by Amy Star
As if he could sense her intent, as she opened her mouth to begin wheedling at him again he informed her, “A friend of mine who might be able to help you get some gallery space in the near future is going to be in the city after we get back from vacation.” He nudged her shoulder with his chin. “Do you want me to put you in touch with him?”
Oh, that was a low, dirty move. How was she supposed to ignore that? She supposed she would just let him keep his secrets for the time being.
“Is he going to be a high and mighty jerk about it?” she wondered, her voice low and groggy.
“I doubt it,” Zeke assured her. “I’ve never known him to be anything but polite.”
“Is he a bear or… some other sort of critter?” she asked, her words coming slower. It seemed like an important thing to know in advance, given everything that had happened lately.
He huffed out a breath of laughter. “Not that he’s informed me,” he answered wryly. “If you learn otherwise, let me know.”
“I’ll do that,” she replied, though the words were muffled as she yawned. She patted his arm with one hand. “I’ll talk to him. I guess it can’t hurt.”
She was pretty sure he said something else to her after that, but she didn’t have any idea what it was, as her eyes finally closed and she fell asleep almost as soon as the words finished leaving her mouth. It had been quite a day, after all. She was pretty sure she had earned her sleep.
*
Charlie had been to a beach twice before. The first time it had been attached to a Great Lake rather than an ocean, and it had been rocky and sort of chilly and it hadn’t really been anything to write home about. She had enjoyed herself largely because her father hadn’t been there to ruin the experience. The second time it was a proper ocean, but it had been a very well-known beach with tourists in every direction so that the beach was overly crowded, uncomfortably loud, and oddly smelly in a way that she hadn’t known a beach could be.
The location of their honeymoon was a very different sort of beach from either of Charlie’s past experiences.
The sky was blue. The air smelled like salt. The sand was so white it was nearly silver, and when the moonlight hit it, it was silver. The water was blue and so clear that Charlie swore it had to have magical properties. Dolphins leapt through the water periodically, close enough to be seen easily, sea lions occasionally sunned themselves on the sand, and every so often a school of fish cruised through the shallows. The waves were quiet and low most of the time, rarely coming much higher than Charlie’s thighs. The palm trees were such a vibrant shade of green that if she hadn’t known any better, Charlie would have sworn they had been painted. There were honest to goodness coconuts on the sand, having fallen out of the palm trees.
(Silently, Charlie made a note not to sunbathe too close to any of the trees.)
Altogether, she was pretty sure that Zeke had whisked her away to a private fairyland.
“It’s a private island,” he corrected with quiet amusement, and Charlie rolled her eyes and kicked sand at him.
And really, that alone was such a strange idea. A private island. An island that Zeke owned and that no one else could be on without his permission. It was an entire island, and they were the only two people on it.
Granted, it was a small island—she could stand on one shore and look across the island, and if she caught a gap in the trees just right then she could see the opposite shore without any assistance—and the bungalow, while it was equipped and stocked with the best, was tiny. But still, it was an island that belonged entirely to Zeke, with a little house and a dock and a boat. Because if someone had enough money they could do that. They could just acquire an island if they wanted to.
Honestly, Charlie didn’t think she was going to get over that. She didn’t want to get over that, actually. She didn’t want to become so jaded and spoiled that the idea of owning an island stopped seeming incredible.
She got to experience a lot of things she never had before.
She got to swim out past the breakers until her feet couldn’t touch the sand anymore and instead she simply bobbed in the water like a buoy. She got to kiss Zeke, long and slow and deep, while they both stood in the shallows and got buffeted by the gentle waves. She got to watch a school of small, brown rays swim past her, the school parting to go around her, some of them flapping past so closely she could have bent down and touched one if she really wanted to.
She got to pin Zeke to the sand and kiss him until the wind picked up and they had to separate to avoid getting sand in their faces. She got to watch Zeke crack a coconut open with a hammer and a chisel to drink the milk inside, and then she got to crack one open herself (and while she did come close to hitting her thumb, she did manage to avoid actually hitting it, miraculously).
She got to ride in a speedboat as it cruised along at breakneck speeds and bounced over waves, the spray off of the water soaking her to the bone and the wind whipping her hair around her until she was drenched and freezing and laughing like a child. She got to see the way Zeke sometimes looked at her as if she were the sun and the world spun around her when he didn’t think she was looking.
She got to lie out on the sand at night and stare at the sky, listening to the gulls and the waves as she stared at the stars, just as bright and brilliant and endless as they had been in the woods.
She had always considered herself a city girl through and through, and that opinion still held; she knew that the city would always have a place in her heart and that she would always need the bustle of activity and the sound, whether it was right outside her door or simply nearby. But getting out of the city every so often and seeing what the world had to offer when it was quiet and nearly untouched was pretty great, too.
