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BEARS DO IT BETTER

JESSIE LANE

Misha and Borys sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G …

Misha falls in lust at first sight with the big, sexy bear shifter, but she doesn't have time for his mating nonsense. Raised in Russia by tiger shifters, she came to America to follow up on her first real lead for finding her biological family.

Borys wants the smokin’ hot bear who recently wandered into town. Now all he has to do is convince Misha that she’s meant to be his. The stubborn woman won’t give him the time of day, though, saying she’s looking for her kin. 

His biggest problem? He might be the family she's looking for.

Grayslake: More than Mated: Bears Do It Better

by Jessie Lane

Disclaimer & License Notes

Cover by Mina Carter

Editing by C&D Editing and Shannon Webb

~~~

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Trademarks: This book identifies product names and services known to be trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of their respective holders. The authors acknowledge the trademarked status in this work of fiction. The publication and use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

This book contains mature content not suitable for readers under the age of 18. This book contains content with strong language, violence, and sexual situations. All parties portrayed in sexual situations are over the age of 18.

~~~

Dedication

To Celia Kyle: Thank you for this wonderful opportunity to write in your Grayslake World that I love so much! Dream come true.

Table of Contents

Bears Do It Better

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

About the Author

Other Titles from Jessie Lane

More than Mated Novels

Chapter One

“An offer, I make. One that you cannot refuse, little Misha.”

Clamping her lips together tight, Misha did her best to give a straight face to the utterly crazy yet loveable woman standing in front of her, instead of laughing straight out. “Auntie Arina, have you been watching mobster movies again?”

The Russian tiger shifter who looked, dressed, and often acted like a wild twenty-year-old, but was closer to forty, gave her a hand wave and a pft as an answer. “You know I have to learn this American lingo if, fitting in, I’m going to do.”

This time, Misha didn’t bother holding the laughter in. “Yes, but you sound like Yoda when you do it.”

Auntie Arina gave her a glare of annoyance, and Misha decided to return to unpacking her suitcase that was lying on the hotel room bed. That didn’t stop Auntie Arina from continuing to give her opinion.

“I just do not understand, my little медве́дь, why you left Russia, our beloved homeland, and the pride, to come on some goose of the wild chase?”

A long suffering sigh escaped Misha as she pulled out another shirt and hung it up in the closet. How could she make Auntie Arina understand that she had inadvertently answered her own question with her question?

Hearing Arina call her медве́дь, pronounced “meed-VYEHT”, was something the entire Vasiliev Pride had called her as an affectionate nickname since they welcomed Misha into the pride. The word held the same meaning as the name they had christened her with. She had been too young and traumatized to remember the name her biological parents had given her. Bear.

Misha was the sole bear shifter in a pride of Russian Siberian tiger shifters.

They had not treated her badly. In fact, they had saved her life by rescuing Misha from a cruel human circus that had presumably killed her parents while they were in their bear form, and then captured her in the same vulnerable state.

Her past wasn’t all bad, though. The Vasiliev Pride had loved, cared, and protected her when they could have just shoved her off on the first bear shifters they came across. None of the men or women had tried to take over the role as new parents, and she had grown up with an army of adopted meddling aunts and grumpy uncles. Somewhere over the years, though, they had stopped looking at her as a bear, and more as a family member, which was sometimes a problematic situation.

For example, all young Vasiliev tigresses were encouraged to mate and produce cubs. The pride’s numbers were shrinking, and reproduction was on the top of their priorities. So when they accepted Misha as one of their own, naturally they expected her to do what all the other tigresses did: cat around.

Now that was a problem. Misha had absolutely no desire to sleep around with a bunch of men and get knocked up. She couldn’t explain it to them, but deep down inside, her bear yearned for more—a connection. It was what she lacked with all the men of the pride, which was why she was here, visiting Grayslake, Georgia, searching for a connection.

Perhaps it wasn’t quite the romantic one her extended tiger family wanted her to get, but in her opinion, it was just as important.

Family.

While cleaning out Auntie Arina’s attic a few months ago, Misha stumbled across something she never expected to find: a clue to her identity.

There, in boxes of old clothes Auntie Arina probably hadn’t worn in years, buried at the bottom, was a newspaper from twenty-two years ago and several towns over. At first, she had been confused as to why Arina would have kept it at all. Her aunt had always said the only good news was the kind she didn’t have to read or watch, so why did she have the yellowed, brittle newspaper buried underneath a pile of horrible clothing from the eighties? Why would the woman who didn’t pay attention to the world outside the pride have a human newspaper?

Like any young bear, Misha had a horrible sense of curiosity, or maybe that came from being raised with a bunch of cats. Either way, she found herself flipping through the pages. Then, there it was, in aged, bold black ink. The headline:

LOCAL FAMILY GOES MISSING

The article went on to talk about how a young family—husband, wife, and toddler—living on the edge of town had seemingly disappeared into thin air. Their belongings had been left behind, money on the kitchen table, food in the pantry, and clothes in the closet. Not a single item out of place, just abandoned as if the family had gotten up and walked out one day, never to return.

The piece ended with claims of suspicions and worries about the family, but that’s not what kept Misha’s eyes riveted to the page. It was the small black and white, three-by-five picture of the family with kind eyes and smiles. The man had his arm wrapped around both the woman and child, and the woman had the side of her face resting lovingly on top of the little girl’s head.

The little girl with her face.

It seemed too impossible to believe, living all these years in this town of feline shifters with no memories as to who she was, and Auntie Arina had known almost the entire time. Misha knew she should be furious with her adopted aunt for keeping the truth from her, yet she couldn’t bring herself to get angry at a woman who had loved and protected her for as long as she could remember. That didn’t mean she wasn’t frustrated with her adopted aunt.

As soon as she had been old enough to handle confronting the frightening flashbacks she had from the circus, she began asking Arina if she knew what had happened to her parents, if perhaps they were alive. All her aunt would ever say was, “I don’t know where they are.”

Technically, it wasn’t a lie. After confronting Arina with the article, she had plainly told Misha that she hadn’t known where her parents were. However, it all boiled down to one simple truth: Arina firmly believed her parents would have never voluntarily left her.

Since the tigers had found Misha in that horrible circus, and once they had seen the newspaper article, they had assumed the worst. Misha’s parents were dead; probably killed by the very circus that had captured her.

Hearing that had totally broken her heart. What child didn’t wonder about their real parents when they knew they were adopted? Misha had dreamed of finding them alive one day. Then she had realized just how hopeless those dreams had been. Aunt Arina then pointed out one very important fact.

In that article was the name of the missing couple: Ludwig and Hanna Wisniewski. Also listed was their daughter, Anna Wisniewski.

That didn’t mean she was ready to run out and change her name. Not to disrespect her biological parents, but she had been Misha for twenty-two years. She would stay Misha until the day she died. Wouldn’t it be nice to maybe know more about her family, though?

In place of her pain bloomed a completely different feeling. Hope. It took a lot of begging and pleading, but eventually, her adopted aunts and uncles gave in and helped her track down the relatives of the missing Wisniewski couple. Unfortunately, the only one they could find was a possible cousin who had been born in America. And that is how Misha ended up here in Grayslake, looking for her cousin Borys Anderson.

He had been born to an American father and a Polish mother in an arranged mating thirty years ago in Alabama. Sometime after his birth, however, his father had been killed in a fight and his mother had taken him and sought sanctuary with the compassionate leader, the Itan, of the bear clan in Grayslake.

Now it was up to Misha to find Borys. Thankfully, she wasn’t doing it alone since Auntie Arina had insisted on coming with her. Misha would have never asked any of her Vasiliev Pride family members to leave their home for her, but she was utterly grateful that the woman had decided she couldn’t let Misha do this by herself. Arina had told her quite fervently that “Stuck together, family should be.” Misha didn’t giggle at her aunt’s garbled attempt at English, but the sentiment did make her smile wholeheartedly.

Now, very soon, she was going to be in a bear’s den, surrounded by other bear shifters for the first time in her life. Misha might not be a scaredy-cat due to her genetics, but she was a scaredy-bear. All she could hope was that the current Itan of Grayslake was just as compassionate as the former one who had taken in Borys’s mother when she had asked for asylum.

Chapter Two

Borys Anderson stared at the annoying human in front of him, wishing he could let loose a good roar to scare the man off his doorstep. If it wasn’t bad enough that the man was standing there after clearly walking right past the “no trespassing” sign in his front yard, then what was worse was how the human was butchering his name.

“Is it Barry or Boris with an ‘is’? I’m sorry to ask, but I guess the people who compiled this list made a typo. They have your name spelled B-O-R-Y-S. I just want to make sure I have the correct spelling put down for your voter registration.”

Right, because Borys was totally interested in human politics. Not.

He somehow managed to stop the annoyed eye roll his bear wanted to give, yet he did feel his left eye twitch in protest, anyway.

“It’s Borys with a ‘Y’. Pronounced exactly the way someone would say Boris with an ‘I’.”

The human in front of him looked truly perplexed, which was just sad. It wasn’t like they were talking about rocket science here. Just a name spelled a little differently than most people were used to.

“Look, you have the correct spelling of my name. Borys Anderson. You can move it along to the next house now.”

Borys started to turn around and head back into his house when the man spoke again.

“Wait! Do you mind if I ask your political party preference? Are you a Republican or a Democrat?”

How about neither? The only rulers he needed to worry about was his Itan, Ty Abrams, and his Itana, Mia. What could Donald Trump do for him? Build a wall around Grayslake? And all Hillary Clinton could do with any sort of consistency was delete emails. So yeah, Borys couldn’t really care less what the human politicians did until they somehow threatened his way of life as a shifter, and so far, no one had been stupid enough to do that.

He needed this human to go away before he lost his patience and flashed a fang at him.

Looking over his shoulder, Borys deadpanned. “Neither. I’m voting for Ted.”

“Ted?” the perplexed man asked. “As in Theodore Roosevelt? He was a great president, sir, but since he’s dead, I’m pretty sure he’s not in the running this year. Does that answer mean you’re a Republican?”

Grabbing hold of the door with one hand, ready to slam it shut, Borys gave the man one last answer. “No. Ted, as in the pot smoking, beer drinking, parties with prostitutes, real life teddy bear from those two movies with Mark Wahlberg. I figure he would fit right in at the White House. Now get the fuck off my property.”

Slamming his front door shut, Borys ignored the human’s gasp of surprise and walked back into his living room where the action movie he had paused was waiting for him.

Collapsing onto his sturdy, oversized couch, he propped his head up on one of the throw pillows his mother insisted he needed and let out a sigh. This was his day off after working overtime with the lawn care business he owned. He wanted to lay around, watch things blow up on the television, and be lazy for the rest of the day, which was why he decided that the next idiot who knocked on his door and interrupted his day of hibernation was going to end up with a bucket of fertilizer over their head.

Chapter Three

Misha couldn’t remember the last time she had been this nervous, or excited for that matter, as she drove their rental car over the rutted road that would lead them to the Itan’s den. At least it seemed peaceful out here. There was a wooden fence with posts down the side of the road with some lovely high grass beyond it. She could see plenty of trees across the bit of field, so there must be plenty of space for the bear shifters here to run wild. Would they let her shift and run with them?

In a world filled with humans, shifters were part of the hidden minority, staying in shifter-run communities to keep their true identities a secret. Auntie Arina used to say that she couldn’t care less what was going on with the world outside their pride’s town. Misha had always suspected that wasn’t the truth of it, though.

Her adopted aunt seemed to have her finger on the pulse of everything that was going on in the world. One might not realize the woman knew so much right away, but if you stayed around her long enough and really paid attention, you started to notice things. Such as how Arina would tell her family not to leave their lands because there were human soldiers two towns over. Or, one spring when she told the pride they needed to stock up better than they usually did for the next winter. It was almost as if she had a sixth sense for anything that could affect the safety of their pride.

When Misha had figured that out when she was fourteen years old, she started to wonder if Arina had ever thought Misha herself might be a danger to the pride since she was a bear. A few days later, with no warning at all, her aunt had sat her down at their kitchen table and told her in very direct terms that she had never considered Misha a threat to their family, and she never would. Misha was her cub, her little bear, and she loved her as much as she would any child of her own.

Misha never figured out how Arina had known what she was thinking back then. However, part of her didn’t really want to know, either. Arina was Arina, and Misha didn’t need to dissect how the woman always seemed to know when or where something was happening.

