by M. L. Briers
BEAR-LY PREGNANT
BY
M.L. BRIERS
And
B. LEE
Copyright © 2017, M L Briers
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced whatsoever without written permission of the author, except for brief exerts in reviews. Any unauthorised reproduction or distribution of the material herein is illegal and may result in criminal proceedings. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to the internet or distributed via electronic or print without prior consent.
Note from the Author;
All names, places, and incidents contained herein are purely fictional and have no basis in actual events or linked to actual Humans, Witches, Vampires, Werewolves, Lycans, Werebears or persons living, dead or undead.
Copyright © 2017, Cover Design by; Rebecca Pau at The Final Wrap. www.thefinalwrap.com
Table of Contents
BEAR-LY PREGNANT
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
CHAPTER ONE
Declan was at least three shots shy of getting out of the grunting stage and actually speaking to anyone, including the guy pouring his Scotch. Mick, the bartender didn’t take any offence, he was used to Declan taking a time to warm up to anyone.
Once a week the bear shifter ventured down the mountain to get supplies, then he had a huge steak dinner, and spent the evening drinking at the bar while eating Maisie’s special spiced fries with mayonnaise on the side, before he slept it off in the back of his pickup truck and disappeared back up the mountain again the next day…
He had a routine and he liked to stick to it, and so he wasn’t best pleased to find that the bar was packed with tourists, and it wasn’t even the summer season yet. He was a little more gruff than usual when he had to wait for a refill of his shot glass.
When Mick finally made it to his end of the bar with the bottle of Scotch and an apologetic look, Declan snatched it out of the man’s hand.
“Just leave the bottle and put it on my tab,” he growled over the noise of the crowd, Mick just nodded. Nope, Declan hadn’t warmed up to anyone at all yet…
“Please.” The smoky tone of her voice near his ear made the shifter scowl and his muscles tense as he snatched his head around to see who it was that had dared to speak to him before he’d gotten into the right frame of mind, and he came face to face with a woman who looked like a schoolteacher…
Her long auburn hair was pulled back at the nape of her neck with some kind of a tie. The thick black band of the Mr Magoo glasses that she wore perched on the end of her nose screamed librarian, and the thick woollen sweater on top of another one said she was human and felt the cold…
Those three things were enough to make him want to go and bury his head in a snow bank. He’d never been into schooling … he hated to read … and humans brought him out in a rash … or at least it felt as if they did.
He didn’t need to be around anyone who was whiny or needy right then, and human females tended to be both of those things. Oh sure, they needed different things, but they were all still the same.
Declan snorted his contempt for her, even when his length started to strain against the restriction of his jeans. He’d been too long without female company in his bed, but he’d sworn off that too.
“My stool, go find another…” he grumbled into his glass as it hovered in front of his lips, and then he tossed the fiery liquid down the back of his throat and felt a little bit better about the world as the alcohol added to the rest inside of him and eased that pressure of being a bear shifter in a human world.
“That’s not very polite,” she said back on a scowl. “Besides, I don’t want your stool, but you don’t have to be so rude to everybody.” She berated him, and for one long moment he felt like a cub being berated by his elders and betters once more.
“Lady… move along,” Declan growled a little for her benefit – just enough to let her know what she was dealing with…
“Wolf or bear?” She asked, raising her eyebrows even though she wasn’t really surprised to hear that growl.
His size and build said bear – his attitude said shifter…
“Does it matter?” Declan growled as he poured himself another drink and tried to ignore her, ignore his beast that had raised its head with interest.
“Well, if you’re a wolf then you’re more inclined to share from that bottle of yours, if you’re a bear then you’ll want to keep it all to yourself…” she offered back … and there it was … the woman was a shifter groupie.
Declan couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed, and yet, he didn’t have a clue as to why. He should have known what she was, although, he’d give her brownie points for not dressing like one.
He wasn’t interested in her … not talking to her … not spending time with her … and definitely not having her on the end of his length…
“I’d hate to disappoint your view of my kind,” he said, snatching up the bottle and putting it on the other side of his glass away from her…
“Figured …” she muttered as she turned back towards the barman and raised her hand to try to get Mick’s attention once more, but the man was single handed, and the bar was packed.
Declan tossed another shot down the back of his throat and tried to dismiss the school teacher. With so many humans packed inside the bar, he wasn’t about to try to scent the air … even if he was a little curious about how she smelled.
Lavender probably, he told himself with a huff. Didn’t all teachers and librarians smell of lavender?
