Bear Mountain Bride: Shifter Romance

by Sky Winters

  Michelle looked up at him, her eyes glassy with unshed tears.

  “I know,” she whispered, kissing him on the cheek. “Good night.”

  He watched as she climbed into her loft and the curtains fell behind her, leaving the silhouette of her body outlined and still in the golden light.

  Chapter 17

  The apartment had never felt more alive than it did with Jake and his kids there. Jake was always coming and going, and Michelle was under the impression that her father really loved having him living at the MC. JJ and Mary were enjoying their time away from school, though Jake had been diligent about going to retrieve their homework assignments so they wouldn’t get behind in their work.

  “Michelle is really smart!” Mary said one afternoon when her father strode inside.

  Jake’s handsome eyes flickered onto Michelle and a small, private smile creased his lips and warmed her heart. How was it that he always managed to make her feel so beautiful and so desired?

  “You don’t say!” Jake said, winking at Michelle.

  “Hey!” Michelle said.

  The kids giggled and Jake put on an expression of mock surprise. “What?”

  “She knows everything about reading!” Mary continued, ignoring her father’s theatrical shrug. She found it very important to inform him of Michelle’s intelligence.

  “Is that right?” Jake asked.

  “Yeah!” Mary exclaimed. “I want her to be my teacher!”

  “I thought you liked Mr. Farkas!” JJ said. “He was my teacher, too!”

  “No. I like Michelle more. I want her to teach me everything!”

  Jake gazed at Michelle for a moment, and she felt her heart thud hard. If she and Jake were able to make their relationship official, maybe she would be able to teach Mary all kinds of things. But it was better not to let her mind go there. Still, the look on Jake’s face was compelling. Were they both thinking the same thing?

  “Well, you’re going to have to go back to school eventually,” Jake said carefully. “I’m sure there are lots of other things Michelle can show you. And once in a while she could help you with your homework, too.”

  Mary seemed satisfied with this, and ran to the bedroom she was sharing with her brother to continue playing with JJ, who had taken her motorcycle collection under his wing. Michelle never would have guessed that having bunkbeds in there would be so handy. The last thing she had ever expected was to be hosting a biker with two kids in her apartment.

  The bunk beds had been in there already for bikers who needed to stay at the MC to sleep off a buzz, but still had never been used by the time Michelle got her hands on the apartment. Letting her live there was the one good thing her father had ever done for her. And now she was able to do something good by keeping Jake and his family out of the trouble she had caused. Well, the kids anyway. She had a feeling Jake had other plans up his sleeve.

  “What have you been up to all day?” Michelle asked. Jake had been disappearing for longer and longer periods of time since he had arrived, every once in a while surprising her with an erotic tryst when she least expected it before retiring to his bedroom to sleep and then wake up to begin the whole cycle over again. “I hope you’re not getting into any trouble.”

  “Trust me, nothing I can’t handle,” Jake said with a wink.

  But Michelle wasn’t convinced. “I don’t know what that means, but I really hope that you won’t do anything rash. I know you hate the Raptors, but I heard my dad talking about your plan to wage full out war with them. I just want you to know that I think it’s a stupid idea. And without my father’s approval, it will never work.”

  Jake darkened for a moment and then looked seriously at her.

  “I need your help,” he said suddenly.

  Michelle was shocked. She had never expected to hear a man like Jake ask someone like her, of all people, for help. Except maybe with his kids.

  “Why? Doing what?”

  She could tell by the look on his face that it was serious and she suddenly felt nervous.

  Jake glanced around the room nervously before coming close to Michelle.

  “There’s something fucked up going on around here and I think your father is behind it.”

  “Well there’s a shocker,” Michelle said sarcastically.

  Jake looked surprised. “Why? What do you know?”

  “Nothing much,” Michelle said thoughtfully. “But he’s been being really secretive lately. Coming and going at all hours. There are lots of weird people here, too. Not bikers exactly, but they’re shady. They give off a really bad vibe. And they bring in suitcases and leave without them. I don’t like it.”

