by T. S. Ryder
At that moment, he felt more like a child than he had since he was ten years old. “I . . . I’ll have to give her up. I can’t take care of a baby.”
Ricky nodded. Sorrow lined his face as he gripped Tyrell’s arm. “I will have the necessary paperwork drawn up, then.”
Tyrell nodded, feeling like he was under a thousand pounds of water. He continued to stare at the sleeping baby. It wasn’t until Ricky was gone that he realized that this meant he’d have to take care of her for the night. His chest tightened and he looked around wildly as if he’d find an instruction manual. What if he hurt her? What if . . .
There was a diaper bag on the counter. Tyrell breathed out a sigh of relief as he gently set the car seat down and went to it. Diapers, bottles, formula. And instructions on the formula how to make it. Good. There were also other little outfits. Tiny clothes that wouldn't even fit on his forearm.
The baby started to fuss and he rushed over, heart hammering. He struggled to free her from the seat, wincing when he caught her arm. As soon as she was snuggled into his arms, though, she relaxed. Big, beautiful eyes gazed up at him. The same shape and color as his own. His breath caught in his throat. He could see so much of himself in the tiny face.
A rush of warmth ran through him, a feeling of overwhelming protectiveness. And he knew at that moment that he would never be able to give her up.
“Welcome home, Tamara,” he whispered. “I promise . . . I promise I will always be here for you. Daddy’s got you. And he always will.”
Chapter One – Cynthia
The ferry bobbed in the ocean, small enough that the waves made it rock back and forth. Cynthia’s stomach churned, the nerves making her seasickness even worse. The fresh air ought to have helped a bit, but she didn’t know if it did. With one hand she clutched the railing beside her, and with the other, she held her suitcase tightly. Closing her eyes only made it worse.
Up until she stepped foot on the ferry, she had only been excited about the start of her new life. Now, she had to wonder just how much of a bad impression she would make if she vomited all over her prospective employer the moment she met him.
The ferry captain knelt beside her. He was a big man, taller than she was with muscles on muscles. Insanely gorgeous, too, with windswept black hair and the clearest blue eyes she had ever seen. He handed her a water bottle and she sipped cautiously. The captain sat next to her and gave her a wide grin as he put a hand on her back.
“Not used to the sea, are you?”
Cynthia shook her head. “Not at all.”
There were only a half-dozen others on the ferry, all of them tall and broad like the captain. A few of them gave her distrustful gazes, though they never met her eye. One of them scowled with such fierceness she thought he might march over and toss her into the ocean, but he stayed where he was.
The captain glanced at the others and gave her a smile that had her heart doing flips despite her churning stomach. “Don’t mind them. It’s not often that we have newcomers headed to the island, and you did throw yourself on our boat.”
Cynthia felt her cheeks start to color as her eyes widened. “Your . . . boat? Isn’t this a ferry?”
“No.”
Heat rushed to her face and she dropped the water bottle. Before she could retrieve it, the man swept down and grabbed it. Cynthia peered at him nervously as she chewed her lip. “So . . . are you the captain?”
“Yes, in a way. It’s my boat. There isn’t a ferry between the mainland and our island, so I shuttle people across when I’ve got time. You’re lucky you arrived when you did.”
His grin widened and became clearly flirtatious. Cynthia started to chew her lip again, then forced herself to stop. Still, her mind drifted over what she had just learned. It was only coincidence that she managed to hop onto this boat and that it was going where she wanted to go . . . maybe this would be the place where she could heal her broken heart after all. The captain was very, very attractive . . .
Don’t go there, she told herself firmly and forced a smile to her face. I’m not looking for a relationship. “I’m sorry. I guess I made an ass out of myself.”
“No, not really. My name is Rex, by the way. Rex Tesla.”
“Cynthia Jones.” She offered him her hand, and he surprised her by kissing her knuckles.
“Pleased to meet you, Cynthia Jones.”
Oh, he was smooth. She had to stop herself from giggling. If he was trying to distract her from her seasickness, it was working. He lowered her hand but kept hold of it. “So, Cynthia. What brings you out this way? Not many people have heard of our little island, let alone want to visit it.”
“Oh! Well . . . Um . . . ”
Cynthia glanced away. There were a lot of things that brought her to California. Most of which Rex probably couldn’t care less about. He wasn’t her therapist, after all. The easy answer was just to say that she had a job offer. She found herself wanting to share more. To tell him about her failed marriage, her years of struggling to pay rent while dealing with five party-happy roommates, and the final straw when she just couldn’t take it anymore.
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Preview of Shades of Werewolf
Description
A curvy Wolf on the run PLUS a hot Werebear taking her captive PLUS a dangerous enemy on their heels!
Between taking care of her twelve younger siblings and always making sure the household is clean and orderly, Mary Locke has never had a moment to herself.
