by Kim Fox
She ran her nails up his neck and scratched the back of his head. She leaned up and placed her lips next to his ear. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
nine
Matteo walked hand in hand with his mate back into camp. He never wanted to let go of her hand.
“Oh great she’s staying,” Amanda said sarcastically when she saw them together.
Beckett frowned at his mate. “That’s my sister, Amanda.” He approached them with a serious face.
“Don’t worry big brother,” Lani said. “I’m still leaving.”
“You don’t have to,” he said, shaking his head.
Lani glanced over his shoulder at Amanda. “Yes I do.”
Beckett nodded as if he knew that this was the best way. “Well you’re welcome to come back at anytime,” he said. “You’re my sister. And I love you.”
Lani wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. “You’re a good brother,” she said. “One day I’ll be a good sister.”
“Where are you going?” Beckett asked.
She glanced at Matteo and shrugged her shoulders. “Wherever my bear takes me. I’m thinking Canada. I’ve heard good things eh?”
“Well send us letters. Keep in touch.”
“Letters?” she asked, scrunching her face up. “Do you have email?”
Beckett shook his head. “No I don’t have a membership to the Internet.”
“Oh Beckett,” she said shaking her head and smiling. “I envy you.”
“Are you going to be okay?” Beckett asked Matteo. He put his hand on his shoulder and squeezed.
“That’s the thing Boss,” he said. “I’m going with her.”
Beckett exhaled. “I figured.”
Matteo wrapped his arms around his alpha and gave him a bear hug.
“I’m happy for you,” Beckett said. “This time I’m happy that you’re leaving. A bear should be with its mate.”
Matteo wiped his eye and sniffed. He turned away and picked at the corner of his eye with his finger. “A bug flew in my eye,” he said.
Lani smiled at him.
“We’ll be back,” Matteo said.
Lani nodded. “Definitely. I want to see my little niece or nephew."
Ellis walked over, joining their little circle. “Nephew,” he said. “We found out that it’s going to be a boy.”
They congratulated him as the rest of the Crew came over after overhearing the news. Matteo was going to miss his brothers, each one of them, but he was happier to leave with Lani. He couldn’t wait to experience what life had in store for them. There were good times ahead.
Matteo and Lani explained why they were leaving and said their goodbyes to each member of the crew.
Matteo saved Ellis for last.
He hugged him harder than the others, squeezing him in his massive arms until Ellis grunted. “Don’t get too comfortable in my chair number two,” he whispered in his ear. “I’m coming back.”
Lani leaned her head on Matteo’s large bicep and stretched her feet out the window of Matteo’s pick up truck. The playful wind tickled her bare toes.
“I love this song,” Matteo said cranking up the radio. He sang Tom Cochrane’s Sinking Like A Sunset in an off key voice with words jumbled and whole phrases missing as they flew down the highway to their new adventure. Lani smiled and bit her lip. She looked up at the bottom of the chin of her man and her heart filled with joy. She’d rather have Matteo here butchering the song in his horrible singing voice than have a private concert from Tom Cochrane himself.
They were heading north to British Colombia in Canada. There was a large community of werebears that lived in the mountains. The snowboarding was unbelievable in the winter and the hiking and canoing was world class in the summer.
She was excited but more importantly she was enjoying the moment, enjoying Matteo’s presence and enjoying the purring of her bear inside her.
Lani felt at peace. And her bear seemed to have forgiven her as well. She was even more calm and zen than Lani was. Bonding to Matteo had been the best thing that could have happened to her. It opened her eyes and shook her awake from the horrible spell that she was under.
The song ended and Matteo turned the radio down. “Did you like that?” he asked.
She brought his hand to her lips and kissed it. “Good, because you have about fourteen more hours of it.”
She smiled. She couldn’t wait. “Maybe I’ll get lucky and the signal will cut off in the mountains,” she teased.
He raised his eyebrow and grinned. “Be careful what you wish for. I can sing acapella.”
If this was what being a freak meant than she would gladly be called a freak for the rest of her life.
Matteo pressed down on the gas and the pickup truck, with a chest full of cash in the back, barreled down the highway to freedom, to adventure and to happiness.
The End
epilogue
Keene strolled into town and headed to the small cafe between the General Store and the barber shop. There was a group of ten year olds playing soccer on the quiet street, laughing and enjoying the sunny summer day.
One scrawny kid with a Blue Jays hat on stopped and stared at him with an open jaw. He whispered to his friends and pointed at Keene. One of the braver kids, a blond kid with big round cheeks covered with freckles approached him.
“Are you a giant?” he asked, looking up with his head craned all the way back.
