Dancing Bearback (BBW Shifter Cowboy Western Romance) (Bear Ranchers Book 3)

by Becca Fanning

  Then came the part that hurt. Her scull elongated and her bones creaked as her skeleton changed. When she took her next breath, she took it as a bear.

  She stretched slightly and began to walk towards the smell of her brother. As she got her sea legs back she moved a bit faster. There was something so fantastically liberating about being able to shift again, especially after so long. Everything smelled better as a bear than it did as a human. She took a deep breath and rubbed her paws into the lush grass.

  The five bears turned to look at her as she approached them. Their coats were all slightly different colors, but Tyler’s was by far the lightest. He almost didn’t look like a real bear; he was like someone’s imagined rendering of one. Brett nodded his head and everyone followed him further into the woods. It didn’t take long for them to start running.

  Mary loved the feeling of her paws hitting the grass with each powerful bound. She relaxed into her movement. As they slowed at a clearing she nipped at Tyler’s heels. He turned and growled playfully at her. When he turned his head, she did it again. This time, he nipped back.

  As a bear she was a bit smaller than the rest of them. Her fur was a bit lighter as well. She leapt towards them, her mouth open and her tongue out. It was surprisingly puppy-like. Tyler could tell that she hadn’t shifted in a while.

  When they stopped in the clearing, she nipped at his heels and he turned and bared his teeth. He could smell deer in the air and he wanted to taste the meat. But Mary was distracting. She pranced around him, butting her head against him like she was a puppy who wanted to play with an older dog.

  And then she put her mouth around his neck, and turned tail and ran from the clearing. Tyler moved automatically and on instinct. Mary had challenged his status by doing that and he was going to get back at her.

  She moved quickly, but he soon caught up. He leapt onto her, and she shifted into human form almost immediately. He followed suit, his body getting smaller and thinner, his fur receding until they were just two people lying on the grass. He looked down, and his heart almost fell out of his mouth. There was nothing between the two of them. She was gorgeous. Her breasts were heaving with the effort of running from him, and she could feel the soft skin of her legs against his.

  “Uh,” he began. He could feel himself hardening.

  She smiled up at him. “You got me!”

  He closed his eyes and took a slow, deep breath, willing himself to think of boring things like icebergs and golf. But it didn’t really work. He felt her hand on his face. “Tyler?” she asked, tentatively.

  He looked down at her. Her mouth was slightly parted, and her eyes were full of questions. He couldn’t help himself. He kissed her. He pressed his naked body against hers, loving the way she molded against him perfectly. She wrapped her arms around his neck and the kiss deepened.

  Then the realization of what they were doing hit him and he pulled away. “We shouldn’t. Brett would be pissed…” he trailed off. Her lips looked well-kissed and lush.

  “Right.” He could hear the disappointment in her voice. He moved off of her and she stood up. He tried not to look at her as she moved. “No big deal!” she said, the cheer in her voice sounded so forced.

  “We should get back to the others,” he attempted diplomacy.

  “Yeah.” She closed her eyes and began to shift. He followed suit.

  They spent two nights out in the woods and Tyler had to fight with himself the whole time. He had invited her. He did this to himself. But every time he looked at her, he wanted to kiss her. The years they had spent bonding together as teenagers came rushing back to him and he wanted to hit himself for being an idiot kid and thinking that there would be better and more interesting girls when he got to college. His perfect girl was right in front of him. Literally.

  And she was his best friend’s sister. Tyler didn’t want to think about what Brett would think if Tyler actually started dating Mary. He wasn’t sure he wanted to imagine it, but he certainly did want to imagine dating Mary.

  Mary drove back with Brett, and Tyler wanted to kick himself for missing the opportunity to be close to her again. They pulled into the parking lot of her apartment complex and she grabbed her bag.

  She gave everyone hugs and turned to go, but Brett stopped her. “Oh! Before I forget, April and I are engaged,” Brett said.

  Mary’s eyes widened. “And you didn’t tell me immediately?” she screeched. She went to hit her brother on the shoulder, while she asked for details about the wedding. Tyler took the moment of craziness to pull Mary’s phone from her back pocket, put his number in, and then text himself so he had her number. He may have been acting a bit crazy, but there was still something between them, that much had been clear in the forest. And he wasn’t going to be an idiot and mess things up like he did when he went off to school.

  He texted her the next day and apologized for kissing her. When they stopped driving for the evening, he checked his phone and there was a simple message from her.

  Like I said, no big deal.

