by PA Vachon
Bearly Mistaken
Book Three
Bears in Love Series
PA Vachon
This is a work of fiction. The characters and events described in this book are imaginary and not intended to refer to or resemble any person. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or means without written permission of the author, except in the instance of short quotations used for critical review.
© 2018 by PA Vachon
ISBN: 978-1986189651
Dedication
To the ladies of P.A.’s BearsandBabes, you are all amazing and don’t let anyone tell you any different. To my grandparents, who nurtured my love of all things happily ever after. To Jules, you are an amazing cheerleader. Thank you for always talking me off the ledge. To my editor Summer, you are still awesome and a great sounding board.
And as always, to my life, my love, my one. You are my everything, forever…
“Though I saw it coming, it still hurts…”
Prologue
~Regan~
Winter 2 years earlier…
Regan Jensen knew in her heart that she would do whatever it took to protect the unborn cub in her womb. She was going to be a mom. It wasn’t ever one of the things she’d dreamed of as a child. Her own mother had passed away the year she turned eleven. She missed all of those important mother daughter milestones. Instead she had her dad, Marcus, who loved her and cared for her but when it came to girl things, he was clueless. Those were some rough years. Luckily, one of the older female members of the clan had taken Regan into town when she needed a bra, when that dreaded time of the month had started, and again when she was old enough to start thinking about sex. Condoms were a must… No baby for a teenage clan princess. Her dad was going to shit a brick when he found out he was going to be a grandpa. She was an unmated twenty year old clan princess. This was craptastic.
Regan watched as David made his way to their spot, a small pond just up the road from the family compound. It was such a peaceful place, lush and green in the spring and summer. The perfect place to spend time with your mate, even if he refused to claim you. The soft grass was a wonderful place for an afternoon of lovemaking. That’s what it was, lovemaking. They weren’t fucking or just having sex… They loved each other. Or at least she loved David and she thought he loved her too. But you can’t always have everything that you want. Sometimes life gets in the way. This conversation was not going to be pleasant but it was something that they had to talk about. David still didn’t know about the life she had growing inside of her, their little miracle. Their cub. So far she had been able to hide it from everyone. She didn’t have much time though. She was leaving on a Secret Keeper mission the next day. She still hadn’t told David about the Secret Keepers, the enforcers for the shifter community. The enforcers and their clan of grizzlies had been fighting with Hatchet, a maniac leader of a clan of black bears that were too close to exposing their secrets. They were sometimes judge, jury and executioner in certain situations.
“Babe,” David smiled at her, “I’m glad you’re here. We need to talk.”
“I know we do,” she sighed heavily, not really prepared for their upcoming discussion.
“Regan, it will be fine,” he replied. “You’ll see.”
“It won’t be though,” she murmured.
“I know you think that it won’t,” David said, “but I promise you, we’ll be together soon.”
“We can’t be together if you won’t leave that psychotic clan of bears,” she said, raising her voice in frustration. This wasn’t the first time they’d had this particular discussion.
“Regan, you have to trust me,” David said.
“David, you’re my mate, and I trust you,” Regan said, “but mate or not, I can’t break our laws.”
“I know, baby,” David sighed out, “but I have to stay and see this through.”
“You don’t have to be a part of a rogue clan,” she replied. “I’ll talk to my father. He’ll let you join us. Especially since we're mates. He would never make us stay apart.”
“I just can’t,” David said again.
Regan looked at David sadly, not understanding why he insisted on being a part of Hatchet’s clan. It was insanity. Those bears were going to get their species discovered. No matter what she said, he refused, and she wouldn’t tell him about the cub just to get her way. She couldn’t manipulate him in that way. He needed to want to stay for them, not just because a small life was joining their world in just over six months. They were both shifters, so the pregnancy would be more like a grizzly than a human.
“David, I need you to join me with my father,” she begged and she didn’t typically beg. “I can’t be with you if you’re against our most sacred of laws.
“I’m sorry, Regan,” David replied. “I can’t leave them.”
“Then I can’t do this with you anymore,” she said as she cried silently, tears leaving wet tracks on her cheeks.
Regan turned away to leave. Walking quickly back to her small Honda, she got in the driver’s seat, wiped her eyes, and started the car. The engine came to life with a small growl, like a squirrel protecting its horde. As she drove away, she turned on the radio. Much to her chagrin, Sara Evans ‘A Little Bit Stronger’ was just starting. She sang along as she let the tears flow, knowing that this was it. No mate, no love. Just a product of their time together quickly becoming a reality.
Regan pulled into the compound and turned off the engine. Wiping her face one last time, she got out of her car and started to walk towards her father, Marcus, to let him know about his grandchild.
Instead of leaving the next day on her mission, she was sent out early on an emergency mission that would keep her away from home for almost her entire pregnancy, tracking a rogue wolf through the Olympic National Forest. Luckily, he found a pack to take him in and set him on the right path, so her services as an enforcer were not needed, except as surveillance.
