by Kim Fox
Contents
Copyright
About
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Epilogue
The Vega Brothers:
Julius
The Bear Shifters of Vega Ranch Book One
By KIM FOX
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This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Contains explicit love scenes and adult language.
18+
www.AuthorKimFox.com
Copyright © 2016 by Kim Fox
Julius Vega never wanted a mate. The four Vega brothers were all traumatized by their father’s experience with his mate and all vowed to be single forever. They have just returned from fighting overseas in the Shifter Special Forces to find out that their father has just died, and bad news turns worse when they find the will which states that all four brothers must get married and find mates within a year or they lose their beloved family ranch forever.
After polishing off a bottle of wine to wash down the pain killers for the root canal that she just had, Ava King is feeling a little loopy. She OD’s on some inspirational quotes on her Pinterest account and is feeling on top of the world. But when she wakes up her whole world comes crashing down. In the fog of her headache, she remembers that she left a message for her boss, quitting her job, sent a text to her deadbeat boyfriend, breaking up with him, and signed up to a mail order bride website in another state. So when she gets a call for a date, she has nothing to lose and drives the eleven hours from Seattle to Colwood, Montana.
Ava and Julius meet on the mail order bride website and quickly hit it off. But as they’re starting to fall in love the truth comes out and it rips them apart. Julius is in danger of losing the Vega Ranch but that’s nothing compared to the threat of losing his mate.
This is the first book in the paranormal bear shifter romance series: Vega Brothers (The Bear Shifters of Vega Ranch Book One featuring Julius). This can be read as a standalone book.
No Cliffhangers. HEA. 18+
one
“Sorry I couldn’t make it boys,” Jack said as he shook his head.
“No worries, Jack,” Julius replied as he slid onto the bar stool. He had been waiting for this drink all fucking day. “I know you have more important things to do, like take care of the living.”
Jack pulled out five bottles of beer and dropped one in front of each of the four Vega brothers as they sat down at his bar. He slid a second one in front of Khan. The boys had been coming to this bar, The Call of the Wild, since they were old enough to buy fake IDs. The bartender knew them well and he knew that Khan would be finished with his first beer before his three brothers had a chance to say ‘cheers.’
“He was a good man,” Jack said, taking a huff of breath.
Julius loosened his tie and sighed. It had felt like a noose had been wrapped around his neck all day, choking him. “That he was.”
“I just wish that we got to see him,” Julius’ brother, Hannibal said, as he picked the corner of his beer bottle label.
Julius dropped his head and stared at the sticky wooden bar. That’s exactly what he had been thinking since he arrived back home. He and his three brothers were gone for four years. And two days before they got to come home, their old man karate kicked the bucket.
“At least it was peaceful,” Khan said as he slid the empty beer bottle back to Jack and grabbed the fresh one waiting for him. “It doesn’t get better than dying in your sleep in a nice comfy bed. We’ve all seen enough horrible deaths to know that.”
Julius jerked his head to the side as his enormous brother Alexander stood up fast, knocking the bar stool over onto the tiled floor. His dark eyes looked fierce and angry under the long, shaggy brown hair covering his eyes, but that didn’t mean much. Alexander’s eyes usually looked fierce and angry. He huffed a breath and turned to leave without saying a word.
“You didn’t finish your beer,” Julius said, watching as his older brother, the huge polar bear shifter, stormed through the empty bar knocking tables to the side and chairs over with his muscular thighs.
Hannibal placed his hand on Julius’ shoulder. “Just let him go,” he whispered. “You know how he is.”
Julius rolled his eyes. “Still,” he said. “It would be nice to grieve as a family!” He yelled out the word ‘family’ as Alexander barreled out the door.
“Why are you aggravating him?” Hannibal asked. “You know he’s not good with emotions.”
“Whatever,” Julius said, turning back to his beer. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with his moody older brother. He had just come from his father’s funeral and had other things to worry about other than Alexander’s constant PMSing.
“I can’t believe the old man is gone,” Khan said, shaking his head. “It feels like just yesterday that he forced us up at dawn to do Civil War reenactments.”
Julius laughed. “I forgot about those,” he said, smiling at the memory. It was funny now but annoying as shit back then. Julius always got paired up against Alexander and by the time their dad finally let them eat breakfast, Julius was usually bleeding into his cereal from Alexander’s overenthusiastic acting.
“Your dad loved all things military,” Jack said. “He would come in here and talk to me about history for hours.”
Julius didn’t doubt it. His dad loved history and war so much that he named his four boys after his favorite historical generals. Khan was the first one out. He was named after the nasty Mongolian General, Genghis Khan. His real name was actually Genghis but he hated that name so much that he forced people to call him Khan instead. Julius used to call him Genghis to piss him off when they were kids but that stopped when Khan’s arms thickened and his knuckles got strong enough to break bone.
