Sold To The Bears (A BBW Paranormal Romance Book 1) (3 page)

If I was to be mated with one of the two younger men, I wondered if it might be the man with the blue eyes. I wondered why I was even having these thoughts. No matter whom I'd be mated with, it didn't even matter. I didn't intend to enjoy the experience. I'd submit to it, but that was all, and only because I knew I'd have to make peace with my new life in order to survive. Fighting the man who was likely to become my husband wouldn't help. So, being that survival, not enjoyment, was my top priority, I told myself it didn't even matter who I was to be mated with.

And yet, I found it difficult to keep my gaze off the three men walking in front of me, specifically the younger two, and even more specifically, the man with the blue eyes. There were plenty of other things to look at. I could at the ground. I could sweep my gaze from side to side, looking at the jewel-green trees lining both sides of the trail. I could continue looking forward, but just raise my gaze up a bit higher, to the pale blue sky visible between the cracks of the tree canopy. I could look at a pair of blue jays, just a bit ahead of the bear shifters, happily flitting around in the warm, early September air.

I could have looked at any number of different things. Somehow, despite the fact that I
could
, I found that I just kind of couldn't. It was disturbing me that I couldn't. So, after a little while, I increased my pace while veering to the left a bit, until I was walking shoulder to shoulder with the younger man with green eyes. The blue-eyed man was to the right of him, and the older green-eyed man was then next to the right.

Nobody spoke at first. But eventually, when we were nearing the end of the trail, the blue-eyed man addressed me without looking at me again.

"I'm Grant Black. The man on your right is my younger brother, Adrian, and the man on my right is my older brother, Samuel. Along with a council of other men, we rule the town of Sun Creek. I'm the chief and leader."

I was surprised to hear he was the chief and leader, just because I would have thought the oldest of the brothers would have been. At the same time, I wasn't surprised at all. With the way the blue-eyed man, or Grant, as I now knew him to be, moved, he couldn't
not
be the leader of his community. With the way he walked with long, purposeful strides, head up, broad shoulders back, maybe even just a shade ahead of the other two, he couldn't
not
be leader.

Nothing about the way he carried himself indicated that he was the type of man who could have existed answering to someone else. Even something about his deep voice and the calm, measured way he spoke radiated authority.

But this wasn't to say that his two brothers looked or acted like little girls. I could tell they were both men of power in their own rights. They both had the same air of power, strength, and confidence that Grant did. Though, maybe just not to the same extent that Grant did.

Now that I knew the three men were brothers, I could definitely appreciate a family resemblance, and not just in the way they were all tall and well-built. They all had dark hair, with Grant and Adrian having hair so dark it was nearly black. Even Samuel's reddish hair was so dark as to be considered more of an auburn-toned dark brown than red. There was also something similar about the brothers' fairly light-colored, heavy-lidded eyes. They were focused and alert eyes, yet at the same time, what some people might call "sleepy bedroom eyes." They were the kind of eyes that could convey a sensual thought with just a look.

I still intended to display the same coldness to the bears that they'd shown my adoptive parents. However, though they were murderers, it was becoming clear that the bears were a civil people, at least when it suited them to be. And it was also becoming clear that I might have to start responding in kind, at least if I wanted to survive. However, I planned to keep my civility in return to a bare, bare minimum.

So, in response to Grant introducing himself and his brothers, I glanced at the three men beside me with what I hoped was a look completely devoid of expression. I wasn't going to give them even a trace of warmth.

"My name is Lila."

That was all they were going to get. Just my first name. I certainly wasn't going to say nice to meet you. But, to my discomfort, Adrian, directly to my right, did. His green eyes held unmistakable sincerity. A long moment ticked by, and I didn't respond. My face suddenly became a bit warm for some reason. After another moment, I felt compelled to speak, though in a voice barely above a whisper, and I didn't look at him while I did so.

"Likewise."

I regretted it the instant the word passed my lips. I felt as if I'd insulted my deceased adoptive parents. My
murdered
adoptive parents. I felt as if I'd betrayed them, somehow. I'd made a comment indicating that I was pleased to meet the people who had killed them. I couldn't believe I'd done it. Not that I knew if Grant, Adrian, and Samuel had specifically taken part in the killing themselves, though since Grant was the chief of the bears, I knew he had to at least know about it. At the very, very least.

