Naughty But Nice: A Bear Shifter Christmas Romance

by Mirajane

  Naughty But Nice

  Mirajane

  Copyright © 2019 by Mirajane

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This book is a piece of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people.

  If you are reading this book and book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  Published: Mirajane 2019

  mirajane@authormirajane.com

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  Blurb

  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

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Epilogue

  Excerpt

  Author’s Note

  Stay connected with Mirajane

  Author’s Note

  Naughty But Nice is a full-length standalone novel. At the end, I’ve included an excerpt from my Amazon TOP 100 Novel, Saved by the Wolf.

  Naughty But Nice concludes at around 95% on your device.

  Happy Reading!

  XO, Mirajane

  Blurb

  A lot has changed since we were in high school.

  For one, Tyler isn’t human anymore.

  It’s Christmas season.

  Going back to my hometown meant celebration and cheer.

  It also gave me hope for a second chance with Tyler.

  But a dark cloud is looming over our heads.

  A bear is killing people in the woods.

  Could it be Tyler?

  If it is, then I need to stay miles away from him.

  And if it isn’t, then my life is in danger.

  Tyler is the only one who can protect me from this bloodthirsty bear.

  I need him to save my life.

  But what if he can’t get to me on time?

  Chapter One

  Angie

  I threw a hoodie into the suitcase and looked at it for one more moment before I zipped up the suitcase. The zipper closed up with a nice, satisfying sound which just confirmed that I was doing the right thing. It was something I’d been wrestling with for several days. And today, I finally decided it was the right thing to do.

  I picked up the suitcase and set it down on the floor. It was far heavier than I ever imagined it would. Maybe, I was actually carrying too much stuff. I was going home for only two weeks and then would be right back here, ready for the last semester. Wow, my last semester of college…this thought would hit me at times and give me a feeling of both nostalgia and regret. Maybe, it was just fear. Moving out of college and establishing yourself in this vast world was pretty terrifying.

  And, this was my last Christmas holiday before I finish college. I would probably never again have this kind of long holiday in my life. It was kind of my last days of pure freedom. I didn’t want to give that up. I was really resentful of how much I would soon have to give up.

  I had no idea what I really wanted to do with my life once I finish college. And that moment was fast approaching when I would be forced to sink or swim, and swimming would involve going back home and living there permanently. A small town with small-minded people…that was how I looked at it. I didn’t want to go back there. It would be every single nightmare I’d envisioned happening since I graduated from high school.

  Of course, I missed my family and my old friends, but I didn’t want to go back to that town, back to Athens, back where I had always felt so insignificant, so stifled, and so much out of place. Growing up there, I’d always felt abnormal. I had my group of friends but I didn’t ever really feel that I would thrive there. I always had much bigger dreams. But now that I was on the verge of starting to work hard on my dreams, I found I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I was still trying to decide if I wanted to go to Law School, or if I just wanted to go into the working world first.

  When my mother called me a few days before, she sounded so sad. “Your father and I were really hoping you might come home for the holidays this year,” she said. “We miss you honey. It is like we don’t see you at all anymore.”

  “I know,” I replied. I hated to remind her that it was a bit intentional. “I’ve just been so busy. You know how it is.”

  “Yeah. I know how you feel about being here, and how happy you were to get out of here. But your father and I miss you. We would like for you to come home this year. You can see all of your friends again. A lot of them ask about you.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “I’ll come home this year.”

  The only reason I agreed was because I didn’t have much else to do. It was either this, or hang out at the house I rented with my roommates, Nia and Jamie. Nia and Jamie were both going home for the holidays this year, so if I did stay behind then I would end up spending the holidays alone. The past two years we had all gone on some nice ski trips together, but this year it seemed that our families had collectively decided to beg us all to come home. So, we decided to go. The drag was that we would not be together for the first time in several years during Christmas.

  So, we decided that we would all be good daughters and go home. I was dreading the trip from the moment I said I would go. As I finished packing, the thoughts were swirling in my head, almost inducing actual panic, but I was a bit intrigued that I was actually going back there and I might actually see some of the people I went to high school with.

