Shared By The Alpha Bears - Complete Read Online Free PDF Page A

built a perfect little hidey-hole to kick back.
     
    And Max immediately did just that, turning and lying back against the base of the tree, putting his hands behind his head like a tourist on vacation in Maui. “Come on, have a seat,” he smirked.
     
    I gave him an amused grin, rolling my eyes a little and sitting down beside him. Impulsively, I pressed myself against his side, using his arm as a pillow. I stared up into the trees, watching the leaves rustle in the wind, letting little streams of sunlight shimmer through them. I watched birds flutter about and squirrels scurry from one branch to another. “Now this is the way to relax,” I commented. “Way better sight to look up at than any ceiling.”
     
    “Not to mention the company,” Max added. And then came the inevitable arm around my shoulder. Okay, I could deal with that. I sighed, pressing myself harder into his side, and closed my eyes. I let myself be immersed in the sounds of nature around me, as well as the soft beating of his pulse beneath me. I luxuriated in the feel of the soft, moist moss beneath my back, and the feel of Max’s flesh pressed against my own.
     
    Then I heard another sound. A soft whimpering sound. I opened my eyes and looked around, spotting a tiny fur-covered snout poking its way around the corner of a root, leading to a pair of little eyes looking at me. I began thinking the small animal looked familiar, and when it cautiously moved far enough forward for me to notice the slight limp in its hind leg, I was sure of it.
     
    “It’s you!” I beamed, suddenly rising to my knees and crawling toward the little fox, who continued to carefully approaching me.
     
    “You know that fox?” Max asked.
     
    “I found him caught in a hunter’s trap yesterday. I helped him out of it. Guess he remembers me.”
     
    I began reaching out a hand to the critter, which he started raising his nose to sniff at. His nose was a hair’s breadth from my fingers when the fox suddenly tensed up, and turned and bolted the other way. “Hey, don’t go!”
     
    As the animal disappeared into the brush, I turned and saw Max having risen to his feet and approached me and put two and two together. Based on the disappointed look on his face, it seemed he had, too. “That’s the problem with being the top of the food chain,” he sighed. “Everything in the woods seems to know it.”
     
    I stood up and wrapped my arms around his midsection. “I’m not running,” I told him.
     
    He started stroking my back. “Thanks for that.”
     
    I continued holding him for a bit longer than I probably should have, burying my face in pounds upon pounds of man muscle. And then before I realized it, I was planting a kiss on that chest I was smothering myself with. And then I was planting another.
     
    And another.
     
    “Come on,” he finally said, releasing me. “If we stay here too long, Jake will get to my cabin first and wonder why we’re not there.”
     
     
     

CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
     
    For the last stretch of the trip to Max’s cabin we walked hand-in-hand. It was built on a hilltop, less crowded by trees than Jake’s was. It didn’t have the same level of exterior care and cleanliness that Jake’s did, but one thing he did clearly take care of was that big green Hummer in the front. “Wow,” I said, “you drive a beast!”
     
    “I like to think of myself as the beast,” Max smirked. “That’s just my beast carrier.”
     
    I laughed at that. “Well it’s a very nice beast carrier!”
     
    The inside of his place was nice too, but in a different way. Rather than the nature-lover’s lodge that Jake’s place was, Max’s place was more like a bachelor pad that just happened to be in the middle of nature. There was a big flat screen TV and a mini-fridge full of beers next to the sofa. The walls were decorated with banners and posters of Corona, the New England Patriots, and big surprise, Hummer. Oh, and there was a calendar with girls in