I couldn't take back what I'd said, obviously. The word had been spoken. It was done. I'd just have to steel myself to be harder and less agreeable in the future. And the future was now; I had another chance.

Grant and Samuel both echoed the words Adrian had spoken, saying that it was nice to meet me. But this time, my response was only the slightest nod with my gaze straight ahead. I honestly wasn't sure if it had even been perceptible to them. But I didn't even care. I didn't intend to further disrespect the two people who'd saved my life, taken me in, and fed and clothed me as their own daughter.

Our group of four walked the rest of the way through the sunlit woods in silence, though it was not far. Soon we cut across a narrower path that branched off from the wider path we'd been on, and not twenty paces later, the narrower path opened into a dirt track suitable for cars to drive on. A shiny black pick-up truck sat parked on one side of the track. It looked brand-new. No doubt, it had been made in Detroit. The ten thousand or so residents who lived there were the only people in the world who had continued to manufacture and sell vehicles after the Freeze and the decrease in human population that had come along with it hundreds of years earlier.

I realized instantly that the truck only seated three.

At that same moment, Adrian turned to me, his expression completely unreadable. "Whose lap would you like to sit on during the trip? Or would you like us to decide by doing a few coin tosses."

CHAPTER TWO

I stood speechless. I didn't want to sit on anyone's lap during the trip to Sun Creek. I didn't want to sit even within inches of the three bear shifter brothers.

Before I could protest or say anything at all, Adrian's green eyes began twinkling.

He looked at me with his mouth actually curving in the hint of a grin. "Teasing you, Lila. You don't have to sit on anyone's lap. One of us brothers will have a seat in the truck bed."

Without being very aware of the action, I breathed a sigh of relief.  I didn't speak and neither did any of the three brothers. At least not for a long moment, during which they exchanged a few micro-glances, their eyes just barely shifting.

Then, Samuel gave Adrian a not-entirely-light cuff to the back of the head, then began crossing the dirt track to the truck. "Don't be an ass."

Adrian stifled a chuckle. "Wasn't aware that I was being one!" He made an amused sort of snort before turning to look at me again, his expression completely sober. "I'm sorry. I really am. I just wanted to make you smile. Just wanted to see if I could make your beautiful face and those beautiful amethyst eyes of yours light up a little. They're so unusual. They're...." He paused, peering at me intently. "They're really breathtaking."

Once again, I stood speechless. My eyes
were
an unusual shade of violet-y, purplish blue, and I'd occasionally received compliments about them before.. The compliments had seemed to have been given without much feeling. The people of Stony Rapids weren't folks for frequent compliments. Or delivering those compliments with much enthusiasm. I'd never had anyone give me a compliment with as much seeming sincerity and feeling as the unbelievably handsome bear shifter standing in front of me just had. An unbelievably handsome bear shifter who was my enemy.

I really didn't know how to respond. On one hand, my knee-jerk reaction was to say thank you and mean it. A little butterfly gently flapping its wings in my stomach seemed to make me want to do this. But on the other hand, I was still determined to give the bears no more than the very barest minimum of civility. I also wondered if I were being set up for some kind of grand joke or surprise attack. I wondered if the bears planned to lull me into a state of comfort before attacking me to satisfy their masculine needs. I wondered if they'd later laugh at how I'd fallen for their kindness and civility act. I didn't plan to do it. I didn't trust them.

While I debated making some sort of a cold retort to Adrian, Grant pulled a set of keys from his pocket. "Let's be off."

I followed him and Adrian to the truck, where Samuel had already climbed into the bed and had a seat.

After throwing my backpack, longbow, and arrows into the bed with Samuel, Grant opened the driver's side door and gestured for me to get in. "No lap sitting required, but I am going to ask you to sit in the middle for your own safety. I wouldn't want you to get hurt if you decided to open the door and try to make an escape during the drive."

Any person who might be tempted to make an escape was essentially a prisoner, and being reminded of this fact suddenly and completely rankled me.

