Roped By The Bear (Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance)

by Meredith Clarke

  “The Lookout? Really? I thought they only served beer to underage kids.”

  He laughed. “Not anymore, I guess. We just go down there, and see what everyone's up to. You should come. I know everyone would really like to see you.”

  “Really?” I scoffed. “Like who? High school people?”

  He nodded, drawing me in with his light golden eyes.

  “I haven't seen any of those people in the years. Probably since my sophomore year in college. I don't know why any of them would have any interest in me anymore.”

  He smiled and shook his head. “I know one reason.”

  “Oh?”

  “You're single. You were one of the most highly sought after girls in high school. Don't think much has changed.”

  I laughed to myself. “Well played. Okay I'll come, but can you promise me one thing first?”

  He smiled. “Sure.” He leaned forward on the desk to be closer to me, placing his face only inches away from my own.

  “You'll help me get a ranch?” I shook my portfolio in my hands.

  He sat back slowly, placing his fingers together underneath his chin. He was studying me with his eyes. And, from where they were settling, I could tell he was interested in all my assets. “You’ve got a deal.”

  9

  I watched as Lacey curled her braids around a thick curling iron, preparing for a night out in our small town. I could never understand how she got her hair to look like that. Even in college, I would spend hours in front of the mirror, and she would get out her curling iron, some mascara, a hot dress, and be ready to go. It was a complete mystery to me. I had stick straight hair that refused to do much of anything. Lacey was so stunning with her chocolaty brown skin and dark black hair. And tonight she was practically glowing with excitement.

  “I can't believe Jared Howard invited you out! You know what this means?”

  She had her eyes on me in the reflection of the mirror, watching for what she expected would be an epic reaction, but I just shrugged. “Lacey, you know he's not really my type. I was just flirting to get the bank deal, and I must know what I’m doing since I was so successful. Can you believe it only took a week for me to get all the paperwork approved?”

  Lacey shook her head. “You know he pushed for you to get passed faster than probably any client he’s ever had. And, girl, you also know if he asked you out, you’d be getting a lot more than a loan.”

  I ignored her little quip so she moved on. “Have you picked a place out yet? You know I think getting out of this apartment would do me some good, too.” She winked in the mirror.

  “I did, actually. I'm going put an offer on it next week. I already discussed it with my commercial realtor, and she thinks that it's a really great piece of property. The house was recently flipped, so it’s brand new on the inside, but the barn needs some work. And then I'm going have to purchase horses and cattle, but that will come by the end of summer. I can't believe it's all coming together, Lacey. I'm finally getting my life back on track.”

  “And don't you think it’s about time to have a man back in your life? And don't tell me about how you've dated, because we both know that isn't really true. A couple one night stands here and there doesn't count as dating someone.”

  She put down her curling iron to cross her arms, and turned around to assess me. As she leaned back on the sink, I had to admit she was a little bit right, and with her jacked arms and steely gaze, she looked formidable. I wasn’t going to argue with her.

  I put my hands up in surrender. “Okay, you're right. It would be nice to have Jared visiting me on my new ranch. But really, Lacey, he's not my type. Besides, I think I heard once that he goes for girls with a little bit darker complexion, if you know what I mean?”

  She smiled devilishly. “You mean he likes a little chocolate with his white milk?”

  I rolled my eyes and laughed. “You're such a mess.”

  She turned back around to check her lipstick in the mirror. “Look who's talking.”

  I fake pouted. “That's not fair! I'm doing a lot with my life. It just took a little while for me to get going.”

  “Right, Allie. I know.”

