Saw Bear

by Scarlett Grove

  Saw Bear

  Timber Bear Ranch

  Scarlett Grove

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  About the Author

  Also by Scarlett Grove

  Copyright © 2017 by Scarlett Grove

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  Chapter 1

  Buck Kincaid lifted a pint of Fate Mountain Lager to his lips and took a long draw, watching as his brother Jessie smiled and winked at a human girl at the end of the bar. She giggled with her college friends and glanced back at Jessie under her thick lashes.

  “None of those girls is your mate,” Buck said.

  “So?” Jessie replied, a twinkle in his eye. “That’s never stopped me before.”

  He raised his eyebrows several times at Buck and headed over to the girls at the other end of the bar.

  “What's that all about?” Drew Bock, owner of Fate Mountain Brewery, asked from behind the bar.

  Drew wore a black fitted T-shirt with the Fate Mountain Brewery logo emblazoned across the front in old timey font. His long, ruddy beard almost touched the collar. He flashed a smile at Buck as he wiped the bar.

  “Jessie is always flirting with the ladies,” Buck explained, feeling his phone buzz. He reached into the pocket of his denim jacket and pulled out his cellphone.

  “That's going to catch up with him someday,” Drew said with a laugh.

  “He says he doesn't care about finding his mate.” Buck flicked his finger over the screen of his phone.

  “Congratulations, we've found your fated mate.”

  When he read the text from Mate.com, he nearly fell off his barstool. Buck crushed the screen with his thumb, bringing up his newly discovered mate’s profile, and immediately he found himself growling at his screen.

  “What is it?” Drew asked, crossing his tattooed forearms.

  “My mate,” Buck said in a stunned voice. “I found her.”

  “Your mate? Who is she? Where is she?” Drew asked, leaning over the bar to look at Buck's smartphone.

  “Maria Reyes. She’s beautiful.”

  Buck scrolled through the pictures of Maria on Mate.com. She had used her real name instead of a screen name and even revealed real information about her life.

  She had long wavy brown hair and big, almond-shaped brown eyes. Her skin was dusty tan, and in his favorite picture it glowed in the sunlight of a spring morning. She wore a lacy white dress and sat on a park bench. Yellow daffodils grew all around her. She looked so innocent and perfect, but there was something haunting in her eyes. It called out to his own heartache.

  “She studies botany at the Bright Institute for Shifters,” Buck said, opening the chat button on the dating app.

  “I'm your mate, Buck Kincaid. I also live on Fate Mountain. I would love to meet you soon. I await your reply,” he typed out.

  His heart beat hard in his chest. Buck had signed up for Mate.com seven years ago, right after the war. He’d waited all this time, but now she was here, looking like an angel sent straight from heaven. He couldn't wait to learn every little thing about her.

  “What did she say?” Drew asked, coming back down the bar.

  “She hasn't replied yet,” Buck said.

  He stared at the screen without pause. The sounds and the movement inside the brewery faded away into background noise. There was nothing else but sweet Maria and her beautiful photo. He wanted to go to her right then and there. The Bright Institute for Shifters was just five minutes from the brewery.

  “Maybe she hasn't seen it yet?”

  “She just entered the system and got matched. I've been in it for seven years.”

  “Maybe she was surprised that she found a mate so fast,” Drew suggested. “Sometimes that happens. I should know. It happened to me.”

  “Everything turned out in the end, didn't it?” Buck asked.

  “Quinn and I couldn't be happier. That’s how things usually end up on Fate Mountain. But sometimes human women have a hard time accepting that they’re fated mates with a shifter. It's best to give them space.”

  “What if I can't?”

  “What if you can’t what?” Jessie asked, sliding into the barstool next to Buck.

  “I don’t know if I can stay away from my mate,” Buck said, still stunned. “I just found her on Mate.com.”

  “Let me see,” Jessie said.

  Buck showed Jessie the picture of Maria in the white dress.

  “She's really cute, man. You're lucky.”

  “Of course I'm lucky. She's my mate. She's the loveliest woman I've ever seen.”

  “What did she say?” Jessie asked.

  “She hasn't responded yet.”

  “Did you text her?” Jessie asked.

  “I did,” Buck said.

  “Maybe you should text her again,” Jessie urged.

  “I told him he should take it easy,” Drew said.

  “I'm going to call it a night, gentlemen,” Buck said. “My mate goes to the Bright Institute for Shifters. I'm sure that the beginning of our lives together can wait until morning.”

  He pushed away from the bar and looked over his shoulder one last time at Jessie.

  “Are you coming?” Buck asked.

  Jessie looked down the bar at the college girls. The blonde he’d been flirting with giggled and gave him a little wave. Jessie turned back to Buck and shook his head.

  “Nope,” Jessie said. “I don't think I’ll need a ride tonight.”

  “Well, let me know if you need a ride in the morning,” Buck said with a scowl as he turned to leave the bar.

