Page 23 of Snowed In With the Grizzly

Twenty years old and she thinks her freedom is going to end in three days.

Over my dead body.

There’s no way in hell I’m going to let her go back home and be sold off to this prick. I’ll protect her with my last breath.

But I can’t tell her that right now.

Because I know if I do, she’ll run. Her protective instinct for her sister is stronger than anything else. And that’s a beautiful thing. But she needs to understand that she doesn’t need to do everything herself, now. She’s got me.

Teaching her this will take time though, and luckily I’ve got three days to get her to understand that I know what’s best for her.

I go out again and grab the final armful of timber. When I come back, she’s crouching in front of the fire, building it up again. I stand still for a moment, watching her in admiration. Her delicate looks are a real contrast to her spirit. She’s so tough; the equal of any shifter.

I lay out the timber and decide what’s gonna go where, and then I get to work, sawing and hammering.

“I’ll be your assistant,” Rowan calls. “Just give me jobs to do.”

I turn my head and look for her. She’s done stoking up the fire, and she’s standing in front of it, warming her hands. She’s so beautiful, so sexy and perfect. I want to toss all these jobs aside and drag her to bed. Impregnate her, so there’ll be no question she belongs to me. My cock hardens at the thought. My cub growing in her belly. Tying us together—

But I also want to fix up this place for her.

“You don’t have to do anything,” I say with a grin.

“I want to. For grandma.”

My gut clenches. Poor thing. To have lost her momandher grandma. No family members left to take care of her. I’ll do anything I can to help her honor their memories.

“Okay, you got it,” I say.

* * *

Rowan

The blizzard is howling outside,but I feel so safe in this little cabin with Jaxton. Protected from the whole world.

For two hours, we work together in harmony. I feel like I’m an assistant to a master craftsman. He seems to know instinctively how to fix everything, and all the pieces of timber are sawed to the exact dimensions. And all I can do is hand him the things he asks for and watch in admiration.

When we’re about done, I go make us some tea.

“How do you do that?” I ask, handing a mug to him.

“Do what?” He wipes perspiration from his brow with the back of his hand, and fixes me with a sexy stare.

“Measure everything so perfectly without using a tape measure.”

“Oh.” He grins. “It’s easy for us shifters. I worked as an engineer in the military. I didn’t have any specific training, but when my superiors realized I had this ability, they just about fell over themselves to recruit me to their division.”

“You were in the military?” I echo.

“Yup.” He straightens up. “For a while anyway. To tell you the truth, I spent most of my formative years in my animal form.”

My mouth falls open. “No way?” He’s so intelligent, intuitive and handsome. More human than any man I’ve met before. But I’m still getting used to the fact that he also has this exciting, beastly side.

He takes a deep breath, like he’s wondering whether to tell me something.

“Someone hurt you,” I blurt out. I don’t know where that came from. It just felt right.

He stiffens. I hit a nerve.

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