Bear Mountain Bride: Shifter Romance

by Sky Winters

  Still, breaking the news to Michelle would be difficult. Whether he was a twisted son of a bitch or not, he was still her father.

  Jake heaved a heavy sigh and put his gun away in its holster. He wanted nothing more than to hold Michelle and his kids close and tell them that he would always be there for them, no matter what happened.

  Chapter 22

  Michelle rocked Mary gently as JJ squeezed her hand. They had heard the gunshots fire, and all of them were terrified about what the sounds might mean. Michelle knew that all of them were worried about the same thing: Jake.

  She had retrieved her pistol after she rushed the kids into her apartment and locked the doors, unable to bring herself to leave the MC completely without knowing that Jake was okay. She hoped that her father wouldn’t have it in him to harm innocent children, but when he had held them hostage in his office, the only thing that seemed to matter was that they were Jake’s children.

  Jake, her father claimed, had always been after the president’s position from the beginning. It had quickly become clear that her father had been going mad with paranoia, and Jake had been the target of all his madness. The kids had heard far too much and yet they seemed too shocked to cry now. All they could do was cling to Michelle and wait, hoping that their father and not Kent would come through the apartment door.

  Michelle’s heart jolted in terror and desperate hope when she heard the rattling of the doorknob, and she ran to the door, leaving the kids on the couch.

  “Go in the bedroom,” she hissed. “Quick and shut the door until I say.”

  They got up slowly as if in a daze, but before they had a chance to run, the door opened slowly.

  “Got room for one more?”

  “Daddy!” The kids screamed in unison, rushing past Michelle to cling to their father. Jake cringed in pain but lifted both kids in his arms, kissing them all over before turning his gaze on Michelle.

  “Your father is dead,” he said, his face tired.

  Michelle’s heart lurched. “I know.”

  Jake wouldn’t have left him alive. She had been kidding herself to think that he wasn’t a hardcore biker deep down. He would do anything to protect the people he cared about. But instead of being disgusted by it now, Michelle was glad. Tears of relief began to stream from her eyes and she embraced Jake and the kids. They all held each other tightly before Jake finally pulled away.

  “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  ***

  “You’re hurt,” Michelle realized, once they made it back to Jake’s house. He had done everything to keep his face blank as they traveled away from the hellish nightmare at the MC, but now that they had put the kids to bed early and were sitting in the kitchen together, Michelle finally had a chance to examine Jake closely.

  “It’s just a graze,” Jake said.

  “Still, we have to make sure it doesn’t get infected. Come on.”

  Jake sighed heavily and followed Michelle back into the big bathroom where he kept his first-aid supplies. She had him sit on the edge of the bathtub, like she had the first time, though it felt like centuries since she had treated him for a stab wound.

  “I’m sorry, Michelle,” Jake said miserably after she had finished cleaning and bandaging his wound. They were laying together on Jake’s bed, and his eyes were narrowed with pain. “I killed your father.”

  “Jake, you had no choice. It’s terrible, but it’s the way it had to be.”

  “Still!” Jake exclaimed.

  Michelle raised her eyebrow at Jake and smiled. “He had a gun to me, Jake. You know he would have done the same to us.

  “But he’s your dad,” Jake sighed.

  Michelle shook her head and climbed on top of Jake, laying a gentle kiss on his lips.

  “Well you can take care of me now,” she said, kissing him gently all over his broad chest. She had been so sure she would never be able to see him again, never able to kiss him and feel his strong arms around her.

  “You know I will,” Jake said, his eyes fixed seriously on her. “Always.”

  “I know,” Michelle said.

  She closed her eyes as Jake kissed her tenderly, reaching to his thighs to feel the bulge of his manhood under her palm. What would she have done if she had never been able to touch him again? To feel him inside of her?

  Michelle let out a laugh of surprise when Jake flipped her onto her back and gazed at her, his eyes dark with need.

