by Ruby Shae
Idle Bear
(Bear Mountain, Book 4)
Ruby Shae
Idle Bear
(Bear Mountain, Book 4)
Copyright 2014 by Ruby Shae
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
About This Book
Sara Henley has resigned herself to a life alone. Though she wants nothing more than a husband and a family, she knows she won’t find him in Bear Mountain, and she’s not willing to leave the small town. Her popular bed and breakfast, and the occasional tourist, keeps her active, but nothing will ever fill the lonely space in her heart.
Aaron Williams hasn’t shifted into his bear form in almost a hundred years. Though he considers his shifter side a curse, and hates his other form, he can’t resist the pull of a pregnant bear. He visits Bear Mountain out of sheer obligation, but when he meets the curvy owner of the bed and breakfast, he decides to extend his stay.
Meeting Sara forces Aaron to reconsider his past choices, but he still can’t reconcile with his bear. When Sara is put in danger, his careful restraint shatters, and breaks all of his rules. Once free, his bear takes control until the two become one. Now all he has to do is convince his mate to give him another chance.
Idle Bear
(Bear Mountain, Book 4)
By Ruby Shae
Chapter One
Sara Henley smiled as she watched the group of backpackers get ready for their camping trip into Montana’s National Park. They checked their water bottles and canteens, made sure their supplies were secure, and loaded the heavy packs on their backs. Soon, the leader of the group held open the door and they filed out in one line. He turned back to her and winked, an acknowledgment of their secret and his promise to return, before he followed the trio into the brisk March air.
She knew she’d never see him again.
A tiny bit of disappointment washed over her, but she pushed it aside. Dwelling on something she would never have was a waste of time, and she had so many other things to do. Her bed and breakfast had had back-to-back bookings since Valentine’s Day, and it wouldn’t let up now that warmer weather was on the way. The next guests would arrive after two, and that only gave her a few hours to clean the empty room the backpackers vacated. Hopefully they didn’t make too big of a mess.
A gust of wind caused a tree limb to bang on the glass of an upstairs window, and she added a note to her long to-do list. She didn’t need a broken window to add to her list of chores.
Though she performed most of the maintenance herself, it would be nice to have an extra set of hands around when she needed them. If those hands stuck around and warmed her at night, she wouldn’t complain.
Stop it! You’re going to die alone!
Though the words were harsh, they were the truth. Unless she sold her business and moved to a larger city, she would never meet a single man looking for a wife. All of the men in town were either married or involved in relationships, and none of the tourists wanted a commitment.
Despite her extra weight and curvy shape, she had no trouble finding a man every couple of months to release a little tension. She was a curvy, willing woman in a small town, and though she hated to admit it, the years were adding up. Thirty-two didn’t seem old until she hooked up with a twenty-five year old thrill seeker. Luckily, she had no problem keeping up with their sexual needs, and in some cases they had trouble keeping up with her.
Finding someone willing to stick around after a random night of wild, no strings sex proved impossible, and she’d stopped hoping for true love and a family long before she’d left home five years ago. Although some men liked to experiment with a large girl, most didn’t want to build a life with one.
The disappointment, followed by a twinge of sadness, returned when she thought about her childhood home. She’d planned to live in that house the rest of her life, but after five years of fighting off money grubbing losers—men she’d known her whole life—suddenly interested in the fat chick, she’d sold the house and moved to a different small town where no one knew her name or her past.
She wondered briefly if her parents would be proud of her choices, and decided for the millionth time, that except for living alone, they would be. They had always believed in her dreams, but the couple had been madly in love until the day they died. They would have chastised her for giving up on her own happily ever after.
As high school sweethearts, they had been lucky in love, but not lucky in life. A tragic car accident took them from her nearly ten years ago. When word got out in her hometown about her monumental inheritance, every eligible man, aged eighteen to eighty, decided they were interested in her. She fought them off for five years before she sold the house and moved to Bear Mountain.
The house she’d purchased came with a huge plot of land that bordered the National Park, and she’d decided to build a unique bed and breakfast on the lot. Five years later, she lived in the main house, and rented out ten cottages to guests year-around. The one bedroom dwellings also included a bathroom, small living space, and a tiny kitchen. Travelers loved the quaint setting, and enjoyed the illusion of a private home with the convenience of a hotel.
She only welcomed guests into the first floor of her home, and then only for check-in purposes and a daily continental breakfast. After ten in the morning, they were on their own for meals and other entertainment. With only two other hotels in town, and Bear Mountain being named a must see final destination before entering the National Park, her cottages were always full.
The wind knocked the tree branch against the window again and she shook her head to clear it of the melancholy thoughts. She had a good business, good friends and plenty to be thankful for.