“You seem nervous, my love.”

Nervous was an understatement. Misha was going to meet other bear shifters for the first time in her life, and she had no idea what to expect. If she were walking into a tiger’s den, she wouldn’t be worried at all. That was easy to anticipate: crazy-ass cats who liked to party too much and were prone to bouts of diabolical mischievousness.

Auntie Arina tsked. “Loosen it up, you should. It’ll be fine, you’ll see. We go meet other bears. You’ll find them loud and stinky, and back to Russia we go!”

Misha rolled her eyes. “America is not that bad, you know.”

Her aunt shrugged. “Maybe yes, maybe no. Until I find good reason for us to stay, then I will not so secretly plan to drug you and take you back to the motherland.”

Rolling her eyes, Misha decided not to comment on her aunt’s plan to kidnap her. Instead, she concentrated on the driveway she was turning in to. The clan den came into sight, and she took in the massive house sitting atop a hill. The road gave way to gravel as she parked the car off to the side. Her stomach was in knots, and she was trembling in excitement.

Looking over her shoulder through the back window, Misha noted several people standing on the porch now, watching her. Could one of them be her cousin?

Suddenly, Auntie Arina spoke, making Misha jump in surprise.

“Why did God make only one Yogi Bear?”

Taking her eyes off the people watching them, Misha swung her gaze back to her aunt. What in the world was the crazy woman talking about now?

“I don’t know. Why?”

“Because, when he tried to make a second one, he made a Boo-Boo! Get it? Boo-boo.”

Misha slid her hand over her face in embarrassment. She should have known her aunt was not going to act any other way but herself in front of strangers, especially other deadly predators. Everything was a joke until you pissed her off. Then somebody would be screaming about a claw to the eye.

Looking back at her aunt, she pleaded, “Please don’t scare them off. This means a lot to me.”

Her aunt stopped laughing immediately and reached over to cup Misha’s face. “I know this means something to you, my sweet girl, but I want you to remember one thing.”

“Yes?” Misha asked her warily.

A hard glimmer shined in her adoptive aunt’s eye. “You are my cub, little bear, and kill, I will, anyone who hurts you.”

Misha felt her eyes water up at the fierce sentiment from the other woman. Never had she wondered if she was loved. Her Aunt Arina and the rest of the Vasiliev Pride had always let her know in every way possible that she was their cub.

All of a sudden, Misha had doubts about trying to find her biological relatives. She didn’t want her tiger family thinking she didn’t love them as fiercely as they had loved her all these years.

Grabbing Arina’s wrists where she still held Misha’s face, she tried to convey that exact sentiment. “I don’t have to do this if you don’t want me to, Aunt Arina. We can leave right now, get on a plane, and go home to Russia. The Vasiliev Pride has been and will always be my family.”

The older woman clucked her tongue. “My little bear did not come all this way to turn back now. We shall go meet the Yogis and the Boo-Boos to see if you are kin to one of them. If yes, perhaps we can kidnap them and take them back to our homeland, too!”

Misha snorted. She couldn’t help it. The tigress wouldn’t know the concept of subtle if it hit her like one of those very large, onion-shaped architectural domes their country’s buildings were so known for.

Patting her aunt’s wrist lovingly, Misha gave one last plea. “Please do not piss the bears off.”

A horrified look came over her aunt’s face as she shouted back, “Why would I piss on the bears? What a horrible way to scent mark! Ty che, blyad?”

Misha held her finger up in warning. “No cursing in Russian. Now, let’s go.”

Getting out of the car, she ignored her aunt’s rambling and closed the car door behind her. Turning around, she concentrated on the sound of the gravel beneath her feet to distract her from the racing thoughts going through her head. Misha’s eyes were glued to the people on the porch. They were all male bears and she did not see or smell a sow nearby. Were they protecting their women folk from her?

The gravel gave way to grass as she stood before the steps leading to the den and the large men in front of her. Misha stared right back at them just as all of her tiger relatives had taught her to do. She wasn’t going to look away and show weakness. Every tiger knew how to stare down a potential threat or another predator. Misha just happened to be a bear who knew how to do it.

All four of the men watched her unwaveringly, not moving a muscle, nor blinking an eyelid. They just stood there like giant sentries.

After a few silent moments of staring at each other, Misha got the feeling they were not trying to scare her with their tactics. It felt more like they were curious as to what she would do. Perhaps she should break the ice between them?

Misha opened her mouth to say something, but two things happened that stopped her. First, one of the bears blinked. What happened next would probably mortify Misha for the rest of her life.

“Ah-ha!” Auntie Arina yelled from behind her. “Boo-Boo blinked first! My Misha wins. Now take us to your leader.”

Why couldn’t the ground just open up underneath her and swallow her alive when her family did stuff like that? Because really, who wanted to live through this sort of incessant mortification?

“Boo-Boo?” a deep voice growled from in front of her.

Yeah, it was time Misha took control of this situation before it got any worse.

Looking up at the four men, Misha waved in greeting. “Hello. I am Misha Vasiliev. I believe your Itan is expecting me?”

The man in front of her pointed to Aunt Arina. “What’s the cat doing here?”

Misha felt as if the hackles were rising on the back of her neck. Her aunt might not be the politest person in the world, but she wasn’t going to let this man insult her family.

“That tigress is my aunt, whom the Itan told me I could bring with me. Call her a cat again, and I will not take too kindly to it.”

The man went to say something back, but one of the other bears stepped forward to put a hand on his shoulder. “Shut it, Jack.” Misha looked over at the man speaking and found his gaze glued to her aunt. Interesting. “Let the ladies come on inside to see the Itan. He’s waiting for them.”

The bear named Jack shrugged off the other man’s touch. “I’m just trying to be careful. It’s bad enough hyenas got to us. I would hate to see what kind of damage a tiger could do.”

Misha’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. Hyenas? She had heard about them but never seen one.

The four men didn’t give her much time to think about that as they waved for her to come up the stairs. Two of them walked ahead of her, one of those bears being the suspicious Jack. The other two waited until after both she and her aunt had crossed over the threshold to follow after them.

They entered a common area that looked to be a living room of sorts. The house itself was massive, but the furniture made it feel cozy. Glancing around, Misha was surprised to see several other people there, quietly watching them. Discreetly scenting the air, all she could smell was bear, so she assumed these folks were bears, too. She hadn’t expected to see so many gathered in one place, though. Tigers were notorious for liking their privacy.

“Oy,” her aunt mumbled from behind her. “Multiplying the Boo-Boos, they keep doing.”

Misha cringed, knowing the other shifters had heard her wily relative. Only she didn’t get the outrage she expected from them. Instead, a deep rumble of a laugh sounded off behind her, and the voice of the man who had been staring at Arina like she was his personal jar of honey said, “It’s the clan den. Anyone in the clan can stop by whenever they want, plus a few of the single bears live here, too. I can show you around if you would like, pretty kitty.”

Misha heard Arina snort as they kept walking toward what smelled like a sweet pastry. “You wish, bear.”

Whatever the older bear said back to her aunt was lost in the talking and clamor that they walked into next.

Looking around, Misha took note of the large kitchen with a couple of bears seated at a kitchen island topped with granite. An old sow was bustling around the stove, cooking whatever it was that smelled so good. Misha was tempted to ask if she could have one of whatever the old woman was making, but she reminded herself she was here for something much more important than sweets.

She was there to find her family.

The two bears sitting at the island looked over at her. They were both large men, but one was bigger than the other. There was an air of authority surrounding him that almost made Misha shiver. He had brown eyes, brown hair, wide shoulders, and a strong jaw. She would wager all the cat nip in Russia that this man was the Itan.

He didn’t stand to greet her, but he did give her a slight nod of welcome. “My name is Ty, and I am the Grayslake Itan. You must be the Misha that requested my help?”

Misha gave him a nod of respect back, allowing this man, and this man alone, to see she would bow to his dominance. “I am, Itan. If you have a few moments, I would like to ask a few questions about a couple of your clan members.”

When she raised her gaze back up from the floor to meet his hard brown eyes, he rumbled back, “Because you believe you’re related to one or more of them? I’ll want to see some sort of proof before I give you any answers, Misha. I’m very protective of my bears.”

She wasn’t surprised at this response. The Vasiliev tigers were just as protective of their own. This was why she had come prepared with the newspaper article she had found in her aunt’s attic. But first, she needed to explain how she came to find the article.

Misha felt Arina come to stand next to her, silently giving her strength and support. She knew how hard it was for Misha to talk about the family she could not remember but desperately wanted to know. Taking a deep breath, Misha told him what she knew.

“I don’t remember much from before I came to be with the Vasiliev tigers. What I do remember is truly horrific. It’s only brief flashes of memory, but I can recall clowns, living in a cage in my bear form, and being very, very hungry. There was also a man who would shout at me and hit me with a rod when I didn’t do as he commanded me. I remember being scared and sad.” Misha waved a hand at Arina. “Then they rescued me. Apparently, they found me in a human circus stuck in my bear form. Looking back now, I guess my bear was trying to protect my fragile human, so she stayed in control.”

“Do you remember what happened to your parents?” Ty bluntly asked her.

She shook her head sadly. “I don’t remember them at all, to be honest. In fact, I don’t remember one single thing before the circus flashbacks.”

The Itan looked at Arina. “How old was she when you found her?”

“At the time, guessed we did that she was around three years of age. Hard it was for us to tell because, used to dealing with bear shifters, we are not.”

Ty turned his attention back to Misha. “Continue.”

She shrugged. “There’s not much to tell you after that, other than the tigers raised me with love. They accepted me as one of their own and, from that moment on, I had a very happy life. I just couldn’t remember who I was before them or the circus. Then I found this …” Approaching slowly, she gently pulled the aged newspaper page from her back pocket. Unfolding it, she placed the paper on the granite then slid it in front of the Itan.

Stepping back to stand by her aunt, she watched as the Itan and the other man silently looked at the article. It was written in Russian, so they probably couldn’t read it, but both men stared at the picture of little Misha and her parents before looking back to her.

“Tell us what it says,” the Itan ordered.

“Basically, it says that a local Polish couple, Ludwig and Hanna Wisniewski, along with their toddler, Anna, disappeared without a trace. Nothing was missing from their home; they just disappeared. After finding me, the Vasilievs assumed the circus had something to do with me not being with my parents. After Aunt Arina found that article, they knew then that the circus must have come across us while in our shifted bear forms. Bodies were never found, so we know they must be dead.”

The Itan cocked his head to the side. “I’m very sorry to hear about your loss, but what does this have to do with my clan?”

Misha folded her hands in front of her to hide her trembling. “After finding that article, my tiger family and I did some investigating. We were able to uncover a possible relative to Ludwig and Hanna Wisniewski. Borys Anderson. From what we were able to learn, his mother was a relative who moved from Poland to the United States for an arranged mating to an American bear. We later learned that she sought asylum with her son Borys here with you. So, I am here to ask you if you have a clan member named Borys Anderson, and if you do, will you help arrange for me to meet him?”

The Itan watched Misha for a few silent moments, and then sat back on his stool and crossed his arms. “If you find Borys, what are your intentions? Are you going to leave your tiger family to come live near him or something?”

Her aunt growled at the question while Misha answered it honestly. “I do not know yet, but I doubt it. Whoever I once was, whether or not Borys is my cousin or not, the Vasilievs will always be my family. That does not mean I would not like to know any bear family I might have, too.”

The Itan nodded again before gently pushing the article over to the man sitting next to him. It made Misha anxious to see the man handling the only clue she had to whoever it was she used to be. However, she did her best to keep quiet and calm. All she could do was hope for the best, and that they would try to help her find Borys.

Ty nodded to the other bear. “This is my brother Keen. He’s the clan’s Keeper of Knowledge. Do you mind if he takes your article for a little while to check things out?” She must have given away her anxiety at the thought of being separated from the article, because the Itan held his hand up in a seemingly calming manner. “I swear we will give it back to you. I just want to let my brother check a few things out for you; find out if this Borys Anderson is related to you or not, okay?”

Grudgingly, Misha gave her acceptance with a nod. Then she felt her aunt’s hand on her shoulder, trying to help keep her calm.

The Itan waved his hand at the old woman behind him. “Until then, would you like to have some of Gigi’s honey rolls? We can also have someone take you out on the property and show you around a little bit if you like?”

Her stomach was in a million knots, and this man wanted her to eat honey rolls?

