by Marla Monroe
Shifting Desires 2
Bearing Up for Her Love
Wren isn’t afraid of having bears, Warren and Eason, for mates. She’s not even worried that there are two of them. Wren just isn’t ready, period. She needs to make sure her brother finds his mate first. But something sinister is going on that is worse than even the hunters who are after them.
Eason’s dual bears fight constantly to be in control but one touch from Wren and they are more than ready to work together to protect their mate. Warren isn’t daunted by their mate’s insistence on holding off on the mating until whatever is going on in their little town is exposed and stopped. His only worry is that whatever it is will destroy their mate.
Together the bears and the wild dogs struggle to uncover who is behind the attacks on the wild dog pack. When a new twist walks in verifying that the wolves are part of the problem, Wren’s brother declares war on them and the fight is on.
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Shape-shifter
Length: 50,000 words
BEARING UP FOR HER LOVE
Shifting Desires 2
Marla Monroe
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
BEARING UP FOR HER LOVE
Copyright © 2015 by Marla Monroe
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-782-3
First E-book Publication: October 2015
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2015 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
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
About the Author
BEARING UP FOR
HER LOVE
Shifting Desires 2
MARLA MONROE
Copyright © 2015
Chapter One
“I bet wolves don’t walk any better with their balls up their asses than humans do,” Wren Angels said. “Put your hands on me one more time and we’re going to try a little experiment and find out.”
“Now, Wren. There’s no reason to get pissy. We’re going to be mated soon. Your brother promised you to me to cement the wolves with the wild dogs. I don’t think he’s going to risk a rift between our packs, pup. Do you?” Alex, the alpha of his wolf pack said as his lips curled into a snarl.
“He might be my brother, Alex, but I can promise you that he doesn’t have complete control over me. See, that’s something you haven’t yet grasped about us. They don’t call us wild dogs for nothing, wolf boy.” Wren growled at him, showing her teeth before turning on her heel and stomping her way back to her brother’s office in the back of the garage they ran.
Mojave looked up when she slammed the door behind her. His expression immediately smoothed out from the scowl he’d been wearing when she walked in.
“Hey, birdie. What’s got your hackles up?” he asked with an indulgent smile.
“I’m going to ask you this once. One time, Mo. Be sure you answer me with the truth or I will walk out of here and never look back.” Wren drew in a deep breath. “I’m serious. I’m not a child to be talked down to or talked about when I’m not around.”
“What is it, Wren?”
Her brother was used to her going off the deep end for just about anything. She could tell he wasn’t worried about her question this time either. That would change once he heard it. She didn’t really believe her brother would promise her to someone without her approval, not even to forge a bond or truce or whatever with another group. Still, a small part of her knew how much he really wanted the backing of the wolves with so much at stake.
“Did you promise me to Alex in exchange for his support of our pack?” Wren held her breath, wishing she could squeeze her eyes shut as well.
“Wren, you’re making all of this into something it’s not. I—”
“Don’t you dare try to avoid this or squeeze out of it,” she interrupted him.
“I’m not. You’ve got to shut up long enough for me to explain this to you, sis.” Mojave sighed and stood up. Walking around the desk he leaned against the front of it to look down on her. “I didn’t exactly promise you to him. I did promise to urge you in his direction, though. He’s a strong leader and has more assets than we do. You’d have just about anything you could ever want as his mate. Plus, you’d be safe among them.”
“Fuck you, Mojave! I’m not mating him. He’s sleazy and makes my stomach turn. He told me you promised me to hi
m, and that I didn’t have any choice in the matter. Well hear this, brother. I will never mate anyone I don’t want to be with. I want my true mate. I don’t want to settle. You’ve waited for your true mate for over ten years now. Why can’t I?” she demanded, punctuating her words with a finger in her brother’s chest.
It didn’t matter that she had. Wren wasn’t ready to acknowledge them yet. Once her brother knew they were right there in their town, he’d want her to claim them and he’d give up. She wasn’t letting him do that.
