Unknown

  BEAR LODGE – Prequel

  Jake’s

  Secret

  Kyrii Rayne

  Dreamstone Publishing © 2019

  www.dreamstonepublishing.com

  Copyright © 2019 Dreamstone Publishing and Kyrii Rayne

  All rights reserved.

  No parts of this work may be copied without the author’s permission.

  Disclaimer

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, organisations, events and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.

  Table of Contents

  Disclaimer

  Table of Contents

  1 - Coffee Date

  2 - Big Bear on Campus

  3 - Not Milady

  4 - To Better Times Ahead

  5 - The Phone Call

  Chapter 1: Anna

  Chapter 2: The Lodge

  Other Books from Kyrii Rayne

  About the Author

  Other Books from Dreamstone Publishing

  1 - Coffee Date

  Anna Moretti could tell that two men in class were staring at her. Two particular men. One, a graduate student who shared her major and several of her classes, and the other, an undergraduate who should not even have been allowed to sit in on the seminar. The thought of the first one, a great, burly fellow with coffee-colored hair and a preference for jeans and gym clothes, made Anna smile. The other, a chubby, pimply, blond glarer in a dirty gray trench coat and battered brown trilby, made her skin want to crawl off.

  The first—Jake Matson, she knew from when he’d spoken up in class—peeked at her shyly when he thought she wasn’t looking. His dark eyes were so soft and wistful that it made her heart melt. He had first shown on her radar at the beginning of the semester, when they had ended up in some classes and seminars together. She’d noticed the attractive giant right away, but had just come off an uncomfortable breakup, and had decided not to date for a while.

  But that was two months now, and she was getting lonely... and also, intrigued. The more she caught Jake gazing at her like that, the more she rethought her stance.

  The second was Timothy Garrett, an undergraduate she had tutored last semester for some extra money, and who had decided somewhere along the way that she belonged to him. He had hit on her incessantly during tutoring sessions, sometimes trying to touch her, sometimes trying to block the door of the study booth so she had to stay there with him longer. She had stopped working with him entirely when she caught him trying to take an up-skirt photo, reporting him to the head of the tutoring program — who had promptly banned him.

  Now, apparently, he had dropped out and was “auditing” graduate classes. Each and every one of her graduate classes. Confronting him resulted in red-faced tantrums, torrents of insults and threats, which she had gone to campus security about. But aside from escorting him out of her classes a few times, they had done nothing useful. Now, as usual, he sat right near the door, planted sullenly in a chair, intent on forcing her to walk past him within grabbing range as she left. He stared at her with a hideous mix of lust and hatred on his weak-chinned, scruffy face. She ignored him and tried to focus on the talk her classmate was giving on the contribution of natural forest fires to the growth of several tree species. Her advanced forestry seminar was her last class on Tuesdays, and she had trouble keeping her eyes open. Her body craved coffee, and it was another ten minutes before the end of class. She stifled a yawn behind her hand and brushed her shoulder-length honey-brown hair back behind her ear. She was on the smaller side and curvy, with pale skin and bright green eyes.

  Today, as on all days when she had class and knew she couldn't avoid the disgusting barnacle in the seat next to the door, she was deliberately dressed down. No jewelry, little makeup, plain jeans, a shirt without cleavage and a vest that covered her butt. Any effort she made to look more attractive (for Jake) always led to a barrage of comments from Timothy as he tried to follow her down the hall after class. After two months of this insanity, she was ready to get a restraining order against him.

  She focused on Jake instead. And slowly, an idea dawned on her. Why not kill two birds with one stone? She let out a sly grin and did her best to catch the big guy's eye a few times.

  He noticed right away, blinking in surprise, a faint smile creeping across his rugged features. He had been peeking hopefully at her most of the semester, but she had never flirted with him before, to any degree. Her smile widened, and she held his gaze a few moments before looking away.

  Angry shuffling and coughing came from the doorway. She ignored it and focused on the end of the lecture.

