With a slow and steady hand, she reached behind the seat to grab her camera. Wasn’t this what she was after? No more Vegas weddings or stripper parties to photograph. She wanted to experience something real. She’d dreamed of having a National Geographic moment but never thought it would happen on a country road in Georgia.
Through the rain dotted window, she focused the lens on the wet majestic creature and snapped several pictures of the enormous brown bear. Call her crazy, but he shifted to face her full on, and she would have sworn he posed for her. Then, he shook his head and lumbered into the forest.
With her heart beating a thousand miles a minute, she scrolled through the pictures she just shot. He was amazing. He was massive in stature, and yet so fluid and graceful.
On the side of the road, she watched the woods where he disappeared and willed him to return. When her heart reached a near-normal rate, she shifted the SUV into drive and pressed forward. It had been a long journey from Las Vegas. Three ten-hour days had taken their toll, and she was ready to claim her future.
Ten minutes later, the town of Grayslake came into view. She pulled into the parking lot of Miller Grocery and waited for a lull in the rain. A joke her mom used to tell her when she was little replayed in her mind: “What do you call a wet bear?” She’d shake her head and begin to laugh because her Mom broke out the same joke every time it rained. “A drizzly bear.” Mom would bust out laughing at her own bad joke. Fawn never thought the joke was particularly funny. Mom’s laugh was the reason for her own. She laughed so infrequently; it was a sight to behold and embrace.
With no relief from the rain in sight, she grabbed her bag and made a run for it. To say she was drenched before she hit the door was an understatement. Her white T-shirt stuck to her skin like tissue to glue.
When she pushed through the door, the bell above announced her presence. A young man who was crouched behind the counter bolted upright when she entered. “Can I help you?”
“Just picking up a few supplies. Can you tell me anything about the old Blackly cabin on Grays Lane?”
The young man jumped over the counter and handed Fawn a basket. “You mean Brody’s place?” He looked her up and down.
Fawn’s nipples were pressing forward like headlights on a dark road. No missing those suckers. She should have been embarrassed, but she was too wet and too tired to care. She pulled her shirt away from her skin and let it fall loosely down her front, camouflaging the fact that she was also too cold.
“I don’t know what they call it now, but that’s where I’m headed. Do you know if there’s electricity? Running water?”
“We may be a small town, but we have all the bells and whistles.” He rolled his eyes and leaned against the counter. “Are you visiting?”
She started down the aisles throwing supplies into her basket. Matches. Water. Cheese. Yes, cheese was a staple in her life. She got to the fish section and lost her breath. There were big cities that didn’t have a selection this comprehensive. Right then, she knew she was going to love Grayslake.
“Oh, my God, how do you have so many different kinds of fish?” She pressed her nose against the glass and peered at the variety like a kid looking through a candy shop window.
“We cater to our population. Fish is a staple.”
“Heaven—I’m in Heaven,” she sang out and leaned down to look at the offerings. Being pescatarian was never a choice for her, it was just who she was. The only land animal products she could consume without tummy trouble were animal byproducts like cheese and milk.
“We don’t get a lot of strangers coming through town. What’s your name?”
“I’m Fawn Blackly, and I’m no longer a stranger. I’ll be living in the Brody cabin.”
The poor boy’s brows lifted to his hairline. “You can’t live there, it’s not safe.”
“Who are you?” Fawn never liked the word can’t. It felt foreign to her way of thinking. Can’t simply meant short-sighted.
“I’m Rick, the owner’s grandson.” He tripped over his feet and hurried toward the door. “Ring the bell on the counter and Emily will help you,” he called over his shoulder just before he exited the store like a bullet freshly discharged from its pistol.
She’d never understand teens. At twenty-seven, she felt a million years away from being anything but an adult. Was she ever that young and carefree? She exhaled the disappointment of a tragic past. Her fingertips traced over the raised scars on her shoulder that had destroyed her parents’ marriage. A silly fall under her dad’s watch and everything changed. She’d spent years trying to understand but always came up short. Fawn tapped the bell on the counter.
“What can I get you?” A young emerged from the back room. She pulled a piece of butcher paper from the box and placed it on the scale. “Salmon’s really fresh. So is the trout. It was brought in just before the storm broke loose. Mr. Byron catches the best trout.” She had a dreamy look in her eyes as she mentioned the man. Fawn would have to meet this “Mr. Byron.” If he could turn a girl’s insides out, she was game for an introduction.
The storm raged outside. The lights flickered on and off in the store. She hurried through the aisles to get whatever else she could throw in before the power failed. A bag of ice and a foam cooler were her last grabs before the lights fizzled and died a quick death. Thankfully, Emily had already tallied her totals.
