Bluff Bears: The Complete 4 Book Collection (BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance)

by Amelia Jade

  "I don't know what I want," she said, still feeling cloudy in the head. Did she want Charlie? He had wanted her to stay, unlike Andy.

  "You're too cold," she said distantly, not actually paying attention to him any longer, then managed to heave herself off the bed. Using the various pieces of furniture, Robyn managed to make her way to the entrance. She all but fell down the stairs, emerging into the cool evening with a headlong fall that almost ended in a collision with someone else.

  "I'm sorry," she murmured as the other person helped her back upright. "Amy? Is that you?"

  "Robyn? What are you doing here?" Amy asked.

  Robyn could see the understanding flash in her eyes. "Making the biggest mistake of my life, most likely."

  "Did you actually...?" The content of the question went unanswered, but she could tell what Amy meant, even in her state.

  "No. No, I didn't, and I won't. But it doesn't matter, the damage is done. Everyone's going to know now, and I'll have ruined the one good thing I had going."

  Amy grunted under Robyn's weight as she helped haul her across the grounds. The cool air was helping sober her up, though, so before long she began to walk more under her own control, easing the load on Amy.

  "You know, these things have a way of working themselves out if they're meant to be," Amy said hopefully, trying to help.

  "Thank you for helping me, Amy. I just wish you were right. But I fucked this one up royally. Charlie is going to tell everyone."

  She began to cry.

  Chapter Eleven

  Andy

  "Come on Robyn, pick up the phone!"

  The message machine on the other end began to play for the tenth time, prompting him to toss his phone across the workbench in anger.

  It had been almost an entire week since he had last seen or spoken to her. After the night at the bar, he hadn't been able to get in touch with her. He had tried calling, at first, but she hadn't responded to his messages or any of his texts. They hadn't ended on bad terms as far as he was aware, so her silence made no sense.

  After several days he had finally made his way out to the park, but she wasn't there, and nobody was telling him where she was either.

  Andy didn't know what to think about the situation. He had been hoping to spend the week with her, having fun and showing her around. But now it was Saturday morning, and he was giving her one last try. He knew she competed later in the finals, so the last thing he wanted to do was have her distracted.

  He was working under the hood of a car when his phone rang.

  The hood slammed itself into his head as he rose, having been knocked off its prop by his hand as it reached for his phone.

  Cursing, he picked up the phone, rubbing his head gently where a bump was beginning to form already.

  "Hello? Robyn?"

  "Uh, no Andy, it's Devon..."

  "Oh, hi. What can I do for you?"

  "The truck broke down again. Neither of us can figure out why, and Tanner is off for a few weeks."

  "Oh, right, they just had their baby, didn't they?"

  "Sure did, healthy baby girl!"

  Andy smiled, unseen by the man on the other end. He was happy for his friend. If anyone deserved happiness, it was Tanner.

  "So, can you come out here?" Devon asked as the silence stretched on for a few moments.

  "Oh yeah, yeah of course. I'll be right out there."

  He hung up the phone and began to catalog in his head what he would need to take with him. The phone rang again abruptly, mere seconds after he put it down. Not wanting to appear silly again, he picked up the phone and answered it normally.

  "Hello, this is Andy."

  "Andy, Devon."

  "What's up?"

  "Uh, I figured you might want to know where we are?"

  "Right. Where are you?"

  He jotted down the location, shaking his head in frustration. It had been like this all week, forgetting things that would normally come to him without an issue, or even things that were simply common sense. All he could think about was Robyn. She dominated his waking thoughts. She dominated his sleeping thoughts. Everything about him was about her now. It seemed ridiculous that it had been such a short time together, it felt like so much longer.

  The drive out to the stalled power truck was lonely, because he kept seeing places that he knew Robyn would love. There was the entrance to the Bluff Trail, a magnificent hiking route that had trips for those out for the day, and longer routes for those that wanted to go for a few days, or even a few weeks. They all wound through the mountain, overlooking natural lakes, meadows, waterfalls, and other beautiful sites.

  Or there was the Bears Don't Drive, an ATV and outdoors place that did rentals that you could take out to explore several hectares' worth of land from a different perspective. Andy had only ever been there once, but it had been an amazing time. Definitely a place he would have enjoyed visiting twice.

  He left the town behind and climbed up into the mountains. The boys were stuck about ten minutes north of the limits. The truck was thankfully off the road when he found them. From the look of it, they had been working on taking down some branches that had been threatening the lines.

  "Hey Andy!" The greetings came from both bears, Dylan and Devon, as they rose from the bumper and walked toward him. The three exchanged hugs, before Andy took it right to business.

  He popped the hood and began to take a look at things before they even tried to fire it up again.

  "So Andy," said Dylan, leaning against the front of the truck. "Robyn, she was the girl you brought to Jet's the other day, right?"

  "Yes," he replied, not wanting to talk about it. He knew with Dylan and Devon, however, that they were not going to give him the opportunity. Perhaps they could give him some advice, though he doubted he wanted to hear it to begin with.

  "She seems nice," he said, leaving the sentence open-ended.

