ROMANCE: Awakened by the Alpha Bear (Werebear Fantasy Billionaire Romance) (New Adult Contemporary Alpha Male Bear Shapeshifter Paranormal Romance Short Stories)) (41 page)

Kidnapped
by the Bear Billionaire

Chapter One

Mia’s legs hurt. She’d been sat
in the same precarious position on the snowy slope for two hours now and her
legs had cramped up.

“The glamorous life of a
reporter!” she muttered into the empty wilderness.

Mia was waiting to shoot a
bear, not literally shoot with a gun but rather with her state of the art
camera. This was no ordinary black, brown, or grizzly bear either; Mia wasn’t
exactly a wildlife reporter.

She worked for a local news
team in Whistler, Canada and had been waiting years to catch a good story. This
wasn’t just a good story; this was the story of her life. If she could grab
this story at just 23-years-old, she’d be doing better than most of her
competition.

Mia had come across a handsome
billionaire, nothing unusual there as plenty of billionaires frequented
Whistler, but this one had a secret. He was a bear shifter. This was only word
of mouth at the moment. Mia had never witnessed him shifting in public, hence
the stakeout now.

She needed to capture him in his
bear form to make her story authentic. She’d been tracking his movements for
months now. He was on vacation in the mountains behind Whistler, and Mia hoped
that, in the wilderness, he’d shift.

The cold wind blasted her face
just to remind her that it was the middle of winter, and in the mountains, the
winters were harsh.

She pulled the fur-lined hood
of her coat tighter around her small face and snuggled down into its warmth.
Her hands were like ice but she couldn’t wear gloves and operate the camera,
even fingerless gloves didn’t agree with the camera. It’d cost her nearly all
of her last wage packet and there was no way she was risking its safety.

Her face was nearly completely
covered by the huge hood apart from her pale blue eyes and her blonde fringe sticking
out. Mia kept her hair short and always stayed with a pixie type style. Her
facial features were small, so this, coupled with her cute haircut, made her
resemble a little pixie.

“God I’m so glad my legs aren’t
any friggin longer,” she sighed as the cramp persisted to annoy her.

At 5’6”, her legs were plenty
long enough to attract the opposite sex but short enough to tuck away
underneath her slim body if required.   

Mia was thankful she’d dressed
in her ski-pants that morning as at least they offered her more warmth than her
jeans. She’d found herself in many awkward predicaments throughout her time as
a reporter, but this had to be one of the coldest situations she’d ever been
in.

“Couldn’t be summer could it?
Oh no, that’d be asking too much!” she considered briefly if she was on the
edge of a breakdown as she talked to herself far too often.

The temperature was dropping
even faster than the sun in the winter’s sky, and Mia had to resolve herself to
the fact that it was going to be a no-show today. She sighed loudly and watched
a Snowshoe Hare scampering by in a hurry.

“Off on your nightly hunt for
food mate?” Mia asked as it turned to look at her and with a twitch of its
furry nose hopped off into the distance. “Yep definitely going slightly mad girl.
You’re now having a conversation with a hare.”

She giggled to herself as she
packed her expensive camera away in its plush bag and put the bag over her
shoulder. The light was fading fast as it always did in the mountains during
the winter. Many a novice hiker had been caught out by the rapid change in
light.

Mia carefully made her way down
the slippery slope toward the welcoming lights of her hotel. She made her way
to the main door, and as she stepped inside and felt the comforting embrace
from the hotel’s warmth, she sighed loudly.

“Oops sorry,” she mumbled as
she nearly collided with someone.

“Watch where you’re going,” a
deep voice replied, and as Mia looked up, her heart skipped a beat. She was
looking straight into the green eyes of Ethan Roberts.

He was the billionaire bear
shifter she’d just been freezing her pert ass off for up in the mountains. He
was here all that time in the friggin warmth.

“My legs are still adjusting
from the bitter cold out there,” she said as she smiled up at him. Ethan was
around 6’2” with short brown hair and a slim, athletically built physique. He
wore a silver ring earring in his left ear and Mia had the bizarre image of him
wearing it as a bear.

She giggled at her absurd
thought and he looked at her with a confused expression on his handsome face.

“I think the bitter cold’s also
numbed my brain, just ignore me!” she smiled as she removed her hood. He didn’t
reply. He simply stared at her.

