Taming the Beast: Eleven Paranormal Romances

by Alyse Zaftig

  “You’re going to be fine,” she said, nodding. “I’ll be with you the entire time.”

  “And what if you’re wrong?” he asked. “What if my bear loses it again and you’re caught in the middle of it? I’m not willing to risk that.”

  “I’m his mate, right?” she said, smiling like she always did when she said that word. She still couldn’t believe that she was Logan’s mate. The feeling was incredible. She could feel the attachment to him getting stronger every day. They were meant to be together. Bella could feel it in her bones. “If I’m his mate would Cliff do anything to hurt me?”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head fiercely. “He would rather die than hurt you, and so would I.”

  “See?” she said, raising her shoulders. “I’ll be with you guys the entire way. If Cliff starts to get upset, I’ll just stand in front of him and sing softly to him, pet his face, scratch behind his ears like he loves.” She stared into Logan’s worried eyes and pressed her forehead to his. “Logan. It will be fine.”

  “It’s not just that,” he said, reaching up and gently touching the long scars that ran down the side of his face. “I look different.”

  “You look sexy,” she said, kissing his scarred cheek.

  “Bella,” he said, dropping his chin as he watched her. “Even you were terrified of me at first.”

  “Because I thought you were a serial killer who kidnapped me,” she said. “Not because of the way you looked.”

  “I’d be working with children,” he said, exhaling softly. “They’re already hurt and sick. I don’t want them to be terrified of their doctor as well.”

  “Do you want them to be alive?” Bella asked. “You’re the only one who can save them. You have to do this. You have a responsibility to do this.”

  He sighed as he looked down at his fidgeting hands.

  Logan knew that she was right. He had a responsibility to greatness. He had been the best pediatric surgeon in the country, maybe even the world before the military got their hands on him. There were a lot of children and parents out there who desperately needed his help. He had a responsibility to help them because he could. It would be wrong to let his past and his injuries keep him from the incredible gifts that he was given.

  “Let’s start slow,” Bella said, placing a hand on his hard shoulder. “There’s a general store close to where my car is parked. You can try and walk in there first and see how it goes.”

  Bella remembered the rude rednecks inside who kept staring at her ass. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if Cliff ate them.

  She was pretty certain that Cliff was back to his old self. She hadn’t seen an ounce of aggression in him the whole time she had been here. He was like a big cuddly teddy bear around her.

  “He has been very calm lately,” Logan said, rubbing his chin. “Ever since he met you.”

  “It’s going to be fine, Logan. You can’t stay out here forever.” Bella was his mate and he was her man, and she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, in the comforts of society. Not out here.

  “Please, Logan,” she said, kissing his cheek. “Try it for me.”

  He finally raised his eyes after thinking about it for a minute. “Where is this general store?”

  “You’re alive?” the old man behind the counter said, lifting up his trucker hat and scratching his thin hair. “I thought the wolves would have eaten you by now.”

  Bella frowned at him. She was back in Dark Creek Swamp at the general store with all of the slimy worms, moldy cookies, and not to mention, the old pervy men.

  “And I thought you would have been closed by the FDA for uncleanliness issues,” she said, cringing as a mouse ran across the floor.

  The two old men were still hanging out in the back of the shop, still staring at her ass.

  “The monster didn’t swallow you up?” one of them asked. He was wearing a Mariah Carey t-shirt and a Coors Light trucker hat with his ugly mullet hanging out of the back.

  “What monster?” Logan asked, walking in through the door. He was so large that he had to duck under the low frame.

  Bella smiled from ear to ear as she watched the three men’s eyes widen to the point of pain. Let’s see what happens when they stare at my ass now.

  The man at the cash register gulped as he looked Logan up and down. “I heard stories about you,” he whispered as he stared at him in shock.

  Logan grinned, looking like he was going to have some fun with them. “They’re all true.”

  “Nah,” the Mariah Carey fan said from the back. “You’re not him. The real beast is nine feet tall.”

  “And he has sharp claws and jagged teeth,” his friend added.

  “And he eats city girls for dinner,” the other one said. “This is not him. She would never have survived out there with the real beast.”

  “Maybe he is out there,” Logan said with a grin. “Or maybe I’m a beast in human’s clothing.”

  “No, you’re not,” Bella said, hooking her arm around him and pulling him toward the door. “You’re the sweetest guy I’ve ever met.”

  “You didn’t buy anything,” the man said with a frown. “Do you need any worms?”

  “Yes,” Bella smiled, pulling Logan to a stop. “We’ll take them all.”

  They were on their way back to civilization and Bella was planning on releasing them back into the forest on her way out.

  She was taking one of the forest’s creatures with her forever so she thought she could offer Mother Nature a trade. A bunch of worms for Logan and his bear. It seemed like a fair trade.

  “Why did you buy those?” he asked as they walked back to her car. Her trunk and back seat were packed with their stuff.

  “I don’t know,” she said, lifting up the bag and looking at the worms slithering through the damp soil. “I wanted to return them to their real homes.”

  Logan wrapped a muscular arm around her shoulder and kissed the top of her head. “Thank you,” he said, squeezing her tight. “Thank you for bringing me home too.”

