Bear: A Dark Shifter Romance

by Delta James

  Bear

  By

  Delta James

  Copyright © 2019 by Stormy Night Publications and Delta James

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Published by Stormy Night Publications and Design, LLC.

  www.StormyNightPublications.com

  James, Delta

  Bear

  Cover Design by Korey Mae Johnson

  Images by iStock/jhorrocks, Shutterstock/Standre, and Shutterstock/vishstudio

  This book is intended for adults only. Spanking and other sexual activities represented in this book are fantasies only, intended for adults.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Similar Stormy Night Books by Delta James

  Books of the Wayward Mates Series

  More Stormy Night Books by Delta James

  Delta James Links

  Prologue

  Ten years ago

  “Come on, baby, you know you want to,” said Charlie as he tried to slip his hand up under her bra.

  Halley Jordan and Charlie Murdock were enjoying themselves next to an overturned tree in a small clearing in the forest. Charlie had Halley wrapped in his arms as he kissed her with passion and skill... well, as much skill as a boy barely eighteen could have. She could feel his cock rapidly becoming hard and pressing against her through his jeans. Her nipples were beading up and forming stiff peaks under her lace bra. She was quite certain that the desire pooling between her legs was going to leave her lace panties damp before they finished.

  “Stop it, Charlie. I told you no,” she said, pushing his hand away.

  “Damn it, Hal. It isn’t like I don’t get to feel it just because there’s a piece of lace between my hand and your tits.”

  She pushed his hand away more forcefully and sat up. “They’re my tits and I said no.”

  He grabbed her hand and pushed it down past the waistband of his jeans. “I’ll let you touch my dick. Better yet, why don’t you get it out and I can teach you how to suck me off.”

  Halley stood up and pushed him away. “What makes you think I don’t already know how?”

  “Hal?” he called forlornly, as she grabbed her daypack and shoved her things back into it.

  “I’m outta here, Charlie. You can get your ass up and hike out with me, or I’ll go by myself.”

  “You can’t do that. There are cougars and wolves and whatever...”

  “And you would do what about any of those?” she sneered. “I’m a big girl and I can take care of myself.”

  She turned to walk away but stopped when he called to her again. She turned to see that he had opened the fly of his jeans and his cock was now jutting through it.

  “Hal, you can’t leave me like this. It’s not nice to be known as a girl who’s a tease...” His voice was mildly threatening.

  “Even worse to be a guy that’s known as one who can’t take no for an answer. I’d put that thing away if I were you, Charlie. It’s really not big enough to be out on its own.”

  With that last retort, she headed away from the clearing and back toward what she thought was the trail they had used to get to the clearing. At first, she was grateful not to hear Charlie following her, but the further she got from the clearing, the more she realized she may have gotten disoriented and lost.

  “Charlie?” she called. She wasn’t surprised when she received no answer. She and Charlie had been arguing more of late. He wanted to go further than she did.

  Although she was deep in the woods, Halley could tell she was rapidly losing daylight. Even with as much time as she had spent roaming through the forest, the deep woods of the Rocky Mountains was no place to be alone, after dark and unarmed. She could hear the faint rushing of a stream nearby. Halley had stopped to listen to get her bearings when she heard a twig snap under the foot of something larger than a small creature. There were a number of things it could be—none of which would welcome her presence.

  Halley whirled around to see what was stalking her. She saw nothing but the slight disturbance of the underbrush as something moved toward her with purpose and stealth. Halley realized that whatever it was, it was most likely a predator of some kind and meant her no good. The foliage was dense, but not overly tall—that ruled out a human. Deer, raccoon, and the like did not stalk; they scampered, ran, and hopped, but they didn’t stalk. Halley turned, desperately searching for something, anything she might use as a weapon.

  As she bent over, Halley heard the rushing of the animal through the bushes as it mounted its attack. She was certain it intended to try to bring her down by knocking her to the ground before inflicting some kind of fatal bite. She spied a dead tree limb and sprang toward it. Grasping the branch, she spun in the direction that she feared the attack would spring from.

  The first glimpse she had at whatever was hunting her was a blur of tawny fur and glistening white fangs. She swung the makeshift club with all her might and was able to knock the large cougar away from her, breaking the limb in two. So much for that weapon, she thought. Halley felt something warm trailing down the column of her throat. The animal’s razor-sharp teeth must have grazed her neck and opened a wound. Its claws had raked across her arms and chest, destroying her shirt and leaving a red, sticky trail in their wake. Halley realized it was her own blood.

  Backing away, Halley’s eyes were riveted to the large cat as it bunched its muscles, making ready for another assault. As the cougar sprang, Halley feared the worst until she heard the bellow of a large grizzly as it entered the fray. She had gone from bad to worse. Being attacked by a mountain lion was one thing... trying to fend off a grizzly bear was quite another. Normally the two species fought over only one thing—their intended prey.

