Simply Bears: A Ten Book Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance Collection

by Simply Shifters

  Zeke pulled her to her feet, babbling apologies faster than his brain could form the words. Suddenly she was surrounded by people. Molly was hugging her. James was still taking pictures. Everyone was asking questions. She could see flashing blue and red lights approaching in the distance. Blind terror followed by sharp relief had made everything a little hazy.

  Trying to pull herself together, she was able to focus in on Damon, who was holding out a phone to her.

  “He wants to talk to you.” he said.

  *

  Escaped Bear Attacks Journalist

  Sierra Christie

  Though it is illegal to trap and keep wild animals as pets in Washington, that doesn’t always stop people. Far from the usual possums and stray cats enthusiasts may desire to adopt, Gerald Gregory is wanted for reckless endangerment after his pet bear terrorized the city streets of downtown Olympia last night. The wild black bear had been raised from a cub in Gregory’s basement, going without notice until it broke out and went on the prowl.

  It was as I left my friend’s art show at 11 pm last night that I spotted the bear sniffing around my car. Unfortunately, he saw me too…

  Thanks to Eric, Sierra had her first cover story.

  It hadn’t been too hard to fabricate the details. The cops had mostly lost interest after being unable to locate the bear. All Sierra had to do was point a finger at a man who had already changed his identity and moved to Sleuth months before, a man the police were unlikely to find even if they were really looking. Damon and Zeke had set up a cage and other bear wrangling stuff in Gerald’s basement, and tried to make it look like someone had been living there up until last night. The story was all wrapped up with a bow and accompanied by a striking photograph of Eric rearing up over her as she faced him from the ground, the back of her dress in bloody tatters.

  Sierra was admiring her byline as she sat in the passenger seat of Joe’s Range Rover. He reached over and squeezed her hand as they bumped along the dirt road towards Sleuth.

  “Are you ready for this?” he asked her.

  She had her front-page story, she had Joe back, and soon, Eric wouldn’t be a danger to her anymore. Her view of the world had expanded to include mysterious and amazing things she hadn’t thought possible. She had found the excitement she had been searching for. She was definitely ready.

  That hadn’t quite been the feeling she had been experiencing the night before when Damon had handed her the phone.

  She had taken it from him with shaking hands.

  “Sierra!” Joe had greeted her in a panic. “Are you alright?”

  “Now?” Sierra had asked him.

  “What?”

  “You’re calling me now? After I’ve been trying to call you all week?”

  And she unceremoniously hung up before he could get another word out. She handed the phone back to a stunned Damon, who looked at her plaintively as it began to ring again.

  “I’m not answering that.” she insisted.

  After speaking with the police she got patched up by the EMT’s. The scratches on her back were long and wicked looking, but fortunately shallow. His claws had just grazed her, doing much more damage to her cerulean blue silk dress than her skin. The EMT’s bandaged her up, insisted on a rabies shot, and then sent her on her way.

  Sierra looked quite the sight as she walked into her office just after midnight. Not having anything else to wear, and not wanting to waste time by going home, she was barefoot with torn and dirty stockings barely concealing scabbed knees. The ripped up dress and bandages completed the look. Sierra was sure by tomorrow every muscle in her body would ache like she had run a marathon.

  But tonight she was all adrenalin and excitement and anger. There was no room left for pain.

  Her editor met her just inside the door.

  “Jesus! You’re a mess! Tell me there’s pictures.”

  “Oh, there’s pictures,” James said as he trailed in behind her, camera in hand. “Wait till you see them.”

  They got straight to work on the story, racing for tomorrow’s deadline.

  Sierra’s phone rang twenty-six times in the next hour as Joe called her again and again. She ignored it each time, focused wholly on her work.

  After grudgingly realizing if she wanted to keep Sleuth out of the papers she would need his help, she answered the twenty-seventh call.

  “Don’t hang up!” Joe said immediately.

  “Wasn’t going to.” Sierra told him.

  “Sierra I’m so sorry. I’m going to kill him. I want to see you. I’ll do anything. Just tell me what you want.” he babbled.

  “I want a fall guy.”

  “What?”

  By 4:00 am, the story was finished. James and her editor had gone home. Too exhausted by the night’s events to make it to her car, Sierra had passed out at her desk.

  She woke up to the feel of Joe’s hands on her body, lifting her out of the chair and into his arms. Her overtired brain briefly wondered if she was dreaming. Surely only a dream could feel this nice. With his warm, strong arms holding her up, she felt safe and protected in a way she hadn’t realized she needed to feel until now. He brought his head down and kissed her, slow and sensuous. She forgot to breathe as his kiss lit up her body.

  “I’m sorry I left you.” he said.

  “Shut up.” she told him, and kissed him again.

