Bears On Bikes - The Complete Series (Shifter Romance Box Set)

by Rachel Red

Allison hopped up onto the hood of the car she’d previously been using for cover, and she jumped off the back of it, using the line of parked cars to buy her some time as she ran into the small park in the center of town. The Huntress trundled down the road behind her, moving slowly enough that Allison wondered if the knockout drugs weren’t having some effect after all. It didn’t seem like it would be enough to put her down completely, but Mike had been pretty spaced out after his dose with the drugs, and if the Huntress was feeling even a fraction of that, than it might just play to Allison’s advantage.

  “What’s the matter?” said Allison, turning to face the Huntress. “Can’t keep up with me? Maybe you need to lose a few pounds of that big fat ass of yours.”

  The giant bear stood on its hind legs and roared, smashing a park bench to splinters with one massive paw when it came crashing back down to the ground. The bear scrambled towards Allison but she was already moving.

  “I can’t believe I let you fuck me,” said Allison. “I mean, it was okay for a first time, but I don’t think I’d ever have let you in my bed if I wasn’t as drunk as I was. A girl has to have standards, right? Good thing I didn’t have to look at your ugly face while you went down on me.”

  The bear’s eyes burned with intense rage and hatred. Allison was pretty sure her words were getting through to the human brain inside the big bear body, and she was counting on that rage to become so blinding that the Huntress made a fatal mistake.

  “The weird thing is that you’re even worse at fucking as a man than you are as a woman!” yelled Allison. “You conjured yourself up a big giant dick, but you couldn’t even figure out how to use it. The way you were jerking around like some kind of teenage boy was so awkward I had to fake an orgasm just to get you to stop.”

  Allison ducked behind a lamp post just in time to evade the big paw that came swooping down towards her head. Had she moved a split second later, her head would have been squashed like a watermelon but instead the big metal pole bent nearly in half with the force of the blow.

  “The worst was when you tried to lick my pussy,” said Allison with a ferocious grin on her face. “It was so bad that it felt like a dog with peanut butter stuck in its mouth. You were like a wild animal, but in all the wrong ways. I was glad when you finally tied me up and tortured me. At least it was a relief from your pathetic attempts to get me off.”

  Stumbling backwards blindly, Allison tripped over a low hedge and went sprawling onto her back. The big bear loomed over her, its chest and shoulders heaving with heavy rage-filled breaths while it decided what to do to her. A hairy paw lifted as though it was about to put an end to the verbal torment Allison had been delivering, but then there was a bright shimmering of the air around them, and the bear transformed into the shape of the Huntress in human form, naked but for the bear fur cloak hanging from her shoulders.

  “You little fucking bitch,” snarled the woman. “You dare tell me I’m bad at fucking? I’ve seduced more men and women than you could even get to look twice at you. You should consider yourself lucky that I licked your pussy or let you within a mile of my own.”

  “Please,” huffed Allison, trying to buy herself some time. “You’re an old hag who’s way past her prime. You might have been sexy once but now you’re just washed up and pathetic.”

  “I should have let Abernathy strangle you,” said the Huntress, stepping over the hedge and placing her foot on Allison’s throat. “I would have happily watched him fuck you and choke you to death at the same time.”

  With her last bit of strength, Allison reached up not for the foot pressing down on her windpipe but for the hem of the cloak where it draped off the Huntress’s shoulders. Getting a firm grip on it, she yanked hard, and felt it snap free, leaving the Huntress naked and exposed in the middle of the open grassy area in the center of town.

  “You think I need that cloak to finish you off?” The Huntress laughed and pushed down harder.

  Bright colorful light swirled at the edges of Allison’s vision, and fireworks exploded in her eyes. She began to panic and claw at the Huntress’s foot, but she was too weak, and the Huntress had too much leverage. Just as the burning in Allison’s lungs seemed like it couldn’t get any worse, the pressure on her throat disappeared completely, and the body of the Huntress collapsed on top of her with a fleshy thump.

  The ringing in Allison’s ears faded away as her vision returned, and she heaved the limp body off herself and sat up gasping for air. Someone was there beside her, rubbing her back and helping her crawl free of the Huntress’s inert form. She realized that Craig had come through after all.

  “That was a hell of a plan,” said Craig. “I wasn’t sure when I should come in, but then I saw the Huntress shift back to human form and I started riding in. When you ripped off the cloak, I fired right away. I’m just glad I hit her on the first try.”

  “I knew I could count on you,” said Allison, smiling weakly as she allowed Craig to help her stand up. “Don’t forget to grab that cloak from her. She’s a hell of a lot easier to deal with as a human.”

  Craig picked up the cloak and bundled it up before stuffing it into one of his bike’s leather saddle bags. Throwing a leg over the bike and settling into the seat, he looked at Allison and nodded towards the back seat. “You wanna get out of here?”

  “What about her?” asked Allison, gesturing towards the naked woman lying on the grass.

  “Some of the boys will be by in a minute to clean up the mess. We should probably get out of here before the police show up though.”

