by R. E. Butler
Kaylie laughed. “Because I know you well enough to know you don’t want to put a book out there that’s anything less than the best.”
“Yeah. Maybe I’ll get so inspired by the bears that I’ll switch out the lions for them.”
“That would be cool. Bear shifter stories aren’t plentiful right now. You picked a big cat because they’re popular.”
“And I like them.”
“Bears might be better.”
“Maybe. I could always take a trip to Europe and meet with a lion.”
“Sure, but you don’t have to go too far to meet with a bear. Start there first and see how you feel. And don’t forget to text me and let me know how things go.”
“I could just skip out on shifters entirely and go back to vampires.”
“Didn’t you want to go this route because you were burned out?”
Juliette made a face. “You know me too well. A girl’s gotta have some secrets.”
“Maybe, but not from your editor.”
“Thanks for being honest with me. I really appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome. I can’t wait to read your re-write.”
Juliette ended the call and stared at the screen, her mind spinning. Although she’d been certain that Kaylie would tell her that her new book wasn’t “quite right,” it still stung to hear it out loud. When she’d started writing about vampires, she meticulously read every story she could and heavily researched them. Because they were fictional, she’d had leeway with the mythology, and that had allowed her to create something quite unique. But when she’d started writing the shifter book, she hadn’t known much about them. Stories written about shifters often had an element of truth to them, and it was always apparent when the authors had done their research. Juliette had been so juiced to start writing when she’d gotten her idea that she’d just jumped in head first and done exactly what Kaylie said: she’d created a group that were basically vampires that shifted, and this just wouldn’t fly.
Turning her attention to the computer, she opened her email and typed in the address of the bear alpha – Cruz Miller.
“Dear Mr. Miller, I’m a paranormal romance author writing a series about shifters. I was given your name by my editor, whose husband works with Brian Khan, as someone who could help me do some research on shifters. I would appreciate an opportunity to interview you, or someone in your clan, about your kind and would happily include the name of that person in the acknowledgements of my book. I look forward to hearing from you. All the best, Juliette Parson.”
She read over the email twice, checked the spelling, and then pressed send. Her heart thudded irregularly as she watched the screen clear and the little window pop up saying it had been sent. Nerves spiked through her as she stared at the screen. What if he ignored her email? Or what if he answered and told her to take a hike? Shaking her head at her irrational thoughts, she closed out her email and opened a blank document, titled it “Interview with a Bear,” and began to list the questions she had about shifters. The more she typed, the more excited she grew at the prospect of picking a shifter’s brain about what it was like to be part-animal, and she decided that the very best thing that had ever been suggested to her was to reach out to the clan.
She just hoped that one of the bears thought it was a good idea, too.
Chapter Three
Cruz read the email three times before it really sunk in that some human was asking him for an interview for one of those trashy romance novels. He forwarded it to Tomlin, got up from the desk, and walked across the hall to his brother’s office. Knocking on the open door, he said, “Can you believe that shit?”
“What?” Tomlin asked, looking up in confusion.
“I just forwarded an email to you. Open it.” Cruz plopped down in the chair across from the desk and waited while his brother moved the mouse around and clicked it.
After a few moments, Tomlin leaned back in his chair. “I think you should do it.”
“What?”
“We were talking yesterday about getting some PR. This could be perfect.”
“How on earth is it perfect?”
“From the email, she’s looking to bring some authenticity to her stories. I think that’s good. The more correct information out there about our people, the better. And second, we can work with her to leverage some good PR for us – social media engagement, human interest stories on the news, and hell, we could do a book signing here one night with her.”
Cruz scoffed. “Seriously? You want our clan associated with this kind of thing?”
“I can’t believe you’re so closed minded. I think Felicity reads these kinds of stories. Why don’t you ask her about them? In the meantime, I think you should definitely reconsider.” His fingers flew on the keyboard and then he made an interested sound. Turning the screen to face Cruz, he said, “She’s cute.”
Cruz stared at the image on the screen. A gorgeous redhead with deep emerald eyes smiled at him. He narrowed his eyes at his brother, his resolve softening.
“You have to handle the social media stuff.”
Tomlin grinned. “You’re a sucker for a pretty girl.”
Not pretty, his bear rumbled, gorgeous.
“If this blows up in our faces and we become the laughing stocks of the shifter world, I’m going to throw you under the bus. Literally and figuratively.”
“I’d expect nothing less. I just think it’s a good idea. This may be just what we need to give the club a shot in the arm.”
Cruz wasn’t sure if it was or not, but after seeing a photo of Juliette, he was beginning to think meeting her wasn’t a bad idea.
After leaving Tomlin’s office, he headed out into the club and found Felicity cleaning the kitchen with her sister Maggie. For years, both of their parents assumed that the two of them would end up mated together, simply because they were the same age. While Cruz liked Felicity, he hadn’t ever felt a stirring from his bear toward her, so he hadn’t opted to be anything more than friends with her. She’d found her mate at a gathering of unmated bears a few years after high school and they had two cubs.
