She froze and turned around slowly. Afraid of what may be lurking. She was sure that she could hear grunting and the sound of growls, and it was with horror that, when she turned and peered into the darkness behind her, she saw the outline of a big hulking beast. It was so big and covered in fur that as it slammed its way toward her, she almost fainted with fright.
“No!” she screamed as she held out her hand as if that in any way could defend her.
The bear was so big and powerful, the closer it came the more the deck bowed beneath its weight.
Poppy tried to push herself backward, to make it back to the doorway and inside, but she was so frightened it was as if she was frozen to the spot. She closed her eyes tightly and covered her ears. She knew that this was it, there was no way she could outrun or get away from it. She was doomed.
She thought of her mother and of how she knew that she would barely care… But then she thought of James and of what it would mean for him to lose his older sister. They had only really ever had each other, and now Poppy was going to go and get herself killed in the mountains by a grizzly bear. Even after Arlo had warned her of the dangers.
She peeked out from between her fingertips and the bear was still right in front of her. She could smell the hot stink of its breath and it opened its jaws wide and wailed up into the night’s sky.
Even though she couldn’t move her eyes from the beast in front of her, Poppy was aware of some movement out in the woodland behind it. She saw the flash of something darting quickly between the trees, and in an instant, the bear in front of her stopped and turned around as if it had sensed it too.
Poppy was cowering on the deck, right next to the wall of the cabin, her heart pounding and her palms sweating, when, suddenly, Arlo emerged from the forest, completely naked and full of rage.
The bear and he squared up to each other and Poppy’s mind was racing. Was any of this even real? Or was it just some crazy nightmare?
“Arlo!” she screamed, but he was completely focused on the bear. He flexed his huge arms hungrily and bared his own teeth and Poppy suddenly saw something come over him that was both arousing and terrifying.
The bear that had cornered her whimpered and lowered its head, it moved backward slightly, closer to Poppy, but with its shoulders hunched and its nose touching the ground.
Arlo snarled again and when Poppy looked back at him, she couldn’t believe her eyes. The man who she had just spent the past several hours exploring every inch of was changing before her. His demeanor was fiercer and his eyes were burning with power. She cowered as she watched him snarl and take another heaving step closer, but this time, she could tell that something incredible was about to happen.
He belted out a growl so loud it tore through the night and was so fierce it blew the hair back from her face from over ten feet away. He hunched his shoulders and his arms bulged with exertion, and in an instant, his skin seemed to rip open as a dark fur sprang up in its place.
Poppy rubbed her eyes. Could this really be happening? What the fuck was she witnessing?
Before her very eyes, Arlo turned from the handsome man she had got to know into a big, beast of a grizzly bear. His paws were so big and full of claws that they could have torn her apart.
She wanted to scream but she was frozen. She wanted to run but her legs and feet were heavy with fear.
The bear in front of her was also cowering and as Arlo moved forward quickly and lunged himself at the smaller bear, there was a flash of fangs, fur, and claws as the pair began to fight.
Poppy tried to hide, but she was right there and she saw it all. Arlo was so big compared to the other bear, he was like no animal she had ever seen, and as he drove the smaller bear back into the woods, Poppy honestly couldn’t believe what was happening.
She rubbed her eyes and breathed in deeply.
“This can’t be real,” she whispered to herself. But then she was suddenly aware that the Arlo bear was back, and he was right in front of her.
When she looked up and saw him right there, she looked into his eyes and she knew that it was definitely him. The man she had fallen for, he could shape shift and now it all made sense. This was why he was so hot to the touch, why he seemed so different and mysterious, why he had been so secretive and cryptic.
She tried not to cry and to instead slow her breathing. The bear moved backward and seemed to heave in the moonlight and then, in an instant, it started to convulse and shudder as the fur began to disappear and the tanned, thick muscles returned in their place.
Arlo stood there, back in his human form, and to Poppy, he had never looked better. He looked so alive and so powerful. It was intoxicating.
“You’re my woman now,” he said with a pant. “And I’ll protect you no matter what.” His chest was heaving with exertion and Poppy could feel the bond between them. Something had most definitely changed.
“What are you?” she whispered, even though now she really did know.
“I’m Arlo,” he whispered. “And like I told you, it’s going to take a very special and understanding woman to love me.”
And even though there was a sadness in his eyes, Poppy knew it would all be okay. Whether he knew it yet or not, she was most certainly that woman.
9.
Lost Creek was gearing up for its summer season and the town was already bursting at the seams with new arrivals. Since Poppy had arrived in town all those months before, she never could have imagined that she never would have ended up leaving.
She wiped down the countertop in Arlo’s bar. Since she had settled in Lost Creek with her new man, a few changes had been made to keep up with the trade and demand. A diner just wasn’t cutting it anymore, the tourists in the town wanted a sports bar, and Arlo’s was the perfect venue to give it to them.
