by Kim Fox
Contents
Copyright
About
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
Epilogue
Back Matter
More Books by Kim Fox
The Wilde Crew:
Ashton
The Shifters of Wilde Ranch Book Three
By KIM FOX
Sign up to Kim Fox’s exclusive newsletter to hear about new releases, get exclusive content including bonus chapters and to get a free shifter book!
Sign Up Here
Connect on Facebook:
Kim Fox on FB
Do you read Contemporary Romance?
Check out my bad boy books written under Kimberly Fox
Click here to see them on Amazon
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including emailing, photocopying, printing, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.
Please respect the author’s hard work and purchase a copy. Thanks!
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Contains explicit love scenes and adult language.
18+
www.AuthorKimFox.com
Copyright © 2017 by Kim Fox
All that Lauren wants is a nice weekend away in the mountains of Montana with her friends but when she witnesses a shifter phase in front of her terrified eyes, her weekend turns from relaxing to deadly.
Grizzly bear shifter, Ashton, is part of the Wilde Crew, the shifter crew famous for screwing everything up. So it’s no surprise when he gets videotaped phasing from his bear into his human form on some tourist’s phone. But what is a surprise, is the intense reaction the girl brings out of Ashton’s bear. Could the curvy girl be his one true mate?
When the compromising video ends up in the wrong hands, their lives will be in danger, their relationship will be tested, and the secret of every shifter in Colwood, Montana will be on the line. Will they be able to work together to get the video back or will the shifters’ secret be exposed for the whole world to see?
Book Three in the Wilde Crew Series. No Cliffhanger. No Cheating. HEA. 18+
one
“Shifter Chasers assemble!”
Oh, God. Not this again.
Lauren sighed as she looked out the window of the car as they sped down the highway, wondering how long it would take to get to Colwood, Montana. She couldn’t take much more of this.
“Come on, Lauren,” Pam said as she reached back to be part of the super secret shifter handshake. “Show me that hand!”
Lauren shook her head as she reached forward and got her hand sandwiched between Summer and Brenna’s sweaty hands.
Summer, Brenna, and Pam smiled as they got ready to shout the Shifter Chaser chant:
“Chasing Shifters is what we do!
We love the men and their animals too!
We will find one, just you wait
Then we’ll be a shifter’s mate
Shifters, shifters, we’ll chase you!”
Lauren mumbled the words as her friends screamed them at the top of their lungs. Do they seriously think that they’re going to find a shifter?
Lauren had a hard time believing that her friends could be that dumb. What was next? Vacationing in Area 51 to look for aliens or hiking through the mountains looking for Bigfoot? It was all so ridiculous.
But she definitely needed a vacation to break up the monotony of her boring life so she had said yes when Pam had asked her to come along on their shifter spotting trip.
The girls had been obsessed with a fake video that came out last summer of two men who were pretending to be shifters. One of the men phased into a bear on camera and the other phased into a lion right before a naked man ran across the screen. Experts had proven that the whole thing was a hoax but there were a bunch of crazy people, her three friends in the car included, that were convinced that it was real.
Pam had joined the growing Shifter Chaser movement and even recruited Summer and Brenna to the club’s delusional ranks. They were on their way to Colwood, Montana, the town where the fake video was supposedly filmed to try and spot a shifter. Colwood was turning into an Area 51 type of place but for shifters.
Lauren didn’t believe any of it. She was just going along to get away for a few days.
“If you could mate with any shifter,” Brenna asked, “which shifter would it be?”
“Bear,” Pam answered quickly. She was in love with bear shifters.
“Probably a dragon,” Brenna said. “Because I want a guy who can heat up the sheets!”
“I would go with a tiger shifter,” Summer said. “Because roar!”
The three girls waited for Lauren’s answer which wasn’t coming.
“What about you, Lauren?” Pam asked, tapping the steering wheel as she waited for an answer.
Nothing. Because shifters don’t exist.
“I don’t know,” she said, scratching her temple. “Maybe a wolf or something.”
“Wolves are hot,” Pam said, nodding in approval.
For the past two hours, they had talked about nothing but shifters and it was starting to drive Lauren crazy. There was still over two hours left on their road trip and Lauren was desperate to get the conversation away from shifters. It seemed that was all her friends wanted to talk about lately.
“Let’s play a game,” she said, willing to try anything.
“I have a game,” Summer said, perking up.
“Not shifter related,” Lauren said. Summer’s face dropped as she sank back into the seat beside her, looking sad.
“I have a good game,” Pam said, tapping the steering wheel. “I say a sentence and you have to finish it. My sex life is like…”
Lauren sighed. “My sex life is like a Lamborghini.”
