Bear Guards: A Paranormal Romance

by J. S. Striker

  “Someone not really interested in getting to know you,” she replied. Bingo bumped his nose on her wrist, which had her frowning down at the dog. Then her expression, which had been about to get angry, softened, and he found himself re-assessing. Underneath the frown and the frosty attitude, he could see that her shoulders were tense, and a gut feeling told him it wasn’t just because of their interaction.

  That meant she must have been in a not-so-good mood even before their encounter.

  Just like he was.

  Almost immediately, whatever fight was in him left him, making him take an invisible step back. He tipped his invisible cap at her. “I understand. Well, you know my name in case you need to call someone.”

  “Why would I need to call someone?”

  “Just because Orville is a small town doesn’t mean we don’t have trouble every now and then,” he said. “I just wanted you to know that you can rely on our town’s police force if you ever need help.”

  Green eyes turned wary, studying him. He studied her back, and he tried to fight the thought that he liked what he was seeing—liked it very, very much. Finally, she reluctantly gave him a nod.

  “Deana,” she muttered. “Deana Thomason. Nice meeting you…and Bingo.” Those fingers touched the dog’s fur briefly, and Evan’s stomach jumped again, irritating him.

  Before he could assess it further, she was already turning around, and he had to take Bingo’s leash to keep the overeager dog from following. Evan watched her back as she walked further away and entered the local diner, wondering why on earth she would settle down here of all places. When he first heard the news, he thought it was a joke—but apparently, Dana really did leave her inheritance to her only granddaughter and said granddaughter really did move in here instead of just selling the damn place.

  He wasn’t kidding when he said this town had trouble from time to time. In truth, this town was more trouble than it was worth, but it was the only place his kind could actually feel protected.

  And it was home.

  Evan sighed, tugging the dog. “Come on. Quit staring at her. You ready for lunch?”

  The dog yipped, tail wagging. Evan rolled his eyes and grinned.

  “Idiot. You just really had to give her a heavy welcome, didn’t you?”

  To his amusement, Bingo barked a rather solid yes.

  *****

  He kept up with his task after lunch and eventually found the vampires in one of Orville’s forest areas—a place heavy with trees which didn’t filter in much sunlight. Vampires didn’t necessarily burn and evaporate into ash in the sunlight like most movies portrayed, however, they were very sensitive to it and preferred the dark.

  Vampires also weren’t as obsessively cruel as portrayed in those same movies, but they could be a bit moody.

  And bloodthirsty.

  And violent.

  He watched as three vampires feasted on a dead deer’s blood and obviously enjoyed every bit of it, the sound of their sucking and hissing filling the air. Evan wrinkled his nose. While he wasn’t opposed to deer meat, he liked it more medium rare than outright raw—and really, it was such a waste when the vampires would only suck the blood and leave everything else behind. They had blood bags for that, distributed properly in the town’s blood bank.

  And based on reports, deer wasn’t the only animal these guys were feasting on. There was also a dead cow and a dead horse they left behind, making some of the neighbors pissed.

  Evan contemplated shifting to his beast form before realizing that would just threaten the vampires enough to cause a fight. So, he settled for taking hold of Bingo’s leash again to make sure the dog didn’t burst forward right away.

  Then he cleared his throat.

  “Fellas, I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”

  All three heads looked up in a flash, the synchronized movement almost eerie. They were pale, with dark eyes that were unreadable, and Evan knew there was intelligence behind them. Blood dripped from their bared fangs, and the hissing grew louder. Bingo tensed below him, but Evan was as calm as possible, even attempting a smile.

  “Can you all step away from the carcass and calmly put your hands up in the air?”

  They stood up, again the movement in quiet unison. They stared at him, licking their lips.

  Then they ran off in a blink of the eye, there one second and gone the next.

  Evan expected a fight, had even braced himself for it, but the development had him muttering a curse as he realized he was going to have to delve deeper into the forest to hunt them down.

  “Bingo, can you go back to our truck? I need to handle this alone.”

  The dog barked in disagreement but eventually relented when Evan shot him a pointed look. He watched as Bingo backed off and sauntered out of the forest. When he was safely out of harm’s way, Evan dove right in.

  It didn’t take long. Twenty minutes later, in his beast form he had already managed to round up two of the vampires who were hissing in protest. Beneath the hissing, they were also telling him that they were innocent from all the other killings—a fact that incriminated them, considering he hadn’t even told them about the other killings yet.

  Maybe teenage vampires weren’t as intelligent as the adult ones. Those damn adults certainly needed to keep these young ones in line, and he was going to have to ask his boss to deal with that.

  Ten minutes after that, whatever good mood he had left evaporated when he searched the whole forest and came up short, which meant only one thing – the third vampire had risked the sunlight and escaped.

