ROMANCE: Awakened by the Alpha Bear (Werebear Fantasy Billionaire Romance) (New Adult Contemporary Alpha Male Bear Shapeshifter Paranormal Romance Short Stories)) (16 page)

Epilogue

It took
them two months before they finally found Victor, or at least, what was left of
him. He had apparently created one too many shape shifters, and at least one
had turned on him, from what they could see. They had decided to pay him a
visit when they turned up empty handed in their search for Josh. The walls and
steps had been covered in blood from the guards and men that Victor had
employed. Sheldon had remembered those men. They had taunted him and picked
mercilessly. He didn’t condone the violence that had apparently happened there,
but he understood the beings behind the mayhem and why they did it.

He was
upset that he wasn’t able to exact his revenge on Victor for killing Heather.
It was something he never would be able to accomplish, but deep down, he knew
that wasn’t something that Heather would have wanted anyway. That had been
something he, himself, had wanted.

They
never saw or heard from Josh again. After Victor’s hold of him was relinquished
upon his death, Josh had disappeared. There were no more murders, and after
months and months of searching, the police finally gave up and moved on to the
next case. It was now what they called a cold case. Sheldon only hoped that
Josh found peace with his new life. He was grateful. not only for the help he
had received from Heather, but for Paige as well. She kept him grounded, and he
was able to focus on the things that matter the most. She accepted him for who
he was. She accepted all of him. The man and the beast, and she soon became the
bride of the alpha bear.

THE END

Bride
of the Tiger Billionaire

Chapter 1

Natalie Madison looked at the
clock on the wall. Her foot bounced impatiently as she waited for her professor
to dismiss class. After a long week of final examinations, she was itching to
go to home and prepare to celebrate.

The sound of pencils scratching
was beginning to give her a headache. For her first two years of college,
students were permitted to leave a final examination as soon as they were
finished. However, a group of students found a way to cheat with that system,
so it became a university-wide rule that everyone had to stay seated until
finals ended. Everyone on campus seemed to have a unified hatred for the
parties responsible for the silly rule.

“Five minutes!” her professor
shouted.

A number of students began
scribbling furiously as several others turned their answer sheets upside-down
and buried their faces in their hands. Natalie sighed and reclined in her seat,
looking down at the rows beneath her. The classroom was quite large, and she
only hoped that the professor was not going to allow the slower students extra
time. She desperately wanted to finish the school year. College was always
stressful, but it had been a particularly difficult year for her as she needed
more credits than she had initially planned.

A few minutes later, the
professor told everyone to put down their pencils and collected the tests, one
by one. Annoyed sighs echoed throughout the large lecture hall and the
professor nodded.

“I know, I know,” he said,
adjusting his thick glasses and grabbing an answer sheet off a round-faced
boy's desk. “It's university policy, guys! Nothing I can do about it!”

He looked around the room to
make sure that he collected all of the tests and then walked back to his podium
and looked around the room. He smiled and gave everyone a nod.

“Have a good summer everyone! I
should have your grades posted by next week.”

Everyone shuffled out of the
classroom, but nobody was out the door before Natalie. She pulled her cell
phone out of her canvas bag and speed-dialed her best friend's number. It rang
a few times before someone on the other end answered.

“Hello?”

“Hey Heather,” Natalie said,
brushing by a group of frat boys as she made her way to the parking structure
in which her car was parked. “I just finished my philosophy exam, and I'm
headed home. Are we still on for the bar tonight?”

“Yeah, I found this really
awesome underground nightclub that like, nobody knows about,” Heather said
excitedly. “You're going to
love
it. So yeah, anyway, I was going to
stop in at eight so Andrea can do my hair because I can never get it teased the
way she does it.”

“Yeah, that's fine, but I
thought we were going to Leo's? I dunno if an underground nightclub is really
my scene...”

“Oh, don't be a whine ass,”
Heather interjected. “It's awesome.
Trust
me.”

“Alright, then,” Natalie
murmured, seemingly unsure.

“Great. See you at eight!”

Heather then hung up her phone
and Natalie sighed. She had planned on a relaxing, celebratory night at her
favorite bar, but instead, her friends had changed plans on her. Although she
was angry, she hoped that she could at least enjoy her evening; she decided to
stay positive.

