The Bear’s Secret Baby: A Bear Shifter Romance (Werebear Ranch Book 1)
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The Bear’s Secret Baby
A Bear Shifter Romance
Werebear Ranch Book 1
Layla Silver
Copyright © 2020 by Layla Silver.
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of the book only. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form, including recording, without prior written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Chapter 1 – Josh
Chapter 2 – Angie
Chapter 3 – Josh
Chapter 4 – Angie
Chapter 5 – Josh
Chapter 6 – Angie
Chapter 7 – Josh
Chapter 8 - Angie
Chapter 9 - Josh
Chapter 10 – Angie
Chapter 11 – Josh
Chapter 12 – Angie
Chapter 13 - Josh
Chapter 14 - Angie
Chapter 15 - Josh
About the Author
Books by Layla Silver
Chapter 1 – Josh
He couldn't escape her piercing blue eyes.
A red Chevy rolled into the shop as Josh's lunch break started. He wiped sweat and grease from his hands as he watched one of the guys lift the hood and begin an inspection, and Josh stifled a laugh when he saw him touch something and recoil with a yelp.
The shop was small, with only enough space inside for three vehicles at a time. Tools were spread across three separate workbenches against each wall, and the scent of oil and rough metal permeated the shop. Spare parts littered the walls and shelves or were heaped in piles or in bins around the benches, and a dissected engine rested on the main workbench.
It wasn't anything special, but it was home. The six of them had built the shop with their own hands, including Josh, without any outside help. Now it belonged to the clan, or not-clan since they weren't official yet.
Josh swiped his old toolbox-turned-lunchbox from a shelf above the broken engine and headed into the back.
"So she was lying there in front of me, blonde hair still tousled, those big green eyes of hers just begging me to come back to bed," a voice sounded as Josh walked in. Greg was going off about another of his one-night-stands, and he gave Josh a lopsided grin when he walked into the room. "Neither of us got much sleep that night."
The others whistled and hooted their approval. Greg was leaning against the break room's countertop, the muscles in his arms bulging as he made a show of flexing them. He flicked his brown hair and motioned to the table near Josh, where Kyle and Pete were eating lunch.
They'd been frugal when they built the break room since their start-up funds had been limited, and they’d needed to purchase the shop equipment. There was barely enough space to fit four of them, let alone the counter with the sink and microwave and the table, which had, at some point, been moved away from the corner so three people could sit at it, not just two. That took up even more of their precious space.
But as cramped as it was, it was cozy. Besides, there weren't usually many of them in the back. They were usually working, trying to earn a living, to raise funds for more materials to keep up their expansion.
"Just last weekend, I picked up a beauty and her best friend at the club ..." Pete started his story, and though Josh resisted the urge to roll his eyes, the others were already entranced. "They were dancing together, grinding in that subtle, sexy way only two girls can get away with."
Josh pictured those two girls dancing. One with long, curly brown hair, loose around her shoulders, swaying as she moved her hips; the other a platinum blonde with cherry red lips. He watched them dance to some upbeat hip hop, slowly, like they were the only two on a dancefloor filled with a hundred people.
Then those blue eyes blinked the image away. They weren't just the ocean, but melting glaciers in the arctic, the coolest ice only barely shifting beneath his touch. She was sprawled across Josh's bed, her limbs entangled in his bedsheets, that long, inky black hair crowning her milky-white face.
This woman wasn't either of Pete's conquests, but someone Josh had slept with more than two years ago. He’d left the suffocating confines of their old village for a while and ended up living in northern Nebraska for a couple of months. He’d met her at a club there one night, and they'd had the time of their lives, their sweaty bodies entwined for hours in a single night of passion. Maybe it had started out as a fling, but it'd turned into something more. Josh had felt something change inside him each moment he'd been with her. She was different, not like all those other girls he'd screwed and tossed aside, no matter how much they'd begged to hop in his bed again.
That's what he had thought, at least. He hadn't seen her since, no matter how many times he tried to find her. She’d vanished.
"... and by the end of it, the two of them were on top of me," Pete said, smirking. "They didn’t leave me much choice, so I let those angels bring me to heaven with them."
Josh claimed a seat next to Kyle and propped open his lunch box, frowning at the cold pepperoni pizza inside. It was homemade, fire-baked last night for dinner by Ben, who wasn't at work today. A few minutes ago, Josh had been looking forward to chowing down and relaxing, but something about Greg's story had him on edge.
He grabbed the pizza and shoved it into his mouth. It would look strange if he came back here with the guys and didn't eat.
It wasn't actually Greg's story that bothered him, though. Just the way it'd triggered more memories of that woman, who’d been appearing in his head more often than usual, haunting him. There were few women he regretted leaving without a word, but after the night they’d had together, Josh had been stupid enough to let her go without catching her last name or getting her number, believing she’d call him back.
"What about you, hey?" Pete nudged Josh with his shoulder. "I saw you chatting up a couple of girls before I left."
Josh laughed, running a hand through his hair to delay his response. He had tried to get out there again, find someone to keep him occupied, or maybe even a girlfriend. "Well, yeah, but I didn't take any of them home."
