by KD Jones
Bad News Polar Bear
Polar Bear Express Book 2
KD Jones
Copyright 2016 KD Jones
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Table of Contents
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:
About the Author
BLURB
One antisocial polar bear shifter
One pissed off female bear shifter in need of her mate
One secret that could destroy their lives
Things are going to heat up with this Bad News Polar Bear
Chapter 1
Five months earlier
Ivan ran his hand through his hair in frustration and glared at his ex-girlfriend. “What do you mean you’re late?”
Jeanne Lance stood there with her long black hair and bright blue eyes, looking at him with innocence that was a total lie. “I’m late, as in pregnant.”
He felt like he was kicked in the head. “Are you sure?” Even as he asked he inhaled and yes, she was indeed breeding and he scented polar bear cub—his cub.
“Yes I’m sure and before you ask, yes I know it’s yours. By your silence I take it that you want me to get rid of it. That’s why I came, to get money from you.”
“What? No! How could you think I don’t want our baby?” He rushed to her side and took her in his arms, kissing her. “This is the best news I’ve ever had. Wait until my family finds out!”
She pushed out of his arms. “No, no one else finds out about this.”
He stared down at her in confusion. “What are you saying?”
“Look, my father is Edward Lance. He knows about shifters and hates them. If he found out that I had sex and got pregnant by one, he would kill you and cut me off financially. The money won’t be the only thing he would do to me. He would rather see me dead than to give birth to a half shifter. I think getting rid of it would be the best option.”
“No! You’re not killing my child!” He refused to even think of that as an option, but hearing who her father was shocked him.
It was like someone poured acid over his body, as the burn of fury raced through him before he went cold at the name of Jeanne’s father. His brother, the local sheriff, told him horror stories related to Edward Lance but no one could find evidence that he hunted shifters down in their animal forms and killed them for sport.
“Well, I’m out of ideas!”
“Marry me.”
“What?”
“You could marry me and we would raise our child together.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m not going to be your little woman, bearing your babies and baking your pies. I’m a professional model and come from a wealthy family. You work part time at Scout and Tour. No way am I tying myself to you.”
Not for the first time he wondered what he ever saw in Jeanne. She had a hot body and a gorgeous face, but beyond that laid a cold unfeeling bitch.
“My family is not destitute and if I wanted more hours at the shop, my brother would be fine with it.”
“My father would never approve of our marriage. I can’t risk him cutting me off.”
“He’s gone to Europe for a year, right?”
She shrugged. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Look, usually polar bear shifter females carry their cubs for seven months. I am sure you would carry around that—six to seven months. You could continue to work until you start showing, then come stay with me until you have the baby. I’ll raise the child; your father won’t have to know about it.”
She sighed. “I’m a model and I’ll be out of work for a few months and I’ll probably need some plastic surgery to correct the damage done to my body. If I do this, I want to be paid like I was working a job.”
Fuck! She was going to make him pay—literally—for his mistake in taking her to his bed. He didn’t care; he would take three or four jobs to make sure that he could keep his child. “Fine, when you move in with me, I will start to deposit money into your bank account each month until the baby is born. Then you move out, move away, and have nothing else to do with us.”
“I agree. One more thing, Ivan.”
“What’s that?” What more could she demand from him?
“No women. While I’m stuck living with you and getting big and fat, you will not date or fuck other women. If I suffer, so will you.”
At that moment, he couldn’t imagine wanting to touch a woman. Dating Jeanne was bad, but living with her was going to be a nightmare. “Not a problem, no other women while you live with me.”
He left Jeanne at the restaurant after paying for her expensive meal. Already he could tell she would be very demanding, wanting only the best. His little one bedroom cabin wasn’t going to cut it. He would have to build a second bedroom that she could use while staying with him, and then he would turn it into a nursery when she left. As much as he hated having to deal with Jeanne, he was thrilled at the idea of having a cub of his own. He needed to make sure he could afford to keep Jeanne happy until then.
Ivan walked down the sidewalk in their little town, headed to Scout and Tour, a touring business his twin brother Cosmo owned. He would ask to take on as many jobs as he could to make this happen. His family had some money and wouldn’t hesitate to share, but he promised Jeanne no one would know about her.
As he started up the steps of the shop, a delicious sweet scent filled his nostrils. He reached for the handle of the door just as it shoved open, and a woman tripped on her way out and landed right in his arms. The scent grew stronger now as he lifted the woman back to her feet. She turned to face him.
“Thanks, you saved me from face planting.”
“You’re… welcome.” His polar bear roared with glee. It’s her! She’s ours!
