Catherine Vale
Bear Meets Girl
Order Of Protection Series
A BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance
Copyright © 2015, Catherine Vale
Published by Wild Hearts Press
Website: http://www.CatherineVale.com
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, brands, incidents, and places are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction. The publication/use of these trademarks is not associated with or sponsored by the trademark owners.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Table of Contents
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
About The Author
Other Books By Catherine Vale
Chapter One
Angela sipped from a frothy mugful of Sam Adams as she straddled the back of the barstool she sat on, and waited for her partner to show up. Her keen green eyes lazily perused the crowded bar, hoping to find someone of interest, but though the place was teeming with fae and shifters and mages, they were all the usual crowd - no fresh blood to be found.
Well, unless she counted the posse of pixies who were currently tearing up the dance floor. Full of mischief and mayhem, they moved their little bodies to some kind of techno beat they’d convinced the DJ to put on, and while their sparkling outfits and wild hair certainly qualified them as ‘interesting’, she had no intention of getting involved with the kind of trouble their kind tended to bring.
Well, not unless she had to arrest them. And since she was off-shift, she was really hoping things didn’t come to that tonight.
The front door opened, and Angela turned her head just in time to see Raina walk through the door. Tall and willowy, with inky black hair and eyes that were nearly as dark, she tended to draw the eye of every male she walked past, especially dressed as she was in her long black leather coat and knee-high stiletto boots. Paired with a plum sweater and skin-tight jeans, she somehow managed to look classy and dangerous at the same time, like a woman who flirts without fear because there’s always a knife at her fingertips if she decides she doesn’t like the way you’re looking at her.
But then, Raina Madison didn’t usually carry knives. As a mage, she really didn’t need to.
“Hey Angie.” Her partner slid neatly onto the stool next to Angela and ordered a Guinness. “Sorry I’m late… was trying to catch up on some sleep. You know, to recover from the double-shift we’ve been pulling nearly all week.” She narrowed her dark eyes at Angela to convey her displeasure at being dragged out of her condo on the first night they’d had off in nearly two weeks, then snatched up her beer and took a long pull from the bottle. “I’m going to need a lot more of these to drown out the sound of my bed calling my name.”
“Oh please.” Angela rolled her eyes, but leaned over the counter to order her friend another beer. “You’re starting to sound like an old maid. You gotta get out every once in awhile.”
“Yeah, but did we really have to go to the Crazy Horse?” Raina complained, pouting a little. “I mean, if we’re going to go out and enjoy ourselves, at least we can go to a place where every third person doesn’t happen to be someone that we’ve cuffed within the last twelve months.”
Angela sighed. That was the crux of being a Protector – you tended to run into a lot of violators when you were off the job. She and Raina both worked for the Order of Protection – a government-sanctioned organization whose job it was to police supernaturals. It was their job to make sure that the various Supernatural races didn’t violate the treaty that had been established with the United Nations in order to allow everyone to live peaceably on this planet.
Of course that was easier said than done, since millions of years of evolution predisposed most supernaturals to think of humans as food rather than friends or allies. But humans grossly outnumbered supernaturals on this planet, so everyone had no choice but to get along if they didn’t want to be annihilated.
“You know that we can’t go to human bars,” Angela chided Raina quietly as she tugged at her red leather motocross jacket. Unlike Raina, she did carry weapons underneath her jacket – though she had plenty of teeth and claws in her bear form, as a human she was nearly as vulnerable as anyone else. There were knives tucked into her matching red leather boots, and a gun tucked into the holster fastened to her belt. “If your father found out, he’d lock you away in a tower and skin my pelt.”
Raina wrinkled her nose. “Dad might be a little overprotective, but he’s not that bad,” she said, and then pouted again. “Still though, you’re probably right. But on our next day off, I vote that we just hang out at my place with several pints of Ben and Jerry’s and watch a season of Orange is the New Black.”
“Make it a season of Wentworth, and you’ve got yourself a deal.” Angela decided not to mention just how tempting the idea sounded to her right now. The truth was that she was bone-tired too, and could probably have used some sleep, but she’d woken up in the middle of the afternoon, restless for some reason, with anxiety eating away at her brain. She’d chalked it up to her workaholic tendencies and not being used to having a day to actually lie around and do nothing, and had thought that going out would be enough of a distraction to ease her mind.
But even though the lights and music and crush of bodies and alcohol were certainly enough to drown anyone’s troubles away, the niggling anxiety in her chest remained.
Maybe it’s not being a workaholic that’s causing the stress, she thought, worrying her lower lip with her teeth. Maybe it’s a premonition. Like, something bad is going to happen.