Misha had known he probably would not give her immediate answers, but a small part of her was still disappointed. Did she want to stay; sit around and helplessly wait until they gave her some sort of answer? Or did she want to go back to their hotel and ask if she could come back later? The bear inside of her wanted to stay and have a honey roll. The human in her wanted to book it out of there. She didn’t like it when others could see or sense her nervousness or vulnerabilities.

Of course Auntie Arina took the choice right out of her hands when she asked the oversized male leader, “You bears eat a lot of these honey rolls? Like that Pooh of the Winnie with his head stuck in honey jar?”

The Itan gave her aunt a disbelieving look then cautiously answered with a yes. Misha knew then, whatever her aunt said next would make her want to curl up and cry a little.

She was proven all too right when the woman squeezed her shoulder and shouted with glee, “This explains my little bear’s sweet tooth! We thought the honey and bear thing was a … what do you call it? A legend? No, that’s not right. A myth! Yes, we tigers thought that honey thing a myth. Now I know why my sweet Misha likes the stuff that is sugared and has an ass to worship because of it!” With that, Arina slapped her on the ass as if Misha was a stripper on the stage shaking her goods.

The bears around her tried to stifle their laughs, but she heard every single one of them as her face turned bright red in embarrassment.

Dear God, could lightning just strike her dead right now?

Chapter Four

One second Borys was enjoying the blissful peace of doing nothing but watching guys chase each other around, trying to kill each other, and the next, his phone was ringing, totally ruining the moment when the villain took a cheap shot at this movie’s hero.

Dammit! Couldn’t people just leave him the hell alone today?

If that wasn’t bad enough, it was his house phone, which meant it wasn’t a business call of any sort. He only gave his cell phone number out for that. With his luck, it was another one of those damn telemarketing robots that just kept talking no matter what you said.

Irritated beyond belief, he picked up his phone and roared into it. Perhaps not the best way to answer a phone call, but at the moment, he didn’t really give a shit. So, as his roar echoed around his house, Borys didn’t feel the least bit bad that it accidentally set off his neighbor’s house alarm … again.

When he brought the phone to his ear, he expected to hear either a robotic voice, a sobbing human, or the beep-beep-beep of someone hanging up. Instead, what he heard was calm breathing and silence.

A few seconds passed before the voice of his clan’s Keeper of Knowledge came over the line.

“If you’re done throwing your hissy fit, the Itan demands your presence at the clan den.”

Borys wasn’t a bear to cower before others. He was big, strong, and had a big set of balls any man or bear would be jealous of. All of that being said, even he knew not to fuck with the Itan.

Swallowing a little of his pride, he made sure his voice was calm and moderate when he replied. “Sorry about that. Please tell the Itan I’ll be there shortly.”

Keen hung up the phone on him, which spurred Borys into action. He set his house phone down, turned off his television, and grabbed the keys to his truck. He had no idea why his Itan would request his presence today since he had done what little bit of landscaping their Itana wanted done just last week. Either he had fucked his job up and his clan leader was just now getting around to tearing a chunk out of his hide for it, or something else was going on.

He really, really hoped it was something else. Borys wasn’t exactly vain, but he liked his hide the way it was. Missing a chunk of it might hurt his chance with a little lady action in the near future. Sows didn’t exactly appreciate a man who was scarred up.

Borys’s mind raced the entire drive to the den. Not that it was a long drive. That didn’t mean that, for six minutes and forty-seven seconds, Borys didn’t grind his teeth in worry that he was about to get chewed up and spit out literally. At this point, all he could hope for was the best.

He had never been in trouble with his Itan, neither the old one or his current one. Therefore, as he parked his truck in front of the den, he assured himself that everything was going to be okay. As far as he knew, he hadn’t done anything wrong, so he should leave here with his hide intact.

Getting out of his truck, he spotted Keen, the Keeper, waiting for him on the porch with a couple of his clan mates. The important thing was they didn’t look like they wanted to hang him. Perhaps he had worried for no reason at all.

Keen motioned for him to come up to the porch, and Borys took one step forward, releasing the breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding, scenting honey rolls ahead of him in the den. He fucking loved Gigi’s honey rolls.

Taking another step forward, he took a reassuring breath in … and was hit with another scent. Damn, something smelled good, and it wasn’t the scent of Gigi’s honey rolls. It was a different scent, one off to the left. It floated to him on the wind, ensnaring him with a hint of aroma he couldn’t quite place. Whatever it was, he had to have it.

All reason left him as his bear surged to the front of his mind, demanding to be let out. The beast wanted to find whatever or whoever was making that scent and make it his.

Ignoring the calls from his bear brethren on the den porch, Borys turned and started stalking toward the edge of the forest across the lawn. With every step he took, a little more reason left him and a bit more desperation took over both him and his bear. The aroma became stronger, sweeter as he found himself now running toward the trees.

In the back of his mind, he registered the fact that people were calling his name behind him, but nothing was as important as finding that scent. It was something like oatmeal cookies laced with vanilla, but better. It made his mouth water and his cock hard.

He probably should have been concerned over the fact that he might be getting hard for a cookie, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He wanted that fucking cookie, and he wanted it now! Borys could analyze the disturbing new trait later and pray that it wouldn’t hinder his grocery shopping trips.

The edge of the forest was coming up fast, the nearest trees only a few feet away. By now, the mouthwatering smell was strong, and he knew he was close to finding his proverbial cookie.

His bear roared inside his head that there were others chasing them. He needed to hurry before they could reach his cookie.

Borys assured his beast no one would have their cookie but them. They were so close … just a little farther.

Running around the massive trees, he followed that sweet scent, zeroing in on one tree in particular. Just a few more feet, and he could climb up that tree and figure out what was making that smell that was slowly driving him insane.

Leaping off the ground, Borys sunk his bear claws into the tree and started to climb up. Maneuvering his way around a few branches, panting, not with exhaustion, but the need for that damn cookie. It struck him a bit dumb when he pulled himself up onto the thickest branch and found, not his mouthwatering oatmeal cookie, but a pair of big brown eyes set in the prettiest face he had ever laid eyes on. Did the woman have his cookie?

With his brain and his bear running on nothing but the most primitive instincts, he growled, “Gimme the cookie.”

The woman’s brown eyes went wide in surprise as she shakily murmured back to him in a thick accent, “I do not have any cookies.”

Borys’s bear roared inside his head. What did she mean she didn’t have any cookies? She had to have it, and he wanted it now!

Determined to find the blessed cookie he could almost taste, he balanced himself on the branch and leaned forward until his nose hovered near her arm. The woman was leaning against the trunk of the tree, so she had nowhere to go to get away from him, which was good for Borys since he was determined to sniff out wherever it was she was hiding his cookie.

Running his nose down her arm, across her waist, and even down to where the front pockets were on her jeans, he tried to sniff out that cookie. The smell was strong all over, but it did get stronger the lower he put his nose on the woman.

Truly, what he did next, he should have been utterly ashamed of, but the woman smelled so damn good that Borys decided he would just apologize later.

He followed his sweet, vanilla and oatmeal cookie smell all the way to where it was strongest at the moment—the juncture of her open thighs. Her legs were spread to hug the branch she was sitting on, so he had unfettered access to run his nose up along the insides of her thighs and over her covered mound, where he found himself moaning at the tantalizing scent.

Either the beauty before him had a cookie hidden in a very uncomfortable place, or she was his cookie. Since he didn’t think the woman would take too kindly to him sticking his hand down her pants to find out if she had a cookie hidden in her underwear, he decided to do the next best thing—taste her.

Bringing his mouth up to her gaping one, he ran his tongue along her bottom lip and growled in pleasure at the flavor. The woman started to sputter in outrage, but he shut her up by sealing his lips over her own and kissing her, delving his tongue inside of her wet depths to get as much of that sweet flavor as he could on his own tongue.

Never in his life had Borys ever wanted a woman like this. He was consumed with her scent, drunk on her flavor, and burning up to taste all of her. His cookie was pretty and oh, so savory on his tongue. There could be only one reason why both his bear and his human half wanted a woman this badly: She was his fated mate.

Now he just had to stop kissing her and find out what his cookie’s name was.

Chapter Five

Misha threw her hands out to push away the crazy bear who was suddenly kissing her, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Her hands got distracted by the wall of muscle that was his chest. Plus, once the taste of him burst over her tongue, she found herself wanting more.

What the hell was wrong with her?

She was kissing some lunatic, and her bear didn’t want her to stop. If anything, her bear wanted her to get closer to the crazy man, feel more than his chest and taste more than his mouth.

As she deepened their kiss, some small logical part of her that was pushed to the back of her mind screamed, “What the fuck was in those honey rolls they had fed her? Some sort of aphrodisiac?”

Misha could feel her sanity slowly start to seep away the more she kissed the man sitting on the tree branch with her. In fact, they were so lost in their kiss, they didn’t hear the branch cracking under their combined weight. No, they were so lost in each other that they didn’t realize something was wrong until they were flying through the air, rushing toward the ground.

Her crazy man let out a roar of surprise as he grabbed her to his chest, letting his body be the barrier between herself and the other branches as they broke under their fall down. When they landed, it was so hard that the air was knocked out of her chest, but Misha couldn’t really complain because the man had taken the brunt of their fall.

She was dazed and confused as she gasped to get oxygen back in her system. Her senses were fuzzy from being overwhelmed then scared shitless. Perhaps that was why she didn’t notice the other bears standing around them while they laid on the ground, or that her aunt was also there, being held back by the older bear who wouldn’t stop checking out her ass as Arina hissed and tried to claw her way to Misha. What did get Misha’s attention was a pair of big booted feet that came directly into her line of sight.

Her crazy man gripped her tighter, and she felt a growl rumble deep in his chest.

Looking up, Misha saw the clan’s Itan staring down at them with surprise in his gaze. The leader’s lips started moving, but all she could hear was a buzzing in her ears.

It wasn’t until the leader’s brother started laughing, the crazy man gripped her even tighter to his chest, her aunt went stock still, and the leader spoke again that the buzzing stopped.

“Woman, can you hear me?” the Itan asked.

Misha gave him a shaky nod, and then he dropped a verbal bomb on her.

“I said, it looks like you found Borys. That’s your cousin you were kissing!”

Ten minutes later, Misha was sitting in the den’s living room, on the lap of her cousin Borys, because the man refused to let her go. Frankly, Misha was starting to think he was a total nutcase. He kept sniffing her neck and calling her “cookie.” The Itan and others had tried their best to get Borys to let her go in the forest, but the large American bear swiped his claws at all of him and refused to let loose his hold.

After listening to her aunt threaten to claw him off her, the Itan had decided to ask Borys to carry Misha inside. Surprisingly, the man had, sweeping her off her feet and carrying her plump ass into the den, not stopping until he sat himself on the couch, with Misha firmly placed on his lap.

Now, here she sat, in shock for two reasons. First, she had found the family she had been so desperately looking for. Secondly, she had been kissing said family!

She was completely horrified to be caught in such a compromising situation. Nevertheless, as angry as her human side was, her bear side was telling her that they should be wiggling on the man’s lap and urging him to kiss her again. What in the world was wrong with her?

It had to be those damn honey rolls! Misha had thought there was no way something made of pure ingredients, with supposedly no artificial whatsoever, could taste that damn good!

She ignored all of the chattering around her and turned her head until she spotted the old sow named Gigi. “You … You heifer! What did you put in those rolls? I want to know this instant. Then you’re going to tell me how to undo whatever it is you’ve done to me and my cousin.”

Gigi was completely taken aback by her outburst.

Misha watched as Keen stepped over to the old woman and hugged her across the shoulders, giving Misha a glare. “There was nothing in those honey rolls to cause whatever this is going on with you two. You shouldn’t blame poor Gigi. Besides, I didn’t hear you complaining about those honey rolls while you were shoving them down your throat.”

Misha didn’t get a chance to say anything back because her aunt decided it was her turn to say something. Thankfully, that something was in Russian, so the other bears couldn’t understand, which Misha would end up eternally grateful for by the end of her aunt’s rant.

“This, child. This is all of your sweet tooth’s fault! If you had not eaten those evil honey rolls, you would not be putting off whatever magic that old cow put in you to make your own flesh and blood hunt you down like a male in rutting heat. I don’t care what you say, we’re going back to our homeland right now!” Arina’s face was flushed completely red by the end of her tirade, and she was panting in anger.