  “Shit,” Jake whispered. “All right. I need you to tell me right away the next time your dad leaves on one of those random trips, okay? I have to see what he’s doing. Because if it’s what I think it is, it won’t be good. And we could end up in even more danger than we started off with.”

  Michelle furrowed her eyebrows. What was Jake talking about? What did he suspect?

  But he clearly didn’t feel comfortable saying anything more, so all she could do was nod.

  “All right,” she said. “I’ll tell you.”

  “Good,” Jake said, stealing a kiss before rushing toward the front door. “I’m going to get some work done now. You guys have a good afternoon.”

  “Sure,” Michelle said. But by the time the word had fully left her lips, Jake was already gone.

  Chapter 17

  Jake climbed to the top of the warehouse, his eyes sharp on the man he had seen leaving the Python’s MC. There was no mistaking him as a Raptor, though he wasn’t wearing anything that spoke loudly of his alliance. Not that Jake could see, anyway.

  He had tried to stay out of sight when he caught Kent speaking jovially with the guy, using his best schmoozing voice outside the MC and patting the guy on the back. He was posing as a new recruit, and Kent, who had the best eye for people that Jake had ever seen, should have known that it was a set up.

  That, or they were in on it together. Jake didn’t want to jump to conclusions in case Leon had just been trying to mess with his head, but there were a lot of things going on that just didn’t add up. At least, not to anything that Jake liked.

  “Killer! How did it go?”

  Jake’s hackles raised at the sight of Leon and a few other Raptors. Killer, the man who had apparently just found his way into a brand new Python membership, grinned.

  “It’s all going according to plan.”

  “Was that sucker vice president there to see it?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m sure word will travel fast. There’s no telling what he’ll do. It’s going to be awesome!”

  “I can’t wait to see the look on his face,” Leon said, laughing until he began to hack and cough. “That stupid son of a bitch. He’s blind! He didn’t even know Janie was hooked on heroin until it took her out.”

  “What a fucking chump!”

  Jake’s heart hammered in rage. It took all he had not to take his gun out and snipe them all from the roof of the warehouse. He was sick and tired of people talking about Janie like she was just some worthless junkie. Sure, she had an addiction and it had been her downfall. But there was no reason to degrade her like that. And he didn’t take too kindly to being ripped on by useless Raptors either.

  But he had to play his hand close to his chest. If the Raptors found out that he was there, all hell would break loose. He had to find out anything he could about the meeting with Kent. If he didn’t figure out what was really going on soon, he was afraid of what he might do. If he acted too rashly, it could cost him his life. Or worse, the lives of his children. Knowing the pain of loss was hard enough with his wife, it would be unbearable if anything happened to JJ or Mary.

  “He’s going to be pretty surprised when the shit hits the fan.”

  “Yeah, and his fucking nanny too. What the hell was she thinking, going off on Sin like that? The pair of them seriously have it comin
g!”

  “Hey, do you think they’re shacking up?” one of the guys asked. Everybody laughed.

  “Gross! He’s like seventy!”

  “Yeah but she’s too fuckin’ fine. I’d hit that in a heartbeat!”

  “She wouldn’t have you, Skunk.”

  Jake glowered. She wouldn’t have any of them. Especially not when she had a real man to take care of her.

  But somehow, ever since she had been coming around, he had been taking fewer risks lately. Maybe being stabbed had been sobering. Either way, it seemed that with Michelle in his life, he was a little more reluctant to throw himself into meaningless violence. It hadn’t seemed like such a big deal in the years he was grieving his wife. Honestly, it was the only thing that kept him going. It was nice to get out of the house without having to think for a while and dish it out to the Raptors. Still, he hadn’t gotten to Leon yet, the self-proclaimed leader of the group, but from the looks of things, he was going to get his chance sooner than he thought.

  The group walked off laughing and joking about Michelle’s body, and it took every ounce of self-restraint Jake had to keep from ending those thugs once and for all.

