers waiting to spoil you rotten,” he said, smiling down at her.
Rebecca looked between Connor then Aleks and then burst into tears.
“Sweetheart, please calm down, it’s okay. Shush.” Aleks tried soothing her, but she kept hiccupping and couldn’t seem to catch her breath.
“I didn’t mean to upset her!” Connor said, helplessly looking down at Rebecca as she bawled into her hands.
“No, not you, I’m just, I never…” Rebecca couldn’t seem to get enough air to get any words out. The crying was starting to hurt her bruised chest. The more upset she got, the more she cried, the more she hurt, which made her upset and the cycle see
med to continue.
Unable to watch his mate so upset, Aleks shooed Connor off the bed so that he could lie down on his side next to her. Connor quietly left, closing the door behind him. Aleks pulled her into the curve of his body and kept running his hand over her hair. After a few more minutes, Rebecca calmed down.
“I’m sorry,” she said, snuggling as close to him as she could get.
“For what? Having your world change, being stalked and assaulted? You can cry any time you feel like it and I will be right there so you can soak my shoulder,” he said, smiling down at her.
“How does Fate pick mates? I can’t think of a single thing I did to deserve being with you,” she asked quietly. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that Aleks would be it for her. She already couldn’t imagine a life without him. He had quickly become her rock, her solid ground. It seemed almost surreal that she had been rootless with no home or family or love, and now she had all three in spades.
“I’m not sure how Fate picks, but if anyone is undeserving of their mate it’s me. I pushed you away and hurt you, and yet here you are in my arms. I’m amazed at your capacity for forgiveness.” He rubbed his chin over the top of her head. She wrapped his arm around her waist and scooted backward trying to get comfortable. He inhaled sharply as she grazed his groin.
“Aleks?” she started.
“Yes, love?” he asked.
“What about you, your, umm…” She wiggled a bit and felt his semi erect cock spring to life.
He growled. She grinned then wiggled more, loving the feel of his hard flesh against her lower back.
“Go to sleep, Becca.” He placed a hand on her back to keep her from wiggling too much.
“You called me Becca. No one has ever called me that before,” she said, smiling.
“Good, I’ll be the only one. Now go to sleep,” he said, closing his eyes.
“But…” she started again.
“Sleep,” he said. She huffed.
After a few minutes of silence she said, “We are going to eventually have sex right?” He sighed.
“You’re Goddamn right we are. Just not when you’re bruised and after you’ve had an emotional meltdown,” he said.
“Okay good, because I really want to see if sex is better than Ashby’s quadruple death by chocolate sundae,” she said.
Aleks made a painful sound that was somewhere between a moan and growl.
“Night, night, Aleks,” she said, yawning.
“You. Are. Evil,” he whispered, and she just smiled. She knew that for the rest of their lives she would need to keep him just slightly off-balance to keep the upper hand. She silently congratulated herself. From the occasional whimper she heard she knew she had done well.
Chapter 9
Rebecca was moving around gingerly but was reverberating in her seat the next morning as Aleks drove them home. She felt no worse than when she overdid it on the treadmill, but Aleks was taking no chances. He had carried her around all morning after getting checked out of the clinic. They had swung by to get her stuff from Liam’s. She had asked Liam to babysit Sebastian until she was settled at the ranch. She was still wrapping her mind around the word “home,” but she liked the idea of it. The drive was relaxing. She and Aleks had come a long way in a short amount of time. She looked over to where he sat grinning as he drove. She turned her head to look out the window at the dense forest on both sides of the road. She decided in the spring when everything was turning green again she would go hiking. Right now the trees were bare and the snow made the forest seem like a winter wonderland.
She still had her face pressed to the window when they drove through an opened gate. The gate itself looked like black wrought iron. The wall that stretched forth on either side of the gate looked to be stones stacked neatly and compactly together. Both stood nearly ten feet high.
As they drove past the gate, Rebecca turned in the passenger seat. The wall extended all the way to the tree line.
“How far does the wall go?” she asked. Aleks smiled.
“It surrounds the entire property,” he said.
“That is a pretty big wall,” she said.
“It took nearly eight generations of Arkadion men to put up the wall around the property. Each generation after that has chosen some other way to make sure the land is secure. My brothers and I have installed motion detectors and a monitoring station in the main house as our contribution. There are six other Arkadia sister sites across the country. After we take over from Ma and Pa, if there is a position open to take care of a town, one of my brothers will go fill it. Otherwise the towns are led by our uncles and cousins. The main house is just ahead,” he said, pointing to the huge two story log cabin ahead. It reminded her of the ski lodge she had stayed in her one and only time trying to ski. He maneuvered the car past it.