“I don’t know,” Keene said. He looked at his open hand then placed it on the kid’s head. His massive hand and long, thick fingers swallowed the kid’s head. “If I was a giant I’d be able to crush your skull wouldn’t I?”
The kid screamed and ran away with his arms flailing. The rest of the group followed him, leaving the soccer ball abandoned in the middle of the street. It rolled into the gutter.
“We could use you around here more often,” a familiar voice called out from across the street. Three elders were sitting around a thin metal table in front of the cafe smoking cigarettes and drinking espressos. “Those kids are always kicking the soccer ball over here,” Gus said, lifting his wrinkly finger. “It drives me crazy.”
“Well you can call my agent at Giants For Hire,” Keene responded. “My rates are quite reasonable.”
He shook the frail hands of Gus, Eugene and Frank, careful not to squeeze to hard. The three werebear elders use to roll in the Hudson Crew decades ago. Eugene coughed up something into his handkerchief and then took another long puff of his cigarette. Or was it centuries ago?
“How’s Beckett?” Gus asked. Gus was the former alpha of the Crew. He put out more fires than the New York Fire Department. Or so he told.
“He’s good,” Keene said pulling up a seat. “Crew is strong.”
“He never comes and visits,” Gus said, with his gray eyes protruding. “Tell him to stop by.”
Keene held in a chuckle. The elders were always complaining that the young never visited enough. “He’s busy.”
Keene leaned back on his seat and opened the door of the cafe. The guy behind the counter smiled at him. “What the hell do you want?” Monty asked.
“Coffee,” Keene said. “Big one.” He went to close the door but held it open at the last second. “Did Marie make any of those scones today?”
Monty nodded.
“I’ll take ten.”
“What else?” Frank asked, looking desperate for something to talk about other than the weather and those hooligan kids playing soccer in the street.
“Matteo left for a little…vacation.”
“I heard Lani was back in town.” Gus said.
“That girl is bad news,” Frank said. His red wind breaker was zipped all the way up to his saggy neck even though it was one of the hottest days of the summer.
“She’s not so bad,” Keene said. “She was just going through some stuff.”
Monty opened the door carrying a large thermos full of coffee and a platter with ten scones. “One of these days you’r
e going to have to pay your tab,” he said, placing everything on the table.
“Call me when it reaches four figures,” Keene said, picking up a scone and shoving it into his mouth with one bite.
“I think it’s at five,” he said, emptying the ash tray and heading back inside.
Man these scones were amazing. If this slouch hadn’t nabbed Marie, Keene would’ve married her on the spot. So what if she could be his grandmother? He would take food over looks any day.
“Tell him about the blond,” Frank said.
“Oh right.” Gus lit a cigarette. “There’s a blond that’s been hanging around town asking a lot of questions.”
“Is she hot?” Keene asked, washing the scone down with a slurp of coffee.
Frank and Eugene nodded with big grins on their wrinkly faces.
“This is important,” Gus said. “She’s been asking questions.” He looked around and lowered his voice. “About werebears.”
Keene rolled his eyes. She wasn’t the first one. Every few years some shifter conspiracy theorist would come around town asking about werebears. They would go home discouraged, back to their lives where everybody thought they were nuts.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Gus said, taking a long haul of his cigarette, “but this one is different. She is fierce. Smart. And she is not stopping.”
“I goggeled her up on the intranet,” Eugene said, with a smug look on his face.
Gus waved him away. “She’s a big shot reporter for CMN.” Cable Main News was the leading news channel in the country. This seemed to be more serious than the usual crazy people who wrote on random blogs and crazy, fringe websites.
“She has information,” Gus continued. “About Eddie. She was asking Wilbur questions about why his death didn’t go to trial. Why there were no legal ramifications to the murder.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Keene said, waving him off.
Keene took a deep breath before sipping his coffee. This could be serious. If the truth about shifters and werebears were exposed to the general public then they would all be in danger. So far the shifter community had been great at keeping the secret safe and keeping the people that spoke about it in the same category as the Bigfoot, UFO and Chupacabra chasers but with the Internet and every single person with a video camera on their cell phones, the secret had been harder to keep. He would definitely tell Beckett about this reporter.
The secret of shifters had to be kept hidden by any means necessary. Who knew how the public would react? It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility that they would call for blood. Prisons, concentration camps…Keene shuddered at the thought. People wouldn’t want grizzly bears in the same room as their children, in the same schools, in the same stores.
“There she is now,” Frank said, pointing across the street.
Keene turned and felt like he got struck in the head with a baseball bat when he saw her. It was as if a powerful force was pulling him towards her. The rest of the town blackened out of view and only she was left. Curvy and stunning and taking his breath away.