Misha was mortified that her beloved aunt had seen this happen. She was ready to try and push her way out of Borys’s grip when the old bear who had been holding her aunt back stepped up behind her and gently grabbed her shoulders in his large hands.

Leaning his head down, he spoke right next to her aunt’s ear. “Sweetheart, I have no idea what you just said, but if you’ll say it to me again when we’re alone, naked, and you purring for me, I’ll make your wildest dreams come true.”

Misha didn’t know who was more surprised by the bear’s bold statement, her or Arina. What she did know now was that these American bears were plum crazy, and they needed to get the hell out of here!

What made it that much more frustrating was that her bear absolutely did not want to leave their cousin. What was wrong with her?

Chapter Six

They were trying to take Borys’s cookie from him!

It also didn’t help that his cookie kept trying to wiggle off his lap. Didn’t she realize they were fated mates?

As soon as he could remember how to do more than drool and growl at his Itan, he was going to explain to Ty that this was his fated mate, and then he would take her to his home. There, he could learn what her name was and ask her if she tasted like a cookie all over.

The reason Borys was having a hard time communicating to his Itan now was because his bear was trying to take charge of the situation. His beast wanted to come out and claw the eyes out of any other male who was looking at his mate. It probably didn’t help that Borys’s human side sort of thought the idea had merit, too.

He knew better, though. He couldn’t just let his bear out and claw everyone to death. Not only would that get him banished or killed by the Itan, it might also get his mate in trouble. Therefore, Borys sat there, trying to get his bear to calm the fuck down, which was proving to be just as hard as the cock in his pants. And that was saying something since his cookie kept wiggling around on his lap, trying to get loose, inadvertently teasing him.

Even though he was in a mental fog from trying to keep his bear at bay, Borys could feel his eyes literally rolling back in his head at the pleasure of that wiggle. Good Lord … he would be the first person in shifter history to be killed by a cookie. Take that, Cookie Monster!

Knowing he had to get his shit together so he didn’t appear to be some dumbfounded idiot, Borys started to truly concentrate on pulling himself back together. He told his bear to back the fuck off. When that didn’t work, he bribed the bastard, promising him that he could come out and play with their mate later, after he smoothed everything out.

Just when his bear was starting to grudgingly agree, a feminine voice he knew was not his cookie’s cut through that fog.

“You have death wish, bear. Get your paws off my cub or I will show you how we tigers make bear skin rugs in Russia with nothing but our claws and vodka.”

Cookie tensed in his lap, and Borys tightened his grip on her to make sure she stayed where she belonged. With him.

A round of growls surrounded him as Borys focused his eyes on the woman who had made the threat. When he saw who his opponent was … Well, there was no nice way to put this. He laughed his ass off, which earned him a few comments from the Itan and the others about Borys being totally off his rocker.

He just couldn’t help himself. The woman who had threatened to slice him up was all of five-foot four-inches. Even though she had some considerable curves, there was no way she could hold her own against him. Borys was six-foot-two and two hundred twenty-five pounds. That itty bitty thing was going to turn him into a bear skin rug?

He laughed even harder, so much so that his sides hurt, tears were running down his cheeks, and he was running out of breath. And that was probably why he didn’t see the object that flew through the air and hit him directly in the forehead.

He let out a surprised roar as he released one of his hands from his mate’s waist to rub his poor, abused noggin.

“What in the hell did you go and do that for, you hormonally crazy puss in boots!”

The next thing Borys knew, his cookie had him pinned to the back of the couch with a clawed hand at his throat. Her eyes looked a bit on the crazed side, and she was growling with a ferocity that almost scared him. Or maybe turned him on. Regardless, this was no time for semantics.

“DonotcallmyauntthatagainorIwillgutyoulikeapig.”

Huh? Cookie had been growling so hard that certainly Borys hadn’t heard what he thought he heard.

“Can you say that again, sweetheart? I’m afraid I didn’t understand you around all of the growling.”

The side of her lip curled up in anger as she flashed him a fang, tightening her hold on his neck. Then she leaned closer until they were nose to nose, which was kind of turning him on.

“I said, do not call my aunt that again, or I will gut you like a pig.”

Well, damn, guess he had heard her correctly.

Wrapping his hand around the wrist of the hand she held him by, Borys gave her a nice, polite, “Yes, ma’am.”

His mother had always taught him not to piss of a sow, and if you somehow managed to, then you give them whatever makes them happy until they were no longer homicidal. From the looks of his cookie, that lesson was going to come in handy.

She glared at him with those gorgeous brown eyes, and Borys took the time to study them. They had the sweetest hint of green around the pupil, which somehow made the freckles across her nose seem downright cute with her creamy skin. Add in all that strawberry blonde hair, and yeah, he was a goner. Borys had never seen anyone so beautiful in his whole damn life, which was probably how he found himself stupidly blurting out the next comment without any thought.

“Will you marry me?”

Cookie startled at the question, and the whole room went silent for about a minute. Then those bastards he called clan members were laughing at him hysterically. Traitors, the whole lot of them.

Turning his attention back to his mate who was now straddling his lap, Borys decided to take advantage of her momentary shock and grab her hips with both hands.

She didn’t tell him to get off, but she did snap, “Have you lost your mind?”

Shaking his head, he assured her, “Never been more certain of anything in my life.”

Was that little crinkle she got on the bridge of her nose because she was confused? So fucking cute.

“Why are you certain you want to marry me?” she asked, exasperated.

Damn. Had his little cookie not figured it out yet? Well, Borys would happily fill her in on the happy news.

“Because we’re mates, baby.”

She opened her mouth to say something, but he decided to lay it all out for her, show her how much he wanted her tied to him, lock, stock, and legally binding papers to match mate marks.

“Now, I know our kind doesn’t usually get married, but I don’t want you to just settle for a mate mark. Maybe I can’t put a ring on your hand because it would get in the way of shifting, but I can give you that piece of paper that says you’re legally Mrs. Anderson. What do you say?”

Borys had been expecting overwhelming joy and hugs and kisses of gratitude for him showing the initiative to go that extra mile to make his mate happy.

What he got instead was a slap to the face.

Chapter Seven

“You are craziest man I have ever met!”

It might not have been the best comeback Misha could have come up with, but it was all she could think of right now. Perhaps looking for her biological family had been a very bad idea. So far, all she could see was that her cousin was nuttier than a peanut factory. The man thought they were mates!

Regardless if she had been the one to come looking for him, all of this debacle going on right now was his fault. His scent was driving her to distraction! It was taking all of her willpower not to bury her nose into the side of his neck and sniff away as if she were some sort of crack addict.

Borys smelled like a summer day. All warmth, sunshine, and lazy afternoon desire. It was ridiculous! Who in the hell could smell like an afternoon of seductive desire? She must have hit her head harder than she originally thought in that fall out of the tree. That had to be the only logical explanation for feeling the way she was and having these ridiculous urges, right?

Misha also refused to allow herself to analyze her own confusing feelings. Like the one she had when she wanted to curl up on his lap and cuddle. Or how that kiss in the tree had been the best kiss in her entire life. Nope! Not thinking about that at all.

Instead, she decided to slap him again. Except, this time he caught her hand before it could land on his face.

“Why in the hell do you keep hitting me, woman?”

At this point, Misha was so confused and angry she thought her head might explode. “Because you said you want to get mated and married, you idiot!”

The big, sexy bear that she was still trying to tell her hormones they couldn’t be attracted to only shrugged his shoulders. “Yep.”

His one worded answer had her head spinning with the feeling of insanity. “We can’t get married, you buffoon.”

Now he was the one who looked angry and confused as he demanded, “Why the hell not?”

The last bit of her sanity slipped away as she grabbed her cousin’s shirt collar, went nose to nose with him again, and yelled at the top of her lungs, “Because we’re cousins, you idiot!”

Borys shook his head as if he were trying to clear away his mental cobwebs. “Say what?”

Misha shook him. “Your mother, she is Marianna Wisniewski?” When Borys nodded his head silently, Misha continued, “My mother was her sister, Hanna Wisniewski. That makes us cousins, you imbecile.”

The infuriating man cocked his head to the side and started speaking to her slowly as if she were the one who was nuts. “So, let me get this straight, cookie.”

“Cookie?”

Putting a finger over her lips, he stopped her. “Shh, let me talk. Now, back to what I was about to say. Your mother is Hanna, my mother is Marianna, and because of that, you think we’re cousins?”

Misha didn’t a get a chance to tell him that she thought he was slower in the mental department than a snail running a marathon. As usual, her aunt jumped right in.

“Please tell me not all American bears are this stupid. If they are, afraid, I am, that you all will die out quickly. Faster than dinosaur even.”

The derogatory comment earned her a few glares and growls from the other bears still standing audience to her soap opera spectacle. Misha didn’t worry about any of them hurting her aunt, though, because one glance at the man still holding Arina from behind let Misha know her aunt was about to have her own crazy bear troubles soon. The man was giving a killing glare to every single bear who was silently snarling the tigress’s way.

She turned her attention back to the man who had a ridiculous grin on his face.

“Why are you smiling?” she snapped.

“Because I know something you don’t know.”

Misha snarled at the childlike comment. “What do you think you know, stupid bear?”

Borys’s grin only got bigger as he told her, “We’re not cousins.”

Suddenly, her stomach dropped and a wave of despair crashed over her.

Misha might have been confused as hell at everything she was feeling toward the crazy American bear, but she had still been elated to find her family. Now Borys was sitting here, telling her she was wrong.

“Is your mother not Marianna Wisniewski?” she asked in confusion.

“Yep, she’s my mother.”

Misha’s eyes almost went cross-eyed at this back and forth. Were all bears like this? If they were, she might be the one to drag Aunt Arina back to Russia. Dealing with her feline family was so much easier.

“If Marianna is your mother, then how are you not my cousin, then?”

The big oaf shrugged again. “Easy. I was adopted, darling. I’m not Marianna’s biological son, but she’s the only mother I’ve ever known. Since matings don’t count as legal paperwork, and Marianna and my father were only mated and never legally married, we’re not cousins by blood or law.”

It felt like someone had taken the wind out of her sails. Misha must have been in some sort of shock because she wasn’t mad anymore, but she was darn confused. Borys was her cousin, and yet, he wasn’t. Now with the thought that she might be related to him off the table, all of a sudden, her bear was surging forward, wanting out, roaring that this man was their mate. The sensation sort of felt like the time one of her uncles tried to teach her how to box and accidentally knocked her out with a left hook. She was stunned and her head was starting to throb from all of the information that turned out to be misinformation.

“Cookie?”

There he was, calling her that weird name again.

“What?”

“I asked you if you were okay, cookie.”

“Why do you keep calling me cookie? My name is not cookie. It is Misha.”

Borys leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “Because you smell as sweet as a cookie, sweetheart. Later, I’m hoping to find out if you taste just as sweet.”

The infuriating man leaned back as she gasped, her aunt snorted in disdain, and a few of the other bears chuckled. He might have whispered that, but in a room full of shifters with enhanced senses, most of them had still heard.

“Only you, little bear …” Arina sighed as she sat down on the couch next to her and Borys. “Only you can go to different country, find family yet not find family, and end up with a mate instead. I think this is what these Americans call ‘fuck of a cluster’.”

Borys laughed at Arina’s comment then corrected her, “It’s clusterfuck.” Holding his hand out to Arina, he introduced himself. “Hi, there. Looks like we’re going to be kin. I’m Borys. What’s your name?”

Running a hand over her hair, fluffing it as only a feline could, her aunt said, “Arina Vasiliev. Now get my cub off your lap. Mated not, you are yet, and until you are, you will remember my Misha is a good girl.”

Neither Misha nor Borys got a chance to respond to Arina’s demand because the bear that had been shadowing her aunt dropped down on the couch next to her and said, “Please tell me you’re a bad girl, kitten.”

Chapter Eight

The Itan came to stand directly in front of him and his Misha, the movement drawing everyone’s attention and causing the room to go silent. Ty didn’t bother to look at Borys, leveling his commanding gaze on Borys’s mate, instead.

“I need to know how you want to proceed, Misha. You came here looking for your family, and in a way, you can say you found him. Since you’re a guest on my lands, I’m going to ask you: are you comfortable getting to know Borys as your mate instead of your cousin?”

Borys’s lap full of cookie went silent. He watched as she bent her head and stared at her own hands entwined on her lap, wondering what she was thinking. Had he scared her somehow? Was she disappointed for some reason, like having him as a mate?

