by Cecilia Lane
Stolen Mate
Book Five: Shifters of Bear’s Den
Cecilia Lane
A Shifting Destinies Novel
Copyright © 2018 by Cecilia Lane
Cover Art by Kasmit Covers
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Stolen Mate: Shifters of Bear’s Den #5 by Cecilia Lane July 2018
Contents
Stolen Mate
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Epilogue
Next in Series
Newsletter
About the Author
Also by Cecilia Lane
This is for Deborah Dumm. Because names are hard and she picked the perfect ones for the Byers cubs when this author couldn’t figure it out on her own.
You rock, Deborah.
Stolen Mate: Shifters of Bear’s Den Book Five
Take one protective, growly shifter.
Add his fated mate, a sassy woman who awakens his bear.
Stir in a marriage of convenience, a remote cabin in the woods and let simmer...
Everly Mather’s very terrible, no-good day is fixing to get a whole lot worse. To start off, her alpha announces he wants to mate with her, to produce an heir. When she gives him an emphatic nope, her guardians take her for a drive and abandon her on the side of a desolate road.
The long hike home is punishment for her defiance.
Her bad day takes another down turn when a big, hulking bear shifter stops for a friendly game of twenty questions. He seems to think she needs rescuing. He’s all kind of mad and snarling on account of her pride dumping her in the middle of nowhere.
He refuses to mind his own business.
And refuses to go away.
When she insists she’s just fine without his help, thank you very much, Mr. Growly McBossy tosses her into his truck, and hauls her out to his cabin in the woods. If her jaguar pride cast her aside they don’t deserve a fine little thing like her. He announces his plans to keep her.
Period.
Just a little neighborly protective custody…
Everyone thinks bear-shifter Sawyer Strickland is gentlemanly…
Yeah, that all goes right out the window the moment he finds the pretty little blonde on the deserted road. Everly’s lovely hazel eyes and sweet curves awaken his bear along with a whole lot of protective instincts. She doesn’t want his help?
Too bad.
She’s getting it anyway. There’s no way he’ll leave a vulnerable, albeit sassy, woman out in the middle of nowhere.
Especially when said female is his mate.
Instead of returning her to her people, he carries her off to his cabin. His hospitality doesn’t exactly win her over. Even after a few days, circling each other in tight quarters, she’s still a tad miffed over the whole deal.
After a little time, she’ll come around. He’s sure.
But what comes around instead is her pride alpha, spouting all sorts of nonsense about mating with Everly. Not happening. Sawyer’s ready to give the big cat shifter a beat down. He’s furious that Everly was left behind by her pride members. Also, she belongs to him. There’s that too. Just when things are about to get interesting, Everly surprises both men.
She claims she’s already married. To Sawyer.
Sawyer knows he can protect his woman with a marriage of convenience.
Even if his possessive bear demands to claim his sweet, fiery mate.
Step into the world of Shifting Destinies, where the men and women you meet might just be a little more than human. Their towns are protected by magic, and their hearts are open and ready for love. But watch your step - more than darkness lurks in the shadows.
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Chapter 1
In her typical morning battle, Everly Mather jiggled the thin, folding bathroom door until it finally slammed open. A quick glance through the camper found her mother preparing her father’s breakfast. Her father lingering in the cab. Everly squeezed past her mother and toward the camper door, but not before her father’s cold eyes found her in the rearview mirror.
“Ev—” he started.
Everly bounded down the steps before he could finish, grabbing her bag from her bunk as she hurried out.
She would pay for that. She thought briefly of turning back around and seeing what he wanted, but the sight of Mike stalking out of his own camper and the wails of an infant stopped her. Susie and the new cub needed their check-up. It’d been Everly’s job to ensure mothers and babies were cared for ever since Wade killed Aileen, and she took her duty to those little lives seriously.
The rest of the camp was coming alive in the early morning hours. A few children were already running between campers and tents while a handful of women watched. Mothers and daughters sorted through laundry. Some of the less favored families without campers of their own cooked breakfast over open flames.
The pride were nomads, and long hours on the road were followed by welcome weeks in a new campground. The smaller jaguars could burn off some energy while the elders accomplished necessary work around the camp or took odd jobs in town.