The female was gorgeous. She stood at about six feet, which was tall for humans but about average for female polar bear shifters. She had shoulder-length curly dark blond hair and brown eyes that reminded him of honey. She had an athletic body with toned arms and legs, her breasts would fill his hands pleasantly, and her long toned legs in that short mini dress seemed to go on forever. He couldn’t help but think of those legs wrapped around his waist as he buried himself inside of her and claimed her as his mate.
“I’m Dahlia Berry. You must be Cosmo’s brother. Obviously you are; you look just like him. Well, you would look just like him because you’re twins. Oh God, I’m stupid, I’ll shut up now.”
Her cheeks turned a bright pink against her lovely, flawless skin. She was sweet and beautiful, and smelled delicious. She was absolutely perfect and he couldn’t imagine a better mate. Then reality crashed in on him as he realized he couldn’t hav
e her.
He moved her to the side so that he could walk past her. “Next time watch where you’re walking.” He left her standing there with her mouth open in shock at his rudeness. Every step away from her was painful but he had to do this for his unborn baby, even though it was killing a little piece of his soul.
Chapter 2
Present day
“If you don’t like the job, don’t take it!” Dahlia commented as she typed on the computer. She wasn’t really typing anything important, just wanted to appear busy while the jerk, Ivan, was there. Her inner polar bear pushed her to go to him and rub against him, but she maintained control.
That was her gift or maybe curse. Dahlia was a natural omega for polar bears and was a source of calm and comfort. She was also one of a few female polar bears in existence. Ivan’s sister claimed they were hot commodities in their world. She didn’t feel that way.
The one man her bear had showed any interest in hated her and constantly got on her nerves… or he would torture her a different way by staying gone for days at a time. He knew she was attracted to him but didn’t care about her feelings. When he did show up, he smelled of another female—a human one.
She stiffened when he dropped down behind her chair and leaned over her shoulder. “It looks like you’re trying to order a potato peeler online. Which one is the best? The green or the black?”
Dahlia felt heat rise to her cheeks. He loved embarrassing her for some reason. “I like the green.”
He moved around her to sit on the corner of her desk. “What are you planning to cook that you need a new potato peeler?”
She shrugged. “Maybe a stew or a pot roast.”
“Pot roast sounds kind of a lot for just one person.”
Dahlia was starting to get pissed off. She narrowed her eyes at him. “Maybe, but I’ll be making it for two.”
“You got a hot date, Dahlia?” Cosmo asked, walking into the office. Ivan moved off her desk and went to stand by his brother’s office door.
She straightened her shoulders. “Just preparing for one. I finished that report for you and left it on your desk.”
“Great, you can take off early if you like.” Cosmo passed Ivan, walking into his office.
Feeling Ivan’s eyes on her, she turned off her computer and grabbed her coat and bag. “Goodnight!” she called out.
She was grateful to be leaving. Being with Ivan all day was really starting to get to her. Maybe she should take Sage, Ivan’s sister, up on the offer to go out to the local bar. The problem was, she knew just about everyone in town so it made it nearly impossible to have a one-night stand without everyone finding out about it.
Dahlia walked to the door but couldn’t resist looking back at Ivan one more time. He was watching her with an intensity that excited and scared her at the same time. She really did need to get back on the dating scene. Ivan was wrong for her, even though her bear claimed that he was right. Maybe a hot date and some hot sex would help her forget about the grumpy irritating polar bear shifter.
*****
“Ivan, get your ass in here!” Cosmo yelled out, making Ivan stop staring at the door that Dahlia had left through. His bear whined over and over, wanting to go after her, to make her understand. It was no use. Dahlia would never forgive him. He’d made a horrible mistake and would be paying for it the rest of his life.
Sighing with resignation, he entered his brother’s office and took a seat, then propped his feet up on the desk. He didn’t even look at his brother, not wanting to see the disappointment on his face. “What’s up?”
“What in the hell is wrong with you? For months now, I’ve watched you neglect your responsibilities here, and then when you are here, you are constantly getting into arguments with Dahlia for no reason. If I couldn’t scent your arousal around her I would swear you hated her. I’ve had to talk her into not quitting eight different times!”
Ivan brought his feet back down. “What do you mean by her wanting to quit?”
“There is only so much pressure and negativity a person can take without it getting to her. I’ve had to give her raises just to keep her from quitting and frankly, she’s going to own this business if your attitude doesn’t change. All she has to do is sue us for harassment and we’ll both be out on our asses. Of course, she’s too tenderhearted to do that. I’ve caught her crying in the back room countless times, and I’m surprised every day that I walk in and she is still here.”
