August: Mating Fever (Bears of Kodiak Book 2) by Selene Charles Read Free Book Online Page A

completely. Her laughter was easy and musical and drew the eyes of all those around them. They leaned into her like metal shavings to a magnet.
    But he’d caught the tremble in her jaw and the way she refused to look him directly in the eyes. Just being friends was going to be hell, but he could do it. For her, he could try.
    “I like green,” she said softly, and he nodded.
    They spent the next three hours talking about everything and nothing. It was easy. It was perfect. And by the time she finally said her goodbyes and left the bar with a small wave and smile, he knew what they’d done had been a huge mistake.
    He was in more danger than ever of falling one hundred percent, head over heels in love with her. “Fuck my life,” he groaned.

Chapter 6
    August
    S tomach swirling with razor-tipped butterfly wings, August could barely check his excitement as he locked the door behind the last barfly of the night.
    It was his favorite time of the day. Well past the witching hour, nothing else existed in the world except for the soft strains of dimmed juke box music playing in the background and a round of a hundred questions he and Jack played as they each nursed a bottle of beer.
    It had been three months since the first night they did it. At this point, he felt as though he practically knew her inside, outside, forward, and backward.
    A few last things remained that he desperately wanted to know. Their time was gone. Tonight would be their final night together like this. After that, August would be going into hibernation to prepare his body for the ritual to come.
    Tonight was special.
    Subconsciously, they’d both decided to bring each other farewell gifts. He had packed up a small box with some of her favorite things and stored it under the desk in his office. He thought he’d been slick until she had walked in for her shift later in the evening, holding a big-ass box and telling him she’d done the exact same thing.
    He was going to miss her like hell. Just the thought of being forced to forget about her made his chest ache in unbearable ways. He’d been a bear to his brothers the past few nights but didn’t know how to stop.
    August was pretty that his brothers were both relieved he would be slipping into a deep coma for the next three weeks.
    Turning, he was going to go grab her from the backroom when suddenly, the empty bar filled with the strains of siren song and guitar strings.
    Jackson, dressed in her customary work clothes, sat on a stool by herself on stage. Haloed by the blue lights above her and holding onto a guitar, her eyes were closed as she sang a song only to him.
    His skin prickled at the sound of her otherworldly singing. She spoke in the hidden language of her kind. Her magick flowed through her, filling the room with its power.
    She didn’t compel him though. Her magick was benign. All she was doing was holding him spellbound as she poured her soul out to him through song.
    Compelled or not, he would not have been able to move even if the bar was on fire. Jack looked like an angel with the way the lights radiated across her ethereally glowing skin. He didn’t so much as move a muscle until the last note faded away.
    “That was beautiful,” he whispered with a voice that had grown rough and gravelly.
    Full lips turned into a beatific smile that stole the breath from his lungs. “I wrote that for you last night.”
    He was a damned liar for ever thinking they could just be friends. It didn’t seem possible that even a mating ritual could carve this woman out of his heart. Jackson was everything to him.
    Holding out his hand to her, he waited for her to walk off stage and slip her tiny palm into his. The feel of her skin on his was magick, the purest kind of magick. It made him whole, made him terrified.
    For the past month, a crazy thought had begun to consume him. What if it was possible? What if he just decided not to go through the ritual?
    “I want to get your gift,” she said softly.