Her Bear Lovers [Werebears of Shatland, Texas 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  “Answer my question first.”

  Simpleminded maybe, but persistent.

  “Yeah, I hunt. But the season’s over for hunting naked men, so you’re safe.”

  Was that the hint of a smile? She relaxed a little. She could be just as persistent as he was. “Now will you please get off me?”

  * * * *

  Josh Barberson didn’t want to let her go. That slight brush of his cock against her leg had flashed an awareness through him that made moving almost impossible. If he didn’t know better, he’d have sworn it was the first touch of the connection.

  Just like werewolves and other shifters, werebears had intended mates. Mates they were destined to love as soon as they met. Somehow, fate usually brought them together, but at times, accidents of life happened. The intended mate might have already died. Or gotten married or mated to some other man. Or worse, couldn’t accept what they were no matter how strong the connection was.

  Had he literally run into his mate? And hopefully, his cousins’ mate as well? At least he’d managed to shift from bear to human before he’d hit her. He could’ve killed her if he’d hit her with all seven hundred pounds of his grizzly bear frame.

  She was beautiful. That wasn’t necessary for a mate, but it damn sure helped. Her long, auburn hair splayed out a halo around her oval face. A face that had huge eyes and a turned up nose and lips that just begged him to kiss her.

  “Nope.”

  The first time he’d answered that way, she’d given him a stern look. Now she was downright scowling. Funny thing was, he liked it when she was angry. Her beautiful, big brown eyes reminded him of a doe’s frightened eyes when he and his cousins were on the prowl. They never killed since they didn’t have to in order to survive, but the deer didn’t know that. The difference between the deer and the woman was, of course, that the woman wasn’t the least bit afraid. He admired her spunk.

  None of that, however, made up for the fact that she was a hunter. “Why do you want to kill animals?”

  She’d stopped squirming, which was sad since when she squirmed her full, ripe breasts jiggled under her shirt. Her body was curved, a strong body, with legs that stretched on for miles. Even her jeans, long T-shirt, and camo vest couldn’t hide her attributes.

  “What?”

  “You kill animals, right? That’s what hunters do. But why? Do you need them to keep from starving?”

  Her mouth parted, challenging him to kiss her. He resisted the urge to answer that challenge, but just barely.

  “No. Of course not.”

  “Then why do you kill?”

  “I, uh, I—”

  He’d made her think and imagined that he could see the churning of her mind. “You don’t have a good reason, do you? Or is it that you think it’s fun?”

  “No. Yes.” Her scowl deepened. “What the hell concern is it of yours?”

  He dreaded her answer to his next questions, but he had to ask. “Do you like to see the blood flowing out of their bodies? Or the poor thing taking its last breath?”

  “Urgh. What’s with you? No. I mean—”

  Score point number two for him. “Then stop killing. You’re too beautiful to be a killer.”

  He hated hunters. Not only because he’d barely missed getting shot on more than one occasion, but because of Jenkins, his friend who hadn’t moved fast enough. Jenkins’ death in the Colorado Mountains still pained him.

  “Get off me.”

  He shook his head, then put his nose to her neck and drew in a large sniff. She stiffened then, giving off the putrid aroma of fear. Underneath the scent of alarm, she smelled good, and as he’d hoped, he felt the zing of the connection fly through his body, racing toward his cock. His shaft hardened even more.

  Do I have to get off? What if I seduced her right now?

  “Mayla! Are you all right?”

  She arched an eyebrow. “That’s my father. Would you like to hang around and meet him? He has a bigger gun than mine. I’m sure he’d let you get a look at it. You know. Up close and personal.”

  He scoffed, understanding her meaning all too clearly. “Maybe another time.” Even though there was no way he’d stick around to meet her father—much less his gun—he couldn’t help wanting to stay. A surge of lust spun him around, turning him inside and out. As far as he and his libido were concerned, he had no choice. He had to have a small taste of her no matter what the danger.