  He wasn’t going to let her go that easily. He sent another text, asking about her classes. Her response was immediate and his stomach fluttered. He wanted to laugh. The tables were certainly turned. She had a crush on him when she was a teenager, now he had a crush on her.

  They sent a few messages back and forth before he fell asleep on the motel bed. He did the same thing the next day, and the next, and the next. Soon it felt like his phone was constantly buzzing in his pocket. Then, one evening he called her.

  One night, during what had become their nightly phone call, Mary asked him a question that made his heart beat faster. “Ty, my roommate is going out of town for the weekend. If you’re not busy, do you want to spend the weekend here?”

  “Of course.”

  The next Friday, he drove to her apartment directly from work. He arrived rather late in the evening. As he walked around the building from the parking lot, he noticed that the window that looked into her living room was thrown open and he could see her puttering around.

  “Mary!” he called. She looked up and then turned towards the window. “Mary!” he said again.

  “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” he called up at the open window as she got closer. She stuck her head out of the window and looked down at him.

  “Tyler?” She leaned out further, as if she was trying to get a better look at him, but it was hard with the lack of light.

  “You’re going to fall out, silly.”

  “I’m not! But come around to the front door. Why didn’t you just text me?”

  “This seemed like a little more fun, Juliet.”

  “If I was any less secure, I’d be worried that you didn’t remember my name.”

  “How could I ever forget your name? Mary, Mary, quite contrary.”

  “Stop joking around and get your butt up here!”

  Tyler laughed and took a step back. “Do you want me to climb?”

  “No! Go to the damn front door!” She leaned out further, bracing her hands on the window ledge. She was hanging halfway out the window. He was sure she was going to fall right out, and then their evening together would be a trip to the hospital. But she didn’t. She slid back inside. “Seriously. Go to the front door and I’ll buzz you up.” She disappeared and the window closed.

  He walked around the building and at the front door he pressed her apartment call button. There was a loud buzzing noise and the click of a lock. He pulled the door open and entered the lobby. A tired-looking security guard barely raised his head from his newspaper.

  The apartment building wasn’t in the best neighborhood. It was a mile or so off of main campus, and Mary had assured him that the area was mostly students, which was why it didn’t look the most appealing.

  He made it up the stairs, the elevator was broken, and before he raised his hand to knock on the door, it flew open.

  Mary had never taken so long to figure out what she was going to wear before. She was an
adult. In grad school. She had a career track in psychology planned out for herself. And she spent an hour and a half trying on outfits that she had worn countless times before, on many dates, and still wasn’t thrilled with her final pick.

  “You look beautiful.”

  Okay, maybe it wasn’t so bad. The dress was better suited to warmer weather. It cut off at her knees, and hugged her waist before flaring at the hips. He took a step towards her and put his hands on her hips. He didn’t make another move. She liked that she had to meet him half way with things. He wasn’t pushy. He opened the door, she had to walk through it.

  She stepped forward and stood on her tip toes. He was so much bigger than she was. Even bigger than Brett. She had always been taller than they were, even though she was younger, until they hit puberty. Then they both dwarfed her. She leaned in for a kiss but stopped an inch from his lips. “Remember when I was taller than you were?”

  He laughed. “For like five minutes.”

  “For like a whole year.”

  She put one foot on the top of his heavy biker boot and tested it. It didn’t give. And then she stood on the other foot as well. Even with the extra help, she was still shorter. “Well, you aren’t any more.” He closed the gap between their lips and she wrapped her arms around him.

  She balanced on his boots as she kissed him. She loved kissing him. He was somehow both rough and gentle at the same time. He slowly pulled away, and she frowned in disappointment. She had wanted to kiss him since she was thirteen, now that they were actually dating she felt like every moment she spent not kissing him was a moment wasted.

  “We need to stop for right now,” he said throatily.

  “Why?” she purred, leaning in again.

  “Because kissing you makes me a little crazy. And we had actual real plans for tonight.”

  They did. And she was excited. They were going to have a normal, boring evening a catch up. And eat pizza. She stepped off his boots. “I have pizza menus!”

  “Menus? It’s pizza. Cheese and meat.”

  She pursed her lips. “There is more to it than that.” She picked up a folded menu from the table top and handed it to him. He flipped it open and looked up at her.

  “Cheese and meat.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Fine. I’ll order.” She picked up her cell phone and dialed the number. She ordered two large pizzas (if what she remembered of meals when Tyler and Brett were teenagers, it was better to have left overs than to deal with a grumpy, hungry shifter). She could certainly eat too. Her friends always commented on her ability to eat so much, but shifting always took a lot of energy.