“You just don’t get it, do you?” he yelled back, his snarl loud now. “I can’t protect you like he can. I want you safe, Wren. We’ve only got fifteen in our pack now. Between the hunters who thinned us out back in Texas and most of our mated pairs joining the packs there to be safe, we don’t have enough to fight if we have to. I don’t want you in the middle of anything like what’s probably coming.”
“I can fight better than most of the dogs here and you know it, Mo. It wouldn’t matter if I was mated to another pack, I’d always fight next to you,” she said with a snarl of her own.
“Without a true mate, I can’t keep the pack together for much longer, Wren. It’s just how things are. Wild dogs are too unstable not to have a mate to help the madness inside of us. It’s why lone alphas rarely have a pack at all these days. We usually just drift around. I’ve fought it for a long time to give you a stable pack to grow up in, but I’m losing it.” Mojave jerked at his hair and walked around to flop back in his chair.
Wren knew this, but had let it simmer in the back of her mind, believing her brother was different and that they had more time. She’d prayed every night that the next day would bring her brother his mate just as she’d prayed to one day find hers. Why had she found hers before he had? It wasn’t right. She wasn’t exactly excited now that she had found her true mate since there were two of them and not just one.
She knew he’d lost hope years before, but had persevered in hopes that when she found her mate he would still be strong enough to handle their small pack with her help. That hadn’t worked out even after all their time there in Talmadge. When the alpha of the local wolf pack had suddenly shown an interest in her, Mo had seen it as the perfect solution to all of their problems. She’d have a mate to take care of her and his pack of wild dogs could join the wolves and be under their protection.
Wren had to stop herself from snorting at the thought that she might need someone to keep her safe. She could take care of herself better than anyone she knew except perhaps her brother. She no more trusted the wolf alpha than she did a coyote or hyena. In her world, you earned trust, it wasn’t freely given. Too bad her brother didn’t see it the same way.
“Mojave, you’ll find her. She’s out there for you. Maybe we should move the pack so you can look for her.” She fought tears that now burned in her eyes instead of burning anger in her heart. As an African Wild dog, her emotions were all over the place, especially when she was upset.
Her brother sighed and closed his eyes. “Wren, honey, it’s too late for me. I’m tired. Keeping these crazy dogs on track and out of trouble has just about taken everything I have inside of me. I’m not sure there’s even anything left to offer a mate if I did find her.”
“No! I won’t let you give up. You made me swear all those years ago to never give up. Well that goes for you, too, Mo! There’s no giving up in our family. You swore to me that you’d never leave me, and I’m going to hold you to it.” Wren knelt at her brother’s feet and laid her head on his knees.
It was a position that few wild dogs would ever willingly take, but she’d grown up sitting at his feet with her head against his leg or on his knee as he handled the business of the pack. It was a comforting position for her, but only with her brother. Had anyone else expected it of her they would have found themselves minus a hand or a set of balls. When it came to both physical and emotional strength, Wren had just as much as her brother. Had they not been brother and sister, they could have easily ruled a pack of over a thousand without breaking a sweat.
In the old days, before The Awakening, shifters lived in remote areas and rarely ventured very far into the human world. There had been anti-shifters or hunters for as long as there had been shifters, and over the years, the different shifter groups had been thinned to the point of being wiped out.
Once shifters were outed due to emerging technology, those against them gained strength just as their supporters had. The only good thing had been the resulting outcry that they were hunted down and slaughtered. Legislation made them a protected society but without full rights. They couldn’t vote or hold public office, but they could pay taxes. They were fighting that now.
Hunters had to go through training and become licensed and were only allowed to hunt rogues with death warrants on their heads. Some didn’t agree with the new laws and still hunted shifters like wild game. It made living in packs, sleuths, and prides a greater necessity than ever before.
Wren inhaled the comforting scents of family, pack, and grease. For as long as she could remember, her pack had owned garages of some kind or another. Sometimes they had diesel shops and sometimes bike shops, but always she’d had the scent of grease and oil to remind her of her brother and the pack.