Ethan had a presence, there was
no denying that. He commanded respect. People moved out of his way when he
approached them. Mia didn’t know how to take him. He came across as arrogant
and domineering by the way he held his sexy body, almost as though he thought
of himself as far superior to the other mere mortals sharing his world. 

“Great. Now he goes out. I’ve
waited for two hours and frozen my butt off and now he goes outside,” she
muttered as she watched him vanish outside into the snowy wilderness.

Mia walked toward the elevator.
Her hands were numb with the cold, but somehow, she managed to press the button
and waited patiently for the elevator to arrive.

Mia didn’t like the winter at
the best of times, and being stuck in Whistler wasn’t her idea of fun but it
was either catch this terrific story or go back to simple pen-pushing writing
jobs. The reporters had to find their own stories. Being a small local news
team, they expected their team of reporters to do all of the work.

All she’d managed to report on
so far was the theft of a can of beans from a store, and how the local people
hated how the price of gas was rising continuously, hardly groundbreaking news.

She rode the elevator up to the
second floor and was grateful to be walking along the well-lit corridor toward
her room. Mia swiped the keycard in the door, and just as she was about to walk
into her room, she caught sight of a guy who appeared to be watching her. He
was standing around the corner and jumped back when she looked his way.

Mia thought no more about it
and carried on into her room ensuring the door was locked behind her.

Her cell rang, “Hey Colin!”

“Hey Mia, did you get your
story?” Colin asked. He was her boss and had sanctioned the trip to Whistler as
long as she covered the terrific story she reckoned she could catch.

“Nearly, I just missed the guy
I’ve been tracking,” she sighed into her cell.

“Well, nearly doesn’t get you
your story Mia.”

“No shit!” she nearly shouted
down the phone line but instead politely agreed with him.

“You’re only funded for a
couple more days.”

“Yep, I know Colin. I promise
I’ll get the news team their story,” she stated quite emphatically. That was
it. She’d promised and knew there was no going back on her word. Colin was a
stickler for his team adhering to their promises. If you said you could measure
up and produce a story, then that’s exactly what you were expected to do.

“That’s my girl. See you and
your story back in the office soon,” and with that, he hung up.

Mia just stood staring at her
cell and trying not to go into a panic attack. Why she couldn’t simply make
easy promises, she didn’t know. She’d always been guilty of aiming too high. It
was this ambition though that made her a good reporter. She wasn’t afraid to
put herself out there if required.

She really needed to prove her
worth to Colin. He’d already funded a trip to Montana on the hunt of a
mysterious sighting of a Bigfoot type creature only to discover it was actually
just a tall guy living in the backwoods dressed in a fur coat. Needless to say,
that didn’t go down well with Colin, although the rest of the crew thought it
was highly amusing for months.

“Right, better get my ass to
bed as I’m in for an early start tomorrow,” she mumbled as she unzipped her
winter coat and hung it in the closet.

She sat on the soft bed and
pulled her ski boots off. Her feet were killing her. The guy in the winter gear
store had insisted that hiking in ski boots would be fine as they were super
comfortable.

Obviously, the guy hadn’t
actually done much hiking in ski boots. Tomorrow, she’d be wearing her hiking
boots, not as warm but certainly better for her feet than plastic ski boots.

Mia caressed her sock clad feet
lovingly, enjoying the soothing feeling and beginning to relax. She stood up
and unzipped her ski pants pulling them off her satin-smooth legs. Her skin had
the remains of a tan lending it a sexy sun-kissed appearance. Mia loved to look
tanned, and on her rare days off, she’d visit her local tanning salon for a
session on one of their sun beds.

“Note to self, book a session
as soon as I get home!” she muttered as she peeled her socks off and began
massaging some soft body lotion into her feet and legs.

She pulled her black and red
short styled panties down and stepped out of them reaching for her fleece
pajama pants. Mia smiled as she felt the warmth of the teddy bear printed pajama
pants against her naked skin.

Next, she peeled her sweatshirt
and t-shirt off together and threw them in an untidy heap on the floor.

Reaching up behind her slim
back, she unfastened her push-up red bra and dropped her arms to allow it to
fall off. Her shapely breasts spilled excitedly from the lace material, and as
she looked down, she noticed how hard her rose-colored nipples were.

Mia, overall, loved her body.
She wished her breasts were bigger and her nose was smaller, but generally, she
was pleased with the reflection she saw in the mirror on a daily basis.

She pulled on her matching
pajama top and crawled into bed, forgetting the fact that she hadn’t eaten any
dinner or removed her make-up.