She also had work to do.
Sara gathered up her supplies and headed out to the empty cottage. An hour later she surveyed her work and double checked her cleaning schedule. Satisfied that the room was suitable for the next guests, she locked up her house and walked to the sheriff’s station to ask Gage for a favor. She had no desire to try and keep her balance while stuck in a tree, wielding a chainsaw.
***
Aaron Williams stepped onto Main Street and inhaled a deep breath. He looped his thumbs under the straps of his backpack and looked up and down the road. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, but he could see residents tending to their stores and businesses, and tourists walking the streets of the charming little town.
He’d never been to Bear Mountain before, but it looked exactly as his friend, Gage Adams, had described it. The last time he’d seen Gage, the man had been headed home to reclaim his family’s property. That had been nearly a century ago.
Almost as long as he’d been living as a full human.
/> As much as he hated his bear side, and didn’t want anything to do with other bear shifters, the energies pulling him north had been too strong to resist. He figured Gage had finally found his mate, and he meant to congratulate the pair on their mating and upcoming arrivals, and then leave town as soon as possible.
The scents of three other bears startled him, and he hesitated before walking further into the city. Unlike the usual distaste that settled in his mouth when he thought about meeting with or seeing other bears, the smells were almost as strong as the energies from the pregnancy. For the first time in one hundred years, he felt the urge to shift and stand with the other bears as a member of their clan.
What the hell?
No, he wasn’t a bear, and he would never be part of a clan. Shifting forms wasn’t natural and people who possessed the curse were never meant to find happiness. Forming lasting bonds, either with humans or other shifters, only led to trouble and heartache.
He rolled his shoulders, desperate for the encounter to be over, and started walking toward the source of the energy. His destination ended at the sheriff’s office, and he stood in front of the building for several minutes, unsure of what to do next.
He’d only come to see Gage and wish him and his family well. He sensed the building contained four different shifters and three marked women. He hadn’t wanted to visit every bear in town, but if Gage’s mate wasn’t pregnant, he might have to.
Were the bears in distress? Locked up? Being held against their will? Should he go inside, or wait until they exited the building? He wanted to get the meeting over with as soon as possible, but he didn’t want to get caught up in a witch hunt.
“Good morning. Do you need some help, sir?”
Aaron looked over to see a man in a deputy’s uniform approaching. He wasn’t a bear, and he briefly wondered if this guy knew what lurked in the town he protected.
“I’m looking for Gage Adams. Do you know where I can find him?”
“You’ve found him,” the man said, as he held open the door. “Well, almost. The sheriff is inside.”
Gage was the sheriff? Not what he’d expected, but that scenario was better than him being locked up with the other shifters.
He stared at the open door and briefly contemplated running before he preceded the man inside the building.
The small office contained two desks, a holding cell and a bathroom off to the right of the main door. Gage stood behind his desk, next to a pregnant woman in the rolling chair. His hand rested on her shoulder as if he couldn’t bear not to touch her. Beside them, another shifter leaned against the other desk with his arms around a woman in front of him, and opposite the two couples stood a pair of identical twins with a woman standing between them. One of the men had his arm around her waist, the other held her hand.
Everyone turned to look at him and the deputy when they strolled in, and Gage walked over to shake his hand.
“Aaron Williams! I wondered if that was you loitering around outside. Welcome to Bear Mountain.”
“Thank you,” Aaron said. Though he sensed them, he’d forgotten the bears could sense his approach as well.
“We’re growing a small little clan here,” Gage said. “Come meet everyone.”
He was introduced to Gage’s mate, Kate, who was five months pregnant, and also his brother, Seth, and his mate, Darcy. The twins were Cade and Collin, and they shared their mate, Samantha. The deputy, Dave, wasn’t a bear, but he knew about the shifters and was considered a friend by all of them.
Something deep inside him wished to be part of their group, but he pushed the feeling away. Depending on others was a recipe for disaster.
When the office cleared out, Gage offered him a seat and he sat down across from the man.
“Thank you for coming. I know how difficult it must have been for you.”
“You’re welcome. I did try to resist, but the need to visit, to see your mate and be near the energies, became unbearable,” Aaron said.
“There’s a reason for that you know,” Gage replied knowingly.
He broke eye contact and looked around the office. He hated the way Gage looked at him. All bears were alphas, but Gage had something else. Something more than other bears he’d been in contact with. He understood why the clan followed him.
“So you say,” Aaron finally responded.
“Have you shifted recently?”
He shifted in his seat. He didn’t want to talk about his bear.
“You know I don’t do that, anymore,” he responded impatiently.