  +

  “One, two, three, chug!” Jared was holding up my third shot of the night. I was feeling looser than I had in months. My head was swimming with thoughts of success, my new ranch, a great business plan, and the delicious man sitting on the barstool next to me. This was the first time I felt free since the cabin in the woods. But I felt open in a different way: careless, perhaps even a little reckless. Lacey was also drinking, but she had downed a lot more than I had. I’d lost count after her sixth shot of the evening, and that was at least two beers ago. But she was chatting it up with some guy at the end of the bar I didn’t recognize. He looked a little sketchy with an unshaven face and dark features, but Lacey liked a bad boy. She had ditched our group almost immediately when she realized they were old high school friends of mine. She and I met later in college. Lacey and my friendship had been easy once we realized that we lived in the same town. But her parents had moved here when she started college, so she didn't know any of the townies.

  “So, how does it feel to be a landowner? A successful business woman, as it was?”

  I smiled at Jared, as he lazily hung his heavy arm over my shoulder. “I'm not a landowner yet. But I am one step closer thanks to you.”

  “Oh sure, anything I can do for a friend.” He winked at me sloppily in his drunken state.

  “I’m sure.” I raised an eyebrow at him. I hadn’t felt so alive since Finn. Something about Jared brought out the wild side in me again.

  My subtle flirting had worked like a charm, or maybe it was the copious amounts of alcohol in his system, but suddenly he was very close to my face, whispering just along my cheekbone. “Do you want to get out of here?”

  Could I do that? Could I go somewhere with this guy I had known since high school, and let him take me? I didn't know. It was the first time I had felt anything since Finn, and I wasn't sure what those feelings were. Just as I was about to agree to go find a quiet spot to discover my true feelings, a stranger walked into the bar. A stranger, who wasn’t so strange to me.

  He had a dark navy hoodie on covering his head, but I knew that gait anywhere. I knew that strong upper body, and those thick riding legs.

  “Finn,” I whispered.

  I attempted to make eye contact with the new arrival, but he just walked up to the bar and sat down right next to Lacey. She hardly noticed his presence, still flirting with her new potential boyfriend. Lacey had never met Finn. She was one of the girls I had told my father I was spending the weekend with, when instead, I spent it alone at the cabin with Finn. But he was in my life for such a short time, she never got the chance to see us together. It didn’t surprise me that she didn’t recognize him.

  Jared still had his arm draped over me, and as much as I wanted to find out if this flirtation had a chance to go anywhere, I couldn’t do it in Finn's presence.

  “I'm really sorry, but I have to go,” I told Jared.

  “We have to go,” I called to Lacey. She didn’t even look at me, still deep in conversation with her potential fling.

  I knew he would hear me, I knew he would look up, and I would recognize his eyes from underneath the dark hood. But, instead, when he heard my voice, he just turned and looked the other way. Maybe I was wrong, maybe it wasn't him. Or maybe he didn't think that I would be here. Maybe he didn't want to see me with someone else.

  I still held on to the shred of hope that one day we would be together. And now my hope was renewed if it really was Finn.

  “Lacey, come on. We need to go.”

  I thought that Jared would be harder to get away from, but instead all I had to do was peel his arm off of my shoulders, and he slumped over in his barstool, placing his arm on the bar, and allowing his head to find it. He looked a little ridiculous, but I guess everybody has those evenings. And if I were lucky, he wouldn’t reme
mber any of this in the morning. I didn’t want to reject him; I just had to be sure about the stranger.

  I walked over to Lacey, right past the hooded stranger, but when I tried to untangle her from the man that she was currently making out with, he wouldn't let go.

  I quickly realized the situation could escalate if I didn't stop it. She was trying to get some air, but he dug his hands further into her hair. I tried to put myself between them. “Hey buddy, listen. My friend and I, we've got to go. She’ll call you, I promise.”

  I had successfully gotten his attention, which gave Lacey enough time to get some air. She stood up, collected her things, and attempted to move away from the bar. But she stumbled, and I realized he hadn’t let go of her hand. I attempted to break his grip on her wrist, but when she tried to move away, he yanked it back.

  “I'm not done with her yet.”

  I heard Lacey giggle, but she also tried to remove his hand from her wrist, and I caught a glimpse of a panicked look in her eyes when she realized she couldn't get him off of her.

