by Anya Nowlan
SASSY SHIFTER BRIDES: COMPLETE SERIES
BBW PARANORMAL SHAPESHIFTER ROMANCE
BY
ANYA NOWLAN
Sassy Shifter Brides: Complete Series Is the complete series of tales from the first series of books set in Shifter Grove. Its follow-up series, Shifter Grove Brides was released later.
In these books, you will meet the original gang that set up Shifter Grove and learn how each and every one of them found their fated mate through a dating service called SassyDate! If you love your shifters Alpha but caring and your women curvy and sassy, this is the series meant just for you!
Hearts Laid Bear - Book 1
No More Lion - Book 2
Bear the Cold - Book 3
Roar for Her - Book 4
The Wolves' Bride - Book 5
A SMALL OUTTAKE…
Kacey sighed, twirling the straw in her awkwardly sweet strawberry daiquiri. Her fingers kept brushing over her phone under the table when her date wasn’t paying attention – and he never was – hoping to find another note from Warren. The little blue box at the corner of the app remained lonesome blue, not the promising green it turned when there was a message there she hadn’t read yet. For the umpteenth time that night, she pushed the power button and left the phone to sit on her thick thighs, teetering on the very edge of her floral skirt and the bare skin peeking out from under them.
“And THEN, well, I gotta tell you hun – may I call you hun - , she said that I was the one that had made a mistake! Me! The nerve of that wretched nurse. They always think that they know better. But, tell me this, if she’s so smart, why didn’t she go to medical school, huh? Why didn’t she spend all that money and time and hard work to get a degree that can actually help people, instead of just pushing pills and behaving like she knows something. The nerve. How’s your drink?” he asked, his teeth shining so bright white that Kacey was damn near blinded every time she looked up at him.
No, it’s not okay if you call me hun. I’m not your hun. And if you knew a single thing other than how much money you have in your bank account and who the best teeth whitener is in Dallas, then you’d have damn well had listened when my mother told you that I’m an RN. And most of the time, we do know better than you overpaid, under-experienced young doctors who walk around like they’re God’s gift to medicine! And I hate strawberries! At least that’s what she should have told him. But, of course, being the good girl she was, she didn’t, and instead, she just stared at him blankly.
“Kacey? You alright, hun? You seem to be distracted! I mean, I know I’m nice to look at, but hun, come on now, we can get to that later tonight,” he – what was his name again? Hank? Hoyt? Haden? That’s it! - said, winking at her like he was perfectly certain she was going to be falling into his bed that night. As if a full-figured, sexy woman like Kacey Madeline Green couldn’t do any better. Her cheeks lit up with indignation at that, but she quickly reminded herself that it was, for now, all in her head. Perhaps he was in fact a very nice man and she was just a bit distracted because she wanted to hear from the sizzling hot werebear she’d been talking to over SassyDate, the dating app that was supposed to bring together women with curves and the men who loved them just like that.
Copyright © 2015 Anya Nowlan
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Sassy Shifter Brides Bundle
Books 1 - 5
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No part of this work may be used, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means by anyone but the purchaser for their own personal use. This book may not be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of Anya Nowlan. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material is prohibited without the express written permission of the author.
Cover © Jack of Covers
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
A SMALL OUTTAKE…
TABLE OF CONTENTS
HEARTS LAID BEAR
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
EPILOGUE
NO MORE LION
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
EPILOGUE
BEAR THE COLD
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
EPILOGUE
ROAR FOR HER
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
EPILOGUE
THE WOLVES' BRIDE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
EPILOGUE
MAKE HIM PURR EXCERPT
WANT MORE?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
HEARTS LAID BEAR
SASSY SHIFTER BRIDES
BOOK 1
BY
ANYA NOWLAN
CHAPTER ONE
Kacey sighed, twirling the straw in her awkwardly sweet strawberry daiquiri. When her date wasn’t paying attention – and he never was – her fingers kept brushing over her phone under the table hoping to find another message from Warren. The little box at the corner of the app remained lonesome blue, not the promising green that it turned when she had an unread message. For the umpteenth time that night, she pushed the power button and left the phone to sit on her thick thighs, teetering on the very edge of her floral skirt and the bare skin peeking out from under them.