It was as if the rest of the world had ceased to exist, leaving just the two of them on the miniscule island. Charlie knew that wasn’t actually the case, but they were both content to pretend it was.
The idea of owning a private island was pretty fantastic, but actually spending time on that island was even better. Maybe that made Charlie seem childish or easily pleased, but she doubted it, and even if that was the case, she was okay with that.
*
As much as she may have liked to, Charlie could not actually live outside on the shore for the entirety of their honeymoon. For one thing, she didn’t know how to cook over a fire and she didn’t know how to fish or catch anything, even a crab. For another thing, sun poisoning was not something she was eager to get.
It was alright, though. The bungalow was pretty spectacular, too.
From the outside it was adorable, in beiges, greens, and browns so it very nearly blended in seamlessly with its surroundings. It was surrounded by palm trees of various types along with all kinds of other tropical plants that Charlie couldn’t hope to name, and if not for the little stone walkway sticking out of a gap between two trees, the bungalow really would have been impossible to spot.
From the inside, it was cozy. There was a single bedroom and a single bathroom, and the rest of the bungalow consisted of a sitting area, a kitchenette, and an eating nook. The walls were more window than wall, letting sunlight pour in and making the tiny space feel about six times larger than it actually was. An entire section of the back wall could be rolled up like a curtain, leading out onto a stone patio with a brick fire pit.
They christened the bed, the shower, the couch in the sitting area, and the couch on the patio within the first couple days.
(They contemplated christening the beach as well—there was no one around to see them, after all—but then they decided that there were some places that sand did not need to be.)
Charlie felt as if she were in a movie, winding towards her happily ever after. But rather than ending at the best part, she instead got to keep living it. She was happier than she could ever remember being and she almost didn’t know how to react to it.
She settled for grabbing Zeke by his belt loops and making out with him against the wall in t
he kitchenette to make her point, and he seemed to get her meaning pretty well.
*
Of course, not all of their vacation took place on the tiny, private island. There was a larger island not far off—Charlie could see it from the shore if she squinted in the right direction—and it was a more standard resort island, with restaurants and shopping and other people, and they took the boat over there at least every other day. They were both city people at heart, after all, and while they were happy to pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist for a healthy chunk of the day, they still liked knowing that other people were there.
They shopped, both for food and necessities and simply because Charlie was easily distracted by things that were pretty and Zeke was always happy to give her just about anything she got distracted by, and they visited the restaurants, and Charlie ate some of the best seafood she had ever eaten. As it turned out, when there was nothing but ocean in every direction, seafood was available everywhere and it wasn’t even that expensive.
(Not that money was ever going to be an issue ever again, if Charlie was honest, but she was pretty sure she would never stop thinking of it as a concern. Old habits died hard, after all, but she supposed being careful with money was never a bad habit to have, even when money was available in excess.)
Plus, as a tourist destination, the resort island was simply pretty. It was nice to explore in the daylight when everything was vibrant and wobbling with heat haze, and at night when everything was lit with torches and looked as if a tribe of enormous fireflies had moved in. Granted, it wasn’t as pretty as the smaller island, but Charlie suspected she was a bit biased there.
Besides, Charlie appreciated basically anywhere that let her wander as she pleased in nothing but a bikini, sandals, and a sheer floral wrap. Anywhere where beachwear counted as day-to-day wear (even if part of that reason was because it was so hot and humid that even just putting on a tank top would cause her to melt into an inhuman puddle) was a good place in Charlie’s book.
*
Charlie knew Zeke was standing outside the bathroom. Not because she had seen him or heard him and not because he had announced his presence, but because he had been outside the bathroom door every other time she had gotten sick over the last few days, and it had been… a lot. She had gone running to the bathroom to throw up more times over the last few days than she ever had before in her life.
“Are you sure you don’t need to see a doctor?” Zeke asked through the door, and though he sounded as calm as usual, Charlie could tell that he was fretting. It was sort of endearing, actually. He really was like her own enormous teddy bear sometimes. She hadn’t called him that to his face yet, but she imagined the reaction would be funny whenever she did.
Charlie finished rinsing her mouth out with a gulp of water and spit it into the sink. “I’m sure,” she sighed, pulling open one of the drawers beneath the sink to pull out a purchase she had made yesterday. She had her own suspicions about her sudden ailment and she had slipped away for a few minutes to make the purchase the evening before.
With a sigh, she dropped her pants and sat on the toilet, opened up the cardboard box, and dumped the stick inside into her hand. Within a few moments, she had peed on the stick and was staring at it, waiting for it to give her the results.