I looked Grant dead in his sky-blue eyes. "No insurance for property damage?" 

  The comment had come out of my mouth before I'd even fully thought about it. I really did have a bit of a problem with speaking exactly what was on my mind at times before fully thinking it through. Gray and Estelle had both mentioned this on different occasions. But, like the last time I'd made a snappy comment, Grant didn't really have much of a reaction. He certainly didn't make any move to hit me.

He simply made a faintest of scoffing noises and then gestured to the interior of the truck again. "Please get in."

Somewhat to my surprise, I did, without any further comment. I hadn't forgotten that I had to resign myself to living with these bear shifters and being mated to one of them, and I'd have to do both those things with minimal resistance and fuss if I wanted to have any kind of a bearable life. And after my two snappy comments, I didn't want to push my luck.

Grant climbed into the driver's side seat to my left and shut the door, and Adrian got in on my other side and did the same. Then, after we'd all fastened our seat belts, Grant started the truck, and we were off, bound for Sun Creek.

I realized instantly that the trip was going to be a torturous one. Some sort of similar heavenly, masculine scents were emanating from Grant and Adrian, and being that I was sitting so close to them both, I couldn't help but breathe their scents into my nostrils. I supposed I could have breathed through my mouth. But I didn't want to look like an uncouth person with my mouth hanging open. Or, at least, that's what I told myself.

Grant's scent was something clean and woodsy, with faint hints of leather and musk. It certainly wasn't anything overpowering, yet it was something that practically shouted pure masculinity at the same time.

Adrian's scent was close to being identical, though I thought I detected a hint of a citrus note and something else, something undefinable, in his scent. At any rate, it was just as heavenly as Grant's. They were both undeniably masculine and potent.

I'd always had kind of a thing about scent. A good, masculine scent had always attracted me to a man and had the ability to get me a bit turned on fairly quickly. A decent masculine scent had been part of the reason I'd begun dating my first and only serious boyfriend about a year previously.

It had been part of what made me decide to sleep with him after a while. Though, not surprisingly, being that he was a wolf shifter born and bred in Stony Rapids, he'd been a cold, emotionless lover. He'd seemed to take his satisfaction almost mechanically, not even seeming to care in the least if I received any satisfaction as well. We hadn't dated long.

After the breakup, I'd become more and more aware that I had certain needs and appetites as a woman that were not being met, and never had been met. These needs and appetites only seemed to steadily increase, no matter how hard I tried to keep my mind from them. Experiencing release from my own touch did little good. In fact, sometimes it seemed to only make things worse. It only made me more and more aware that what I truly desired was to be touched by a virile, potent, passionate man. One who might be attentive to
my
pleasure and satisfaction, not just his own.

My lack of satisfaction was on my mind a little bit right then, in the truck with Grant and Adrian on either side of me, with their intoxicating, masculine scents emanating from their long, hard bodies. While we bumped down the dirt track, I wished that one of them would open a window, to get some fresh, non-tempting-smelling air in the truck.

I began to feel as if I were really experiencing a form of torture. The fact that their long, muscular thighs were only inches away from my own, which I observed during a few quick glances downward, wasn't helping matters.

Soon I got my wish for a bit of fresh air. Not long after Grant turned off the dirt track and onto a paved road, the cab began to get just slightly warm from the sun's now-bright rays, and Adrian rolled his window down half way. I breathed in deeply, relieved.  I had no intention of getting turned on by the heavenly scents emanating from the two bear shifters. Even if I
was
to be mated to one of them.

No one spoke during the hour or so-long trip, not until we neared Sun Creek. Which I only knew because Adrian glanced at me, saying we were almost there.

Then he looked at me with his green eyes twinkling just a bit, but his expression somehow sober and sincere at the same time. "I really am sorry about the whole lap-sitting thing back there. I really didn't mean to offend you, if I did. And in fact, to make it up to you, I'll even offer to sit on
your
lap for the rest of the drive. We'll roll in to Sun Creek, and all our people will see me sitting right on your lap, like a young woman myself. See, I'm willing to humiliate myself just to say I'm sorry, and maybe just make you smile a bit. In the back of the truck, might even be a pink dress or something I could throw on; I don't know. I might even be willing to twirl a pink parasol while I'm wearing it if it might please you."

