Pacific Northwest Werebears(3)

Once she grabbed her carry-on bag, she made her way through the airport. She enjoyed the salmon motif that was present throughout the terminals, on the walls and in the tiles on the floor. It made her think of herbed butter topping a filet of salmon. Yup, she was hungry.

Making her way to the food court area, she was overwhelmed by the smell of fast food. Even though she considered herself an accomplished chef, she was not one to turn down greasy American fast food. Spend any time in London and you will quickly understand the joys of curry take aways.

Choosing a taco stand, Sophie ordered three steak tacos and found a table. She forced herself to eat slowly. The meat was marinated in lime and cilantro and was delicious. Finishing up she made her way to the restroom, freshened up and made sure to brush her teeth and make sure there were no green bits stuck between her straight white teeth. Her parents had paid way too much for orthodontic care for her to not appreciate her smile.

Once she was satisfied, she made her way to baggage claim. Her bags had been pulled to the luggage office since she didn’t pick them up right away. She got both of them then made the phone call to Cage to let him know she had landed and was ready to be picked up.

“Glad you made it safe and sound. My brother Wyatt is in the cell phone lot waiting. I’ll let him know to pick you up. What are you wearing?”

“Excuse me?” What the devil did he mean by that?

“What are you wearing so he knows who he is looking for,” Cage said with a hoarse laugh.

“Oh…of course, how silly of me. I’m in a red pea coat and I have three suitcases with me. I’m kind of hard to miss,” she said chagrined.

“No problem, you’ve had a long flight. He should be there in a few minutes. It will be a long ride to the camp I’m afraid. I told Wyatt to show you to your room and get you settled tonight and I’ll meet up with you in the morning. Don’t worry about cooking tomorrow, we have some guys chipping in to cover right now. You get settled and then you can jump in,” Cage said.

“Thank you, I appreciate this opportunity and I look forward to meeting you in person,” she said cheerfully.

“I as well, have a safe drive, Sophie,” he said then hung up.





Chapter 3




It wasn’t more than ten minutes later when a large black four-door pickup truck pulled up to the curb. Sophie had seen trucks like this on TV, but it was not something one would see tooling around the streets of London. The massive vehicles were quintessential American transportation. She was excited to take a ride in the beast.

The windows were tinted dark so Sophie couldn’t see the driver. When the door swung open a mountain of a man stepped out. She couldn’t for the life of her see how she had missed him.

Tall, as in really tall, at least six foot four and broad with large muscles straining through a plaid shirt and dark brown hair that was peeking out of a black knit cap. Sophie was unaware that her mouth had dropped open as she’d ogled this hunk of man.

Stopping in front of her, Wyatt Rochon looked down and smiled, “Someone is going to hook you like a sweet little fish, you leave your mouth open like that.”

Snapping her mouth shut, Sophie looked up at Wyatt with big eyes. “Mr. Rochon?”

“That would be me, but no one calls me Mister anything. I’m Wyatt, Cage said I’d be picking up our new cookie but he didn’t tell me I was picking up a sugar cookie,” he said with a wink.

“Pardon? A what?” Still shell-shocked by the beauty of this man, she couldn’t help but wonder if all the Rochon brothers looked like this.

“Cookie, name for the camp cook. Taken from what they used to call the cooks on wagon trains. And sugar, well that should be self-explanatory,” he said laughing and picking up one of her suitcases. He carried it to the back door on the passenger side of the truck and shoved it in. He came back to grab the other one and her carry-on bag and placed both of those inside the truck, leaving Sophie standing on the curb with just her purse and a dazed expression. With a confused look, Sophie gave Wyatt a raised eyebrow too. Maybe she was tired or just clueless about American banter, but her brain was not processing what Wyatt was saying.

“My brother said to pick up our new cook. Nowhere did he mention that our new cook was a gorgeous curvy little British hottie. Information he probably should have relayed to me before I picked you up,” he explained.

“Wouldn’t you have picked me up if he had told you about me? And I think the American definition of gorgeous and hottie, might differ a bit from the British ideal. Or you’ve been in the forest too long,” she said wondering if he was just playing with her.