The Grisly Grizzlies: Maximus (The Grizzly Bear Shifters of Redemption Creek Book 5)

by Kim Fox

  The Grisly Grizzlies: Maximus

  The Grizzly Bear Shifters of Redemption Creek Book Five

  Kim Fox

  Contents

  About

  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

  Epilogue

  More from Kim Fox

  The Grisly Grizzlies: Maximus

  The Grizzly Bear Shifters of Redemption Creek

  Book Five

  By KIM FOX

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  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Contains explicit love scenes and adult language.

  18+

  www.AuthorKimFox.com

  Copyright © 2018 by Kim Fox

  About

  Kennedy vowed never to return to Redemption Creek. At least not while Maximus is still there. He abandoned her when she needed him the most and it would take the threat of death to bring her back. Unfortunately for her, that’s exactly what she’s facing.

  The alpha of The Grisly Grizzlies is a hell of a fighter. In fact, he’s been beating himself up for years. Maximus failed to protect his girl against a vicious grizzly bear and he’s never forgiven himself. But he gets a second chance when Kennedy comes looking for protection from an old threat.

  Will the two be able to look past their old wounds and start over… that is of course, if the crew gets past the vicious bear shifters and dragons hunting them down.

  The thrilling conclusion to The Grizzly Bears of Redemption Creek!

  Chapter One

  Kennedy

  “Excuse me, Miss. Do you have Zoe Green’s new book? It’s called—”

  The woman’s words vanish when I turn around.

  Her mouth drops slightly as her eyes widen.

  It’s the look I get every time a stranger sees me for the first time. I hate it, but I’m used to it.

  “Savage Pleasures, right?” I ask as I force out a smile.

  She catches herself and manages to close her mouth, but she’s still staring like she physically can’t take her eyes off of my face.

  I know the scars are hard to look at, but do people have to look so horrified all of the time?

  “Y-yeah,” she says, stuttering nervously. “That’s the one.”

  “Follow me.” I walk past her down the aisle of the bookstore and hear her exhale deeply behind me.

  I find the book for her and hand it over. This time she doesn’t look at my face. She takes the book and pretends to inspect it, even though I know she’s probably not seeing any of it. My face tends to make people uncomfortable. It has for years.

  “The sequel is coming out next month,” I say in a cheery voice. “So, if you like it don’t forget to come back and get it in a few weeks.”

  “Okay.” She glances at my face quickly and then hurries away, clutching the book to her chest.

  It’s people like that who make me want to stay home and never leave. I hate when people stare at me or look at me like I’m subhuman.

  Sometimes I wish I could go back to before the scars, but that’s a dark road that leads to the dark places in my mind. It’s best to just try and accept it, and live with the limitations.

  Limitations like avoiding crowds of people, or the types of jobs I can get.

  But the biggest limitation is love. I know that no one will ever love someone like me.

  I was in love once, but I know that it won’t be in the cards for me again. I’ll just have to cherish the time I had with Maximus and try to be satisfied with that.

  The bell over the door chimes as the lady rushes out after paying and I’m alone in the store with Walter who’s reading behind the cash register.

  It’s his store, a cute little independent shop called Quill and Feathers Bookstore. I love it here. It’s located in a small town in the middle of Colorado. I like it because there’s not too many people and most of them know me by now. They’ve seen my face before and rarely stare, although there’s always that one person who’s visiting or who’s new in town who can’t help but gawk at my scars.

  Sometimes I wonder what I would do if I saw someone who looked like me. Would I stare? Would I quickly turn away? Would I try to remain inconspicuous but fail miserably?

  The problem is that it’s hard for people to hide the emotion of surprise, and they’re always surprised when they see me.

  My face was shredded by four thick claws about six years ago when I got a little too close to an angry grizzly bear. In one quick swoop, that bear ruined my face forever and took my right eye as a bonus.

  The scars start on the right side of my forehead and travel down to the left side of my chin. I’ve had countless surgeries to make my face look better, but at some point, the surgeries stop making it look better and they start to make it look worse. And I’ve reached that point.

  This is how my face will always look. The scars will never go away. The outside pain healed a long time ago, although the inside pain is still tender.

  Six years later and I’m still taking it day by day.

  “Kennedy!” Walter’s voice rings down the empty aisles of his bookstore. “Where are you?”

  “Romance section.”

  He laughs. “As usual. It’s time to take your break. Quickly before the hordes of shoppers break down the door and come rushing in like a stampede.”