“I want to get so drunk I never remember you again…”
Chapter Two
~ David~
As she walked away, David was having an internal argument with himself. His grizzly didn’t understand that he had to stay with Hatchet’s clan. He only wanted to be with their mate. Unbeknownst to Regan, his name wasn’t even David. It was Johnny. It was killing him to watch her leave, but it was for the best. They hadn’t claimed each other at this point. It should be easy to walk away. Too bad his bear didn’t agree. He was being ripped apart inside by his bear, the anguished roaring and heartache like knives tearing his soul to ribbons.
David stood there in their favorite spot for what seemed like forever. Waiting. For what, he wasn’t sure. Maybe for Regan to come back to him, or maybe for his bear to calm down enough so that he could return to Hatchet’s clan. He was still here on a mission, no matter that his heart was breaking.
He slowly walked back to the road, got into his car, and drove away, checking the rear view mirror the whole way back to the clan hideout, thinking about his fated mate and hating that he’d had to let her go, but it wasn’t forever. Just until this travesty of a clan was brought to justice. The clan was using an old abandoned farm not all that far from where Regan lived with her clan to keep a low profile. He pulled into the overgrown driveway and headed for the dilapidated barn around the back of the listing two story house.
Sounds of someone being hit could be heard coming from inside. As he walked closer to the barn doors, he could also hear someone groan each time a fist or foot hit its target. What he walked into would stay with him for a very long time.
Tied to a middle post, with her clothes hanging off he
r in tatters, was Lauren, Ian’s mate. They were so screwed. You never hurt someone’s mate. Especially not a grizzly’s mate. Those fuckers were huge, scary, and they didn’t ever back down.
“What the fuck?” David yelled as his eyes adjusted to the gloom inside the barn.
“I’ll finally have my revenge,” Hatchet said. “Those grizzlies won’t tell me what I can and can’t do.”
“Hatchet, I told you this was a bad idea,” David began, trying to get him to see sense. It wasn’t working at all. He was hell bent on revenge and making Marcus pay, something Johnny still didn’t understand and maybe never would.
“Don’t be such a pussy, boy,” Hatchet yelled in his direction as he sneered down at the woman tied to the center post. “She’ll pay for their mistakes, and when they get here, they’ll see what we’re really capable of.”
“I’m not doing this anymore,” David replied. “You’ve gone too far this time.” He started towards Hatchet to help Lauren escape when he heard a commotion outside. Looking out through the partially open doors, Johnny could see Ian’s Mustang come to a shuddering halt, throwing dust and rock up into the air.
He was done. He couldn’t do this anymore. He missed Regan and he wanted to be with her more than he’d wanted to be an Enforcer for the Secret Keepers. He walked away without a backwards glance and went in search of his mate.
It took him two weeks of constant searching to figure out that she had just completely disappeared from the face of the Earth.
Luckily, Ian and Trevor had been able to rescue Lauren and end Hatchet’s insanity. Unfortunately, Janet had returned in time to see Ian kill Hatchet, and Johnny had heard through the grapevine that it was just a matter of time before she would go back for revenge. He’d wandered for about six months, his inner animal lost without Regan, wondering if she was still out there and if she was okay.
Once he’d finally stopped wandering, he was given another mission: to attach himself to Janet’s side and keep her under surveillance for the time being. Johnny knew it was only a matter of months before she would go back to avenge Hatchet’s death. It took closer to eighteen months for her to gather enough reinforcements to go after the grizzly clan.
“Regret, I regret nothing we had…”
Chapter Three
~ Regan ~
I stared down into the sweetest face I’d ever seen, love welling up inside of me and overflowing for my perfect little cub. My Rory. She was now my reason for living. I spent six long months away from the clan, away from my family, never telling any of them that I was pregnant. It was a shitty thing to do to them, but I needed time to heal from my broken heart. My mate didn’t love me enough to want to claim me, and I definitely wasn’t going to tell him about our cub just to make him stay.
Rory started fussing, rooting around and making small suckling noises. As she latched on, the door opened to allow Lauren access to my hospital room.
“You know, everyone is outside in the waiting room,” she said, “waiting to welcome our newest clan member and to welcome you home.”
“I know,” I replied. “I feel terrible that I didn’t tell anyone about Rory before coming home. But I didn’t feel that I had any other choice. I wasn’t ready to answer the hundred or so questions everyone would have.”
“I get that, Regan,” Lauren answered. “But you still need to at least let Marcus in to meet his granddaughter.”
“I will,” I sighed. “I’m not really ready to face my father with my failure. Not Rory but my unplanned pregnancy without a mate in sight.”
Lauren turned to leave me in privacy to finish feeding Rory and probably to go and take care of her own sweet babies. I had heard that she had given birth to twin boys just a few weeks prior to my coming home to Fall City. I was so excited for her and Ian and I couldn’t wait to meet the boys.
Rory finished feeding, and I had just brought her up to my shoulder to burp her when my father walked in the door with a happy look on his face but disappointment in his eyes. The disappointment is what was nearly my undoing. I could feel the tears trying to escape. I took a big breath in and readied myself for whatever was coming.