She opened her mouth to tell Raina that maybe they should go hit the supermarket for Ben and Jerry’s now, then snapped it shut as she recognized the tell-tale gleam in Raina’s dark eyes. Following her friend’s gaze, she quickly found the source of her friend’s fascination – a dark elf dressed in a pair of tight black jeans and nothing else, his long white hair flowing down around his muscular shoulders as he returned her stare, his eyes liquid pools of silver that clearly beckoned and enticed.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Angela elbowed Raina in the gut. “A dark elf? You’re probably going to find baggies of rapture littered all over his room when he takes you back to his place.” Dark elves were considered the drug dealers of the supernatural world, and rapture to them was what crack cocaine was to humans.
“Maybe, but they’re really good in bed, and besides, not all dark elves are dealers.” Raina’s eyes never left his, even as she massaged her stomach where Ange
la had elbowed her. Her plum-colored lips curved into a seductive smile that Angela knew meant business. “Besides, selling fae drugs isn’t illegal so long as he isn’t dealing them to humans.”
Angela snorted. “You know damn well that most of them do, so you’re walking on shaky ground there.”
Raina shrugged. “If I find out he’s doing anything illegal, I’ll arrest him,” she replied matter-of-factly, sliding off the barstool. She turned back with a grin and added, “After I’m done with him, of course.” She winked, then sashayed her way across the bar to where her soon-to-be lover awaited her.
Sighing, Angela leaned against the bar and watched as Raina and her dark elf made their way onto the dance floor to join the pixies in what was fast turning into a bump-and-grind. Well, at least someone’s getting laid tonight, she thought a little grumpily, picking up Raina’s abandoned second beer, and taking a swig from the bottle. Guinness was still a little on the heavy side for her at this time of year since they hadn’t quite turned the corner into fall yet, but she drank it down anyway – she needed to loosen some of the tension from her shoulders.
An incubus tried to make a pass at her, as well as a vampire, but she waved them both off – blood suckers weren’t really her thing. But that kind of was the kicker, wasn’t it? Mostly none of the races that populated the bar tonight were ‘her thing’, because she was a shifter bear and with few exceptions, most shifters liked to mate with their own kind.
Not that there weren’t shifters at the bar, of course, because there were. But few of them were bears, and again, she wasn’t interested in any of them. It also didn’t help that she was a Protector – most shifters were very pack or clan oriented, and though she was still technically a member of the clan she was raised in, she had divided loyalties, and a lot of shifters didn’t like that too much.
Yeah, well I guess that’s what I get for wanting to serve and protect, she grumbled to herself.
The sound of splintering wood and shouting caught her attention, and she looked over to see a vampire and a shifter squaring off, broken bits of chair and glass between them on the floor. A crowd had begun to form around them, so she could clearly see the blood running down the side of the vampire’s pasty pale forehead, and the orange glow in the shifter male’s eyes that signaled an impending fight.
“I’m waiting for an apology for knocking my drink out of my hand,” the shifter growled, his deep voice reverberating in his throat.
“And I’m waiting for an apology for smashing your glass into my forehead,” the vampire hissed, clenching his fists. The shifter responded by giving him the one-fingered salute, and the vampire bared his fangs before launching himself at the shifter.
“Hey, hey!” Angela shouted, pushing through the crowd, holding the shield amulet on the chain around her neck aloft that served as a badge for Protectors. “Break it up, guys!”
The two paid her absolutely no heed. The shifter male ripped the vampire from his throat and tossed him, sending the undead guy crashing into the far wall. The vampire snarled, struggling to his feet as the shifter transformed into a panther, his black fur rippling as he flexed his muscles, preparing for battle.
“I SAID BREAK IT UP!”
Angela pulled the gun from her holster and fired it at the panther just as he launched himself at the vampire. A high-voltage stream of electricity shot from the barrel of the gun, and hit the shifter directly between his shoulder blades, and the male dropped to the ground, howling in agony as he immediately began flickering back and forth between forms.
The vampire started toward him, and Angela raised her gun. “Don’t even think about it.”
“And just what are you going to do about it?” he sneered, his pale blue eyes glittered as he stared down the barrel of her gun. “That thing won’t hurt me.”
“Maybe, but I’m sure I have something that will, and besides, you don’t want to resist with a bunch of witnesses around.” Angela kept her voice even, but the anxiety that had been gnawing at her tripled, especially when Raina didn’t show up to assist her. Where had her partner gone? Had she left with her dark elf lover already?
The vampire hissed at her again, his eyes turning red. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” he insisted, flexing his clawed hands. “He attacked me first. Everyone saw it.”
“What, and you think that I’m going to turn my back and give you a free pass so everyone can watch you suck the life force out of this guy?” Angela set her jaw. “That’s not the way this world works. Now get on your knees and put your hands behind your head, or I will have to use force to restrain you.”
The vampire bared his teeth, shifting into an aggressive stance. “You can’t hope to subdue me, shifter girl – ”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a dark voice growled.