  Chapter 3

  Doing inventory of the number of flowers she had, along with the materials for bouquet gifts, was probably the most exciting thing Deana had done since she arrived here—a testament to how there wasn’t a lot to do in town. Half of her missed the bars and the beach, but the other half reminded her she really didn’t go there much, anyway, and she found that there was a certain type of excitement in running a new business after all. It had her wondering how she’d fare tomorrow, considering the townspeople were already buzzing about it—case in point, the people who approached her at the diner and expressed their interest in what she offered on her opening day. It also had her wondering if she’d live up to the expectations, because these people seemed to think her grandmother was one of the most precious gems on earth and could never be replaced.

  It was heartwarming. It was also nerve-wracking, which was why Deana threw herself into the work and was still at it hours later.

  Closing her logbook, Deana yawned. Then she stretched her arms up in the air and rotated her shoulders, trying to work out whatever kinks were there. Her salad dinner didn’t quite satisfy her, and she checked her watch, wondering if the diner was still open at nine-thirty in the evening. She remembered her fridge and how she had stocked it to the brim the night before. That was deliberate because she could just cross her backyard to get to her small cabin, which was at the edge of the flower shop’s back fence.

  Homemade pizza sounded good right now.

  Deana opened the back door of the shop with a trash bag in hand, already planning the ingredients in her head. A hissing sound had her looking up, wondering if a raccoon had gotten through the fence.

  She froze.

  It wasn’t a raccoon.

  Deana stared at the figure hunched in the shadows—or, to be more specific, hunched behind a bush, looking at her with glowing eyes. Red eyes. Her heart leaped into her throat when the figure stopped hunching and straightened up, and she swallowed hard as she tried to open her throat up.

  “Who are you?” she croaked out. “What are you doing in…?”

  Those were the only words she got out before the figure moved. One second, it was just standing there and staring at her—and the next, it was right in front of her, those red eyes flashing and…fangs. A mouth hissing and full of fangs.

  Shock had her stumbling back, but not before claws reached out. It took hold of her shirt, and she heard a
ripping sound, followed by more frantic hissing that indicated hunger. She smelled blood and was horrified to realize it was her own. The creature took hold of her leg, which was still halfway out the door, and dragged her out—

  There was a growling sound, followed by her bleeding ankle being let go before the claws disappeared. She watched the blood flow down the back door in a state of shock before she looked up again, her trash bag in the air and ready to defend herself.

  The trash bag fell from her hand at the sight.

  The creature was no longer alone, but not because it had company to help attack her again…no. It had an enemy, one who was currently squeezing the creature’s neck with paws that were as large as her leg, maybe even more. The bear was huge, a magnificent brown creature that had her inhaling sharply. It was like photos she’d seen of grizzly bears, except larger.

  And it was choking the life out of the fanged creature.

  She heard a bark. Belatedly, she realized that there was someone watching just near her and saw a golden tail wagging, even while its body was tense and ready to pounce.

  It was Bingo. He was staring at the bear and the other creature, almost like he was ready to jump in any second now. But the bear already had the fanged creature in a chokehold, and it didn’t look like he was going to let go anytime soon now. She expected this little scuffle to end in a bloodbath, wondering how she was going to clean up her backyard if that happened. A laugh almost escaped her throat when she realized where her thoughts were going, to be replaced by her hair standing on end when the bear growled again.

  The other creature began hissing, with the bear growling back. It happened back and forth enough that realization dawned on Deana, one that had her taking a step back.

  Were they…communicating?

  At first, she thought it was her imagination—until she saw the paws loosen on the fanged creature’s neck and watched as that creature stood up. It glanced at her one more time, something that had the bear pounding a paw on the ground.

  Then the fanged creature ran off, jumping through the fence in a blur before disappearing altogether.

  The sight had her heart racing—but not as much as when the bear looked up and locked eyes with her.

  Familiar golden eyes, arresting and every bit fascinating.

  She watched as the bear ran off, too, bypassing the fence and passing behind her cabin, where there was a space between the metal links. She watched as Bingo barked once before following, trotting like he couldn’t be bothered to hurry up.

  She watched as silence reigned and the moonlight shone brightly in the sky.

  Her grandmother had always told her stories—stories about how people in Orville were not what they seemed to be, but that they were all pretty harmless and just wanted to be away from people who would judge them and hunt them down.

  And Orville was a sanctuary.

  As a kid, she believed those stories. As an adult, she thought they were just a figment of her grandmother’s imagination, even while she heard whispers of it every now and then—a human drained of blood in a Californian alley, a group of crocodiles found gallivanting inside a museum with old artifacts in their jaws.

  Now all that disbelief went down the drain with this new discovery. Her grandmother even handed her a book, one she kept in the cabin because she didn’t have time to read about those imaginary creatures. But she did skim parts of it and knew exactly what the creature earlier was, considering it was practically a carbon copy of the sketches in that old book.

  She’d just found herself face-to-face with a vampire.

  And a bear shifter.

