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  “Well. Will you look at that?” she asked. She pulled the heavy oak door back to reveal a very large, very damp brown bear.

  Chapter Five

  “Bear!” Red ran towards the door, barely able to contain her excitement. “I was so worried about you.” She knelt beside the enormous beast and hugged his muscular neck. The bear exposed his shaggy neck in a universal symbol of surrender and peace. Red giggled and scratched behind his ears. “Are you a good boy?” she crooned while the bear purred in response.

  Olga closed the door, locking out the gag-inducing wet lettuce bordering on dead-animal stench. She wondered if she should investigate but shook off the thought. The birds and other wild animals would take care of the carrion. With the increasing tension around Thistle Grove, she wasn’t sure it was a good idea to go in search of it.

  Bear lumbered into the small cottage, scanning the area. His six-inch claws scratched the wood floors, and Snow wanted to rail at the unfairness of it all. A bear was going to ransack their home while her mother and sister watched with benevolent eyes. The bear sniffed each corner and cabinet, and to Snow’s untrained eye, it looked like he was seeking out multiple paths for egress and risk calculations of the cottage.

  After exploring the single room, he sniffed all the interesting scents which had settled into the rag rug in front of the hearth. He must have liked what he scented because he let out a growly little purr right before shaking himself dry let him get warm near the fire. Droplets of water flew into the air, caught for a moment in a prism of fiery reflection before falling to the floor in a dampened flood. The force of his shake tossed Red on her backside with a giggle. “Red, are you okay?” Snow said, rushing towards her sister.

  “I’m fine, Snow. Really. He apologized. Can’t you hear him?” Red’s face was open and guileless, and it took Snow a moment to realize her sister believed she could hear the wild bear’s voice.

  Snow wasn’t sure who to look at first. Her gaze kept going from her mother, to her sister, to the huge bear in her living room. Seriously. Had they all gone mad? “No,” she said with a mild stutter. “I can’t hear him talk. Can you, Mother?” Although she supposed the bear did look a trifle remorseful. If bears could look remorseful. The whole mouth full of sharp teeth, deadly jaw, and paws tipped with six-inch claws did not read “remorseful” to Snow, but she seemed to be in the minority. Snow opened her mouth to say something but closed it. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Wait. Did bears have feelings?

  Olga shook her head. “No, Red, you seem to be the only one who can hear him. What’s he saying?”

  Red looked from Bear to her mother and back again in confusion. “I don’t understand. How is that possible?” Red broke off as though listening to something. “Oh. He says he’s not really talking at all. He’s thinking, and I’m picking it up.” Red blushed, pleased with this revelation.

  Red looked at Bear with wide-eyed realization. “You are?” Bear chuffed again causing Red to giggle in delight. Bear made another sound, somewhere between a purr and a growl, and rolled to his back, allowing Red to tickle his belly.

  “What’s he saying?” Snow asked, but Red ignored her as she gave her new friend attention.

  “Let’s get some towels and dry him off,” Red suggested, racing off towards the linen closet. She came back with three of their largest towels. “Snow, come help me.”

  Sharing a confused smile with her mother, Snow joined her sister and began patting the bear down. Bear chuffed and shook the girls off, making them giggle. “Again,” Red said, racing towards the Bear with her towel outstretched. Red took his head, and Snow worked on his back and withers. While they rubbed him dry, Bear playfully avoided them and brought them to their knees with laughter.

  Bear soon tired of his game and settled down on a worn rug for a well-deserved nap. He stretched out in redolent ease and sighed with relief.

  Snow tugged on her sister’s sleeve. “Let’s let Bear sleep. We should help mother with dinner.”

  But Red seemed lost in a dream world of her own creation. She watched Bear close his eyes and relax into the heat of the fire. A somnolent haze descended on the small room, creating a lazy peacefulness punctuated only by a snoring bear and the pop and hiss of burning wood.

  “Let me get Bear some water,” Red said, rising and rushing into the kitchen. Snow watched her sister’s devotion to the large beast with growing concern. Was Bear one of Paulina’s minions, come to enchant and hypnotize them?