She has always felt like an outsider, even in her own family. In a community of Wolf Shifters where lean muscle is the epitome of beauty and worth, Mary's curvaceous frame only highlights that she doesn't fit in. Then one day, she does the most daring thing she could do–she runs away…
… straight into Andre. He is a Bear shifter, a traditional enemy of the Wolves. Andre once had a wife and daughter, but when cruel hunters killed them, the best part of him went with them. Since that day, he has had one focus in his mind; to find and kill the hunters that killed his wife and daughter.
But when the Wolf finds herself falling for the Bear, can her lonely soul heal his angry heart?
Chapter One
Clusters of snowflakes grouped together, forming large chunks of what looked like cotton candy falling from the sky. The steady thwack, thwack of the windshield wipers kept pace with Mary Locke's heart as she drove along the deserted highway. Her hands clenched around the steering wheel, and she shivered, even though the heat was turned on full blast.
Her inner Wolf leaped with joy for the snow, but she reined it in. She had to get away as fast as she could. She couldn't stop and play.
The money her father had given her for groceries and to refill the car with gas before she had left the farm that morning sat folded in a Ziploc bag on the passenger seat. It would be enough to get her to the nearest airport, and she had already booked her ticket from a library computer using the credit card she paid the family bills with.
Was this the right thing to do? Mary swallowed hard, glancing at the clock. It had been two hours since she had left home. She still had half an hour before she was meant to get home. The farm was forty minutes from the nearest town, and shopping for thirteen children and her parents always took a long time. Plus her father had given her permission to spend some time reading in the library. By the time they came to look for her, she would be long gone.
Mary's hands tightened, her knuckles turning white. How could she do this? Just abandon her family like this? What will they do without me?
At twenty-four years old, Mary was the oldest of thirteen children. With the youngest just a year old, it was up to her to do the laundry, make meals, buy groceries, help the younger ones with their homework, and nurse her mother in her ill health. Would all this responsibility fall on sixteen-year-old Julia now? The older boys all worked with their father, taking care of the livestock, mending fences, fixing tractors and various other activities on the farm. They didn't have time for women's work!
That is what her mother had told her two months ago when Mary had finally bolstered her courage enough to ask if her father could talk to David Monroe's father about David courting her. David was a nice young man. He had always been kind to her.
"Nobody wants a lazy girl for a wife," Mary muttered under her breath, remembering her mother's words. "There is no place for you there."
She didn't think she was lazy, but when she was twelve, she topped off her height at five-foot-seven. The rest of her didn't get the memo. Now amply sized, when the others in the Wolf community saw her, compared with her lean and muscle brothers and sisters, they shook their heads and told her that if she did a little more during the day, she would thin out that waist.
Tears blurred Mary's eyes. When do I have time to do anything else? Even now, escaping from the home she didn't belong to, she wanted to scream it out loud. She didn't know where she would go from here, but even the unknown was better than what she was leaving behind!
As she raised a hand to wipe the tears from her eyes, she felt the car lurch to the side. A gasp tore from her lips, and she instinctively began pumping the brakes, as her father had taught her. Her heart pounded in her ears, and the car skidded across the road. She stopped with a sudden jolt, the seatbelt digging into her neck as it stopped her from being flung out the window.
Mary took a moment to calm her racing heart. She had slid off the road into a drift, but nothing hurt, and she hadn't hit any trees, she could make it out.
The engine spluttered and died.
"No." Her fingers trembled as she turned the key. Not even a faint whirring. "No!"
What now? What were her choices? I could freeze to death trying to get to the next town. She couldn't remember how far it was. Or I could go back.
She was not going to go back.
Determined, Mary climbed into the back seat for the old blanket that was always in the car for just this type of emergency. Winter in the Rocky Mountains was hazardous, even more so in an old car like this one.
She quickly folded tied the edges together, sticking her bag of money into it before taking off her clothes and also putting them in the blanket bundle. She shivered as the cold penetrated into her, but tied the bundle tightly around herself, looping it over one shoulder and under the next so that it pressed against her chest.
A blast of wind made goosebumps spring out on her arms as she stepped from the car. Mary called to the Wolf in her bones, and it happily consumed her.
She began trotting, her ears constantly rotating for the sound of oncoming vehicles. Her breath came in bursts as she inhaled and exhaled the fresh, clean air, feeling more alert than she had for a long time. It had been too long since she'd allowed her Wolf to have its freedom other than on the full moon when she didn't have a choice in the matter. With a yip she burst into a run, her fur smooth and glistening against her round, plump sides. Running with her Wolf truly was the best feeling in the world.
She saw the bear just in time to avoid it as it burst onto the road. A huge, dark-brown grizzly, it stopped the instant it saw her. Massive muscles rippled under its fur. A fresh scar ran jagged down the side of its face, black against pale skin, curved like a bass clef.
And then it came for her.
Mary's heart skipped a beat as adrenaline surged through her. She bolted at once, ears flattened against her skull, tail lowered to streamline herself the best she could. The bear's grunts and heavy footfalls chased after her.
She dashed into the pine forest. The snowdrifts nearly buried her, but she plowed ahead. The imagined feeling of teeth tearing into her urged her to go even faster. Her heart hammered so hard she thought it would explode.