It was hard for him to hold in all of the sudden nervous energy he had as all of these questions ran through his head. Borys hadn’t exactly been actively looking for a mate, but he was damn grateful he had found her.

Finding your fated mate wasn’t a guarantee. Both he and his bear wanted their mate to accept them, and perhaps love them one day. From the second he had realized what this woman was to him, all of the primitive shifter instincts involving a mate had kicked in. His bear wanted to go kill the best deer they could find and present it to her to prove he could provide food for her. His bear also wanted to show, not just his clan, but the entire world that he was strong enough to protect what was his. The man in him even wanted to hold her tight in his arms to show that he could show her affection. His cookie already meant the world to him, even if it was just on an instinctual or primitive level.

He felt his fingertips start to grab her a little tighter and automatically loosened his hold. Borys had never heard of someone rejecting their fated mate, but his and Misha’s circumstances were not exactly that of the norm. Maybe she wouldn’t want him because she momentarily thought they were family as cousins.

He watched her think. Her face was a mask, and he couldn’t see her emotions, but he could smell the nervousness and confusion rolling off of her. It was hard to watch and see her debate their future without saying a word, but he would give that to her.

Just watching her as she thought things over, he took in the lines of her face, the way she bit her lips as she thought, and the way her long lashes curled up, casting a small shadow against her upper cheek, her eyes closed. Even though he couldn’t tell what she was thinking, and Borys was pretty damn terrified that she would reject him, he couldn’t help admiring how lovely she was. He was going to soak in these precious minutes that she spent thinking just in case his pretty little cookie decided she didn’t want to give him a chance.

Long, silent moments slowly stole his breath until his chest started to burn from not breathing at all, when finally, she lifted her head, looking directly at him, instead of at the Itan. Her face was still as expressionless as it was before, so he had no clue as to what she was about to say.

Projecting her voice so the whole room would hear her, Misha answered the question. “I came here looking for one sort of gift and find myself in the possession of another. Who would I be to turn down the blessing that is a fated mating?” Turning her head in the other direction, she looked at Ty. “I accept Borys as my mate and humbly ask your permission to extend my visitation on your lands so I may get to know my fated mate better.”

A small smile spread across his face as Ty nodded to her. “I look forward to celebrating the addition of a new Grayslake clan member. Now, I’ll leave you and Borys to get to know one another.”

The Itan left the room, taking his brother Keen and the other bears who had witnessed today’s events with him. There were only four people left now: Misha, himself, her kooky aunt, and his fellow clan member Paxton. Borys had no idea what was going on in Paxton’s head, but it seemed as if Borys wasn’t the only bear here panting after a Vasiliev female.

Speaking of panting, Misha wiggled on his lap again, and Borys groaned at the way her curves felt against him. Her scent was changing, the tang of confusion was disappearing, replaced by the luscious scent of her arousal. It seemed as though his mate was finally starting to realize just what was going on between the two of them.

Wrapping his hands around her waist, he pulled his cookie back so that she lay against his chest and he could whisper into her ear. “Sweetheart, if you don’t stop wiggling on my lap like that, we’re going to embarrass ourselves in front of your aunt.”

Misha arched backward, pushing her ass against his cock as she let out a frustrated moan. “I think we need to leave, Borys.”

Best words he had heard all day.

Running his nose up the side of her neck, he whispered, “Tell me where you want to go, and I’ll take you there.”

Misha turned her head so she could look him in the eyes. “I want you to take me somewhere we can be alone. The longer we sit here, the more I ache for you. I’ve never felt anything like this before, Borys.”

He nipped her bottom lip. “And you never will for anyone else, love. Your body is slowly realizing what mine did the moment I stepped out of that truck and caught your sweet scent. We’re meant to be together.”

Her breath hitched at his words. “It feels like everything is moving so fast between us.”

Borys gripped the hair at the back of her head gently so she couldn’t turn away from him if she tried. “Cookie, I promise you we’re not moving fast enough. My body wants to know what it’s like to be buried deep inside yours. My bear wants to rub his scent all over you then give you a mating mark the whole world can see. My lips want to taste every inch of your skin, and my hands want to make you feel pleasure like you’ve never felt before. We’re going to leave here to do all of those things, but I don’t want you to worry, mate. We’ll give our bodies and our beasts the commitment and release tonight. Then, starting tomorrow, I’m going to show you that I can be worthy of your heart, too.”

“You would do that for me?” she whispered with vulnerability shining through her eyes.

Borys let go of her hair to run his hand lovingly across her cheek. “I would do anything for you, mate. I’m a lucky bear to have found my fated one, so I’ll spend every day of the rest of our lives showing you how much I cherish the gift that life has given me.”

Misha’s eyes watered up, and Borys worried he had pushed her too far too fast. He tried to think of what he could say to calm her down, convince her that he would do whatever she wanted him to do so he wouldn’t lose her. But it seemed his worries were for naught as his cookie leaned in and gave him a long, drugging kiss that sent his head spinning.

When they were both breathless, she pulled back just enough to say, “Take me somewhere private, my mate.”

Borys decided that those were now the best words he had heard all day. He only hoped she would continue to give him even better words once they were alone. “Take me” and “Do you want to see me naked?” were at the top of his list.

“Oh, for the Pete and all his love!” Arina hollered next to them, making both Borys and Misha jump. The tigress glared at them, obviously annoyed by their affectionate display. “Stop with the making out already.”

Borys and Misha didn’t get a chance to tell her Aunt Arina to calm down, that they were about to leave, because Paxton took that moment to make a roar of his own.

“Who’s Pete? And why do you want his love?”

As Borys took in the other bear’s crazy eyes staring down at the tigress, he knew one thing for sure: him and his cookie needed to get the fuck out of there.

Chapter Nine

“Are you sure my aunt will be okay back at the den with that crazy bear?”

Misha’s heart was hammering away in her chest. Borys had just swung her up into his arms and carried her out of the den, telling his clan mate, “Hope you two have fun! We’ll see you tomorrow,” before carrying her out of the Grayslake den and over to a truck.

Setting her inside on the passenger seat, his scent wrapped around her, so she knew this must be his vehicle. That didn’t stop her from trying to open the door and get out of the truck so she could storm back into the den and check on her aunt.

Borys caught her by the back of her pants before she could get of the truck and pulled her back in, leaning over to shut her door shut again.

With his sexy rumble, he told her, “They’re fine. I swear.”

“How can you be so sure?”

He started the truck and pulled away, turning onto the road that would lead them out the way they had come in. “Cookie, Paxton wouldn’t hurt a hair on your aunt’s head.”

Now she was getting good and frustrated with the man that the powers that be had given to her as her mate. “You don’t know that!”

He snorted. “But I do, sweetheart. Couldn’t you tell by the way they were acting? Paxton and Arina are also fated mates.”

Misha’s jaw dropped open in shock. She had no idea what to say. No, she hadn’t noticed such a thing! Probably because bears acted so differently than the tigers she was used to dealing with.

Tigers rarely mated. She could only guess it was more in their animalistic nature to be loners. The fact that they had a pride and didn’t have separate territories where they stayed isolated on their own was a miracle. Misha had never heard of any other tiger shifters living together like that before. Of course, her tiger family had done everything they could to keep her shielded and protected from the world outside of their territory, anyway, so there might be a lot about shifters and mating she didn’t know about.

Borys interrupted her jumbled thoughts. “That’s because bears do it better, baby.”

Confused at his out of nowhere remark, she asked, “Wait, what? What do bears do better?”

Borys laughed at her. “You just said you hadn’t noticed such a thing because bears act so differently than the tigers you grew up with. I’m telling you; we act differently because we do it better.”

First, Misha hadn’t realized she had said that out loud. Secondly, she couldn’t help asking the burning question in her mind. “What exactly do bears do better than tigers, hmm?”

She watched as a cocky smile spread across his face.

“Everything, cookie. We do everything better. Just wait until I get you to my house. I’ll be happy to prove that point to you in the bedroom.”

This was probably one of those times an experienced woman would have a saucy comeback to give her partner as verbal foreplay. Problem was, Misha had never done any of this before. That was probably why she found herself saying, “But I have no one to compare you to. How will I know you’ll be better?”

Tires squealed as Borys’s truck came to a screeching stop. Misha barely managed to throw her hands out to catch the dashboard in time before her body hit it from the momentum.

When she looked over at the crazy man behind the wheel, she gasped. Borys’s eyes were almost glowing they were so bright, and they now looked so heated. The look was that of pure need, the likes she had never seen any man give a woman before.

“You’re a virgin?” he asked her in a guttural voice.

“Yes,” she whispered back softly before licking her lips nervously.

Borys’s eyes followed the track of her tongue and growled, not in warning, but in want. He still had that look on his face but, if anything, he now looked like he was ready to eat her alive in all sorts of delicious ways.

That look did a couple of things to Misha all at once. First, it made her nipples tighten into hard, little points of anticipation. Then, it made her panties wet, arousal flooding her system. Finally, it made a silent promise that she wasn’t going to be a virgin come morning, and it would more than likely be a night she never forgot.

“Sit back and buckle up, cookie. I’m about to give the phrase ‘gone in sixty seconds’ a whole new meaning if we don’t hurry up and get back to my house.”

Misha didn’t say a word, choosing to grab the seatbelt buckle with her trembling hands, securing it just as Borys slammed on the gas pedal. They shot forward like a rocket, and Misha found herself gripping the sides of the seat, silently praying her new mate was a very good driver.

Five minutes later, Borys pulled his truck into the driveway of a small, modest-looking home that Misha found adorable, not that she had a whole lot of time to take note of what it looked like because, the second Borys had the truck parked, he turned off the engine and was out of the vehicle and standing by her door, yanking it open so hard she thought he might actually tear it off the hinges. He then grabbed her around the waist, pulled her out of the truck, and threw her over his shoulder.

She was slightly embarrassed by the squeak she let out, but it didn’t seem as if Borys minded. The small sound got her a small pat to her ass, along with a “Shush.” Before she knew it, they were through the house’s front door.

Misha watched as the hardwood floor flew by underneath her as Borys quickly made his way to wherever he was heading inside the house. Then she was flying through the air before landing on a huge, cushy bed, her body bouncing.

When she settled, she saw, standing there at the foot of the bed, a very determined Borys, eyes still aglow and panting with sexual need. A need Misha now felt consuming her.

Seeing him standing there, all hard muscles and a delicious bulge behind his jeans, lust filled her.

Perhaps she had never felt anything like this before, but there was no confusion on what it was. Her core ached with wanting him inside her. Her mouth watered to taste him. Even where Misha’s neck met her shoulder tingles of anticipation took over, wanting the mate bite he would give her to make her his forever. She wanted it all, but he simply stood and there, watching, not moving.

“Borys?” she asked, confused.

“I don’t want to lose control with you, cookie. I never dreamed that I would be fortunate to find my fated mate, and now, here you are. I need to know this is where you want to be before I get in that bed, love.”

Her heart fluttered at his vulnerability. So strong, yet so afraid he might take advantage of her somehow. It was time for Misha to show Borys that she felt just as lucky to find her fated mate as well.

Sitting up on the bed, she watched as his body tensed further. Reaching to the hem of the bottom of her shirt, she pulled it over her head and dropped it to the bed. Then, feeling a bit shy, she reached back slowly to unclasp her bra, holding her hands over the cups still covering her breasts, not quite bare to him yet.

Looking up at him, Misha said the only thing she could think to say, “Make me yours, Borys.”

A snarl ripped from his throat, but somehow he made himself move slowly. First, he peeled his shirt over his head and off. Then, he unbuttoned and pushed his jeans down his solid thighs. Once he kicked them off onto the floor, he stood there naked before her, utterly commando, and proudly showing off his chiseled body and already hard cock.

Nodding, he ordered, “Take it off, cookie.”

Just because you wanted something, didn’t mean you weren’t nervous to get it. That was why Misha trembled as she let her hands fall away from her chest, allowing her bra to slide down her arms and off her body. Setting it aside, she laid back on the bed, her eyes never once leaving his as she moved to push her pants and panties down her thighs.

Borys watched every movement she made until she was completely bare before him on the bed. He then stared at her for long, silent moments, and Misha wondered what he was thinking.

