Hair of Gold: Just Right (Urban Fairytales Book 6) Read Online Free PDF Page B

unspoken agreement.
    When it was time for bed, I stared at the three beds. Where was I to sleep? Little Bear saw me looking and said, “Use my bed. The floor is fine for a bear.” And he went behind the changing screen and came lumbering out a few seconds later in his Kodiak form. I wrapped my arms around his neck the best I could and said, “Thank you Little Bear, I don't want to be a burden on you.”
    He snuffled and grinned, then laid down beside the farthest bed. I got into it and pulled the covers around me and drifted off as fast as my head could sink into the feather stuffed pillow. I was beyond exhausted.
    I woke up, extremely warm, I cuddled into the thick blankets. My eyes fluttered open when I realized the blanket was breathing. I found myself sleeping on Little Bear. I must have rolled off the bed in my sleep.
    I wiped the sleep from my eyes and looked into the bear's eyes. Andrei called out from where he sat at the table, arm wrestling Vladimir, “He hasn't moved since you fell on him last night, he is scared of breaking you.” He turned back to his other brother and with a decisive thud, slammed his arm to the table.
    I looked back at Pavel and whispered, “I'm sorry Little Bear.” I slid off of him and back onto the bed where I sat and stretched. He stood on all fours and ruffled his fur and shook. Then he shot me a bear grin and lumbered back behind the screen. A moment later he was saying, “It is alright, little kitten.”
    The men took turns getting ready for a hard day's work in the forest as I made a light breakfast with the last of their goose eggs and some smoked meat. I scowled at Vladimir and Andrei. “You are going out without shaving? Don't you have pride in yourselves?”
    Andrei said, “But we are just going to the forest to chop wood and...” He trailed off when I crossed my arms expectantly like mother had done so many times with me when I was misbehaving. Honestly, how had these men survived before I came along?
    He lowered his head in resignation and the two men took a straight razor and trudged off toward the well, Vladimir complaining, “We should have let the wolves eat her.”
    I grinned in triumph at a thoroughly entertained looking Pavel, who said, “I fear we saved the wolves from you, not the other way around.” I gave him a toothy grin.
    Then I cocked my head at him as I watched his brothers through the newly cleaned windows. “Just how is it that you brothers can change into bears anyway?”
    I asked more to keep my mind off of mother and father than curiosity. I didn't need to be breaking down in grief just then. I'd wait until I was alone. Well, da, I was curious too.
    He glanced out at his brothers as he furrowed his brow and thought a moment like he was deciding something. Then he nodded once and said, “Ok little Kat. I will tell you a story that you can choose to believe or not.”
    I giggled at the man. “I have seen you turn into a bear, I'm pretty sure I will believe just about anything you tell me.” He smiled crookedly as he nodded and he began to tell me about how he and his brothers came to be.

Chapter 4 – Perchta's Feather
    Pavel picked me up by my britches like I weighed nothing, and sat me on the edge of the table and he sat in a chair in front of me.
    He clasped his hands together as he rested his elbows on his knees. “Let me tell you of a woodsman and his bride, on the western forests of Moscow. Our mother, Niska had become pregnant a year after she wed our father, Iosif. She had been weak before, and the pregnancy had made her even weaker and sickly. The midwives had told Iosif that they feared for her life and the lives of the children in her womb.”
    He shifted in his seat. “Father went to seek out the best healers of the land, but all said the same. It was likely that the birth would kill us all including his fair bride. Time after time they all said the same. So father went in search of the magic users said to inhabit the lands of