By the time she realized that the bear had given up the chase, the heavy snow had thickened. She shivered, settling beneath a tree, eyes darting through the shadows. There was nothing there. Her fur was still on edge, and she licked it back down to calm herself.
No harm done, she told herself. It was just an old, dumb grizzly bear.
Still, she didn't know how far she was from the road, and with the snow coming down, she was going to lose her way if she didn't hurry back to it. Trying to put the bear from her mind, she headed back down the path she came. She jumped at every moving shadow. The snow seemed to muffle everything. If she were home, she would be cooking supper by now. Four-year-old Simon would be underfoot, trying to steal an early mouthful.
Were they out looking for her by now? Or was Father keeping an eye on the road while he did chores, counting the stripes his belt would put on her backside? Was Julia keeping the house in order, or had Conrad Milton, the skinny little half-human from two farms down, come to take her for a walk around the pond? Was Mother calling for her while the baby cried with a soiled diaper?
Mary's legs burned with the effort of pushing through the drifts, and she sat a moment, shivering as the snow melted and trickled into her fur. Wide green eyes darted from side to side, looking for a place where she could take shelter for the night. She did not want to repress her Wolf so she could use her hands to build herself a snow hut.
The sound of an engine close by made her ears spring up. Her whole body tensed as she got back to her feet, rotating her ears to find which way it was coming from. There! She loped towards the noise, deviating from the path she had taken when she ran from the bear.
After only a few meters, she stumbled out of the trees and onto a road. Frozen gravel bit into her paws from under a layer of packed snow. Her head swiveled, and she made out a dim light from her left. Quickly she suppressed her Wolf, forelegs transforming into arms, chest rising, spine straightening.
The cold wind was like a punch to the stomach. Mary's hands shivered as she dug her dress from her sack and yanked it on. It was half-frozen, and her teeth began chattering.
A giant white truck came into view. Mary moved off the dirt road but waved her arms to get the driver's attention. "Stop!"
The truck slowed to a stop. Mary yanked the door open. A rush of warm air washed over her face, making her sigh in relief.
"Get in," a deep, male voice said. "You look half frozen to death!"
Mary gratefully climbed into the truck. The warmth felt so good it hurt, and her shivering increased. "Thank you," she chattered. "I got lost. Can you take me to the city? I have a flight to catch."
"No. Avalanche closed the roads." The man grunted, turning the heat up.
Mary's heart sank. Now there was nothing to do but go home. But when she turned and got her first look at the man, her words died in her throat.
The first thing she noticed was that he was insanely beautiful. Liquid black eyes stared out of a tanned face that belonged on the cover of a magazine. He had high cheekbones, and a wide, full mouth. Dark brown hair was pulled back into a bun at his crown, and with his neatly trimmed beard, he looked like he should be wielding a war hammer and commanding lightning.
"My name is Andre," he said, unsmiling. "Andre Mitchel."
"Mary Locke," she whispered back.
It wasn't his beauty that caught her voice in her throat. It was the scar on his cheek, black against his skin, curved into the shape of a bass clef.
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About T.S. Ryder
If you’re in for hot-as-hell vampires and shifters, you’re my girl. There’s nothing paranormal that I don’t like or write and I’ll give it all I’ve got to bring beasts and hot men (preferably both :) ) to life for you.
I love writing stories about sexy and protective alpha males and the strong women they love. My stories are always full of steam and I generally throw in a fair amount of action.
So kick back, get comfortable, grab some chocolate and tea and fasten up your girdles for some extra smoldering hotness. Enjoy!
Please check my author page for the latest news and releases.
Books by T.S. Ryder
Bear Shifter Island Series
In the mi
ddle of the ocean, off the coast of California, there is a secret island where a community of Werebears lives, unknown by humans. The Bears have one problem: They all need a mate, but there’s a shortage of females on the island...
Mated to Four Werebears
Werebear’s Nanny
Werebear’s Baby Girl
[more coming]
Shades of Shifters
You will find plenty of insanely sexy shifters in the Shades of Shifters series. The books are completely stand alone and can be read in any particular order.
The Shifter’s Nanny
The Shifter’s Vampire
The Shifter’s Secret Baby
The Shifter’s Detective
The Shifter’s Hostage
Single Dad Shifter
The Shifter’s Secret Twins
Sold to the Shifter
The Shifter’s Secret Son
The Shifter’s Catch
The Shifter’s Secret Baby Girl
The Shifter’s Prisoner
The Shifter’s Secret Baby Boy
The Vampire King Chronicles
Vampire kings have it all: All the power in the world, sexy fangs and plenty of blood donors. There’s only one thing left on their wishlist: A mate… The books are completely stand alone and can be read in any particular order.
Claimed by the Vampire King
Owned by the Vampire King
Chosen by the Vampire King
The Vampire King’s Virgin
The Vampire King’s Captive
The Vampire King’s Mate
The Vampire King’s Nanny
Selected for the Vampire King
The Vampire King’s Cage
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