  He loved his brother Jessie and knew he was a good man, but the way he chased human females made Buck’s stomach turn. Buck had been with women in the past, but mostly he just had long-term friendships with the women he'd been intimate with. He’d had a few short-term flings, but as a shifter, he longed for his one true mate. A lot of human women didn't mind that shifters only wanted “the one” for a true commitment. That always made Buck sad. Jessie on the other hand, just considered it a sport.

  Buck wouldn't begrudge Jessie his pleasure though, so he left the bar and put it out of his mind as he climbed behind the wheel of his old pickup truck. The truck had been on the ranch since the Kincaids were all children. Jessie, who they called Mechanic Bear, had kept it running.

  By the time Buck made it back to the ranch and walked through the front door of his house, he was feeling ready for bed. He had an early morning the next day, as usual. Buck checked his phone as he got ready to go to sleep and found there was still no text. He slipped out of his clothes and climbed under the blankets in his boxers, setting his phone next to the bed as his alarm clock. He checked the screen one last time.

  Buck gritted his teeth and growled. He was a patient, hard-working man, but he had plenty of feelings inside him. His inner grizzly roared violently, so loud that Buck had to cover his ears. He squeezed his eyes closed at the sound of his inner beast wailing.

  He had to see Maria. He wanted to drive down to the Bright Institute and find her right then and there. But Drew's wo
rds gave him pause. Buck couldn't just go to the Institute in the middle of the night and demand to see her. That was just wrong and immature. Buck would never do that.

  He growled and flopped violently on the bed, smashing his fists into the mattress. He turned off the lamp on his bedside table and forced his eyes closed, trying to make himself go to sleep. He had to be up for work in five hours.

  He knew he never should have gone out with Jessie tonight. Buck’s younger brother had encouraged him to take a break from work for the first time in years. Instead of a break, Jessie had spent most of the evening trying to get Buck to agree to help him build his new cabin.

  Buck tossed and turned throughout the night, trying to contain the demands of his grizzly. When his alarm went off in the morning, he groggily pulled himself out of bed. He'd barely slept at all, and he felt like garbage. Buck had learned a long time ago that he had to battle the lazy parts of himself if he wanted to take care of his family and the legacy of his clan. Nothing important came easily in life. Buck had known that since an early age. It had been the mantra he'd lived by.

  He picked up his phone and checked for messages from Maria.

  “Something terrible has happened. We can never be together.”

  Buck shot out of bed, feeling adrenaline pulse through his blood. He'd waited all his life for his one special someone. There she was, so close and so perfect. All he wanted was to start their lives together and give her absolutely everything he had to give. Something bad had happened to her. If someone hurt her, he didn’t know what he’d do. His grizzly roared inside him, demanding Buck protect his mate.

  That was it. He was going to go down to the Bright Institute to find her. He would protect her no matter what. Even if she didn’t want him to.

  As Buck drove into town in his pickup, Drew’s words played over in his mind, telling him that he should leave her alone. But he couldn't. He knew that she needed him.

  That vulnerable sweet look in her eyes called out to him across time and space. One thing was for sure, he was going to meet his mate today, and he would help her with whatever was wrong.

  He drove up to the parking lot of the state-of-the-art new facility that had been built by Corey Bright and his wife Willow, Fate Mountain’s resident romance novelist. The story of Corey and Willow’s love had been no less fraught with trouble than Drew and Quinn’s. In the end, they had created the Bright Institute for Shifters to give back to the community they loved so much.

  Buck took a deep breath and let it out before sliding out of the truck and slamming the door closed. He marched up the front steps of the Bright Institute and walked through the wide glass doors into the huge foyer. It was walled with windows that let in the early morning sunlight. The Institute had dorms and a cafeteria and many other amenities and resources for the students they served. Most of the students were still at breakfast or even in bed this early in the morning it seemed. There wasn’t anyone around.

  Buck had heard the Bright Institute for Shifters had been making strides in several areas, including technology and science, led by Corey Bright himself. The Institute had brought a whole new kind of culture to Fate Mountain which Buck hadn't been sure about in the beginning. Now, Buck appreciated everything the Brights were doing for the town. Corey had moved to Fate Mountain at the end of the war. Since then, he’d been on Fate Mountain's search and rescue team, the Rescue Bears. Buck knew Corey still participated in rescue missions, even after becoming a billionaire.

  Buck continued down the wide hallway and turned into the cafeteria where students carried trays along the buffet line. Everyone on Fate Mountain knew that the institute wasn't a typical university. It served all ages between late teen and elderly. The school taught many skills that were not always offered in traditional universities.

  There were classes on finances, housekeeping, life planning. A whole myriad of other technical skills like plumbing and mechanics. Traditional academic studies like science, medicine, botany, mathematics, literature, fine art. Applied arts like textiles, knitting, jewelry making. For the most part, the Bright Institute for Shifters tried its best to serve its students with whatever they needed to learn.

  Buck looked around the cafeteria for Maria, but didn't see her. She would have stood out in the crowd. She was a petite and curvy human female with long brown hair and dusty tan skin. Most of the Institute’s students were burly male veteran shifters. The thought of her in the middle of these males sent a jolt of possessiveness through him.