  “Oh, come on baby, I got your number. I'll call. But my friend and I, we gotta bounce. You understand, don't you?”

  He shook his head. “I said you're staying.”

  Now, typically, Lacey wasn't the type of girl to back down that easily, but after a few drinks, I could tell that she was scared. She knew she couldn’t fight him if she had to.

  “I promise she'll call you, but we’re leaving. You need to let go of her or I'm calling security.”

  There was still no reaction from the stranger in the navy sweatshirt, but I could almost feel his presence coming closer to us. If push came to shove, would Finn reveal himself to me?

  “Listen, bitch, I don't know who you are, but I said she's staying with me. If you’ve got a problem, go ahead and call security, but there ain't nothing they're going to do about it.”

  I was starting to panic. What if this guy tried to hurt one of us? I pulled Lacey a little bit harder, but his grip was too tight.

  The group I had arrived with had dwindled to just Jared, myself, and Lacey. With him passed out on the bar, he wasn’t going to be much help. I looked behind me to see if the stranger was still there, but he was gone. We were in some serious trouble. And that's when I heard him.

  “I'm pretty sure the lady said that it's time for her to go.” The voice was gravelly, but strong, and I knew exactly who it belonged to. “Now if you don't let her go, I'm going to break your God damned neck. I don’t think security is going to do anything about that, either.”

  I turned around to see the man, with his hood still up, with one arm around Lacey’s assailant’s neck.

  The man simply nodded, and let Lacey go. I wanted to stay to confirm my suspicion about the knight in shining armor, but Lacey quickly grabbed my hand, and pulled me from the bar.

  “Oh my God, Allie! That was crazy!”

  “I know. In so many ways, I know.”

  I looked back, hoping I would catch a glimpse of Finn leaving the bar, but sadly I saw nothing. Just the shadows of the night, once again, taking in my secrets.

  10

  Three weeks later, I sat at my new desk in my shiny new office. I had gone to the bar to find Finn every night since the incident with Lacey, but he hadn’t been there. Part of me wondered if I had made him up. As if I just wanted that guy to be him.

  There was hardly any furniture at Lacey’s and my new house. Most of our belongings were still in boxes, but I had a desk, and that was all I needed. I was working diligently on purchasing a few foals when I heard a knock at my door.

  “Give me a second, Lacey. I’m just trying to find this last figure.”

  “I heard you’re looking for ranch manager.”

  I knew the voice without even looking up. There was a different texture to it, though, almost gruff. Much more mature than that once been. But it had been months since I had heard his voice clearly, and I had learned that a lot could happen in that time. A lot, and sometimes not so much.

  Slowly, I put down my pen and took a deep breath, allowing my eyes to travel up to see Finn’s face. He stood smugly, leaning lazily on the doorframe with his hand in his pocket, one of his legs supporting the other. It was exactly how I expected to see him, but not here. Maybe never even in Colorado. He left me. He wasn’t ever supposed to come back. I had even almost convinced myself it wasn’t him in the bar that night. But here he was, in all of his mysterious glory, and I was taking in every inch, reveling in his rugged beauty.

  “Been in any bar fights lately? You gotta keep that one on a leash.” He pointed over his shoulder, at what I assumed was Lacey in the front of the house.

  “Finn,” I breathed barely above a whisper. I shook my head to calm myself, and pull it together. There were so many things I planned on saying to him that had run through my head a thousand times in the past few months, but now that he was standing in front of me, my mind was completely blank. I felt a surge of hope that he was here for more than just a job.

  I stood up and walked around my desk, still in my business skirt, a black pencil skirt that I had kept from college interviews, and a button up blouse. I didn’t look like my usual self, but Finn wouldn’t know that anymore.

  “It was you at the bar the other night? Why didn’t you say something?”

  He ran his fingers through his dark hair. “I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t expect to see you there. I didn’t even know you were the bar type.”

