Chapter Four
Hannah woke up slowly. She felt groggy, like she was hung over, and her entire body ached. She opened her eyes, then immediately slammed them shut as the light in the room caused sharp shards of pain to erupt within them.
“Ow,” she groaned quietly and reached a hand up to cover her eyes.
The door to the room she was in suddenly burst open, which had her squeaking in surprise. Her eyes opened wide in fear, despite the pain, and she pushed up to slide back on the bed, away from the huge man who had just come barreling into the room. No, check that, thetwolarge men who had just come barreling into the room.
“What is it, baby? What hurts?” The first one through the door asked as he walked toward the bed and dropped to his knees beside it.
“Is it your head? Lucas said the concussion wasn’t too bad, but that you would have a headache for the next few days. He left some medication to help.” The taller of the two frowned at her from where he stood at the foot of the humungous bed she was lying in.
“It’s damn good to see you awake, though,” the first one said as he moved to sit down on the bed level with her knees, and she scrambled sideways to put some distance between them. When she saw that she was out of arms’ reach, but only halfway across the bed, she was distracted for a moment.
“What in the hell is the size of this bed?” she asked as she took in the sheer expanse of the mattress she lay on. “I mean, I once stayed in a hotel in Oregon that had California kings, and I thought that was huge, but this thing makes that one look like a damn cot.”
“Most things in the bedroom are bigger here in Blackwater,” the one sitting near her said with an exaggerated wiggle of his eyebrows. The way his half smile reached his blue eyes and made them twinkle had a memory leaping to the fore within her mind.
“Holy shit!” She scrambled across the bed to climb out on the other side, crying out when she saw that her right wrist was encased in a plaster cast. “You’re the were-bear men that were fighting those poor wolves out on the highway.”
“Guilty as charged,” the first guy said. “We’re bearshifters. Black bears to be specific, and those ‘poor wolves’ were in fact wolf shifters who were trying to kill us, but let’s not get bogged down in semantics. At least not until we’ve introduced ourselves. My name is Bastian Barrett, Beta for the Blackwater Clan. The guy standing at the end of the bed is my brother Ryker, and he’s the Alpha of the clan.”
Ryker nodded in her direction like he was gracing her with his acknowledgment and that got her back up a little. “Alpha, huh? What does that mean then? You’re the head bear in the group and get the first choice of all the eats in the stolen pick-a-nick baskets?”
Ryker’s eyes narrowed slightly, but the one called Bastian filled the room with laughter.
“Man, you gotta love a woman who not only gives you shit but throws in a Yogi Bear reference while doing it. He may get the first choice of all the eats, sweetness, but I’m better looking,” Bastian said with a grin.
Hannah didn’t know about that. He was good looking for sure, hell, he was sex on a stick, but so was Ryker. There was a strong family resemblance between them. They each had strong jaws, sparkling blue eyes, and dark blond hair, but where Ryker’s was cropped short and close in an almost military style, Bastian’s was longer and fell almost to his shoulders. As her mind cleared, the series of events that brought her here came back to her and she remembered them standing and kneeling before her in all their naked glory. In very clear, vivid detail.
She knew that both were inked, sporting what looked like four claw marks tattooed on the left side of their chests. Ryker had words written in cursive script down his ribs on his right side, but she had no clue what they said, just knew they were there. She was a woman that loved tattoos on a man, so she remembered them most vividly. And they could both be proud of what they had in the man part department.Boy howdy, could they.Glancing back up, she saw that both men were grinning at her like they could read her mind, and she cursed the sweep of heat that rose into her cheeks.
Dropping her eyes, her gaze was immediately captured. “Whose t-shirt am I wearing?”
It was a tour t-shirt for the band Disturbed, and it was huge on her, falling to her knees.
“Mine,” Ryker answered. “You couldn’t sleep in your jeans, and they had to cut that black long-sleeved t-shirt of yours to get that cast on your arm. Besides, it does my heart good to see you wearing something of mine. They're a band that—”
“I know who they are,” Hannah interrupted with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I have all their albums and was probably one of the first to pre-orderImmortalizedwhen it was first released.” Hannah ignored the fact that both men’s eyes widened and their jaws practically slammed to the floor. “What I would rather know is who put meinthis t-shirt?”
Ryker’s mouth morphed into a wicked grin. “We did.”
“But we did it in a respectful way, and hardly looked at all,” Bastian rushed to say, his hands out in front of him. He obviously had more of a survival instinct than his older brother.
Hannah’s eyes narrowed. “Hardly? Y’all hardly looked?”
“To be fair, love,” Bastian said with a shrug, “you are the hottest thing on the planet as far as we’re concerned, and wearered-blooded males. It was hard not to look just a little. But we had our Aunt Lauren in the room with us the whole time, and she didn’t allow us to see any of the good parts.”
Hannah shook her head at the innocent puppy dog look he gave her. She had to fight a giggle at them staring at her with completely different expressions. Ryker was still grinning wickedly, and Bastian’s face was the picture of contrition, complete with puppy dog eyes.
“Are you going to tell us your name, beautiful?” Ryker asked, tilting his head to look at her, his gaze intent.
“Hannah. Hannah Browne.” Hannah didn’t know why she had answered so honestly and immediately but figured they might have gone through her handbag and found out her identity anyway. From the way they both seemed surprised, she knew they hadn’t.
“The new owner of the garage in town? It’s nice to know that you’re going to be living here, Hannah.” The way Ryker said her name had her swallowing hard. “Let me be the first to welcome you here to Blackwater Falls.” He stepped toward her slowly, obviously not wanting to scare her, but it didn’t stop her from watching his approach warily.
“Thanks, and that’s close enough,” Hannah said firmly. “I’m not too sure how I feel about living in a town where people explode into bears. Where in the hell am I? If I was in an accident, why am I not in a hospital?”
“You’re at our place,” Bastian answered as he stepped up beside his brother. Hannah hadn’t even heard him get up from the bed. “We don’t have a hospital. Our Uncle Lucas is the doctor here in town and he operates a clinic, but he couldn’t be with you all night. With your concussion, you needed someone to look after you. It was our pleasure to volunteer.”
