The Island Of Bears: A BBW Paranormal Romance (17 page)

Holden pulled his phone from his pocket and handed it to me. “Call Conner. Tell him wolves are coming and that I want all my men down on the beach within a minute. Tell him to send a text to everyone and to
not
sound the siren, as the wolves will hear it. Now, go, Haley, and call him. I’ll get Ashley.”

Within a split-second, he was gone, streaking down the beach in bear form. His massive body, covered in thick, dark fur, looked like a black hole against the pale, moonlit sand. Though I didn’t waste more than a fraction of a second surveying the scene. Immediately, I called Conner and told him exactly what Holden had said. After that, things happened fast, to say the least.

Within maybe thirty seconds of me ending the call with Conner, black bears of all sizes began appearing on the beach, stalking along the sand without making any noise, save for a few barely-audible low growls. As Holden emerged from the ocean carrying a coughing, sputtering Ashley in his arms, all the bears took places hidden behind clusters of palms along the beach. They faced the jungle, waiting.

I dashed out to meet Holden and Ashley, who was on her feet, still coughing, but managing to say she was okay, by the time I reached them. I put an arm around her shoulders and began guiding her up toward the cabins, telling her that she was okay now, and to just take deep breaths. Alongside us, Holden told me to get her up to the cabins as fast as I could, and he then shifted back into bear form and joined his men.

I pulled Ashley into Holden’s cabin just as the first sounds of the fight could be heard. Even after I’d shut the heavy wooden door, sounds of snarling and roaring still assaulted my ears, and after sitting Ashley down on the couch, I raced around shutting all the windows in the cabin. My nerves just couldn’t handle the noise, and I was sure it would just rattle Ashley even more, too.

By the time I rejoined her out in the living room and sat down next to her, she was crying with her elbows on her knees and her face in her hands.

She glanced over at me before returning her face to her hands. “So stupid. I’m always so stupid. Hannah tricked me, didn’t she? She really didn’t want me to be a co-ruler with her; she didn’t even care that I was really drowning.”

I hadn’t even thought about Hannah over the previous several minutes, nor had I seen her. I figured she’d probably seen Holden’s men calmly taking position and had realized that somehow her plan had been found out, and then maybe escaped into the jungle, fearing Holden’s wrath. At any rate, no matter why she’d left or where she’d gone, that wasn’t my concern at the moment. Clearly, poor Ashley needed some comforting from a friend, which I soon hoped to become to her.

A short while later, after I’d managed to convince her that she wasn’t stupid but just had a very sweet, trusting heart, which I believed was true, all sounds of the fight outside suddenly stopped.

Just a few seconds later, Cora flung open the cabin door, breathless. “It’s done. The three wolves weren’t any kind of a match for our men. Holden took two of them out by himself, and Conner made the kill on the third.”

After I’d explained to her what had happened to Ashley, she soon ushered Ashley away to see the doctor, and I was left alone in Holden’s cabin. Though not for long.

The moment he came in the front door, I threw myself into his arms, just like I’d used to. Just how I’d been wanting to do for weeks. “I missed you. I missed you so much, Holden.”

He squeezed me tightly, picking my feet up off the floor. “I missed you, too. Probably more than you’ll ever know.”

I reveled in the feel of his strong arms around me, as well as his woodsy, masculine scent, which I inhaled with my face buried between his hard chest and his neck.

Presently, with a renewed surge of emotion making tears well in my eyes, I lifted my face to look at his own. “I just want you to be my son of a freak again. I just want you to be my son of a freak forever. Now, I just need to know... Can you give me another chance? Will you let me show you every day that I trust you now? Do you want
me
to be your little freak again? Maybe even for forever?”

“No.”

I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. My breath stopped in my throat. Then he quickly continued.

“I mean...yes. Yes, I want you to be my little freak forever, but I also want you to be something else. I want you to be my wife.” With his eyes becoming just slightly shiny, he paused and took a deep breath. “Will you marry me, Haley? Will you agree to become my mate for life, and carry the title of
Mrs.
Son of a Freak for the rest of your days?”

I nodded, half-sniffling, half-laughing. “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you and be your wife. I’ll be
Mrs.
Son of a Freak. Gladly. I can’t think of anything I’ve ever wanted more.”

***

The following day, Eric called Holden to report that Hannah had turned up in Clearwater, asking if she could stay there again. After Eric and Holden talked it over, it was decided that she
would
stay in Clearwater, but under house arrest for an indefinite length of time.