Ivan ran a hand through his short blond hair. “I didn’t know I was hurting her like that.”
“Well, you are and it stops now. I want to know what’s going on with you. You’ve always been a little bit of a wild card, but never have I seen you so determined to hurt yourself. And now you are taking down a sweet and lovely female with you.”
“Tell her not to quit. I’ll leave.”
“Who in this town is going to hire you? Your reputation these last few months has not been a good selling point. Last weekend you spent most of it in jail after tearing up the local bar.”
“I paid for the damages.”
“Yeah, the damages to the bar can be fixed but I don’t know if your reliability and credibility can be as easily repaired.”
Ivan stood and walked over to the window and looked out at the street. He loved this town; he grew up here with his polar bear clan. His family was here and the few friends he still had were here, though the past few months he hadn’t seen any of them, since all his time had been spent taking care of Jeanne. She insisted that if she wasn’t able to see her family or friends, then he didn’t deserve to spend time with his. Of course, he had to work otherwise he wouldn’t be able to take care of her or the baby, and Jeanne’s demands were great. He already worked two jobs, one with his brother and the other with a logging company.
Cosmo came over and put his hand on his shoulder. “Brother, I can feel your pain. Tell me what’s going on with you so I can help.”
Ivan and Cosmo shared a special bond between them, being polar bear twins. They had always been able to feel what the other was feeling, even as young children. The older they got, they learned to block the other if they chose to. Lately, he had felt too out of control with his emotions.
“I appreciate it, Cosmo, but no one can help me. I’ll tell you as soon as I can… but not now.”
He could tell by Cosmo’s expression that he was disappointed. He hated this rift between him and those he cared about. He especially hated that he couldn’t stop hurting the one female he was born to protect—Dahlia.
“Apologize to her and stop giving her a hard time.”
“I will.”
“If you don’t change your attitude, I’ll have to let you go. I don’t want to be put in that position, but I can’t have you harassing my employees either.”
Ivan hadn’t thought about the position he was putting his brother in. It wasn’t fair of him to do that.
“Got it.” He walked over to the door but Cosmo said one more thing.
“Whatever it is eating you up inside, eventually it will be revealed. I’ll be here for you to stand by your side, no matter what.”
“Thanks, Cosmo.” He left, feeling the heavy emotional chain and anchor weighing him down, ready to pull him to the bottom of the ocean to drown. If only there was something that Cosmo could do to help. No one could help him with the hell he had to live with.
Chapter 3
Later that evening
Ivan was exhausted, having gotten up early to do his logging job before going into work at the scout shop. He got several text messages from Jeanne demanding he pick up this or that from the store. Now he walked into the small two-bedroom cabin he had on the outskirts of town, very remote and private, with several bags of food, magazines, and toiletries.
“Jeanne?”
“I’m on the couch. It’s about time you got here. I’m starving. What are you fixing me to eat?”
He placed the bags on the counter with a huff. He glared at her with frustrati
on. “What would you like to eat?”
“I’m thinking… steak with a baked potato and for dessert, chocolate cake.”
“That sounds great, except that you told me that you hated red meat and I don’t have a chocolate cake.”
She glared at him like he had killed her cat. “I want steak and chocolate cake!”
“Well, tough. I have pork chops and vanilla ice cream, which is what you asked for earlier when you called me at work.”
“I changed my mind. I can’t eat pork, it will make me nauseous.”
“I have sandwich makings, which is what I was planning on eating.”
“Did you bring eggs and bacon?”
“Yes.”
“Then you can fix me scrambled eggs and bacon. Breakfast foods can be eaten anytime.”
“Uh huh. What about not being able to eat pork?”
She waved her hand at him as she turned the channel on the television. “Bacon’s not pork, technically.”
“Right. That makes total sense,” he grumbled as he pulled the eggs and bacon out and placed them to the side as he finished unloading the groceries.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing.” God he hated her sometimes, he really did.
“By the way, I have a doctor’s appointment for the baby and me tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? What time?”
“Nine in the morning.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? I’m supposed to be at work in the morning.”
“I could try to go by myself…” She pouted and faked a few tears.
She played him and he knew it. His polar bear growled on the inside at her lies. No matter how many times she lied, as a shifter, he could scent things like females going into their need, emotions, and especially lies. Jeanne had been lying to him from the start, but he let her get away with it because the sex had been hot. He admitted to himself that he wasn’t thinking with his head, but his cock. Something he swore he would never let happen again.