  Ten minutes later, the fifty odd students were packing up, a few talking the lecture over and one or two sharing notes. Jake finally took the large hint she had given and came over, his sneakers doing little to soften the heavy thud of his footsteps. What a behemoth. Adorable, but a behemoth nonetheless. Dating this guy is going to be hard on my apartment fridge, she thought with a surge of amusement. Maybe my bed as well. But as downsides went, those were minor. He was a million cuts above the obsessed, woman-hating creep who kept trying to force himself into her life, and he deserved a shot.

  So did she, for that matter.

  “Uh, hi!” he rumbled, his low voice reminding her of the Beast's from Beauty and the Beast. She stood up, giving him a little smile to encourage him, and he continued. “I'm Jake. I noticed you, uh, a while back, but you always seemed busy. I just wondered... you want to go get a mocha?”

  “Anna. Hi.” She offered her hand, which he clasped gently — engulfing the entire thing in his broad, warm palm. His skin was smooth against hers, and her heartbeat picked up a little bit as his hand slid away. “You know what? I'd love to go get a mocha. Just one thing, though.”

  “Great! Uh... what's that?”

  She glanced over her shoulder meaningfully at the door, and the increasingly agitated train wreck of a young man sitting there. “That guy is basically my stalker. Walk on that side of me when we go out, okay?”

  Jake looked over at Timothy, his transformation immediately shocked her. Jake’s sweet face, which looked almost boyish despite his great size, suddenly took on an aspect that frightened her a little. His normally soft brown eyes narrowed, and his jaw hardened. She almost fancied she heard a low rumble of anger come from his massive chest. But then he turned back to her, the anger dropping away immediately, and just gave her a big, friendly smile.

  “No problem. Shall we?”

  They walked out together. Timothy's eyes widened as he saw this, and he stood up from his chair, trying to move to the other side of the door to intercept her.

  But Jake was like a wall of muscle between her and her stalker, and she slipped out ahead of him, walking out into the hallway with a sigh of relief. He stepped out behind her, and she heard a rustle and several small unhappy noises as Timothy utterly failed to force himself past Jake.

  “Great, thanks.” She took his arm, enjoying the solid feel of it through his sleeve as they walked down the hall together. A crowd of students spilled out after them, and she heard Timothy's muffled curses fade behind them.

  “So what the Hell was with that guy?” Jake asked, sounding a touch concerned.

  “I used to tutor him. He's actually an undergrad, and I think he's dropped out. But he keeps following me around hitting on me. I’ve told him no many, many times. I've gotten campus security involved... I'm just glad he's never managed to figure out where my apartment is.”

  He blinked at her incredulously.

  “Ew. Holy crap. That guy doesn't need a girlfriend, he needs intensive therapy.” His nose wrinkled. “And a bath. When I walked past him, I thought I was going to choke.”

 
“Oh yeah, personal hygiene is too much trouble for him. I've known he was there a few times by smell alone.”

  “Seriously, does he have some kind of... mental problem or something? Are you safe?” Jake's worried tone charmed her utterly. He was instantly concerned, and automatically wanted to know if she was all right. You are so cute. I may have to take you home with me some night soon.

  “He sure as hell doesn't make me feel safe,” she muttered and narrowed her eyes as they walked out of the building. The gigantic lecture hall building sat just up the hill from Sather Gate, an enormous copper structure marking the south end of the UC Berkeley campus. Winter in California was dry again, barely counting as cool, the clouds thin and high and the wind barely strong enough to push the dead leaves around. They walked across the brick plaza while she thought about what to say. She didn't want to scare Jake off with a lot of drama. “Let's not talk about that anymore. So, Jake... where are you from?”

  His eyes twinkled down at her.

  “Wyoming. I was born in Denver, but my dad moved us after my mom died and bought a bunch of land north of Jackson. He started a hunting lodge up there with a bunch of his friends. Kind of a member's-only thing.”

  His rambling sounded like pure nerves, and she found it charming again.

