Bear Apparent (BBW Shifter Romance) (Stone Claw Clan Book 1) by Jade Woods Read Free Book Online Page A

his eyes half-mast, and she supposed it took a little while to come out of a hibernation session. “I’m just going to take these off of you.”
    He didn’t say anything as she pushed away the blanket and peeled off the bandages. She discarded them in the wastebasket then turned to inspect his wounds, only to gape. The bear claws across his skin were obvious, but they had scabbed over as if they were several weeks old. She blinked up at him.
    Garrett glanced down his body, and muttered, “Oh. We are pretty good at healing.”
    “Well,” she said, setting the bottle of disinfectant down. “I guess that is a handy skill to have. Do you have an accelerated metabolism, too? Do you live long live vampires? Wait are vampires real”
    He yawned again and nodded. “Yeah, and I’m starving. I’ve never met any vampires, but we are capable of living several hundred years.”
    “All right, while you were passed out I went shopping. My fridge is now overflowing with expensive cuts of salmon, trout and other delicacies, and there is enough honey in the cabinets to support several large bee colonies.
    He looked at her as if she was speaking in a foreign tongue. “I’m not Pooh Bear.”
    Dahlia sputtered a laugh. “Is that your way of saying I’ve gone overboard?”
    The man smiled goofily up at her, and Dahlia’s stomach fluttered. “You feed my bears like that and they will never leave.”
    “I guess I’m in trouble then,” she teased, surprised by how comfortable she felt in his presence despite knowing he was a dangerous animal. “Why don’t you go take a shower, and I’ll make you something to eat?”
    She retreated to the kitchen and took a deep breath—this whole thing seemed too bizarre to be real. She heard him get up, and a moment later, the water turned on. She couldn’t fathom how she was going to deal with several buff, gorgeous men in her house for the next whatever—she could barely tolerate Garrett without her pussy clenching in arousal.
    Behave, she told herself. No sense getting excited about a man that wasn’t interested in her.
    As she tried not to imagine frothy suds sliding over all that tanned skin, Dahlia selected a whole salmon and set it on the counter. She had pretty much drained her bank account on fish, but she hoped to ply him for more details about his world. That and he needed his strength if he were going to kill that other… thing. That thought gave her pause. She realized she wanted him to take back his home and declare victory over that monster. She figured that dark desire was a remnant of her childhood experience.
    As she set about the task of preparing and grilling the fish, she debated cooking up some rice—did bears eat grains? She had no clue, so she settled for concentrating on the salmon. It was half done by the time the water cut off. She kept her focus on cooking, not wanting to get another look at all that manly perfection—she had a suspicion he would just waltz out the bathroom naked.
    When she was certain the fish was cooked through and through, she turned the burner off, and squeezed some fresh lemon over it. As she loaded a plate with fillets, she frowned at the sudden silence. Biting her lip, she tentatively peeked around the corner to find Garrett standing in front of the couch in the jeans she had loaned him, the lapels open. His eyes were shut tightly and he was as still as a mountain. Little beads of water trailed down his body, and her eyes dropped to the dark treasure trail that dipped into the parted crotch of his pants.
    Absolutely not! Dahlia returned to the kitchen and took a deep breath. But damn, that man was gorgeous.
    She waited, her heart drumming in her ears. She expected him to enter the kitchen in search of food, but when he didn’t appear she glanced into the living room to find that he was still standing in the center. Could bears hibernate on their feet?
    Sighing with frustration, she marched right up to him, but he seemed oblivious to