  “Snow, darling, can you clean up the mess by the door?” Olga asked.

  Snow opened her mouth to argue but shook her head with the futility of it. She grabbed the soaking wet towels they’d used to pat Bear and hung them over a hamper to dry. Then she got the mop and fresh hot water.

  After securing her waist-length black hair in a loose chignon, Snow mopped up the tracked in mud and rainwater. Once the old wood floors were clean, she spread the towels in front of the door and dried them off. It seemed her entire family had simply lost their minds. Red was cooing over a bear the size of a small house, her mother was planning on serving them all dinner, and she was cleaning up wet paw prints in her living room.

  While Olga put the finishing touches on their soup, Snow washed up and pulled out ingredients to roll out a flatbread. “Why are we serving dinner to a bear?” Snow asked her mother as she measured out the flour.

  “He appears to be our guest, Snow,” Olga chided gently. “What do you suggest we do? Now, please keep your voice down. We don’t want our guest hearing your complaints.”

  Burning with indignation, Snow kneaded out the dough, mixing in a trail of unusual but tasty ingredients. Making bread always calmed her and tonight, she needed as much calm as she could find. She added minced garlic and some of the parsley she’d collected. With a bit of inspiration, Snow mixed in a healthy measure of parmesan cheese. Once at the proper thickness and elasticity, Snow slid the flatbread into the oven to bake. Soon the warm, garlicky scent of freshly baking bread filled the small kitchen.

  “You do that so effortlessly,” Olga admired.

  “I was in the mood for parsley garlic bread,” Snow confessed. “That’s one of the reasons why we were in the woods today. That and the coming storm. We knew we’d get drenched taking the long way home, but hoped the tree canopy would shelter us a bit.”

  Olga sighed. “You girls did promise to stay safe.”

  “We were together,” Snow said. “And we were barely in the woods. I promise. It’s hard to think of anything bad happening when we’re together.”

  “And yet it did,” Olga said. She hugged her daughter and whispered the words against her cheek to take the sting out of them. “Please, Snow. Your sister is impulsive and headstrong. I need you to keep both of you safe.”

  “And now we have a sleeping bear in our living room.”

  “Look closer,” Olga suggested with a knowing smile. She turned towards her older daughter. “Dinner is ready, Red.”

  Snow watched her sister as Red cradled the beast’s head as he slept in front of the fire. “What do you mean? That is a bear, and he is in our living room.”

  Olga’s eyes crinkled a little at the corners. “Do you really think that’s just any bear?”

  Snow didn’t respond but bit her lip deep in thought. It was just a bear, wasn’t it? But if it was, how was he communicating with Red who was very definitely not a bear?

  Snow opened the oven and was greeted with a billowy wave of the heavenly, herb-filled fragrance of cooked bread. She set the tray out on a trivet and pulled a basket hanging from the wall. As the bread cooled, Snow arranged a linen square in the bottom of the basket.

  “Can you hand me the soup tureen? Dinner is ready,” Olga said. Together, Snow and Olga set the table and put out generous baskets full of fresh-baked bread.

  “Red, darling, come get something to eat.”

  Barely able to part from her guest, Red put together a tray and set it up like a picnic in the living room. “Bear,
we have food,” Red crooned against his sensitive ears.

  Bear’s eyes opened, and he gave off a little purr

  “I feel like we’re intruding,” Olga said. Her smile was indulgent and teasing.

  “It’s our house, and he’s a guest,” Snow argued. “If anyone is intruding, it’s him.”

  “Snow,” Red hissed. “Stop being rude.”

  “He’s a bear. A giant, lurking beast with sharp teeth and claws that could rip us in twain and the two of you are acting like we’re entertaining the Queen of England.”

  “Not the queen,” Red said calmly. “Just the Baron of Thistle Grove.”

  “I knew it,” Olga said, clapping her hands like an excited young girl.

  “Now, I know you’ve lost it,” Snow said, raising her hands in surrender. She slammed the soup tureen onto the table with enough force to cause the soup to spill over the sides. “The baron is missing, and we have no idea where he is, but I can assure you the baron is human. We’ve seen him too many times not to know that. You know that, Red. You’ve admired the man’s backside enough times.”