  I giggle as I run my fingers over the spines of the books. Like that would ever happen. The most customers we’ve ever had in this shop at the same time was six. And that was at Christmas time.

  People love having independent shops in their towns, especially bookstores, but then they never shop in them. They just like having them there as they walk by. Luckily for me and for the town, Walter uses the fortune he inherited to keep the store afloat.

  My eyes roam over the crisp book spines as I try to pick something to read on my break. I’m in the mood for a romance. I’m always in the mood for a romance. It’s not as good as the real thing, but it’s still useful to help scratch that itch.

  I’m scanning the back of a romantic comedy when I hear the bell chime over the door. I think nothing of it until I hear a deep voice that sends cold chills snaking through me.

  “Kennedy Baker,” he grunts. “Does she work here?”

  That voice. It can’t be.

  It’s the man I ran from six years ago. The man who started the chain of events that led to my face looking like this.

  James Bledsoe.
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br />   “Who are you?” Walter asks as I crouch down behind the bookshelves. It feels like someone has just dropped a stack of books onto my chest. I’m finding it hard to breathe.

  “Never mind that,” Bledsoe says. “Where can I find her?”

  “I don’t know of anyone by that name.”

  I could kiss Walter. He’s a true friend.

  But he won’t be able to stop Bledsoe. A million questions are racing through my mind and I don’t have the answers for any of them.

  How did he find me? What does he want? Is he going to hurt me?

  All I know is that I’m not about to stick around and find out. I quickly turn around and hurry to the back of the store. There’s a back exit through the employee break room, which I head straight for.

  “Look, old man,” Bledsoe says as I creep into the employee room. “I know she works here so why don’t you go into your files and pull out her home address before I smack you across the head with that hardcover book you’re reading.”

  My home address?

  The thought of Bledsoe showing up at my place is terrifying. I know that Walter would never hand it over to him, but I also know that Bledsoe takes whatever he wants. If he’s looking for my address, he’s going to get it.

  I can only hear murmurs of their heated conversation as I hurry through the break room and out the back door, grabbing my purse on the way. Luckily, my car is parked behind the store and I jump right in it and peel off.

  As soon as I turn the corner, I call the Sheriff and tell him there’s trouble at the bookstore. He likes Walter so he’ll head right over. Hopefully, he’s not too late. I know how aggressive Bledsoe can get.

  My hands are shaking as I drive through the town, wondering what to do. Bledsoe knows I’m here. The man who tried to kidnap me and maybe even kill me, knows I’m here.

  I’m panicking, but I already know what I’m going to do. Where I’m going to go.

  I promised myself that I would never show up on Maximus’ doorstep, but it’s the only place I can be safe.

  Maximus will protect me from Bledsoe. I haven’t talked to him since that horrible day six years ago, but it’s time to break the silence.

  Maybe I’ll finally find out why he let my parents take me away without saying goodbye. Maybe I’ll find out that he has a wife and kids. Maybe I’ll find out that he still loves me.

  I shake my head as I curse myself under my breath for going there. Maximus loved the old me, the young pretty me. He was so gorgeous and probably still is.

  Those feelings are gone and they’re not coming back. No one will ever love someone like me.

  I repeat it under my breath, just to kill any false hopes. “No one will ever love someone like me.”

  My heart sinks as I pull out of town and drive onto the highway.

  I’m going there for protection. That is all.

  If I can come to terms with that, then maybe I won’t leave with a broken heart.

  Chapter Two

  Maximus

  My hands are shaking when I look in the window and see the two of them inside the small cottage.

  Colton.

  Rigs.

  My whole body tightens as I watch them, smiling, laughing. I want to rip the smiles from their faces. I want to crush their laughter with my fists.

  I would have died for these two men at one point in my life. I trusted them more than I trusted my own parents.

  They betrayed me.

  And Kennedy almost died.

  My breathing gets louder and more fierce with every second that I watch them until it’s loud enough for them to hear.

  Colton sees me first. The look on his pretty-boy face is priceless.

  The smile vanishes from Rigs’ face when he turns and sees me standing outside the window like the Grim Reaper.

  I charge to the front door of the cabin and yank it open before they can start running. I don’t think their legs would work even if they tried because they look terrified as I step in.

  “Ma-Maximus,” Colton stutters before swallowing hard. His eyes are buggy, his breaths raspy. I slowly walk up to the table that he’s sitting at, glaring at him with hard eyes.

  Rigs is standing behind the table in the small hunting cabin. I see him slowly look down at the hunting knife that’s sitting on the table between us.

