Page 13 of Squatch Out!

CHAPTER TEN

SEAN

M y chest is tight, and I’m struggling through a case of déjà vu as I hike up the ridge with Olivia cradled in my arms. At least this time, she isn’t wriggling and screaming. And my cock isn’t hanging out, although it is throbbing like it’s got its own heartbeat inside my sheath.

Owen is going to kill me when he finds out that I’ve kidnapped her again.

Can it be called kidnapping when she went willingly?

Why can’t I seem to leave this woman alone? What is it about her that has me so captivated? I press my nose to her hair and take a deep breath, letting her wildflowers and honey scent coat the inside of my nose. There has to be something else going on that I don’t understand.

I was sixteen when I lost my parents in a car accident, so I never really got the birds and bees and squatch talk from my pop. Owen tried to fill in for our parents, but he was busy building a life for us, doing his best to keep me out of trouble and on the right path.

With no close family around, it’s not like I could ask anyone else. Owen gave me the basic no glove, no love talk, and we were both happy to leave it at that. Until now. I wonder if Owen even knows. It’s not like he’s dated much. The poor guy is a workaholic.

Olivia weighs next to nothing in my arms as I make my way up the steep incline.

She’s taking this far better than she should be and staying incredibly calm.

Not just calm, but relaxed. Her head is resting against my chest as she gently twirls my long hair around her fingers.

She surprises me even more when she leans in and sniffs me.

My steps slow, and she seems embarrassed when she looks up at me. “Sorry,” she says quietly. “Was that weird?”

I can only grunt softly. Yeah, it’s a little weird, but I don’t mind. I like the idea of her scenting me.

She goes back to twirling my fur around her finger.

“I’ve always heard stories that bigfoot sightings are preceded by a rank smell.

Suggesting they have a potent aroma. But you…

” she leans in and presses her nose to my chest again, breathing deeply, “you smell really nice. Like the outdoors after a hard rain, earthy and fresh.”

My cock jumps, and I can’t hold back my low groan as it springs from my sheath, bobbing from side to side in time with my strides.

Just great. At least Olivia can’t see what’s happened below her. I’ve never been unable to control myself around a woman before.

Taking a deep breath, I try to think of gutting fish and long days working in the torrential downpours that frequent the mountains in winter.

I grit my teeth and imagine how pissed Owen is going to be with me.

Anything to keep my mind off how good Olivia feels pressed against me.

Or how her sweet scent goes straight to my head with each breath I take.

I certainly don’t need to be thinking of how soft her breasts feel pressed against my chest. Or how much I like that she keeps touching my fur and sniffing me.

I’m so focused on the woman in my arms that I’m not paying any attention to where I’m going. It’s not until I find myself climbing the steps to my house that realize I’ve taken myself home.

“Oh.” She turns away from my chest to take in the old rambler. The porch light illuminates the peeling paint and cobwebs, giving the house an abandoned look, and I want to defend it. It’s due for a fresh coat of paint and could use some remodeling for sure, but it’s solidly built.

When she doesn’t start squirming or trying to escape my arms, I step up onto the creaky porch.

Owen must have rigged the door to stay shut when he left, but a nudge from my toe is enough for it to fall open.

Trying not to think of the symbolism of carrying her over the threshold in my arms, I set Olivia on her feet just inside the door.

Her head swivels as she takes in my plain living room. “Whose place is this? Will they be back soon?”

There’s no way to know when Owen left, but I notice my OCD brother cleaned up after himself. And me. The place is far tidier than I left it.

Olivia stares up at me with curiosity and confusion as I take her hand and lead her over to my recliner. Reaching around her, I hand her the remote and then gently push her down so she’s sitting.

“Well, this is an improvement from the cave,” she says with a smirk. “I’d say you’re getting better at this kidnapping thing.”

With my hands in front of my hips, where my cock hasn’t quite slipped back inside its sheath, I slowly back away.

Her smile falls. “Wait. You’re leaving me here?”

I shouldn’t have taken her from the camp in the first place. But I don’t like her being alone with all those other men. By bringing her here, I know she’s safe and surrounded by my scents.

