“You don’t even smoke,” Matt said.
Rick shrugged. “Well, if I started. Could you, Jackie? Could you?”
“Ha,” she said. “I’d be more likely to set your hair on fire.”
Connor smirked. “Would be a good look for you, Rick.”
Rick scowled, then brightened. “What about the fire pit?” he said, gesturing. “Could you light that?”
“It’s already lit,” Matt pointed out.
“Yeah, but what if it wasn’t? Could you, Jackie?”
“I could light it,” Jackie said.
“That could sure save money on kerosene,” Connor said, sounding pleased, as if he were just now realizing the benefits of having a dragon shifter around.
Rick clapped his hands, beaming. “I knew it! Okay, so what about flying?”
“Soon,” Jackie said. “My wings are connected to my fire. I think they just have to regenerate or something. Might take a few weeks, even longer, for me to be able to call on them. But yeah.” She sighed and glanced at the stars. “Someday I’ll be able to fly again.”
Matt kissed her on the brow, and she smiled, slowly and gently.
Rick downed a healthy swig. “Fire and wings, oh yeah, baby! This is going to be awesome!”
Still smiling, he moved off to find his own mate, Barb, who had her police jacket off and was drinking a beer on the other side of the fire. Jackie couldn’t wait to get to know her better. Jackie had been a criminal for years, but that would change now. It was time to become a respectable member of society, and Barb seemed pretty cool. Well, for a cop.
“So what will I do?” Jackie asked Connor. “I mean, as part of the crew?”
He rubbed his red beard. “Why, anything you like, I guess. We need all the help we can get running the inn. Someone from the big city could sure come in handy. Class the place up a bit, if you know what I mean.”
“I don’t know … I wasn’t exactly living in a penthouse. Although I did burgle a few.”
Connor chuckled. “That’s closer than I ever got to one. See, you’ll be a big help, I have no doubt.” He tilted his head, considering. “Maybe you could run security.”
“Security?”
Connor nodded, becoming more enthusiastic. “Sure, why not? I mean, you know it from the other side, right? You know how to infiltrate a place. You know what to look for to stop up the gaps or whatever.”
She mulled on it. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea. And soon I’ll be able to fly around the outside of the inn and make sure there’s no one scaling the sides of it.” She glanced at Matt to see what he thought. “Matt?”
He was frowning.
“What is it?” Jackie asked him. For some reason she felt a trace of alarm.
“Nothing. Just …”
“Yeah?”
He winced. “Walsh. He said he’d been looking for this place. For Pine Ridge. I just now remembered.”
Connor scowled. “That is peculiar. Wonder why he would look for Pine Ridge.”
“Some mystical reason, probably,” Jackie said. “Tannenbaum said something about the Fae.”
“I think we should tell her,” Matt said to Connor. Matt’s face was serious.
Connor paused, then nodded. “Yeah, she’s part of the crew now. You’ve got my permission.”
Matt cleared his throat. “Jackie, are you ready to know the secret I had to keep from you? The one Tannenbaum mentioned?”
Hesitantly, she nodded. Finally she would get to know what Matt had been holding back from her. Suddenly she realized she was nervous to find out about it. Some things were kept secret for a reason, after all. She tried to keep her fear from her face, though, and be brave.
“We in the Pine Ridge crew are the guardians of a gateway to the Fae Lands,” Matt said. “The Great Alpha assigned us to protect it.”
“The Fae Lands …” Jackie said, awed and delighted. Then, more thoughtfully: “Protect it …” She swung her gaze from Matt to Connor, then back. “Does that mean someone wants to do it harm?”
“It, or the Fae,” Connor said, and ran a hand through his thick hair. It seemed to be a nervous habit.
Jackie bit the inside of her cheek. “You think Walsh could be what he wanted you to protect it from?”
“Could be,” Connor said. “Could be. I don’t know.”
“Well, then that’s a relief,” Matt said. “He’s gone, locked away in some magical prison, and no one deserves it more.”
Connor didn’t say anything for a moment, then let out a huge breath. “Yeah. He’s gone. If he was what we were ordered to protect against, then I guess that part of our mission is over. We’re still the gate’s guardians, though, and if one asshat wants at it you can bet that others do, too.” He drained his beer and burped. “We’ll keep them all out, though, of that you can be sure. Now relax and enjoy the party, both of you. That’s an order from your alpha.”
His confidence restored, he moved off through the crowd to find another beer.
Alone with her mate at last, Jackie smiled up at Matt. He looked awesome. He wore a tight T-shirt that etched his firm pecs and eight-pack, and over it a loose cowboy-type leather jacket. His blue eyes twinkled out of his handsome face.
His voice lowered an octave. “Maybe we should get out of here.”
She swallowed. “You mean …”
“That’s right.”
He leaned in to her, letting her feel his hard body, and she felt her panties grow wet all over again. Oh boy. He had her number, all right.
“But this party’s for us!” she said.
“Trust me, they won’t miss us.”
“But … but …”
He grabbed her hand and dragged her through the crowd, then out of it, moving toward their new cabin; she’d already started fixing it up. She giggled and went with him gladly, feeling a naughty tingle spread all the way through her.
For a moment, something flamed hot inside her, and at first she thought it was her fire. Then she realized what it was, and she felt her cheeks burn. It wasn’t her dragon she was feeling, but her love for Matt instead. She wasn’t surprised that it burned just as bright.
THE END
FIRST IN THE SERIES
She was raised to hate bear shifters. He was raised to hate humans. On the run, can they find happiness together? If you haven't read Bear Run, the first book in the Pine Ridge series, you can find it here:
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CH3WC1W
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01CH3WC1W
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed reading Bear Fire as much as I did writing it. The next book in the Pine Ridge series will be out soon. To be notified when it comes out, you can sign up for my update list. I promise not to spam you. I’ll only send you an email when I have a new book coming out or a discount. You can sign up for the list HERE (http://madmimi.com/signups/238306/join ).
Oh, and please leave a review. A review means so much, not just to me but to other readers. It's the best way for readers to discover new writers, and it's very nice for me to see how people are responding to my stuff, and also find ways I can improve.
To encourage you to leave a review, just email me ([email protected]) after you've posted your review — forward me Amazon's confirmation email — and I'll thank you with a free gift of Pine Ridge #5 which comes out in a few weeks (if it's not out already by the time you're reading this). So post those reviews! :) You can leave them here:
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JEQXHVO
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Hugs,
Belinda Meyers
Paranormal Romance Author
Email: [email protected]
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Bear Fire: Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (BBW) (Pine Ridge BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance Series Book 4) Page 10