Emily packed the cooler full and tossed in another bag of ice for free. “You better get to wherever you’re going. This storm is supposed to rage for days, and the roads are already getting impassable.”
Fawn paid her bill, hefted the cooler into her arms and inched toward the door. Sheets of rain created small rivers, which created bigger rivers, which in turn created small lakes in the intersection. It was now or never. She kicked open the door and ran in ankle-deep water to her car. She preferred her showers to be one hundred and five degrees, inside, with a warm fluffy towel waiting for her. This was awful.
One more look at the map and she was on the last leg of her journey. After the first right, she took the second left and then drove three miles along the lakefront. She hated this SUV, but when it floated across water two to three feet deep, she wanted to give her mother a great big hug. Mom knew something about Grayslake that she didn’t, and now she wished she’d demanded more answers.
In the distance, a cabin came into view. It wasn’t the abandoned rough-hewn log enclosure she had expected. Smoke rose from the chimney. Flower boxes full of trailing ivy and purple forget-me-nots hung below the windows.
Someone was living in her house.
She threw the car in park, muscled the door open, and marched to the door. Her frosted knuckles ached when she rapped on the wood. In her left hand, she gripped the deed, proof that whoever was in her cabin was a trespasser.
She pulled the key that had come with the deed from her pocket and slid it into the lock. Nothing happened. She twisted and turned but nothing budged.
She pounded on the door insistently. This was her house, and she wanted inside. Wet and cold, with fingers that had pruned an hour ago, she was miserable. “Let me in,” she screamed. Lifting on her tiptoes, she peeked into the window and saw the crackling of flames behind the metal screen of a fireplace. Overstuffed furniture with warm wooden accents decorated the space. It was such a cozy scene, and here she was, an outsider looking in. She’d felt that way all her life.
“Who the hell are you?”
From behind her, the sound of his roar had her stumbling off the porch, and down onto her knees in the mud.
“Who the hell are you?” She struggled to stand in the slippery mess, but gave up when she fell to the muck one more time. Her eyes followed his wet feet all the way up his naked body. His dark eyes devoured her. Tall and deadly looking, he was a predator wrapped in attitude and nothing else. Water dripped from his chiseled muscles as if he’d just emerged from the lake behind him. He looked like a warrior ready for battle, but even his large hands couldn’t shi
eld the weapon between his legs.
A sneak peek of Un-bear-able Love
Lily
Lily pressed her ear to the door of her father’s private den. She hated this room. It was where all good things came to an end—at least in her mind. She cursed herself for being part human. It was the part she loved the most, the part she got from her mother, but it was also the part that let her down.
She didn’t have ears that could hear through solid wooden doors, eyes that could see for blocks at night, or a temper that would flare in an instant. No, she didn’t inherit those traits from her father.
Lily tapped into her bear and flattened her cheek to the door jamb. It was the one place she could hear what was going on. Years ago, her father had ripped the door off in a rage, but when it was repaired, the tiniest of gaps still remained—a gap big enough to give her a glimpse into her father’s secrets.
His voice vibrated through the wood like an angry god, “Tomorrow, Dane. I’m tired of waiting for you to initiate.”
Lily choked on the knot in her throat. She was out of time. Adrenaline surged. Her heart raced. Fight or flight kicked in, and she prickled with the need to shift. It didn’t happen often, only when imminent danger threatened. She forced the emotions down and focused on the conversation behind the door.
“I’ll take her as mine, but she’s going to fight it.”
“Lily does as she’s told. She’s pliable and weak, like her mother.”
She hated when her father publicly shamed her beloved mother. “Let the dead rest,” she whispered to herself. She froze and prayed they hadn’t heard her.
“I don’t love your daughter. I can’t stand to look at her.”
“You don’t have to love her or look at her, you just have to marry her and mate her. Plant your damn seed.”
“I’ll never love her, and I’ll only mate her so my son will someday sit at the helm of the clan.”
“You’ll mate her because I told you to, and you better pray she has a son. Her mother failed in that pursuit. Just goes to show you that love can’t conquer all.”
Lily felt the sharp pricks of her fur break through her skin. Tired of her father assuming she had no value as a woman, she wanted to release the growl that crawled up her throat, but she didn’t. What was the use? Nothing would change. He was a hard, stubborn man—always had been, and always would be. There were no warm fuzzies when it came to Donovan Becket, and she often wondered about the attraction between her parents. Was theirs a fated union or a marriage of convenience? He did say that love couldn’t conquer all, so he must have loved her mother some.
“Tomorrow, Dane. She’s yours.”
The chairs screeched and she heard shuffling as the men moved. With not a second to spare, Lily bolted up the stairs to her room. In order to save herself, she had to leave tonight.