"Whaaaat?" Greg said in a mock-horrified voice. "Josh, the infamous womanizer, not stealing away with all the hotties? No wonder you got so lucky, Pete."
A bit of the Bear burst out of Pete, and a low, rumbling growl escaped his throat. Then they all laughed, even Kyle was on the verge of tears.
The best stories were ones based in fact, though. Once upon a time, Josh would take a new girl home almost every night. Rarely the same one twice, and even when that happened, it was because their faces and bodies started to blend together, not because he found one woman better than the rest.
Until he met her.
Even now, he could smell the crushed rose petals of her perfume, the caramel scent of her skin. Her scent.
When she disappeared, he'd still slept around a bit. Found women to warm his bed on cold winter nights. But she always showed up in his mind again, staring at him with those big blue eyes, taunting him. Her moans were the ghost of a symphony that played again and again in the back of his mind, taunting him on and off for the last years.
Josh had stopped messing around as much since then. Half the fun was gone when all he could think about was her, even when more than two years had passed since.
He shrugged. "I've been taking it easy. None of them caught my attention."
"That so?" Pete sounded amused, but he stuffed his face with the remains of his ham sandwich to hide his smirk.
"Can't bl
ame you, man," Kyle said, propping his head up in his palm, his elbow on the table. He gazed off past Josh, all dreamy-like. "Ever since I found my mate, Claire ... my thoughts about the chase have changed. Jumping from girl to girl, hunting down a new one to spend the night with, it was never as good as it is coming home to her every night."
Kyle, their fearless Alpha. Well, unofficial Alpha. He didn't claim the title, but everyone looked up to him since the first time he’d stood up to the Elders in their old village. The Elders were old-school, too worried about their Bear-shifting abilities being found out to integrate basic amenities into their village. They'd operated without running water, electricity, and telephones for years. They didn't need them now, they'd said.
Josh, Greg, and the rest of the younger generations of shifters had been sick of it, but Kyle had been the first to challenge the Elders. The first to lose. Most had been too scared to leave after that, but for Kyle and the others, it was the best time to leave. Kyle had been the one to guide them here, to the ranch that they had made their new home.
Greg made some low growling sounds, paired with some hip thrusts in response. Kyle rolled his eyes, and the guys laughed, even Josh snickered a bit.
"I don't see the fun in just one girl. Wouldn't be able to play with my little angels anymore," Pete said.
"You wouldn't," Kyle said, smiling. "I didn't think I'd change, either, until I met her. Oh, I remember the days ... switching between dark-haired beauties and farm girls on a whim ... learning all the different sounds they make. But, there's something about having a mate and memorizing every inch of her body ..."
Truth be told, Josh had been starting to think the same thing about finding a mate. Ever since Pete had inherited the ranch from his great uncle, they'd been working on building themselves individual slices of heaven. The ranch was acres and acres of empty, lush hills and forests, and it belonged to them. To Pete, really, but they were all like brothers. Family. A clan.
Apart from Josh and his five friends, there were also a couple of other Bears living on the other side of the ranch with their mates and kids. Although Josh didn’t see them that often, because they had such different lifestyles, they sometimes came together for birthday parties. Just the other day, Lincoln and his mate Dakota had held a birthday party for their one-year-old son Liam. Just seeing them together, Josh couldn’t help but think that he might want a mate and a family like that someday, too. For that, he’d need a house.
Josh had started working on his house with their second batch of materials, right after they finished the shop, which they’d built as a way to earn the money they needed to pay for their grand plans, but he wasn't very far into the project yet.
Still, it was a little unnerving to know Greg and Pete were building little bachelor's shacks, while Josh had gone all-out, making the floor plan for a full family house. He'd put thought into designing rooms for children, even, for when he found a mate. Learning more about Kyle and Claire just made him yearn for that even more. He had the urge to leave work early and start putting up the frame of his house.
Josh shivered, blinking away those piercing blue eyes. Maybe it was time to move on and find someone who wouldn’t disappear without a trace. There had to be someone else out there who would catch his attention and make all the time he planned on putting into his house worthwhile.
"Whatever you say, man. I'll believe it when I see it," Greg said. He pushed himself away from the counter and slipped back into the garage, getting back to work.
Kyle and Josh shared a knowing grin. Greg meant well, but he was pessimistic when it came to relationships. He'd looked up to Josh and his bad-boy ways, firing up one woman and moving to the next like cheap cigarettes, fighting with Josh for each one like it'd been some kind of damn competition. It'd been fun at the time, but now ...
Josh almost flinched when Kyle patted his shoulder. "Don't let it get to you."
"Let what ...?" Josh's brow furrowed.
Though he was really a loveable, funny guy, Kyle had this air of authority about him without even trying. A natural-born leader. That was part of why he'd stood up to the Elders all those months ago, part of why Josh and the rest of the guys looked up to him. Maybe he didn't want to be the Alpha, but with that action alone, he'd stepped into the position.
"You're about that age, now, where you start to grow up a little, start searching for something bigger than just a pretty thing to fool around with for one night," Kyle said, winking at him. Like most of the Bear shifters from their old village, his narrow eyes were a deep, forest green.