  There was a brief skirmish before the cougar gave ground and fled to the relative safety of the underbrush. Rising up on its haunches, the great beast roared in triumph as it pawed the air, seeking to rip apart the sky with its great claws. The bear dwarfed her with its massive stature. As the bear dropped back down onto all fours, Halley thought her life was over. She screamed as she fell to the ground in a dead faint. Her last conscious thought was that perhaps she would die before it started to eat her.

  Halley came to as a large man wiped a cold cloth across her face. He looked as though he had stepped off the cover of one of the mountain man romance novels she loved to read. He was enormous with ripened buckeye nut-colored hair, worn longer than most, and deep blue eyes.

  “Wh-Who are you?” she stammered.

  “I’m the Spirit of the Bear,” he said softly before covering her nose and mouth with a piece of cloth that had a slightly sweet but not unpleasant odor.

  Chapter One

  Present day

  “Hey, Hal,” she heard a masculine voice call as she stood in the memorial park on the outskirts of town.

  She turned and shook her head, smiling.

  “Hey, Charlie,” she replied.

  Hal
ley’s story about the Spirit of the Bear having saved her had not been believed after she had left Charlie in the woods. Many had discounted, and most had scoffed at, her story about the grizzly that saved her and the mountain man who had run for miles to get her to the emergency room in order to save her life.

  “So, you’re back?” Charlie said a bit sheepishly. “Are you going to live at your family’s old place?”

  “That’s the plan. For the foreseeable future, I’m back. And yes, I’m going to live at my grandmother’s home,” said Halley, smiling. Sophia Jordan, Halley’s grandmother, had died two years before.

  “I was sorry to hear that your grandmother passed. She was a great lady. I was still overseas and so couldn’t be here.” Charlie hesitated; he seemed unsure of himself, or at least of what he was about to say. “I never...” Charlie started. “I never should have left you in the woods. I always felt bad about that.”

  “We were both kids, Charlie.” Halley reached out to him and squeezed his arm. “Don’t give it a second thought. I never did. I could have waited for you, but I stormed off so it’s just as much my fault as it was yours.”

  He shook his head. “No, it wasn’t right. Two tours of duty taught me that there’s a right way and a wrong way to handle things and that was wrong. I always swore if I ever saw you again, I’d try and make amends.”

  “Thanks, Charlie. I appreciate that. Are you back to stay then?”

  “Yeah. Actually, I just got hired by the sheriff’s department. I start tomorrow. Maybe you, me, and Kaye could get together?”

  “With this new gig starting, I don’t know how much time I’ll have, but I really would love to see both you and Kaye.”

  Again, he looked a bit embarrassed. “Are you okay with me and Kaye being together?”

  Halley grinned. “As long as you don’t leave her in the woods, we’re good.”

  He laughed and looked relieved. “Still looking for your Bear Spirit?”

  Halley had been the butt of a lot of jokes after her encounter with whatever it was that saved her. It would have been easier just to say she forgot or that it was a man, but she was quite certain that it was a bear and her story had never wavered. After all, how does one mistake a bear for a man?

  “Hope springs eternal, Charlie. The government doesn’t have a lot of interest in the Spirit of the Bear, but who knows what I’ll find? Take care and if you see Kaye before I do, let her know I’m back.”

  “Oh, she knows.”

  Halley turned to look at him. “Let me guess, she let herself into the house and made it habitable?”

  “You know Kaye... and she knows you.”

  Halley walked back to her vintage 1937 Chevy truck shaking her head. It was her prized possession. After what happened on the mountain, she’d withdrawn from a lot of her former activities. She’d enrolled in auto shop and then lovingly restored the old wreck when she found it. Putting it in gear, she eased away from the curb and headed home.

  Pulling into the driveway, she smiled. There, sitting on the front porch, was the only person who had never deserted her, never made fun of her, and never doubted the veracity of her story. Like Halley, Kaye Masters had always been a bit of an outcast. Her father was a famous bird dog trainer and something of an eccentric. Kaye had taken the skills she learned from him and become one of the most highly sought-after search and rescue people on the planet. She and her hounds, of which she had a variety, were flown all over the world to help hunt down criminals, find those who were lost, and to recover the remains of those caught in tragic circumstances.

  Halley parked the truck and got out. “I should have known you’d be here.”

  “Yep. I used the key you left with me and came over yesterday, pulled all the dust covers off the furniture, and had a cleaning crew come in. Then this morning I went shopping and your fridge is full, there’s beer on ice, and that crockpot recipe you sent me for pot roast is cooking away.”

  Kaye got up and the two women embraced each other warmly.

  “You didn’t have to go to all that trouble,” said Halley.

  “No, I could have left it up to you and in a month, you’d still be eating takeout and sleeping in a bedroll.”

  Halley laughed. Her friend wasn’t that far off the mark. They wrapped their arms around each other and entered the house.