“My cabin is off to the right. It’s nearby without being underfoot. When my parents retire they will move in here and I will take over the main house. My brothers are spread out on the property. I like knowing that they are close by. None of us like the idea of being separated.” He looked over and smiled.
“So there are more than the seven of you?” she asked. Aleks chuckled.
“Counting the first cousins there are. In this generation there are twenty of us,” he replied and her eyes went wide.
“That’s a lot of bears,” she said.
“You should see us at Christmas.” He winked and she gulped.
“My parents were only children. So I have never had a family like that. I mean you have them everywhere, and I couldn’t tell you my grandfather’s middle name.” She sighed then straightened. “Am I the only human?” she asked. He looked a little uncomfortable.
“Yes, but remember it’s not by choice. Fate picks our mates,” he said, taking her hand and placing a kiss on her knuckles.
“What if they don’t like me?” she asked, feeling very small suddenly, which wasn’t like her at all.
“You managed to wrap the entire town around your itty-bitty baby finger in less than a day. The rest of my brothers will completely fall in love with you. You already have Ma and Pa under your spell, and they are more than half the battle,” he said, laughing, and parked the truck next to a medium-sized two-story home.
“Welcome home,” he said, grinning and motioning to the house before them.
Her heart melted. She released her seat belt and leaned over the console, lifting her face to his. Without wasting a second, he closed the gap and took possession of her mouth. His lips were warm, and he expertly demanded her mouth to open. She sighed softly and wrapped both arms around his neck. He growled then pulled away for a moment before reaching under him to lift the lever that allowed him to push his seat all the way back. She grinned. He easily lifted her over the console and settled her on his lap. His good intentions had him place her sitting sidesaddle. However, she was not having that. She turned and straddled his thighs, placing each knee on either side of his legs on the seat, wedging herself between the console on one side and the door on the other. Looking up she met his eyes, and rotated her hips grinding her body against his. Both of them groaned. Without stopping, she kept her body moving, driving them both crazy. He ran his hands under her sweater and pushed her bra up and out of his way. He deliberately traced around her breast, missing what she wanted him to touch the most. Her pace quickened, and he lifted his hips, causing her to bounce up and down.
“Please,” she begged.
He grinned, then wrapped his lips around her pebbled nipples. He dipped one hand into the front of her jeans and found her dripping wet. She groaned and reached between their bodies to wrap her hand around his bulge through his denim. There was no way she was flying without him. He grunted and his breathing became more erratic. She moved her hips mindlessly against his hand as his fingers moved furiously against her tightening nub, and right before she flew apart, she reached lower to cup his sac before drawing her nails up his shaft through the denim. He yelled out and bucked aga
inst her.
She collapsed against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her, both trying to catch their breath. She lifted her head and placed small kisses along the column of his neck.
“I love you, Becca,” he said, burying his face in her neck. She tightened her hold on him.
“I love you too, Aleks. Please don’t ever leave me. I don’t think I could survive losing someone else,” she said.
“I’ll never leave you, Becca. You’re stuck with your grumpy-ass bear for the rest of our lives.” He pulled back to look in her face before giving her another kiss.
“Ready to see your new home?” he asked.
“In a minute, I’m too comfy.” She rubbed her face on his chest and snuggled closer.
“Come on, baby girl, we’re expected at the main house for dinner, and I don’t know about you, but I need to clean up and change my pants.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her. She laughed.
“You realize this does not get you off the hook on your promise to cook for me,” she said, untangling her body from his. He carefully set her down in the passenger seat.
“I know, I know.” He laughed. “How are your bruises?” he asked.
“Better today. I’m not as stiff as I was yesterday,” she said, smiling.
Aleks grabbed her backpack and the suitcase. He was shocked that she owned so little. He could see a shopping spree in her future. He unlocked the door then surprised her by scooping her up and carrying her across the threshold.
He carried her into the foyer and set her down, allowing her to look around. She looked around with wide eyes. The design itself was simple, but everything was clean lines and quality material. She felt like she had walked into Pottery Barn.
“I love it!” she squealed and began to go from room to room. She gave another excited squeal when she entered the kitchen. She wheeled around to face him when he came up behind her.
“Do you know what I can cook in a kitchen like this? What time are we expected for dinner?” she said, going through his cabinets and pantry.