  “Thank you for coming with me,” she said. “It wouldn’t feel like home without you.”

  Bella climbed into the car and slapped the bag of worms onto Logan’s lap when he was seated beside her. “How did it go in there?” she asked. “How did Cliff react to those guys?”

  That was the real worry. Would Logan’s bear get that bloodthirsty reaction again when he was around people, wanting to kill everything in sight? Or would he return to the kind gentle bear that he was before the military got to him?

  “He was more interested in the dusty boxes of cookies,” Logan said with a look of relief on his face. “The men didn’t bother him at all.”

  Bella squealed in delight and reached over the console to hug him with the stick shift digging into her ribs. “I’m so happy,” she said, her cheeks burning from smiling so wide. “Ready to go home?”

  Logan swallowed her hand in his huge palm. “Home is wherever I’m with you,” he said with a sexy smile.

  He finally looked ready. Ready to leave the lonely forest. Ready to move on.

  “Let’s go get my life back,” he said, holding her hand.

  Bella smiled and drove them both back to civilization.

  Epilogue

  A YEAR LATER

  “Thank you, Doctor Wright,” the young father said, squeezing Logan in a tight bear hug. “Thank you so much.”

  Logan took a deep breath as he hugged the relieved father back. He had just come out of surgery with the man’s three-year-old child and gave him the good news: his child would walk again.

  The cute little girl was in for three rough months of rehab but that didn’t matter. She would get her legs back and that was the most important thing.

  “You’re a Godsend,” the mother said, clasping her hands together as tears rolled down her cheeks. “A real blessing.”

  Logan swallowed hard and nodded. He was never good in these situations and he seemed to be in them a lot. />
  After returning from the woods with Bella, he got his old job back at St. Mary’s Hospital, picking up right where he had left off. Before long, he had a long list of patients waiting for his expertise. The sick children traveled with their parents from all over the country and from others as well to be treated by him. He had operated on a little boy from Australia the week before and he had a girl from Sweden scheduled for surgery tomorrow.

  Logan didn’t care where they were from. If he could help them, he would.

  “It was nice to meet you folks,” Logan said, giving the thrilled parents one last smile before leaving. “Take care of Ashley.”

  “We will,” the father said, hugging his wife. “Thanks again, Doctor.”

  Logan sighed as he went to the employee locker room to shower up and get ready. He had a hot date with a curvy grad student.

  He rushed down the stairs, taking three at a time, to the front of the hospital where she was waiting, looking spectacular as usual. Bella was leaning on the brick wall with a sexy smirk on her face as she watched him approach.

  “Paging, Doctor Dreamy,” she said, biting her bottom lip.

  He smiled. “Ready to have some fun?” he asked.

  “I am,” she said, stepping on her toes to give him a kiss on the lips. “Are we going to play doctor?”

  He grinned. “Are you ready for your examination?”

  “Maybe after a bottle of wine,” she said with her cheeks blushing. “Where do you want to go?”

  Logan took her hand in his as they walked away from the hospital.

  “I picked the restaurant last time,” she said, skipping along beside him. “It’s your turn.”

  “Au Noir,” he said, grinning as a wide smile broke out across her face. It was her favorite restaurant.

  “It’s on me,” Bella said with her chin in the air. “We’re celebrating.”

  Logan glanced over at her. “Celebrating what?” There was so much to celebrate for. Every day with Bella was cause for a celebration.

  “I got my dissertation paper back,” she said with a smile. It had to be good by the look on her face.

  “And?”

  “A plus!” she said, jumping up and down as she squealed in delight. “I don’t have to go owl hunting after all!”

  Logan stopped and spun her around, catching her in his arms as she fell. “That’s my girl. Brains and beauty all rolled into one.”

  “It helps that I had a sexy tutor to help me write it and a furry assistant to help me finally find the sneaky little owls.”

  “No,” Logan said, shaking his head. “It was all you.”

  She leaned up and kissed him softly on the lips. “I wouldn’t be here without you.”

  Logan knew exactly what she meant because he wouldn’t be where he was without her either. He would still be living in the log cabin in the woods, spending the days in his bear form and the nights all alone.

  Bella had done so much for him and he would always be grateful to his mate. She had helped him see that he did have the courage and strength to return to his old life.

  His colleagues were initially shocked to see him and his new scars but like anything, they got used to it and it hardly came up anymore. He would still get looks and stares from strangers on the street but as long as the scars didn’t bother Bella, they didn’t bother him either.

  Another worry was how his young patients would handle seeing the gruesome scars but it didn’t quite have the effect that Logan thought that it would. The kids would ask him almost immediately how he got the scars. The children were intensely curious and their curiosity always outweighed their manners.

  When Logan would tell them that it was from a bear attack, he instantly got way cooler in their eyes. He was seen as a cool superhero who fought off a bear and it helped the kids warm up to him.

  They walked to the restaurant as Bella chatted about her day and how excited she was about her A plus. Logan could barely focus on his mate’s words. He was a little nervous.

  The paper wasn’t the only thing that they would be celebrating tonight.