  Andy didn't respond. Sometimes with these two, he found it easier to simply shut up and let them continue to speak. Things seemed to go faster that way.

  "Are we going to be seeing her around again anytime soon?" Devon said, coming up to lean against the truck on the other side of Andy.

  With a sigh he stopped what he was doing and stood up, wiping his hands on his pants.

  "What do you two want?" he growled, not in the mood to be polite.

  "Is everything okay between you two?" Devon asked.

  "Yeah, you sounded rather panicked when you picked up the phone," Dylan said.

  Andy sighed. This was not how he had wanted to start the day, but the two of them wouldn't stop pestering him now that the subject had been broached, so it would be less painful to just get it over with.

  "I think I ended things," he growled, making it known he wasn't happy with them.

  "You think?" they said in tandem, ignoring his growing irritation.

  "Well, we were talking," he began.

  "Yes?"

  "Then what?"

  He glared at them each in turn. "Will you two shut up for a moment? I'll tell you if you let me get the words out."

  They acted subtly chastised, but he knew better. They were just biding their time. The two were so predictable sometimes.

  "So, we were dancing, out on the floor at Jet's. It was going smoothly. Actually, I felt the whole evening went smoothly."

  "What's the problem then?"

  "I don't know. I told her how I didn't want to rob her of her life on the road, in hopes that she would say she would give it up to stay here. Or that I would plant the idea in her head, and that by the end of her week here, maybe she'd want to stay. Now she won't talk to me, or return my phone calls."

  He grimaced, remembering the conversation. It had not come out the way he had intended, but it hadn't been that bad. What had gone so wrong between them?

  "What?" he asked, noticing the looks the other two were giving each other, though they hadn't spoken a word.

  "Andy," Devon began with an exaggerated s
igh. "You're one of our friends, you know that, right?"

  "Spit it out," he said without preamble, knowing they were going to lambast him for something.

  "But you're an idiot sometimes."

  "Yeah, that was not a smooth move at all my friend," Dylan echoed.

  "Do. Tell," he gritted out between clenched teeth, his hands closing around metal of the truck's grill.

  "A woman like Robyn, she knows you, likely better than you know yourself already, at least in some ways. She's smart, and knows you've been a loner for a long time. You've got your thing set up here. There is no way a woman like that is going to flat out try to invade your space by asking if she can stay."

  "What do you mean?" he asked, thoroughly confused now.

  "She wants you to ask."

  "Ask what?" he replied, dodging a hand that came flying at his head.

  "She wants you to ask her to stay. Tell her that you want her to be here with you. Show her that you are interested in opening up your life to have it include her. If you don't do that, she'll never stay with you."

  "Well, how am I supposed to do that?" he scoffed. "She's never at the fair, and she won't return my calls or texts."

  "Just go there and wait for her. She has to come back, right?"

  "She is scheduled to compete again tomorrow," he mused.

  "There you go. Get your ass over there and find her then!"

  Renewed by the encouragement of his friends, Andy decided to go after Robyn. He knew he wanted her to stay with him, and it was about time he told her that. He ended up replacing the battery on the power truck, which made it roar to life. Waving farewell to Dylan and Devon, he gunned his truck to life, hauling the wheel around and pointing it back in the direction of town.

  "You aren't getting away this easily, Robyn Mills. Not before I've told you how I feel," he muttered to himself as the big V-8 roared in acknowledgement.

  The entire way there he went through scenario after scenario in his head, trying to plan out the perfect way to tell her just how he felt. There were so many ways it could play out and he wanted to be ready for all of them. Andy might only have one chance with her, and he would have to make it count.

  He slammed on the brakes in front of the employee entrance, not bothering to put his truck into park. There were more urgent things on his mind as he strode through the entrance, a look on his face sending people scattering out of his way. None of them wanted to mess with the angry-looking titan striding through their midst like a figure out of legend, set in his confidence and purpose of action.

  Robyn's trailer still wasn't there.

  An echo rang out as his massive fist connected solidly with the metal of several nearby containers. She needed to be here for him to tell her everything.

  What if she quit? If she left this all behind to go do something else with her life? I'll never find her then...

  "Andy?"

  He whirled, recognizing the voice. Red closed in around the edges of his vision as Charlie Digger approached, bedecked in a fancy suit that clashed with the working clothes of everyone around them. Andy wondered if Charlie did it on purpose, to help emphasize that he was above them.

  What an asshole.

  His bear growled in agreement.

  "Hey, Andy, I'm glad you're here," Charlie said, coming to a stop in front of Andy.

  "Why is that?" he rumbled, uninterested in anything the small man had to say.

  "I wanted to thank you."

  "What?" He couldn't keep a straight face, the surprise seeping through. What had he done that Charlie wanted to thank him for? Alarm bells started going off in his head, but he didn't know what to do. His gut told him that whatever Charlie was about to say, he meant it truly.

  "With Robyn. I wanted to thank you for making the right decision and letting her go. She came to me the same night, asking if she could stay with me. Because of that, I wanted to thank you for not interfering any farther."

  Andy froze.

  Robyn had gone to him?

