Hero Bear: BBW Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance Read online

  The first thing he did was sit down in the dew-wet grass and take off his left leg. He was pretty sure the prosthetic wouldn’t shift with him, and he didn’t want to risk blowing out of it like the Hulk. That meant the second thing he did was strip out of his shorts and t-shirt.

  Shifting wasn’t something he’d ever had to really think hard about before. He just decided to do it, and it happened. It had been that way since puberty, when his dad first walked him through the process. It was instinctive, which meant he had no idea how to make it happen. He tried thinking hard about being a bear, remembering how the ground felt under his paws, how the breeze ruffled his fur. The bear spirit within him surged forward, like it had just been waiting for an invitation.

  The more he tried to hold the image of his bear in his mind, the stronger the sensation got. It was going to happen, he was going to manage it! He saw the bear, felt it, and then felt the focus start to slip. The bear he pictured had four legs, four paws. That was all wrong. That wasn’t him. It wasn’t his bear.

  Just as sure as he thought it, he felt his bear retreating, slipping away from him like water through his fingers.

  Caleb was sitting naked and one-legged in the middle of his empty back yard for no reason. Feeling like a first-class idiot, he pulled his clothes back on, and re-attached his leg.

  He should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.

  “Someone’s too damn cheerful this morning,” Marty groused as Michaela walked into the clinic humming.

  How could she not be? Not only had she had the best date (and best sex) of her life, but Caleb had texted her that morning to say he was thinking of her. After he’d dropped her off, despite his reassurances to the contrary, she’d spent a good part of the night worrying about having had sex with him on the first date. Normally she wouldn’t worry so much, but Salem Creek was an awfully small town, and based on her experience so far, had the expected small-town values. And everybody gossiped. The last thing she needed was to be branded as a scarlet woman.

  “Not my fault you can never find the right side of the bed in the morning,” she teased.

  Marty gave a gruff snort, but she could see him hiding a smile. It was almost impossible not to be fond of the old coot. If nothing else, it was because of him that she’d met Caleb.

  And she was in trouble, if she was going to start relating everything in her life to how it connected to Caleb. Calm down, girl. It’s much too soon. It still seemed too good to be true. Not that Michaela was ugly or anything, she supposed she was cute enough, but she always thought the big buff types liked lean, athletic women. Someone who could keep up with them. You didn’t have any problems keeping up with Caleb last night. Her cheeks heated at the memory, and she ducked into her office to hide them.

  Before her first client, Dottie stopped by, and when she closed Michaela’s office door behind her, Michaela’s heart skipped a beat.

  “Morning,” she said. “Everything okay?”

  “Probably so,” Dottie said, and sat down. “I don’t wanna pry into your personal business, but . . . do we need to rearrange some schedules around here? My sister-in-law said she saw you and Caleb Bentley driving around town together last night.”

  “We did go out,” Michaela said. “I’m sorry, I should have said something to you first, but—”

  Dottie raised her hands to stop her. “Like I said, that’s your personal business. Caleb’s not your client, and we’ll just juggle things a little bit to make sure he never is. Since Marty takes a sick day about once a decade, I reckon we’ll muddle through.” She smiled. “Caleb’s a good man. He deserves a little bit of happiness. For that matter, you do too.”

  Michaela was puzzled. Did she come across as sad? “I’m happy,” she protested. “I mean, I was before already.”

  “I know. You’re cheerful and bright.” Dottie fixed her with a look. “But I also know there’s no reason for a girl like you to come to a backwater like this unless she’s running from something. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful to have you. And I’m glad you’re getting a fresh start. Looks like it’s a good’un.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I promise, I was going to come see you about Caleb, but it seemed kind of soon after one date...”

  Dottie laughed. “See, you’re already fitting in, ‘yes ma’am’-ing with the best of them.” She patted Michaela on the arm. “I know you would have. I just wanted to save you the trouble, that’s all.” She stood up. “We’ve got some new clients coming in soon, so I’m going to be able to give you a few folks of your own, no more filling in. I’ll have files to you later today.”