  “Sound good to me,” said Allison, mounting the bike behind Craig.

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and lay her head against his back, closing her eyes when he brought the engine to life with a roar and sped out of the park back towards the Oakwood tavern.

  *

  It took a few days for everything to settle back into some sense of normalcy around the Oakwood tavern, but the Hellclaws stuck around town to help put the place back together. Rather than try to claim the damage on their insurance, Walter had agreed with Craig’s suggestion that they avoid bringing police attention to the scene and instead rebuild the place themselves. In the end, it turned out several of the bikers had worked various construction jobs, and the rebuilt sections looked nicer than they had before the Huntress had smashed the place up.

  As for the Huntress, she was being kept in a trailer behind the Tavern. Allison really didn’t want to know what the Hellclaws had planned for her. As long as the woman didn’t end up back on the streets where she could go back to hunting shifters and making magical cloaks, Allison was fine to let them deal with her their own way.

  “What ever happened to Abernathy?” asked Walter when Allison came up to the bar to get drinks for her and Craig. They’d thrown a party to celebrate their reopening, and the place was packed with friends and customers.

  “Mike drove him out to the edge of town and had some private words with him. He swore to me that he left him alive, but something tells me we won’t be seeing that particular ranger around these parts ever again.”

  “Good,” said Walter. He’d only gotten portions of the story about what had been about to happen when the Hellclaws had broken down the door, and Allison wanted to keep it that way. There were some things her brother didn’t need to know about.

  “Where’s that drink of mine?” said Craig, coming up behind Allison and slipping his arm around her waist.

  “It’s right here.” She handed him his beer and took a sip of her own. Walter went back to serving drinks to the rest of the bikers. “So what’s the plan for the Hellclaws now that you’ve got the Huntress and have helped us fix the place up again?”

  “You know how it is,” said Craig, frowning and shuffling his feet awkwardly. “Mike’s already getting antsy. I can tell he’s ready to roll out. I’d be surprised if we were still here tomorrow morning.”

  Allison nodded. “I guess I already knew that.”

  “I wish i
t could be different,” said Craig. “These guys are my family though. I can’t explain it, but it wouldn’t be right for me to leave them and go off on my own. It’s compli—”

  “It’s alright,” said Allison with a smile. “I know what these guys mean to you. Plus, it’d be weird having to share an apartment with a guy who turns into a bear on the full moon or when he’s really angry. I mean, can you imagine what it’d be like if we got into a fight?”

  “Even as a bear, I don’t think I’d want to take you on,” said Craig with a laugh.

  “It really is okay,” said Allison. “You’ll always be in my mind, but we’ve both got our own lives to live, and they’re moving in opposite directions.”

  “I didn’t expect you to be so cool about this,” replied Craig. He scratched the back of his neck and seemed at a loss for what to say next.

  “You’ve just got to promise me one thing,” said Allison, reaching out and toying with the hem of Craig’s shirt collar.

  “What’s that?”

  She leaned in close and whispered into his ear, “You come up to my place right now and get out of those clothes, and you do the same thing if you ever find yourself back in West Liberty again.”

  “Now that’s an easy promise to make,” said Craig.

  Allison put her beer glass down on the counter and took the big biker by the hand, leading him off to the back room where she could make sure that she made the most of every last second she had to spend with him.

  BOOK 3

  BEARS ON BIKES

  THE FINAL STAND

  RACHEL RED

  CHAPTER ONE

  The lockers at Kirkwood Elementary seemed a lot smaller than they had when Allison last walked these halls as a young student. She could have sworn that they were a normal height, the same as might be found at a high school or fitness gym locker room, but no, they barely came up to her shoulder. At one point in her life, she needed to reach above her head to put things into the top shelf of her own locker that had been somewhere around here.

  “Miss Baxter? Principal McCullough will see you now,” said a short, smiling secretary. She gestured towards a door to her left where a sullen-looking child had just exited and marched straight out of the office with his head hung low.

  “My apologies,” said Mr. McCullough when Allison entered and shook his hand. “The life of a principal is full of these sorts of interruptions. Thank you for waiting. “Oh, it was no trouble,” replied Allison, smiling and trying to soothe her frayed nerves. This was her first job interview for a position as a teacher, and in a town like West Liberty there weren’t exactly a lot of options if it didn’t go well.

  “Please have a seat.” The principal sat in his own chair and flipped open the file containing her resume. “So, Miss Baxter, why is it that you’d like to come work in our kindergarten program here at Kirkwood?”

  Allison had been preparing for this question for the better part of the last few months, and she’d worked long and hard to come up with an answer that would do something to explain the tattoos that were visible on her arms and neck no matter what sort of proper clothing she wore. It was early summer and already rather hot. To hide the ink with a long sweater seemed disingenuous and untrue to her personality. Miriam had helped her come to the conclusion that it was better to just be open about who she was, instead of trying to hide it and have it held against her when the truth eventually came out.