Her blond hair was pulled back in a tight bun, with black rimmed glasses on her serious face. She looked out of place in this country town with her city clothes; high heels and a pants suit. She glanced over at his table and stepped into the street, coming towards them. His breath caught in his throat and his body went as tight as a bow string.
The world slowly came back to life around him. Gus was shaking his shoulder and calling his name. Frank was eating one of his scones.
She approached the table and stopped in front of them. Her laptop bag rested behind her on her shapely thighs. “I guess I don’t have to ask if any of you have seen any werebears since the last time we talked?”
“I have,” Keene blurt out, raising his hand like an eager student in class. “I can take you to them.”
Gus slapped his face with his palm while shaking his head.
Keene didn’t care about the consequences anymore. He only cared about making her happy.
“Come with me. I’ll tell you everything.”
Keep flipping for Chapter 1 of Book 5!
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Book 5 Out Now!
Get it on Amazon (FREE with Kindle Unlimited)
BBW and journalist, Chloe Sparks, is about to break the biggest story of her life. She has found a source that has the ultimate scoop on shifters. Now if only she can get him to talk.
Joker and giant polar bear shifter, Keene Watts, is a little, shall we say…f#cked! It is against the Hudson Crew’s, and not too mention the vicious, SEA (Shifter Enforcement Agency), rules to reveal shifter secrets to reporters. And now he has brought one into his Crew’s camp with promises to reveal all of their secrets. He is torn between his loyalty to his Crew and to the new bond with his bear’s new mate.
But the turmoil that Chloe brings into the Crew of werebears will be nothing compared to what the SEA will bring when they discover that the Hudson Crew is housing a reporter…
Intended for adults only. Contains explicit love scenes and lots of dirty talk.
Adult only BBW bear shifter romance. 18+
Don’t miss the first installments:
Get it on Amazon (FREE with Kindle Unlimited)
Rich BBW, Alexi, has run away from her abusive fiancée the day before her wedding. She ends up miserable, living in the Flathead National Forest in the middle of Montana working in a roadside diner and living in a rundown garage. But when she meets the local fireman, a group of big, sexy, muscular, witty, dirty talking, smokejumpers, she may just find the paradise she is searching for.
Ellis is a hot, adventurous, risk taking, smoke-jumping bear shifter. His inner bear has been desperate to find a mate and its tearing him apart. When he starts losing control of his animal, his big brother, and alpha, is ready to kick him out of the crew. Until he meets the new waitress at the diner who changes everything.
Passion heats up between them, but when Alexi's violent past catches up with her, she may put the whole clan of bear shifters in danger, and the two lovers may be torn apart forever.
Intended for adults only. Contains explicit love scenes and lots of dirty talk.
Adult only BBW bear shifter romance. 18+
24,000 words of hot, steamy werebear love!
Get it on Amazon (FREE with Kindle Unlimited)
Part two of the Smokejumpers: Werebear series. This bear shifter romance can be read as a standalone (HEA and no cliffhanger!)
Flirty and sexy BBW, Amanda Pike, has taken a new job as a pilot in Montana for the Hudson Crew. She is shocked to find that not only are these big, burly, sexy smokejumpers a crew of werebears but that the hot alpha of the crew has seemed to have bonded strongly to her.
Alpha of the Hudson Crew, Beckett Jacoby, is torn. Every shifter knows that an alpha can't take on a mate. It makes a bear soft, weak and careless and can tear even the most cohesive crew apart. But when his bear bonds with the new pilot living in his camp he can't seem to follow even his own rules.
Tensions rise around camp as the alpha begins neglecting his duties, choosing pa
ssion over responsibility. But when Beckett goes too far he not only risks losing his alpha position but his whole crew all together.
Intended for adults only. Contains explicit love scenes and lots of dirty talk.
Adult only BBW bear shifter romance. 18+
21,000 words of hot, steamy werebear love!
Get it on Amazon (FREE with Kindle Unlimited)
Part three of the Smokejumpers: Werebear series. This bear shifter romance can be read as a standalone (HEA and no cliffhanger!)
BBW and werebear, Jessica White’s, life is a mess. She’s the little sister of the sociopathic alpha of the Flint Crew named Kai. She has bonded to the mortal enemy of her brother, a man she has only seen once. Now Kai has her locked in the basement and her bear is driving her crazy, yearning for this man she knows so little about, not even his name.
Loyal member of the Hudson Crew, Finch Bender, is on a suicide mission. He knows that he can’t win in a fight against the cruel alpha of the Flint Crew, Kai, but that doesn’t stop him from sneaking around his camp looking for Kai’s gorgeous sister, a werebear who he has bonded strongly with.
The two bonded werebears will risk anything to be together, including their lives. But when Kai discovers their forbidden relationship their lives may be the very thing they will be forced to give.