  “Snow!” Red’s cheeks turned as red as her cloak.

  “That is a bear,” Snow repeated.

  “The Knox family is bear shifters,” Red explained blithely as though she was discussing the weather. “Griffin and Tristan were locked into their bear forms.”

  “That explains it,” Olga said, happily spooning soup into a smaller bowl for Red to share with their guest. She frowned at the soup spot on the table. “Snow, dear, can you fetch me a rag to clean the table off?”

  “No,” Snow said, grabbing a chunk of her garlic herb flatbread and leaving the room. “I can’t do this anymore. I don’t know what’s happening here, but it isn’t logical. I am not listening to this craziness,” she insisted. “I’m going to bed and hope and pray this is all a dream!”

  In a swirl of yeast and sugar, Snow left the main room and headed for the small attic room she shared with her sister. Tomorrow, she decided, would be soon enough to figure out what had happened to her formerly organized life.

  Olga watched her youngest daughter leave the room with sad but understanding eyes. “Snow will come around tomorrow,” she decided. Red quietly entertained Griffin, and both women watched with amusement as he ate most of the soup and bread. After dinner, Olga cleaned up the kitchen while Griffin and Red resumed their cozy spot in front of the fire.

  Olga picked up her sewing and headed for her bedroom at the north end of the cottage. She smiled with amusement and left Griffin and Red alone.

  Chapter Six

  “I don’t understand,” Red said. “What happened?”

  “I’ll explain everything,” Griffin promised. “But can we try something?”

  “Anything.”

  “Fall asleep. I want to see if we can meet on the dream plane.”

  “Asleep? Now? But how? I’m too excited to fall asleep.”

  “I’ll be right beside you,” Griffin urged. “I’ll help. Come curl against me.”

  Red blushed and curled against the heat of his fur. His warmth soaked into her with an enchanting, seductive charm. Soon, he lulled her into a hazy, sleepy in-between state. She was no longer in her mother’s cottage but caught in a sultry dream state of her their own creation. Griffin began to purr, a low, soothing sound that tickled at her senses and pushed her fully into a lush, sensual fog.

  Her breathing grew deep. Slow. Steady. And like a baby, she slipped into sleep’s sweet embrace.

  “Red?” he whispered, his voice hoarse from lack of use. It rasped on the edge of her awareness, coaxing her to open to him.

  She opened her eyes, amazed to find herself in a hazy room with dream-like dimensions. Red looked around and smiled when she saw Griffin standing by the fire. She raced into his arms with the confidence of a woman who knew she’d be caught.

  “Griffin! It is you. I believed and believed, but seeing you. It just makes it real.” She burrowed into his warmth and sighed with pleasure.

  Griffin smiled, his brown eyes crinkling at the sides. “Holding you in my arms is all I need, Red.” He anchored her to him, entwined their spirits and souls until they were one.

  They stayed there, letting the flickering light of the flame dance around them in bright hues of orange and yellow. “I can’t believe you’re here,” Red whispered. Tentative fingers touched his hair. His cheeks. Traced the delicate line of his eyebrows.

  “Did you really admire my bottom?” Griffin asked with a wicked grin.

  “Maybe,” Red said, blushing again. “I’ll bring that up with my sister later. She didn’t need to tell anyone.”

  Red smiled at the man in front of her. Tall, with shoulders as wide as an ax handle, he was a prime specimen in both human and bear forms. Curiosity pulled at her, and she ran her slim hands up his shirt sleeves and under the collar of his jerkin. “You’re so warm,” she marveled. “And strong.”

  Her lips ached to follow her fingers, kissing and exploring his warm skin. She was a good girl, and they didn’t do things like that. Good girls should behave. But oh, she wanted to!

  Griffin tilted her chin. “I’ve admired you, as well.” Red swayed into him, lured by the luxurious heat in his brown eyes. Her lips parted, and she stood on her toes. Cheese and crackers, she thought. He was perfect. Her lips tingled as though she ached to press them against the rough skin of his cheek or the petal-soft lure of his lips. She shrugged off the inner voice that told her to be chaste. If she wanted to kiss a man, she would!

