Table of Contents
Copyright
Foreword
Chapter One – Skyla
Chapter Two – Jordan
Chapter Three – Skyla
Chapter Four – Jordan
Chapter Five – Skyla
Chapter Six – Jordan
Chapter Seven – Skyla
Chapter Eight – Jordan
Chapter Nine – Skyla
Chapter Ten – Jordan
Chapter Eleven – Skyla
Chapter Twelve – Jordan
Chapter Thirteen – Skyla
Chapter Fourteen – Jordan
Chapter Fifteen – Skyla
Chapter Sixteen – Jordan
Chapter Seventeen – Skyla
Chapter Eighteen – Jordan
Chapter Nineteen – Skyla
Chapter Twenty – Jordan
Chapter Twenty-One – Skyla
Get In Touch
Also By Harmony Raines
Black Bear Down
Return to Bear Bluff
Book Three
***
All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written consent of the author or publisher.
This is a work of fiction and is intended for mature audiences only. All characters within are eighteen years of age or older. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, actual events or places is purely coincidental.
© 2016 Harmony Raines
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Black Bear Down
When his army helicopter crashes in the Himalayas, killing his comrades, Jordan Williams loses much more than his friends. He loses the use of his legs, and his bear. Two months later, he is transferred to Bear Bluff, where he grew up, but he isn’t interested in life. Not until Skyla walks into his hospital room.
She’s his mate. But how is he supposed to deal with that, when his life no longer makes sense? With his bear gone, and unable to walk, what kind of man is he? How can he provide for her like a bear shifter should?
He should just let her walk out of his life. Hell! If he had any sense, he would push her out of his life.
However, in a short space of time, he realizes she is his own hope of salvation. She brightens up his world, which has become dark and soulless. Can this curvy woman pull him out of the darkness and back into the light?
Chapter One – Skyla
“Hello, I’m Skyla Martin.” Skyla offered her hand to the extremely pregnant nurse who was leaning against the desk in the reception area of the hospital. This was Nurse Beth, whom she had previously spoken to on the phone, and had arranged to meet at 11:00 a.m. It was 10:55, Skyla always liked to be early.
“Hi, Skyla, good to meet you.” Nurse Beth straightened up and took Skyla’s hand, shaking it warmly. “Sorry, they might be sticky. I’ve just been eating gummy bears, can’t get enough of them with the baby.” She rubbed her hand lovingly over her large baby bump. “It was chocolate with my last one, a girl, so I think I might be expecting a boy this time.”
“One of each, that would be brilliant,” Skyla said, smiling at Nurse Beth as she waddled towards the elevator.
“I can’t make it up the stairs more than once a day.” Beth pushed the button and while they waited for the elevator to arrive, she said, “You are aware of Jordan’s condition?”
“Fully. I read the notes you sent. Terribly sad, a man cut down while serving his country.”
“Incredibly.” Beth looked at Skyla, as if debating something, and Skyla knew to let her have some space; Beth would say what was in her head when she was ready. “Did you read the psych report too?”
Skyla looked up at Beth, studying her for a split second, gauging what her body language and expression said. “You think it’s all in his head?”
“I think the psych report is flawed. That’s all I’m saying. It was done before he came back here, so it didn’t take into account…”
“His other… what do you call it… side?” Skyla asked. There was a reason she had been chosen to look after Jordan while he moved into his new home and learned to be independent again. She held sufficient qualifications: her training, gleaned from working with many injured men and women over the last few years, was on the job, but the real reason she had been chosen was because she knew about shifters. The people who lived among normal people, but who were uniquely able to turn from a human into an animal and back again.
Skyla had heard Bear Bluff was full of these shifters, and that and the lure of the mountains were why she was here. Growing up, she had been best friends with a boy, Donnie, who was a shifter. They were inseparable, with Skyla being the witness to his first shift, around the time he reached puberty. She vividly remembered running her hands through his thick fur coat—and she remembered when he met his mate for the first time. That was the day their relationship changed forever.
Not that Skyla was his mate. He’d known that from the moment of his first shift, and so had she. Donnie had told her all about how a shifter found his mate. How it was love at first sight, a love than went deeper than any other. Whereas theirs was a love forged by friendship and childhood escapades.
That relationship stalled when he found his true love. There was no room in his life for her, not when he suddenly became obsessed with having kids and building a future for them. But she had watched the instant attraction, seen how he would do anything for his mate, and she knew that was the kind of love she wanted. Evergreen, endless. Unlike her parent’s marriage. If she ever settled down, she hoped it would be with a man as loyal to his woman as Donnie.
“He’s a bear. A shifter.” Beth took a breath, letting it out slowly. She was preparing to share something else. Skyla smiled encouragingly.
“Whatever you say, stays in these four walls.” She looked around the elevator car. “Tell me what you think, and I’ll bear it in mind when I meet Jordan.”