  “High school…” I moaned to myself. It was such an odd time for me. I was a bit awkward and I didn’t really start to blossom until the summer before my senior year. I hit my growth spurt, my skin cleared up, and I actually started to come out of my shell a bit, mostly because people began to treat me differently. I was vaguely aware of this and it kept me from ever allowing myself to accept people who treated me differently based on how I looked. Plus, it was the last year of high school and I was so ready to leave that school and that town. I was over it.

  And I’d done a good job the past few years of hardly ever going back, except for a few days here and there during the summers. My parents were usually more than happy to come and visit me, to get out of that small town trap and move on to see other parts of the world.

  I walked out of my bedroom and went into the kitchen. I grabbed a soda and sat down on the couch. I heard my friends Jamie and Nia coming into the house just then. I was actually excited for the intrusion. It meant I didn’t have to do anymore work for the time being. I was exhausted packing and putting
things in order before I headed out in the morning. I was going to make the two hour drive down to Athens from Columbus, Ohio, the big city. I loved it there. I had so many different things I could do anytime of the day or night. I wondered if all big cities were as much fun. Athens was so far from anything really big. I felt sorry for how many people stayed around there. Ohio University is there, and most people from my high school went there, or to nearby Hocking College, or they didn’t do anything. I could have gone to school there; either one is a great college, but I had a dream of going to Ohio State and doing something more exciting. Plus I wouldn’t be stuck in the small town atmosphere I’d felt so stifled in for so long.

  And on top of that, I didn’t date at all in high school, except for Oren…that bastard. I didn’t date mostly on purpose. The last thing I wanted was getting involved with some guy who would hold me there. I wanted to make that clean break and nothing would derail me. But that almost happened anyway.

  “Hey,” Nia said as she plopped down right beside me.

  “Hey,” I replied.

  “You ok?” Nia laughed noticing my listless vibe.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I was just thinking about the trip.”

  “If you don’t want to go, then don’t,” she said. “There has to be some other people who are hanging out around campus and not going home, right?”

  “Yeah, but I promised my mom and dad. I can’t really just say no to them now. Besides, I hate to admit it, but I’m just a bit intrigued.”

  “I’ve always wanted to visit your hometown,” Jamie said. “I think it would be so neat there.”

  I shook my head. “Why?”

  “Well, the entire town is haunted and there is a lot of witchcraft and weird stuff there, right? I heard in some YouTube video that it is one of the most haunted towns in the world, right?” Jamie asked.

  “For real?” Nia asked.

  “Yeah, supposedly,” I replied. “But I never saw anything weird growing up. It is way overhyped, except for with some of the real old timers. They are still crazy superstitious, and there appears to be a bunch of devil worship around there. But it is really overplayed. It’s not that different than anywhere else, except for Halloween.”

  Nia laughed. “That does sound pretty cool.”

  I shrugged. “It’s just a small town and I don’t want to end up seeing people from high school. Maybe, I’ll just hibernate with my parents in their house.”

  “Why? Were you unpopular or something?”

  I sighed. “Not really, but my last year of high school, I did get a bit of that. It was so weird.”

  “I’m intrigued,” Jamie said. “You know, I just realized that for the first time since living together that we are all single now.”

  I thought about this and realized that she was right.

  “Well, maybe that is a good thing.”

  “It can be,” Jamie said. “But I’m starting to have man withdrawal.”

  I couldn’t help exploding into laughter. Nia slapped me a high five as she erupted into hysterics. “That is something I can relate to,” Nia said.

  “Well, what are we going to do about it? If we weren’t all going away for the holidays, we could stay around here and go on the prowl. That would be fun.”

  “That’s a tempting idea,” I said. “Maybe after the holidays we can go out and do some of that, but I’m not really working on anything. I don’t want a guy right now.”

  “What? Why not?” Jamie asked.

  “Because I’m getting ready to graduate, and you know after Vincent, I just haven’t felt like getting involved with anyone. I need to focus on the next step.”

  “What is that next step?” Nia asked me.

  “I’m mulling a few things over. I’m thinking of going to law school, or I might even try to do something with music.”

  “You are really into that, aren’t you?” Nia asked. “Didn’t you tell me you hated taking those piano lessons when you were a kid?”

  I nodded. “I did, but with this music minor I’m working on, it’s kind of reawakened a few things.”

  “You know, with today’s technology, anyone can have a thriving music career solely online,” Jamie said. “My cousin Troy and his band have started gaining a huge following and he is making bank.”