“Regan, sweetheart,” my dad began, “why didn’t you tell me?”
“I don’t know, Daddy,” I answered as the tears made slow tracks down my cheeks. “I guess I was embarrassed and worried you’d think I’d let you down.”
“Baby, you could never let me down,” Marcus replied. “I just wish you’d told me. I could have kept you home.”
“I needed to go, Dad,” I said. “I needed time to myself.”
“I know, darling,” my dad answered. “You are more like me than you think.”
I looked at my dad for the first time without the fog of youth and I could see the lines around his eyes, the wrinkles that were not overly pronounced but still there, and wondered how he had survived after mom had died. David wasn’t dead. The pain I went through every day, wishing and waiting for him, I wouldn’t want to put on anyone. I watched as our daughter closed her pretty green eyes, stretched out with a full body yawn, and fell into a peaceful sleep.
“I’m going to go and get the cabin ready for you both,” Marcus said. “I’ll be back tomorrow morning to take my pretty girls home.”
I waited for my dad to leave, cuddled my baby girl to me, and let the tears flow. I missed David. I wanted him here to see the miracle we had created. I didn’t even know where to start looking for him. Hatchet’s old clan had scattered like rats abandoning a sinking ship, leaving no forwarding address or phone number.
I continued to cuddle Rory as I looked out the window, absentmindedly thinking on the best way to find David. If he was still in the area, I might run into him at some point and then I would have to come clean and tell him about our daughter. There was no mistaking who her father was; she had his green eyes and a full shock of blonde colored hair with just a touch of my red. She would break hearts one day. I would do anything to keep her heart safe and protected. I fell asleep with my Rory swaddled in a blanket at my side, thinking of my mate and wondering if he was thinking of me too.
I woke just after 2 o’clock in the morning to a small whimpering sound. My baby girl was hungry and searching for food. As she fed, I watched her in awe and vowed to never leave her side, no matter what happened. Once she was done feeding, we both drifted back to sleep. I didn’t wake again until my dad arrived to take us home, back to the compound where I was born and where I would raise my little bit alone.
“Hey, sweet pea, are you girls ready to go home?” Marcus asked.
“Yes, more than ready,” I answered, looking up into his eyes. “Thank you for picking us up, Dad.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way, sweet pea,” he replied, squeezing my hand. He smiled, letting my hand go. He grabbed our bags from the end of the bed.
An orderly arrived with the prerequisite wheelchair to take us to the exit doors. We traveled the hallways slowly, a few minutes’ walk seeming to take hours while I sat in the chair being wheeled towards the elevators. Once outside, we thanked the orderly, and I took my little cub and placed her carefully in the rear-facing car seat my dad had gotten from somewhere, most likely the local Walmart. It’s a good thing that I took that safety class at our local fire department. These things were like alien spaceships with all the straps, belts, and pillow-like cushions. Once all of the various straps were fastened correctly, I got into the backseat of the truck as well. I didn’t want to be any further than arms’ reach from my little cub. We left the parking lot of the hospital and turned towards home. No sooner had we left the town limits, Rory was sleeping soundly next to me. I gazed down at her and then looked up in time to see my dad with a goofy grin on his face looking at us in the rear view mirror.
“Dad,” I began, “are you mad at me about this whole thing? Rory, I mean, and my pregnancy?”
“Sweet pea, I’m not mad, just like I said yesterday. A little sad that you didn’t feel you could talk to me about the b
aby,” he answered. “I could have helped you and made the fool who left stay.”
“That’s not what I wanted, Dad,’ I told him firmly. “I don’t want to talk about him, ever.” I couldn’t help but be protective of my unclaimed mate. I was pissed at him for sure, but he was still the father of my little cub.
“Alright, darling,” Dad said. “Don’t get your back up. We won’t talk about it again. But you need to know that if he comes back, he and I are going to have words.”
“I know, Dad,” I sighed in exasperation.
We arrived at the compound in record time. My dad helped me get Rory and all of our things into the cabin. When I walked inside, I was glad to be home again. I’d missed the sights, smells, and feeling of home. I missed my clan mates, my dad, and my brothers. I walked further into the living room and saw that a small port-a-crib had been set in one corner. I looked back at my dad and raised an eyebrow.
“Dad, where did that come from?” I asked, while making my way to the far end of the hall to my bedroom door.
“I got it in town yesterday,” he answered. “My granddaughter needs a place to nap, doesn’t she?”
I laughed a little as I opened my door. When it swung open the rest of the way, I gasped. My dad had added a rocking chair and wooden crib. The crib itself looked like something from a dream, flouncy pink around the bottom like a skirt, a pastel colored blanket, and sheet set with little bear cubs wearing pink bows in their fur. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen.
“Dad,” I murmured as the emotion overwhelmed me and I began to silently cry. My dad came up and gathered me into a soothing hug, shushing my tears. He’d always hated to see me cry.
“Darling’, I love you and that little cub,” Dad stated, “and I want you to stay here as long as you need or want to.”