Stolen by her Bear (Black Ridge Bears #1) - Felicity Heaton Page 0,1

his pride were safe. Only the twins, Knox and Lowe, were overwintering with him at Black Ridge, their territory deep in a valley in British Columbia, Canada, but that didn’t change his duty as their alpha. He had to make sure it wasn’t hunters or humans out there in the valley.

Although, he had the feeling he knew who was making that ruckus.

He growled low, forced himself to leave the fire and grabbed his thick black and green checked fleece from the back of the couch. He tugged the padded shirt on, buttoned it as he moved to the door to the right of his small kitchen. Another growl rolled from him as he shifted the blackout blind on the door aside and flinched, the brightness of the sun bouncing off the thick layer of snow outside almost blinding him.

He was going to need more than a fleece and jeans to check out what was happening.

He huffed as he pivoted on his heel, as he crossed the room to the far end and the tall cupboards that filled the space on the right of it, beneath one corner of his loft bedroom. He yanked the wooden doors open and grabbed a heavy winter jacket and thick waterproof trousers, kicked off his slippers and pulled the clothing on. He bent and rifled around in the bottom of the cupboard, snarled when he didn’t find what he was looking for.

Saint slammed the doors, his mood degenerating rapidly as the thought of all the snow that waited outside, blanketing his territory, only strengthened his desire to sleep, until it fogged his mind and had his limbs feeling heavy again.

He tried to shake off his bear instincts as he opened the next cupboard and found what he was looking for in the bottom of it. He grabbed his heavy fleece-lined winter boots and pulled the socks he had bundled into balls out of them as he stomped to the couch. A couch that felt too inviting as he sank onto it to tug the thermal socks onto his feet, made him want to roll onto his side and just sleep.

The noise came again.

Fuck sleep.

He was going to kill whoever was out there disturbing his peace.

He yanked the socks on, followed them with the boots, and shoved to his feet, stormed to the door and pulled it open. A foot of snow cascaded into his home, covering his boots, and he looked down at it.

Roared as he kicked at it, frustration getting the better of him. “Get the fuck out of my home.”

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.” The deep male voice that drawled that at him came from his right, and had his focus shifting there.

His eyes watered as the bright snow assaulted them and he blinked to clear his vision as he stepped out onto the deck of his cabin and tugged the door closed behind him. He looked to his right, but the overhanging pitched roof that provided some protection for the front of his cabin obscured his view, forcing him to move to the wooden railing that enclosed the deck.

Saint leaned against the capping rail and looked across the deep blanket of snow to the twin cabins that were closer to the trees on that side of the clearing that formed the heart of Black Ridge. Beyond those cabins, the forest rose up the side of the towering mountains that sheltered his territory, the dark evergreen canopy capped with white as far as the eye could see.

He grunted at all the snow.

Knox stood by the door of the cabin on the left of the two, looking just as grumpy as Saint felt, wrapped in a thick checked robe and sneering at the snow.

The sandy-haired bear wasn’t the only one awake either.

Saint glanced at the cabin to the right of Knox’s, at the more ash-blond male who was shovelling snow off his deck, and who, unlike his twin, was already wearing sensible winter protective gear.

Had Saint woken the brothers from their winter sleep, or had it been that damned noise?

He cocked his head as he listened for it, starting to think maybe he had imagined it.

But then another round of raucous laughter and cheering echoed through the trees.

Trees that stretched from the foothills of the mountains on his right to the river hidden somewhere beneath the snow to Saint’s left, separating Black Ridge from Cougar Creek.

Saint growled again as he twisted to face that way, his fangs dropping this