  “My whole family's West Coast,” she volunteered. “Big old Italian family. I have about fifty bazillion cousins scattered up and down the coast from LA to Seattle. Every summer we're road-tripping north and south to go to this or that person's wedding.”

  “Wow. I uh... well, actually it's just me and my dad and the people at the Lodge on my end. You always have, like, huge Christmases and stuff like that?”

  They reached the sidewalk, and crossed as soon as traffic would let them. Telegraph Avenue was packed, as usual, and he stepped in front of her to break trail on the crowded sidewalk.

  “Oh yeah, especially back when my grandpa was alive. He used to love it. Big tree, whole house done up, that awful Elvis Christmas album played eighty bazillion times in a row... everybody gains about five pounds before they go home. Gift exchange takes half the day. The whole deal.” She peered down the street. “Which cafe do you go to?”

  “There's a place just a block down and around the corner that does really good pastries.” His stomach rumbled, and he looked down awkwardly.

  She giggled. “Well, as long as they have good mochas, I'm in.”

  “Oh yeah. Trust me on this one. My best friend from New York, he got me hooked on the serious espresso drinks. He's one of those guys whose kitchen has a milk steamer and everything. If I don't caffeinate with top-shelf espresso every four hours or so these days, I'm off to dreamland.”

  “We're a bunch of hopeless coffee junkies, clearly.” She nudged against him in a friendly way, and he brushed his palm down the back of her arm, leaving a trail of warmth in the wake of his hand.

  The coffee shop was a long, narrow affair done up in reclaimed wood, with a concrete main floor and a loft. They both ordered mochas; he got cannoli, and she ordered a sesame seed bagel with cream cheese. They found a table at the back of the loft, next to a table full of enthusiastically chattering gamer geeks waving Magic cards at each other. She sat down at a table made from a giant telephone-wire spool and scooted her chair up. Jake's chair creaked under him loudly, as if the wood was suffering. He looked a little sheepish.

  “Only down side to this place. Bitty little chairs.”

  She tried a sip of her mocha — and next thing she knew, half of it was gone. Yum. Now that hits the spot. Jake was chatting about how he would probably work at the Lodge after getting his degree, helping steward the many acres of wilderness around it. “It's steep, steep country. Mostly up and down. Perfect for wildlife, not so great for humans. We love it, and sometimes the guys hunt and everything. But everybody at the Lodge is really seasoned when it comes to stomping around in the woods.”

  “It sounds awesome. I used to love hiking, back when I got a chance to do it more.” She took a bite of her bagel, enjoying the mix of toasted crunch and the smoothness of the cream cheese. “Mmm.” She chewed and swallowed. “Okay, you were right about this place. A+ noms.”

  “Cool. You should try the cannoli.” He pushed his plate and fork at her. “Go on, I don't have cooties.”

  She tried a bite. Real whipped cream, not too waxy on the puff pastry, dipped in melted chocolate instead of simply covered in sprinkles out of a tin. “Mmf. Yeah, not bad at all.”

  “You have cream on your nose.” He pressed his lips together, eyes rolling to the side as he tried not to laugh. He offered a paper napkin.

  “Oh, crap. Yeah, that's me all over. It's either cream on the nose or crumbs on the boobs, every time.” She wiped the end of her nose with a little sigh, chuckling at herself. An unwashed-socks smell drifted to her nostrils and she looked up in alarm. Jake did so at the same time, and she swore she heard that faint rumble come from him again.

  “I caught you!” Timothy snapped as he stomped toward them from the stairs. His face was red and sweaty, his hair and hat askew, and he was puffing hard, as if he had run the whole way. Or as if he were building up to a truly epic tantrum. “You unbelievable whore!” The gamers went dead silent, sensing entertaining drama in the making. A surge of rage coursed through Anna at this latest humiliation. She sprang up, balling her fists at her sides.

  “What the fuck is your problem?”

  “You are supposed… to be… with me!” he huffed. “I can't believe you! You put me off for months and months, and then you're all smiling and spreading your legs for this asshole?”