  “Really? Well, I’ll have to pick his brain and maybe do something with that.”

  “I’ll text you his number,” Jamie said.

  “So, what are you so afraid of with this trip?” Nia asked.

  I was a bit caught off guard by her question. “What?”

  “Well, you aren’t really saying. You are being a bit vague, but is there something back there in particular that you are running from?”

  I sighed. “Well, maybe a few things. With the thing that happened with Oren—my high school boyfriend—everyone knew about it, and a lot of them blamed me because he was the big football stud and they thought I was just bitter that he was messing around on me—which he was—but that I was making up things to get him in trouble because I was bitter. But no, he was a psycho abusive asshole. He started sweet and then became very controlling. Then he laid his hands on me just one time and I told him to go to hell. He actually threatened to kill me. He thought I would be scared into submission.”

  “Shit!” Nia said. “Well, he obviously didn’t know you…”

  I laughed. “Right? And he didn’t know that my uncle Roy is a cop. I told him about it and he put the fear of God into Oren. He got benched for a game, and he lost some of the interest from scouts. Then on the game he came back with the following weak, he took a bad hit and tore his knee up really bad. He was out for the season and it was never the same. And everyone blamed me. The last half year of my senior year, it was just brutal. I could not get out of that place fast enough. And a lot of those same people are still living there, or they went to the local school. I don’t want to see any of them. The way they treated me was criminal. I would love to find some way to just utterly get back at them, but I’m not really that vengeful. I’d rather just try to live well.”

  “Good on you,” Jamie said. “But damn. I can see why the hell you don’t want to go back there. Your family understands that, right?”

  I sighed. “They do, but they also understand it’s been over four years. I’m not seventeen anymore. I’m a grown up and anyone who is still there, is also a grown up, but the way things are is different than when they grew up. If you stay where you grew up in a smaller town like that with the same people you grew up with, then things do not really change at all. Those people and their relationship to you really stays about the same. That’s something my family just doesn’t get at all. But it will be ok. I’ll miss the two of you terribly. It’s only a week, though. We will get through it.”

  “Hell yeah,” she said. “We will. If you need anything just call us. I expect to hear from you at least every other night. That goes for both of you.”

  “Yes,” Nia said.

  Her phone started ringing and she excused herself to answer it in the other room.

  “So, I’m super proud of myself because I actually finished all my Christmas shopping early. And I actually did the shopping. I went into stores. I looked for things, and then I bought them.”

  “Wow, that’s impressive,” I joked. “It actually is because I just did all mine last week online. I’m so lazy, but it took like an hour and it was done.”

  She laughed. “That is so sad what we’ve become.”

  “Well, that’s rough,” Nia said as she walked past us into the kitchen. She grabbed a beer from the fridge and came back to the couch where she plopped down beside me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “My parents just got assigned something in Europe, so they are going to be in Europe for the holidays.”

  “That’s rough. Are you going with them?”

  “I offered, but they said they’ll be working the last time and they won’t have any time to spend with me.”

  “Shit. S
o, you’re going to be by yourself here for the holidays?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “I guess so.”

  “Well, you are welcome to come with me,” I said. “I could so use a good friend. My family won’t mind.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely.” I was excited now. This would not be nearly as bad with a friend beside me.

  “Ok,” she said. “I’ll come.”

  I hugged Nia tightly. “Thanks so much. This trip just got so much better.”

  She giggled. “Ok, just take it easy. We have a blast. I’m glad I’m coming.”

  “Damn, now I wish I was coming with you,” Jamie said.

  “Well, you are more than welcome. My parents have the room,” I said.

  “I can’t. I really need to go home.”

  We all stayed up chatting for a bit and by the time I went to bed, it was almost eleven. I wasn’t really tired, but the thought of driving home tomorrow made me feel tired. I was excited to see my family, and having Nia coming along was definitely going to help me quite a bit, but I still couldn’t stop thinking about how good it would feel to have this trip over with and come back. I wanted to get the holidays over with and move on with the last semester before I started my life.

  But I still had no idea what I was going to do with the rest of my life. As I closed my eyes to try to drift off to sleep, I did my best to quell the anxieties mounting up inside my head. I tried to tell myself that it would be ok. Everything would be alright, but I had no idea what I was in store for…