“Hey Felicity, Maggie,” he said, leaning against the long metal counter.
They both greeted him. “What’s up?” Felicity asked, wiping her brow with the back of her hand.
“I heard you like to read.”
Her brow arched. “Yeah.”
He fought the urge to say anything disparaging about romance novels because he didn’t want to insult her reading choices. “Have you ever heard of Juliette Parson?”
“Of course. She writes some of my favorite vampire stories. Why?”
“She reached out because she’s writing a story about shifters and wanted to interview me, or someone in the clan.”
“Really? That’s so cool. Can I meet her when she visits? I have all of her books in paperback and eBook.”
He frowned. “Why would you have them in two forms?”
“Duh, because I love her. She’s very popular in fantasy romance circles. I read on her blog a month ago that she’s branching out into shifters. I would have emailed her myself and offered to chat with her if I’d known she was looking for help. Oh! Can I take your place? I’d be happy to talk to her.”
His bear grumbled. “No. I need to field this out first. You can meet with her if she wants to meet with others in the clan, but it’s my responsibility to ensure that she’s not trying to write any kind of trash exposé on shifters.”
Felicity rolled her eyes so hard he was surprised they weren’t bouncing across the floor like children’s toys. “Seriously? She’s an author, not a sleazy journalist at some rag trying to unearth dark secrets. I bet she wants to make sure her new series is top-notch. I’m not surprised, her vampires are awesome.”
“They’re not real.”
“And? She makes them feel real.” She waved her hand dismissively. “You wouldn’t understand because you don’t read romances. I can tell by the tone of your voice that you do
n’t approve, and I can assure you that if you walk into a meeting with an author and you clearly don’t like what they do, you’ll send her packing and she might just write you into a story and kill you off.”
His brows rose. “They do that?”
“I would if I were her.”
He chuckled. “Thanks, Felicity.”
“Anytime.”
Cruz returned to his office and opened the email, replying to Juliette. He sent her his cell number and told her to call at her convenience so they could schedule a time to get together. To his surprise, she called him within minutes.
“Hi, Mr. Miller, it’s Juliette Parson.”
He smiled at her high level of politeness. “You can call me Cruz.”
“You can call me Juliette. Thank you for emailing me back so quickly. I’d love to meet with you. You name the time and place and I’ll be there.”
His bear chuffed in interest but he mentally shushed the creature. She was human and clearly knew nothing of their kind since she needed to interview a shifter for research. Although their people weren’t against having humans as mates, he was alpha and it was expected of him to find a female bear to mate with. Ignoring the protest from his beast’s train of thought, he told her that their clan owned The Den and he had an office there.
He clicked the icon for his online calendar and checked his schedule. “Are you free tomorrow afternoon, say around five?”
She paused for a moment and he could hear the clicking of keyboard keys. “That’s perfect.”
“The club doesn’t open until seven. Knock on the front door and I’ll buzz you in.”
“Sounds good. Thank you so much for being willing to sit down for an interview.”
“My pleasure. Safe travels.”
“Until tomorrow,” she said.
The call ended and he stared at his cell phone. There was something about her voice that spoke to his inner bear in an unusual way, but he chalked it up to his bear being curious about a human coming into their territory.
He’d answer Juliette’s questions and see what, if anything, the clan could benefit from being included in the acknowledgements of a fictional story about shifters, and, after she met with Felicity, he’d send her on her way. Humans tended to have a lot of misconceptions about shifters, and part of that was because shifters of all kinds tended to stick together in their territories and keep to themselves. He’d try not to take it personally if she insulted him with her lack of facts. The important thing was that she might be able to help their club get some new business. He didn’t care about her book, he cared about his people. No matter what his bear was urging in his head, absolutely nothing would come from the meeting with Juliette the following day but much-needed publicity for the club.
* * *
Cruz glanced at the clock on his computer. It was nearly five.
Tomlin knocked on the office door and Cruz greeted him.
“Felicity is in my office with a stack of books she wants Juliette to sign. She’s so excited she’s like a kid at Christmas.”
“I am not!” Felicity called from the other room.
Cruz chuckled and then sobered. “I looked her up last night.”
“And?”
“I don’t know if this is right for us. Those vampire books she writes are pretty steamy.”
Tomlin shrugged. “They’re romances.”
“I know, but as far as I can tell, no shifter group has ever claimed to help a human write a fictional story before. She could make us laughing-stocks.”
“Of what? It’s not like there’s some kind of shifter council that could cause trouble for us for sharing details about our nature with humans.”
His mind flitted to the fall gathering of unmated bears. “I don’t want to come down on the wrong side of this.”
“We won’t. I don’t think anything bad will come from it.”
Cruz hadn’t been able to shake a strange feeling since the phone call with Juliette the day before. His bear had been agitated ever since, pacing in his mind and anxious in a way he’d never been before. Cruz prided himself on being in control all the time. As alpha, it was important to him to be prepared for anything and to never look like he couldn’t handle any issues that might come his way.