  Oh, you did not just say this shit to me. “I am not with you, you miserable little dirtbag, because I don't want to be with you. You have been stalking me in all my classes, you keep trying to follow me home, I’ve had to have campus security called on you four times in the last two months and you still don't get the goddamned message, and for the final time, I think you're a repulsive asshole!”

  The gamers roared with laughter; Timothy purpled, dripping with sweat now. “Shut up! Shut up, shut up!” he shrieked as he glared around. The others subsided in shock, with a few mutters about what a crazy asshole he was. But Anna stood her ground, folding her arms. Timothy turned back to her, huffing in rage. “I will not be friend-zoned in favor of this musclebound—”

  “You're not being friend-zoned,” she snapped back, voice hard and angry while she trembled inside. But she was aware of Jake standing up and coming around the table behind her, and his presence gave her strength to continue.

  “Because we were never friends! You are my stalker. You are harassing me. You are not my lover. You will never be my lover. In fact, I am so unattracted to you that if I died tomorrow, and you tried to dig me out of the ground for some necrophilia fun, I would pop out of my goddamned grave like The Crow just to fend you off!”

  He let out a strangled shout of rage and lunged for Anna. She braced herself — but then suddenly she couldn't even see Timothy any more.

  A wall of angry Jake stood between her and her would-be attacker. “You sick little worm.” Jake growled, in such a low, angry voice that Timothy went dead silent. “Get the Hell out of here and do not come back. If I catch you stalking Anna again, they will have to arrest you at the hospital.”

  “I-is that a threat?” Timothy stammered, his voice astonished, as if he had never expected another man to step in on her behalf.

  Jake took a step toward him. “It is a solemn fucking vow, kid. Now how about you, your fedora, and your buildup of dead skin hit the road before I am forced to make good on it?”

  After Timothy had stumbled hurriedly down the stairs, Anna turned to Jake and gave him a relieved smile. “Thank you.”

  “Hey, don't mention it. Dudes like that give us all a bad name. Besides, I've got an ulterior motive.” His eyes twinkled, calming her so easily that she gawked at it.

  The corner of her mouth curved up. “And what is that?”
br />   “If this guy scares you off dudes altogether, I miss my chance to date you!”

  Anna smiled. “I don't think that's going to be a problem.”

  2 - Big Bear on Campus

  That's her. She's the one. It's got to be her. Jake walked down the hill toward campus, hands shoved in his pockets as he stomped along, whistling tunelessly. His heart felt ridiculously light in his chest as he made the trip back from Anna's tiny apartment on the hill above the east end of campus. He was also so horny that he almost walked into a mailbox halfway down the hill from sheer distraction. But that was a subject for a later time. Hopefully not too much longer, but later. Anna's scent still rode in his nostrils, with all its gorgeous complexity: mint soap and citrus essential oil, her shampoo, the mint from her toothpaste, the leather of her shoes. And beneath it all, her own warm, female scent, more intriguing than that of any other woman he had ever known. That's my mate. I've finally found her. I'm almost certain of it. Bear shifters like Jake have their own legends and traditions, and chief among them was the idea that for each of them, a true mate existed: one human being with whom they would bond for the rest of their lives.

  Every Bear in the Lodge where his people gathered believed this, from the Lodge Mother Helga, to Jake's best friend Darrin. Whether through pheromones, fate, divine decree, psychic connection or some other means, a Bear and his or her mate would always find each other eventually, no matter how long the odds.

  In fact, the only one who didn't believe in true matings was Jake's father, Anthony. It was yet another thing they differed on. His mother had died when Jake was very young, and Jake still remembered how much the loss had hurt his father. It was the down side of true mating: what happened when you lost them. His father seemed to want to cope with that loss by denying the existence of the bond that he had experienced for himself. Jake saw that as tremendously disrespectful to his mother. The last time they had spoken, they’d argued for an hour on the subject, and then simply parted ways. Jake had not spoken to his father again for six months, outside of a few very short phone calls. He always tried to be understanding of his father, but when it came to dismissing mom the way Anthony had started to, he couldn't simply forgive and forget.