Babysitter Bear

by Zoe Chant

  "My Lulu and Loretta's little Ryder," Gaby said. "There are kids all over the place. Skye is here, and Melody and Gunnar are in the backyard with Dash and Daria, their twins."

  Paula looked out the window into the backyard. What she saw was a sight to behold. It was an entire menagerie out there. There were bears, there were dragons, there were griffins—of course her gaze went first and foremost to her griffins, Lissy with her little fluttering fuzzy wings and Austin wrestling playfully with a baby bear cub.

  The only humans in sight were Tessa, sitting on a pile of snow with a couple of little dragons in her lap, and Sandy, who was riding on one of the dragons (Melody, Paula thought). He didn't seem bothered in the slightest to be the only non-shifter in the bunch.

  "You want to be out there, don't you," Paula said to Dan.

  He shrugged slightly, but he was grinning. "I can stay in here with you, if you'd rather."

  "Get out there in the snow, you ridiculous man."

  She kissed him and all but pushed him out the door. Dan left his clothes on the porch with all the other heaps of shifter clothes and lunged onto the snowy back lawn, brown and shaggy, to be met by Ben's panther and a grizzly bear that was presumably Derek.

  "It's nice to have somewhere they can do this," Gaby said philosophically. She began stirring cocoa into hot milk. "Here, get down some mugs. Cabinet over the sink. While they tire themselves out, we can have hot cocoa and take advantage of the babysitting to put our feet up with a nice Hallmark movie."

  "Also, we have all the food in here," Loretta said, picking up a plate. "We get our pick of the best of the buffet."

  The Rugers' cabinets were full of the sort of mismatched variety of dishes, mugs, and glasses that families tended to accumulate of the years. Paula picked out a fat, round Santa mug for herself, a squat green mug shaped like a cactus with I <3 ARIZONA on it—presumably from some past family vacation—and a large mug with a unicorn on it, with a rainbow coming out its rear end and the words EAT MY ...

  "Do you ever feel left out?" she asked quietly, setting out the mugs in a row so that Gaby could pour the rich, swirling hot chocolate. "With all of them out there doing—all of that."

  It was Loretta who answered, as she collected mini quiche onto the edge of her heaped plate. "Sometimes. It's hard not to, sweetie. I'm married to a guy who can grow wings and fly. Pretty soon I'll probably have baby dragons flying circles around me too, once Ryder learns to shift. But you know, we all have things we're good at. I mean, Darius can't cook to save his life."

  "Who wants a little Bailey's in their cocoa?" Gaby asked, waggling the bottle.

  There were enthusiastic cheers for this, and they took their mugs into the living room, where Gaby moved some baby toys off the couch and shifted a sleepy and annoyed cat to one end. The coffee table was covered with a scatter of DVD cases.

  "I should've asked people to bring their favorite movies, if anyone has movies anymore," Gaby said. "Oh, well, I bet we get through like half a movie before the guys come in and start demanding NASCAR or something."

  Loretta pumped her fist in the air. "Sounds great. I love NASCAR."

  "I am not watching NASCAR on Valentine's Day."

  She wasn't wrong; they made it halfway through When Harry Met Sally before a mob of cheerful, snow-covered, half-naked shifters swarmed into the house.

  "Pants!" Gaby yelled over her shoulder.

  "I'm wearing pants," Derek said, leaning over the back of the couch to put his arms around her. He was stripped to the waist. "Never said anything about shirts, though."

  Dan had his shirt on, but he hadn't put his arm back on. If he felt self-conscious about it, he showed no sign of it. He leaned on the arm of the couch and rubbed Paula's neck with his good hand.

  "What are you watching?"

  "Romantic movies," she said, leaning into his touch. "We're having girl time."

  Glancing up, she noticed that Terry, after saying goodbye to the kids, had gone straight to the door. She squeezed Dan's hand and gestured with her eyes. Dan gave a little nod and a supportive smile.

