Shifters on Fire: A BBW Shifter Romance Boxed Set (16 page)

Karma breathed, slow, long…trying not to think what he meant about that. With all his talk of tainted brides, she had a bad feeling. She had to keep him there a few more minutes.

“Let’s go, fiancée. This time tomorrow, we’ll be man and wife.”

Not even if she had to fling herself off the cliff.

Warren, where are you?

He walked toward the outside door and towed her along. Karma dug her heels in. “Wait, I forgot my wallet in the office.”

“I have money.”

“No, my driver’s license.” She preened at having thought of it. “Don’t I need that to get married?”

He frowned. “I don’t know.”

Karma watched him waver. He couldn’t be dumb enough to let her go back to the office. Could he? A tiny flicker of hope bloomed in her chest before he frowned at her.

“Wait a minute. You just want to get back to that bear!” He drew back his arm and she cringed.

The roar from behind her deafened her.

Warren’s shift took control for the first time since his teen years. When the fox shifter lifted a hand to his mate, his bear no longer needed permission to appear. His head brushed the hallway ceiling and he towered over the pair. Karma stumbled back and he regretted frightening her, but before he could clear up the situation, he had to kill someone.

He roared and struck out with one gigantic paw, smacking the smaller man across the room to bounce off the wall. The sleaze also shifted, shrinking into a speedy animal with the ears and tail of a desert fox and the red coat of another breed entirely. As Warren pursued him toward the door to the club, it opened and the animal attempted to slip through.

Harvey, however, closed the door behind him and stood in front of it, arms crossed and a friendly grin on his face. “Want me to handle him, Boss?”

Warren glanced at Karma, standing where he’d left her, but he couldn’t read her expression. Then he looked at the fox, panting by the door and then at Harvey. He nodded and waited while the bouncer scooped the fox up and hauled him out.

“Don’t kill him.” Karma’s small voice almost broke his heart. “Just don’t kill him.”

“No ma’am.” Harvey disappeared through the doorway and Warren stood face-to-face with Karma. Or, rather, at his current height, belly to face. He couldn’t decide whether shifting might frighten her more than staying a bear but took a shot.

Once he’d returned to normal size and shape, he watched her face for signs of horror or disgust but found only fascination.

“So, not aliens, huh?” She circled him as if she might find bear still in the rear and came around in front again.

“I…aliens?” The foot or so of space between them could have been the size of the Pacific Ocean for all his ability to cross it.

Karma had no such issues. She took a step then lifted her face to his. “I was half convinced that all the weird stuff I’d come across indicated an alien compound. Space aliens. Maybe from Alpha Centauri or something.”

He chuckled uncomfortably, still not sure where this was going. “Yeah, no. We’re local. Well, I’m from Washington.”

“And you’re a…were-bear?”

“We prefer bear shifter. But you get it yeah.”

“And this place?”

“Old home belonging to our people.”

She rested a palm on his chest. “And can you date outside the ummm shifter community?”

His heart thudded under her hand. “Try and stop me.” Lifting her in his arms, he carried her back inside the club. “I have a lot to tell you.”

“I’d say we have all night but I suspect that’s about gone.”

“Karma, we have all the time in the world, now that I’ve found you.”

Bear with Me

Dominique Eastwick

Yellowstone National Park is known for its majestic beauty, breath taking scenic views and the opportunity to see nature up close and personal. Park ranger Quinn loves everything about her job. But her canny ability to find grizzlies is starting to raise eyebrows. When she stumbles across a close encounter of the bear kind, she is suddenly thrown into a side of Yellowstone she never imagined existed.

Brutus has been watching his mate from afar for too long both as human and bear. But another clans actions force him to introduce himself early then Quinn was ready. Forced to defend his beta he brings her into his world. A world that hangs in the balance if Quinn can’t take her rightful place as his beta.

Can the grizzly alpha make her see that they could be hotter than the geysers at Yellowstone or will it be too late when rival males start moving into the park?

Dedication

Dedicated to rangers in Yellowstone and all the national parks, who love the animals of the park more than anything else.

Chapter One

“We have a mama black bear and two cubs on Grand Loop Road, north of Golden Gate.” The voice of a Yellowstone Park Ranger rang through the walkie-talkie. “We could use some crowd control.”

Quinn looked out over the elk congregated on the main common in front of the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. As the usual afternoon crowd gathered, the biggest issues were keeping the people at a good distance from the animals and making sure cars drove with care when the young elk crossed the road to get to their mamas lying close to the hotel on the east side.

“Quinn I went yesterday. You want to take this one?” Jenny Roth asked, tying off the yellow caution tape.

