A Wife For The Bear: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Bear Brides Book 3) (2 page)

Lisha could see her rickety
walk-up apartment building in the distance. Her tiny apartment was
old and shabby, but the rent was cheap, and she wanted to save as
much as she could. She didn't know if she had to move again soon,
and she didn't want to touch the proceeds from the sale of the house.
That was her emergency fund, and she knew her dad wanted to set up a
college trust fund for his grandkids. He had spoken to her often
about it, and Lisha knew that her dad wished for her to be happily
married and have a wonderful, loving family of her own. He dreamed
of playing with his grandkids, and Lisha knew that he would be a
doting, adoring grandfather to her children. Lisha heaved a soft,
painful sigh.

Daren Kwok would never know
his grandchildren, but his grandchildren would know all about him.
Lisha would make sure her kids knew what a great man their
grandfather was.

The thought of having a
loving husband and a bunch of lively, rambunctious kids made her
smile.

She'd often stared wistfully
at the happy families around town, strolling hand in hand with cute,
laughing kids in tow. It was such a pretty picture, a beautiful
dream. One day, hopefully, she would have…

Her phone chirped noisily in
her bag. Lisha started and fished out her vibrating phone.

“Hi, Polly,” she
answered.

“Hey, girl. You home
yet?” Polly asked. Her tone was light but Lisha could hear
the worry in her friend's voice.

“Yeah, I'm right
outside my door,” she lied, wanting to put Polly's mind at
ease. She could see her apartment building looming up, but it was
still some distance away.

“Okay.” Lisha
heard the smile in Polly's voice. “I'll see you tomorrow
then.”

“See ya. And...thanks,
Polly.”

Lisha dumped her phone back
in her bag and quickened her pace. Most of the houses along the
street were unoccupied. They had been boarded up and were just
sitting there, awaiting demolition. Her building was largely
unoccupied as well. And she rarely bumped into the few tenants in
her building. They seemed to work odd hours, leaving the building
when the sun went down and returning when she had already left for
work. On some nights, she could have sworn that she was the only
tenant in the entire building. All the floors seemed eerily empty
and silent.

Lisha looked up and saw that
the whole building was dark. Not a light was on in any of the
windows. She shrugged. She didn't mind the quiet and the solitude.
At least she was safe.

Just as she reached the
building, a hand closed around her shoulder and shoved her against
the wall.

“Give me your purse,”
a rough voice said behind her.

Lisha gasped and felt the
point of a knife at her back.

“I...”

“Shut up! Don't try
any tricks now.”

Lisha turned her head
sideways and made eye contact with a thin, blond man wearing a
hoodie. The robber's eyes narrowed when he saw her face.

“You...are younger than
I thought,” the man mused. “At first glance, I thought
you were a frumpy, middle-aged woman. But you're actually a lot
younger, and...rather pretty.”

Lisha's blood ran cold at his
words and tone.

Menace, greed and lust shone
in the man's pale eyes.

He had initially planned on
just robbing her. But now that he had seen her up close, he'd
decided that he would have her body before he took her money.

Lisha took small, shallow
breaths and forced herself to remain calm. The man wasn't very tall,
but he was taller than her five foot three frame. He was thin, pale
and gaunt, and she wondered if she should test his strength. She
might be shorter than him, but she was broader and from the looks of
it, heavier than him. If she could knock him to the ground, she
could use her weight to her advantage and inflict some serious
injury. When she was an impressionable, insecure teenager, she had
tried to go on a diet but her dad had rolled his eyes and continued
preparing all her favorite dishes during the weekends and scooping
generous portions onto her plate.

“You take after your
mother,” he'd told her. “Your mom was a beautiful, curvy
woman. You're her daughter. It's natural you'd have her generous
figure and her generous heart. Why would you want to be thin and
pinched?” her dad had scoffed.

It seemed her dad knew best.
She wasn't tall, so if she was skinny, she would be too puny. Being
round and fleshy added bulk and weight to her frame. It would be
that much harder to take her down.

Lisha studied her attacker
surreptitiously and swiftly. She had always been able to identify
another shifter. There was just something in their movement, their
mannerisms and their eyes that gave them away. But as far as she
could tell, her robber and would-be rapist was human.

For the first time in her
life, Lisha wished that she could shift. She had been dreading the
emergence of her animal, silently wishing and hoping that her animal
would never surface so she could live her life out as a human. As
long as her animal didn't emerge, there would be no scent, no trace,
no sign at all that she was a shifter.

But at that very moment, she
realized how useful it would be to have the power and instincts of
her animal. She would be a predator instead of a prey. She would be
able to defend herself, and protect others. Just like her dad.

Lisha heard a tearing sound
and felt the blade against her belly. The man smiled an ugly smile
as he slashed at her blouse with his knife and attempted to cut away
her bra.

Rage burned through her. She
would not be touched and violated by this lowlife. Screaming and
shrieking, Lisha fought back with every fiber of her being. Her
panicked eyes swept round the empty street as she struggled. There
was no one to hear her and help her. It was up to her to outwit and
outfight this human trash.

The man might be thin and not
too skilled with a knife, but he was cunning and vicious. Lisha
struggled hard, trying to twist away from her assailant. Her
resistance infuriated and excited the man. He snarled and smiled as
he tried to pin her down.

Lisha made a grab for the
knife. If she could disarm him, it would be a fairer fight.

They fell to the ground in a
tangle, and Lisha saw the blade gleam just above her.

“No! No!” Her
voice was raw and ragged with anger. This wasn't fair. It wasn't
right.

“No!” Her scream
echoed down the street as the knife slashed down.