Willow hummed a tune as she twirled her curly black hair around her long, manicured finger and blew a big pink bubble with her gum. The girls had become close over the months and it was good for Poppy to have a friend there. It had helped the place feel more like home.
When her family had left, she promised James that she would call him regularly, and she had done so several times a week. He was fine back at home with her parents and was gearing up to make his own escape soon. He had his sights on college or travel, and Poppy knew that whatever he chose, he would end up in the right place. The place destined for him… Just like she had.
After learning of Arlo’s secret, Poppy knew that she could never walk away from him. He had saved her life that night at his house, he had known that she was in trouble and he had come running. There really were bears in the woods around Lost Creek, but there was something more too… And she was still learning all about it with each passing day.
She’d heard whispers from Willow that Arlo wasn’t the only bear shifter. That his close friends and some of the other original settling families had powers too, and that although it was a secret that was concealed from the majority of residents in the town, they were also being slowly discovered.
“We have to help protect them,” Willow had said. “Both the bears and the wolves.”
From what she had managed to piece together, that is what Arlo had meant by the town being divided. Two packs were in charge of Lost Creek, and tensions were rising.
“Everything will be fine,” Arlo had assured her one night. “There’s nothing to worry about for you here.”
He had kissed her and she knew that he would never lie. They were together now. They were each other’s other half and each day, although it brought its challenges, Poppy was more than grateful that she had found herself in such a unique and happy position after so many years of unrest.
She and Arlo were so well suited, and she thanked her lucky stars every day that she had been fortunate enough to meet him.
As she started to stack the glasses behind the bar, the front door swung open and his huge, broad frame stepped forward, blocking out the natural light. As always, she could feel his eyes on her and it set
off the butterflies in her belly. They all flapped their wings in unison and she had grown to enjoy the feeling. It had never left her and she hoped that it never would. She liked the nervous sensation that he gave her, it drove her on and kept her hot for him.
He swept her up in his big arms and kissed her hard on the mouth. Now that she had seen what this man had inside of him, the beast that he managed to conceal but could unleash at any given moment, Poppy would always be on her toes, and she liked it that way. It turned her on and made her heart race.
She nuzzled into his neck and thought of how far they had come in such a short space of time and she realized how true it was when people said that everything could change in a day.
It really could…
And for Poppy, it had changed in the most perfect and happiest of ways. She had finally found where she was supposed to be, and she was more than excited about her future…
THE END
Bear Shifter Romance
The Bear Wants Babies
Cynthia Wilde
Copyright ©2015 by Cynthia Wilde. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of 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.
Thank you so much for your interest in my work!
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 1
Aria looked out from the top deck of the ferry. She was on her way to somewhere in Alaska that she had never heard of, in order to take possession of a cabin she had inherited from a great aunt whom she had never known. She had been looking for a change anyhow, and so with the promise of free rent and adventure, she left behind the small town in Florida where she came from. There were a few tear-filled goodbyes, but they were balanced by the fact that Aria was more than ready to start fresh somewhere new. As she looked around her at the wide open wilderness on all sides, she realized that if the awe inspiring beauty of nature up her was any indication, she would soon have a whole lot of new things to get used to.
Everything had changed as she drove northwest through the expansive country. It got considerably colder, even for June, the closer she got to Washington. The houses were separated by wider and wider spaces, and those spaces went from holding a few trees each, to being made up of whole forests. Everything just got more natural as she headed further west. She had been overjoyed to get through what she felt was the vastly overpopulated South. The further she got from it, the more she realized how much she had disliked it. Aria was on a shoestring budget, and by the time she had gotten on the 3-day ferry up to Alaska she was already getting low on funds. Traveling like this actually cost more than flying, but there was absolutely no way she was going to get on a plane. Regardless of the cost, though, or the means of travel, she was excited to be on this new adventure.
It was the third day on the ferry and she had already spent two nights camped out on the front deck. Even though the price for an actual room was astronomical, she now kind of wished she had chosen that route. The air outside was far colder than she would have imagined for early summer. At least there were many others who had underestimated the temperature as well. On the bright side, they now shared a sense of camaraderie that had been forged through the mutual trauma they had endured in the deep chill of the last few nights. Many were ending their trip in Ketchikan, but Aria was pushing forward north to around Barrow. According to her map, even once she arrived there, there would still be two more days of travel by bus as well as by boat.
All she knew about where she was going was what she had looked up, and that had in no way prepared her for the vast majestic views that had awaited her. She also had had no way to anticipate how small such open spaces would make her feel. Nature definitely reigned supreme in Alaska. The paperwork in her knapsack said that she now owned a cabin and fifty acres somewhere up there. She could feel her destiny calling to her from the wilderness.