Angela’s back stiffened at the menace in the stranger’s voice, but she didn’t dare turn around to see who it was and take her eyes off the vamp. A gust of air whipped through the crowd then, and suddenly a behemoth of a man stood behind the vampire, dressed in a black leather jacket and shit-kickers. Angela sucked in a gasp – he was gorgeous, tall and muscular as he towered over them all, a headful of chestnut locks curling around a face that looked as if it had been carved by angels and cursed by Titans. His violet eyes were laser sharp as he glared down at the man, his sensuous lips curled back in a snarl, exposing very white, very sharp fangs, and Angela instantly felt a jolt as she recognized the shifter inside him. His meaty arm jammed beneath the vamp’s pale throat as he crushed the back of the vamp’s head against his broad chest.
“Let go of me!” the vampire choked, struggling to sink his fangs into the man’s arm, and then froze as the man conjured a ball of flame from thin air. The ball hovered in the air just inches from his gloved palm, and as he drew it alongside the vampire’s face, the vamp’s forehead broke out into a cold – or would that be a hot? – sweat.
“I suggest you do as the lady says,” the man growled as Angela struggled not to gape at him. All kinds of alarm bells were going off in her head – her nose was telling her this man was a shifter, and yet shifters couldn’t conjure balls of flames in their hands. That was a mage talent, and no shifter could wield mage powers.
There is one who can.
No. No way. He wasn’t real. Not as far as Angela knew, because she’d never seen him, and she’d been alive for at least a hundred years now.
“Unless you think you can survive being turned into ash,” the man said softly, “I suggest you get on your hands and knees like the nice lady over there says. Before I erase the memory of your existence from this earth.”
Whimpering, the vampire did as commanded, getting onto his knees and putting his hands behind his head. He shot Angela a hateful glare as she rushed over with a pair of bespelled cuffs, then clapped them on and read the vamp his rights.
“You should really call for backup,” the man said when Angela was done.
It took a moment for Angela to find her voice. “I will,” she said, her face flushing as her voice came out in a croak. Clearing her throat, she tried again. “Thank you for your assistance.”
“Your welcome.” He turned to leave.
“Wait.” Angela grabbed the sleeve of his leather jacket. “Are you – ”
They both stopped as a kind of heat lightning arced between them, instant sexual tension crackling in the air. Angela gasped as the shock of desire raced through her nerve endings, her nipples hardening instantly, and she dropped his arm immediately.
“I’d prefer if you didn’t say it.” He set his jaw, and from the tension in his body Angela knew he’d felt the same thing she had. His violet eyes glittering like chips of amethyst. Angela marveled at how dazzled she was by his gaze, but before she could say anything else, he pulled his arm from her grasp, and disappeared into the crowd.
It took another moment for Angela to realize she was still gaping after him, and then she set her jaw as well and turned back to the vamp. This wasn’t time to
be gaping after ghosts and legends, she told herself firmly as she pulled out her cell phone and called for back up. This was time to get back to work.
Chapter Two
“Raina, I really need you to answer the phone here,” Angela spoke urgently into her phone as she left a voicemail for her partner. She’d already called twice before, and texted, to no avail. “I need to make sure you’re okay, and I also have some crazy shit to tell you. Please, call me back.”
Hanging up the phone, she shoved her hands into her pockets and glanced around the parking lot. The vamp and the shifter were already in the back of a police car – the Order of Protection used cop cars like humans because it was easier if they were recognizable as a type of law enforcement, though their cars were equipped with certain types of protections and spells that normal police cars didn’t have. Backup had arrived nearly fifteen minutes ago, and Angela had expected Raina to emerge from wherever she’d been necking with that elf by now.
Maybe she really did go home, she thought to herself, looking up at the stars twinkling in the night sky. It was still fairly early, barely midnight now, so you couldn’t see too many stars due to the light pollution, but still, looking up at the sky always gave Angela some level of comfort because the stars were constant. They would always be there waiting, even if she couldn’t see them sometimes.
Unlike my partner, she groused to herself, her mood souring even though she didn’t really have a right to be annoyed at Raina. After all, this was their night off, wasn’t it? She was entitled to go romp around in the sheets with someone.
“Everything okay, Mason?” Lorenzo, one of the Protectors who’d responded to her request for backup, wandered over to ask. He was a Hispanic wolf shifter who’d only been with the Order for a year, but he did his job well, from what she knew of him. “You seem a little spaced out.”
Angela dragged a hand through her coppery curls, wishing she could release some of the tension curling in her belly. “I’m fine. Just wishing my one night off didn’t turn out this way.” If only that was the only problem churning through her mind, but it wasn’t. She’d been incredibly off-balance ever since her encounter with the man who’d saved her. In the entire century she’d been on this earth, she’d never once encountered a shifter who sparked such a powerful reaction inside her, and it scared the hell out of her. Not just because of the intensity of the feelings, but because she was having them for a man who was largely considered to be taboo amongst her kind.
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