Brad Jameson laughed and
waved at his clan members. “Nah, I won't be joining you. You
guys have fun.”

“Oh, we will. We most
certainly will.” Connor waggled his brows at Brad. Curtis
disentangled himself from the rowdy group of Nightfire werebears who
were mangling a perfectly good song beyond recognition, and flung his
muscular arm around his twin's shoulder. “Come on, Brad,”
Curtis said. “The night is still young. Come with us. It's a
Friday night. Boys' night out, just us single guys.”

“Yep. No happily mated
guys here to spoil the fun,” Connor added gleefully. The twins
chortled and hi-fived each other.

Brad laughed but shook his
head. “I've had too much to drink already. I'd better get
myself home or I'll be a bear with a sore head in the morning.”

“We've all had too much
to drink,” Curtis grinned. “Oh God, listen to them.”
He whipped his head round and bellowed, “Will you guys stop
your God-awful singing? You're scaring the neighborhood dogs!”

There were guffaws and a few
colorful expletives, but the din died down. The dogs stopped howling
their protests, and Brad could hear himself think again. “Run
along now,” Brad shooed the group off before they tried to wear
down his defenses again. “The strippers are waiting!”

“Damn right!”

“Woohoo! Here we
come!”

“Booze and boobs! This
is heaven...”

“You—are going
straight to hell, Jason!”

“Shut up!”

Brad watched the guys jostle
and jab at one another as they rumbled down the street. He stared at
their broad departing backs until they turned the corner and
disappeared from his view. Unfortunately, they'd started up their
singing again and he could hear their terrible warbling even from a
few blocks away.

His clan members were mouthy
and boisterous, but they were solid, good guys. It had been a long
week. They'd completed two landscaping projects, and would be
starting another huge project next week. Business was good for
Nightfire Landscaping, the landscaping company owned by the Nightfire
clan. Brad's elder brother, Cole was the founder and Alpha of the
Nightfire clan, and his cousin, Dalton was the Beta. Dalton's
younger brother, Tony, and Brad were third in command in the clan.
Tony was just two years older than him, and they used to hang out
together all the time after work. But Tony had just gotten mated to
Terri Quinn, a recently Turned werebear. Tony used to hang out with
them on Friday nights, but tonight Tony had rushed home after work to
be with his mate. So had Cole. Cole's mate, Abby, was human, but
she was tough. Brad loved his sister-in-law. She made his big
brother happy, and if anyone deserved to be happy, it was Cole. Cole
and Dalton had been barely eighteen when their entire clan was
massacred by a rival clan. Only the four of them made it out of the
bloodbath. At just eighteen, Cole had become the head of what was
left of the Jameson bears. He had led them away from the fire, away
from the ashes of their family and herded them towards Moonstone
Creek, a small, rural town where they'd managed to make a life for
themselves.

Brad rubbed absently at the
ache in his chest. The pain of losing his family never ever went
away. It just became more bearable with time. Brad had been a mere
lad of ten when he lost everything—his childhood, his home, his
entire clan. All he had left were his elder brother and his two
cousins.

And that was more than what
most people had.

The four of them were tight.
They had gone through so much together, and they had achieved so much
together. They were family, clan and blood.

Cole had founded the
Nightfire clan in Moonstone Creek. Cole was a good Alpha, and he
recruited loyal, young werebears into the clan and the business.
Once a werebear joined the Nightfire clan, their extended families,
including mates, parents, siblings, even great-grandparents, became
part of the clan as well. Their numbers grew, and so did their
landscaping business.

Brad was proud of everything
they'd accomplished. He loved his family and his clan members. The
boys were loud and fun, but every single Nightfire bear would fight
to the death to defend the clan.

The strains of garbled
singing finally faded away. Brad smiled. Those boys sure were
having the time of their lives. And so they should. They worked
hard and they played hard. And they were single and young, most of
them in their twenties.

Brad blew out a long breath.
He was thirty. He wasn't old, but he just felt...like there was a
void in him. And the void had only yawned wider now that Cole and
Tony was mated. Brad knew that he could drop by at Cole or Tony's
place any time, but he didn't want to play gooseberry and interrupt
their love fest. He glanced at his watch. When he knocked off work
with the rest of the guys, Dalton was still stuck in a long meeting
with a new supplier. The poor guy was probably dead beat at the end
of the day.

Brad sighed and turned around
to head back up the street. He would just get himself home and have
an early night. Perhaps he should have taken the boys up on their
offer and gone to the strip club with them. But...he wouldn't be
enjoying himself. He used to enjoy these weekly jaunts with the
guys, but recently he found himself yearning for something more,
something real and permanent.

Brad strolled past the
flickering streetlamps, hands stuffed in his pockets. He'd left his
car in the parking lot near the pub, but he wanted to take a walk and
clear his head. They'd had a drinking contest, and he'd won, but
right now he wished he hadn't. He had drunk too much, too fast and
now he was feeling a little light-headed.

Brad forced himself to
increase his pace. He should get himself home quickly and throw his
stinky body under the shower. The smell of cigarette smoke,
barbequed food and beer clung to his skin and shirt. Brad put one
large foot in front of the other, and was pleased to see that he
could still walk in a straight line. He wasn't that drunk then.

A streetlamp went out just
above him. Brad jerked his head up and frowned. With the
streetlamps spaced widely apart, the street was not that well lit.
It didn't bother his shifter senses. His bear could see well enough
in the dark. But the humans in this neighborhood might find the
darkness intimidating and hazardous. They could trip and fall, and
all sorts of unsavory predators might lurk in the shadows and prey on
them. Robbers, rapists, rogues.