  “I know I don’t look like a typical kindergarten teacher, or any kind of teacher for that matter,” said Allison, folding her hands in her lap and trying not to fidget. Her stomach was a knot of anxiety, but she was eager to finally get this over with. “I had a rough childhood, to say the least. School was a place I was forced to go for a while, but eventually even that pressure fell away and I fell into a life that I wouldn’t wish upon anyone. It took me some time to fully appreciate the value of a good education, and I’ve had to fight harder than most to get my schooling up to a point where I can sit in front of you today and be proud of my qualifications.”

  “Your transcript from West Liberty shows that you earned excellent grades, but I’m concerned about the feedback from your practicum work with local daycares. It’s not that there’s anything bad here, but, if I may be candid with you, Miss Baxter, there’s a lot to be take from what is not written in these letters of recommendation.”

  Allison swallowed a lump in her throat. She knew her practicum hadn’t gone as well as it could have, and she’d prepared for a question like this as well.

  “The reason I’m in your office right now is that my personal image was difficult for some parents to see past when dropping their kids off for preschool. I faced a lot of prejudice going into those situations, and I’m willing to admit that I may have tried too hard to fight back against it with the other teachers and parents. I never let it affect my relationship with the children, and I can say without boasting that you’d likely hire me on the spot if those kids had written my referral letters.”

  “Your… appearance is a bit of a sticking point,” said Principal McCullough, “but at a school like this I should think you’d face fewer barriers once you’ve been accepted by the administration. Should we decide to offer you a position with us, I’d be happy to address any parental concerns myself.”

  “That’s incredibly generous of you,” said Allison, a broad smile etching its way onto her mouth. She had expected more of the same sort of treatment she’d gotten from the witches who ran the preschools. They’d been more than happy to accept her as a temporary student worker after seeing her transcripts, but all that had changed the first time her sleeves had ridden up and they’d caught sight of her tattooed forearms.

  “So, back to the issue of whether we should hire you or not, what do you bring to Kirkwood Elementary that I’m not seeing here in your application? Tell me why I should hire you over any of the other equally qualified candidates?”

  “Well, back to my earlier point of having to fight my way back through the education system, I really believe that too many kids aren’t given the right sort of motivation from the earliest stages of their school experience.” Allison tucked a strand of hair back behind her ear. “I know this is going to sound incredibly idealistic, but I want to make a difference. My brother stepped in to take care of me, and he prevented me from going down an even more dangerous path than the one I was following. My best friend teaches at West Liberty, and I see the way she affects the course of her students’ lives. That’s the kind of person I want to be, and this is the school where I want to do it. It’s where I went when I was little, and it’s where I’d like to become the sort of person that little girl had the potential to be.”

  “A most dramatic answer,” said McCullough, “but in the best possible way. Now, I have a few more technical questions and a few administrative details to discuss—”

  The door to the office flew open and a short man with thick-rimmed glasses burst inside. Allison spun around, glancing over her shoulder, but the man looked straight past her with a look of horror and confusion scrawled across his features.

  “Gary,” he said, his voice quavering with fear, “you need to come out here right now.”

  “Please,” the principal shot an apologetic look at Allison before turning back to his co-worker, “you know I’m in the middle of an interview. Can’t this wait a few minutes?”

  “With all due respect to your meeting, there is a fucking bear in our hallways.” The short man licked his lips and jerked his head back over his shoulder as if the bear might be right behind him. “I am dead serious, Gary. Someone needs to deal with this, and it sure as hell isn’t going to be me.”

  Allison and the principal leaped up in unison.

  “Charles here, is our Vice Principal,” explained Principal McCullough as they walked out through the office and past the secretary’s desk. She looked unperturbed and clearly unaware of the supposed wild animal rampaging through the school.

  “There,” shouted the V
ice Principal as they rounded a corner and had a clear view down a perpendicular hallway.

  Sure enough, a large black bear was trundling down the hallway without a care in the world. It reached the end of the hall where two large doors stood propped open, and the bear turned to look over its shoulder, flashing what looked suspiciously like a grin.

  Allison looked at the two men on either side of her, their faces locked in horrified confusion. She supposed she couldn’t blame them for being so completely unprepared for the sight of a supposedly wild animal wandering the halls of a school still packed with students, just a few days before the end of the school year, was too much for their brains to process. It wasn’t the kind of thing a normal person was prepared for, because a normal person hadn’t had plenty of experience with shifters.

  A few years ago, Allison would have considered herself a normal person. She’d probably have been freaking out alongside the two men in charge of the school, and she might have even run screaming in the other direction. All that had changed after the Hellclaws rolled into town one night several years earlier, and Allison had a hunch that the bear hadn’t stumbled into this particular school on this particular day by any coincidence of fate.

  Walking to the nearest window, Allison peered outside and scanned the road. She didn’t see anything at first, but then she spotted what she’d been looking for. Sitting on the road, not too far away from where the black bear was now wandering off through the empty playground towards the clump of forest in the distance, sat a big burly biker with a massive black beard.