Read Daxton (BBW Bear Shifter Moonshiner Romance) (120 Proof Honey) for Free Online Page B

debts to pay back. She’d been getting pretty good at it too, until she’d put her foot in her mouth at the Shine Awards. She tried her hardest to push the embarrassment back again, burying her face in the steamy mug of chocolate heaven. When the warm, gooey liquid had calmed her nerves, her voice became smooth and bright again.

    “Thank you so much for your kindness,” she told Anina. “I’m supposed to be renting a cabin on the West Ridge. I didn’t realize it’d be so far to get to on foot.”

    “Are you the last minute booking? Miss Davenport?” Anina asked.

    Elise gave a nod. Anina pulled herself to her feet, shuffling gently over to a large door made of pale wood. The room they were in was decked in the same timber, and filled with comfortable easy chairs and coffee tables. It was a place designed for guests. It even had a flickering fireplace, despite the total lack of a need for extra heat. Anina had called out into the hall from the doorway, and Elise quickly realized that she hadn’t spoken in English.

    “Are you European?” she asked as Anina came back to her chair. “I thought I heard something in your accent before.”

    “The Bests are a German family originally,” Anina explained with a nod. “Ah, and here they are.”

    As her words faded, four huge guys entered the room. At once Elise thought of how awful she must have looked after fleeing through the woods, and she tried to calm her wayward hair with a nonchalant hand. Two of the young men looked fairly similar, both with shaggy blonde hair that was in need of a cut, and they were flanked by a darker, more lithe guy and a brown-haired man with a look of contempt on his face. None of them were past twenty-five, and they all had muscles bulging beneath their Park Ranger uniforms.

    “My grandsons,” Anina said, beaming. “Benedikt, Kurt, Hartwin and Reinicke.”

    They were standing in that order, and each one nodded at their name. Except for the last one.

    “Ry-ni-ka,” Elise said, sounding it out, “that’s an interesting name.”

    “I’m an interesting guy,” Reinicke replied, in a tone flatter than roadkill. “Gram, can I go? You don’t need all of us to handle a bear scare.”

    Anina gave a rueful little nod, and the one called Reinicke made his escape. On his way out of the room there was the sound of a clash, and suddenly a fifth man pushed his way through the middle of the group. He was bare-chested, a towel clinging to his huge shoulders. Elise let her eyes travel over the rippling muscles of his abdomen as he heaved for breath.

    “You called, Gram?” he asked, in a deep, smooth voice. “What’s happening?”

    His eyes travelled to Elise, and it was not the fact that he was tall, dark and handsome which took her breath away. When he looked straight at her, his eyes were golden. Elise knew that she had seen those deep, burning eyes before. Silenced by her shock, Elise’s gaze travelled to Anina’s other grandsons, and now they were all looking straight at her too. All of them had those golden eyes. And perhaps, behind her glasses and the pale cloudiness of old age, Anina had them too.

    “Why are you all wet, Dietrich?” Anina chided. “You should be in uniform for morning patrol.”

    Dietrich looked down at his bare chest, one hand raised somewhat protectively over his damp skin.

    “Night swimming,” he explained, “but something came up.”

    Elise caught sight of something dark as Dietrich moved his arm. She must have mistaken it for a shadow initially, but the light of the fireside suddenly revealed its true nature. Dietrich had a huge, fresh bruise emerging down his right side. Benedikt, who appeared to resemble Dietrich closely, gave a wince and sucked his teeth.

    “How in the hell did you do that, bro?” he asked.

    Dietrich’s eyes flashed to Elise for the briefest moment. Another flash of gold.

    “That’s not important right now,” he replied. “Gram, who’s this young