“He hasn’t been able to shift since it happened. Since he was shot down.” Beth looked uncomfortable. “I don’t know if he’s afraid and won’t attempt it, or if he physically can’t.”
“It takes time to get over the trauma of what he’s been through. When I read his medical file… I wonder how he survived.” Skyla had read the description of the accident, set down in black and white, and felt sickened. It was an unemotional, factual, blow-by-blow account of how an Army helicopter, carrying ten men on a rescue mission to set up a water filtration system to help those affected by an earthquake high in the Himalayas, had crashed, killing everyone on board except Jordan.
“Shifters are stronger than ordinary men.” Beth kept her voice low as the doors opened and they left the elevator to walk down a corridor, past doors where other patients were eating their lunch. Visiting would begin soon; the wards were filling with friends and relatives of the sick and injured.
“Is this not a good time?” Skyla asked, keeping her pace slow to walk by the side of Beth, who must be due to give birth imminently. “Jordan will be eating, and what about his visitors?”
“He
barely eats, and he hasn’t had many visitors.” Beth stopped, glancing at a door twenty feet away. “He has family, but he asked them not to visit. Ben, my husband, checks in on him when he can, they knew each other growing up. But apart from that… he’s refused to see anyone.” Beth shook her head and looked tearful. “Stupid hormones.” She wiped her eyes and took a deep breath.
“It’s OK. Once he’s home, and starts to get out in the fresh air, he’ll feel better. I’d appreciate it if you and Ben could swing by and visit him. I know it’s his choice whether he has visitors or not, but unless he turns you away at the door, it is important for him to see faces he knows.” Skyla gave Beth a moment to compose herself. “Do you want me to go in on my own?”
“No, I think Ben’s in there, he said he’d spend his break with Jordan. And give us a hand to get Jordan into his wheelchair.”
“I can manage,” Skyla answered.
“Jordan is a big man. Most bears are,” she said conspiratorially and winked at Skyla, who tried not to blush. “Sorry, inappropriate.”
“I have heard a lot worse,” Skyla said. “I’ve helped countless soldiers with their rehabilitation, and the language goes with the territory.”
Beth smiled kindly at Skyla. “Thank you. For moving here to look after Jordan. It can’t be easy to move around the country.”
“I’m used to it. My mom left when I was seven, and my dad raised me.” Skyla caught the tremble in Beth’s lip. “Don’t worry, I had an amazing childhood, my dad is an incredible man.”
“But…” Beth knew how to read people too, it seemed.
“But three years ago he met the woman of his dreams, and a fifty-five-year-old man does not need his daughter around to cramp his style.” Skyla smiled, but she couldn’t infuse it with warmth. Damn, she was selfish: she wanted her dad to be happy, of course she did, but she missed the close relationship they used to have. When her stepmom moved in, things changed.
Not wanting to hurt her dad, or make her stepmom feel as if she had driven Skyla away, she had stayed. Holding on to her old life, to her old memories, until a chance encounter with an Army doctor led her to a career change, or at least a step to the side.
Helping men and women hurt while serving their country was the most fulfilling job she had ever done. She had traveled around the country, and to other countries she would never have ventured to alone. However, coming to live in Bear Bluff had to be the highlight. And fate.
She let that thought go; it would do her no good to go hunting for a shifter to be her mate. It didn’t work like that; Donnie had told her it just happened. She could meet every man in Bear Bluff, and neighboring Bear Creek, but if they weren’t true mates, then their relationship would lead nowhere.
You didn’t come here just to find love, she reminded herself, you came here to help Jordan walk again. That must be your main focus.
“Ready?” Beth asked. “And please don’t be offended if he’s a little rude. I don’t think he means to be, he’s just—lost.”
“It’s OK, I’ve experienced every emotion from those who’ve been injured. Anger, grief, resignation, I can deal with it.”
But when she pushed the door open, and saw Jordan for the first time, Skyla wondered if that were true. Their eyes locked, and for an instant there was a sign of recognition, and hope, pure, exquisite hope, and her heart lurched in response. It couldn’t be. He couldn’t be. Could he?
She took a step forward, her heart hammering in her chest, before faltering and stopping for a split second as Jordan’s expression slipped away to be replaced by a mask. It was then that Skyla saw the angry scar: red and raw, it ran along his jawline and down his neck. Yet it didn’t ruin his face, it added something to it.
“Hello, Jordan,” Skyla said brightly, trying to keep her voice even. Jordan didn’t answer, he simply turned and looked away, but she could see his Adam’s apple moving; he was swallowing down the emotion that he had expressed in his eyes.
A small seed of hope sprouted inside her heart, and although she cursed herself for being so stupid, she knew she didn’t have the strength to kill it off.
“Hello, Skyla. I’m Dr. Ben.”
“Beth’s husband. Congratulations on your baby, it looks as if you are going to have your hands full very soon. You two are very lucky.” She smiled warmly, and the handsome Dr. Ben smiled back. There must be something in the mountain water around Bear Bluff, because all the men were incredibly good-looking in their own way. And buff.
