Read Melted By The Bear: A Paranormal Shifter Romance for Free Online

lean muscle in black boots, battered jeans, and a black t-shirt, didn’t respond, just kept moving forward, gaze straight ahead. It was as if I hadn’t even spoken.
    After a few moments, I tried again. “Jane, especially, didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, she was watching me so closely that-”
    “None of the hospital staff members will be blamed for your escape. I know how wily frozen women can be when the panic hits.”
    Satisfied with this response, I didn’t say anything in return, just kept walking. But a short while later, something started bugging me. The word wily . I just didn’t like how he’d used it, and I wasn’t even quite sure why. Maybe because the word implied craftiness and deceitfulness. Knowing it would probably be better if I didn’t, I felt I had to say something. Just had to.
    “Do you really consider a woman running out of fear for her own safety to be ‘wily?’ Do you really think that was the very best word choice?”
    Now he finally looked at me, still stern-faced. “Maybe I should formally introduce myself. I’m Commander Blackthorn, commander-in-chief of Michiana, and I’m not normally questioned about my word choices.”
    “I thought that was a bit incorrect of you, too, and maybe even borderline rude... to not even introduce yourself when you first spoke to me.”
    What I’d said had just come out. I hadn’t even given it a moment of thought. If I had, I probably wouldn’t have said it, not wanting to further anger him. But I’d been rankled by what he’d said, and despite slight regret about my response, I still was.
    His widened eyes told me that he definitely wasn’t used to being spoken to so boldly. But, to my own surprise, he just turned his gaze to the front again without saying a word.
    Having to work to keep up with his long-legged strides while minding that I didn’t trip over anything on the forest floor, I walked alongside him in silence, thinking. Being that I’d been kept in deep-freeze to provide children for him at some point in time, even if he was now supposed to “resist” me, as his brother had said, it seemed funny to me that he hadn’t told me I could call him by his first name. Obviously, Commander Blackthorn was very formal. Even if he didn’t want me to bear a baby for him right away, for whatever reason, it just seemed strange to have me call him by his official title. It honestly seemed a little rude again. And after a short while, I again just had to say something. Couldn’t not .
    “So, am I to call you Commander Blackthorn, or may I call you by your first name?”
    He didn’t answer or even look at me, just kept his stony gaze straight ahead. After several seconds, I was about to repeat the question when he finally spoke.
    “You can call me Cormack, I suppose.”
    Now he’d re-rankled me. Thoroughly.
    “Oh, you ‘suppose?’ How very generous of you. Well, in that case, my name is Aria English, but you may call me just Aria. I suppose .”
    Other than a quiet snort, he didn’t respond.
    “So, what’s your brother’s name? I might try to find him later and beg him to let me join his people. Maybe they’re more polite and will invite me to call them all by their first names, no supposing about it.”
    Another quiet snort from Cormack.
    “You would not want to join my brother’s people. Their women are treated very poorly. And as to your question, my brother’s name is AntiCormack.”“Like....”
    “Like my name with the word anti in front of it, yes. No hyphen, no space, just one name, with a capital A and first C .”
    “Well, surely your parents didn’t-”
    “No. They didn’t. AntiCormack’s name used to be Jamison, but ten years ago, he started insisting that people call him AntiCormack. So, that’s what all his people call him now, and that’s what I even call him now.”
    “But... why? I mean... why did he change his name, and why did he change it to AntiCormack, and why do you call him that, even though