Wild Bear

C
opyright
© 2015 by Terry Bolryder

All rights reserved.

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O
n the top of a low
, rolling Montana hill, a lone bear sat surveying the sunrise.

Today was his last day of freedom. His last day of roaming the hills for every free moment when he wasn’t at work. He hated being in his human skin. Hated having to express everything through speech, hated dealing with human drama.

Sure, there would be benefits to taking a mate. Like saving the land he’d been born on and bonded with all his life. The beautiful sprawling acres of trees, the well-maintained lodges, the stables with the horses he knew as friends.

But for just one more moment, he wanted to enjoy the feeling of being a bear with nothing to do and nowhere to go.

The fact that he
liked
the mate he’d have to take was a benefit as well. She had beautiful, dusky skin with a rosy glow. Pretty curls that would look great spread out in bed. Perfect red lips that he’d already stolen a kiss from multiple times.

And she was coming in on a plane later that day.

Maverick the bear shrugged to himself and let out a low huff as he adjusted his massive girth and rested with his head on his paws.

His mate didn’t even know bear shifters existed, let alone that he was one. For the next few days, weeks even, while he won her, he would have to be in human form. Trying to win her the way humans did.

If they were both just bears, things would have been simpler.

Then again, the human part of him did sort of long for a companion. Someone to hike in the rain with or ride horses with or just spend quiet nights in front of the fire with.

He didn’t know if his mate, a loud, rambunctious city girl, would be up for those kinds of things, though. What if she wanted him to go to New York?

A more chilling thought hit him. What if she didn’t want him at all?

Unthinkable.

He was an alpha bear, descended from alpha bears—strong, solid, pureblooded.

His mother had been an asshole, but she was full bear. That was perhaps why she’d left the second he was weaned, leaving him wet and shaking on the edge of the land for Maverick’s father to find.

They were bears after all, and bears didn’t need to be coddled like humans.

Except no one had found him, and once he’d recovered from the abandonment, he found a welcoming home in the woods, living happily in the foliage on berries. Until Shane and Jesse, his half-brothers, ran across him while riding horses in the high country.

Then they’d dragged him home and tried to make a human out of him, but they’d only sort of succeeded.

He was still more comfortable as a bear. Despite their insistences they were more human.

He hadn’t even know he could shift into a human until he met Shane and Jesse and his father.

He harrumphed and looked out at the sun moving over the shaded hills below him.

Being a bear was simple. Eat. Roam. Hunt. Explore. Sleep. A cycle that was comforting and solitary and went on and on with the rhythm of nature.

The sound of an approaching truck rumbling up the hill announced the arrival of their guest—

Harmony, the friend of his brothers’ mates. The animal in him had recognized the natural pattern of things. Three females, three brothers needing mates.

He was the last one who needed to make good on what fate had put in front of him.

But as excited as he was at the thought of claiming an alpha female like Harmony, he mourned the wild life he was leaving behind—

the rolling hills, the steep mountains.

After work, she’d want him home with her, doing coddling human things, not exploring, not roaming.

So boring.

At least the sex would be good. And he’d have someone to talk to. For some reason, that more than anything else really intrigued him.

So Maverick the bear hefted himself up and lumbered down the hill and through the brush, back in the direction of his cabin.

Time to get ready to win over his mate.

That meant taking a shower, and trying to fit into frustrating human clothes. He’d even washed some the other day.

For someone as special as Harmony, he’d not only wear stifling clothes; he’d wear clean ones.

She was a very lucky female indeed.

H
armony’s suitcase
was on the bed, and she grabbed clothes from it and moved them into the wooden dresser of her guest room.

Her friends, Ruby and Bonnie, were chatting avidly about all the things they were going to do together on the ranch, but Harmony’s head was somewhere else.

Her heart hadn’t been able to stop pounding ever since the truck carrying her here from the airport had pulled onto the ranch where so much had happened in such a short time.

They’d originally come out here for a spontaneous vacation when her friend Ruby had answered a dating ad. They’d had all kinds of adventure here, and Harmony was even kidnapped by a wild man at one point.

Luckily, she’d been rescued, just in the nick of time, by a man who, before, had seemed equally wild himself.

When she’d been alone in the woods, cursing that maniac as he tried to pull off her clothes, the last person she’d have expected to come busting out of the woods to save her was Maverick McAllister.

He was infuriatingly arrogant and handsome, didn’t know how to use a comb or brush or iron, and looked like some kind of sexy hobo that lived in the bushes.

But at that moment, to her, he’d simply been a hero.

She hadn’t even cared that for some reason he was fighting naked. He was there, he’d come when no one else was able to, and he’d quickly dispatched her attacker.

Well, he hadn’t done it alone. Moments before, a large bear had scared her attacker and given her a chance to run for it. But she wouldn’t have gotten far if Maverick hadn’t heard her screams and come to finish off the man.

So yeah, her heart was burning in her chest, pounding in anticipation.

Both of her friends had fallen in love with the other two McAllister brothers. But that made sense. Both of them were fairly normal, as far as unbelievably tall, hot cowboys went. Neither Shane nor Jesse had the pure animal wildness Maverick did.