  * * *

  From the edge of the dense woods that covered much of the acreage that had belonged to Halley’s grandmother, Bear watched Halley. So, she had returned. He had kept a close watch on her over the years. He had almost lost her to the cougar that day.

  It had been a surprise to him each morning when he woke in his cave behind the falls to find he was still human and that only a regular night had passed. He could still call his bear spirit forward when he chose to and he often did. Most of the time, it was simply easier to exist as a bear than as a man. For him to reveal his existence, far too many explanations and lies would be needed.

  Bear thought back over the years he had existed not as a human or as a grizzly but as a creature that was both. He had found he could shift between his two forms as needed. The fact was that the cougar’s bite to Halley’s neck and the claw marks should have killed her. He had moved heaven and earth to save her and had promised whatever power it was that had kept him alive for the past two centuries that if Halley could be saved, he would always keep her safe.

  As the years had passed since the attack and he hadn’t gone back into hibernation, Bear had begun venturing out into some of the smaller towns to trade and get things that would give his home some of the creature comforts it lacked. He was puzzled by the fact that he had become more a creature of the living than one that existed only in the twilight of myth and legend.

  Until Halley, he had not felt any stirring of desire for more than two hundred years. Bear had seen couples in the woods fucking and watched them with a detached interest. That had changed when he saw Halley. From the time he had seen her storm off from her boyfriend, Bear had an overwhelming desire to possess her. He began to dream and then to fantasize about having Halley underneath him—about suckling at her breast and mounting her to ease the ache that had taken up residence in his soul. When she left town to attend college and start her career, he had expected his rampant yearnings to go dormant once again. But that had not been the case.

  Seeing Halley again, his cock grew hard and the almost overwhelming need to dominate and claim her reemerged. In the past, he had often followed her when she was hiking in the woods. He had seen her strip her clothes off on more than one occasion to swim naked in the rivers and streams that were abundant in the area. It had taken every ounce of his humanity not to join her in the meadows or waters and seize her as his mate.

  Bear retreated deeper into the woods.

  * * *

  After Kaye left, Halley made a last check of the house and then headed upstairs. She’d asked Kaye to put her bags in her old room but when she entered there were no bags and the room looked different. She saw the note from Kaye on the bed.

  Halley,

  I know you think you’re not ready to occupy Sophia’s room, but it’s time. Your grandmother would have thought keeping her room as some kind of memorial was wasteful. It’s gorgeous and has a private deck. I boxed up all her stuff. We can go shopping for new stuff whenever you want.

  It’ll be fun. I promise. I love you.

  I’m glad you’re back.

  Kaye

  She hated to admit it but Halley knew Kaye was right. Her grandmother would have thought her using anything other than the master suite was stupid and would have admonished her to make the house her own. She walked down to the room that had once been her beloved grandmother’s and, taking a deep breath, opened the door.

  God bless Kaye. The only thing that remained of her grandmother was Halley’s favorite picture of them together. The king-size bed was made up and was only missing a decorative duvet. There were no curtains on the French doors out to the deck or covering th
e windows, but on this side of the house they were unnecessary as those three walls were surrounded by dense woods.

  Glad to be home, Halley stripped off her clothing and walked out onto the deck clad in nothing but the moonlight. Little did she know that a pair of eyes watched her with intent and longing. Halley reentered the bedroom, closed and locked the doors, and climbed into bed. She sighed with contentment. She’d forgotten how comfortable this bed was. She had spent many a night cozied up with her grandmother when something had frightened her.

  Chapter Two

  The next morning Halley awoke to bright sunshine streaming through the windows and French doors. She stretched, got out of the bed, and walked out onto the deck, inhaling deeply. She took a quick look around to reassure herself that even in broad daylight she had privacy. Something hidden way back in the woods caught her eye, but she couldn’t quite make it out. Halley continued to stare at the spot but saw nothing of substance. She headed back into her room, took a shower, got dressed, and headed downstairs.

  Kaye had indeed stocked her fridge with foods she knew Halley liked. She made herself a quick trout hash and enjoyed it with juice and a cup of coffee. Fortified for the day, she grabbed a pair of light-duty boots and headed into town.

  Halley had been hired to conduct a study of how a proposed hotel and casino development might impact the environment and some of the keystone species that had been reintroduced over the past two decades—wolf, bear, and lynx among them. The rumor was that there was dirty money behind the development company. Her first stop was the town hall where she obtained copies of the permits for the proposed hotel and casino as well as the EPA’s initial environmental impact statement.

  “Halley, or should I say Dr. Jordan?” said Annie, who had been the town clerk for as long as anyone could remember.

  “Annie, you’ve known me my whole life... Halley is fine.”

  “I heard the feds hired you. The boys behind this development won’t be too pleased. They’ve taken an office down on Main Street and are working hard to be everybody’s best friend.”