Billionaire Bear Shifters A Paranormal Romance Complete Series Boxset - Brittany White Page 0,125

in. She murmured to herself when she looked at her phone. “Just checking the time. I hate to leave Molly too long. But I can eat.”

Ostensibly, they had planned to meet in order to talk. So far, the only talk had been dirty.

“Good, I hope it didn’t get too cold.” The dinner was still sitting out on Cody’s dining room table.

Jessie and Cody went about cleaning themselves up and minutes later they finally sat down to eat. Or rather, Cody sat down to watch Jessie eat. He took pleasure in watching her enjoy her food, especially when he had cooked it.

“Will you please eat?” Jessie said, raising an eyebrow. “You’re freaking me out.”

He’d cooked up a pretty basic hearty meal, compared to the sometimes complicated stuff he made for the guests in the lodge’s dining hall. There was prime rib and shrimp scampi with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus. Cody dug into his food, smiling around his fork and feeling a little lovesick.

All day, he’d thought about Jessie and her problem. Or rather, her six little problems. It wasn’t the children’s fault in the least and he knew it. If anything, he felt only empathy for the mistreated bear cubs. They had been lucky to run into somebody like Jessie who had such a big heart, she’d been willing to upend her entire life to rescue them from the circumstances they couldn’t escape themselves. From what Jessie had told him, the kids had been raised by a sleuth as sort of a group. None of them knew which bears were their parents in particular and the sleuth had not been overly interested in raising them except to add numbers to their collective.

Molly had told Jessie about the harsh punishments and treatment as a method of teaching them to be tough bears who would be strong and merciless, traits the sleuth valued. Cody had heard about that kind of behavior from sleuths before. His own parents had been a bit cold, his sleuth more interested in appearances and social hierarchies that came from assimilating into an upper class human world. But he had never been mistreated. He hated the idea that bears anywhere raised their cubs like that.

But the problem was, this set-up for the kids just wasn’t good enough and it couldn’t last forever. He knew Jessie knew that. But it seemed like she was putting off the inevitable. He ate his prime rib and his asparagus and thought about it.

The cubs needed schooling, whether it was at an actual school or at home. Jessie couldn’t do it all herself, and she’d mentioned to Cody already how guilty she felt that so much fell too poor Molly’s shoulders. Cody was perfectly willing to throw money at them. There were innocent children who needed help. He was happy to fund them so that Jessie could stay home with them during the day instead of working so hard.

But that wasn’t a real solution either. The kids couldn’t stay cooped up forever. It was a sensitive subject to broach and it needed to be said.

“I was thinking about something,” Cody said. He sat up straight and took a sip of his wine. He wasn’t sure how she would take any of this. “About the cubs and everything.”

“Yes?” Jessie sat up straight in her chair. She already looked a bit nervous.

“You need help,” Cody said slowly. “Real help. And the kids, they can’t stay in that cabin forever, right?”

“I... I know.” She frowned, staring down at her plate of half-eaten food. “But I’m worried about their sleuth finding them somehow. Sometimes I think I should’ve taken them farther away, maybe out of state. A good tracker could eventually find them here. And then what?”

Cody only opened and closed his mouth. He didn’t know what would happen then, but it wouldn’t be good.

“But I’m glad you brought them here.” Cody reached over and covered her hand with his. “I’m glad I found out about them. Because I want to help. I want... ” He coughed, a little bashful at the strength of feeling he had for Jessie.

Her boldness and her innate kindness had made him sure of one thing. He wanted her as his mate. He wasn’t sure if she was his mate yet. Nathan and Eric had told him of an overpowering feeling of sureness when they’d realized they’d met their mates. But Cody had always been pretty good at second-guessing himself.

“You want what?” Jessie smiled softly.

“I just want to help,” he said again.