Pete scowled and jumped to his feet. "Damn lovebirds, you're gonna make me sick." He left after Greg, leaving Kyle and Josh alone.
"Sure, it'd be nice to settle down and think about the future for once," Josh said.
He'd always been living in the moment before. It was part of why he kept moving from one girl to the next, and probably why he’d made the heat-of-the-moment decision to tell Angie that he was a Bear. Most women had sought him out because of his reputation, and some thought they could tame him. None of them had known the truth about him, a truth that would have kept any of them away. The truth that had surely made Angie run for the hills.
He couldn't blame her for that; he hadn’t given her time to adjust. But he kicked himself for it every day.
Kyle stood. "We've all got a mate out there. I wasn't looking when I found Claire. The right woman for you—she'll spring up outta nowhere and hit you right in the face. And then you'll forget about ever worrying about it."
Chapter 2 – Angie
Emma wouldn’t stop crying. Her round face was puffy and scarlet, tears streaking her cheeks as she attempted to rock her highchair away from the kitchen table. She shrieked like a banshee as she scooped her mashed potatoes and flung them at the wall, sending the spoon across the room with it. It clanged against the floor, forgotten.
“Hey, hun, not now, please?” Angie said, even though she knew it was pointless.
Her daughter’s shrieks sent jolts of pain through Angie’s skull and into her exhausted mind. She stared, almost too tired to move, while Emma dug her fingers into the remaining potatoes. It’d been a long day at work, and Angie had hoped to have a pleasant dinner and rest a bit before starting on some extra stuff for her second job. Instead, Emma was in one of those moods where she needed all of her attention, and it was impossible to think, let alone get anything done.
The peeling wallpaper of their tiny apartment was covered in a mixture of potatoes and peas now. Weaponized vegetables were nothing new to Angie, not when Emma had to be the pickiest eater on the planet. But potatoes, frozen peas, and some leftover chicken were all they had today since Angie’s boss had screwed up her paycheque yesterday. She wasn’t sure how that was possible since she’d been working there for over a year without trouble, but her boss was an asshole and liked to screw with people. She must have finally done something to get on his bad side.
There wouldn’t be any money to buy them a decent meal until tomorrow, which meant Emma couldn’t have any of her favorite foods. Unfortunately, Emma wasn’t old enough yet to understand that Angie wasn’t a magician and couldn’t just make her favorite foods from nothing. Emma’s tantrums always started the moment she ran out of chicken.
Being a single mom was tough.
Angie scooped some of the cooling potatoes from her plate, plastered on a smile, and flew the spoon around like an airplane to try and catch Emma’s attention. “Doop, doop, doop, the potatoes are coming for mommy …” she said. Emma stopped shrieking for a moment to watch, her face still streaked with tears, and Angie slid the spoon into her mouth. “Mmm, yummy potatoes, mommy loves them.”
Emma’s face softened to splotchy pink, and she giggled. “Doop, doop, doop,” she mimicked, grabbing potatoes with her bare hands. This time she shoveled them into her mouth, but her motor skills weren’t quite there yet, so half of the potatoes ended up on her cheeks and chin. She scooped up some more mash and peas, but instead of
funneling them into her mouth, she began wiping them all over her face and clothes.
Green mush had covered Emma’s forehead by the time Angie jumped up to stop her. She scooped Emma from her chair, and the girl’s giggling ceased. Her tiny fists beat against Angie’s arms, and she squirmed, getting mashed potatoes all over Angie’s work clothes. Thankfully they were already dirty, but Emma spun and started wailing into Angie’s ear.
Angie flipped Emma, so she wasn’t crying next to her head and rocked her in her arms. “Sweetie, if you don’t want the potatoes, you don’t have to eat them, but it’s that or nothing today.”
Emma kept crying, but her tantrum had lasted almost an hour already, and she was clearly starting to tire out. Her eyelids drooped, her sobs turning to sniffles, and she curled in Angie’s arms.
“Chicken, Mumma,” Emma mumbled, almost falling asleep in the span of a few minutes.
A reluctant sigh of relief escaped Angie, but she kept rocking to make sure the little one stayed asleep.
The clock on the microwave read 6:49 p.m. when Angie propped herself against the faded laminate counter next to the sink. Now was as good a time as any to get some more work done, but she couldn’t put Emma to bed covered in half her food. Potatoes and peas had been mashed into her wild brown hair, which was kept short because it was something Emma liked to do frequently.
As Angie soaked a cloth with warm water and cleaned dried bits of food off her daughter, she tried not to think about how she really kept Emma’s hair short because, if it were any longer, it would make her look more like her father. He was absent from their lives, not because he was a deadbeat, but because Angie had been an idiot.
They’d met one night at the Blue Lagoon club when Angie still lived in northern Nebraska. In her younger days, she’d been a regular there, tagging along with her friends who went multiple times a week. Though she had liked dancing and having a few drinks, she never went as far as her friends, who partied until they were kicked out or decided to go home with some stud they’d enraptured at some point during the night. Angie had never gone home with anyone from the club, but she’d made an exception for this one.