After tossing what she could into her suitcase, she sat in front of her computer and pulled up a map. Her fingers skimmed over the western states until an incoming message flashed across her screen—an update from the Wereweb.
It’s open season in Grayslake, Georgia. Come on down and find your fated.
She located the tiny town on the map and pressed her finger to the screen. That was it. This was providence. Grayslake was where she needed to be, if only to disappear in the midst of a crowd of lonely women.
Her father’s words echoed in her head. She’s pliable and weak. He was wrong. Lily would put up a fight. She wouldn’t win, and she knew, within days, she’d be married to Dane and carrying his cub, but until that happened, she would fight. She would live.
She clicked on her blog, “Lily Loves,” and wrote a final post before she ran.
Don’t settle for less than love.
More Grayslake
Thank you for reading Bear-ly a Choice. I hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did, please consider leaving a review when you have time.
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Discover the series that inspired the World!
AUTHOR: Celia Kyle
TITLES: (listed in series order)
No Ifs, Ands or Bears About It | All Roar and No Bite | Roaring Up the Wrong Tree | Howl My Name | Sunday Bear-beque
WEBSITE: http://celiakyle.com/
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Here are a few other books in the Grayslake: More than Mated Kindle World for you to check out:
TITLE: Growling For Mine
AUTHOR: Alexa Riley
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TITLE: The Right Spot
AUTHOR: Bianca D‘Arc
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TITLE: Never Kiss A Wolf
AUTHOR: Eliza Gayle
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TITLE: Lyin’ Heart
AUTHOR: Erika Masten
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TITLE: Secrets to Bear
AUTHOR: Flora Dare
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TITLE: Furrever Yours
AUTHOR: Georgette St. Clair
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TITLE: Paws and Surrender
AUTHOR: Josie Walker
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TITLE: Fated and Furr-ocious
AUTHOR: K. Collins
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TITLE: Lion to Get Her
AUTHOR: Lynn Red
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TITLE: Creed’s Claim
AUTHOR: Mina Carter
Grab it on Amazon.com HERE.
Make sure you check out the newest batch of Grayslake: More than Mated Kindle World books that released on September 20th, 2016! Grab them on Amazon.com HERE.
A Bite of Love by Ally Summers
Make Her Howl by Flora Dare
Bears Do It Better by Jessie Lane
Bear Up by Mina Carter
Un-Bear-able Love by K. Collins
Dirty Lion Bastard by Renee George
Waking the Bear by Ruby Shae
UnBearable Secrets by Terra Wolf
Other Books by Kelly Collins
The Boys of Fury Series
Redeeming Ryker
Saving Silas
Delivering Decker
The Second Chance Series
Set Free
Set Aside
Set in Stone
Set Up
Set On You
The Second Chance Series Boxset
Making the Grade Series
The Learning Curve
The Dean’s List
The Graduate
Honor Roll
Making the Grade Boxset
The Decadent Series
Just Dessert
Brownie Points
Whipped
The Decadent Series Boxset
A Meet Me Romance Collection
Meet Me Under the Full Moon
Meet Me On the Dance Floor
Meet Me In the Middle
Meet Me In Secret
A Meet Romance Collection Boxset
Kindle World Books
Fated and Furr-oscious
Unbearable Love
Nailed by Love
Off the Grid
Standalone Novels and Novellas
True North
Tempo
Blue Ribbon Summer
Billion Dollar Smile
Lucky in Rio
Holiday Novels
Cole for Christmas
The Trouble With Tinsel
Acknowledgments
I want to thank the readers for taking a chance on Bear-ly a Choice. I am a contemporary romance writer that veered out of her lane to write some paranormal books. I hope you enjoyed my forest ranger and take a chance on my other More Than Mated Kindle World contributions.
Fated and Furr-oscious
Unbearable Love
&nbs
p; About the Author
Kelly Collins writes with the intention of keeping the love alive. Always a romantic, she is inspired by real-time events mixed with a dose of fiction. She encourages her readers to reach the happily ever after but bask in the afterglow of the perfectly imperfect love.
Kelly lives in Colorado at the base of the Rocky Mountains with her husband of twenty-five years, their two dogs, and a bird that hates her.
In her spare time, she enjoys walking the trails and visiting the mining towns like Cripple Creek. She likes to think it's the ambience that brings her there and not the amazing slot machine in the back of the casino.
She has three amazing children, and she wonders how they all turned out to be engineers when only the creative side of her brain seems to work. She just chalks it up to the engineering genes her husband contributed to the mix.
Creative minds need an outlet and writing books is where she focuses her excess energy.
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For More Information
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Grayslake: More than Mated: Bear-ly a Choice (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 8