  “Be careful of your shoulder,” she scolded quietly. But the thrill of his body on top of hers was too much to resist. Jake grinned and stripped Michelle’s shirt off, dropping hot kisses down her breasts as he made her middle acutely aware of his urgent desire.

  “Make me,” he said with a grin.

  Michelle closed her eyes as Jake rocked her body blissfully, waves of heat crashing over her as again and again he thrust inside of her, bringing their bodies closer and closer to a climax unlike any she had ever had. She gasped and gripped the headboard of the bed as Jake’s cock sent thrill after thrill surging through her body, until she could no longer hold back.

  Jake’s body responded in kind, and she felt him swell inside of her as he drew closer to his release. Finally, she felt him unload it all, all the fury, tension, and relief of the day inside of her, bringing her to a state of rapture unlike anything she had ever experienced. Jake penetrated her again and again, drawing out her orgasm until they were both hissing with the power of their ecstasy.

  They collapsed in exhaustion and Jake held Michelle close to his broad chest, kissing her head fervently.

  “You’re mine now, you know,” he said, matter-of-factly.

  Michelle smiled, warmth coursing through her body. For the first time in her life, she felt safe. And not only that, but she felt free. And that was all because of Jake.

  “Good,” she said. “Because I love you.”

  Jake grinned down at her, his handsome face bright and relaxed for the first time that day.

  “I love you, too,” he said. “Now let’s get some sleep.”

  Jake laid back against the big pillows and covered Michelle up, and soon she fell into a blissful, post-coital sleep.

  Epilogue

  The MC was bustling for the next couple of weeks as the Pythons arranged the burial of Kent and made it official that Jake was now the president of the MC. Over half the gang had seen Kent’s betrayal first-hand and would stand for nothing less than seeing Jake as their leader.

  He had fallen easily into the role, almost as easily as Mary and JJ had accepted the idea of their father and Michelle being a couple.

  “Does that mean you will be my mommy?” Mary exclaimed.

  JJ’s eyes darkened with sadness and Michelle had smiled gently. “I’ll never replace your real mommy,” she said. “But I will always do my best to love you and take care of you.”

  This was good enough for Mary, who squealed in delight. Michelle winked at JJ, and both kids had embraced her tightly before running upstairs chattering about how great it would be to have Michelle in the house all the time.

  But Jake apparently had other plans.

  “Look,” he said, surprising her by coming home early after a long week at the MC. He gave her a thick envelope and Michelle furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

  “What’s this?” she asked, taking it tentatively.

  “Open it!” Jake urged. The kids were still at school, so the house was completely quiet when Michelle gasped in surprise.

  “You can’t be serious,” Michelle whispered.

  “I’m very serious,” Jake said. Michelle embraced him.

  “But how?!”

  “Simple. You just go register for classes and buy your books. Then you show them what a brilliant, sexy woman you are and graduate with honors.”

  Michelle laughed, tears streaming down her face. “This is unbelievable.”

  “And, I have another surprise for you,” Jake said, leading her to the door. They stepped outside a
nd Michelle’s heart hammered hard in her chest.

  “You’re kidding me…”

  In the driveway was a beautiful blue car. It was brand new. Jake grinned and handed Michelle the keys.

  “I figure we’re going to need something better than that crummy station wagon Janie had been driving. I sold it and used it to pay for part of this. Now you can go to class on your own time, and it’s big enough for the kids, too.”

  “I can’t even drive,” Michelle exclaimed, close to tears.

  “I guess that’s where surprise number three comes in,” Jake said. “We’re going to the DMV. Right now. We’re going to get you your permit. I know you already know the rules of the road. I’ve seen that driver’s book you don’t think I know about.”

  Now Michelle was fully crying and Jake picked her up in his arms.

  “Come on, I told you I’d take care of you.”

  Michelle nodded, laughing through her tears.

  “All right then. You ready for this?”

  “Yeah,” Michelle said, her eyes shining. “Let’s go.”

  Jake stooped down to kiss Michelle tenderly.