“I can.” Jenny enjoyed the Mammoth area elk. The hotel grounds was one of the places where people could get a closer, safer look at the wildlife, and no one in Yellowstone knew more about these creatures than Jenny. Quinn loved the bears. As a child, she had always had more teddy bears than doll babies.

She climbed into her white and green official car and headed south toward the bears and absolute gridlock. Rush hour traffic in the park could be any time of day when the animals chose to visit. The tricky part would be getting past the cars blocking the road, their drivers hoping to catch sight of the bears. She didn’t blame them and wouldn’t interfere, as long as the people stayed at a safe distance. She got as close as she could, pulled the car to the shoulder, grabbed the paint gun out of the trunk, and headed down the side of the road.

“Why the delay?” a tourist called from one of the vehicles as she passed by.

Quinn paused and gave them her best friendly ranger smile. “Mother and her two cubs have been spotted up the road. Make sure to stay in your car with your windows up.” She waved at the children in the backseat. A few yards down the road, she stopped, the eerie sense someone or something watching washing over her, as it had so often in recent weeks. Was that a grizzly lurking behind a fallen tree in the distance? Grizzlies rarely ventured this side of Mammoth. Not to say they never did it, but she expected to see black bears in this area. She took a step closer, but whatever she’d seen was no longer there.

The stumps just off the roadway had a way of playing tricks on the eyes. She continued down the road until she heard the familiar sound of a paint gun being fired into the woods. The ranger would he firing at the tree, trying to move the mama and her cubs away from the road and the crowds. As a man opened his door to climb out of his car, she strode over to persuade him to stay put, succeeding but not without his making a disparaging comment about her large derriere.

Nothing was more attractive on a plus-sized girl than the National Parks Service standard green slacks and tan shirt. But she loved the job so much, she never complained, honored to be able to wear the uniform. Adjusting her hat, she saw the bear again. A chill ran down her back. Large dark-chocolate eyes stared at her over the large muzzle; its ears perked up on full alert. Keeping her focus on the animal in the distance she lifted the communication device to her lips. “We have a grizzly out here as well.”

“Quinn, are you sure?”

“Yes I have it in my sights now. North of the location of mama and her cubs.”

“Great.” Sarcasm dripped through the receiver.

Quinn walked up to the SUV with its windows down. “Sir, we have a grizzly in the area. Please roll up your windows to keep your babies safe.”

“Of course, thank you,” the man said, quickly rolling up the back windows but leaving his down.

She kept her eyes on the large brown bear. He remained a good hundred yards away, but she, like all rangers, knew how quickly grizzlies could cover that distance. She heard the children in the car squeal in delight as they caught sight of the majestic beast. Yet the bear stared at her.

She pushed down the fear running up her spine. At last the bear turned and moved deep into the wooded area. She breathed a sigh of relief and kept the people in their cars. After the last bear disappeared into the woods, the traffic started moving again. Walking down the hill, she found one of her closest friends arguing with a guest to move their car. She waited patiently in the distance until the irate man in the rental RV finally moved on.

“Sometimes it’s a love hate relationship with these people. The bears are gone, bye-bye now.” They walked together to his vehicle parked in one of the pull offs. Popping his trunk, he placed the paintball gun inside. “Jesus, Quinn, this is the third time you have dealt with grizzlies in unusual parts of the park. I think they’re stalking you.”

“Funny Marco.” She didn’t want to think about it. But he was correct. She had spotted grizzlies in more places than most rangers did. If others weren’t seeing them, too, she might think she imagined them.

“He was a big guy this one,” Marco stated, his eyes still scanning the woods. “I caught a glimpse of him before he disappeared, almost like he wanted me to see him.”

Because that made any kind of sense. “I am going to check through the Indian Creek Campsite and let them know there are bears in the area.”

“Okay, watch out for your grizzly. Maybe we should start calling you Grizzly Quinn.”

“Funny.”

Two hours later she, climbed into bed, happy to have avoided contact with anything wilder than a few fireflies. Still, as she pulled the blanket up to her chin, she couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched.

~~*~~

He shouldn’t have come, but he had to see her. Her scent was addicting; his strong sense of smell led him like a moth to a fucking flame. The first time Brutus laid eyes on her, his whole sense shifted. His mate had come to him, although not in the form he had expected. She was 100 percent human, but he found her intriguing all the same. Her curves, even in the ugly pants she wore for the rangers’ service, brought his cock to full attention. But the few times he’d seen her out of uniform, his mouth had watered. Once she had gone out the north gate to the small town for pizza, dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt. He’d wanted to talk to her then, introduce himself, but he couldn’t get close enough without drawing attention to her. Not heading into the town much, he had been unprepared for the number of shifters in the vicinity. The next time he encountered her off duty, she had been on a picnic date on wolf lands, wearing a sexy sundress. His blood had boiled at the thought of another man laying a finger on what belonged to him when her date moved in to attempt a kiss.