Alexander came second and was named after Alexander the Great. His rough personality and seriousness got him the nickname Alexander ‘the Irate’ from his brother Julius.
Julius was the third born and named after Julius Caesar. He lucked out as far as he was concerned. The women seemed to like it and it rolled off their tongues nicely as he made them scream it out in ecstasy. He was just happy his father didn’t go with Napoleon.
Hannibal was the youngest, named after Hannibal Barca, the famed general from Carthage who brought elephants over the alps to terrorize the Romans. He liked to argue that their father saved history’s smartest general for his
smartest son. Julius was always quick to remind him that Hannibal was defeated by the Romans in the end.
“To dad,” Julius said, raising his beer.
“To dad,” his brothers, repeated, although Khan’s second beer was already empty.
“So, what’s next for you guys?” Jack asked as he leaned on the bar. “Are you sticking around? Heading back into service?”
“Our service is done,” Khan snapped as he squeezed his beer bottle.
“We’re not going back,” Julius said in a tone that meant that it wasn’t up for discussion.
Jack stood up and took a step back. “We’re going to take over the family ranch,” Julius said, feeling bad for his curt reply. Jack had always been a good friend and he didn’t mean anything by the question. He just didn’t realize what they went through over there. No one from cozy, tiny Colwood Town, Montana could possibly know the horrors that were out there, the horrors that the Vega brothers had seen.
“That sounds nice,” Jack said, giving them each a fresh beer. “You guys have one of the best and oldest ranches in the state. It will be good for you guys. Settle down, get a mate, some cubs.”
“No way,” Khan said, shaking his head.
“No mates,” Hannibal answered.
Julius laughed. “Girls yes. Mates no. I don’t want to get involved in anyone beyond fucking her all night, giving her a new toothbrush in the morning, and a smack on the ass as she heads out for her cab home, never to be seen again.”
Jack laughed. “Well, some things never change.” Julius had the reputation of being a bit of a ladies’ man. Actually, ladies’ man wasn’t the right term. Manwhore was more like it. In his youth, he had loved to come to this bar during the summer and pick up all of the curvy city women who came up for some hiking, kayaking, and camping. He was proud to put the ‘wild’ in their wilderness trip.
Hannibal leaned back on his stool. “Us Vega brothers can be called a lot of things,” he said with a grin, “but mates is not one of them.”
Khan was still shaking his massive head. “I never want a mate.”
Julius laughed. “I don’t think you’ll have to worry with that long scar running down your cheek. And that’s the best part of your ugly face.” Khan had a four-inch scar that started near his temple and ran down to the corner of his lip.
Khan furrowed his brow and groaned at his little brother as he took another sip of his beer.
“We all saw how dad’s mate treated him,” Khan said. “I’m not going to end up like that.”
“Your dad’s mate?” Jack asked with a raised eyebrow. “You mean your mother?”
Khan gave a face like he just bit into a lemon. “Just because she gave birth to me, does not make her my mom.”
“Actually,” Hannibal said, looking at him funny. “That’s exactly what it means.”
“You refer to that woman as mother?” Khan asked, looking at Hannibal like he just sprouted a second head.
Hannibal laughed. “I refer to that woman as crazy.”
Their mother was a lot of things, but sweet, homey and calm wasn’t any of them. Julius had long suspected that she had some sort of severe undiagnosed mental illness. It was the only thing that would explain the sudden crazy mood swings and the cruel and abusive way that she treated her husband, their father.
Julius’ father was a bear shifter and she was his mate. No matter what she did, no matter how many insults and biting words that she threw at him, no matter how many broken plates and kicks and slaps, no matter how many times she left only to come back a few days later, Julius’ dad always took her back with open arms. The four Vega brothers saw this growing up, and they each vowed in their own right to never take on a mate. Women, beyond sex, were out of the question for each of them.
Julius glanced at the tattoo of a phrase on Hannibal’s arm. His youngest brother, Hannibal, loved to read and was the self-proclaimed scholar of the family. He tattooed his favorite passages and quotes onto his body and when he took off his shirt you didn’t know whether to look at him or to read him. “Don’t you have an inspirational quote or something on your arm for a moment like this?” Julius asked with a grin.
Hannibal put down his beer and grabbed his shirt. “Actually, I have one here.” He lifted up his shirt and read the phrase tattooed onto his ribs. “Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”
“Who wrote that?” Julius asked. “Dr. Seuss?”
“Victor Hugo,” Hannibal said, dropping his shirt and returning to his beer.
Julius laughed. “What’s on your ass?”