  It was so weird to her, the way they seemed to know what each other were thinking, with no words needing to be said. It wasn't telepathy exactly—but it was something like it.

  Mate bond.

  She got up and went over to where Terry was putting his coat on.

  "Thanks for coming," she said quietly. "It meant a lot to the kids. You aren't staying?"

  Terry gave a little headshake. "Figured I'd bug out early. It's Valentine's, and ..." He shrugged. "I'm kind of a fifth wheel here."

  It was true, she noticed, glancing around. Terry was the only adult in the room not paired off.

  "I'm sure Gaby and Derek wouldn't mind if you stayed," she offered, feeling slightly insincere as she did so. Personally, she preferred the idea of being able to cuddle with Dan without knowing her ex was in the room. Still, it was the mature thing to do.

  Terry shook his head again. "Nah. Gotta head back to the hotel. I'm going back to the city tomorrow."

  Paula raised her eyebrows. "For good? I know it's none of my business what you do with your life," she added. "Not anymore. But there are the kids. It's been really good for them having you around. Austin's calmed down a lot."

  Terry hesitated, fingers tapping on the door.

  "To be honest, the business is on really shaky ground right now. Turns out you can't just disappear and leave a sales and marketing firm to run itself in your absence. I'm thinking about selling it and moving here, to be closer to the kids. Would you be okay with that?"

  "I don't have the right to run you out of town, Terry. I'm not the boss of you."

  "I know," he said, and quirked a small smile. "But I don't want to step on your life here."

  It was a wistful smile, and the feeling that it evoked in her was strange—she remembered what it was like when that smile did things to her insides, but now that feeling was entirely gone. It was only an echo, like a fragment of a song from the past.

  "It's okay," she said. "I want the kids to have you in their life. I mean, you and I have moved on, we both know it, but we'll always share the kids. And Dan understands that."

  Dan was watching them from across the room. Not jealous, not really. Just very serious, his gaze locked on Terry in a way that clearly stated Don't mess with what's mine.

  Terry nodded. He pulled a knit cap down over his ears. "Gaby was telling me that there's a business in town that's for sale and can't seem to get a taker. I might look into it."

  "What business?"

  He smiled again, looking a little more cheerful this time. "It's a garden center."

  "Oh—what—the Tender Sprout is up for sale again? They can't seem to hold onto the same owner for more than a couple of years." She frowned at him. "Do you know anything about gardening at all?"

  "No. But I can learn, right? Spring is coming, and it seems like that's a good time to start a garden business."

  "Good luck," she said, and meant it.

  There was an awkward moment when they jockeyed for something between handshake and hug; she settled for clapping his shoulder like she was sending him off to play a sports game or something. Then he left, and Paula turned around to find that Dan had come up behind her. She clasped her arms around his waist.

  "Thanks for being okay with me having Terry in my life."

  "Kids deserve their dads," he said seriously, and kissed the top of her head. "Assuming their dads aren't total wastes of space. But I don't think Terry is. I'm still not okay with everything he did. But he does love those kids."

  "He does," she agreed, and leaned her head on his chest. "But so do you. You know, some lucky kids get to have two dads."

  She felt him tense a little. "I'd be honored," he said at last, his voice rumbling through his chest, a pleasant vibration against her, "if they want to call me Dad someday. But I'll be happy just being part of their lives, and yours."

  Paula leaned into him, listening to the cheerful
babble of laughter and voices from the living room and kitchen, drowning out the sound of the TV. Despite all the people in the house, over here by the door it felt almost private, as if they existed in their own little bubble.

  "What if you had someone else to call you Dad, too?" she asked quietly.

  The words were pitched so low that she wasn't sure if he would hear them, but she felt him going still in her arms. "What are you saying?' he asked under his breath.

  "I'm wondering how you'd feel about us having a baby."

  He stayed still for a very long time, then brought up his hand to run it through her hair. "I'd love to, but how do you feel about it? You're the one who'd be doing the hard labor, so to speak."