  She hung up the phone. “It’ll be 45 minutes.”

  “What ever will we do with the time?” Tyler leaned against the counter. He looked so funny in her small apartment, like he was in a doll house.

  “I can think of a few things,” Mary winked.

  “None of those things are happening. We need to pick a movie.”

  Mary sighed. “Okay. Well, the world is your oyster. What do you want to watch?”

  She picked her laptop up off the couch, and plugged in the cord that connected it to her television. “Something action-y?” Tyler asked.

  “Sounds good.” She scrolled through the movie listings until she landed on something that they both wanted to see and then she hit play. They curled up on the couch together. It seemed like neither of them quite knew how to position themselves.

  They were saved from some of the awkwardness by the pizza guy.

  Mary set the pizzas on the counter and grabbed two plates. She handed him one and helped herself to a few slices.

  They curled back up on the couch. This time, Tyler put his arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him. They polished off the pizzas and finished the movie. Mary put the two plates in the dish washer and then rubbed her arms. “Bed time?” she asked tentatively. She hadn’t figured out how to bring up sleeping arrangements, even though she had thought about it almost constantly since she invited Tyler over.

  “Where do you want me to sleep? I’m happy to take the couch if that makes you more comfortable,” Tyler said, kindly.

  “You can sleep in bed with me,” Mary said. “You just have to deal with me kicking you all night.”

  “I think I can handle that.” She took his hand and led him to the bedroom. He went to the bathroom to change while she changed in her room. They climbed into bed, laying stiffly next to each other. Tyler turned over, pulled Mary into his arms and nuzzled his nose against her neck.

  “Your nose is cold,” she whispered. She could feel the rumble of his chuckle.

  “Sorry,” he whispered back. She let herself relax into his arms and she fell asleep.

  “Did April invite you to dinner too?” Mary asked the second Tyler picked up his phone. It was two weeks after they had spent the weekend together and Tyler had driven up to see Mary every weekend since.

  “Hello to you too. Yeah, she did. I was thinking about saying no.”

  “No! Say yes. Because if I have to sit and listen to them go goo goo over cars then you have to too.”

  “I don’t mind talking about cars,” Tyler reminded her. “I do belong to an MC.”

  Mary rolled her eyes. “Whatever, at least if you’re there I’ll have something to look at while you guys talk.”

  “Are you calling me eye candy?” Tyler asked, amused.

  “Yes. Yes I am.”

  A few days later Mary pulled into her brother’s driveway. She had a bag packed so she could stay the weekend. Otherwise it would be a bit pointless to drive five hours for dinner only to drive five hours back. April was thrilled that Mary was staying the weekend, it gave her time to get to know Brett’s sister. Mary was excited as well. She hadn’t been able to spend much time with April and she was excited to add another girl to the family.

  Mary got out of her car and went to the door. Just as she rang the doorbell, Tyler pulled in. He got off his bike and jogged to the door. He grabbed Mary’s hand and squeezed it just as the door was opening. April stood there, grinning widely. Her eyes darted to their hands parting and then she looked back up at them.

  “Welcome!” She pulled them both into a hug and ushered them inside. She sat them down at the small table in the breakfast nook, and Mary offered to help with dinner.

  “Where’s Brett?” Mary asked.

  “He got stuck at the shop late. He texted me just as you arrived saying he was on his way. Mary, could you help me set the table?”

  “Sure thing.” April grabbed some plates and headed into the dining room, and Mary was about to follow with the utensils when Tyler grabbed her wrist and pulled her to him. He kissed her lightly on the lips and she smiled up at him.

  As she turned to head into the dining room, she realized April was in the doorway. Mary wasn’t sure how much she saw, but her brother’s fiancée didn’t say anything. Mary exited the kitchen to put the utensils on the table.

  By the time Mary and April had finished cooking, and Tyler brought all the pots out to the table, Brett had arrived. They all sat down and began to chat as they served food. Tyler asked Brett about the shop, and Brett and April discussed the car they were restoring. The night was going exactly as Mary had thought it would go until April turned to Mary.

  “Are you two dating?” April asked kindly, looking between Tyler and Mary. There was a long silence and then Brett spoke.

  Brett snapped. “Of course they’re not.” Mary looked away from Brett and at April. She wasn’t sure what to say. Lying to her family seemed like an awful way to start out her relationship with Tyler.