  “Hell yeah,” he said.

  THE END

  ACE

  Ace eyed the street carefully. Red Hook was not out of the territory he rode, no part of Brooklyn was, but it wasn’t his usual hangout either. The street was barely populated. Very few cars rode its length, and the industrial buildings looked grimy and half-dead under the blazing August sun. The stink of trash on the curb caught his nose, as the wind kicked up a little breeze that did nothing to beat back the temperature.

  The crowded industrial apartments drew his eye. He got off the bike and headed into the door. The elevator sat dead ahead but he ignored it. Elevators were a damn good place to get jammed up, and shot up too. They were death coffins and he was not about to get caught in one if he could help it.

  His long legs ate the distance as he raced up the stairs to the fifth floor. The apartment that he was looking for was on his right. Ace’s hand went to his waist. The reassuring shape of the gun met his fingers. His knuckles of the other hand rapped at the door and it opened to reveal a sallow character with yellowing teeth and shifty eyes.

  Ace spoke. “Pick up time Corey.”

  Corey’s neck, thin as an arm, wobbled back and forth. His protruding Adam apple bobbed up and down. His eyes swept the hallway past Ace and every single one of Ace’s muscles tightened.

  Corey said, “Come in. They got cameras out there now.”

  Goddammit. That was the last thing he wanted to do. He stepped inside anyway, his eyes scanning every piece of furniture that might hide a person waiting to take him down and out.

  Corey wiped his sweating forehead. Ace felt suspicion climb higher. Corey wasn’t the best guy to trust under any circumstances. He was geeked up on crank, and he came off those crank binges with heaping handfuls of oxy.

  Corey said, in a high and trembling voice. “I didn’t ask to get stuck babysitting your crew’s cash you know.”

  Ace eyed him carefully. Corey wanted something. Might as well find out what it was. “Where’s the cash? Don’t tell me it’s light either. Then tell me what you want. If you tell me you used some of our cash to get your geek on I’m killing you here and now.”

  Corey yanked at the cabinet that held the Murphy bed. It came down with a bang, and he grabbed the bags. His head moved from side to side. “Nah, it ain’t right. I don’t wanna die or nothing.”

  No? Ace quickly counted cash, his fingers way faster than normal. He said, “So you want a cut?’

  Corey swallowed hard. His horsey teeth showed again. “Is that so bad?”

  “No.”

  Corey’s arms crossed over his chest. He did a little speed freak shuffle. “You holding?”

  “You know I’m not.” Ace didn’t mess with drugs. Not him. He reached into a pocket, peeled off a couple of Benjamins. He threw them down on a table littered with trash. “That’s for your twenty-four hours of trouble.’

  Corey snatched the money up. A thick film of greasy sweat covered his face. The airless room, filled with the stench of burned meth, drew in tighter around Ace.

  Corey said, “Thanks man. I’m down for your crew. You know that.”

  “Yeah sure.”

  Ace left, closing the door firmly. His legs took him back down the stairs. His eyes scanned the street. No way did he trust Corey not to tell a bunch of his equally tweaked friends that he was holding lots of cash. Corey might be afraid to cross the Brooklyn Son’s, but if someone else did, well how did that impact Corey?

  Ace slung a leg over his bike. The leather seat burned under his denim clad ass.

  The heavy leather jacket he wore, emblazoned with the Brooklyn’s Sons patch, was a particular misery, but one he wore with pride. Not everyone could get into the MC, and most prospects failed. He’d done it though, and then he had climbed the ranks until he was the second-in command. Six months ago, their crew leader got caught on the bad end of a slippery road and went down, breaking his neck in the process. Now Ace was the crew leader of the most badass club in the Northeast, and if the jacket was too hot on a day like that, so what? He’d suffered a lot to have it.

  He pulled onto the street. Taxis weren’t plentiful on that side of Brooklyn and neither were buses, both things he truly hated being stuck behind. He headed toward Greenpoint, riding along slow and easy.