He necked another shot … just managing to swallow it before the elbow in his back made him want to rip someone’s head off. His large hand hit the counter top and his basket of spicy fries jumped into the air. Basket, fries, and maisie’s special mayo sauce all ended up in his lap…
He growled long and hard, and the almost overwhelming need to put his fist in some jerk’s face washed over him. There was an obligatory apology from close behind him and he cursed that the guy had manners … because now he couldn’t exactly fist the man’s shirt with one hand and use him as a one handed punch bag for the other.
Tonight was not his night. Tourists, idiots, and schoolteachers. Just his damn dumb luck.
Declan swivelled on his stool and brought his long, thick, muscled legs around towards the schoolteacher … the sound of a wicked, somewhat dirty sounding chuckle greeted his ears, and his eyes snapped up to Mrs Magoo as she stared down at his mayo splattered groin and grinned…
“Premature ejaculation problems…?” It wasn’t just her chuckle that sounded dirty to his ears, so did her voice, and when he snapped his eyes back up to her face … she raised her soft brown eyes to his and he felt his length harden even more.
“Yeah, I’m real pleased to see you,” he growled back, snatching up a napkin and grumbling another growl to himself as he started to clean up the mess.
“Ha! No chance, friend – you guys aren’t my type,” she shot the words back at him so fast that he knew it wasn’t a lie.
Declan had to guess that she liked wolves then. That actually made his life easier, and yet, he couldn’t help
feeling a little disappointed in her attitude and her choices.
He screwed up the napkin in his hand and tossed it on top of the bar before he fisted the bottle, and held it up in front of her.
“In that case, drink?” He asked, and her eyes flared with what looked like amusement and appreciation for all things Scotch … Just then Mick appeared on the other side of the counter…
“What can I get …?” the barmen started.
“Nothing, the ladies good!” Declan growled back and Mick didn’t wait around to debate it. She held out her empty glass and he poured.
“Declan,” he offered.
“Lucy,” she said, and he nodded just once. She even had a schoolteacher name. “To the Scotch.” She said, raising her glass to him.
“To the Scotch!”
~
~
~
Declan turned over in bed and pushed up with his elbow. Something hard and immovable smacked against his temple, and the pain reverberated inside his head and brought his heavy eyelids open with a growl as he searched the room for the culprit.
Nobody there, and he debated punching the bedside table that had delivered the blow, but thought better of it.
He certainly wasn’t home. The room looked like one of those anaemic holiday rentals that were dotted up and down the mountain, and he groaned inwardly …
He should have been sleeping it off in the back of his pickup …
How the hell had he managed to get into a cabin?
Declan dropped back down to the pillows and was more than grateful for his shifter blood – hangovers weren’t something that he had to deal with, but he always seemed to feel a little numb and dumb the morning after getting that blotto.
He lay there starring up at the ceiling for a long minute, just trying to remember the night before … he remembered the bar … he remembered the booze … he remembered the schoolteacher …
Declan let a low rumble go through his chest…
“Oh, hell no …!”
He fisted the sheet and yanked it in the air. He was as naked as nature intended, and as he sat up in bed and looked at the twisted sheets and the extra indent from someone else’s head in the pillow next to his … he lifted his hand and rubbed it across his face…
He didn’t need to guess that he had bagged the schoolteacher … he knew it.
Declan’s eyes flicked to the open door of the bathroom … nobody in there … no sound of a heart beating anywhere nearby as he listened hard before taking in the scent of the room.
There was that bland, slightly musty smell that tourist cabins seemed to get … and then there was the sweetest scent of vanilla and peppermint that he’d ever smelt in his life … his bear grumbled within him as if the beast was just warming up its windpipes…
“Damn it, I did bag the schoolteacher …” he growled, throwing the sheet back and pushing up from the scene of his crime …
Hell, he didn’t murder anybody … thank the spirits … but the leftover scent of sex in the air told him that he’d done the deed with a human. Not his finest hour, not by a long shot, and the schoolteacher to boot…
He yanked on his jeans as he cursed himself up and down the damn mountain. From what he remembered of her, she wasn’t a groupie, but still, that was small comfort to him.
“Idiot,” he grumbled, tucking his length away and yanking up the zip before he reached for his shirt, thrusting his feet into his boots at the same time as he yanked the shirt on over his head and down his muscled chest…
He needed to get out of dodge while the going was good…
No … I need to wait right here and explain myself to the female.
No … I need to damn well leave!
Declan’s bear growled a long, hard warning within him. His eyes scanned the room and he frowned at the absence of anything that was hers.
Had she already left?
Was the damn woman a shifter groupie after all?
“Well, that’ll make my life easier, I suppose,” he grumbled, feeling miffed with himself for allowing his needs to overtake his sanity, even drunk he should have know better.
His beast should have known better!