***

Natalie looked at herself in
her bathroom mirror and smiled. She was rather happy with her chosen outfit for
the evening. Her leggings had an interesting tribal print and her light pink
crop top complimented her pale turquoise hair in an interesting way. She fixed
her winged eyeliner and used a cotton swab to fix her matte pink lipstick.

“You ready?” Heather said,
peering into the bathroom and grinning. She pointed to her bright blonde and
black hair and said, “Isn't it
amazing?
With hair this great, I won't
even need to bring money for drinks.”

“Yeah, looks good,” Natalie
murmured, tucking her turquoise curls behind her ear. “This thing isn't just
gonna be a bunch of rich kids and frat boys, is it?”

“What's wrong with frat boys?”
Heather asked, giggling.

Natalie scowled.

“You
know
I hate frat
boys!” she said.

“Why?” Andrea said, peering
into the bathroom.

“They're just always really
immature, in my experience,” Natalie replied. She turned around and leaned
against the counter-top, adding, “Besides, I'm looking for a man, not a boy.”

Andrea and Heather exchanged
glances.

“Do you have daddy issues or
something?” they asked.

“No, no, no,” Natalie said,
making a face. “Ew, God no. I just want someone a little more mature. Is that
so bad?”

“You're really looking for
something serious, then?” Heather asked, putting her hand on her hip.

Natalie gave her friends a
small smile and replied, “Yeah, I suppose that I am.”

Chapter
2

The nightclub was exactly what
Natalie dreaded it would be like. There were bright, flashing lights, loud
electronic dance music, and a huge crowd of sweaty people. Natalie did not
particularly care for that kind of a nightclub; she preferred quiet bars with
good food. The nightclub did not even have food. She found herself snacking on
a granola bar that was in her purse.

“Hey!” Heather exclaimed,
waving at her.

Natalie looked up and waved in
a bored fashion, her mouth full of granola.

“Hi.”

Heather frowned. Andrea was not
far behind her.

“Oh my God! This really hot guy
totally was staring at my butt, and I think I might bring him home. Would that
be trampy? I don't want to be trampy,” Andrea rambled.

“That's cool,” Natalie said,
shrugging. “Listen, I might catch a cab and go home.”

Andrea flipped her dark brown
hair from her face and furrowed her brow. She then exchanged glances with
Heather.

“Why? Aren't you having fun?”
Heather asked.

Natalie shrugged and replied,
“It just isn't my scene, you guys. Please, go have fun. We'll all do something
another time.”

Andrea frowned.

“Just stay one more hour,” she
said. “If you're still not having fun, we'll all go to Leo's, okay? We're not
letting you try and catch a cab in the dark by yourself. It's not safe.”

Natalie seemed unsure, but she
gave them a nod anyway, as she stuffed her granola bar wrapper in her purse.

“Alright. You girls go and keep
dancing. I'm going to get a drink, I think,” Natalie said.

“Okay!” Heather said, tugging
Andrea towards the dance floor. She then shouted back at Natalie, “Order us
tequila shots after this song! We'll come pay the tab!”

***

 Nearly an hour passed when
Natalie realized she still was not having any fun. She ordered the tequila
shots that Heather and Andrea had asked for, but neither of them had returned
to drink them. A group of slightly intoxicated girls asked if anyone was going
to take the two shots, so Natalie allowed them to drink them. They thanked her
and she waved them off before pulling her cell phone from her purse and looking
at the time. She did not want to go searching for Heather and Andrea in the
crowd of people.

She held up her hand to try and
wave down the bartender, but she was ignored. As she sighed and tapped her
fingers impatiently on the LED-lit bar, someone sat down beside her.

“You here alone?” the person
asked.

She looked over at him and
blushed. He was tall, with thick, black hair and a strong brow. He smiled at
her and she blushed. She could have melted in his jade green eyes.

“Nah, I have two friends,”
Natalie said. She then corrected herself and added, “Well, I don't know where
they are. They were supposed to come back about forty-five minutes ago for
shots and they never did.”

“Shots?” he asked, cocking an
eyebrow. “You don't seem drunk.”

Natalie laughed and replied,
“I'm not. I had a martini.”

“A martini?” he asked,
seemingly impressed. “That's a good drink. I didn't pin you as a martini girl
though. My name is Drake.”

“Nice to meet you, Drake,”
Natalie said, smiling at him. “My name is Natalie.”