While the women tended to their family needs, the men would gather after breakfast for their morning conference with Wade, their alpha. A steady stream of them already mulled around the side of Wade’s huge RV.
They weren’t her concern. The crying she could hear from across the camp drew her forward and toward the man chain-smoking and pacing outside his door.
She lowered her eyes before Mike caught her looking and kept them lowered even as she neared him. “Morning, Mike,” she mumbled.
He took a long draw of his cigarette and blew smoke in her direction.
Jerk.
Pressing her lips together to hold back the retort, Everly moved past the man. She knocked once and announced herself before climbing the trio of steps.
She found Susie staring listlessly at a pile of dishes on the tiny counter. Her cub wiggled in her arms and screwed up his face to let out a frustrated cry. Susie shook herself and tried to get the baby to latch, but the child
waved his furious fists.
Everly frowned. The baby wasn’t growing as fast as he should.
There were variables at work, of course. Some were chunky little monsters from the beginning. Others needed extra care. With the frazzled look on Susie’s face and the squalling infant in her arms, Everly would put good money on a lack of milk production. She was glad she stopped in before heading to town for groceries. Formula would take a chunk out of the pride’s coffers, but it’d be better than the cub starving.
“How are you doing, Susie?” she asked gently.
“Fine.” She turned her face away, but not before Everly caught sight of a black eye.
The sight of it made her want to spit in anger and throttle Mike. Everly bit her tongue. She was there to check in on Susie and the child, not interfere in marital strife. Not that her words would change a thing.
“And the baby?”
A genuine smile spread across Susie’s face as she rocked the upset baby. “Hungry. And a little warm. He was up all night. He suckles and then breaks off before he’s full.”
Everly dug into her bag and stuck a thermometer under the baby’s armpit. “What about you? Are you eating enough? You need to stay healthy for him.”
“I eat when I can. Too often, Mike says. He wants me to lose the baby weight. But between caring for him at all hours and keeping up with the housework and making sure there’s a meal when Mike gets home at night…” Susie trailed off.
Everly nodded. The women of their pride were responsible for the family. The men earned the money. There wasn’t much overlap in duties or understanding when one side shirked them for any reason. The stress hit Susie hard.
The thermometer beeped and Everly pulled it from the cub. Well within range for a shifter child. “What you need is rest.”
“What she needs is to get off her lazy ass and get the damn housework done and shut that cub up.”
Susie’s eyes went wide, and she stumbled to her feet. “I’m sorry, husband. I’ll get to work now.”
Everly ground her teeth together and blocked Susie. “She needs rest. She’s only three weeks past giving birth to your son. Would it kill you to do the dishes or make her a meal or even hold him while she eats?”
“Are you telling me how to run my family?” Mike asked with a dangerous glint in his eyes.
A growl rumbled in his throat and Everly ignored the obvious signs to back the eff down. She was tired of seeing the mothers and babies in the pride suffer. “As her midwife, I’m telling you she needs formula to supplement her milk supply. I’m telling you she needs rest so she can keep producing.”
Mike scowled. “I don’t want any of my money going to that garbage. If she can’t feed this one, then I’ll find another mate who can.”
“Good thing it isn’t your money, then. It’s the pride’s money,” Everly snapped.
Every cent earned went into their communal pool. Each expense was paid out, too. It was fair, Wade said. It made them all accountable to the other.
Mike backhanded her across the face and she stumbled into the counter corner. She could feel the blood trickling from her temple and taste it on her split lip. Her panther slammed into her, screaming to dig claws into the man.
Everly packed the beast away before her eyes glowed. No good would come of showing fangs to the male. She might be the midwife and a necessary member of the pride, but that wouldn’t protect her for very long should the man start complaining to the wrong ears. The position certainly hadn’t kept Aileen alive. She wouldn’t be the only one to suffer, either. Mike would take all his frustrations out on Susie.
Everly added another item to her to-do list. She’d check with the other mothers to see if they had extra milk or formula. One way or another, she would keep that cub fed.
She set the thermometer on the counter and barely shifted her eyes away from Mike and toward Susie. “Check him every hour. I’ll come back later tonight to see you both.”
