by Anna Lowe
Rebel Bear
Aloha Shifters: Pearls of Desire
by
Anna Lowe
Book 2
Rebel Bear
Copyright © 2018 by Anna Lowe
[email protected]
Editing by Lisa A. Hollett
Proofreading by Donna Hokanson
Cover art by Kim Killion
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental.
Many thanks to the wonderful members of my Plot Wizards group for all their support and ideas, and a big thank you to star beta readers Jen, Cindy, Colleen, Beth, Renee, Linda, and Sherry!
Other books in this series
Aloha Shifters - Pearls of Desire
Rebel Dragon (Book 1)
Rebel Bear (Book 2)
Rebel Lion (Book 3)
Rebel Wolf (Book 4)
Rebel Alpha (Book 5)
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Desert Wolf: Friend or Foe (Book 1.1 in the Twin Moon Ranch series)
Off the Charts (the prequel to the Serendipity Adventure series)
Perfection (the prequel to the Blue Moon Saloon series)
Contents
Other books in this series
Rebel Bear
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sneak Peek: Rebel Lion
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Rebel Bear
Up-and-coming supermodel Hailey Crewe can’t wait to escape the limelight and return to the anonymous lifestyle she once led. Escaping literally? That was never part of her plan. But when an unwanted suitor — and her scheming mother/manager — go a step too far with a surprise Hawaii wedding, Hailey becomes a bride on the run. Before she knows it, she’s not only being hunted by a greedy oil tycoon, but by his creepy security force too. A good thing she bumps into her very own Lancelot at exactly the right time.
Bear shifter Timber Hoving is just another Special Forces vet slowly adjusting to island time. That is, until an irresistible stranger rushes into his meticulously organized world. Before Tim knows it, his human side is wrestling with temptation, and his bear is head over heels in love. But Hailey’s first encounter with shifters is a terrifying one, and Tim can’t reveal the truth about himself without losing her forever. Worse, sinister shifter forces are closing in, following a ruthless agenda of their own. They’ll stop at nothing to capture Tim’s destined mate — dead or alive.
Chapter One
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Hailey smoothed her hands over the silky contours of her dress and frowned into the full-length mirror.
Her mother tapped her shoulder. “Don’t make faces, honey. It will give you wrinkles.”
Hailey’s frown deepened as she looked down. “I thought only the bride was supposed to wear white at a wedding.”
“It’s cream,” her mother insisted.
Hailey squinted into the mirror. Was that a trick of the bright overhead light? “It’s still too close.”
Her mother shrugged. “It’s Isabelle’s wedding, and if she wants her bridesmaids in cream, she can have them. Besides, it brings out the blue of your eyes.”
Hailey turned this way and that. The dress looked good. Almost too good, what with the way her long, golden hair flowed over the silky fabric. But she was just a bridesmaid, for goodness’ sake. A reluctant one, at that, because she barely knew the bride. On the other hand, Isabelle was known for having quirky tastes.
“I think she just made me a bridesmaid to be polite.”
“Nonsense, honey. She likes you. Her future sister-in-law.” Her mother winked.
Hailey just about stamped her foot. “Would you stop that? Just because I’ve seen Jonathan a few times doesn’t mean I’m marrying him.”
She nearly added, In fact, it’s been more about him wanting to see me. Their brief, long-distance relationship had barely given them time to talk in person, and it seemed impolite to break up on the eve of his sister’s wedding. She didn’t want to jinx Isabelle.
Her mother made a vague, mmm-hmm sound and tugged the shoulder strap of Hailey’s dress to one side.
Hailey tugged it right back. “Mom…”
Her mother huffed. “You know, you didn’t use to fuss so much.”
Hailey nearly blurted, That was when I was a kid and I had no choice. But that only would have gotten her mother started on her whole How can you be so ungrateful when I’ve done so much for you speech, so Hailey held her tongue and swung her jaw from side to side instead.
“Don’t do that. It’s not pretty.”
Her mother didn’t used to get on her nerves this badly. But lately…
“I’m not on the clock, Mom.”
“People will still be watching you.” Her mother smiled like that was a good thing.
Hailey made a face. People were always watching. Commenting. Sneaking pictures and whispering, It’s her! It’s her! Hailey Crewe! She’d had to live with that for the past three years, ever since her modeling career took off.
An accidental career she kept meaning to end, a lot like her relationship with Jonathan. She just had to find the right time to break the news. Hailey looked out the open window at surfers bobbing in the water off Waikiki, waiting for a perfect wave. They looked so relaxed, so free. So spontaneous. Everything she couldn’t be.
Not in her current life, anyway. She fingered her necklace and let her gaze drift to the craggy crown of Diamond Head. Hawaii might be just the place to make that break and start something new. She closed her eyes, picturing it.