“And THEN, well, I gotta tell you, hun – may I call you hun? – she said that I was the one that had made a mistake! Me! The nerve of that wretched nurse. They always think that they know better. But, tell me this, if she’s so smart, why didn’t she go to medical school, huh? Why didn’t she spend all that money and time and hard work to get a degree that can actually help people, instead of just pushing pills and behaving likes she knows something. The nerve. How’s your drink?” he asked, his teeth shining such a bright white that Kacey was damn near blinded every time she looked up at him.
No, it’s not okay if you call me hun. I’m not your hun. And if you cared about anything other than how much money you have on your bank account and who the best teeth whitener in Dallas is, then you damn well would have heard my mother when she certainly told you that I’m an RN. And most of the time, we do know better than you overpaid, under-experienced young doctors who walk around like they’re God’s gift to medicine! And I hate strawberries! At least that’s what she should have told him. But, of course, being the good girl she was, she didn’t, and instead, she just stared at him blankly.
“Kacey? You alright, hun? You seem to be
distracted! I mean, I know I’m nice to look at, but hun, come on now, we can get to that later tonight,” he – what was his name again? Hank? Hoyt? Haden? That’s it! – said, winking at her like he was perfectly certain she was going to be falling into his bed that night. As if a full-figured, sexy woman like Kacey Madeline Green couldn’t do any better. Her cheeks lit up with indignation, but she quickly reminded herself that it was, for now, all in her head. Perhaps he was in fact a very nice man, and she was just a bit distracted because she wanted to hear from the sizzling hot werebear she’d been talking to over SassyDate, the dating app that was supposed to bring together women with curves and the men who loved them.
“I’m sorry, I think the drink just gave me a brain freeze. It’s nice, though. Very, um, fruity,” Kacey said, grinning woodenly. She could feel him checking out her teeth and probably pondering whether they were shiny and white enough to grace the table he was sitting at. She wasn’t sure what he decided, but he nodded eagerly, obviously more than glad to launch into another tirade about his favorite topic – himself. Kacey groaned inwardly and took another sip of her drink, which went down as easily as a Mississippi mudslide went uphill. But it had alcohol in it, and by lord, if she needed something that night, then it was a good stiff shot of some hard liquor.
Please let me get through this date. I’ll do anything. I’ll be good. I’ll start running. I’ll clean the fridge. I’ll even get a reasonable haircut, she pleaded to the higher powers, Haden’s voice scraping at her ears. How sad is it that the biggest thing I have to atone for at this moment is my dirty fridge? Ugh.
Again, she glanced down at the phone, seeing nothing but the unenthusiastic little blue square at the corner, dashing her hopes at a distraction. It was almost 9 PM. A half an hour more and she could say that she’d done her best, given the guy a fair shot and that they just weren’t right together. Her mother wouldn’t chide her for that, right? Only in Texas could she be a 28-year-old RN with a decent salary, a worthwhile career, good friends and still be considered a complete failure by her mama because she hadn’t married a nice Texas boy yet and given her grandbabies. Kacey dropped her chin on her palm, resting her elbow on the table. At least that way, she would have to keep staring at the preening peacock of a man sitting across from her, sipping on a White Russian and crowing like he was the ruler of the six continents. It was like watching paint dry, really.
I wonder why mama thought we’d be a good fit. Because he’s a doctor? she mused, pursing her lips and trying to look as interested as she could in the dim lighting of the obnoxiously loud bar. The table was lined with a ring of neon. It was that kind of bar. She couldn’t wait to get home, curl up with a big glass of wine and bitch with Liza about another perfectly uneventful date she’d been set up for.
***
“So, tell me all about it!” Liza chirped from the kitchen, appearing around the corner with two jumbo-sized wine glasses. Liza plopped down on the couch next to Kacey, and Kacey gladly and greedily accepted the glass of wine, taking a long swig from it. She’d wiggled out of her pencil skirt, nice white top and Spanx the moment she’d got home. Lounging around in purple sweatpants and an old band tee was times and times better than looking prim, proper and put together. Her long chestnut hair was pulled up in a high ponytail, and she’d scrubbed the sexy cat eye and deep red lip off right after she’d thrown off the pumps. All that effort was wasted on a man who hadn’t taken more than a cursory glance at her before losing interest in anything she had to say.
“Oh, you know, the usual. He is a doctor, a proctologist at Baylor.” Kacey had to pause, throwing a bemused glance at her giggling redheaded roommate, who was trying her best to keep a straight face and failing miserably.
“A proctologist? Really? Missis Green is really bringing out the big guns, huh,” Liza remarked, curling up on the couch and facing Kacey.