A laugh burst out of my mouth before I could help it. The thought of the tall, muscular, deep-voiced bear shifter beside me sitting on my lap in a pink dress, twirling a parasol, had been more than I could take. However, I immediately stifled the laugh, wiped any traces of a smile from my face, and turned my gaze forward, away from Adrian's handsome face.

He didn't respond at first. But after a few moments, he spoke in a quiet voice. "Just as I thought. That little hint of a smile made your face and your eyes even more beautiful, and your laugh is a sound that reminds one of something like the sound of silver bells ringing or crystal chimes."

Suddenly a bit warm, even with the window down and letting a mild September breeze waft through the truck, I didn't respond. I didn't know exactly what kind of game Adrian was playing, but I wasn't going to fall for it. I wasn't going to fall for any game being played by a bear shifter. No matter how charming or complimentary that bear shifter was being. No matter how sincere he seemed. I knew that good acting skills often went hand-in-hand with cunning.

However, as if my mind were working against me, I suddenly wondered if it were actually possible that Adrian had nothing at all to do with the murderous attack on Gray and Estelle. I wondered if it were possible that maybe he hadn't even known about the attack until after, or if he
had
known, maybe he'd been against it. Maybe he was somewhat like Gray had been with the wolves. Just a tiny bit softer. Just a tiny bit above them morally. I wondered and I hoped.

I didn't allow myself to wonder and hope for long, though. I couldn't. Something about it felt too dangerous, in a way I could not articulate, even to myself. I just knew that I shouldn't be allowing myself to have any thoughts about the bears that weren't thoughts about them being murderers. So, I forced myself to turn my focus to the town we were now entering. Though
town
might have not been quite the right word.

The terms
town
and
city
were used pretty much interchangeably for all settlements post-Freeze, though the grandness of this settlement, the bears' settlement, almost demanded it be called a city. The same as Ashcrest usually was.

Sprawled out on a very wide clearing with forestland on all sides, the city of Sun Creek was larger and more impressive than I'd thought it would be. It was definitely a far cry from the dilapidated buildings and crumbling houses of Stony Rapids. Hundreds of sturdy-looking one- and two-story log cabin homes flanked a downtown area of tall, red brick buildings. A massive bronze sculpture of a roaring bear on hind legs towered over one corner of a cobblestone-paved town square, while a stone fountain, sunlight making its flowing water glint gold, gurgled in the center of the square. Dozens of shiny cars and trucks cruised down the smooth, well-maintained, paved city streets.

People walked and rode bicycles down sidewalks lined with large planters of yellow mums. They whipped their heads around and looked at the truck with looks that I could only interpret as ones of awe, respect, and admiration. Probably looks they typically gave their chief and leader, Grant, I imagined.

People back in Stony Creek often gave Malachi, our alpha, the same sorts of looks. The people on the sidewalks seemed to be trying to peer into the truck, maybe trying to catch a glimpse at Grant through the lightly tinted windows. Or maybe a glimpse of the woman he might be mated with. 

The place was definitely a city, though still rustic and homey at the same time. It had some sophistication and wealth, yet warmth as well.  It was not at all the type of place I'd thought my adoptive parents' killers would live. I'd somehow imagined all the bear shifters and their families would live in caves with dirt floors, and the town square was where bears would fight each other bloody, just for entertainment.

Adrian glanced over at me. "Welcome home."

I stiffened, resolute not to play into whatever game he was playing, and didn't answer. He looked at me, though I wasn't sure what kind of a look it was. I didn't look back at him. Grant gave me a quick glance, but I didn't look at him, either. I could only see his handsome, strong-jawed face in my peripheral vision. Same with Adrian.

I couldn't see their long, muscular thighs, either, of course, just inches away from my own; I could just kind of sense them. Just kind of feel them. Which made me more than a bit uncomfortable. Made me wish there were much more space in the truck. Made me wish there were miles more space. Enough so that I could no longer catch the faintest hint of the heavenly masculine scents emanating from Grant and Adrian. Emanating from their lean, powerful bodies and chiseled chests.