  I can see his hand twitching for it. He wants it.

  He’s going to need a hell of a lot more than a knife to stop me.

  “It’s good to see you, Max,” Colton says in a shaky voice. “It’s been a long t—”

  “Where is he?” I growl.

  Colton is squirming in the chair and looking like he’d rather be anywhere on the planet but sitting in front of me.

  “Who are you talking ab—”

  I snatch the knife off the table and with a grunt I slam it down into his collarbone until the handle stops it from going any further.

  “What the fuck?!?” Rigs hisses as he jumps back with a horrified look on his face.

  Colton is starting to hyperventilate as he stares at the wooden handle sticking out of his shoulder with bulging eyes.

  “You going to make me ask you again?” I say in a calm controlled voice.

  Colton doesn’t answer. He’s just staring at the handle like he can’t believe it’s a part of him now.

  I grab the handle and give it a hard twist.

  “Ahhh! Fuck!” he screams as I grit my teeth and let go.

  “Jesus, Maximus,” Rigs says as he backs into the wall behind him. “We don’t know where Bledsoe is.”

  Colton sucks in a panicked breath as I grab the handle of the knife and yank it back out.

  “Not the answer I was looking for.” I slam the bloody blade into the wooden table and take a deep breath as it shudders from side to side like a pendulum.

  He should be here.

  These three were sloppy in Colwood, Montana. They didn’t cover their tracks, bragging to the shifters of the town how they were going to get even with the alpha of the Grisly Grizzlies, which is me.

  Bledsoe was always a little too cocky for his own good. Always thought that he was smarter than everybody. He was like that when he was my number two, always questioning my orders, giving his unwanted input, being a pain in the ass.

  I could forgive that, but what he did to my girl was unforgivable, and now it’s time for me to get even with them.

  “What are you doing in this town?” My chest is burning as I wait for an answer. Is this where she lives? Is Kennedy nearby?

  I spent the past few days tracking the three of them down to this small town about five hours outside of Denver. The thought of this town being Kennedy’s home has stirred up all sorts of old memories and feelings.

  I think about her every day. I haven’t stopped thinking about her since the first moment I saw her, but the thought of having her so close by is killing me.

  Even if I find out where she is, I won’t see her. I won’t go find her or show up at her door.

  I failed to protect Kennedy when she needed me the most and because of that, I don’t deserve her love.

  I’ll just take care of the dead men who are trying to hurt her and then be on my way.

  “Why this town?” I repeat when neither of them answer.

  I glance at the knife that’s sticking out of the table and Colton clears his throat.

  “Bledsoe brought us here,” he says as his skin turns white.

  “Why?”

  Colton looks at Rigs and I see the faintest of head shakes.

  These two were never the brightest.

  I lunge forward and grab Colton by the neck. In one swift second, I lift him off the chair and slam him through the table, shattering it to splinters as I hammer him to the floor.

  Rigs runs to the front door—probably to get away and warn Bledsoe that I’m in town.

  The knife is still thrust into one of the broken pieces of the table near Colton’s slumped head. I yank it out of the broken wood and launch
it at him, but it sails past him as he ducks out of the way.

  He flies out the door and I race after him. It’s dark out, but we can both see almost perfectly with our shifter vision.

  Rigs tries to escape through the forest but after a minute, I catch up to him. I tackle him hard. The breath gets knocked out of my lungs as we go down, taking a thick oak tree down with us. We both stumble up to our feet as it falls with a thunderous crash.

  “I just want to make sure that Kennedy is okay,” I say as Rigs takes a fighting stance. I always liked Rigs. I thought we were close, but when Bledsoe drew a line in the middle of our crew and forced everyone to pick a side, Rigs went with him. I thought he would have stayed loyal, but I was wrong on a lot of things back then.

  “I don’t even care about Bledsoe,” I lie. “Just tell me where Kennedy is. Does she live in this town? Is that why you’re here?”

  Rigs is about to say something, but then thinks twice and shuts his mouth.

  “Don’t,” I whisper as I get a whiff of fur.

  He steps back as his amber eyes brighten and his body starts to shake. A second and a half later, a full grown grizzly bear rips out of his body.

  I stand my ground, staring calmly at the huge beast in front of me. He’s pacing from side to side on his huge paws as he stares me down.

  “No,” I say in a firm steady voice.

  The bear leans away from me, staring at me with knowing eyes. I was once his alpha and there’s something lingering in his eyes that tells me there may be a shred of that left.