Day Care Dragon (Bodyguard Shifters Book 4)

by Zoe Chant

  Bad Boy Bear. (Bears of Pinerock County # 2). Biker bear on the open road + a BBW runaway-bride hitchhiker + evil motorcycle gang = an unforgettable red-hot road trip!

  Alpha Rancher Bear. (Bears of Pinerock County # 3). A take-charge alpha with commitment issues + a midwife who's not about to give up control of her well-ordered life + a roadside winter disaster = an explosive romance that's about to blow up everything they both thought they wanted!

  Mountain Guardian Bear. (Bears of Pinerock County # 4). A mountain man with a tragic past + a curvy amnesiac + two deadly secrets = one explosive romance!

  Hired Bear. (Bears of Pinerock County # 5). A curvy farmer deep in debt + a lonely rancher hoping to open his heart + a family farm hiding a hidden treasure = a red-hot rural romance!

  A Pinerock Bear Christmas. (Bears of Pinerock County # 6). Revisit the ranch at Pinerock County in this heartwarming holiday romance.

  Bodyguard Bear. (Protection, Inc. # 1). A BBW witness to a murder + the sexy bear shifter bodyguard sworn to protect her with his life + firefights and fiery passion = one hot thrill ride!

  Defender Dragon. (Protection, Inc. # 2). A curvy backpacker who loses a shoe at a ball + a lonely dragon prince facing an arranged marriage to a princess he doesn’t love + magnificent castles and deadly assassins = one thrilling romance!

  Protector Panther. (Protection, Inc. # 3). A curvy paramedic who doesn’t know the meaning of fear + a mysterious panther shifter bodyguard with the power to inflict terror + sinister experiments and desperate passion = one heart-pounding romance!

  Warrior Wolf. (Protection, Inc. # 4). A runaway dragon princess who wants to experience life outside of castle walls + an ex-gangster werewolf bodyguard with a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas + uptown parties, downtown nightclubs, and deadly assassins = one explosive good girl/bad boy romance!

  Leader Lion. (Protection, Inc. # 5). A tough lion shifter bodyguard hiding a lonely heart + the determined stage manager he'll protect with his life + deadly danger behind the scenes = one sizzling thrill ride of a romance!

  Tropical Tiger Spy. (Shifting Sands Resort # 1). A unique shifter in search of her past + a tiger shifter spy on an undercover mission + a shifters-only resort with secrets to hide = a dangerous and thrilling romantic adventure!

  Tropical Wounded Wolf. (Shifting Sands Resort # 2). A curvy math teacher on vacation + a wolf shifter who spent years in captivity + an accident that leaves them stranded together in a jungle paradise = one thrilling romance!

  Tropical Bartender Bear. (Shifting Sands Resort # 3). A curvy black woman in disguise + a hot bartender bear shifter + a male beauty pageant at a shifters-only resort = a romantic adventure that bares it all!

  Ranger Griffin. A lonely reporter in deadly danger + a protective griffin shifter who thinks he’s a monster + a cozy cabin in the snowy woods = on exciting and heartwarming romance!

  Bear Cop. (Enforcer Bears # 1). A BBW baker with a troubled past + a protective bear shifter cop with a secret of his own + an accident that leaves them stranded in the wilderness = one untamed romance!

  Hunter Bear. (Enforcer Bears # 2). A BBW artist who fears she's lost her muse + a scarred, reclusive bear shifter hunting danger + a mysterious treasure map = one adventurous romance!

  Wedding Bear. (Enforcer Bears #3). A curvy librarian in desperate need of a date + a bear shifter in search of a home + the past that's pursuing him = one sweet and steamy small-town romance!

  Fighter Bear. (Enforcer Bears #4). A curvy veterinary technician longing for a family + a lonely bear shifter with a wounded heart + a family farm in jeopardy = one exciting rural romance!

  Firefighter Dragon. (Fire & Rescue Shifters # 1). A curvy archaeologist with the find of a lifetime + a firefighter dragon shifter battling his instincts + a priceless artifact coveted by a ruthless rival = one blazing hot romance!

  Firefighter Pegasus. (Fire & Rescue Shifters # 2). A curvy pilot wary of flighty men + a firefighter pegasus shifter determined to win her heart + a high speed air race with even higher stakes = one explosive romance!