“Yup. Apparently he’s the son of one of the ladies at her church and surprise, surprise, he’s still single. He couldn’t stop talking about himself. I think the only thing he asked me tonight was whether I liked the drink he bought me, out of the kindness of his heart. But he did have the whitest teeth and the starchiest shirt I’ve seen in Texas, so I’ll give him that,” she said, not bothering to hide the sigh that finished her sentence. Kacey glanced at her phone, hoping to see a yellow light blinking on it, telling her that she’d got a new notification. No such luck.
“Still nothing?” Liza asked softly, getting a wry smile from Kacey in return.
“Yeah, nothing. He’s never quiet this long. I hope everything’s okay. I mean, something had to have happened, right? Or I scared him off somehow,” she mused, sipping at the sweet white wine that suddenly seemed incredibly bitter. “He did say that he’d be busy for a few weeks, so it might just be that.” The contemplative look on Liza’s face said that she didn’t quite agree, though. Kacey’s world had been turned upside down when Warren, a hot, handsome guy from Idaho had given her a wink on SassyDate. It had taken approximately no time at all for her to send him a wink back, and when they’d started sharing messages over the app, things had got really interesting really fast.
It had started off innocently enough. They exchanged pleasantries, he asked her why she lived somewhere as hot and dry as Texas, and she asked why he lived somewhere as cold as Idaho. But, it quickly evolved into something a lot more interesting. She felt a sudden, surprising connection with the mysterious stranger. They had so many things in common that it was a rare treat to find something they didn’t immediately agree on. He was in his early thirties, and when he had at first told her that he just hadn’t found the right girl yet, she’d scoffed internally and figured he was just having fun at her expense. A man that gorgeous – going by his pictures anyway – couldn’t possibly be single. Only when he revealed to her that he was a werebear did the pieces fall into place.
While shifters were kind of a public secret, a group of people ignored but in no way persecuted as long as they weren’t a danger to anyone and sorted out their own grievances in whichever way they thought best, it wasn’t exactly commonplace to stumble across one. Especially on a dating app, of all places! True to form, Kacey had immediately delved into research, finding out everything she possibly could about werebears in an attempt to figure out the charming, funny, kind guy she was talking to. Why had he chosen her out of the countless gorgeous women on the app? Why was he single? And, during moments of weakness and solitude, the most pressing of questions that came to her mind was why was he so damn far away!?
She now knew that werebears mated for life, regardless of whether or not they had a habit of dating around before that. And she knew that bear shifters were among the more physically impressive shifter species – broad and tall as a rule and fearsome in their shifted form. It all filled her with a certain giddiness that she hadn’t felt since she was a teenager. More than his heritage, though, she was drawn to his spirit. He didn’t mince his words, and he didn’t write replies that were too long, but he still somehow managed to say all the right things at the right time. And he didn’t mind her somewhat rambling letters – in fact he claimed he enjoyed them! They’d been chatting for months now and there had never been a day since the first message that she didn’t get at least one or two pings from her favorite werebear. Now, it had been almost a week, and nothing!
Kacey was ashamed to admit it to anyone but Liza, but she’d grown dependent on their little conversations, looking forward to them each day. It was probably why she’d reluctantly agreed to another ploy by her mother, even though she had little to no desire of spending an evening with any man that wasn’t Warren. But Warren was in Idaho. And he hadn’t replied to her in a week. And that sucked.
“Hey, you said it yourself. He’s a great guy. Something must have come up. And if it didn’t, and he’s just ignoring you then you know you can do better. You’re Kacey Green, the most awesome RN in Texas! He doesn’t know what he’s missing if he lets a catch like you slip between his paws.” Liza
grinned cheekily, and Kacey giggled in response. She’d shared an apartment with Liza since college, and though both of them could afford a place on their own now, neither of them really wanted to. And on nights like that one, Kacey was glad to have a friend to remind her not to sulk around because of boys and just enjoy herself.
But goddammit, she wished that Warren would send her a text.
CHAPTER TWO
Warren fought the barely contained urged to roar, glaring at another fallen pole, the carefully built wooden post and painstakingly strung wires all a disheveled mess on the ground now. Deacon kicked the dirt with the nose of his cowboy boots, quietly giving a physical output to their shared frustration.
“So, what now?” Deacon asked, crossing his arms on his broad chest.
“We get to rejoice in electrical repairs,” Rake, or Raleigh as only his mother dared call him, grumbled, lighting a cigarette and considering the sour sight that had welcomed them.