The bell rang, echoing through the empty club. His bear sat up in interest.
“Have fun,” Tomlin said. “Send her to my office if she’s willing to meet with Felicity.”
“Please don’t piss her off,” Felicity called.
Cruz opened the video doorbell app and the camera caught Juliette’s image, her hands clutching the strap of her purse, her thumb clicking a pen rapidly. He pressed the button to remotely unlock the front door. “Hello. Come through the bar to the hallway. My office is on the right.”
“Thanks,” she said, her gaze flitting around until she located the video camera. She grasped the door and pulled it open, then disappeared from the camera’s view.
He could practically feel her walking toward him. His bear grew more and more agitated, excitement flowing like lava through his veins. He stood, locking his trembling knees and clenching his hands into tight fists. His knuckles cracked and sweat broke out on his brow. He could hear heels clicking on the hallway tile. His mouth went dry and his vision hazed and then sharpened suddenly, his ears twitching as he lifted his head and scented the air. He smelled raspberries and brown sugar.
Juliette peeked around the door shyly. “Cruz?”
He opened his mouth to reply that he was indeed who she was looking for, when his bear responded with a furious snarl and his shift exploded from within him. He couldn’t rein in his beast, shifting uncontrollably and so swiftly that he nearly passed out from the force. His clothes shredded around his bulky frame, the desk screeching against the wooden floor as he landed on all fours and let out a roar of possessiveness and protectiveness. He knew exactly who Juliette was.
She was his mate.
Chapter Four
Juliette tried to calm her nerves as she parked in front of the club. She’d been up half the night working on the interview questions and reading everything she could find online about shifters. Although wolf shifters seemed to be more willing to put information about their kind on the internet, she wasn’t able to find anything remotely helpful about bears or other large predator shifters.
As the word predator flitted through her mind again, she pushed aside the anxiety and got out of the car. This was more than just a meeting with a man to discuss a book, she was going to be asking questions that might offend him simply because she wasn’t sure what was appropriate and what wasn’t. Would he mind her asking what happened during a mating or would he tell her to take a hike? If she made him mad, would he growl at her?
Securing her purse to her shoulder, she clutched her favorite pen and gave it a few clicks as she walked toward the club. To the left of the wooden doors was a doorbell, which she pressed, clicking the pen a few more times for good luck. Her mother had always hated the pen clicking, but Juliette found it soothed her, and she’d never needed more soothing than she did now.
She didn’t want to screw up this awesome opportunity.
A lock clicked and a speaker crackled. “Hello,” a deeply masculine voice said. “Come through the bar to the hallway. My office is on the right.”
She scanned the area around the door and found the camera. “Thanks.”
Pulling open the door, she stepped inside the club and let the door shut behind her. The overhead lights were dim, but she could clearly make out the long U-shaped wooden counter to the left with glass shelves full of bottles behind it and stools surrounding it, tables and chairs around a wooden dance floor, and a stage with a DJ booth and room for a band. Padded booths lined the walls, the shiny surfaces of the tables reflecting the lighting. She took in a slow, deep breath and tried to calm her flying pulse, but all it did was bring in a strange, intoxicating scent that made her skin goosebump. There was something wild in the air that reminded her of
the woods around her grandparents’ home, where she’d spent time exploring as a child. She walked past the counter, toward the hallway. The closer she drew to her destination, the more her feelings intensified. It was almost as if she was destined to be here, to come to the shifter club and meet with the bear alpha.
The office door was open. She peeked around the corner and spied the man standing behind the large mahogany desk. He had short, dark hair that was slightly longer on top and casually styled. His cheeks were stubbled and his mouth was open, his chest heaving as he panted for breath like he’d just run a marathon. His eyes, which were green when she’d first looked at him, had shifted to bright amber as he took her in.
She stepped into the office. “Cruz?”
He opened his mouth farther, but instead of words, a loud snarl erupted from him. She gasped, freezing in place as his body contorted and he shifted. His massive bear form ripped through him so quickly that she wasn’t sure she was hallucinating. The desk was shoved aside by his massive body, his dark fur glinting in the overhead light. Tattered clothes hung off him, and he swayed for a moment before fixing his amber eyes on her and letting out a roar.
She felt the roar all the way to the center of her body, and she’d never heard anything simultaneously so curious and frightening.
A man appeared in the doorway behind her.
“What the actual hell?” He stepped in front of Juliette. “Are you okay?”
She swallowed hard, her heart hammering in her chest. She felt like she was on the verge of passing out, but she didn’t want to make herself vulnerable to the big beast. “I’m... I don’t know.”
“Felicity!” The man yelled.
A woman appeared, took one look at the bear and cursed. “Come on, Miss Parson. Let’s let the boys figure things out.”
Juliette couldn’t take her eyes off the bear, even as she took a step toward Felicity. Cruz roared, and she froze mid-step. She was almost certain that the roar meant “don’t leave.” She tried to slow her breathing so she didn’t hyperventilate, but all that did was bring that strange, intoxicating smell back to the forefront.