  Firefighter Griffin. (Fire & Rescue Shifters # 3). A curvy single mom burned by love + a unique half-eagle, half-lion shifter firefighter with a wounded soul + the little boy who brings them together = one heart-warming romance!

  Firefighter Sea Dragon. (Fire & Rescue Shifters # 4). A lonely woman who feels like a fish out of water + a firefighter sea dragon baffled by human ways + a forbidden love that will shake the whole sea = one magical romance!

  The Master Shark’s Mate. (Fire & Rescue Shifters # 5). He's the most feared shifter in the sea. She's a middle-aged grandma from Arizona. He may have finally met his match...

  Firefighter Unicorn. (Fire & Rescue Shifters # 6). His touch can heal anything — except her. Her touch can kill anyone — except him. He’s her salvation. She’s his doom.

  And many more!

  Zoe on Audio

  Kodiak Moment – Audiobook - A workaholic wildlife photographer + a loner bear shifter + Alaskan wilderness = one warming and sensual story.

  Hero Bear - Audiobook - A wounded Marine who lost his bear + a BBW physical therapist with a secret + a small town full of gossips = a hot and healing romance!

  If you love Zoe Chant, you’ll also love these books!

  Handcuffed to the Bear (Shifter Agents # 1), by Lauren Esker. A bear-shifter ex-mercenary and a curvy lynx shifter searching for her best friend's killer are handcuffed together and hunted in the wilderness. Can they learn to rely on each other before their pasts, and their pursuers, catch up with them? A full-length novel.

  Guard Wolf (Shifter Agents # 2), by Lauren Esker. Avery is a lone werewolf with no pack; Nicole is a social worker trying to put her life back together. When he comes to her door with a box of orphan werewolf puppies and danger in pursuit, can two lonely people find the family they've been missing? A full-length novel.

  Dragon’s Luck (Shifter Agents # 3) by Lauren Esker. Gecko shifter and infiltration expert Jen Cho teams up with sexy dragon-shifter gambler "Lucky" Lucado to win a high-stakes poker game. Now they're trapped on a cruise ship full of mobsters, mysterious enemy agents, and evil dragons! A full-length novel.

  Tiger in the Hot Zone (Shifter Agents # 4) by Lauren Esker. In her search for the truth about shifters, tell-all blogger Peri Moreland has been clashing with tiger shifter and SCB agent Noah Easton for years. Now she and Noah are on the run with an unstoppable assassin after them and a custom-made plague threatening the entire shifter world! A full-length novel.

  Laura’s Wolf (Werewolf Marines # 1), by Lia Silver. Werewolf Marine Roy Farrell, scarred in body and mind, thinks he has no future. Curvy con artist Laura Kaplan, running from danger and her own guilt, is desperate to escape her past. Together, they have all that they need to heal. A full-length novel.

  Prisoner (Werewolf Marines # 2), by Lia Silver. Werewolf Marine DJ Torres is a born rebel. Genetically engineered assassin Echo was created to be a weapon. When DJ is captured by the agency that made Echo, the two misfits find that they fit together perfectly. A full-length novel.

  Partner (Werewolf Marines # 3), by Lia Silver. DJ and Echo’s relationship grows stronger under fire… until they are confronted by a terrible choice. A full-length novel.

  Mated to the Meerkat, by Lia Silver. Jasmine Jones, a curvy tabloid reporter, meets her match in notorious paparazzi and secret meerkat Chance Marcotte. A romantic comedy novelette.

  Preview: Bears of Pinerock County complete series!

  Sweet, strong, and sexy, the bears of the Circle B Ranch work hard all day ... and all night!

  Bears of Pinerock County Boxed Set #1

  Bears of Pinerock County Boxed Set #2

  In six books collected into two convenient boxed sets, meet the boys of Pinerock County's hard-living, hard-loving Circle B bear shifter clan and their curvy mates, fighting for their happy endings! Inside you'll find steamy heat, thrilling action, and a guaranteed HEA for every couple.

  A sheriff falls for
the wanted fugitive he's supposed to be arresting ...

  A bear on the road picks up a hitchhiking runaway bride in a whole lot of trouble ...

  A stubborn alpha meets his match in an equally headstrong midwife ...

  A reclusive mountain man finds a beautiful amnesia victim in his cabin …

  A rancher helps a curvy city girl discover buried treasure …

  And it all wraps up in a heartwarming Christmas tale in which the Pinerock clan celebrate their bonds and get a chance to bring happiness to a new couple!