  “Thanks. For everything.” This day couldn’t possibly get any better, she was sure of it.

  Caleb proved her wrong.

  She walked out of the clinic at the end of the day to find Caleb leaning against the side of his truck, holding a bouquet of wildflowers.

  “I know I probably should have called,” he said, leaning down to kiss her cheek as she took the flowers. “Is it weird that I wanted to surprise you?”

  “No. Not at all.” Michaela’s stomach fluttered and swooped and she couldn’t think enough to put together any coherent words. Finally she managed, “Thank you. They’re beautiful.”

  “I thought we might go somewhere for dinner, if you wanted to?” He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, and looked so hopeful it hurt her heart, as if he thought her answer might be anything other than yes.

  “You cooked for me, I’d offer to cook for you but I think it would be more of a punishment than a reward,” Michaela laughed. “Still, if you want, we can get a pizza or something? We could, um, eat it there, or get it to go, and go on back to my place?” On seeing him, the one thing she knew she wanted for sure was a chance to get him into her actual bed, instead of just the bed of his truck.

  “Or we could do that, yeah.” His smile came out from behind the clouds and warmed her to the core.

  “If we got a take-and-bake, it’d almost be like me cooking for you.”

  He laughed. “Sounds good. What about dessert?” His voice was entirely too innocent— he knew what she was up to and liked it.

  “I’m sure we can find something around the house.” She leaned up to kiss him and he met her halfway. When his arms went around her, nearly lifting her from her feet, she had to remind herself that they were right outside her workplace, and to behave herself because her first instinct was to climb him like a damned tree.

  “You wanna follow me?” she asked, when she could finally breathe.

  “I’ll meet you there,” he said. “I’ll stop and get the pizza. Say about half an hour?”

  That was perfect. It’d give her a chance to make sure her sheets were clean and she didn’t have any dirty laundry thrown around. She floated back to her car.

  Chapter Six

  Caleb stood in line at Smithson’s with a pizza and a six pack of beer. He’d wanted to go for something more romantic, like wine, but he doubted there was a bottle of wine to be had within twenty miles of Salem Creek. Wine coolers, maybe, not but no wine.

  “You got a big night planned?” Janine teased as she checked him out. “This looks like a boys’ night in to me.”

  “Oh, uh, yeah.” He hadn’t considered it that way, but it did. Michaela had been awful quick to suggest going to her place instead of eating out. He’d been so eager to see her again, and so elated that she said yes, that he didn’t think about it. An evil little voice at the back of his head whispered, Maybe she doesn’t want to be seen with you. He tried to dismiss it, but the seed had already been planted. Maybe she couldn’t be seen with him. She’d already said that they were in a gray area where her job was concerned.

  Can’t be that, not with her kissing you that way in front of work. That was true, so that wasn’t what she was worried about. And she was quick to introduce you to her neighbor. That was true too, but it didn’t stop the idea from sitting in the back of his head and troubling him.

  By the time he got to Michael
a’s place, the oven was already warm and ready— and he got the feeling Michaela was too. She greeted him with a kiss that made his toes curl. The only thing that stopped him from sweeping her up and carrying her to bed right then was a growl that came from her belly.

  “I’m so sorry.” She laughed, but looked embarrassed. “I forgot to eat lunch.”

  “Well let’s get some pizza in you, because you’re going to need your strength.” He kissed her quick, and he didn’t miss the way the heat in her eyes flared. His body had been on constant red alert all day, as if finally having sex had awakened his libido with a vengeance. After the disappointment of the night before, feeling like a fool sitting naked in his backyard, he welcomed the distraction. This, at least, his body could do, and wanted to do desperately, to judge from the way he was already stirring.