Did he find her body beautiful? Would he enjoy the ample curves of her breasts, a bit of a pooch on her belly, along with her thick thighs and plump ass? Or would he be disappointed that she wasn’t skinnier like other women?

The man seemed to know what her thoughts were, because he climbed onto the bed, situating himself between her thighs as he hovered over her face to tell her, “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Absolutely perfect.”

The sincere approval from him had Misha lunging up to kiss him, hungrily swiping her tongue along the seam of his lips until he opened wide to let her in. The intoxicating taste of him drew her in for more, and it wasn’t long before she was moaning, “More,” into his mouth.

She whimpered when Borys pulled his lips from hers, only to moan again as he moved them down to kiss her neck. Using his hands to plump both of her breasts, he lashed her nipples with his tongue, and then started to savor them slowly. Lavishing her with licks and kisses as he moved his way down her body, past her abdomen, he placed a chaste, teasing kiss on her clit, causing Misha’s hips to surge upward, wanting more of his kisses on her secret place.

Borys grabbed her hips to hold her still before he began to lick her core, giving her long, slow licks up and down, and in and out of her center. Every now and then, he would stop to nibble or suck, driving her wild.

Through the haze of pleasure, Misha managed to open her eyes to look down, begging, “Please, Borys, more.”

He growled against her, the vibrations sending her pleasure spiraling upward, just as he slipped a finger inside of her. Filling her up, he pumped in and out several times before adding a second finger. He was stretching her now. She could feel her inner walls fluttering around his digits as some unnamed phenomena consumed her.

Misha’s heart raced, her whole body tightened, needing something she didn’t know how to ask for. She tried to gyrate against his mouth and fingers, searching for the elusive release to the building wave of tension in her body, but Borys managed to hold her relatively still.

One second, she was living on the edge of a beautiful agony, and the next, she was hurtling over, crying out in pleasure as ecstasy washed over her, leaving her a boneless heap on the bed.

Chapter Ten

Misha dug her nails into his arms where he was holding her still as Borys licked the last of her sweet cream. He only thought she smelled sweet before, but it didn’t compare to how sweet she could be until now. Climaxing against his mouth, letting him give her pleasure for the first time in her life, he tasted that cookie sweetness.

The need to mate with her consumed Borys. His bear was growling as much as the man as he did his best not to move too quickly for his virginal mate. Knowing that he would be the only man to ever touch her made both the human and the bear in him want to roar in triumph. Misha truly was going to be his in every way that mattered. He would be the only man who would ever know what it was like to be inside her, which was why he was quickly losing control.

Crawling up her body, he pushed his hips between Misha’s thighs until his cock lay across her wet, sensitive core. Bringing his face down, he then kissed her heatedly, needing her to know how wonderful she had tasted on his lips.

Grabbing her knees, Borys pulled them up higher to wrap her legs around his waist.

This was it. He was about to claim his mate in every way that mattered. By the time he was done, they would belong to each other for the rest of their lives.

Using one hand, he reached down to grab his cock and run the head up and down her slit. His bear wanted him to plunge inside of her, but he couldn’t. This being her first time, he wanted to make sure his mate enjoyed it as much as he knew he was going to.

Now was the time.

She started to wiggle around at the sensation of him teasing her entrance. Pushing the head of his cock against her folds, he felt her heat start to slowly stretch around him. Little by little, he pushed himself into the tight, slick depths, cherishing her gasps of pleasure.

Borys knew that it was inevitable that she would feel a little pain, yet he wanted to make sure she felt more pleasure. Therefore, using his thumb, he circled it around her clit as he worked himself in and out of her, making progress slowly as he thrust a few times to a new depth, before pushing for more.

When he reached the proof of her innocence, he stopped only long enough to kiss her as he pushed through. When Misha had taken all of his cock inside her, he stilled, allowing his mate to stretch comfortably around him.

Pulling his lips away from their kiss, he checked to make sure she was okay, only to get another moan of begging from her.

“Please, Borys, please! Move. You feel so good inside me.”

He felt her pussy pulse all around him as he started to move in and out of her in slow, steady thrusts. He wouldn’t last long; she felt too damn good. That was okay, though. He could tell his mate was on the edge of a second orgasm already, and he was determined to give her that before he let himself plunge into his own pleasure.

Taking his time, he started moving his thumb around her clit in steady circles again until she was thrashing beneath him, sobbing for relief. If only she knew how tight his balls were and what an agony it was for him to hold off, just so he could make sure she was taken care of first.

She felt so fucking good, like coming home, filling the empty places he hadn’t quite realized were there until she walked into his life.

Borys picked up his pace, pulling his hand away so he could bury himself in and out of her while hitting her clit with his pelvis. It didn’t take long before she was squeezing him like a vise, taking him over the edge.

As he felt the first spurt of his come inside of her, Borys leaned down, putting his lips on the skin where her neck met her shoulder, and he bit her there, leaving his mating mark for the world to see.

His mate screamed out with her orgasm, making him roar against her body as they finished together.

Feeling better than he had ever felt in his entire life, Borys pulled his teeth out of her flesh then licked the spot to soothe the pain. His cookie was cooing as he pulled out of her, drawing her into his arms to cuddle, and she was damn near purring like a contented cat. It was an endearing trait since he never thought another bear could purr quite like that. Must have been the ramifications of being raised by cats.

Looking down at Misha, Borys saw her smiling up at him as she pet his chest almost reverently. He couldn’t think of a single thing that could possibly make this moment better.

Chapter Eleven

The next morning, Borys stood sipping from his coffee cup, dressed in nothing but his boxers as he watched his mate, who was dressed in only one of his T-shirts, pour herself a cup of her own coffee. He was having a hard time keeping his mind off her naked body, which he needed to do so he could show her the family photo album he had pulled out.

Turning back to the kitchen island where he had placed the thick book, he opened it and turned to the page of his mother. Then he patiently waited until Misha stood beside him.

Tapping his finger on the page, Borys pointed to the photo. “This is your aunt, Marianna Wisniewski. I’m sorry to tell you that she passed away two years ago.”

His mate quietly sniffled as silent tears slipped from her eyes. Reaching over, Borys used his thumbs to wipe them away. Seeing them only magnified his own pain of missing his mom.

“She would have loved you, cookie. I wish you could have met her.”

Misha looked up from the picture to him. “How do you know she would have liked me at all?”

“I know she would have loved you the moment she met you. That was just the sort of wonderful woman she was.” Flipping the page, he showed her a different picture, one of a couple with a little boy who stood in front of them. “This is the day my dad married your aunt. Best day of my life before I met you, because it was the day she became my mom.”

Misha traced a finger along the lines of her aunt’s face, as if she were trying to memorize them. “How old were you on this day?”

“Five.”

“Do you mind if I ask what happened to your biological mother?”

Borys ran a hand over his hair as painful memories from his past bubbled up. “My mother passed away from medical complications after delivering me. She was the love of my father’s life, though they were not fated mates. Losing her … Well, I can remember, after your aunt married my dad, the people in my old clan told her that losing my mother changed him. I wouldn’t know. All I ever remember of him was that he was angry at the world and liked to take it out on everyone around him.”

His mate sucked in a breath. “Did he hit you, Borys?”

Shaking his head, Borys did his best to explain. “He never hit me or your aunt, but he didn’t pretend to like us, either. There was never a kind word from him or any love shown.” Tapping his finger on the family portrait, he continued, “That’s why your aunt meant the world to me. She mated my dad, and instead of ignoring me because I was a child from a previous relationship like some women would have, she loved me from day one. When she came into my life, I finally learned what it was like to have a loving parent. She played with me, cooked and ate family dinners with me, and even read me bedtime stories. I think it was after she had been living with us for about a week I asked her if I could call her Mom.”

His mate cuddled up next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder. “What did she say?”

Even though he knew she couldn’t see it, Borys couldn’t stop the smile that spread across his face from one of his favorite memories. Hugging his cookie close to his side, he murmured, “Marianna told me that if I called her Mom, it would be the best present anyone had given her in her entire life. She was my mom from that day forward in every sense of the word. You know, cookie, you have the same color hair she did.”

Misha pulled away and ran a nervous hand over her messy hair. “Really?”

Borys leaned in and gave her a kiss on the lips. She was just too damn cute not to. “Yeah, you do. Hey, you know what else you have now that was Marianna’s?”

“What?” she whispered excitedly.

Turning back to the photo album, Borys flipped through the pages until he reached the one near the back that held his mother’s handwritten recipes. Stopping at the first one, he pointed at it. “She said this was her grandmother’s recipe for makowiec, otherwise known as poppy seed cake. Apparently, in Polish tradition, it’s considered good luck to eat this during the holidays.”

He watched as Misha’s hand trembled as she ran her fingers over the plastic cover-protected page. Borys had all of his mother’s recipes laminated after she had died. He had wanted to preserve the things that had meant so much to the woman who had loved him unconditionally.

Misha pulled out of his embrace to face him. “Would you mind if we made one today? I love cooking, and it would be nice to share a recipe from her with you.”

Damn, his mate was as sweet in nature as she was tasty in bed.

Tapping the end of her nose, he gave her a big grin. “Sure can, sweetheart. In fact”—Borys reached over and turned a few pages—“we can try whatever recipe you want. Seems as if having a sweet tooth runs in your family. Mom has quite a few Polish dessert recipes. Just pick one out, and I’ll go get what you need from the store.”

Misha squealed in delight as she started looking over the different recipes. “What should we make first?”

He let his eyes drift down the ample curves of his mate’s ass as she bounced up and down in excitement. Letting out a groan, his cock hardened as a different sort of hunger took over him again.

Reaching out, Borys slipped his hands underneath the oversized shirt she wore and gripped her hips. Scooting in close so her backside was tucked in tight to his front, he kissed the side of her neck. “How about we make something else for a while, cookie? I want another taste of you.”

Misha giggled as he ran his hands up the front of her body until he was massaging both of her breasts. Pinned between him and the kitchen island, she leaned forward enough to brace herself with her hands on the countertop, which pushed her ass into his groin. Damn, he loved this woman’s curves.

She moaned as he gently pinched her nipples then reached back with one of her hands to grab his cock through his boxers. “I want to feel you inside of me again, mate. Prove to me bears do it better every time.”

Hell, the woman didn’t have to ask him twice. Borys let go of one of her breasts to reach down and push his boxers down his legs. Once they were puddled around his feet, he kicked them off to the side. Then he reached over, grabbed the hem of her shirt, and ripped it off over her head as she squealed at the quick move.

Running his hands down her back, he gently pushed her forward until her upper body was on the countertop in front of her.

He was just about to grab both cheeks of her ass, when suddenly, his doorbell rang, and his perfect moment was shattered.

Damn it all to hell!

Roaring in frustration, Borys told his cookie to cover up so he could scare whoever it was away. Then, stalking to his front door buck ass naked, he didn’t even care that he was about to give someone a superior show of all of his glory. Shifters weren’t exactly modest, and whoever this was at his front door was intruding on his time with his mate, and he was going to let them know it.

Flinging his door open, he took one look at the person standing on the other side of it and roared again in rage. The small, human man who had bugged him earlier was trembling in fear as he scanned Borys’s naked body up and down in surprise.

Stuttering, he said, “I-I c-can see I’ve come b-back at a bad time. I’m s-s-so sorry, Mr. Anderson. If you c-could just please sign this piece of paper con-confirming your name and address, I p-promise to go away and leav—”

Borys tuned out the rest of what the man said as he reached over to the side, grabbed the fifty-pound bag of fertilizer he had left on his porch, ripped open the top of the bag, and then dumped all the manure onto the human’s head for being such a pain in the ass.

The man shrieked in horror when he figured out he was literally being covered in shit and ran away, slipping and sliding down Borys’s walkway on the fertilizer that now coated him from head to toe.

When the man reached the street where his car was parked, Borys yelled out to him, “Remember, it’s Borys with a Y, asshole. Don’t ever come back!”

Slamming his front door, Borys stalked back to the kitchen where his mate was waiting for him, now sitting on top of the kitchen island. Once he got there, she glanced over at him, took one look at the aggravated look on his face, and arched an eyebrow.

“Is everything okay? You roared loud enough for my relatives to hear you in Russia.”

Closing the space between them, he ran his hands over her bare legs, pushing them apart so he could step between them. “Nothing for you to worry your pretty, little head about, cookie. Just had to get rid of some shit. Now, where were we?”