  “I’m not. I mean I wasn’t.”

  “Of course not. You’re a businesswoman now. I knew you had it in you.”

  I stood in front of my desk, and leaned back on it, attempting to appear casual, but his proximity was killing me. How could he look so good after all that had happened between us? And how could he act like any of it didn’t matter?

  He took his hat off, and sat it on a box next to an overstuffed chair, where he gingerly sat down still trying to appear calm. It still had the plastic on from the store, and made a noise under his weight.

  “So, how do you want to do this interview, Allie? I don’t really have a resume, but you know my skill set, and you know I’m good for the work. I always wanted to be a trainer.”

  I nodded, chewing on my lower lip. He was going to ignore the elephant in the room after all. “Well, the job is available. But I’ll be looking at multiple candidates, so maybe I’ll give you a call next week.”

  I quickly turned around, and walked towards my window behind my desk, hoping that he wouldn’t see the fear in my eyes. I hardly knew how to interact with him anymore, a man I once loved more than anything. I was willing to completely leave my life to be with him, and he left me. This wasn’t how it was supposed to work out, and I was obviously still bitter about it.

  I continued to stare out the window, hoping he would just get up and leave, but instead, I heard the chair that he was sitting in start to rock. I turned around intending to scold him for marking the floors, but when I did, I could only just look. Finn was looking at me like a wounded puppy, like I had done something truly horrible to offend him, and I suddenly got it. He was here for more than a job, much more than a job.

  Before I could rage at him for leaving me, he stood up and crossed the room. “You look good, Allie,” he said as he got close to me. “You always look so damn good.”

  I could feel his breath on my face. It was drawing me in to him, to his lips. I knew that they were soft under the initial roughness, just like him. I felt those lips once, not only on my own, but also on my skin, covering every inch of me like a warm blanket on a freezing winter’s night. That’s how our relationship began, and I yearned for it now.

  “Finn, I…”

  But he didn’t wait to hear what I had to say; instead, he wrapped his rough hands around my face, and pulled me onto his lips. It was slow, sensual, and something I had been craving for months. My knees trembled under my weight, and I leaned back against the molding of the bay window. Without even thinking about it, I pulled
myself up, and sat on the windowsill, grabbing him by his collar of his shirt, and pulling him into me. He completely understood my motives, and quickly ran his hand through my hair, continuing to hold me close to him, nibbling slowly on my lower lip.

  He moved his lips down my chin and over my neck, slowly suckling on my flesh. When he let go to breathe, he whispered in my ear, “Allie, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking. Leaving you was the worst decision of my life.”

  I shook my head back and forth. “I thought I was going to die without you. You leaving literally killed a part of me.”

  “I know. I just thought I knew what was best for you. But I was so wrong.”

  “You were wrong.”

  “Allie, how do you get me in so much trouble?”

  I made a face. “Me? You were the one who showed up here today. After months! Six fucking months Finn! What the hell have you been doing? Who have you been doing?”

  He stepped back with his hands up, as if to say he was going to surrender. “Now, just wait a second here… Who’s to say I was with anyone? Not to mention, I figured your new husband, James, would be hanging around here, helping you pick out staff.”

  I scowled at him. “You know that’s not true. You know how things ended between us. I haven’t even talked to him in months. He moved to Florida, for God sakes! And I know he met some pretty little thing down there and is living happily ever after, while I’m stuck here waiting for you to show up.”

  “What?”

  I turned on him, anger now fueling my attack. “You heard me. I couldn’t leave this place without knowing if you were ever going to come back or not. I couldn’t risk it.”

  “Risk what?”

  “My heart.” I shook my head sadly. “Finn, when you left you took my heart with you. It’s taken me this whole time to get it back. But when you walked into the bar the other night, I realized that a piece of it is still missing. It’s not fair that you have control over me like that. But then, you don’t want to do anything with that.”