  He tapped the side pocket of his coat just to make sure the ring was still there. He took a breath of relief when it was.

  It was a white gold diamond engagement ring that had more carats than Bugs Bunny. People said that an engagement ring should be the equivalent of three-months salary but Bella was worth more than that. He had bought the most expensive ring in the store.

  She deserved the world and he was determined to give it to her. His life had been a dream since they moved to the outskirts of Seattle where they lived in a beautiful home in the country. It was the best of both worlds. They had access to the city where he could work as a surgeon and where Bella could find a job now that her schooling was all finished, and they had access to acres of forest, mountains and rivers where Logan’s bear could wander around in peace. It really was perfect.

  Now it was time to make it all official.

  Logan was planning on waiting until dessert to pull out the ring but he just couldn’t wait any longer. He dropped to a knee on the sidewalk and pulled out the ring. Bella didn’t even notice and kept walking, blabbing on to herself as she walked away.

  “Bella,” he called out with a laugh.

  She stopped and looked around, clearly confused as to where her man went. Her mouth dropped when she spotted him down on one knee, holding up a diamond ring.

  “Is that?”

  Logan nodded.

  Her shaking hands flew up to her mouth as she stared at him with wide eyes.

  “Want to come back over here so I don’t have to shout at the entire block?” he asked with a laugh.

  “Right,” she said, giggling as she hurried over. She stopped in front of him with her eyes sparkling.

  She couldn’t be more beautiful.

  “Bella,” he said, trying to keep his voice calm. “Would you-”

  “Yes!” she shouted, jumping on him and nearly bringing him down to the pavement. “Yes, I’ll marry you!” she said, squeezing his neck with her arms as she showered him with kisses.

  “Wait,” she said, pulling back and looking at him funny. “Is that what you were going to ask?”

  He laughed. “Yes,” he said, taking her delicate hand in his. “That’s exactly what I was going to ask. Will you marry me, Bella?”

  She placed her hands on his cheeks and gazed into his eyes. She said the one thing that he was hoping to hear:

  “Yes!”

  Part III

  Beauty and the Bad Bearlionaire

  Scarlett Grove

  Chapter 1

  Matilda Swank spread the Fate Mountain News across her table at the diner and groaned. Just as she’d suspected: there were absolutely no jobs available for a twenty-year-old would be archeology major with her limited job experience.

  The waitress filled her white porcelain cup with black coffee and gazed down at Matilda with a motherly smile on her lips.

  “What’s wrong, hun?” Lily asked.

  Everyone on Fate Mountain knew Lily Keenan, the co-owner of Fate Mountain diner. For years, she’d taken pride in helping people. She stood above Matilda with coffee pot in hand and her order pad stuffed into the front pocket of her pink waitress uniform. Lily was a sweetheart, but Matilda doubted she’d be much help in this situation.

  “I’m looking for a job. Now that I’m living back at home with my mom, I have to start all over.”

  “Oh darn, I wish I had known. We just hired three new people over the holidays. There just aren’t any more open shifts.”

  “That’s fine, Lily. I kind of figured that when I saw the new faces.”

  “Maybe you can ask down at the lodge.”

  “I’m afraid it’s the same story there. I can’t find anything. I’m going to have to go back to working for my mom.”

  Matilda stared at the black liquid in her coffee cup and opened a few packets of sugar, dumping them inside.

  “What’s so bad about that?�
� Lily asked.

  Matilda gave Lily a shocked look that she instantly regretted. She should be grateful that her mom was helping her out so much. But when Matilda had left two years ago after high school, she’d never wanted to come back to this small town.

  All this time, she’d been telling herself that she was saving money to finally go to college. Two years later, she wasn’t any closer to being able to go to school.

  “It isn’t that I don’t like cleaning…” Matilda said, trying not to sound like an ungrateful brat.

  “You’ve been gone a while. It’s natural to not want to go backward.”

  Matilda let out a long sigh, feeling relieved that Lily understood where she was coming from.

  “Exactly. I never wanted to be in this position.”

  “Don’t get too down on yourself. Everyone needs help now and again.”

  “I just wish things hadn’t turned out like this.”

  “Broken relationships can take a lot out of you.”

  “That’s an understatement.”

  Lily gave her that sweet smile again and flicked her long blonde ponytail over her shoulder. Matilda knew that Lily had first hand experience with difficult relationships. Her relationship with her husband Shane had taken over a decade to work out in the end.

  Unfortunately for Matilda, she doubted her own, now finished, relationship would ever work out like theirs had. Her ex-boyfriend had burned that bridge beyond repair. And as much as Matilda had wanted to believe it was true love in the beginning, she no longer believed it ever had been. There was only so much BS a girl could take.

  “Everything will work out fine, hun,” Lily said, turning away. She stopped mid-stride and turned back to Matilda’s table. “Have you signed up for Mate.com?”

  “God no,” Matilda said flatly.

  “Just a thought,” Lily said with a smile as she walked down the aisle.

  Mate.com was a shifter/human dating site that catered to male shifters and human women. It had been designed by Fate Mountain’s resident tech genius. But Matilda doubted it would do her any good.