“Why?” Pam asked, turning to look at her in the back seat of the car. “Because it’s fast and hard?”
“Because everyone looks when you take it out in public?” Brenna asked with a laugh.
“No,” Lauren said with a sigh. “Because I don’t have a Lamborghini.”
Her friends laughed but Lauren was serious. It had been way too long since the last time she got laid. It had been years with an s.
It was part of the reason why she wanted to tag along on the four-day trip to Colwood, Montana. Maybe she would meet a guy to clean out the cobwebs between her legs. They were starting to get out of control.
She wasn’t hopeful to find a guy in a small mountain town, especially if she was going to be hanging around with these Looney Tunes, but at the very least she could see the spectacular mountains of Montana and do some hiking. It was better than staying home for the twenty-eighth weekend in a row, scraping the bottom of the barrel of what Netflix had to offer.
Brenna held up her hand. “My turn. My sex life is like a race car at the starting line.”
Finally. A sentence that’s not shifter related.
“Why?” Pam asked, smiling.
“Because it’s ready for some shift
ing,” Brenna said, high-fiving Pam. “Just like me!”
Lauren sighed as she watched the blurry pavement whizzing by, wondering how much it would hurt if she jumped out of the car at that moment.
Summer, who was sitting beside Lauren in the back seat, began rifling through her bag.
“Are those avocados?” Lauren asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked inside. “Why do you have a bag full of avocados?”
Summer’s face lit up as she pulled one out. “They work as shifter repellent,” she said, squeezing the bright green skin.
“Shifter repellent?” Lauren asked, looking at her funny. “I thought the purpose of this trip was to find shifters, not repel them.”
“It is,” Summer said, rolling her eyes. “But there are some bad shifters out there too and this is the only way to protect yourself.”
“With an avocado?” Lauren asked, staring at her blankly.
“It’s true,” Pam said from the driver’s seat. “It was on the Shifter Chaser website so it has to be true.”
Summer was nodding in agreement. “It’s like onions and vampires,” she said. “Shifters can’t stand to be around avocados. It burns their skin.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Lauren said, trying not to laugh.
“It’s not,” Summer said, opening Lauren’s purse and stuffing an avocado inside. “Take it. You might need it.”
Lauren laughed. “Yeah, I might need it if I get hungry later. Thanks!”
She just rolled her eyes as she turned back to the window, leaving the avocado inside to humor her friends.
Shifters. Avocados. Secret handshakes. It was all a bit too much to deal with.
These mountains better be freaking spectacular.
***
“Wow,” Lauren said as they pulled into the Wilde Ranch. What a place!
The ranch was so lush with rolling meadows and tall trees in the thick forest that was off to the side. There was a river far off in the distance, babbling and gurgling along with a spectacular range of snow-capped mountains as a stunning backdrop to it all. It was more than she had hoped for.
The inn sat on the side of the property, looking like an old abandoned barn that was recently renovated with nice stone walls and thick beams of wood. There was a hand carved sign with the words The Wilde Ranch Inn stenciled on it in big black letters. As crazy as her friends drove her on the way up here, this was exactly what Lauren needed. A cute little place in the mountains where she could take a break from her boring life for a few days.
“Is that guy naked?” Brenna asked, pointing near the forest.
All four of the girls leaned forward, squinting their eyes to get a better view of the naked man in the distance. He had long blonde hair and a body that made them all wish that they were a little closer to the action.
The man stepped into one of the trailers that Lauren hadn’t noticed and closed the door, causing the girls in the car to let out a collective sigh.
“Definitely a shifter,” Pam said and they all laughed. Even Lauren who was feeling a lot better now that she was able to get out of the car.
Lauren stepped out and took a deep breath of the crisp mountain air, letting it fill her lungs until a smile broke out across her face. The summer sun was beating down and the smell coming from the inn’s kitchen smelled incredible.
They grabbed their bags out of the trunk and walked into the inn to check in.
“It’s so pretty,” Summer said, looking around at the beautiful lobby.
Lauren smiled at the pretty redhead behind the front desk. “Hi, ladies,” the girl said with a big welcoming smile. “Do you have a reservation?”
“Yes,” Pam said, stepping forward. “It’s under Pam Shifter.”
“Oh, God,” Lauren muttered under her breath. She walked away, shaking her head as she looked at the black and white pictures that were framed on the walls. Every picture was a scenic portrait of the best that Montana had to offer. It was such a beautiful state.
“I’m so hungry,” Summer complained, sticking her head into the restaurant. “Let’s go eat. It smells freaking amazing in there.”