  But it wouldn’t be worth it to put himself and his kids at risk. Not yet. He would play his cards right and stick to the plan. That way, he would be able to get those fuckers off the streets. Whether Kent liked it or not.

  ***

  When Jake returned to the MC, he was surprised when his cell phone rang and he picked it up to hear Michelle’s voice. No matter what she was saying, when he heard her through the phone’s speakers, she sent a pulse of desire through his body.

  “He’s gone,” she hissed. “It’s four in the fucking morning. What is he doing? You better go now.”

  “Right,” Jake said, hanging up immediately and running up the four flights of stairs to Kent’s office. All of the lights were off, but when he tried the door, it was unlocked. He had a feeling he would be able to thank Michelle for that.

  Jake crept inside, his heart pounding hard in his chest as he moved slowly through the receptionist’s area. He hesitated at the doorway for Kent’s office, half convinced that it was a trap of some kind. But he was going to have to learn to trust someone eventually, and he wanted that person to be Michelle more than anything in the world.

  He closed his eyes and held his breath as he pushed the office door open. To his relief, nobody shouted at him, guns didn’t fire, and Kent wasn’t sitting there glaring with members of the Raptors ready to take him out. The office was completely empty.

  Jake got straight to work, fumbling through the papers in Kent’s office, and opening and closing drawers, doing his best to keep things basically the way he had found them, despite his panic. It was difficult, but he managed and continued his search.

  At first, he was disappointed to find nothing, until out of the corner of his eye, he saw a plant that hadn’t been there before. It was one of the mourning plants that Jake had been giving away to everybody after Janie’s funeral. Kent hadn’t wanted a thing to do with it. But now, suddenly, it was in his office.

  Jake walked closer to investigate and saw that the pot was much bigger than it had to be. In fact, it was two pots stacked on top of each other.

  He picked the plant up with a surprised grunt – it was heavier than it looked, and sat it down on the floor. Jake gasped. Inside was a brick of brown powder. Heroin. Janie’s killer.

  Jake fumbled to get his cell phone out of his pocket and snapped a picture, his heart racing. Something bad was happening. And he had to protect his MC at all costs, before Kent drove it into the ground and left them all vulnerable to the law. With shaking hands, he replaced the plant back on the windowsill, keeping the heroin right where he found it.

  Jake fumed as he left the office. He had been hoping that Leon was wrong. That maybe he had just been trying to get a rise out of Jake to cause issues within the MC. But if everybody else knew what Jake knew, they would be just as eager as he was to oust Kent and restore the Pythons to their natural order. He was sure of it.

  Chapter 18

  “Jake?”

  Michelle had woken up in the middle of the night. She had done her best to stay awake until Jake got back, but the kids had thoroughly exhausted her. Thankfully they went to bed pretty early and she’d gotten a few moments alone to herself before falling asleep.

  Jake didn’t say anything. He was sitting alone in the dark of the living room, a lit cigarette in his mouth.

  “I didn’t know you smoked,” Michelle said, sitting down tentatively beside him on the couch.

  “I quit when Mary was born,” Jake said. “Every once in a while though…”

  “What’s the matter?” Michelle asked. She had never seen Jake acting like this.

  “It’s bad, Michelle. And I was too blind to see it for so long.”

  “What?”

  Jake was being really cryptic and it was starting to make her really nervous. He hadn’t told her what was going on or why he had to spy on her father, but it had to be serious. Michelle hoped he would let her in on his thoughts soon.

  “Your father’s been working with them all along,” Jake said. “Probably even before Janie was killed. In fact, I have half a mind to think she got her last lethal overdose right here at the MC. I was so confused about how she would have gotten her hands on it. I had put her in recovery. I was watching her like a hawk. Your father said he would help me keep an eye on her when I was working…but now…”

  Michelle felt sick. “You mean my father was behind your wife’s death?”