  He crushed his mouth to hers, felt her quick intake of breath and her hands trying to work free of his arms. Then, as soon as it had happened, she stopped fighting. He whipped his tongue around her mouth, picking up the juices he’d commit to memory.

  He groaned, and knowing he’d take it farther if he kept going, he pulled away. She stared at him, her mouth plumped from the kiss.

  Then she let out a groan of her own, grabbed him at the back of the neck, and pulled him back into another kiss. It was her tongue that swept into his mouth, hungrily, urgently.

  “Hang on. We’re coming!”

  Another male’s voice. A younger voice than the first one. Was that her man?

  Josh jerked away from her, sprang to his feet, and didn’t think before he acted. Breaking their biggest rule, he shifted, knowing he’d move faster in his bear form.

  Her eyes grew wider as fur replaced skin and the world around him took on an amber hue. In only a minute or so, he landed on all fours. A growl came from behind a grove of trees, warning him to get moving.

  Shit. They’re going to give me hell for shifting.

  He whirled, then dashed away.

  Chapter Two

  “Oh, hell,” whispered Mayla.

  She scrambled to her feet. Her father and brother came over the rise, not slowing their pace as they rushed toward her. But she was only vaguely aware of their presence. The grizzly bear that had disappeared into the grove of trees had her attention.

  Her father grabbed her by the arms. Yet she still couldn’t look away from the trees.

  Where had it gone? What the hell was a grizzly doing in Texas? Had she really seen a man change into a bear?

  “Honey, are you all right? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  She could sense her father checking her out, looking for any signs of injury. John strode over, picked up her gun, but didn’t give it back. She glanced down at her hands. From the way they were shaking, she didn’t blame him.

  “Did you see it?” She couldn’t get her voice above a whisper.

  “See what, honey? What happened?”

  “Yeah, sis, did you get attacked by a big, bad bird?”

  “Shut up, John.”

  If she wasn’t still in shock, she would’ve laughed at her brother’s stunned expression. Her father rarely talked to him like that.

  “Did you see the bear?”

  Her father turned her loose, then turned in the direction of her stare. “Are you kidding me? A bear? Around here?”

  “I saw it. It knocked me off my feet. Then it…” It what? Changed into a man? A man that had barreled her over, then had changed back into a bear?

  “I’ve heard that more bears were migrating here, but I thought they were mainly on the east side, down around Big Bend Country. Even then, it’s rare to see one. Are you sure, honey? Maybe it was a big hog.”

  She shook her head vigorously. “I know a bear when I see one. This wasn’t a hog.”

  Clamping her mouth closed, she kept from adding, “This one was a man. A naked man.”

  “Come on, sis. Are you telling us that a bear attacked you? There’s not a scratch on you. What’d you do? Feed it honey?”

  Anger flared inside her. Not that she blamed them for not believing her, but it still riled her. “I know what I saw and I didn’t land flat on my butt by myself.”

  “Did you shoot at it and scare it away?”

  Her father was trying to understand, trying to believe what she’d told them, but she could see the doubt on his face.

  If she told them the t
ruth, they’d drag her to the nearest hospital to get her checked for a concussion. And yet, maybe that’s what she needed to do. Had she really seen a bear? A grizzly bear on top of that? And a man who could change into an animal?

  “Yeah, but I missed.” She sounded almost normal now. Brushing the dirt off her, she jerked her rifle away from her brother, gave the trees one more hard look, then turned on her heel and headed in the opposite direction.

  How could she ever tell them what she’d seen? She’d experienced it and she was having a hard time believing it. A man had changed into a grizzly bear. It was insane to think that it had happened. She might’ve convinced herself that she’d imagined the entire, strange event, except for one thing.

  She could still feel the excitement his touch had given her. Her body hummed as though he’d hooked her up to an electric current and had turned up the juice.

  It was real.

  She knew that as well as she knew her own name.

  * * * *

  “What the fuck were you thinking?” Jadon bumped against his cousin Josh, knocking him to the side as they strode toward their pickup.

  “That’s the problem. He wasn’t thinking,” added their younger cousin Curt.

  Josh kept moving, grumbling under his breath.