Drake cleared his throat and
whispered, “Well, tell me Natalie, is it possible I could get a number before
you try to gun it outta here? I see you're itching to leave.”

Natalie chuckled and replied,
“Not really my scene is all.”

Drake nodded and said, “Yeah,
I'm not too much of a fan myself. I'm just here to meet with a friend.”

“A friend?” Natalie asked,
raising an eyebrow. “I don't give my number to guys with girlfriends.”

Drake laughed and murmured,
“Not a girlfriend. More of a colleague.”

“Female?” Natalie inquired,
still not fully convinced.

Drake chuckled and shook his
head.

“Nope,” he replied. “So, how
about that number?”

Natalie did not seem sure, but
after thinking about it for a moment, she gave him a smile.

“What the hell? Why not? Lemme
see your phone.”

Drake grinned and gave her his
cell phone, only after opening an “add contact” page. Natalie entered her
number and handed it back to him. As the phone exchanged hands, she noticed he
had an expensive diamond ring on his right hand. For a second, she wondered if
he had money or not. However, when she realized that that was a thought either
Heather or Andrea would have, she inwardly scolded herself. Natalie detested
shallowness.

Suddenly, Drake seemed to
notice something out of the corner of his eye. He looked alarmed.

“Ah well, my colleague is
here,” he said. “I have to go. I'll call you, alright?”

He took her hand and kissed it,
causing her cheeks to flush. She frowned as she watched him stumble off the bar
stool and hurry towards a man in a long, black trench coat. The man did not
look friendly, and she wondered what kind of business they had together. Her
stomach churned; something was not right.

All of a sudden, Heather and
Andrea approached her, giggling. They quickly distracted her from the strange
man she saw Drake leave the club with.

“Sorry we took so long,”
Heather said. “Some boys bought us like lots of drinks!”

“Yeah!” Andrea said, loudly,
stumbling. “But like, we gotta go now because—er—Heather why do we have to go?”

“Because we stole this guy's
watch!” Heather exclaimed, holding up an expensive watch and laughing. “He
called Andrea fat, so I stole it right off his wrist! Ha, ha, ha!”

“Goddammit!” Natalie hissed,
seizing the watch from Heather. “Let me pay the tab, and we're leaving before
you dumb drunk-asses get us sent to jail.”

Chapter
3

Natalie was at work the next
day when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She was a server at a small
sports bar which was geared towards the average college kid. As usual, it was a
busy Saturday, and she could not reach into her pocket and answer the call she
was receiving.

“Hi, miss?” a balding,
middle-aged customer asked, waving a receipt in the air. “There's a problem
with my receipt!”

Natalie rolled her eyes and
waltzed towards the customer with a tray full of desserts balancing on her
palm. She leaned down and smiled at him, trying not to outwardly express her
annoyance.

“How may I help you?” she
asked.

“Last year, the restaurant gave
everyone a discount that came in after four on the Saturday after spring
semester ended,” he said, pointing at the receipt. “If you look here, under the
'discount' portion, it doesn't say anything about a discount. Do you think you
could take care of that?”

Natalie gritted her teeth and
seized the receipt, nodding.

“Yes, sir. I'll take care of
that right away, sir,” she said in a bittersweet voice.

She gave the desserts on her
platter to the table in the corner of the restaurant and hurried into the
kitchen, angrily. She tapped on her manager's shoulder.

“Chris,” she said, holding out
the receipt, “Some dumbass out there thinks he is supposed to get a discount.
What the hell do you want me to do with it?”

Chris pursed his lips and took
the receipt. He lipped the words as he read them and then sighed.

“Now, why does he think he gets
a discount?” he asked, giving Natalie a dirty look.

“Well, apparently on this day
last year, he got a discount,” Natalie murmured. “I dunno. He complained. I
brought it to you. That's all.”

“So, he wants a discount for no
good reason, and you're bothering me with it? Go! Get out there and handle this
idiot!” Chris shouted. “Jesus, Natalie! Go!”

Natalie frowned and hurried
back into the dining area with the receipt. Her face was bright red when she
approached the angry customer. He gave her a bored look.

“Did you get that error
straightened out?” he asked, tapping a napkin against his lips. “The
all-you-can-eat ribs fluctuated in quality with each round, as well, by the
way, so I think you should talk to a manager about a quality discount as well.”