  With gentle reverence, his hands burrowed into her hair and sought the delicate contours of her scalp. She groaned with pleasure, their lips close while their bated breaths kissed and made love. Shivers ran up her spine, and she ached to feel the firm curves of her body pressed against his powerful form. As if still sensing her needs as they arose, his muscular forearm pressed against her low back and pulled her against him.

  She arched her back, anxiously rubbing her body against the rough wool of his shirt. He was so close and yet still. So far away.

  “Griffin,” she whispered with a little moue.

  “Oh, my beautiful flower, don’t pout.” His nose rubbed against hers, his lips a mere second away. But when she reached for his kiss, he neatly avoided her.

  “I want to kiss you.”

  “But my love, we can only have one first kiss. Shouldn’t it be memorable?”

  “Maybe,” Red said with stubborn tenacity. “But we can have millions of kisses afterward. Wouldn’t they all be memorable?”

  Griffin tilted his head back and laughed, a large belly laugh guaranteed to wake the woods.

  “Shh,” she cautioned, daring a glanced towards the bedrooms. “I don’t want to wake everyone.”

  Griffin brushed his lips against hers, the tip of his tongue gently teasing the contours of her lips. He kissed his way down the line of Red’s jaw and the tiny swirl of her ears. Griffin worshiping the shapely curves of her ear before sucking gently on her earlobe, teasing it with a gentle bite. Goosebumps shivered down her neck, and her head tilted, allowing him further access. Griffin spread small nibbles and gentle licks along the sensitive tendons of her neck. When he got to the crook between neck and shoulder, he bit her.

  “Oh,” Red cried with an airy whimper as she collapsed against his muscular form. Griffin soothed it with tongue and lips before exploring the slender curve of her neck. The rough texture of his beard rasped against her tender skin, and she trembled in his arms. If proper girls knew how much fun kissing was, she decided, they’d do a lot more of it.

  “My beautiful Rose-Red,” Griffin whispered against her other ear, the damp heat of his breath increasing the trembling in her young body. “How you tempt a mere mortal man.” He paused in his ministrations, resting his forehead against hers. His lips brushed a kiss across the bridge of her nose. “But we must talk.”

  “Later,” she urged. “We can talk later, can’t we?” In the distance, the wind blew hard enough to rattle
the windows but inside their sensual cocoon was Red was velvety warm and eager for more lessons.

  “I don’t know how long I can hold the magic,” Griffin said against her neck. “I’m caught between worlds and that den-slop Gaul is keeping me from shifting back to my human form.”

  “Gaul? How? I thought Paulina gave all the animal Fables the ability to shift to human form? Is Gaul one of her minions? Is he a witch, too?”

  “I don’t know completely. He smells evil, though. I don’t like that he’s begun hanging out so near this cabin.”

  “We’ll be all right,” Red said with a little wink. “We have a wolf for a sheriff, and I have a big brown bear in the woods keeping an eye on me.”

  “Not for long,” Griffin warned.

  The gravity of the situation settled into Red’s shoulders. “What do you mean? Tell me. Everything.”

  “Several weeks ago, my brother and I had our bears out to play. We tend to do that during the full moon, and the last full moon was spectacular.”

  “It was,” Red agreed. “Snow and I snuck outside…” Her voice trailed off as realization struck. “You were outside our cottage?”

  Griffin grinned sheepishly and lifted one shoulder. “We check out the entire barony, not just your cottage. But yes, I did see you that night. You were exquisite. A feast for my senses and I knew you were coming into your own. I wanted to court you as soon as the full moon was over.”

  “But you were caught,” Red guessed.

  “Yes. I don’t know what magic Gaul has, so be careful around him. Please. If he figures out you’re my heart, you and your family may be in trouble.”

  “Am I your heart?”

  “Yes, haven’t you figured it out?”

  Red smiled and ran her fingers through the crisp curls at the opening of his jerkin and shirt before sliding them into the silken strands of his hair. She loved the small touch of vulnerability he showed. “Yes,” she said reverently. Reassuringly. “As you’ve become mine.”