When I step through the open door, Olivia jumps up from my chair. “Wait! Don’t go. I need to get back to my camp—" But I’m already pulling the door closed between us.

Before I can talk myself into staying, I hurdle the railing that wraps around the porch and lope into the forest. I don’t stop running until I’ve worked myself right up to the point of exhaustion.

Only then does my squatch finally let go of his grip on me, letting me slide back into my human form.

By then it’s been hours, and I’m miles from anything.

It’s a long walk back down the mountain. By the time I find myself climbing the steps to Owen’s cabin, it’s getting close to dawn. I’m naked again and shivering from the cold when I lift my hand to pound my fist on his door, but it opens before I have a chance.

“There you are,” Owen sighs. Is that relief I hear in his voice?

He’s rocking bedhead, but he’s still wearing his clothes from earlier, which means he must have been waiting for me.

I’m too tired to fight with him about staying up for me like I’m a fucking teenager.

The only thing I want right now is a hot shower and a place to crash since I left Olivia in my house.

I start to push past him, but he stops me with a warm hand on my shoulder. “Wait, I need to warn you?—”

My nostrils twitch when a familiar sweetness drifts through his door. My hand moves before my brain gives the signal, and I wrap my fingers around my brother’s throat, pushing him backward so he’s pressed to the doorjamb. I search the space for the woman responsible for the scent.

A snarl rumbles from between my teeth as I dig my nails into the sides of his neck. “ She’s mine !”

“Calm the fuck down, Sean,” Owen chokes around my grip. “You’ll wake her, and she just fell asleep.”

That’s when I see Olivia curled up into a tight little ball on Owen’s couch, with a plush blanket covering her.

“What is she doing here?” Seeing her in my brother’s house instead of mine has my skin crawling again. But for once, I don’t shift. I’m too worn out, I think. Owen pries my fingers from around his throat.

“When I didn’t hear from you after sending you to check on the campers, I called your sat phone, and she answered.” He points to Olivia. “Why the fuck was she in your house? And where the fuck were you?”

I really don’t want to do this right now. Mostly because I know everything I’ve done regarding this woman has been wrong. And also because I’m naked and freezing. And exhausted.

When I don’t answer, Owen keeps going. “I went and got her with the quad–since you had my truck. I brought her back here, fed her, and then made her a spot on the couch while we waited for you to turn up so you could take her back to her campsite.”

Owen shakes his head. “I should have known you squatched out again. And where is my truck now? Back at the trailhead? Or ditched in the forest?”

Not wanting to admit I left it back at the trailhead, I grit my teeth, but that doesn’t stop them from chattering.

Suddenly, Owen’s pissed-off expression turns to worry. “Fuck, how long have you been naked?” He drags me inside and closes the door behind me. The way I’m shivering, I think I might be on the verge of being hypothermic. Our squatch is impervious to cold, but our human bodies are not.

“D-d-d-don’t-t-t kn-n-n-n-n?—”

Owen pushes me toward the bathroom, grabbing a towel out of the linen closet on the way. “Take a shower and get warm. I’ll get the guest room ready for you when you’re done. Then you’re going to sleep, and we’ll talk about this tomorrow.”

Before I can argue with him, he pushes me through the doorway and shuts me inside.

I stand under the hot spray until my body temperature rises to an acceptable level, and then until the hot water runs cold. Only then do I dry myself and dress in the sweats Owen left me to sleep in.

The house is dark when I let myself out of the bathroom, and I start to cross the hallway to the guest room, only my feet take me to the left. Back into the living room, past the couch where Olivia is sleeping soundly, to the loveseat across from her.

I’m twice as long as it, but I curl my frame into it anyway, pulling a quilt draped across the back to cover myself. With my head resting on a too-firm decorative pillow, I watch my woman sleep.

She’s not mine.

Yes. She is.

My head throbs as my splintered mind argues with itself over the woman across from me. I’m not sure how long I watch her, but the eastern sky is starting to lighten when my eyes finally drift shut, and they don’t open again.