  He didn’t miss a chance to look around her place, hoping for something that would tell him more about her. It was a nice enough apartment, nicer than a lot of what passed for rental housing in Salem Creek. He suspected Miss Harvelle might have owned the whole place, once upon a time, before dividing it up into a duplex. She wouldn’t have been the first.

  There wasn’t a lot of personal stuff around Michaela’s place. She hadn’t been there long, but it was like she didn’t have much stuff— that was the opposite of every woman Caleb had known, including his own mother, he thought ruefully. Their house was still full of bric-a-brac and decorations that neither of her sons had the heart to take down.

  The pizza was all right, but they devoured it rapidly, washing it down with the beer Caleb had brought. Michaela sat back from the table and burped— it was a ladylike burp as such things went, but she again looked mortified. “I’m so sorry.”

  Caleb just laughed. “Nah, us mountain boys appreciate a lady who can spit and cuss and burp with the best of them.”

  “Lord, then I need to get my friend Brenda down here. Y’all would love her to bits.” She went on to tell him a little about Brenda, and by extension, her life in Louisville. It confused him. She didn’t sound like she’d had any reason to leave, with a good job, and good friends. “What about you? Who do you hang around with when you’re not working?”

  It hit him that this was more of a first date type conversation, and he grinned. “Oh now you wanna talk about who my friends are?”

  Michaela ducked her head, but she was smiling. He couldn’t get enough of that smile. “I guess it is a little backwards, huh. It’s all your fault for cooking me dinner and taking me off to a romantic place. Now answer the question, please.”

  “Mostly Dalton,” he said. “There’s a few of my buddies from school still around, but we’re all pretty busy. We get together when we can, raise some hell up in the holler.” Friends he didn’t see much anymore, since none of them knew that Iraq had taken more than just his foot.

  “Seems like everybody around here lives in town or in a holler. I still haven’t figured out what a holler is.” Yep, she was a city girl all right. She wrinkled her nose and he gave in to the temptation to kiss her on it.

  “You know, back in the mountains. A valley.” They started cleaning up the dishes. “Most folks around here can’t afford to live right up on the mountain anymore, if there’s a mountain top left to live on and it hasn’t been strip-mined. Down in the holler’s as good as we can get.”

  “I’d like to see it,” Michaela said. “You know, someday.”

  “I think we can do that.”

  They were both overly casual as they went into her living room, each pretending that they were going to watch a movie or a TV show, and both of them knowing better. Now that one set of physical needs had been satisfied, they could attend to another.

  Caleb did his best to take it slower this time. It wasn’t long, though, before they were both in Michaela’s small bedroom, pulling off their clothes as fast as they could. The first time, he hadn’t even pulled his pants off all the way, and used them to cover his stump and his prosthetic. This time, he hesitated only a moment, then kicked them off before joining her and her deliciously naked body on the bed.

  “My god, you’re beautiful.” Her body was perfect as he could imagine, soft and sweet as sin; he couldn’t resist raining kisses over her full breasts and down the luscious outward curve of her belly. She stirred, knowing where he was headed, murmuring softly.

  Caleb nuzzled her thighs apart, and his mouth watered at the scent of her arousal, deep and primal enough to make him think of mates and mating, of that mystical connection some shifters were lucky enough to find. Did it feel anything like this? Her thighs were velvety and soft as ripe peaches, and he wanted to drink in all that ripeness until her juices ran down his chin.

  Michaela wasn’t just beautiful, she was perfect, like she was made just for him.

  He made her come every way he could think of with his mouth and tongue and fingers until she was begging him to take her. Sliding into her was probably as close to heaven as he’d ever get, and he could imagine heaven as being able to do this for all eternity, spending it in her arms. He knew he was extra big, and while a lot of women said that’s what they liked, from experience he knew that wasn’t always true. Not his Michaela though. She wrapped around him and took everything he could give her, and gave it all back when she came crying out around him.