Mia’s mind was concentrating on
one thing, and one thing only, catching herself the story she’d traveled here
to catch. Tomorrow, one way or another, she was getting her story about Ethan
Roberts.

Chapter
Two

Mia woke up to the shrill sound
of her alarm clock, which after a firm whack ceased to break the silence
anymore.

“Good God, who gets up at this
time of day, I mean seriously!” she mumbled into the empty bedroom as she sat
up and stretched her arms above her head. Her tummy rumbled impatiently
reminding her that she’d fallen into bed the night before without eating
dinner. She swung her legs out of bed and sat on the edge rubbing her tired
blue eyes.

Padding barefoot to the
bathroom, she noticed her sweatshirt and t-shirt from yesterday lying in a
crumpled discarded heap on the floor, and heard her mom’s voice in her head,
“Your clothes won’t find their own way to the closet you know!”

Mia had always been lazy,
ambitious but lazy when it came to keeping things tidily organized. She still
lived at home with her mom; her dad had passed away a few years ago. He’d been
involved in a freak accident at work. Mia remembered the day vividly; she’d
received a call from her mom telling her to come home immediately.

She’d known something was wrong
as soon as she’d walked in, as there were family members there that she’d not
seen for years.

Her mom had sat her down and
delivered the news; Mia had sat calmly, not cried, not screamed, and not
questioned why it’d happened. She just sat.

At the funeral, however, it’d
been a different story. All her grief had come out at once. Her uncle Tommy,
her dad’s brother, had to all but carry her away from the cemetery.

She shivered now as she entered
the bathroom. That’d been a dark time for Mia; her work had been her salvation,
that and her mom. They’d helped each other through the shit times and come out
the other side. Her mom was more protective over Mia now. She was an only child
so she understood why her mom was clingy, and Mia didn’t mind, not one little
bit.

Colin had given her foolish
stories to cover, but it was the foolish stories that helped her gain her
confidence back.

The opportunity she had now
with Ethan’s story was the best she’d had for ages, and there was no way she
wasn’t getting her story.

Mia showered quickly and rubbed
her short hair vigorously with a soft fluffy towel. She dried her satin-smooth
skin off and wrapped the towel around her slim body, padding out into the
bedroom she ran through her clothes in her mind. Ski-pants were a must as was a
tight t-shirt and a long top to tuck in and keep her back warm.

She knew a few basic survival
skills but she wasn’t really an outdoorsy type of girl. Mia was happier indoors
in the warm than outdoors in the cold. This story, however, required her to
adapt to the big outdoors quickly.

Colin had his doubts when she’d
mentioned Whistler during the winter, as he knew exactly what Mia was like with
the colder months. She was the one requesting the indoor reports while the rest
of the team were sent out in the freezing temperatures.

“Today’s a peach short lingerie
day!” she whispered to herself as she sorted through her collection of lingerie
in her bag. She wasn’t one to unpack, as she never knew how long she’d be
staying in one place, and with this assignment, if Ethan moved, she moved.

“I shake it off!” Taylor
Swift’s voice reverberated around the hotel room as Mia reached for her cell
phone, as she looked at the small screen she saw it was her mom calling.

“Hey mom,” she said as she
stood wrapped in the fluffy white towel.

“Hey sweetie, you okay?” her
mom’s concerned voice asked.

“Sure, oh shit I’m sorry. I
forgot to call you last night. I was so knackered mom. I went straight to bed,”
Mia always called her mom in the evenings when she was away just to let her
know how the day had gone.

“I worry Mia. I can’t help it.
It’s an inbuilt mom child thing!”

Mia felt guilty. She was
practically all the close family her mom had left now and she needed to
remember that fact.

“Sorry mom. I’m okay, don’t
worry,” Mia said knowing her words would fall on deaf ears anyhow.

“That’s like telling a wolf not
to protect its pack Mia,” her mom said quietly.

“Point taken. I’ve got to dash
mom as I’m standing here in just a towel. I promise to call tonight okay?”

“Okay love you sweetie, take
care,” her mom said softly.

“I love you too mom,” Mia replied
and as she ended the call she felt a pang of guilt once again. She knew her mom
would understand that she needed to get on but it still made Mia feel bad for
rushing her off the phone.

Mia made a promise to herself
to spend some quality time with her once she got home. She’d learnt never to
take anything for granted after she’d lost her dad and she knew she was very
blessed and lucky in many ways.

