Free Red's Bear (Erotic Shifter Fairy Tales) by Yvette Hines

his
grandfather’s light tone.
    “Thanks. Well, gotta go.”
    “I understand, you have work to do and all.”
    Soon they ended the connection with sincere vows of love
and respect. Not wanting to waste any more time on his day, Cord moved
downstairs to the first floor where his living room, kitchen and two guest
rooms were located. After a quick breakfast of honeyed sausages between whole
grain bread and a cup of coffee, he stepped into his work boots at the door
leading into his garage.
    Ten minutes later, he was on his way to his shop in
town for the additional supplies he would need for Genma’s yard. He could take
one of his assistants, but this was something he needed to do alone. He would
stretch out the job for the week and keep him away from town.
    Burying his hands deep in dirt and soil was just what
he needed to shove all the anger, worry and issues plaguing him to the back of
his mind.
    ~YH~
    Her growling stomach woke her the next morning. She’d
slept more peacefully than she ever did at home in her own bed. Before coming
here, she would have thought that sleeping without all the city sounds would
have been difficult for her, but the soft bird calls outside the window were
soothing. Reaching over to the nightstand, she grabbed her cell phone beside
the book she had been reading the night before. Her phone was something she
used more for time than anything else. There was absolutely no cell connection
in Den County, she had checked. Seeing that it was almost ten in the morning,
she didn’t even try to fool herself to thinking her grandmother was still
around.
    If she hadn’t come to Den to rest and recuperate, she
would have been appalled she’d slept so late. She’d always been an early riser,
up with the sun. Slipping from her cocoon, she stood beside the bed. She waited
for the wave of nausea that always greeted her in the mornings when she rose.
Feeling nothing, she let out a sigh and went into the bathroom.
    After a quick shower, she pulled on her robe and went
to find sustenance. She had a craving for her grandmother’s muffins. As soon as
she entered the kitchen, she grabbed one from the tin and devoured it while she
stood in front of the open refrigerator deciding what else to cook.
    Licking the sticky sweetness from her fingers, she
decided on cream of wheat and eggs. Not as devout a vegan as her mother, Rena
enjoyed an egg and other dairy products every now and then. Instead of grabbing
the stick of butter to fry her eggs in, she opted for the sweet butter her
grandmother said was from the diner in town.
    She was thankful that she was feeling better, because
consuming so many sweets was going to swell her hips, more than they already
were, and she would need to exercise.
    Once her breakfast was made, she set the plate on the
bar. The only thing missing was a sweetener for her cream of wheat. She went to
the pantry for the agave nectar her grandmother had picked up for her.
    At the door down the short hall from the back door, she
flicked the light switch then opened the pantry. Entering the small room, she
was amazed to see the many shelves of homemade canned fruits and vegetables as
well as other staple items. Her grandmother had enough stuff in there to hold
her over for several months.
    Spotting what she was looking for, she stepped into the
room and grabbed the bottle on the shelf in front of her. Turning to leave, she
halted in her steps. Before her eyes, on the shelves adjacent to the door, had
to be more than a hundred jars of honey.
    Since she had arrived at her grandmother’s house and
begun to feel better, she had not thought about the cravings that had plagued
her. Now, having one of them less than an arm reach away, the desire for the
golden syrup crashed into her like a tidal wave.
    The salivation started first, followed by the tremors
in her limbs that ended with heat. Her temperature spiked so high she was
sweating. Not just a light sheen of sweat, but her palms were damp, a bead