Bearly Accidental (Accidentally Paranormal Book 12) by Dakota Cassidy Read Free Book Online Page B

you…”
    “He’s a friend of a friend.”
    Nina’s chair scraped abruptly against the floor. “Look, Teddy, here’s the score. We don’t know you and you don’t know us. It’s none of your damn business how we know the big dude or why we’re here. So let’s quit pussyfootin’ around until we figure this out and someone tells us we have to be one big happy paranormal family, okay?”
    Marty groaned, dropping her head into her hands. “Nina. Don’t be so rude.”
    “Aw, fuck you and your rude. I’m still just as sick and tired of pretense as I ever was. Even more tired of the cat-and-mouse bullshit we play every time we run into someone with secrets. And you got secrets, Theodora . I damn well know you do. I’m just not that interested in ’em. So if you don’t want to tell us your secrets, we’re not gonna ask about ’em. But that means you can’t ask about ours either. Cormac’s with us and he’s not goin’ anywhere without us from now until we say other-fucking-wise. So deal with your own shit and we’ll deal with ours. Capisce ?”
    That had gone south fast. And she sure as shit did have secrets. Still, the hell she was laying all her cards on the table before she knew if these women were bad guys, too.
    “So the pajama party is off?” she joked, knowing full well it would get under Nina’s skin.
    “Yep. And so is braiding your hair and doing your fucking nails. Got it?”
    Rising from her chair, Teddy held her head high and reached for her vest. “Loud and clear. Now, if you ladies don’t mind, I have to make a phone call. I have family waiting to hear from me and I can’t seem to get a signal inside the cabin. Is that all right, or do you want to babysit me outside, too?”
    “Fuck that. It’s a million below out there in the tundra,” Nina groused, rubbing her long arms with her hands.
    She looked to Marty, who’d also risen, for permission to leave the premises.
    Marty gave her a short nod and a no-nonsense gaze. “Stay within sight and keep in mind, I’m a werewolf. We’re slicker n’ snot. I imagine we’re much faster than a bear. I can and will outrun you, Teddy. Also note: I have big, ugly, drooly teeth. I’ll use them. Don’t go far.”
    Without a word, Teddy made her way out of the kitchen and toward the purple door, swinging it open while trying to keep her cool.
    Once outside, she stomped through the snow toward the clothesline, right in Marty’s line of vision, where she could watch Teddy from the window by the door, but she hoped far enough away to go unheard. Digging her cell phone from the back pocket of her jeans, she held it up, hoping to get a signal.
    If she’d lied about most everything else, she hadn’t lied about not being able to get a single bar on her phone.
    With shaking fingers, she scrolled her screen and almost cheered when she saw the bars light up. Hitting autodial, she called Vadim, praying he wasn’t off somewhere on the ranch.
    Just as the line began to ring, she caught movement from the left side of the cabin. A rustle of fallen leaves, the very slight crunch of snow.
    Instantly, Teddy crouched, tucking her body so she managed to stay out of sight. The scent of cigarette smoke whispered under her nose. Smoke and sweat.
    How strange. No one in the cabin smelled of smoke…
    She decided to investigate. Turning her phone to silent, she slipped it back in her pocket and dove for a path Cormac must have dug from the side of the cabin to the front pathway. He’d piled the sides high enough with snow that she’d be able to observe without being seen. Rolling to her side, she scrambled to her haunches, shook off the snow and crouched down to assess.
    Her heart began to throb in her chest for no apparent reason. Something wasn’t right. She felt it. Smelled it. Knew it deep in her gut.
    Poking her head over the snowbank, Teddy narrowed her gaze, sniffing the air to recapture the scent of the cigarette and focusing in on the location it came