  Bears of Pinerock County Boxed Set #1 collects Sheriff Bear, Bad Boy Bear, and Alpha Rancher Bear.

  Bears of Pinerock County Boxed Set #2 collects Mountain Guardian Bear, Hired Bear, and A Pinerock Bear Christmas.

  1. Sheriff Bear

  2. Bad Boy Bear

  3. Alpha Rancher Bear

  4. Mountain Guardian Bear

  5. Hired Bear

  6. A Pinerock Bear Christmas

  Keep reading for a preview of Sheriff Bear!

  A small-town sheriff + a wrongly accused BBW on the run + deadly enemies and dangerous passions = a sizzling forbidden love!

  Chapter One: Axl

  It was days like this that made Sheriff Axl Tanner glad to be alive. Last night's rain had washed the world clean, and now a brilliant sun shining from a clear blue sky brought out the vivid green in the woods along the highway. He rolled down the window of his patrol car, a 4WD Chevy Tahoe, and let the warm wind blow into the cab.

  He'd spent the morning at the Sheriff's Department office in Spring Meadow, the county seat. What was intended to be a quick run in and out had turned into a few hours of hours of filling out paperwork, equipment requisitions, and incident reports, while the beautiful morning marched on outside the window without him.

  Like most bear shifters, Axl was an outdoorsy guy, the sort of guy who was happiest working with his hands and being out in the sunshine and fresh air. Unfortunately, the down side of that was letting paperwork pile up until he had to do it all at once.

  But finally he was out, waving a cheerful goodbye to Kitty, the department receptionist and dispatcher. As soon as he got out on the road, he felt his mood lift. Maybe he'd drive up to Wildcat Forks for lunch. He hadn't been to Marge's Diner in awhile.

  Keeping law and order in Pinerock County wasn't a demanding job, most of the time. Not like a bigger, more populated area would have been. The whole population of the county was in a scattering of small towns and ranches, spaced out along rural highways with big blocks of forest in between.

  It was perfect bear-shifter country. Axl's clan certainly thought so. And most people knew better than to mess with bear shifters, or with a place they called their own.

  Axl signaled and turned off the highway into downtown Wildcat Forks—well, what passed for downtown, anyway. There wasn't much to the town, just a few small businesses scattered along the two crossing highways that gave the place its name. He drove past the big new Shell complex and pulled into the tiny one-pump service station across the street to fill up the Tahoe.

  The station's one small service bay was open, the garage door cranked open to let in the breeze. Axl clearly wasn't the only one enjoying the nice weather. There was no vehicle in the service bay, so the mechanic/owner, "Big Bob" Johnson, was lounging on a chair in front of it. Although a newspaper was folded on his knee, mostly he was just watching the world go by. He lifted a hand in a laconic wave when Axl pulled in.

  "Morning, Bob," Axl said, unfolding his tall body from behind the wheel of the truck. Even the big SUV was a little cramped for a guy his size.

  "Mornin', Sheriff," the mechanic returned. "Check the oil for you, top off the wiper fluid an' that?"

  "Sure," Axl agreed. "Don't mind if you do."

  He leaned against the Chevy while Bob, at his own speed, moseyed around and poked under the hood. Axl could easily have done all of it, but it was no skin off his nose to give Bob a little business.

  A couple of women went past, walking dogs on leashes. The women waved to Axl, who waved back, and both of them smiled flirtatiously at him, which he returned with a smile that was friendly but (he hoped) not too encouraging. There was no flicker of interest from his bear.

  "Most eligible bachelor in Pinerock County," Axl's brother Alec had teased him the previous night, over dinner at the ranch they'd inherited from their dad. Alec himself was a confirmed bachelor; he swore up and down that no woman was putting a rope around this wild bear.

  Axl had shrugged. The amount of female attention he'd gotten since winning the Pinerock County sheriff's election was downright embarrassing. Big, buff, blond-haired, and handsome, Axl had never had trouble getting dates, unlike his grumpy, reclusive brother. Axl thought most of Alec's "confirmed bachelor" plan came down to basically having declared sour grapes on the whole dating business.

  But while a night out at the local bar and an even wilder night between the sheets may have satisfied Axl when he was younger, it wasn't what he wanted now. He was ready to settle down. Unfortunately his bear wasn't—or, at least, it was turning out to be the choosiest damn bear he could've been saddled with. Women all over the county might be throwing themselves at him, but his bear wasn't interested in any of them.