  After, they lay side by side in her bed, their hands clasped together, trying to catch their breath. Caleb was so blissed out he could hardly think. All he could do was lie there, and with each passing moment, he was more and more certain: Michaela was his mate. There was no other explanation. What he felt went way beyond just love. But how he could tell her?

  “You’re being awfully quiet.” Michaela turned on her side and snuggled up against him. He wrapped his arm around to bring her close.

  “Just thinking,” he said. “About you. Us. You think this is happening too fast?”

  “I don’t know. You?”

  He looked down at her and her sweet face was creased with worry. He kissed her frowning forehead gently. “If I was seeing it happen to someone else, I might say yes. It doesn’t feel too fast. It feels just right. You feel just right.”

  Pink color flooded her cheeks and crept down her chest in a distracting way. “You do too.”

  There was only one way he could think of to explain what he felt. Common sense said he ought to wait, to talk with Dalton first, but there was nothing common about the way he felt right now. He took a deep breath and started to do something he’d never done before.

  “Michaela, there’s something I need to tell you.” He sat up in the bed, and she joined him, with his arm still around her.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s gonna sound crazy, but I need you to hear me out, and I swear I’m telling you the truth.” Was he really going to do this? Too late to back out now.

  She had her worried face on again. Damn it. Worrying her was the last thing he wanted.

  “There’s a— a legend, I guess you’d say, in my family. The men, and sometimes the women, are all... different. Special.”

  “Well, I’ve seen that much.” She smiled and kissed his cheek.

  Caleb paused. He had no idea how to say this except to say it. “We each have a spirit in us, that spirit can do a lot of things, and one of those things is that, well. Sometimes we’re able to recognize the person we’re meant to be with.”

  “You mean, like soulmates?” Caution was written all over her face, and he didn’t know how to take it away, aside from pressing on.

  “Like that, yeah.”

  “What kind of spirit are we talking about?” She smiled a little, a nervous flash of teeth. “Are you trying to tell me you’re possessed or something?”

  “A bear,” he blurted. “Just an ordinary bear.”

  “So, like a spirit animal, or something?”

  “Not exactly. A little more than that.” He should never have done this, what was he thinking? “I can— well I could— take the shape of a bear. And he’s with me a
ll the time.” Most of the time.

  “You’re trying to tell me you’re some sort of... werebear.” She pulled away from him and studied him intently. He fought the urge to pull her back to his side. She had to accept it on her own, or no.

  “Well. Yes.”

  “Is this some kind of joke?” Michaela climbed out of bed and started pulling her clothes back on, moving in quick, sharp movements. “Something you like to spring on the town newcomers?”

  “No, it’s not a joke, I swear.” Caleb followed suit, at least pulling his underwear back on, and feeling like a fool.

  “Right. The most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen gets me into bed— which I never do on the first date, just so you know— and then tries to tell me he’s a werebear.” She folded her arms.

  “I know how it sounds—”

  “Show me.”

  “What?”

  “You say you can become a bear, so show me.” She smiled, but it was a bright, bitter smile. “Oh wait, you’re going to say you can’t, because it’s not a full moon or something, aren’t you.”

  Caleb slumped. No matter what he said now, she wouldn’t believe him. “It’s not that.” He went to her, aware of how dumb he must look in just his underwear, and tried to take her hands. She let him, barely. “I haven’t— I can’t— since I got hurt, I haven’t been able to shapeshift. Hell, until I met you, I thought my bear was gone for good. That’s why I think... we might be meant for each other.”

  Michaela pulled her hands away. “Now you’re just being mean.”

  “Michaela, I—”

  “I think you should go.” She moved past him and started picking up his clothes and handing them to him. “Just go.”

  Caleb never knew before that a heartbreak could feel just like that, like his heart was cracking in his chest. He wanted to take it all back, to tell her that no, he was just kidding, but that he really did care about her. From the look on her face though, she wouldn’t listen. How could he have been so stupid?