The bear wasn’t happy. He felt the slow rumble of another growl in his chest and he wanted to crush it down, and yet, the beast wouldn’t be denied…
“Say your piece and then shut the hell up,” Declan grumbled…
Mine…
CHAPTER TWO
~
“Are you freaking kidding me?” Declan growled back at the bear.
A mate!
A human damn mate and he couldn’t remember a thing. That didn’t sit right inside of him.
Hell, it wasn’t right.
He’d taken his mate to bed, laid with her … what the hell else had he done?
Why’d she leave?
Had she gone?
Declan made fast tracks towards the cabin door and yanked it open. The winter sun was low in the sky and hit him right in the eyes … he lifted his hand and shielded himself from the glare…
Middle of nowhere much. No truck, no car, and only tyre tracks in the sparse snow to let him know that anyone else had been there.
His beast growled long and hard.
Their mate had run … no … maybe not run, but she’d certainly left…
He slammed the door behind him and started off for the bar. He knew every inch of the mountain and he knew where he was, how long it would take him to walk on foot back to his truck … and he knew that if he was lucky he could follow her tracks…
Those tracks veered off up the mountain road instead of to town or downwards.
That made life easier. One road led all the way up the mountain pass with only a few turns into the cabins of the locals and tourists along the way.
Tracking her would be easy … depending on how much of a head start she had and where she was headed.
Declan felt an element of calm enter his mind at the thought. She hadn’t just disappeared into thin air as she could have done…
He berated himself for that again. He’d taken her to bed and he hadn’t even noticed when she’d left. The woman must have snuck out real quiet like … damn ninja!
Why?
Did he tell her that he was her mate?
Did he scare the hell out of her?
His beast was way to calm for his liking. Sure, the beast was hungry to follow their mate, and yet it didn’t seem to be clawing and demanding to get out as he thought it might.
What was he missing … apart from a mate?
~
~
~
Lucy rounded the edge of the drop off and did the unthinkable – she glanced down in morbid curiosity to see just how far to the bottom it was. It was a damned stupid thing to do considering that she knew the world around her would pitch, turn and twist as mild vertigo swept through her brain.
Her hands fisted around the branch of the decaying tree and she yanked herself towards it, holding on for dear life as a cold sweat broke out over her body, and she said a little prayer for help to get her through it.
A heartbeat later and a large hand locked around her wrist, yanking her up and away from the drop, and even though she went willingly … the strength of that grip meant that she had little choice in the matter either way.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone go that white before,” Dougie’s deep drawl made her feel a whole lot better and a whole lot worse too.
She guessed that there was an upside to having a wolf shifter as a mountain guide. He seemed to sense a lot more than a human, and he’d called it right … she’d been in trouble just then, not that she wanted to admit it.
There was also a downside … the man seemed to look at her as if he could read her very soul. It kind of creeped her out.
There was something about those steel blue eyes that she didn’t like. Something about him made the hair on her body stand to attention at times … but not knowing his kind very well, she couldn
’t quite put her finger on what it was.
“Yeah, it was a little vertigo. Thanks for the rescue.”
She tried to keep her voice bright and breezy and yet she felt a little miffed that she hadn’t been able to get through it alone. She hated to rely on anyone.
Dougie let her stand on her own two feet on solid ground. He didn’t want to lose his new client, at least, not yet anyway.
The woman scented of bear, one in particular, and she could shower all she wanted, but she wasn’t going to get that scent off her anytime soon…
“That’s why you’re paying me the big bucks,” Dougie offered back.
“Seriously? I thought it was so I could get the best shots of the mountain for my portfolio, not be rescued.” She smiled, even thought she didn’t much feel like it.
“So, I should charge extra for rescuing the damsel in distress then?”
“Nice try, I might buy you a beer,” Lucy tossed back.
She’d been excited to start this trip. That was until she’d met that bear shifter in the bar the night before. Now she felt a little detached, as if she didn’t much care one way or the other.
If anything, she’d have liked to have gone home, curled up in bed, and stayed there for a while. It felt like she had a cold or something coming on and she hardly ever got those.
Lucy carefully placed her booted feet against the slippery snow and started up away from the drop off. She’d diced with danger enough already on the trip, maybe she should leave the death climbs for somebody else…
~
~
~
“Mick?” Declan was fast running out of patience. Not that he had much to begin with, but Mick’s slow morning-brain was wearing what he did have down into the ground.
Declan felt another rush of frustration as the man sipped at his morning brew and ran a tired hand through his mop of unruly bed hair. It was getting beyond frustrating towards excruciating…
“Yeah, I know the one you mean – she looked like a schoolteacher or something equally brainy … glasses…”