Page 4 of Goldie and Her Bears (Dirty Paranormal Fairytale Haremlan 3)

That means this man was real and my situation had been upgraded from serious to dire.

“I’m sorry,” I stammered, trying to make things right. “It was a mistake. I didn’t mean to intrude. But I was caught in the storm, and I—”

“So, you thought you would just help yourself to someone else’s home and sleep in their bed?” he said, gesturing to the mattress beneath me.

“I didn’t mean to intrude. I was freezing and was going to die,” I said, voice shaking.

He gripped my arm and yanked me from the bed as though I weighed nothing. The grip in his hands around my arm hurt.

“Ow!” I said. “I can walk. You’re hurting me.”

“This is nothing compared to what’s coming to you. You’re going to wish you had died by the time I’m done with you,” he said as he dragged me out of the bedroom and down the hall toward the living room. He threw me to the floor. I landed with a thud bit against the pain shooting through my still sore hands and knees. “Don’t move.”

As if I could. I was so terrified I couldn’t move. I simply continued to sit on the floor on my hands and knees…. waiting for what was to come. Whatever that was going to be. It would certainly be excruciatingly unpleasant.

Tears flowed down my cheeks as I wondered if he was going to kill me. This whole trip was a mistake. I should have known better. What the hell was I thinking? I should have stayed in my car and waited out the storm instead of coming here. That was what smart people did. But in my excitement, my common sense flew out the window.

As I considered all the wrong moves I had made in my attempt to find my family’s cabin, the man’s steps reverberated through the floorboards, coming straight for me. Sounds from the kitchen echoed toward me. Soft steps shuffled from out of sight, drawing closer.

“Who’s she?” another man asked. His voice was softer and full of surprise. “Where did she come from?”

I didn’t look at him. I was too terrified to move. I was worried anything I did could set the angry guy off more than he already was.

“A trespasser,” the man from before snapped as he stormed through the cabin. “Doesn’t matter where she came from.”

“What do you think you’re doing?” The cook asked the angry man.

I looked up in time to see the man in front of me starting to shake. My eyes widened and my mouth hung open as I froze in terror. He groaned as his hands clenched into fists. Maybe I was still dreaming because there was no way in hell he was transforming. For all that my vision granted me, he appeared to grow larger. His skin darkened. At least, I thought it was his skin.

I couldn’t be sure. Just as I tried hard to look away, I continued to stare at him, unable to focus on anything but the man in front of me changing into something terrifying.

Someone else entered the room from the front door. It was so close. It was in my sights. But I wouldn’t dare make a move toward it. Not with the monster about to rip me apart piece by piece. The form that had entered the room moved. My eyes switched to him. He took one look at me, and as my eyes connected with his blues, familiarity struck me.

Jasper.

He was the fourth man who brought my sister home however long ago it was. He took off in a hurry. I still didn’t understand why. I had waited for him to come back and see me, but he never did. I figured it was the last I would see of him.

Familiarity struck him too. Because he sucked in a breath and switched his gaze between me and the one about to tear my head off.

“Kai, stop!” Jasper said to the man changing right before my eyes.

When the man—rather, monster—refused to listen, Jasper stood between the two of us.

“Back off. Now. I know her,” he said.

I sucked in a breath as I stared at the floor. My head filled with a sense of weightlessness. My vision blurred. Breathing was difficult. My heartbeats pounded in my ears. I was seconds from passing out.

“How?” Kai, I presumed, asked. He didn’t sound like he believed Jasper. Too bad for him. Though Jasper really didn’t know much about me to say that he knew me. We had only met, and though I thought we had a connection, I wasn’t sure he felt the same.

“She’s the one I told you about earlier. The one I met in Seattle,” Jasper said.

“The one that you supposedly ran out on?” Kai asked. “How did she get here? Did she follow you?”

“No. That would be impossible,” Jasper said. “Back off, take a few breaths. There has to be a reason for her showing up here, and I doubt it was to trespass on us.”

Kai snorted. “She damn well better have a good excuse. Or it’s not going to matter what you say or do.”

Hands brushed along my back. I recoiled into myself, whimpering, and still fearing for my life.

---