She visited with two more mothers and their babies without incident before finding her father waiting for her. Everly silently cursed. Her already terrible day would end with more punishment. She could feel it in her bones.
Arthur Mather grabbed her chin between his fingers and peered at her, turning her head from side to side before releasing her. He said nothing about the damage taken at Mike’s hands. Her punishment was expected. She never could keep her mouth shut.
“Come,” he ordered.
Her panther rubbed against her skin. Everly didn’t need the animal’s warning to be chilled by her father’s eyes. The lack of emotion always disturbed her and made her want to get away. “I was heading to town for supplies.”
True, but she wasn’t due to leave for another hour or until her chaperones were ready.
“Come,” he repeated and started toward Wade’s RV.
Locking away her sigh, Everly trudged after him. There was no other choice. That was the problem of being unmated and female in the pride. There was always someone above her that could order her around. She had no true autonomy. She was told where to go and what to do with no hope of finding her own path.
Everly wanted to scream and shake the others that this was wrong. She was the outsider in that regard.
All the other females fell into step without complaint. She was the one who questioned instead of obeying. It was something Aileen recognized in her and the reason the woman chose her to train as midwife and pride doctor. They were kindred spirits and found a bit of peace in helping others.
Until Wade killed her.
Everly followed her father through the constant crowd outside of Wade’s RV. Surprisingly, her mother stood by the door. She kept her eyes down and stood apart from all the men.
Her father grabbed the handle and opened the door. He jerked his chin. “Inside.”
Her mother scrambled up the steps, but Everly paused. Her cat clawed at her insides tried to rip through her skin to escape. Alarm bells clanged in her head. No good would come from stepping inside.
Mike glared at her from across the crowd. Dang it. He’d lodged a complaint with Wade even though she backed down. She thought rapid curses in his direction and wondered what her punishment would be this time. Her position in the pride might be stripped, or they’d bleed her in her animal form.
Her father’s growl reached her ears, and she shot into the darkened interior. Everly’s eyes took a moment to adjust, but what she saw didn’t soothe any part of her worried mind or agitated animal.
At the far end, in front of a closed door that led to Wade’s den, he lounged on his chair. For private audiences, he received members of the pride in the RV. Public addresses saw others haul the thing outside.
At that moment, Wade drummed fingers on the arm. He pursed his lips and appeared vaguely torn before brushing the salt-and-pepper, curly hair out of his eyes.
Her older sister and his mate knelt at his side. Emery looked nauseous.
“As commanded, alpha, here she is,” her father intoned.
Wade held out a hand. “Come forward, Everly.”
Alarms still clanging away, Everly squeezed between her parents and crossed the handful of steps to stand in front of her alpha. He kept his palm up and twitched the tips of his fingers until she dropped her hand into his.
Emery flinched the moment Wade’s fingers connected, but she didn’t look away.
Wade covered her hand with his other. “The Oracle has commanded that I take another mate to produce my heir.”
Everly nodded along and tried to focus on anything but the sensation of her skin crawling.
The Oracle commanded their lives and Wade interpreted her words. She decided where the pride wandered. She blessed unions and encouraged them to breed. The Oracle kept them out of danger from humans and other shifters who would steal her away and lead them into darkness.
“She wants my line to be blessed with the rarest beauty in our pride.”
The Oracle was full of shit.
“What?” Everl
y’s mouth dropped open.
While the others were common jaguars with their tawny yellow or reddish brown coats with black rosettes, she was the only one in the pride with all black coloring. She was the rarest cat and Wade intended to mate her.
She glanced over her shoulder. Her father looked pleased with his hands clasped behind his back. Her mother kept her eyes glued to the floor. Emery had turned a sickening shade of green.
And Wade leered.
“No,” Everly gasped. Wade’s eyes hardened and she rushed to say something, anything, that would stop the madness in its tracks and keep her hide safe. “You… you already have a mate. My sister.”
His hands tightened around hers. Just a little harder, and she’d feel her bones rubbing together. “Do I not meet your standards? Do you not find me attractive?”
Everly stilled. She didn’t know how to answer. Danger lingered in the air, as it always did around him. He was one of the few men who truly scared her. The others were predictable, but not Wade. There was no telling where his attitude would settle or who would bleed for upsetting him.