Once he had seen her, all other women had ceased to exist for him. He belonged to her. Unfortunately, fate, the cruel bitch, didn’t seem to see the humor in her not sensing him back. “You need to just go up and claim her.”

He turned to his sister, who focused on the stars. They stood in front of the Mammoth Springs Hotel. Across the grassy area lay the staff housing and his mate. “Easier said than done.”

“So you keep saying, but standing here doing nothing is getting neither of us anywhere. If we are going to sit here staring at her window all night, I am at least going to get me some huckleberry ice cream from the creamery before it closes. Want some?”

He shook his head, happy to just stare again. As Asha moved away, he rubbed the stubble on his chin. He’d shaved twice today and still the hair lay thick on his face. The curse of being a bear, he supposed. A couple of minutes later, his sister returned, licking the purple cone. “She is out for the night. How long do you plan to watch her cave?”

“Every night until I can figure out how to approach her.”

“Take one of her tours, ask her out, and then bring her home.”

He snorted his response.

“Okay then, how about you put on your sexy fireman outfit, minus shirt, scoop her up into your arms, and kiss her senseless. Then she won’t be able to think of anything other than getting into those pants with you.”

Why the hell did he bring her along with him? Right, she’d invited herself. “And then tell her, by the way, I can shift into a bear at will. Hope that isn’t a problem.”

Mid-lick, she paused. “Why must you always go right for the negative aspects of any situation? Has it occurred to you there are maybe ten thousand steps between us and the moment where you have to tell her all? Worry about it when you are like a hundred steps from there. Oh, look, all the shifters are coming out to play.”

He looked toward the restaurant, made eye contact with Corbyn, the wolf pack regent, who stood beside a wolf female. He jerked his chin to acknowledge Brutus. The female wolf waved and offered a friendly smile but the male stared.

“They are going to get curious as to what you are doing so far out of your area. Again.”

“The elk claim ownership of this land, so the wolves are here for the ice cream just like us,” he said. “Until Lars complains, I have just as much a right as any shifter in the park to come and enjoy a cone or two.”

“You might want to eat some if you want to use ice cream as an excuse.” Asha sniffed the air. “I can smell the testosterone in the breeze tonight.”

He kept his focus on the restaurant as three more wolf couples went in. He cursed. “Let’s get out of here before it becomes a pissing contest. The last thing I want is for the rangers to ban us from Mammoth Springs.” Life in Yellowstone required a careful balance of living with the human visitors to the parks, which meant showing up as an animal every now and then. Dealing with the human rangers was more difficult because they cared more about the park than anyone else, and they each knew the danger that lay within its borders. But they would come out to save missing hikers, and, while Brutus could care less about most of the idiot people who had to touch the hot springs to believe they were hot, he did care about the rangers who would give their lives for the nature wonder around them.

But it also made keeping their secrets harder. The unwritten code though was that the shifters in Yellowstone stayed in their own lands unless work called. He, like many others, had discovered working in the park in some manner made life easier for all. But they found it important to keep the peace, so they could come and go to the different restaurants and lodges on occasion. The elk covered the Mammoth Springs Inn, Tower Roosevelt the black bears, Old Faithful was faithfully covered by the Bison, Grant Village had been marked by moose, and then the wolves, recent returnees to the park, had the cabin area at Canyon Lodge, leaving Brutus’s people Lake Yellowstone. The coyotes had lost all ability to maintain an area due to their inability to maintain anything. And the rams preferred to be in the mountains so they could butt heads in private.

So far, things worked well for all involved. Everyone respected the others but didn’t particularly want to hang out or have them know their business, and the last thing he wanted was for the wolves to discover his mate was the curvaceous ranger in Mammoth Springs.

They agreed the best way to live in the park was to have members of each pack, clan, and herd employed as actual rangers, allowing them access to select places to keep their vehicles. Park superintendents stayed in the park for a long time and co-existing was essential. When a new super arrived, the elk alpha would determine when all the alphas and some betas would meet with the leader of the park, welcoming them to their world and informing them of their secrets. He drove the truck south past the Hayden Valley and towards the lake. Pulling into the maintenance shed they both got out, moved into the woods, and shifted, braced for another lonely night in his bed while he yearned for a woman out of his reach, at least for the moment.