  “You know the rules, man. We’re supposed to check before we shift.” Jadon, the oldest of the three, hated taking on the role of disciplinarian. Thankfully, he didn’t have to do that often. Yet every now and then, Josh and the fun-loving Curt took things farther than they should. Curt was the jokester while Josh didn’t think first before he acted.

  That made him the serious one. It wasn’t how he liked to think of himself, but with Josh’s impulsiveness and Curt’s joking manner, someone had to keep things under control.

  They hadn’t shifted in over two weeks while trying to keep a low profile after moving back to Texas from Colorado. After spending some time there, they’d found that they’d missed the home where they’d grown up too much to stay any longer. Shatland was the place where they wanted to raise their family.

  Shatland’s residents were a mix of supernatural beings, including a large sleuth of bears that preferred to be called a clan. Other shifters were welcome there, even a few rogue werewolves, as well as faeries, vampires, werecats, and a couple of witches. Although there weren’t many of them, humans were allowed to live side by side with the shifters as long as they kept their secret.

  For the most part, they got along with everyone, including the vamps since the vamps were out mostly at night and kept to themselves. The werewolves in the neighboring town of Forever, however, were a different story. The werewolves and werebears held each other at arm’s length. A peace had been established, but it was tenuous at best, always on the brink of collapsing under any perceived slight.

  “Yeah, cuz, what would you have done if the girl had been one of those fucking werewolves instead of a human?”

  Josh, who’d kept quiet while they’d hurriedly dressed in the seclusion of the trees, finally spoke. “Fuck it. If I hadn’t shifted today, I’d have gone out of my mind. It felt fucking great.”

  Jadon rolled his shoulders, trying to ease the tension. It was hard enough to keep his own bear down without having to worry about his cousins shifting without warning. If he hadn’t been so burdened trying not to shift, he might’ve anticipated Josh’s abrupt change. Being the impulsive one, Josh hadn’t been able to resist any longer and he’d shifted right out in the middle of the day. And in front of a human, no less.

  “I get that, Josh. I do. And we felt, shit, we still feel the same way. But we agreed. No shifting until you know the coast is clear. You know that.”

  “Hell, I need to shift so bad I can taste it.” Jadon snarled, unable to keep a small part of his inner bear from surfacing. “Your impulsive move screwed that up for us. Now that you’ve let a human see you, we can’t take the chance of being seen again.”

  “He’s right. Once the clan hears what you did, they’re going to jump all over us. It’s bad enough that we’re grizzlies instead of black or brown bears. That alone has always made us stick out,” added Curt. Shatland’s clan consisted mainly of black and brown bears along with a few grizzlies who tried to blend in with the rest of the clan.

  Josh stepped between the two men. “Calm down. Let’s hope the others don’t hear about it. And they won’t if you two don’t flap your yaps about it. Besides, if she talks, who’s going to believe her except the people who already know what we are?”

  “Let’s just hope she’s not one of the humans who live in Forever. We don’t want the werewolves to know we’re running this close to their town.”

  Part of it was the natural distrust that all bears and wolves had for each other. He wasn’t sure if there was another reason behind the clan’s attitude toward the wolves. At least he’d never heard of any. But their human sides should’ve been able to get past that instinctual dislike. As far as he was concerned, some of the Forever werewolves, like Jackson Carr and an older woman called Miss Clara, were all right. He could even see becoming friends with them.

  “She’s not one of them. If she was, she wouldn’t have gotten so scared when you shifted. If the werewolves find out that more grizzlies are coming into the area, then we’ve got another problem.”

  “Yeah. Thanks for that, cuz.” Curt’s sarcastic tone couldn’t be missed.

  Josh growled, then spun to face them. “You should thank me.”

  “What the fuck for?”

  Josh, however, was building up steam. He was holding something back.

  “Just trust me. You should.”

  “What do you mean?” Jadon hoped his cousin was just talking, but the glint in his eyes said otherwise. “What’s going on? Did she say something?”