Even Jordan, lying in his hospital bed, looked strong and toned, his biceps huge. But he had a physical job, or had; now he would have to work out in a gym to maintain his upper body strength. That was a conversation for later, she had read in his files how he had refused to carry on with any exercises, but she’d help him see the need for them.
“We are very lucky, thank you.” Ben smiled and shook her hand. When he dropped it, he moved closer to Beth, his hand twitching to touch her, no doubt to stroke her baby bump and feel the life in there. But he didn’t, the doctor in him making him remain professional.
Her eyes slipped across to the bed where Jordan kept his eyes focused on anything but her. She might be offended, if she hadn’t seen the look in his eyes earlier. His avoidance had the opposite effect. Jordan ignoring her, made her more certain that there was a connection between them.
Dare she hope they were mates? This hope was soon quashed when he suddenly turned and looked at her, and said, “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t need a nursemaid; I can manage on my own. You can go.”
Chapter Two – Jordan
How could he be doing this? Trying to throw her out of his life, trying to rid himself of his mate. It was madness. He knew it was, his bear would tell him it was. If his bear was still there.
An emptiness opened up inside him. It was better this way, to be alone in his suffering. There would be nothing worse than a bear who couldn’t use his back legs; there could be nothing worse than a mate who would be eternally tied to a man in a wheelchair.
But she was a fine woman. Curves in all the right places. Her hair was auburn, shimmering with health, while her hazel eyes lit up when she smiled, making them sparkle as if touched by the moonlight. Too good for him, too good for a man who had watched his friends die and been unable to do anything about it.
“Jordan, we’ve been through this,” Ben said, leaving his wife’s side and coming back to Jordan’s bedside. “If you want to leave the hospital, then you have to have someone in to help you while you adjust.”
“I have adjusted,” Jordan said bitterly. “I have accepted the way things are, and now I’d like to be left in peace.”
“Not happening,” Ben said. “Skyla here is going to live with you while you convalesce, and she is trained to help with your exercises and monitor any improvement.”
Jordan snorted. “We both know there is never going to be any improvement. So, let’s not kid ourselves, shall we?”
“Jordan, you have to leave the hospital. Dylan has been converting the house you bought so you can cope living there in a wheelchair. This has all been arranged.”
“Is that what I have to look forward to? My life being arranged for me, like I was a child.”
“That is up to you,” Skyla said, stepping in to stop short his verbal tirade. “You want to go home. You want to be independent. I understand that. We all do. But we all must take small steps and conquer one task at a time.”
“Baby steps, that’s what you want to say,” Jordan spat, his temper rising. It was one of the many parts of him that were broken. He used to be the most easygoing man alive. Nothing bothered him; nothing was too much trouble. Now he could barely control his temper: it flashed hot and angry, out of his control.
“If you want to behave like a baby, I can treat you like one. Whether you like it or not, this is all about you. You are the center of my world right now. So get used to it.” Skyla came up to the bed and leaned forward, the scent of her hitting his nostrils, making something
stir inside him.
But nothing could stir, he was paralyzed from the waist down, he was never going to be able to make love to this firebrand, he was never going to be able to make a child with her—and would never carry her across the threshold on their wedding night. He was useless as a mate.
“I asked you to leave,” he said.
Skyla turned to Ben and Beth. “Would you mind leaving us to get acquainted?” She paused and then looked back at Jordan. “Don’t worry. I can handle him.”
“You can handle me?” Jordan asked, a spark of anger crossing his face. “Why, because I’m a cripple?”
“That’s not how I see you,” she said, nodding at Beth and Ben. They hastily left the room, Ben giving one last glance back at them as he closed the door, and in that glance, Jordan knew he’d figured out what was going on here. Jordan only hoped that doctor-patient confidentiality would mean Ben kept the secret to himself.
“Then how do you see me?” Jordan snapped, using his left hand to pick up his leg and let it fall. “My legs don’t work. That makes me a cripple.”
“Is that all you are?” Skyla countered.
Jordan hesitated, not knowing what the answer to that question was anymore. He used to know, he used to know exactly where he fit into this world. He had a career, he had friends he trusted with his life, but they were all gone. His life was broken, just like his body.
“Listen, Jordan. I’m here to help you.” She held up her hand when he opened his mouth to protest. “I know you don’t think you need help, but you do, and the sooner you accept that, the sooner you can begin to rebuild your life.”
“What if I want to just lie here in bed?” Jordan asked, the nearness of her beginning to overpower his senses.
“Then I sit here, and we waste away together.” She pointed to the chair by the side of the bed. “I’m being paid to look after you and help you to readjust to your new life. They paid me in advance, and I always honor my contracts, so I have to come to work. And since you are my work, I’ll come and sit with you every day. Unless, of course, you would rather go out there and breathe some fresh air, because I don’t know about you, but hospitals are not my favorite place.”
Black Bear Down: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Return To Bear Bluff Book 3) Page 1