Hannibal sneered at him. “Your lips.”
“Is Franky still around?” Khan asked Jack.
“Yeah,” Jack said with a nod. “He’s still living on the family ranch.”
“What about Steve?” Khan asked.
Julius smirked, trying to hide his laugh. He knew what his brother was up to. Khan didn’t care about any of those people. He was just building up to ask about the one person he did care about but trying not to look obvious about it. He couldn’t look more obvious to Julius than if he had been holding a flashing billboard over his head with her name on it.
“Steve moved out to Nebraska,” Jack said. “He bonded to a pretty little fox shifter down there and never came back.”
“Mm-hm,” Khan said with a nod. He looked up like a thought just occurred to him and not like it was his intention the entire time. “Whatever happened to that pretty girl with the chestnut colored hair that came up here with her parents that summer about five years ago? Remember they rented Mr. Miller’s place? What was her name?” He tapped his chin and stared up at the ceiling.
“Bailey,” Julius and Hannibal said at the same time.
“Oh right,” Khan said with a thoughtful nod. Could he be more obvious? “Has she ever come back?”
Jack shrugged. “I don’t really know who you’re talking about.”
Khan’s shoulders dropped. He exhaled long and hard before turning back to his beer. The poor guy had been hooked on that girl for years. Julius often wondered if Khan’s Kodiak bear had bonded to her, the way he was still caught up on her, but he claimed that he hadn’t. He never did tell them why they broke up. She had hung around all summer but when the brothers left to go into the Special Shifter Forces overseas she wasn’t there to say goodbye. Julius asked him what he did to fuck it up and the next thing he remembered was waking up on the floor in an empty room with a sore jaw, a splitting headache, and a vow to never ask Khan again.
“We have to take off,” Hannibal said, checking his watch.
“Don’t worry about the beers,” Jack said, waving Julius away when he pulled out his wallet. “They’re on me today.”
“Even this guy’s tab?” Julius asked, motioning to Khan with his head. “Scarface over here drank half the fridge.” Khan loved his alcohol. He also loved his food and his gambling too. And Julius loved to tease him.
“It’s all on me today,” Jack said with a sniff. “I really liked your dad. I’m going to miss him.”
Julius took in a deep breath. The thought of his dad not being around to liven up the Vega Ranch with his sharp wit and old stories of Roman wars and Mongolian conquests was too much to bear.
It was their turn to take over. Julius, Hannibal, Khan and even Alexander would inherit the family ranch and make it their own. The lawyer was coming to their place this afternoon to sign over the deed. By dinner time, Julius would be a proud owner of Vega Ranch.
Julius couldn’t see it any other way. He loved that ranch with its sprawling hills, raging river, wild horses, and spectacular views of the snow-capped mountains. It was the perfect place to roam around for hours in his bear form.
After four years of intense and bloody war in the Special Shifter Forces it would be nice to return to the calm, peaceful life that the ranch provided.
And this time, it would be his.
The three men stood up and took the last sips of their beers. “Any women coming up th
is weekend?” Julius asked. “I haven’t gotten laid in ages.”
“You fucked that stewardess in the bathroom when we landed,” Hannibal said with a laugh.
“Oh right.” Julius was getting hard, picturing the soft curves under her tight airline uniform. Her body was perfect; big and soft, just the way he liked it. He laughed as he remembered her bent over the toilet with her panties stuffed into her mouth to mute her screams as he fucked her doggy style. It wasn’t the most romantic scene, but he had been a starving man after months in the field with no sex. Even a starving man would eat a steak off the floor of the bathroom.
Jack laughed. “It’s the summer,” he said, grabbing the remote control and flicking on the TV hanging over the bar. “There’s always girls coming up to Colwood to escape the city for the weekend.”
“Well, I guess I’ll see you on the weekend,” Julius said with a grin.
Hannibal smirked. “We’ll all see you.”
Jack laughed. “Don’t go turning your father’s ranch into a frat house.”
“It’s our ranch now,” Julius said.
“Not yet,” Khan said in his deep voice. “We have to sign first.”
They said their goodbyes to Jack and took off. The three brothers walked to Khan’s big truck and Julius and Hannibal raced to the front passenger’s seat. Julius grabbed the handle first but Hannibal plowed into him with his shoulder, knocking him to the side. Hannibal was the shortest of the four bear shifter brothers but he was still wide and incredibly strong.
“I got here first,” Julius said, holding onto the truck door like his life depended on it.
“Don’t make me tickle you,” Hannibal warned.
“Tickle me?” Julius spat out. “What are you, ten years old?”
“Just get in the fucking truck,” Khan snapped while shaking his head. “Every fucking time with you two.”