  This kiss was more intense, hungrier. It made the hair stand up on her arms and blood pulse in her clit. She moaned as he set her down on the desk. He knelt and slid off her panties before plunging his face between her legs. She pulled on his hair and moaned louder. His tongue moved over her, first flicking over her clit and then softly sucking. Her legs spasmed and she wrapped them around his neck as she felt the orgasm building impossibly high. A feeling more intense than she could stand. It crashed into her like a wave, knocking the air from her lungs. She screamed out his name.

  Joe knocked the stuff off of her desk and ripped off what was left of her dress. With a growl he pushed her onto her back, then proceeded to peel off his clothes. He took off his shirt first, reveling the heavily muscled, hair covered chest underneath. The pants came off next, and then he was standing naked in front of her, his huge cock pulsing with blood and ready.

  He plunged into her with one, quick thrust. It made her gasp with pleasure and lit up her body again. Slowly, ever so slowly, he pulled out, then quickly thrust into her wet pussy again. She wrapped her legs around him, holding his body close to hers as he thrust into her over and over. The pleasure was building to a crest in her, taking her higher. He bit down on one of her nipples and she screamed.

  With a great crack the desk gave way beneath them, sending them sprawling onto the floor. Hardly missing a beat, he scooped her up and pressed her up against the wall, continuing to thrust into her while holding her up. She buried her face into his neck, kissing, biting, and sucking until the pleasure became too intense and all she could do was ride it out. She came again, this time simultaneously with Joe, who called out her name as his whole body shuddered.

  Spent, they sank to the floor, arms around each other.

  “I love you,” he had whispered to her in the darkness. “I promise, I’m not going anywhere again.”

  Sierra smiled to herself now, thinking of the night before as they drove toward Sleuth.

  “You owe me a new desk,” she reminded him.

  He smiled at her. “I’ll get you something stronger this time.” he said.

  “Something sturdy. Just in case you ever have to work late again.”

  “What if you have to work late?” she asked.

  He slid his hand up her thigh.

  “My desk is very sturdy.” he assured her.

  They rounded the corner into Sleuth just as the sun was sinking.

  “Time to face the crowd.” he told her.

  *

  Joe had brought enough copies of The Post for everyone. They stood around reading the story, surrounding Sierra and Joe.


  “He made you write this?” one of them asked her.

  “She did it on her own.” Joe assured them. “She knew a bear sighting in the middle of the city would raise suspicion, so she made up a convincing lie. I just helped with some of the little details.”

  The man who had formerly went by the name Gerald Gregory spoke up from the front.

  “Is that all my good name is to you, Joe?” he joked. “Little details?”

  There was some general laughter. Joe smiled and waited for the crowd to quiet down again, clearly in his element.

  “She risked her job to tell that lie, and she did it to keep me, and all of you, safe from prying eyes. So I ask you, do you really think she would deliberately do anything to jeopardize this place?”

  The crowd muttered in response. Some cast her dubious looks, but many more seemed to be in agreement with Joe, nodding their heads. Sierra allowed herself to be hopeful.

  A woman with a baby on her hip and another child clutching her hand addressed Sierra.

  “So why did you do it?” she asked.

  Sierra took Joe’s hand.

  “Because I love him,” she said simply.

  Joe smiled at her in surprise. She hadn’t said it back to him yet. For a moment they forgot the crowd and he had eyes only for her. He leaned down and kissed her. A few of the children made grossed out noises. Somebody wolf whistled.

  He turned back to them again, holding her hand.

  “Eric went against the decision of his Alpha. He attacked Sierra in public. Shifting in an alley between two buildings in the middle of downtown Olympia. He could have exposed all of us. He claims he did all of this to keep you safe. Does his behavior make you feel safe? Would you feel better with him in charge?”

  He let the words hang for a moment before continuing.

  “And just what kind of man is he that he would attack a woman in the street like this?” he gestured at Sierra. “He wasn’t just trying to turn her. He meant to kill her. Worse still, he also attacked her roommate, a woman who knows nothing about us. Her only crime was that she was home when he broke into their apartment.”

  “It’s true.” Zeke interjected. “I saw it. Dude messed up her face pretty bad. Tore up their place too. Smashed it up. And we’re talking about a five-foot tall human woman who’s half-drunk most of the time. Really threatening.”

  “There’s a picture on page twelve,” Sierra added.

  Several people flipped through their papers to the article on Molly’s art show. It was accompanied by a great shot of Molly standing in between two of the paintings.

  It was Brenda who spoke up this time from where she sat cross-legged on the grass in the front row.

  “He ripped up her paintings?” she asked.

  Sierra nodded. “He did.”

  “That bastard.” Brenda said.

  “Brenda!” her mother scolded her.

  Everyone laughed.

  There was a flash of headlights as an old blue pickup truck roared into the clearing. The truck pulled to a stop right next to Joe and Sierra. Eric climbed out, looking furious.