It was getting to be a little fantasy with her — making her career-ending announcement, then kicking up her heels and turning her back on it all. Make that, running away from it all. The intense schedule. The constant dieting. Sexist producers. How superficial it all was.
Of course, if Hailey did that, her mother would have a heart attack — or fake one. Her agent would flip, and the media would whip themselves into a frenzy if she didn’t time it exactly right. Maybe when another top model hit the news with a record-breaking deal or shocking news, like a bombshell divorce or a drug arrest. Hailey didn’t wish any of that on anyone but, heck. If one of those things did happen, she’d grab the chance for a quiet
exit, stage right.
She must have been smiling at the notion, because her mother chuckled. “Ah, I see you’re dreaming of your own wedding.”
That snapped her out of the fantasy with the force of a car slamming into a brick wall. “Marriage isn’t my major goal in life, Mom.”
“Which I can’t understand, not when you have a good man like Jonathan.”
Good meant rich, Hailey knew. As in, billions. She hadn’t even realized at first, but the more she’d gotten to know Jonathan, the more she’d realized how much money ruled his life.
“He’s only a few years older than you,” her mother went on, extolling his virtues. “He’s in good shape, and you look great together…”
Hailey rolled her eyes. Was that important?
Her mother sighed. “Would you stop fiddling with that ugly thing?”
Hailey bristled. Her pearl was a family heirloom, but since it wasn’t the round, shiny type — just an oblong, bumpy pearl — it wasn’t good enough in her mother’s eyes.
Her mother tugged the shoulder strap down again. “You have such nice shoulders, honey. Nothing wrong with showing a little skin.”
“At a wedding?”
“Gotta make a splash.” Her mother grinned.
No, she didn’t. When would her mother get that? She’d had her lucky break and made it big. Modeling had lifted her and her mother out of poverty. Why did her mother always demand more?
“This a wedding, Mom. Not a publicity event.”
“Everything is a publicity event.” Her mother practically beamed.
“It doesn’t have to be. I’d really like to go to this wedding as myself, not as someone else’s vision of who I should be.”
Her mother gave a theatrical sigh. “If I let you do that, you’d go in ripped jeans and a T-shirt. And your hair would look like you’d skateboarded to the event.”
Hailey snorted, not because her mother was wrong, but because the astronomical insurance policy her agent had negotiated didn’t allow anything fun. No skateboarding, no horseback riding. Nothing. All the simple fun she’d had as a kid was suddenly off-limits. Heck, she couldn’t even go out on the beach and rent a surfboard for an hour. And anyway, she’d be mobbed if she did.
“Making it big is supposed to let you live the way you want to live,” she murmured.
Her mother shook her head. “You have another ten years — at best — in this business. You have to milk that time for all it’s worth.”
An apt description, Hailey thought. She was the golden cow that had to be milked for every penny. How much would she need to earn to satisfy her mother?
“Now about your hair…” her mother said before Hailey could snap those words out.
She pursed her lips and counted to ten. A woman really ought to have shown her mother the limits by the time she hit twenty-eight. But the first years of Hailey’s whirlwind career had been like falling into a shark tank, and her mother had had her best interests at heart. For every success, there had been another step of the ladder to climb, and Hailey had been too focused on her part of the equation to battle her mother.
But now… Hailey sighed. She was going to have two difficult conversations soon. One with Jonathan and one with her mother. She appreciated her mom — she truly did — but it was time to carve out space for her own life on her own terms.
She turned away from her mother, covering her hair. “I can do it.”
“You want it to look good for the wedding, dear.”
“Not my wedding.”
“You never know,” her mother said under her breath. “I mean, when the great day might come.”
Hailey gave her mother a side-eyed stare and started forming a twisted chignon.
“Needs more volume,” her mother said.
Things pretty much continued in that vein until they left their penthouse suite for the hotel lobby, where Jonathan waited. Or rather, where he spoke on his phone. He flicked his fingers up in a little salute then turned his back on Hailey to finish the call.
“Yes, twenty-six. And verify the ETFs.” He checked his hair in a pair of slanted mirrors that threw back an infinite number of images of him. “What are the numbers from Nagoya?”
Hailey gnashed her teeth. What had she ever seen in him?
She looked toward the fountain bubbling cheerily in the lobby of the beachside hotel, but her thoughts were a thousand miles away. She’d first met Jonathan near his hobby ranch in Montana, and he’d been different then. More relaxed, more outdoorsy. Sporty, even, with hair that hadn’t been blow-dried just so. Had that all been a show? Maybe she’d been desperate to see him in a better light — or desperate to get away from her mother, who guarded against men like a hawk. When Jonathan came along, however, her mother had been all fluttering eyelashes and happy coos.
