Alpha Rancher Bear: BWWM Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Bears of Pinerock County Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

who came bouncing into the kitchen, his long wiry coat covered with snow.
    "Did you have a nice time?" she asked the dog, giving him a biscuit from the dog-shaped cookie jar on the counter. "Tell you what. Mama's got a whole afternoon to herself and plenty of daylight, so I think I'm going to gear up and go skiing. Not something you can come along for, I'm afraid."
    As she went to get her ski gear together, she firmly put all thoughts of Alec out of her mind. Exercise, she thought with determination. Exercise was exactly what she needed to take her mind off him.
    And if he happened to drive Saffron to the clinic for her next appointment ... well ... that wouldn't be a bad thing, would it?
    She plugged her phone into its charger before taking off, and checked her voicemail by habit. One new one. She usually had her phone in her purse when she was driving, so she hadn't noticed it come in. As soon as she heard Saffron's voice, she winced. She liked Saffron, but this family was haunting her; there was no other explanation.
    Green gloves. Hmm. That sounded familiar. She'd brought a satchel of papers and books home with her from the clinic, and she opened it up. Yep. There they were. Saffron must have left them lying around somewhere, and Charmian had packed them up along with her things.
    I could go up there, take them back to her ...
    As if Alec would be happy to see her at all. He'd left without even saying goodbye.
    Well, she thought, putting the gloves back on top of the things in the satchel, she didn't need to go today. She'd see how busy tomorrow turned out to be, and find out if Saffron was able to come in herself and pick them up. And if not, then ... then maybe she'd think about going up there.
    Right now, the ski trails were calling her name. Skiing was the only thing on her mind.
    Certainly not a big handsome man with blue eyes.
    Not in the slightest.
     

Chapter Five
     
     
    "What in the hell," Axl Tanner asked, "is eating my brother?"
    He was talking to Remy, their cousin, beside the construction site where Remy and Saffron's new house was going up. But he said it loudly enough that Alec, doing chores in the cattle barn, could hear it all the way across the yard in the crisp winter air. Alec gritted his teeth and considered going over there to smack down both of them.
    My father would never have tolerated that kind of insubordination when he was running the clan.
    But Alec had tried running his clan that way. It didn't work. He wasn't sure what he was doing wrong. He knew he was a natural alpha; he had the strength of will to make others obey him, and he liked being in charge. He could only conclude that he'd somehow gotten off track during the years when he hadn't ever really needed to exert his alpha will over the rest of the clan. After his parents' death, nothing had really changed in the clan for the next fifteen years. Everything knew their work on the ranch, and they all got along, more or less. And now that he was having to make decisions and enforce them, like a proper alpha, it was nothing but insubordination all the way down.
    "You mean more than usual?" Remy asked.
    Alec threw down a sack of feed—he was unloading a trailer backed up to the barn—and glared across the yard at them. "You know I can hear you, right?"
    Axl stuck his hands in the pockets of his coat and sauntered across the yard. The two farm dogs, Beau and Chex, trotted along with him. "Want a hand?"
    Alec growled at him, a low rumble of warning that came from his bear as much as from him, and then took a step to the side, giving Axl room to reach for one of the heavy feed sacks.
    For a little while they worked in companionable silence. Their breath huffed out, steaming in the cold. Axl was the Pinerock County sheriff, but it was currently a Saturday and he'd been making an effort, since finding his mate Tara, to take weekends off rather than working through them like he used to. Which meant he was spending more time on the ranch.
    It