Natalie cleared her throat and
muttered, “Well, actually, my manager said that it wasn't an error. Apparently,
that was a one-time discount and isn't available at this time. I'm sorry, sir.
I really am, but my manager has to put in a code to give you a discount and—”

“Excuse me?” he said, raising
his voice. He gestured towards the middle-aged blonde woman with him and added,
“Do you think my wife and I drove
four
hours
to get my boy from
college just to get bullied by some stupid-haired little waitress in a sports
bar? My family donated your hockey stadium, I'll have you know!”

Natalie's eyes bulged and sweat
began to fall from her brow. Her phone buzzed again, but she had to ignore it.
She so desperately wanted to answer it and get out of the situation, but she
knew that she could not. She was stuck.

“Sir, I'm sorry, but—”

“No, you know what?” the man
asked, getting to his feet and pointing an accusatory finger at her, “You're
gonna
be sorry when I go to the local newspaper, and I get an article on how crappy
the service is here! You're gonna be sorry when I mention you—” He paused to
read her name tag. “—Natalie, by
name!
”

“Sir, if you would like to
speak to my manager—”

“Yes, I would like to speak to
your manager,” he said. “As a matter of fact, I would! Yes siree. Maybe this
idiot can explain why his staff is so effing
incompetent!
”

Natalie took a deep breath,
fighting the urge to curse at him.

“Maybe he can, sir. I'll fetch
him for you.”

Natalie gave the customer a
fake smile and hurried back into the kitchen. Chris was yelling at the cooks in
Spanish when she tapped him on the shoulder. He rolled his eyes and gave her a
dark look.

“What do you want now,
Madison?” he asked, crossing his arms.

“Discount guy wants to talk to
you,” she said, pointing to the dining area. “Table fifteen, manager.”

Chris furrowed his brow.

“What did he want?” he asked.
“He still on about that discount?”

“Nah, now he wants
two
discounts,” Natalie said, amused. “The all-you-can-eat ribs weren't exactly the
same every time, so he wants another discount on top of the other discount.”

“Oh for Chrissake,” Chris said,
rolling his eyes. “Alright. I'll take care of it.”

“Hey, Chris!” Natalie shouted
as he started to walk towards the swinging door. He turned and gave her a look,
so she added, “Can I go have a smoke break?”

“Go for it,” Chris yelled back
at her, turning on his heel. He held up five fingers and asserted, “
Five
minutes, though. And put it on your clock!”

He hurried into the dining area
to handle the problem customer, and Natalie rushed outside into the alleyway,
pulling her menthol cigarettes from her pocket. She did not even bother to
clock out like Chris ordered.

After lighting a cigarette and
taking a few drags, she remembered that she had missed two phone calls and she
pulled her phone out of her other pocket. The number that had called her was
not one that she recognized. Then, she realized that it was probably Drake. Her
heart skipped a beat, but when she remembered his strange interaction with the
sketchy trench-coated man at the nightclub, she was not sure if she wanted to
return his calls. She thought about it for a few seconds, and then called back
the number. After a few rings, someone answered.

“Hello?” Drake's smooth voice said.

“Yes, hi. This is Natalie,” she
said, “You know, the girl from the nightclub yesterday.”

“Yeah, I saw your contact info
on my screen when you called,” he replied. “I was hoping you might be
interested in going out on a date later tonight. I know it's a little short
notice, but—”

“Well, I'm working until
eleven,” Natalie interrupted.

“That's fine,” he said,
chuckling. “I'm a night person. How about I take you to the midnight flick?”

“A movie?” Natalie said. “Well,
sure. I don't see why not. Pick me up around 11:30 so I have time to get
changed out of my work clothes. I live at Kettle Court. Know where that is?”

“I do, indeed,” Drake replied.
“You don't live too far away from me, to be honest. I live at Rose Hills, you
know, just until I can graduate and move into my mansion in Malibu.”

Natalie laughed, choking a
little on the smoke from her cigarette.

“You're funny,” she said.

“What's funny?” he asked.

“Mansion in Malibu? You can't
be older than twenty-six!”

“I'm twenty-five,” Drake
corrected. “But who said twenty-five-year-old men can't have mansions in
Malibu?”

Natalie furrowed her brow. She
was not sure if he was being funny anymore.

“Well, I have to get back to
work,” she said, confusedly. “I'll see you at 11:30, okay?”

“See you then, gorgeous.”