  Oh, she loved this man. "I don't want to rush into anything right away. There's a lot going on right now, with Terry back in the kids' lives, and the absolute last thing I'd want is for Austin and Lissy to worry about being replaced."

  "Never," Dan said fervently.

  "I know that and you know that, and I think they do too, but do they really believe it? Let's wait for things to settle down, until we all get used to the new normal. But after that ..." She hesitated, tilting her head back to look up in his face, the familiar, beloved features that she had already come to know almost as well as her own. "Spending all this time around the other little ones, Gaby and Tessa's babies, is reminding me how much I do actually miss the kids being that small. I never even thought about having more kids, with Terry out of my life and everything so busy at the diner. But now that I have time to stop and relax for a while, and think about what I want ... I do want that. A baby with your amazing brown eyes."

  Dan's brown eyes looked somewhat misty at the moment. "I'm not gonna lie, ever since I met you, I've been thinking about a baby with your beautiful blue eyes."

  "You know, I think that part might be out of our hands."

  "You mean you can't special order them?"

  Paula laughed, and Dan joined in with his deep, warm laugh. He had been doing that a lot more lately. She loved the sound of it.

  "We'll just have to have twins, then," Dan said. "One of each. Blue eyes and brown."

  "Okay, don't get ahead of yourself, buddy. Like you pointed out, remember who's going to be doing most of the work here."

  There was a sudden crash from the kitchen, and the babble of cheerful conversation hushed. This was followed by a yelp of "Catch her! Oh no, not you too—"

  A fat bear cub bolted from the kitchen, a pastry clamped firmly in her stubby jaws. Flying above her was a little purple dragon, wings beating so rapidly they were a hummingbird-like blur, absolutely covered from nose to tailtip in cherry pie filling and shedding bits of crust.

  The two little shifters vanished upstairs, with several adults and a couple of excited kids pounding along behind them.

  After the entire procession had vanished from sight, and everyone downstairs had stopped laughing, Dan said, "Still want one of those?"

  "More than ever," Paula sighed.

  Because this was her life, wasn't it? This wonderful chaos, these people who welcomed her into their lives. Her kids, and the Ruger kids, and all the glorious madness that came from knowing shifters and having shifter kids and a shifter mate.

  She twined her hand into Dan's, and together, as a team, they went upstairs to see if they could help.

  If you enjoyed this book, please join my mailing list! You’ll receive emails when I release a new book, and free story epilogues in which you can see what the couples get up to after their books.

  And don’t miss more mythic shifters in Stoneskin Dragon, #1 in a new Bodyguard Shifters spinoff series!

  A note from Zoe Chant

  Thank you for buying my book! I hope you enjoyed it. If you’d like to be emailed when I release my next book, please click here to be added to my mailing list: http://www.zoechant.com/join-my-mailing-list/. You can also visit my webpage at zoechant.com or follow me on Facebook or Twitter.

  For this book, I asked readers in my Facebook group to submit cute kid stories that I might use in the book (with details changed, of course!). I got a wonderful deluge of stories - thank you so much! I had so much fun reading all of them! The ones that I ended up using were from Norma (kid covered in baby powder - there were also similar stories from two other moms, Carrie and Shay, so I guess a lot of parents can probably relate!), and the baby oil sliding races were from Ashley.

  If you want to join in the fun, help me decide similar things for future books and have a chance at free ARCs, please join my VIP Readers Group on Facebook!

  Also, please consider reviewing Babysitter Bear, even if you only write a line or two. I appreciate all reviews, whether positive or negative.

  Cover art: © Depositphoto.com

  Also by Zoe Chant

  Bodyguard Shifters

  Bearista

  Pet Rescue Panther

  Bear in a Bookshop

  Day Care Dragon

  Bull in a Tea Shop

  Dancer Dragon

  There is a convenient boxed set of the first four books.