The sound of his mate’s laughter as he started to playfully nip and bite down her neck was sweeter than any dessert his mother had ever made him. It seemed as though he had a sweet tooth for his mate, and that was A-okay with him.

Chapter Twelve

One month later…

Misha used a box cutter to open one of the twenty boxes the delivery man had just dropped off at her new house. She was officially moving in with Borys. Her family back in Russia had packed up her things and shipped them to her here. Although, she would admit that it hadn’t been all that willingly.

No, the Vasiliev tigers had hissed, growled, and yowled over the many phone calls they had made her endure as they tried to talk her into coming back to the “homeland.” It would be an understatement to say that her adopted family was having a hard time accepting the fact that Misha had met her fated mate an ocean and continent away.

They had promised to take her into Moscow to find another bear if that was what she wanted. She had told them no. Then they promised her a whole harem of male bears if she would come home. Misha had no idea exactly how those crazy cats thought they could hold a harem of bears captive for her, but she was also smart enough not to ask. Instead, she had just given them the answer of no again.

After more insane promises of a castle for a house, a small army of bear mates, all the honeyed salmon she could eat, and other ridiculous things, she had hung up on them and decided she would need some help getting her things. Therefore, she had called her Aunt Arina over to Borys’s house and had begged her for help.

Her aunt hadn’t given in to her pleas easily. While she would now admit that she thought Borys was “not such a Boo-Boo of a bear,” she still was not happy that Misha would not go back to Russia. She was especially not happy about Misha “abandoning her to deal with that super Boo-Boo Paxton.” Misha tried to defend herself by saying she had not abandoned Arina. Borys had even offered her the chance to stay with them at his house, but Arina had told them she would rather stay at the bed and breakfast than listen to them making their “disturbing bear love.”

It took approximately one hour of giving Arina sad looks while bribing her with one of the many homemade sweets she had in the kitchen, but Misha finally got her aunt to call their overly paranoid yet extremely loving family in Russia to accept the truth.

Misha had two homes now. One with Borys, and one in Russia with the tigers.

Looking over at her mate, who was helping her unpack the many boxes, Misha lifted one of the traditional wooden nesting dolls she had been given one year for her birthday and showed it to Borys.

“Where should I put this, love?”

He looked over at the doll in her hand, and his eyes bugged out. “What the fuck is that, woman?”

Misha stifled her laugh and shook the tiger-decorated doll at him. “This is a matryoshka doll. My family gave me one for my birthday every year for five years straight when I was a little girl.”

“And they’re all painted as tigers, I’m guessing?” he asked her warily.

She nodded back enthusiastically. “Yes! They were specially made just for me. This one is painted to represent my adopted great-grandmother. I also have ones for Arina, my favorite uncle, a cousin, and Arina’s mother. Isn’t it adorable?” Misha knew it was downright cruel to figuratively poke at her bear this way, but she just couldn’t help herself. Her mate was so cute when he got himself all wound up.

Looking around his house, he then turned back to her and asked, “Our whole house is not going to be decorated in tigers, is it, cookie? I know you love them all, but a man can only take so many stripes in his den.”

She shook her head. “Noooo. Not the whole house, Borys. I would never do that to you.”

A relieved smile spread across his face. “Good. You can put that anywhere you want, sweetheart. This is your home now, too, and I want you to be happy in it.”

Misha adored the man who bent over backward, day in and day out, to make her comfortable in his home, but she just couldn’t resist poking at his bear one more time.

“Thank you, Borys!” Jumping up from her spot, she walked over to the bookshelf in the living room and placed the doll on an empty spot on one of the shelves. Then, looking back at her mate, she caught him staring at her and blew him an air kiss.

“Don’t you worry, my big, bad bear; I won’t decorate the whole house in tiger stripes … just half of it! I’ve even got a tiger striped blanket to drape over the couch!”

Misha winked at him when he roared in irritation at her. Once he jumped up and lunged for her, she ran for the bedroom, laughing the entire way, hoping that once Borys “caught” her there, he would show her exactly how he thought bears did everything better again.

She couldn’t seem to get enough of his attempts to prove that to her. Maybe one day, twenty years from now, she might admit to him that she now believed bears really did do it better.

Chapter Thirteen

Two months later…

“Are you sure you want to do this, little cub?”

Misha smiled at her aunt who sat sulking in the corner. Picking up her blush brush, she swirled it over her cheeks one last time to make sure her makeup was perfect on her big day.

“Of course I’m sure, Aunt Arina. Why wouldn’t I be?”

The tigress stomped her foot and yowled loudly. “Because blas-of-the-theme it be!”

Somehow, Misha managed not to laugh at Arina’s continued abuse of the English language.

“Do you mean blasphemy?”

Pointing a finger at her, Arina shouted, “Yes! This is what I say.”

Getting up from her vanity chair, Misha walked over to kneel in front of the woman who had raised her as her own. Taking Arina’s hands in hers, she told her exactly how she felt.

“I am sure I want to marry Borys. I know it’s not traditional for our kind, but it means a lot to him for some reason. And I want to make him as happy as he has made me.”

“But your last name will change to Anderson,” Arina whined like a little girl.

Misha brought Arina’s hands up to her mouth and gave them a kiss of affection. “Listen to me closely, because I want you to hear the truth in my words. I will always be your cub, and you will always be my mother. Just like I will always be a Vasiliev, even though I am not a tiger. It does not matter that my last name will be Anderson, because all of you will always be my family. You mean the world to me.”

Arina’s eyes glistened with tears that slowly started to run down her face. She pulled her hands out of Misha’s and ever so lightly grasped Misha’s face. “This is right, little cub. Always, you will be mine. I love you, little bear.”

Leaning forward to embrace her aunt, Misha relayed the sentiment. “I love you, too, Aunt Arina.”

The two women hugged silently for a few moments until someone knocked on the door, startling Arina and causing her to jump in the chair and hiss as Paxton’s voice came from the other side.

“It’s time, ladies.”

Arina shouted back, “Go away, Baloo! We will come out when we want to.”

“I told you not to call me that anymore, woman,” the bear growled back.

Her aunt just sniffed in disdain. “Yes, and I keep telling you not to follow me around like stray puppy, yet here you are. Shoo! Shoo now!”

Misha silently laughed as she heard a frustrated growl then heavy stomping heading away from the door.

Grabbing her aunt by the hand, she pulled her up to stand. “Are you ready to walk me down the aisle, Aunt Arina?”

Arina gave another disdainful sniff that only a feline could pull off. “I guess I am. But you remember, if you change your mind, we can haul of the ass out those doors.”

She smiled and picked up her bouquet. “I promise not to forget that we can haul ass.”

Holding hands, the two women walked out of the room and down the hallway that would lead them to the front of the church. Misha could already hear the piano music coming from inside the main room where Borys was waiting for her. It started to flow into the “Wedding March” as she locked her arm with her aunt’s. Then the two main doors were opened for them by a couple of her new Grayslake clan members.

She stepped over the threshold and into the room, hearing soft, appreciative gasps from the crowd as they caught sight of her in an ivory dress made of satin and lace. She could see the carefully decorated church pews filled with other clan members such as the Itan and the Itana, plus her family from Russia. All of it seemed to melt away, though, as she took that first step toward Borys.

He was standing at the front, near the pastor, dressed in a black tuxedo with an ivory tie and vest. His smile was breathtaking.

She hadn’t known it was possible for a man to be beautiful, but in that moment, he was to her. He was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

Misha kept her steps measured as she heard the song continue, thinking of the lyrics in her head and daydreaming what it would be like to have a thousand years with her mate. Truly, she didn’t need a thousand, just all the ones for the rest of their lives were enough for her.

In the three months since meeting Borys, he had changed her entire world. She had gone from feeling a bit like an outsider to a person who knew just how lucky and loved she was by both her mate, her adopted tiger family, and her new bear family.

Misha’s entire life was not only complete, but overflowing with so much love for the people around her that she knew now more than ever that family was not always those you were related to by blood, but the people who made your life a joy. It was the reason she had insisted on Arina walking her down the aisle.

Did part of Misha wish her biological parents could be here today? Of course, and perhaps they were there in spirit, but her day was not lacking love or family. The woman who loved her unconditionally was escorting her to the man who loved her unconditionally now, too. And the closer they got to Borys, the bigger his smile became.

Who knew that was even possible?

As she came to a stop in front of the pastor and her husband-to-be, Misha turned to Arina and gave her another heartfelt hug and kiss on the cheek. “I love you,” she whispered.

Arina sobbed quietly and whispered back, “I love you, too, my little медве́дь.”

For the first time in her life, she heard the Russian name for bear and didn’t feel left out somehow. No, this time, all she felt was the love her aunt gave her in her voice as she said it.

Pulling away and walking up to stand beside the man she loved, her mate, Misha thanked whoever it was who had set her on this path in life.

She had been blessed beyond measure, even if she was a bear raised by tigers who was marrying her one time, sort of, kinda, but not quite, American cousin.

Chapter Fourteen

One month later…

Borys was standing in a room full of tigers who were all staring at him. Silently staring. Maybe even accusingly staring. No matter what the motivation behind their actions, he really needed them to stop. They were creeping him the fuck out.

His mate patted his arm to get his attention. “Borys, this is Babushka Anastasia. Babushka means grandmother,” she whispered quietly. “She’s the oldest living Vasiliev tiger in pride history, at one hundred and three years old. I wanted you to meet her because she’s been like a great-grandmother to me.”

Borys looked down at the old woman who stood almost two feet shorter than him with a mean look on her face. Not that he would say it out loud, but she looked older than a hundred and three. Still, he was happy to be here in Russia, meeting his mate’s family.

Holding his hand out to her, he greeted her cheerfully, “Hello, Babushka Anastasia. It’s nice to meet you. My name is Borys.”

The old woman took his hand in a surprisingly strong grip then pointed with her free hand over to a couch for them to sit. However, instead of Borys doing the gentlemanly thing and leading Anastasia to the couch, she led him to the couch. He couldn’t help admiring the tough, old broad.

Once they were settled on the couch, with Misha sitting on a chair near them, Borys looked over at his mate for direction since the old woman wasn’t saying anything, just staring at him like all the others.

Misha waved her hand in a “go ahead and talk” motion. He was so going to spank her for that later on.

Turning back to the old woman, he pasted another smile on his face while he racked his brain for something to say. What the hell did he know about Russia? They liked vodka, those little nesting dolls, and they had that royal family who had been assassinated so many years ago. Which reminded him …

“Isn’t Anastasia the name of the Russian royal princess who disappeared?”

The old woman nodded but still remained silent.

Good Lord! What the hell did he have to do to get someone to talk around here?

He tried to engage her again. “You wouldn’t happen to be the missing princess, would you?”

She shook her head. “Nyet.”

Borys was sort of at a loss when all he got back was the one-word answer followed by more uncomfortable staring. If he didn’t figure out a way to make these tigers talk soon, his bear was going to freak out and go on a rampage.

He tried another question. “Well, how is your day going? Are you having a good day today since Misha is back for a visit?”

What followed next was an unholy terror of torture.

“I’m glad you asked, bear!” The old woman clapped her hands in front of her then started ranting in heavily-accented English. “Glad Misha is home, but then, it’s fault of yours that she is away. My day is shit, because our little cub will leave us again, because of you. If bad enough, that wasn’t, my bladder has been acting up. Urge to pee, I have a hundred times a day, like very pregnant woman about to give birth. Know do you, what it is like, to have to pee that many times a day?”

Borys opened his mouth to say something—what, he wasn’t sure—perhaps his apologies that she had an overactive bladder. However, the old windbag just kept going.

“And oy! My back! Hurts so, it does. You think any of my children or grandchildren take their Babushka to get massage to feel better? No! Ungrateful, they all are! How many cubs I carry in my belly when younger I was, then push them out of my woman parts, but ten! Ten ungrateful cubs who no take their poor mother to get massage to make back feel better.”

Borys tried not to turn green at the thought of having ten children, or this woman pushing out said ten children. He almost failed. Still, the old bat kept going.

Smacking him on the arm, she shouted, “And this human president we have! Vladimir Putin. He says he wrestled with real bear with two hands! You believe that, Borys? That man wouldn’t know real bear if it chased him up tree. Or was it you who wrestled with him and lost?”

Borys’s jaw dropped as he shook his head. Looking over at his mate, he found Misha laughing at him behind her hand. He pleaded with his eyes for her to help him escape, but the infuriating woman just sat there laughing at him.