“We’ll make it together, Mo. I refuse to allow you to lose our pack or your sanity. You didn’t give up on me all those years ago, and I won’t give up on you now.”
* * * *
“Easy, man. You’ve got to settle. Remember what we’ve worked on.” Warren kept his voice relaxed and prayed Eason could rein in his bears.
“Trying. Want mate,” Eason pushed out from his elongated canines.
“I know. So do I, brother. We’ve got to go slow with her. She’s already spooked by us, and she’s got that wolf bastard sniffing after her, too. If we push her, she’ll run just like our Ursa did. It’s too dangerous for her to be out there on her own.” Warren was worried that was going to happen anyway if the alpha wolf kept after her. It was obvious to anyone with two eyes that she didn’t like him.
He couldn’t understand why Wren’s brother, the alpha of the African wild dogs, was pushing her into the wide open arms of the alpha of the local wolf pack. What did he hope to accomplish, and why, when he seemed to honestly care about his sister, would he force her into a mating she didn’t want?
“Fight wolf bastard,” Eason snarled.
Warren sighed. This wasn’t going well. If Eason couldn’t control himself or Warren wasn’t able to rein him in, he would be deemed a danger to the sleuth and have to be destroyed. Not only was the crazy hybrid bear his best friend, but he was the other half of his bonded pair. Without Eason, Warren would feel incomplete even with his mate by his side. Whatever had started to happen in the bear community to give them bondmates again Warren wasn’t about to doubt the need.
He and Eason had essentially grown up together. His mom had been a black bear and his father a grizzly. Normally in the shifter world, when two different types mated, the resulting offspring would carry one or the other animal but not both. The strongest genes took over and dominated the others. In Eason’s case, instead of becoming either a Grizzly or a black bear, he held both inside of him and became something that was odd as hell to look at.
“Breathe through it, Eason. Think about keeping your mate safe, and that if you can’t control your nature you won’t be able to care for her.” Warren hoped Eason relaxed soon. They had work to do.
As a hybrid, Eason always fought his dual bears to keep in control of both of them. It made him a strong bastard but also a very volatile one. Their Ursus, the leader of their sleuth, had taken a big chance in letting him come with them to their new home. Their old Ursus hadn’t wanted to allow Eason to leave the safer life they’d had back in Alaska. He couldn’t hurt anyone if he lost control at times. In the more populous parts of the US, it would be seriously dangerous if he got out of hand.
“I’m better, brother. Thanks.” Eason dropped his head back aga
inst the tree he was leaning on. “Her scent lingers here where she changed the other day. It tore at me. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I had to really fight my own bear. He wants to go get her just like yours does. We’ve both got to tone it down until we can woo her to our bed.”
“It’s the first time I’ve lost it that bad in a long time. What’s going to happen if I can’t control it outside of our old sleuth? I don’t want to go back with my mate here. I don’t want our Ursus to have to kill me either.” Eason hung his head.
“Don’t think like that, man. Just remember to focus, and I’ll help. We’re a team just like always. There’s nothing we can’t conquer together.”
Eason nodded then stood up again, stretching his arms over his head. “I’m ready.”
Warren smiled. “Let’s go. With our mate so close, we need to get everything in the basement completed as soon as possible.”
He watched as Eason strode out of the trees toward the truck and opened the passenger side door to climb in. A sound from the house had them both stopping in their tracks.
“It’s my damn house! I can let whoever I want stay in it. Don’t even try to tell me what I can and can’t do or we’re going to have problems, Creed.” The sound of their Ursa Serenity’s voice had that effect on all of them. It was just instinct to protect and care for her.
“I’m not telling you what you can and can’t do, baby, but that’s asking for trouble and you know it,” Creed said in a slightly softer tone than their Ursa’s.
“This doesn’t sound good, Eason,” Warren said in a soft voice.