  They’d watched from the small grove of trees, half-undressed, stunned at the abruptness of Josh’s run. As usual, Josh hadn’t looked before he’d leapt. They’d had to growl a warning that the other two humans were close before he’d gotten off the girl. But to shift in front of her from man to animal? Again, he had to wonder at his cousin’s thinking.

  Josh jumped ahead of them, then walked backward, grinning as he did. He definitely had something to tell them.

  “She’s the one.”

  He and Curt stopped in their tracks. He knew what Josh meant, but he wasn’t about to buy it. They’d waited a long time, hoping to forget about finding their mate. If fate wanted them to have her, then it would happen. Did he dare think that it had?

  Curt spoke the combination of hope and disbelief that was gnawing at him. “Naw. You’re wrong. After all these years?”

  If Josh’s grin had been the sun, it would’ve blinded them. “I’m not kidding. When I was on top of her—”

  “Which, by the way, was a smooth move,” joked Curt.

  Josh showed his fangs and growled. “Anyway, when I was on top of her, I felt it. The connection. The bond.”

  “Are you sure?” Jadon didn’t want to hope. It would hurt too much if he did and that hope died.

  Josh’s smile wiped away, replaced by a serious side that he didn’t often show. “I’m sure. I felt it, man. The connection was amazing, powerful. I could’ve taken her right then and there if I hadn’t thought it might scare the hell out of her. As it was, I couldn’t resist kissing her. Shit if she didn’t kiss me back.”

  “She kissed you back?” Her doing that made sense. If she’d felt the connection, too. That bond between future mates broke down the natural resistance of a female, making it possible for the relationship to warp into full speed much faster than human relationships did. It wasn’t uncommon for mates to get together, to even commit to each other, in only a day or so.

  “I don’t suppose you got her name.” Curt laughed at the ridiculous idea.

  Jadon, too, was smiling until he noticed how quiet Josh had gotten. Way too quiet. “Fucking hell. You told her your name, didn’t you?”

  As usual, when challenged, Josh w
ent into defensive mode. “Yeah, I did. So what?”

  “Did you give her our address, too?”

  Josh took a swipe at the younger cousin. If he’d been in his bear form, he would’ve taken a chunk out of Curt’s arm. “Fuck off.”

  Jadon took in a steadying breath. Sometimes, being the oldest sucked. “What’s done is done and there’s nothing we can do about it now.”

  Curt stepped away from Josh, a clear sign that he was about to make the bigger man even angrier. “But you got her name, right? At least, tell me you weren’t so stupid that you didn’t get her name.”

  Josh’s growl came from deep inside his chest, a sure sign that his inner bear was close to the surface. But being bigger meant that he was slower. By the time he’d started running after Curt, he was already several feet behind.

  Jadon watched as his cousins took off toward their pickup. “Damn it. If I didn’t know it for a fact, I’d swear we aren’t related.”

  * * * *

  Mayla gathered her clothes, a simple T-shirt and skinny jeans, then saw her reflection in the mirror across the small bedroom. Yet she wasn’t ready to put on her clothes. First, just as she’d had to do for the past week since meeting the man-bear, she had to gain some release.

  She dropped her clothes on the side of the bed, then made sure the door was locked before crawling onto the mattress. Lying on her back, she slipped her hand between her legs and skimmed her middle finger between her pussy.

  If only I had a vibrator with me.

  But how could she have known she’d need one while on a hunting trip with her father and brother? It’d be just her luck for one or both of them to hear its hum. Or worse yet, to ask her what she was doing.

  She couldn’t have predicted her response, especially not her continued response to Josh. As soon as he’d gone, she’d felt the overwhelming compulsion to call him back. But for what?

  Later that night, she knew. The hunger for him had swamped her, driving her to relieve the ache between her legs. She’d been stunned at its force, like a power possessing her that had whipped into her body, taking complete control of her libido and her mind. Ignoring it, even resisting it was impossible. She’d done the only thing she could do. But even masturbating hadn’t helped much. The urgency came back within a few hours, urging her to find…to find what? The man-animal?