She had her mom, a great
career, her health, and now the opportunity to catch a great story.

Mia carried on with her
lingerie sorting as she was doing before her mom called and found her peach
colored short styled panties. They were so comfortable underneath her
ski-pants.

She threw a black sports bra
out of the bag, as the red bra from yesterday hadn’t been a terrific choice for
a stakeout. Today, she’d be choosing comfort over style.

Her hiking boots were already
by her bed. The ski boots were thrown down under the bed, which she must
remember otherwise she’d be leaving them behind when she left. They may not be
the comfiest footwear that Mia owned but they’d still cost enough money to buy,
and she wasn’t in the habit of throwing good money away. She pulled out a
bright cerise t-shirt and white long-sleeved sweatshirt from her bag picking
the other clothes from yesterday up from the floor and folding them neatly.

“Body lotion, now where the
friggin hell did I leave you?” she sighed as she went back to the bathroom
finding the elusive lotion standing by the sink.

Grabbing the bottle, she
hurried back through to the bedroom as time was creeping on the way that time
always did. She had to eat breakfast and she had to catch Ethan before he left
the hotel. There was no chance of finding him if she didn’t because he’d simply
vanish into the snowy wilderness.

Mia rubbed the silky body
lotion into her skin and enjoyed the way her skin instantly felt softer.

She placed her feet into her
peach panties and pulled them up her toned legs standing up to pull them over
her slender hips. Her black sports bra was next and as she pulled it over her
head she smiled to herself.

Hardly the sexiest lingerie in
the world, she thought, but it offered her comfort, and truthfully, who else
was really going to be observing her underwear?

The black ski-pants were next
on, offering her much needed warmth on a cold morning. Even in the hotel, she
could feel the icy kiss of winter; so therefore, the outside temperature would
be freezing.

She shivered as she pulled her
cerise t-shirt on over her damp hair and added the thin white sweatshirt on top
of it. Both were tucked into her ski-pants and now she knew how a hockey player
felt dressed in all the protective attire.

Mia blasted her short blonde
hair with her hairdryer and ran her brush through it quickly, applied some
light make-up and pushed her red sock clad feet into her hiking boots. She
grabbed her keycard and headed down for breakfast.

It was quiet in the dining room
at this time of day and Mia headed for a table by the window. She ate her
breakfast quickly as one, she was in a hurry, and two, and she was starving.
After breakfast, she made her way back to her room, grabbed her coat and camera
bag, and headed out of the hotel. She was aiming on making her way to the same
location as yesterday. Even though Ethan hadn’t shown up, she knew from
extensive research that her carefully selected position was along his favored
route.

Mia settled down in the cold
snow getting her camera into position and then her world turned to blackness.

The sound of crackling wood
woke Mia up. Her head was hurting. She’d no idea where she was but she felt
warm, and as she glanced down, she could see her hiking boots had vanished but
that was all, she was still dressed.

She was wrapped up in a fleece
blanket and lying on a couch with the blazing fire on her right-hand side, her
head was resting on a soft pillow. She tried to sit up but her head was
pounding so she gave up and put her head back on the pillow.

“You’re awake,” a deep voice
said, which she recognized immediately as Ethan’s.

“What happened? Where are we?”
she asked as she looked up at his imposing figure standing over her. He moved
closer toward her, and as he towered over her, she suddenly felt alone and
intimidated by his sheer size.

“You’re in my cabin Mia. I
usually alternate between the hotel and here,” he replied.

How did he know her name? What
the fuck was going on?

“How do you know my name?” she
asked quietly, almost afraid to ask the question in fear of what his answer
might be.

“I know you’re one of those
prying reporters forever meddling in business that doesn’t concern you,” he
replied with his voice laced with absolute disdain.

Okay, now she felt
uncomfortable in his presence.

“You know what I do for a
living?” she whispered.

“Yes. I also know you’re
attempting to write a story about me,” he took her by surprise with his words.

“Why would I write a story
about yet another boring billionaire?” she asked trying her best to deflect
away from the fact that he knew she was a reporter.

“Don’t lie to me Mia. I can’t
abide liars and especially liars who happen to be reporters,” he snapped at her
in such a vicious tone it made her physically jump. He was becoming angry and
Mia didn’t really want to be around him when he got angry.

She closed her blue eyes and
prayed that he wouldn’t shift in front of her and swipe at her with his sharp
claws.