Anastasia slapped him again to get his attention.

“Fine, fine, you no wrestle president. Back to my day now. My coffee was cold this morning, my hunk of deer meat too lean, my clothes too hot … Have I mentioned my ungrateful ten children?”

Borys nodded, desperately searching for a polite way to escape and run for his life, when his cookie interrupted Anastasia.

“Babushka, I’m going to help the others in the kitchen.”

He started to get up, thinking his mate was going to rescue him and take him with her, but no. No, that woman put her hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down, all while giving him a saccharine smile.

“You stay here and talk to Babushka, Borys. I’ll see you in a little while.”

Betrayed! He wanted to scream.

Borys begged Misha with his eyes as he watched her walk out of the room, shoulders shaking as she laughed. He watched the sway of her hips and ass and thought of how much he was going to paddle it later for abandoning him like this when, this time, he got a slap upside his head.

“Oy, bear! Hear me, you are? I said I keep you company while Misha does women things. So, my coffee was too cold, my hunk of deer meat too lean, my clothes too hot, my ten children are ungrateful little brats, the snow is too high this time of year, my vodka not strong enough last night … Have I mentioned my ten ungrateful children?”

~~~

Three hours later, Borys tracked down his mate who was laughing away with a bunch of women in a kitchen.

“That was cruel.”

“What?” she asked, trying to look innocent while the others cackled around them.

“You could have warned me!” Borys growled back.

Deciding to play dumb, she had the nerve to ask, “Warn you about what, my love?”

Losing all of his control and patience, he opened his mouth wide to roar in frustration, but he got his mate’s hand over the mouth, stopping him.

“Not in here, bear. You do not really want to startle a house full of tigers. It would be a catastrophe.”

Dammit!

Nipping Misha’s palm playfully, he pulled her into his arms as she squealed to whisper in her ear. “You owe me for that, cookie … A lot.”

Shrugging, she said, “Okay, I owe you. Here’s a piece of advice: Never ask a Russian how their day was. They will tell you all about it from the moment they woke up until you beg them to stop talking.”

Leaning in closer, he hissed, “That’s not the kind of owing I’m talking about, and you know it!”

Misha pulled her head back so she could smile at him. “Oh? And what do I owe you then, mate?”

Smiling wickedly, Borys spent the next ten minutes whispering into her ear all the dirty things he was going to do to her when they got back to their room tonight. Then, because even though he was whispering, he knew all the nosey felines around them were listening, he reminded his mate that bears do it better, and he would be more than happy to remind her all the ways how much better bears really were. After that, he kissed her so thoroughly he had not just Misha panting for breath, but the whole kitchen of women panting jealously around them like a bunch of cats in heat.

When he finally pulled back to let his mate breathe, she grabbed both sides of his face and leaned forward so that when she spoke, their lips were just touching.

“Can we do all of that more than once?”

That’s when Borys decided once and for all: Best. Words. Ever.

About the Author

Jessie Lane is a best-selling author of Paranormal and Contemporary Romance, as well as, Upper YA Paranormal Romance/Fantasy.

She lives in Kentucky with her two little Rock Chicks in-the-making and her over-protective alpha husband, who she’s pretty sure is a latent grizzly bear shifter. She has a passionate love for reading and writing naughty romance, cliff hanging suspense, and out-of-this-world characters that demand your attention, or threaten to slap you around until you do pay attention to them.

She’s also a proud member of the Romance Writers of America (RWA).

For more information on Jessie Lane:

http://jessielanebooks.com/

Sign Up for Jessie’s Newsletter

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Or you can send Jessie Lane an email at:

jessie_lane@jessielanebooks1.com

Other Titles from Jessie Lane

Ex Ops Series

Secret Maneuvers

Stripping Her Defenses

Mission Delivery

Sweet Agony

Sweet Recovery

Regulators MC Series

(co-written with Chelsea Camaron)

Ice

Hammer

Big Bad Bite Series

Big Bad Bite

Walk On The Striped Side

Star Series

(co-written with M.L. Pahl)

The Burning Star

The Frozen Star

Kindle World Stories

Lone Wolf Wanted

Sassy and a little Bad-Assy

Bears Do It Better

More than Mated

Thank you for reading Bears Do It Better! I hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did, please consider leaving a review when you have time.

Did you enjoy this Grayslake: More than Mated story?

Discover the series that inspired the World!

AUTHOR: Celia Kyle

TITLES: (listed in series order)

No Ifs, Ands or Bears About It | All Roar and No Bite | Roaring Up the Wrong Tree | Howl My Name | Sunday Bear-beque

WEBSITE: http://celiakyle.com/

Click HERE to sign up for Celia’s NEWSLETTER.

See the Kindle World books HERE.

Here are a few other books in the Grayslake: More than Mated Kindle World for you to check out:

TITLE: Growling For Mine

AUTHOR: Alexa Riley

Grab it on Amazon.com HERE.

TITLE: The Right Spot

AUTHOR: Bianca D‘Arc

Grab it on Amazon.com HERE.

TITLE: Never Kiss A Wolf

AUTHOR: Eliza Gayle

Grab it on Amazon.com HERE.

TITLE: Lyin’ Heart

AUTHOR: Erika Masten

Grab it on Amazon.com HERE.

TITLE: Secrets to Bear

AUTHOR: Flora Dare

Grab it on Amazon.com HERE.

TITLE: Furrever Yours

AUTHOR: Georgette St. Clair

Grab it on Amazon.com HERE.

TITLE: Paws and Surrender

AUTHOR: Josie Walker

Grab it on Amazon.com HERE.

TITLE: Fated and Furr-ocious

AUTHOR: K. Collins

Grab it on Amazon.com HERE.

TITLE: Lion to Get Her

AUTHOR: Lynn Red

Grab it on Amazon.com HERE.

TITLE: Creed’s Claim

AUTHOR: Mina Carter

Grab it on Amazon.com HERE.

Make sure you check out the newest batch of Grayslake: More than Mated Kindle World books that released on September 20th, 2016!

Grab them on Amazon.com HERE.

A Bite of Love by Ally Summers

Make Her Howl by Flora Dare

Bears Do It Better by Jessie Lane

Un-Bear-able Love by K. Collins

Bear Up by Mina Carter

Dirty Lion Bastard by Renee George

Waking the Bear by Ruby Shae

UnBearable Secrets by Terra Wolf

~~~

A Bite of Love by Ally Summers

Find it here!

There was a beautiful girl in his bed.

A dead body outside.

And a shifter war in his backyard.

Case

Kings aren’t supposed to run, but what choice did Case Maddox, king of the jaguar Tribe, have when he lived in the same town as his fated mate ex?

Arriving in Grayslake angry, vengeful and broken, Case needed an escape. Shifters in the south are encroaching on his territory. His shifter warriors have lost hope. The last thing this king was looking for was redemption … or love.

Cadence

Living in a town of shifters hasn't been easy, but Cadence Hathaway was born and raised in Grayslake and there was nowhere else she wanted to call home. Resigned to end up as the town spinster, she threw herself into work, until a broody stranger showed up at the old Maddox estate.

One look at the town’s newest resident and Cadence knows she's in trouble. Broody, dark and mysterious she is ready to find out about the King's tastes, both on and off his plate.

~~~

Make Her Howl by Flora Dare

Find it here!

When you’ve loved and lost a fated mate, can you dare to hope for a second chance?

After her human mate was tragically killed years ago, wolf shifter Magda fled Grayslake and all it meant. She only returned to protect her adopted daughter and she’s determined to stay out of local shifter politics.

Marc has spent years protecting Grayslake’s shifters after a tragedy of his own. When Magda walks into his life, his inner wolf awakens. He never thought it possible, but she’s living proof that miracles happen. She’s his mate.

Now he just has to convince her that everyone gets a second chance at love.

~~~

Un-Bear-able Love by K. Collins

Find it here!

Lily Love is running—from her father—from her future husband—from her life. When a message flashes across her computer screen claiming open season in Grayslake, she takes her only chance to experience life before her father drags her back to Montana to bear an heir for the clan. Once in Grayslake, her quest for anonymity vanishes when she’s forced to register at the sheriff’s office as a guest. It’s there she meets Eli Silver. Big, tall, and grumbly, Eli prickles her senses in ways she can’t explain.

Werebear Eli Silver lives alone in the woods. After a painful betrayal, he’s sworn off love for good and is happiest when it’s just him and his bees. Or so he thinks, until a curvy, beautiful woman walks into his life and stings him right in the heart. Every roaring cell of his body wants to claim Lily, there’s only one problem—she’s not willing to commit.

With the past swarming around them, can Eli and Lily dig deep to find the courage their love requires?

~~~

Bear Up by Mina Carter

Find it here!

Girl meets boy = classic love story. Girl meets bear... Wait, what?

Small town girl Kacie has always known there was something odd about Lizards Lick, but she doesn't expect that oddity to almost claim her life or land her in the arms of her long-term crush; hot veteran Dean. Okay, he's nuts but she can't argue with that, not with a body like his or when he's whispering things like 'fated' and 'destiny'. Even if he does claim to be a werebear...

She's his mate, but she's human. He's so screwed...

Leader of the Lizard Lick bear clan, Dean is between a rock and a hard place. His fated mate is human but he daren't claim her. The elitist asshats in the clan would have kittens. But when an attack brings her over into the bear world, he's out of time and out of options. Even worse, the town has an rogue bear problem and internal clan politics that put Kacie in the crossfire.

Forced to fight battles on all fronts, Dean must bear up or risk losing her forever...

~~~

Dirty Lion Bastard by Renee George

Find it here!

Curvy tiger shifter Scottie Monroe, along with her mom and Aunt Tig, own the Pitch & Paw Bar and Motel--a neutral safe haven for shifters who want to avoid conflicts as they pass through the area. Scottie has a hard fast rule. No hooking up with the customers, but that was before tall, dark, and flirty Shane Largos walked through her door.

Shane, a lion shifter, has travelled to Georgia to find the man who walked out on his human mother after getting her pregnant, leaving her with a bastard shifter son, and no pride to protect either of them. Shane plans to challenge his father, as is his right, even if it means he’ll probably be killed.

From the moment Shane meets Scottie, his animal and human side want her more than he wants air to breathe. A lie of omission leads to a night of scorching passion, but when Scottie discovers Shane’s real purpose for coming to Georgia, she is determined to save him from himself, even if it means putting herself in harms way.

Can Shane’s love for Scottie overshadow his long standing anger? Or is hate and revenge stronger than a shifter’s instinct to claim his mate

~~~

Waking the Bear by Ruby Shae

Find it here!

After suffering the ultimate humiliation at her cousin’s wedding, Audrey Harris leaves her old life behind, and drives until she reaches Grayslake, Georgia. Faced with staying put, or heading north, she decides to stay. Unfortunately, the atmosphere at the B&B where she’s staying isn’t conducive to her plan to give up men, and soon, she ends up at the local bar looking for an ego boost.

Bear shifter, Tad Mitchell, knows first-hand what it feels like to be betrayed by a lover, and he has the physical scars to prove it. Once a romantic, he gave up on women five years ago when his ex-girlfriend threw him away like garbage. When his fated mate walks into his brother’s bar, he easily rebuffs her advances until he’s forced to do the right thing.

Now that Tad has Audrey in his home, he can’t get rid of the sassy, curvy beauty, and the worst part is, he’s not even sure he wants to. No, he definitely wants to, but she’s so stubborn. And sexy. And smart…and he really does need an office manager. When Audrey’s life is on the line, Tad has to decide whether or not to live in the past, or to claim his mate and embrace the future.

~~~

Un-Bear-able Secrets by Terra Wolf

Find it here!

Family drama and bear politics has driven Olivia Bradwick on a vacation to Grayslake. Finally, she can enjoy some peace and quiet, or so she thinks. When the handyman at the local B&B stumbles into her bathroom, she realizes he might be the escape she came looking for. But Sam isn’t as innocent as his seems and Olivia must decide if she can trust him at all.

Sam Hunter is running. He’s left home and all of his Louisiana comforts behind for a life of solitude. He truly believes it’s the only way to not end up like his blood thirsty father. But when a cute little werebear shows up at the B&B he can’t help but fall for her. He knows that if he claims her though, it’ll ruin everything.

Olivia and Sam both have skeletons in their closets. Together they must decide if they can overcome their past to be together in this Romeo and Juliet-esque landscape.