  Charlie wasn't lying about that, which hit him right in the gut. Andy could tell that the other man wasn't completely telling the truth, but he wasn't lying about Robyn going to him after he had dropped her off at her trailer.

  The knife in his stomach twisted some more, the pain flowing freely through his body. He had fucked up so badly he had all but driven her into this man's arms.

  "Where is she now?" he forced himself to say through the hurt, complete and binding as it was.

  "You don't need—" Charlie started to say before he was cut off by a deep, threatening growl that reverberated off the vehicles and tents around them. People paused in their scurrying as they stared at Andy, backing slowly away, giving him an even wider berth.

  "She left, leaving only a message that she would be back to compete tomorrow. In the evening," Charlie said hastily, realizing when he had pushed the shifter to his limits.

  Andy snarled, sensing the truth in his words. He turned and strode from the park. Red seeped in through the edges of his vision, his anger overwhelming. Several unlucky souls found themselves carelessly knocked to the side as they found themselves in his way. Andy didn't care. He was in another world.

  He climbed into his truck, the engine responding to his touch with a deep, throaty roar that seemed to say it was angry, too. Cars and people scattered from his path as he slewed the wheel around and headed for the exit. The anger did not begin to fade even as he made his way north, into the valley beyond.

  Pulling into the spot by the river, where he had first brought Robyn, he sat down and waited, his anger building upon itself.

  It was his fault. He had been blind to the situation at hand, completely unable to see what was going on. That had resulted in him fucking things up with Robyn likely beyond the point of repair. At that instant he could not do anything but see red, needing to work off some of the steam.

  Half an hour later, as he paced back and forth, he heard what he had been waiting for. Without hesitation he turned away from the river. A split second later an enraged grizzly bear burst from within him, finally uncaged and aching for a fight. Andy wasted no time, charging straight at the thick brush with a loud roar.

  Twin answering roars came at him and two large black bears emerged from beyond, charging to meet him. The fight was furious, for Andy was a whirlwind, paws slapping left and right, using his larger size for all it was worth as he fought the patrolling bears of the Opal Shift, the clan that claimed this territory.

  He was losing, and he knew it. His fur was matted in dozens of places with blood as it streamed down his sides, one of his rear legs could barely support his weight, and he had to blink continually to clear blood that was pouring into his left eye from a deep cut to the top of his skull.

  The ferocity of his challenge had surprised the others, however. Andy knew the miner bears liked to fight more than many of their contemporary cousins, which is why he had come here. But still, they had not been prepared for the unrelenting fury of a full-blown grizzly shifter. The pair were also cut and bleeding in many places, their movements beginning to slow.

  He was about ready to call it a draw, to withdraw from the area, when another bear emerged from the woods, lunging into his flank with fresh vigor. He tried to turn and counter the attack, but he was slowed by his wounds and the other bear slammed him into a tree, the trunk shattering at the impact. The other bears scattered, but Andy, dazed from the collision, could not get out of the way fast enough. One of the massive boughs slammed into his head on the way down as he tried to move out of the way, sending him tumbling away.

  His last thought was how ironic it was that the immobile trunk had fallen before him, but one of the large branches had managed to send him into a pit of darkness.

  ***

  "Ow," he groaned, slowly coming to his senses.

  With a start, he realized he was back in his human form.

  He sat up slowly, his entire body protesting the movement. Several of the worse cuts stretched
his skin. They were mostly healed by now, which meant he had been out for some time. Consulting his watch, Andy realized he had been unconscious for the better part of a day. It was mid-morning on Saturday.

  "Holy shit," he mumbled, still gathering his wits about him.

  The other bears were nowhere to be seen, meaning they were giving him a chance to retreat honorably, before they came back to hurt him even worse. Moving back to his truck, he pulled his phone from the dash.

  There was the blinking indicator that he had a voicemail message.

  Andy frowned. He never received voicemails on his personal phone.

  Punching it up, he listened to the message, his blood growing cold.

  "Andy, it's Amy. From the Fair? I gave you the tickets, remember? Anyways, listen. You need to get down here quick! Charlie's at it again, he changed the time of the final competition. It starts at noon now, not at five in the evening. Robyn needs to see you, Andy. Trust me on this. Please, get your shifter ass down here. Now!"

  The message clicked and ended. The time on his watch told him it was slightly past eleven. There was no way he could make it back in time to see her hopefully win, but if he drove fast, there was still a chance he could see her before she took off again. It was the best chance he had, even if the odds were not in his favor.

  But when he finally pulled up, he was too late. There were people leaving in streams, and nobody was entering. He tried to pull up by the service entrance, but it was overrun with containers and vehicles entering and leaving, all of them on a purpose. Rides were being closed down and torn apart, shops closed up and packed away, and trucks were being loaded to prepare for the next stop.

  The observation that the place had been built in just a few hours also applied to tearing it down. Banners fluttered to the ground and were rolled up, prizes packed away into bags and boxes for transport. People were shouting left and right as they rushed to tear everything down.

  Pushing forward, Andy let his size help him cut through the flow. People parted around him like the time before, but the space he carved was very much reduced this time.