***
Aria finally arrived at Ketchikan and then almost immediately picked up a bus that was headed even further north. Even though the trip meant several more hours of driving, it was mainly coastal roads and the views kept her in a perpetually awestruck state. She sat next to a gentleman a little older than she was for the last leg of the journey and the two talked for hours. The conversation made the time pass quickly. At the next town, she got off to catch a boat to the northern coast. Everything had been pre-booked, so it was supposed to be a smooth trip, but she was still genuinely surprised when each leg went off without a hitch. Aria decided that she would take that as a sign. Things were on the upswing.
Her first impression of Barrow was how small it was. Taking in the houses in a glance she figured that there couldn’t have been more than a hundred or so people in the whole town. But the thing that made it seem so much smaller she decided, was the way the town was so close to the shore. It looked dangerously close. She imagined it would only take one tantrum and the sea would swallow it all up in one angry surge.
Aria’s heart skipped a beat as she hopped off the boat in the uneven tide. Her legs were happy to feel the solid dock, and then actual ground underneath her. She only had one large duffel bag that the mate handed her as he waved goodbye. Everyone had been so nice and even the couple of hours on the boat had yielded several friends she would be happy to see again. It seemed to Aria that people were just different up north. She had admit that she liked the change.
Looking through her bag pockets, she found the piece of paper that had the address. She had bought a car through a man and she was supposed to pick it up. Vehicles were extremely hard to get, in large part because the cost of transporting one exceeded the value of the actual car. So she hoped that the car she had purchased was not a complete rust bucket and that it would at least get her to the cabin some 10 miles inland. Aria found it hard to take her eyes from the view though. She could see the icebergs just off the coast. It was just so … wild … and dangerous.
Aria shivered as she walked the several blocks to the address. It turned out to be a small house/restaurant and when she opened the door, several pairs of eyes were instantly on her. There was a small bar with a few stools and she went to sit down, smiling at a few people that kept her eye contact. A waitress quickly brought over a menu and asked what she wanted to drink.
Trying to prop the large bag up, she asked for the name she had written down on the piece of paper.
“Ralph!”
The woman turned her head back towards Aria and told her that he would be out in a moment. Aria asked for a Coke and settled in to look at the menu. She had ordered and started eating by the time Ralph came up from the back. He turned out to be a rotund older man that looked much like his name sounded. He gave Aria a once over that made her a bit uncomfortable.
“So you’re Aria?”
“Yes Sir.”
“Look at you, so polite. I daresay that won’t last long around here. You kind of look like Martha you know. We never knew she had nieces.
“Great niece. I think her and my mother had a falling out when they were younger. I actually never met her or even knew that she existed until a couple of months ago.”
“Tragic. Hell of a way to learn.”
His green eyes stared into hers, as if probing for something for a moment, until he finally turned away when she didn’t. It sort of reminded her of a stare down that she had with her cat a week before.
“So you ready to pick up your car? She is a beaut. I really think you are going to like it.”
Aria had hoped for a picture, or something, but the man did not seem too on top of things technologically speaking. When she explained cell phones with cameras, he snorted. But she had been a little desperate so she
went on his word.
“Oh I don’t have one of those fin dangled picture phones. What do you need that for?”
As Aria looked around the man’s yard, she believed him. There wasn’t a thing in it that didn’t look like it had been there at least ten years already. He seemed to have a combination used car and salvage business – and diner. They walked to the back where he had most of the cars. They went pretty far before he finally pulled a sheet out from the wipers of a sedan of some sort. It was a beaut and though it was old, it seemed to have no outside damage. Aria did not know the model unless she looked at the paperwork, but it was a pretty powder blue and was more of less what she had had in mind. She had been warned that it would be useless 6-8 months out of the year, but for now it was perfect and she would worry about winter when the time came.
Chapter 2
Stowing her luggage in the trunk, she got behind the wheel and looked at the directions she had written down and quickly started south, heading deeper into the overgrown wild. After about thirty minutes Aria checked the address twice before she pulled down a long dirt road. The cabin was not at all what she had expected. It was actually more of a proper family sized home than the modest dwelling she had been expecting. She noticed the road went off deeper into the woods past her property and she briefly wondered who lived up the hill.
Aria had to pinch herself to make sure she was not dreaming. She could have never afforded anything so nice on her bartender salary at home, and now she could live here in this big place – and all rent free. The estate even had the fees and taxes paid off for years to come. It had all been worked into the will. She didn’t have much in her pocket, but she knew that she would find something to do out there that would pay for food and her meager expenses. The first thing was to settle in.
GUNNER: MC ROMANCE (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 4) Page 118