“You know it’s not healthy to deny your bear,” Gage said, ignoring his obvious discomfort.
“I’m doing fine. I haven’t had an urge to shift in twenty years.”
“It’s still not healthy. How will you find a mate if you continue hiding from yourself?”
“A mate?” Aaron laughed. “I will never be mated. Women don’t want to marry animals, they want to marry men. Real men who aren’t cursed.”
“There are four bears living in this town and we all have mates. How do you explain that?”
“I don’t know. You all got lucky, I guess, but it’s not like that for everyone.”
“Well, you’re right about us being lucky, but you’re wrong about the rest. There’s someone for everyone, but you’ll never find her until you accept everything you have to offer.”
“Okay. Thanks for the advice,” Aaron spat out. He stood, grabbed his backpack and flung it on his back.
“Are you sticking around?” Gage also stood.
“No.”
“Aaron—”
He turned toward the door, prepared to leave, when a woman entered the office and walked past him to speak to Gage. A combination of jealousy, rage, and possession surged through him and he followed her back to the desk and stood behind her, glaring at the sheriff.
She glanced over her shoulder and stepped aside.
“Excuse me,” she said. “I thought you were finished.”
She motioned for him to speak to the sheriff and Gage smirked and watched him expectantly.
“I…,” he cleared his throat.
Shit! What the hell do I say to her?
He had no experience talking to women. Not one he’d liked. He’d spent the last hundred years talking up women in bars and clubs when he needed a good fuck or a blowjob, but he hadn’t wanted a woman, not like he wanted the curvy stranger, since his ex. That had been nearly a hundred years ago.
“Why don’t you take a seat, Aaron, and I’ll be right with you?” Gage instructed.
He suppressed a growl and sat in a chair under the window on the other side of the room. It was too far away, and not far enough.
Get out of here!
He should leave. He needed to stand up and walk out of town the same way he walked in. He told himself to do it over and over, but his legs wouldn’t cooperate. He felt like he was under a spell and she had the power to decide his fate.
From his seat under the window, he had a great view of her ass. Her jeans hugged her curvy flesh, and he longed to grab her and pull her down on his lap. His dick hardened at the thought of her riding him in a reverse cowgirl, and he changed positions to loosen the strain of his cock pushing against the teeth of his zipper.
She stood about eight inches shorter than him, and had shoulder length brown hair that flipped out at the ends. Bangs covered her forehead, and beneath them, light blue eyes assessed him with curiosity before she met with Gage. Her curvy frame suited his size and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d fucked someone who wasn’t as skinny as a rail. He hadn’t felt confident a woman could take everything his large body offered in years, and as a result, it had been a long time since he’d fully let himself go.
This woman would be able to take him. She was made for his pleasure.
“Hi Sara. How can I help you today?” Gage asked.
“There’s a tree limb hitting my upstairs window and I was wondering if you could come by and remove it for
me.”
“I’ll do it,” Aaron practically yelled.
What the fuck! You’re supposed to be leaving!
He ignored the inner voice and walked over to the desk, holding his backpack strategically in front of his dick. Gage wasn’t fooled, but the woman didn’t seem to notice.
“Sorry,” he said, “I meant I can cut the tree for you.”
“Sara, this is an old friend of mine, Aaron Williams. Aaron, this is Sara Henley. She owns the bed and breakfast the twins are staying in until their home is complete.”
He held out his hand and she took it. Warmth spread down his arm and throughout his chest. She calmed him, and he immediately felt peace, as if she took away all his inner demons.
Run! Get away from her!
He let go of her hand, but his legs wouldn’t move.
“It’s nice to meet you, Sara.”
“It’s nice to meet you, too. Are you moving to Bear Mountain?” she asked.
“No, just visiting,” he said.
“Oh, well, I hope you enjoy your visit. If you’d like to pick up Gage’s chainsaw and meet at my house later, I can repay you with dinner. I make a pretty good meatloaf, if you like that sort of thing.”
“Meatloaf sounds fantastic,” he said. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a home cooked meal.
“Great. I’ll see you later, then. Thanks Gage.”
He watched as she turned and walked out of the building.
What the fuck just happened?
“So, do you have a place to stay?” Gage laughed when the door had fully closed.
“Fuck you,” Aaron said, still watching the door.
“If you want, I can ask Mr. Hastings if you can rent out Samantha’s old room. It’s just him in that big old house now. He might like some company.”
“Thanks, but I saw a vacant sign at the hotel on the corner. I’ll stay there if it’s still available.”
“Okay. Come up to the house once you get settled. I live that way, at the top of the hill.” Gage pointed west, in the direction of his home.