Later that afternoon, Holden went through the portal to New York City and returned that evening with an absolutely stunning diamond ring, which he slid on my finger in front of half the village, after getting down on one knee and asking me to marry him for the second time, making me cry yet again.

Over the next several weeks, when I wasn’t busy planning the wedding, Cora, Amy, and I continued to work in our shared studio, and we were now joined by Ashley as well. She’d asked Holden if she could stay in the village, and he had of course, said yes, and not long after, Ashley asked me if she might be able to do some artwork in the studio, too.

I’d gladly invited her to try a few different things, and it turned out that she was very good at making stained glass. Actually, not just very good, but downright gifted. Her works, which were incredibly intricate designs featuring geometric shapes and flowers, were simply breathtaking.

Amy surveyed one of them one day before turning to nod at Ashley. “Very, very smart. You’re so smart to be able to design pieces like this, and I really mean that.”

I got the feeling she really did.

Ashley grinned just about ear-to-ear, and then threw her arms around Amy, Cora, and me in turn, squeezing each of us so tightly we could barely breathe.

A month or so later, Amy, Cora, and Ashley were my attendants at Holden’s and my wedding on the beach. Amy’s little daughter Emily was my flower girl. As everyone in the village watched, she threw pink and white petals down an aisle made of woven tropical grass, which I soon walked down barefoot, while one of the women from the village played the wedding march on an old, yet perfectly in tune, violin.

Holden was barefoot, too, dressed in jeans and a crisp white collared shirt that matched my simple white gown. For an island wedding, we hadn’t been able to imagine the ceremony as anything other than a casual affair.

The reception party was a casual affair, too, with everyone dancing, drinking, and eating barbeque late into the night. While we swayed on a makeshift dance floor made of woven tropical grass, I put my bare feet on Holden’s and playfully told him to “make” me dance.

Moving both our feet in time with the music, he pulled me closer and spoke in a low voice near my ear. “Now, what kind of a little freak steps on her new husband’s feet at their wedding reception?”

Making a sudden decision, I spoke in a low voice back. “You’re asking the wrong question, Holden.”

“Oh, am I? Then, what question should I be asking?”

“The question you should be asking me right now is what kind of a little freak dances on a grown man’s feet like she’s a little child, when she herself is going to be having a child in about eight months.”

Holden immediately froze, then slowly pulled away to look at my face. “You... You’re...?”

I nodded, smiling. “Yup. Me. I’m pregnant. We’re going to have a baby.”

I’d been keeping a little secret from him for exactly one week. I’d been planning to tell him our exciting news that night.

He stared at me for a long second before responding. “We’re... we’re really going to have a baby? You’re really...?”

He trailed off, not seeming able to even finish the thought. I’d heard that there had been some problems with women living on the island having difficulty conceiving, for whatever reason, and apparently, I’d underestimated the level of surprise my news was going to cause.

I nodded at Holden again, still smiling. “Yup. I’ve already made a trip to the doctor, and he confirmed it. We’re having a baby.”

After looking at me for one more long moment with his jaw nearly on the floor, he suddenly picked me up off my feet, or, up off
his
feet rather, and then began slowly spinning me around as the violinists continued to play. I buried my face in his shoulder, holding him just as tightly as he was holding me.

After a couple of slow spins, he spoke in a low voice thick with emotion. “I didn’t think I could possibly get any happier today, but you just did it. You just did it, you crazy, beautiful, amazing little freak.”

Laughing with joy, I threw my head back and saw that the stars above us were so bright they
twinkled like diamonds in the velvety night sky.

THE END

Message From The Author:

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If you liked this book then be sure to check out all my other releases including the books from this series (Island Of Alphas) too, Have a look at
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to see them all! :)

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ALSO BY THIS AUTHOR....

THE ISLAND OF

ALPHAS  

Fertility Doctor Liz Fowler is not having the best of times in life. Her fiance has left her, she is in debt and now she is unemployed.
So she cannot believe her luck when she is approached by a handsome and very mysterious man named Eric who offers her a job. A job he describes as being very, very important.
Eric claims he owns a private island and needs her help to solve a fertility problem on that island. In return she will paid very, very handsomely.
Liz is very eager to take this job however once she arrives on the Island she begins to realize that not everything is as it seems.
Liz is set to discover that this is not just any island, this is The Island Of Alphas and it is a place where, literally, anything can happen.
Liz is in for another shock when she discovers that the Alpha wolves that reside on the island want her to help solve their fertility problem in a more practical way then she first expected...
They don't want her as their doctor, they want her as their
MATE!

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