  Jake gritted his teeth. “I can blame anybody I want to, but she is the one who made the first bad choice. She decided to put that shit in her body for the first time, knowing she had two kids. She had me…”

  Jake trailed off and Michelle could sense the pain in his voice. Nothing had ever been more heartbreaking in her life, and she scooted closer to him and wrapped an arm around Jake’s shoulder.

  “Some people just have demons they can’t fight, no matter who tries to help them. I’m sure your wife is just one of those people. It’s not like she chose drugs over her family. But there were probably things in her life that drove her to feeling like she needed an escape.”

  “She did have it rough,” Jake agreed. “Still, I can’t help but feel abandoned. Or like I should have done something more to save her.”

  “No, Jake,” Michelle said, stroking his broad jaw. “You can’t blame yourself.”

  It was dark, but she could feel the intensity of Jake’s gaze as he turned his head toward her.

  “There’s a lot I blame myself for. Like, what kind of man am I really?”

  “A good man!” Michelle exclaimed. “The kind of man I would spend the rest of my life with!”

  The words hung in the air and Michelle felt her face grow hot. Why had she said that? Whether it was true or not, wouldn’t it just scare him away? Especially when he was feeling vulnerable and mourning his wife. She should have just kept her mouth shut!

  She was worried that she had overstepped her bounds, and so it was shocking when Jake gripped her hand tightly and her mouth was suddenly overcome by the feeling of his lips. He hadn’t shaved since he had been staying in her apartment, and his stubble seared her cheeks as they urgently kissed, his hands roaming her, desperate for contact with her body.

  Jake’s passion was unquenchable, and soon she felt herself being lifted from the couch. She laughed in surprise when he slung her over his shoulder so that he could climb the loft. They had gone up there a few times before, but mostly they had disappeared for random trysts in the bathroom or hidden in other secret areas. Jake seemed reluctant to intrude upon her privacy.

  But tonight, they went into the intimate little space, where Jake’s big, muscular body filled up much of the room as he hovered over Michelle, his eyes dark with desire. She surrendered to Jake’s capable hands as he stripped them both and she closed her eyes as the fire inside of her awakened at his touch.r />
  Michelle gasped as their bodies touched in the dark and Jake’s cock was hard against her thighs. He kissed her passionately, their bodies tense with anticipation. Her body was electrified when he plunged suddenly inside of her with a deep grunt, and the friction of their bodies rubbing against each other nearly made her climax right then.

  But Jake wasn’t anywhere near done with her. Michelle moaned softly as he began to quicken his pace. It seemed every time she opened her body to him, he showed her more and more glimpses of his true raw power. She wasn’t sure if she would ever be able to handle him at his most unbridled, but there was a small part of her that was longing to find out.

  Jake gently rolled Michelle onto her stomach and propped her waist up in the air so that her ass was facing him, and she groaned softly as he knelt behind her and pushed himself in deeply, thrilling her body and causing her to quake beneath him. She gripped the blankets of the bed as Jake began to rock his powerful hips against her, careful at first, but soon quickening with more speed and power and pushing her bodies to its limits.

  She gasped as he massaged her inside, hitting her most sensitive bundle of nerves again and again so that every slight movement felt like an explosion of bliss in her body.

  Soon she was gritting her teeth in an effort not to make sounds that could wake the children as Jake continued his assault on her senses, refusing to show her any mercy despite her mounting fervor. Michelle’s abdomen was tense as she tried to hold back, but Jake seemed determined to bring her to her limits, and again and again she could feel his powerful muscle tearing her blissfully in half.

  Jake gripped her waist and a grunt escaped his lips that thrilled Michelle deeply. The dam she had put up to hold back her climax burst open, and soon she was flooded by wave after wave of ecstasy. Jake tensed up behind her and she closed her eyes in rapture as he unleashed a torrent of his hot, liquid desire. He drew out her orgasm as long as he could, until she grew limp beneath his body.

  Jake’s broad body settled down beside her in the bed and she turned toward him. His face was still brooding. “I know you’re not going to like this, but I have to bring down this whole operation.”