  Bears of Pinerock County

  Sheriff Bear

  Bad Boy Bear

  Alpha Rancher Bear

  Mountain Guardian Bear

  Hired Bear

  A Pinerock Christmas

  Boxed Set #1 (collects Books 1-3)

  Boxed Set #2 (collects Books 4-6)

  And more … see my website for a full list at zoechant.com!

  If you enjoyed this book, you might also like my paranormal romance and sci-fi romance written as Lauren Esker!

  Shifter Agents

  Handcuffed to the Bear

  Guard Wolf

  Dragon’s Luck

  Tiger in the Hot Zone

  Shifter Agents Boxed Set #1

  (Collecting Handcuffed to the Bear, Guard Wolf, and Dragon's Luck)

  Standalone Paranormal Romance

  Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

  Keeping Her Pride

  Warriors of Galatea

  Metal Wolf

  Metal Dragon

  Metal Pirate

  Turn the page for a preview …

  Preview: Stoneskin Dragon

  by Zoe Chant

  He has days to live.

  Dragon shifter Reive is dying. After a fight with a gargoyle to save his clan, his poisoned body is painfully turning to stone. His only hope: an ancient book that promises a cure.

  And the librarian who can help him find it.

  She's a monster.

  All her life Jess has feared and hated her gargoyle shifter form. She would give anything to be fully human.

  Now she might have a way.

  If she can fight her attraction for a dying man long enough to help him find the book that will save or doom them both.

  But they're not the only ones looking for it ...

  Get it on Amazon now!

  If not for phone maps, Reive Corcoran would never have found it. The Ossowa Public Library was on a tree-lined residential street, surrounded by white frame houses with neatly kept yards. The library building was only one story high, most of it hidden behind shrubs bright with early touches of autumn color. The front parking lot was just big enough for a handful of cars.

  He walked to it from the bus station. It was a lovely day, warm and a bit muggy, with just enough early autumn coolness to cut the heat. His leather motorcycle jacket would ordinarily have been too warm for the sunshine, but he was cold inside it, almost shivering.

  His right arm hung numb at his side.

  He felt out of place in this small town, scruffy and leather-jacketed with his hair—long enough to fall in his face—tied back with a leather cord. He carried a small backpack slung over his left shoulder with a change of clothes and some toiletries.

  He was used to traveling light, but he wasn't used to traveling without his motorcycle. He'd had to leave it behind weeks ago. To his infinite frustration, his right hand could no longer handle the controls.

/>   Reive reached absently to rub his aching arm under the leather jacket. A black leather glove covered his hand, and he had to resist the urge to pull it off and examine it again to see if the gray, stony patches had visibly spread. When he rubbed at his arm, he could feel the hard places underneath his sleeve. The rocky patches themselves were numb, but when he pressed at them, pain sparked bright and hot on the burning edges where rock met flesh.

  He almost welcomed it. The pain steeled him, gave him purpose. Reminded him why he was here.

  He was running out of chances, running out of time.

  He'd slept on the bus, but it had been interrupted and restless, as all his sleep was lately, plagued by strange dreams. Not nightmares exactly, but eerie and unsettling—dreams of being buried alive in stone or trapped in an unresponsive body.

  If this library didn't have what he needed, he wasn't sure where to go next.

  Who would have guessed that the biggest collection of books and manuscripts on gargoyles on the entire continent, possibly in the world, was in a small-town library in Indiana?

  There was a pleasant little path, edged with flowerbeds, leading to the library's glass door. Small-town library hours, he noticed: 11-4, Monday-Friday. It was Friday afternoon. He had barely made it before they closed.

  His dragon uncoiled inside him, stirring wordlessly. It had been sluggish and quiet as his disease progressed, almost unresponsive; even his shifts were coming with greater difficulty. This was the most interest it had shown in anything in weeks. Reive couldn't help feeling a weary thrill of something that might be reluctant hope.