  *****

  The reading took up more than an hour, with Deana devouring the pages of pictures and words describing what kind of creatures she was going to be encountering in her stay here. Vampires. Shifters. Witches, who were also the town healers and were good…unless you crossed them. There was also a map with the town smack dab in the center, as well as locations divided per creature’s territory and all the resident human beings sprinkled in the mix. By the time she was done, her mind was reeling, and she almost wanted to book a one-way ticket back to California, where she would beg for her roommate to take her back. Or find a new apartment where she could barely afford the rent—anything, as long as it was far away from here.

  She slammed the thought away as soon as it formed, shaking her head. No. She couldn’t go back.

  A quick look at the clock told her it was nearly midnight, and she had an early day tomorrow, but a knock on the door had her freezing in place.

  She contemplated ignoring it, then, decided she was safe if she based it on what the book said about vampires and their inability to enter homes if uninvited. The book also said shifters were generally a friendly bunch, and so were vampires as long as they were fed right and you stayed out of their way during feeding sessions—or in general, stayed out of their designated territories.

  Deana opened the door, her book in one hand. She was met by the sight of Bingo wagging his tail again, and his owner looking very much like he did this morning in his brown cop uniform.

  Their gazes met, familiar golden on green. Dread settled in the pit of her stomach when she realized her suspicion had been right, and the book itself had confirmed it.

  “Ma’am, I just wanted to check if you’re alright,” Evan said, a respectful few inches away from the doorstep as he eyed her steadily. Those eyes glanced at the book she held, recognition flaring, before they returned to her.

  The dread turned into something else when she realized that her opinion of his good looks didn’t change in the least, even after reading all that information of shifters preferring raw meat. In fact…

  “Do you eat raw meat?” she blurted out before she could stop herself. She expected anger, expected him to tell her to mind her own business.

  Instead, the hot cop treated her with a slow smile, taking her breath away. “I prefer medium rare, if we’re talking steak.”

  Of course they were talking steak, but he made it sound so…dirty. Her cheeks flushed. The smile disappeared from his face as he eyed her in concern.

  “Like I said, you can call me if you need anything. Or if you need to leave town, I can always assist in giving you a lift…”

  Her chin lifted at that, and something had her back going straight. “I’m not leaving.”

  He watched her quietly, that gaze rather unsettling and pleasant at the same time. Then he nodded and stepped back.

  “I understand. Goodnight.”

  Deana watched him walk away, closing the door before he could disappear completely. Like vampires, shifters didn’t get to enter human homes unless invited. And now that Deana was pretty sure she was going to proceed with this business she had already invested so much time in…

  She was just going to have to make sure she didn’t invite anyone in here.

  Her safe zone.

  Chapter 4

  The opening was a success—an outcome that surprised him, not because he didn’t think the townspeople would actually buy flowers. No, it had more to do with him thinking she’d have bolted already after what happened in her yard last night, then after seeing her reaction when he visited her. It was a spontaneous move on his part, the pretense that he wanted to check up on her as a cop, when really all he wanted to do was get a good look at her again.

  And yes, maybe try to drive her away before it was too late. That was his job most of the time—drive away unsuspecting humans who thought settling in this charming town was the best for them, not knowing the kind of creatures Orville housed. He made excuses to turn them away before they discovered anything and got in trouble for it.

  But Deana already held Dana’s book in her hand, which meant it was already too late for her. Plus, the way she acted, with that haughty expression and an almost no-nonsense attitude, told him she wasn’t going to go anytime soon, even if only out of sheer stubbornness.

  It looked like she might have some of her grandmother’s backbone i
n her, after all.

  Well, okay, a lot of her grandmother’s backbone. The old lady had refused to leave as well, and had in fact, settling here quite nicely and getting along with everyone, befriending the civil ones and using her spade to drive away the rogues.

  It seemed that Deana was just as competent, and her initial snobbishness was gone as soon as the shop opened, and customers came. At first, it was out of curiosity, but the sight of the gorgeous bouquets in their hands had everyone else eager to get their own, and her friendliness and the way she personalized each arrangement quickly won them over. She was equal parts shy and charming, a combination that intrigued Evan as he watched from the sidelines—or, to be more specific, from his police truck parked outside her shop, as his boss specified he needed to watch the newbie and see to how she’d adjust to the knowledge of their existence.

  If he was honest with himself, he’d probably be watching over her even without being asked, and he’d have lied about it and said it was because he wanted to see the flowers.

  His boss had been particularly pleased with him after Evan rounded up the third teenage vampire last night—aka the vampire who attacked Deana at her home, thinking he would get a free meal and get away with it. The boy had another thought coming because the vampire adults were pissed.

  And Evan didn’t need to know what pissed off vampires did, considering their violent nature.

  By late afternoon, it was clear she was going to need an assistant if this whole busy thing kept up, but he supposed she was going to see through the week before deciding about that. He had a feeling she was a practical sort.

  And he had a feeling she wouldn’t be leaving town without getting her capital back, along with a hefty income.

  Just before closing, Evan got out of the truck and told Bingo to keep guard at the entrance. Then he strode inside the shop, which he had no problem entering. She had her back turned to him and was carrying a box of flowers from the freezer, she turned around with an extra bright smile on her face that had him staring.