  “What is she doing here?” he demanded. “What were you thinking bringing her back here again? You’re putting the whole town in danger for that piece of ass!”

  Joe didn’t say anything. He calmly placed himself between Eric and Sierra, and let Sleuth speak for him.

  “You’re the one putting us in danger!” someone shouted.

  “You shifted in public!”

  “You could have gotten picked up by animal control!”

  Eric backed up a few paces, sensing the shift in the tide.

  “I did what was necessary!” he countered. “I was trying to keep this place safe from outsiders! He was just going to take her word she wouldn’t tell anyone. Just her word! The word of a reporter! That’s not good enough!”

  “So you attack a couple human women? That’s your tough guy solution?” Zeke asked him.

  Eric backed up towards the truck.

  “Everything I did I did for all of you!” Eric shouted, but clearly no one was accepting that. There was real panic in his eyes now as he realized he didn’t have any friends in this crowd. He looked back at the truck, clearly trying to decide if there was even the slightest chance he could make a break for it. But the crowd had circled him now, cutting off any chance of an exit.

  “Is this your idea of keeping us safe?” a man spat at him, and threw the paper in his face. The paper landed face up in the mud. It had started to rain lightly. Eric stared down at the picture of him looming over Sierra as the raindrops pattered across it.

  Eric chanced one more plea. “I was trying-”

  “Enough!” Joe boomed out in a deep voice. He slammed his hand into the truck just next to Eric’s face. The metal screeched and stretched from the blow, leaving behind a dent about the same size as Eric’s head. Eric flinched. He was clearly really scared now.

  “Eric Gunther,” Joe began, “You disobeyed a direct order from your Alpha, shifted in a public place, used your strength against a human who was not threatening you, and generally put this town in danger. Do you have any miserable excuse to say in your defense?”

  Eric looked around wildly, frantically searching the crowd for a friendly face or an ally. There were none to be found.

  Joe grabbed Eric by the shoulders and threw him to the ground, mud splashing around him.

  The children were leaving now, their parents escorting them or shooing them away. Brenda protested loudly.

  Joe began to take his clothes off, readying himself to shift. He cast the clothes uncaring into the mud and stood naked in the rain.

  Eric, truly desperate now, turned to Sierra.

  “Please don’t let him kill me,” he begged her. “I’m sorry. I won’t bother you ever again. I’ll leave forever, but I don’t want to die yet. Please!”

  With a human sound of disgust mixed with an animal’s roar Joe swiped at Eric with a still half formed paw. The blow raked his face. Rivulets of bright red blood mixed with rainwater and ran down to the ground, turning the water in the puddle a faint shade of pink.

  Joe had shifted completely now. He approached Eric with a low growl.

  “Wait.” Sierra said.

  Joe stopped, looking up at her.

  “Is there any other way?” she asked. “Does he have to die?”

  “Thank you,” Eric said piteously.

  “Shut up. Don’t fucking talk to me.”

  She wasn’t doing this for him. Never for him. She just didn’t think anyone should die here today. There’d been enough violence already.

  Joe just stared at her. Sierra supposed she hadn’t logically been expecting him to answer.

  “We could banish him.” someone offered.

  “Forever?” she asked.

  “Forever.” They concurred. “He wouldn’t be allowed in Sleuth ever again, or anywhere in the state of Washington. He’d get three days to get out, and after that we kill him on sight.”

  Sierra approached Joe. She tentatively reached one hand up to his muzzle and ran her fingers through his thick, black fur. It was softer than she had expected it to be.

  “Joe?” she asked. “I don’t want you to kill him.”

  Joe looked at her for a moment and then, in an oddly human gesture, nodded at Eric. Eric did not wait around for another sign. Without saying a word, he scrambled to his feet and jumped back into the truck. After one, brief, backwards glance at Sierra he sped away into the night.

  Joe shifted back into human form.

  “Are you sure that’s what you wanted?” he asked her.

  Sierra shook her head.

  “No,” she said. “But I think it was the right thing to do.”

  He kissed her forehead lightly.

  “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you out of those wet clothes.”

  *

  They made love that night in the shower, the hot water pouring over their entwined bodies. After the chaotic events of t
he past 48 hours, Sierra reveled in the tension relief from the steam and the feel of Joe’s body.

  When she woke the next morning the sun was high in the sky, streaming brightly through the window. Joe came into the room carrying a tray of grilled cheese sandwiches and juice.

  “Good morning.” he said to her brightly. “I was planning on making you breakfast, but since you slept straight though that it’s going to be lunch instead.”

  Sierra looked at the clock. She had slept for thirteen hours, and felt like she could sleep for at least thirteen more. As she had predicted, her body ached everywhere. She stretched languorously and gratefully accepted a grilled cheese, groaning as she sat up.