She couldn’t say she was surprised when the results came. She wasn’t going to say the pregnancy test wasn’t lying—she knew people who had gotten false positives on them—but considering her recent bout of illness, she strongly suspected that it was telling her the truth as it cheerfully proclaimed ‘positive.’
Evidently, she would be helping to deepen the gene pool a bit earlier than she had anticipated, though she supposed she shouldn’t have been surprised. She and Zeke were generally not particularly concerned with condoms; that sort of thing tended to slip their minds once they got started, and they got started often.
Slowly, she grinned.
True enough, she hadn’t expected it to happen for a while yet, but she was adaptable and she was always up for an adventure. And so far, it was already proving to be quite the adventure.
Already, her mind was racing through scenarios, trying to decide what it would be like to raise a baby that was also a bear. True, she had no guarantees that would be the case, but she liked to be prepared. And it seemed… exciting, having a little apex predator of her very own. Zeke could teach them how to hunt and how to be a bear, and Charlie could teach them manners and how to be a person, and everything would be perfect.
She could hardly even imagine all the antics and shenanigans a young bear might get up to, and in that instant, never before had she wanted to meet someone more than she wanted to meet the child that was most likely growing inside of her.
She was roused from her thoughts as Zeke tapped his knuckles on the door. “Are you alright in there?”
She supposed she should open the door before the poor guy had a heart attack or tried to ram the door open. (Not that she thought he would actually do anything like that.)
Besides, just as importantly as everything else running through her mind, Charlie could hardly wait to see the look on Zeke’s face.
* *
Hiiii
Thanks so much for reading, I really hope you enjoyed it. If you are a WereBear fan and want to read more WereBear books then just check out my author page to see all of them!
AMY STAR AMAZON PAGE
They are all listed on there for you to read right away
Amy x x
Otherwise, turn the page to enjoy a COMPLETE novel I included in your download as a way of saying thank you!
P.S It is one of my previous bestsellers! xx
THE BEAR'S
RELUCTANT BRIDE
A PARANORMAL BEAR SHIFTER ROMANCE
AMY STAR
Copyright ©2016 by Amy Star
All rights reserved.
About This Book
Young WereBear Kalia is now of age to become a bride to an older WereBear from within her tribe.
This is usually a beautiful moment for any young female WereBear even though they have no say in who they mate with.
Kalia has a good idea of who might choose her as their mate but she is more than shocked when she finds she is chosen by a young warrior bear named Luke.
Luke might be handsome but he is also very arrogant and she does not seem to have any connection with him at all. She has no idea why he chose her over the other available women.
Now, Kalia has no choice but to reluctantly become the Bear's bride and whilst he might be able to please her physically, can he ever please her emotionally?
CHAPTER ONE
In the mountains of West Virginia, in an area so remote that it has been left undisturbed for centuries, live two tribes of werebears. Though they should have been allies, the two tribes were bitter enemies. The rift developed in a time long gone by and none of the Bears even recalled the reason for it.
In the Castien tribe lived a young girl named Kalia. She lived with her mother, younger sister, and twin baby little brothers. Like all of the girls in her culture, she was raised to one day be a good wife to one of the warriors and hunters of the tribe. She learned by helping her mother to raise her younger siblings. Her father, killed years before in battle, had been a revered warrior. For that reason, she and her family had always been held to a high standard. Her mother worked hard to live up to it and she always raised Kalia to hold herself to the same standard. It had been months since Kalia had completed her training, but she had not yet mated.
In their culture, mating was not something the females had much say in. After girls were of age and had completed their years of training in all the female arts, including cooking, cleaning, childcare, sewing, hide tanning, and pottery making, the elders chose their mate for them. When the warriors decided they were ready to take a mate, they went to their elders and asked to be mated. Then the elders met in a secret ritual where they chose the girl they thought best suited for him. On
the next full moon, that warrior enters the sacred lodge, where his virgin bride offers herself to him. Neither have any idea who would be waiting in the lodge for them. They then make love, cementing the bond forged by the elders.
Kalia had been waiting apprehensively for her day to arrive. For her entire life, she had seen herself as her mother's helper and her siblings’ protector. She could not picture herself leaving their home and beginning a separate life. She had watched almost all of the girls her age enter in to their mating bonds. They had spent years together, imagining which of the boys and men surrounding them would be their mate and life partner. Her mother had always told her that it was a waste of time.
“Put your faith in the elders,” her mother told her, “do not get your heart set on one man or another.”
With those words in mind, she tried to wait patiently for her time. For months, she watched her friends begin their new lives. Each time the elders met, she waited for word to come that it was her time, but that had not happened. She was beginning to believe the elders were going to allow her to stay with her family forever.