Three reporters rushed across the lobby to snap pictures, making her mother wind an arm through Hailey’s elbow and beam.
“Miss Crewe! Miss Crewe!”
Hailey tried not to frown. Why did reporters always talk at the same time?
“What are your thoughts on this big day? Are you excited? Nervous?”
It was only a wedding. What was the big deal?
“Back up. Back up.”
Lamar, Jonathan’s head of security, stalked over with his usual glare and pushed them all back, but that didn’t improve things much. Lamar made Hailey cringe, even if she couldn’t explain why. His low bark of a voice and permanent scowl made her imagine all kinds of evil deeds, like he’d come straight from strangling someone in the woods. Which was a terrible thing to think of someone, but somehow, that’s what always came to Hailey’s mind.
Jonathan, on the other hand, had a serious man-crush on his head of security. “All set to go, man?” He thumped Lamar on the arm like they were close buddies instead of boss and hired gun.
Lamar gave his usual pissed-off nod and growled. “All set to go.”
Jonathan turned to Hailey, beaming as if she’d only just walked up. “Honey, you look beautiful!”
Hailey turned her cheek before Jonathan’s lips could hit hers. Did the man ever notice anything other than her appearance? No I’ve missed you or How was your morning?
Jonathan turned to her mother. “Mrs. Crewe. You two look like sisters.”
Her mother ate that up, but Hailey rolled her eyes. No, they didn’t look like sisters. Her mother looked every bit a woman who’d struggled most of her life to make ends meet. A woman who’d spent years at the stove of a diner, grilling burgers and fries because that’s what you did to pay the rent, especially if you were widowed young and left with a kid, a crippling mortgage, and a car that barely ran. To Hailey, the wrinkles and stooped shoulders made her mother beautiful, not the styled hair or designer clothes she’d cloaked herself in ever since Hailey’s modeling money had started to roll in.
Hailey sighed at her own train of thought. God, she really was in the wrong industry, wasn’t she?
“You look great, Jonathan,” her mother cooed.
Jonathan flashed his country club smile, smoothed a hand over his perfectly straight tie, and winked. “It’s the big day.”
Hailey’s mother winked back, making her pause. Those two were up to something. But what? Jonathan did look good, she had to admit. Of course, it was his sister’s wedding, and his family had spared no expense. Kind of a rushed wedding, but whatever. That wasn’t Hailey’s business, so she’d never really asked.
“Shall we go?” she asked.
Jonathan grinned like she was one of the adorable little flower girls who skipped by and not a grown woman who could think for herself. “Soon.” He gave Lamar a cryptic signal and let him bustle ahead. “Let’s make sure everyone is ready to go.”
Jonathan loved making an entrance — another thing he hadn’t revealed in Montana. When Hailey had seen him in California between jobs, she was shocked at the cheap thrill he got out of limos and red-carpet events. Sometimes she wondered whether he only supported charitable pro
jects for the publicity.
The fountain bubbled quietly, providing an oasis of calm and tranquility Hailey didn’t feel in the least.
At least she’d never slept with Jonathan. Thank goodness for that. She’d kept it to dinners out and a quick kiss on the doorstep of her Brentwood condo.
Not going to invite me in? Jonathan had asked with a glint in his eye every time.
She’d blabbed about going slow and forming a meaningful relationship before taking the next step and a bunch of other nonsense that had held him at bay. So far, she’d kept it at that. And that was as far as it was going, because she had no intention to continue seeing Jonathan. He’d booked a suite for Hailey and her mother across the hall from his own, and across the hall was where she planned to keep him until she found the right time to break it off gently.
“One more thing,” Jonathan said, reaching into his pocket. “I brought you a gift.”
Hailey looked on, mortified, as he held out a jewelry box with a magnificent pearl necklace. There were at least twenty pearls in it, each pink, shiny, and perfectly round.
“Oh, it’s lovely.” Her mother pressed a hand to her own chest as if picturing them there.
“Yes, they are.” Jonathan grinned.
Hailey bit her lip. “Thank you, but I couldn’t possibly accept.”
Jonathan frowned. “Of course you can. They’re beautiful.”
As if beauty was all that counted. Hailey sighed then ducked away before he could loop them around her neck.
“I don’t understand why you don’t want them. They’re much better than yours.” Jonathan’s eyes narrowed.
She could have thrown out any of a dozen answers, starting with Because they’ll make you feel like you own me and moving on to Because my grandfather gave me my necklace and I love it. But Jonathan wouldn’t listen, and he’d never understand.
He stared at her through icy eyes until her mother intervened. “Please forgive her, Jonathan. It must be all the stress. She’ll come to her senses before long.”