  There was a large amount of money in his saddlebag, and he had to drop it off at a high stakes card game. A card game that he and his crew took a cut of every week just like they took a cut of the cash that flowed in and out of the borough in the form of other illicit activities.

  Some of the others in the crew handled the drug money. Ace wouldn’t go near dope, and it irritated him that Corey had asked him if he were holding. Not that Corey could have known why Ace didn’t mess with that shit.

  His hand tightened on the throttle, sending the bike forward at a higher rate of speed. He didn’t want to think about Margo. He really didn’t.

  He did anyway.

  It was hard not to.

  She was his cousin, and they had grown up together. They’d been tight, facing down everything from their sorry mothers leaving them home alone and hungry at night so they could go out and party. When Margo had been fourteen Ace had hit her then-stepfather with a baseball bat, repeatedly, for laying a hand on Margo in a way he should have reserved for his wife.

  Margo had returned the favor by stepping in when thirteen-year-old Ace had been outnumbered and facing down a whole lot of pissed off gang members whose streets he’d gone down by accident.

  Margo had run right into the middle of that mess, grabbed him by the arm, and hauled him out before anyone could even get close.

  They were more like brother and sister than cousins, and her death had hit Ace so hard he had thought he might not recover. He had, but it had been hard to do. His grief had lessened, but not his rage.

  And that rage was directed right at Walker, the leader of the Queen’s Men, an MC from Queens.

  The bike purred along toward Williamsburg. His pleasant ride was interrupted when he spotted a young woman walking along in front of a row of trendy shops and boutiques. His booted heel hit the asphalt as he stopped for a light. He recognized her of course. She was Julia, Walker’s youngest sister.

  Ace’s eyes crawled over her. Julia was gorgeous, all long legs and shimmering brown hair framing a pale, oval face with wide blue eyes set below dark brows. She had a long thin straight nose, wide Julia Robert’s style-lips, and her tall and thin body had elegant curves of breast and hips. The outfit she wore, a summery little dress that swirled around her tanned and slender legs, was perfect. She could have been a model. Was a model in fact, though not a famous one? Ace knew she did mostly print ads and the like, earning money to put herself through design school. Ace made it his business to know everything about Walker, and what he knew right then was that Walker’s baby sister was in his territo
ry, and she was alone.

  Interesting.

  The light changed. His foot came up, but then he wavered. His eyes watched her enter the store and then he was moving on, past it. He groaned and turned around.

  Julia had always fascinated him. The fact that she was Walker’s sister made her off limits.

  Or did it.

  A diabolical plan formed in his mind. A wicked grin crossed his well-made mouth. He took the bike to the curb. He got off, and strolled to the windows, peeking in. Julia was inside, not shopping but standing behind a counter.

  She worked there then?

  His eyes went to the awning. It was a trendy little boutique and the garments in the windows, arranged artfully so that he could see past them to the store’s interior, were obviously expensive.

  He made a mental note of the store and then went back to his bike and headed toward Greenpoint.

  Chapter 2

  Walker stood at the top of the stairs that Julia was trying to go down, blocking the way. His eyes ran along her body in a very unbrotherly way. He said, “Where are you going?”

  Goddammit. Not this and not now. Julia managed a tight smile. “Work. I told you I got a new job.”

  Walker’s eyebrows lifted. “You get back here right after. Pete wants to take you to dinner.”

  Her skin crawled. No way did she want to go anywhere with Pete. That horny bastard was just as likely to bum rush into the trunk of a car and off to a hotel where he could force her into sex without worry than he was to foot the bill for a meal and she knew it. “I don’t know how late I have to stay.”

  Walker’s hand lashed out, meeting her cheek. Julia had enough experience with Walker’s brutality to get back from that hand when it came up, but even a glancing blow from Walker was enough to cause pain to explode in her face. Tears welled up but she blinked them back.

  Walker’s belligerence came out in full force. “I said get back here soon.”