by Zoe Chant
Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, by Lauren Esker. Curvy farm girl Julie Capshaw was warned away from the wolf shifters next door, but Damon Wolfe is the motorcycle-riding, smoking hot alpha of her dreams. Can the big bad wolf and his sheep shifter find their own happy ending? A full-length novel.
Handcuffed to the Bear, by Lauren Esker. A bear-shifter ex-mercenary and a curvy lynx shifter searching for her best friend's killer are handcuffed together and hunted in the wilderness. Can they learn to rely on each other before their pasts, and their pursuers, catch up with them?
Discovering the Dragon, by Sofia Stone. When reporter Chloe Martin investigates Lancaster Gold, she finds herself tangled up with the oldest son—Isaac Lancaster, billionaire dragon shifter.
In the Billionbear’s Den
by Zoe Chant
Special Sneak Preview
Kristin had found a little sunlit clearing just off the trail from the B&B, full of wildflowers and with a perfect place to sit and put her back against a sun-warmed rock. She tilted her head back and admired the forest—she could almost feel the muscles unwinding in the back of her neck, where she’d been tense for what felt like months.
A couple of times, her thoughts started wandering to work. Andy had been concerned about whether he could put the next client presentation together without her help, but she’d done all the research and carefully labelled all the files in the folder on the server, and she knew he knew how to work Powerpoint, so he should be able to assemble it just fine for Monday morning’s meeting—
She yanked herself back to the present. It wasn’t her problem this weekend. Andy could manage it fine by himself. She was on vacation!
In a beautiful forest, no less, with a blanket of purple flowers stretching out before her into the trees. She breathed deeply, feeling the warm rock against her back and the cool breeze in her hair, closing her eyes to turn her face up to the sun.
Slowly, she drifted off to sleep.
When she woke up, the sun had changed angles and her butt was uncomfortably numb. She shifted in place, wincing through the pins and needles, and opened her eyes.
There was a bear in the clearing.
Kristin froze, staring at it. Yep, that was a bear. A big, black bear, staring right at her, half-up on its hind legs.
Holy shit, a bear! Kristin scrambled up to her feet, grabbed a tree for balance and took off running. Oh God, what if she was eaten on her vacation? What had she been thinking, going walking in the woods alone? Why hadn’t she asked if there was dangerous wildlife around? She would never complain about work again if she could just escape without being mauled by a freaking bear.
She tried to quiet her breathing to see if she could hear it coming after her, but there were no crashing sounds behind her. All she could hear was her own panting and the snapping of twigs and underbrush as she pelted through the woods.
She risked a look back. No sign of a bear. She was getting tired—why hadn’t she listened to her mom and started an exercise program? She glanced back again, and didn’t see anything.
Finally, she risked slowing down a bit and looking again, longer this time. Really no bear, and she came to a halt, and turned in a circle. No bear at all. She could see a few buildings in the distance; she’d run off the trail, but still basically towards town. Even if the bear reappeared, maybe there’d be time to get help.
She waited for a minute, her heart pounding in her ears. Was it stalking her? She abruptly remembered hearing that you weren’t supposed to run from bears, because they’d instinctively chase you. If you backed away slowly, they might lose interest.
Another minute. Still no bear.
Eventually, Kristin concluded that she was the luckiest woman on the planet, because she’d run into a bear that was really lazy or very easily distracted. It wasn’t coming after her.
She caught her breath, wiped the sweat out of her eyes, and started back to the town on shaky legs.
***
Michael, you are a goddamn idiot, Michael thought to himself. He’d come across the woman sleeping in the clearing, surrounded by a carpet of flowers, her hair lit up like fiery red-gold in a shaft of sunlight, and he’d been transfixed. It had been such a fairy-tale moment, he’d felt like he was in a movie.
So of course he’d come into the clearing to see her better and then just sat there. He’d been thinking vaguely that she looked vulnerable, all alone and asleep in the woods, and he should stay here and watch out for her until she woke up. In bear form he was more intimidating than anything or anyone else that lived around here.
He hadn’t been thinking about what would happen when she woke up and saw him. That she’d be terrified because she’d been sleeping right next to a four-hundred-pound black bear, with claws and teeth, something any woman would run screaming away from.
At least she hadn’t been screaming. Too smart to waste the oxygen, Michael thought, and then shook his head. He wasn’t going to make himself any creepier by finding her attractive as she ran away from him.
He held onto the picture of her sleeping in the clearing as he started back home, though. Gorgeous long auburn hair, curves he could easily imagine pressed up against him, her face beautiful even relaxed in sleep. He wondered what she looked like when she smiled.
Click here to keep reading In the Billionbear’s Den!