  Maybe you need to move to a place with more than six single women, then, dumbass.

  But he didn't want to leave Pinerock County. This place was in his blood. He'd been born here, and grew up in the ranch house he now shared with his brother. He knew every rock, tree, and muddy backbend of the meandering Pinerock River ... well, okay, maybe not every rock and tree, but pretty damn close. He and Alec and their cousins had tramped all over the county when they were kids, hunting and fishing, sometimes as bears and sometimes as gangly teenage boys.

  He'd always thought he'd raise his own children here. He'd looked forward to showing them his favorite fishing holes, teaching them to ride horses and to shift gears on the old farm truck.

  And it's never gonna happen if that picky bear of mine doesn't settle down and choose a mate already.

  "Where you off to?" Big Bob asked lazily, wiping the Chevy's dipstick on a greasy rag stuck through the strap of his overalls. "Got any big cases you're workin' on?"

  "Just the usual," Axl said. "A cattle thief here, some petty vandalism over there. Couple of bar fights. Right now, the most urgent thing on my agenda is lunch. I haven't had Sammie's world-famous meatloaf in awhile."

  "You meet the new waitress yet?" Bob asked. "Redhead. Real bombshell."

  Axl felt his bear stir in interest. Well, that was different.

  "Nope," he said. "Didn't know she had one. What happened to Peg?"

  "Peg quit, oh, must be couple months back now. Got married and moved over to Harville. Guess you ain't been by in awhile."

  "I'm behind on the gossip, for sure." Axl pulled out his wallet. "What do I owe you?"

  Bob shook his head. "On the house. Good to see you Tanner boys around. And you know what they say, right?"

  "What?" Axl asked.

  Bob winked and touched his nose. "Bears are good luck."

  Axl snorted and climbed into the Chevy. That old superstition.

  But it was better than most of the alternatives. Some places were a lot better for shifters than others, and Pinerock County was one of the best. Axl had heard of places where shifters were hated, feared, and even attacked.

  Here, their human neighbors were proud of the bear shifters in their midst. When Axl had run for sheriff, the normally independent and apathetic ranch-country voters had turned out in record numbers. Everyone said having a bear-shifter sheriff was the best thing that could have happened to the county.

  Axl thought it was ridiculous, but hey, if being considered good luck meant a few less drunken good ol' boys taking swings at him when he tried to break up fights at the local bars, he'd take it.

  Marge's Diner was only a couple of blocks from the gas station. He could've walked it easily, but that would've meant leaving his patrol
car blocking Bob's one gas pump. Axl parked in the gravel lot, beside a pair of mud-crusted pickups and a logging truck. He left his wide-brimmed sheriff's hat on the passenger seat of the SUV, adjusted his belt, and went in.

  He hadn't been to Marge's in months, but the place hadn't changed a bit. Like it ever would. There was still the same old black-and-white linoleum that was probably older than Sammie Jo, the daughter of the original Marge, who'd taken over running the place when her ma retired to Florida; there were still the same cracked Formica countertops, the same smell of frying grease. The walls were tiled with antique license plates, most of them from the '40s and '50s, salvaged over the years from the now-defunct Wildcat Forks wrecking yard.

  The handful of customers looked up and nodded to him. Axl took his usual table near the door, and looked around for Sammie Jo.

  Instead his eye was caught by a fast-moving head of bright red hair. The hair got his attention, but once he'd seen her, he couldn't look away.

  Bob had called the new waitress a bombshell. But even that hardly did her justice. It wasn't beauty so much as a raw, smoking sex appeal. The way she filled that uniform: the generous curves of her breasts, the swell of her behind, the shapely legs showing beneath her knee-length skirt—

  As she bent over to refill a customer's coffee cup, causing the skirt to tighten across the perfect curve of her ass, Axl felt his pants getting a little tighter.

  And his bear stirred, in a way it hadn't for anyone in a long time.

  The redhead looked up, across the room, and met his eyes. She started to smile. Then her smile froze.

  Axl had frozen, too.

  Because he'd seen that face before. In fact, he'd been looking at it just this morning, while sorting through the mountains of paperwork marching relentlessly over his desk. That pretty face had been on a fax from the FBI warning local law enforcement to be on the lookout for a wanted fugitive who might be in the area.