Pam finished checking in for everyone and they decided to grab a bite to eat before heading up to the room. It was a cute little restaurant with a small bar in one corner and a big fireplace in the other. There were only about a dozen tables but half of them were full even though it was well after lunchtime.
They sat down at a table against the wall and started looking over the menu.
“Guys,” Summer hissed in a frantic whisper. “Check out the waiter. Oh. My. God.”
Lauren jerked her head back when she looked up. He was enormous. Big round muscles with a gorgeous face that had the cutest little dimples.
Pam was the only one who could lift her jaw off the table to say something. “Definitely a shifter,” she whispered. Everyone was too shocked to laugh this time.
“He’s coming over,” Summer whispered in a panic.
“Hi, ladies,” the waiter said. “I’m Cole and I’ll be your waiter. Can I get you beautiful women something to drink?”
All four of them just stared, unable to find a voice.
“Okay,” he said, smiling easily as the four women stared back at him in shock. “I’ll give you some more time.”
They all craned their heads to watch his ass as he walked back into the kitchen.
“Are we allowed to order him?” Summer asked, fanning herself with the menu.
“Seriously,” Pam said, downing half of her glass of water in one gulp. “I’ll eat that butt up any day.”
They were a little more composed when he came back to the table and managed to order their meals without embarrassing themselves too much. The guy was hot but Lauren liked her men a little rougher. Grittier and dark. Cole was a little too pretty for her tastes.
“He kind of looks like the shifter from the video,” Summer said, still staring at him.
“Nah,” Pam said as she looked. “Shifters live in the woods. They don’t work in restaurants.”
“Look what I found,” Brenna said, pulling out a flyer and slapping it down on the table. “I got it in the lobby. This company gives shifter tours.”
Oh, please no.
“Cool,” Pam said, grabbing it. “It goes to the place in town where the video was filmed.”
“And it goes into the forest to see a real live shifter footprint,” Brenna added, “the shifter museum in town, and then you get to eat at the restaurant that was rumored to have a female shifter who phased into a grizzly bear inside.”
“Wow,” Summer said, staring with wide eyes.
Lauren was saying wow in her head but for a different reason. She couldn’t believe that her friends could be that gullible.
A shifter footprint? I’m not paying to see that.
“We should do it tonight,” Pam said, nodding. “Let’s start this vacation off right!”
Summer and Brenna were nodding their heads as well. Lauren panicked as she realized that they were about to launch into the Shifter Chaser song.
“I think I’m going to pass,” Lauren said, bringing down the mood before they started singing in the middle of the dining room. “I’m not feeling too well.”
“Oh, no,” Pam said, tilting her head. “What’s wrong?”
“My stomach is…” Lauren said, trying to come up with a believable excuse on the spot, “broken.”
Damn it.
“Huh?” Brenna said, looking at her funny.
“I mean it’s upset,” Lauren said, clutching her not-upset-at-all stomach. “You guys can just go ahead and book it without me.”
“No, no, no,” Pam said, shaking her head. “We’ll wait for you.”
“No!” Lauren shouted, a little too loud and eager. “I mean, it’s okay. You guys go and have fun. I’ll just relax around here.”
“You sure?” Pam asked.
“Definitely,” Lauren answered. Please go without me.
Lauren sighed in relief whe
n they agreed to go and leave her behind. She was up for some fun stuff but walking around town looking at made up shifter relics wasn’t her idea of fun.
She excused herself and slipped off to the bathroom as the three girls began arguing over which type of shifter would make the best boyfriend.
Why? Why did you even want to come?
She kept asking herself that as she walked to the bathroom. Lauren didn’t even believe that there were shifters so it was hard for her to take part in the constant discussions on them.
The front door of the inn was open and she caught a glimpse of the snow-capped mountains in the background that were jutting up into the sky over the forest. She turned and walked outside, smiling at the receptionist who was flirting with a cute guy wearing a cowboy hat.
“This is why you came,” she said to herself as she stepped outside and took a deep breath while looking around at the beautiful scenery.
The tall Douglas-fir trees were scraping the sky with tiny birds darting between them. She walked along the inn, continuing past it until she saw the five trailers lined up in the distance.
Who lives in there? Maybe the workers or owners?
She wanted to investigate further but something caught her ear from behind her in the forest. Smack after smack rang out with some angry grunting mixed in.
The sound gave Lauren a cold shiver but she tiptoed over to see what it was anyway. The noises got louder as she approached the line of trees that led into the vast forest.
This is how horror movies start.
If it had been nighttime, she would have sprinted away, jumped in the car, and been halfway home by now, but the daylight was making her a little braver.
Horror movies never take place during the day. Do they?
Still, she felt compelled to see. She crept past the first few trees until some movement caught her eye.