  He growled and his grizzly thrashed behind his eyes. He had to find her. He’d picked up the subtle sweet scent of his mate the moment he entered the institute. Even though it was buried and disguised under the other smells, his grizzly was sure his mate had been here.

  “Can I help you?” asked a pretty woman with kinky hair she wore tied up in a sash. She wore a gray designer dress with red flats, and simple but well-applied makeup. She offered her manicured hand to Buck and introduced herself.

  “Hi there, I'm Willow Bright, Corey Bright’s mate,” she said. “I don't think I've seen you around here before. Are you a student?”

  “No, I'm Buck Kincaid from the Timber Bear Ranch. My oldest brother Leland is the Alpha of our clan. I came here to find my mate, Maria Reyes. Have you seen her?”

  “Maria’s mate…” Willow started, her expression going dark. “I should have expected something like this to happen after the incident.”

  “What incident?” Buck asked, clenching his fists until they hurt.

  “There was a scuffle in Maria's room last night. We haven't seen her since.”

  Chapter 2

  Maria jerked awake.

  Naked and cold, wet and shivering, and alone in the forest. She lifted her hands into view and saw that they were stained red. She tasted the tang of blood on her lips and felt grit under her fingernails. A gut-wrenching cry ripped from her throat and rose into the forest canopy.

  Birds broke through the branches, taking to the sky in a shriek and flutter of wings. She gasped as she looked up through the tears streaming from her eyes. The damp leaves and pine needles below her bit into her naked flesh. This was one of a dozen times she'd found herself here in the last two weeks. She thought it was two weeks. She’d lost track of the days.

  She sniffed the air, using her new shifter senses to determine where she was in the forest. Maria could make out the faint scent of her mark and the scratch of her claws on the trees nearby. This was her territory, what she'd come to call her home.

  She drew herself up to her feet, taking a deep, shuddering breath. This was her life now, the naked, cold, and confused world of a feral shifter. She squeezed her eyes closed and let out one last sob, wrapping her arms around her chest for comfort. Her hair hung in long muddy strands around her face. Her life felt raw and unreal. All she could do was put one foot in the front of the other and walk back to her cave.

  Dark thoughts of her past swam in her mind as her bare feet crunched over the cold forest floor. Her breath blew out before her and her skin pricked into goosebumps. It was early summer on Fate Mountain, but the air was still cold at this elevation, especially in the morning.

  When she made it back to her cave, she pulled on her big knit sweater, a pair of sweatpants, and her fur-lined boots, sighing with relief.

  Everything she had in her cave, she'd scavenged. That was how she spent the few lucid hours her beast left her with between shifts. Maria never remembered the shift fully, just bits and pieces, like a fever dream.

  After dressing and wrapping her muddy hair into a messy bun at the top of her head, she started a fire in her fire pit. The cave she’d chosen was located deep in the forest. It was a good natural shelter that provided ventilation for her campfire. She started her flame using flint she’d found at the campground and got the fire roaring with snapped dry branches. Finally, she put her scavenged tea kettle on the metal rack over the flames.

  As she waited for the water to boil, her thoughts drifted back to the ni
ght of her first shift. She remembered being bitten. She remembered the pain of the first shift, just nothing during those terrible moments when her crazed lioness had taken over. She’d woken up in her dorm room, everything she owned slashed and broken. When she came to, she remembered what she’d been doing right before the incident.

  She’d just signed up for Mate.com.

  Her phone was under a pile of torn up clothing and papers. She grabbed the phone and made the hardest text of her life. Then she ran into the wilderness. Naked and barefoot in the night, she decided she would never go back home.

  The feral lioness had taken over her life. Almost every day, the beast broke from inside Maria and ravaged the forest, feeding on whatever animals it could catch, tearing apart trees, howling, and screaming. The sounds of her feral roars were one of the few things Maria remembered from those lost hours. It haunted her dreams when she slept, cold and alone in her human form.

  Maria had resigned herself to this life. She was broken beyond repair. All she could do was spare those she loved from seeing her like this. It was what she deserved.

  She thought of the picture of her mate, Saw Bear. She'd seen him on her telephone screen. The picture he’d uploaded showed a solidly built man with broad shoulders and open, loving eyes. Everything about him called out to her like he was home.

  She wanted him so badly she could taste it over the lingering flavor of blood on her lips. A man like Buck did not deserve a creature like her. She tried not to weep again as she poured the water into her tea cup over a handful of tea plants she'd gathered.

  Maria had been learning botany at the Bright Institute. Her skills had proven useful in her every day quest to survive. She had once dreamed of running a nursery: growing flowers, cuttings, ornamental plants, even vegetables or medicines, anything her green thumb would grow. She had discovered her love of plants at the Institute. She never would have imagined it, growing up in Los Angeles.

  Her sister Rosa had come to Fate Mountain looking for her, following her gift of knowing things without really knowing them. That's when Rosa met her mate, Heath. He was on the Bear Patrol, Fate Mountain's Police Department. The guys called him Cadet Bear, but he'd been on the force for a long time now.