The first time he’d met her, when they’d come up to the lodge, he’d walked right up to them, said he wanted Harmony, and placed a searing kiss square on her lips, holding it and plundering her mouth for a split second before his other brother delivered a withering punch that sent Maverick flying.

Harmony had never been able to stop thinking about that kiss. Even as her brain knew Mav was a bit of an asshole (he’d tricked both her friends into bad situations on accident) her body wanted to… get to know him better.

Not that she was looking for something long term. Even though her career as a singer had sort of stalled, she hadn’t given up hope. Even though her agent had dropped her the year before and she was getting tired of the smoky rooms and the grabby hands of rich patrons after each set was over.

She had to make it now. Otherwise, what were all those years of struggle for?

Her mother, a single mom, had always told her she had a talent and encouraged her to make something of herself.

And she had. She still made good money at the restaurant and often got compliments and encouragement from patrons.

That had sustained her thus far.

But she was getting older. And for once, as she’d been on the plane headed out for a much-needed vacation, she’d almost dreaded the thought of going back to New York. Which was weird because she loved it there. Loved the bustle and the people and the fashion.

She put it down to missing her friends, Bonnie and Ruby.

“So what do you want to do first?” Bonnie asked, bouncing excitedly on the bed, her red hair whipping in its ponytail.

“I don’t know,” Harmony said. “Settle in and get some food, I guess.”

“Fine,” Bonnie said. “We’ll go see Fanny. But then we should go have an adventure. Have a girls’ night or something. Ruby and I are dying for it.”

Harmony grinned. Bonnie had really come out of her shell since meeting her fiancé, Jesse. Harmony couldn’t help but feel a little jealous that both her friends had found happiness.

Perhaps if Maverick seemed like the type to settle down, rather than the type to drag her under a bridge, that would have seemed possible for her too.

S
till
, a hot fling wouldn’t hurt.

Depending what he was up for. And how he felt. She hadn’t heard from him since their first contact. And why would she? It wasn’t like he’d been thinking of her like she was of him.

She was just a hot tourist who’d come out to visit.

Harmony did like Montana for how the men seemed to desire women like her. She had healthy confidence in her curves and had never seen a shortage of men who appreciated her ample body and large booty in New York. But it was different from the men here, who openly acknowledged it and drooled after it like it was the ideal.

Maybe if the wild man wasn’t up for a fling, she’d head down to the local bar and pick something up there.

She had her trusty Taser after all…

When she was fully unpacked and she couldn’t find any other reason to put off going downstairs, she felt sweat beading at her hairline and she leaned on the dresser, facing away from her friends.

How could she explain to them how nervous she felt over a man they seemed to think was ridiculous?

But Harmony had a feeling she saw something in Maverick no one else did. That she could reach him in a way no one else could.

But Ruby would just laugh and remind her she had terrible taste in men and a penchant for trying to fix things that couldn’t be fixed.

She liked her men broken, all right. Or had in the past.

But Maverick wasn’t broken. He was just sort of… bent.

She took a deep breath. She was the loud one in the group. The bossy one. The alpha. “All right, guess we better head downstairs.” Her heart beat against her ribcage. “Are, um, the guys waiting?”

She looked in the dresser mirror and saw Ruby and Bonnie looking at one another curiously.

“Yes,” Ruby said, tilting her blond head and narrowing her blue eyes at Harmony. “Why do you look so nervous about it? You know Shane and Jesse both like you a lot.”

Bonnie was quiet for a moment, her green eyes intense as she thought about it. Then she snapped, “It’s Maverick! You’re nervous about seeing Maverick.”

Harmony whipped around to face her friends, guilt draining the blood from her face. “Am not.”

Bonnie fell back on the bed, giggling her head off, and Harmony folded her arms.

“Wow, mature reaction for a grown woman,” she said.

“I knew it,” Bonnie said. “You like him. You actually like Maverick.”

Ruby frowned, observing Harmony silently as if trying to deduce if that were true.

“I don’t like him, per se,” Harmony said. “I’m… attracted to him.”

Ruby let out a long breath. “He can’t possibly deserve you.”

Harmony leaned on the dresser. Her leather pants squeaked subtly. The boat-neck sweater she wore slipped over one shoulder, revealing smooth brown skin.

“Are you going to change before we go down?” Bonnie asked.

Harmony scoffed. “To what, flannel and jeans?”

Bonnie and Ruby grinned, both wearing the aforementioned outfits. “Maybe. It’s comfy,” Bonnie said.

Harmony sighed, throwing up her arms, making her gold bangle shake on her arm. “I’m not a settled country woman like the two of you. I’m a New Yorker. A fashionable one.”

“What about the heels?” Bonnie asked, looking down at Harmony’s spiky-heeled shoes.

“I’m fine,” Harmony said. “I can dance in these things. I should be fine walking on some dirt.”

Truthfully, maybe they were right about the inappropriateness of the clothing, but she was already nervous as hell. She wasn’t going to add to that by wearing clothing that wasn’t her style. She was going to be herself and be comfortable. And try to ignore the gaze of the wild man who always looked like he wanted to eat her.

“Okay,” Bonnie said, shrugging. “We want you to be comfortable.” She threw an arm around Harmony’s waist. “But seriously, watch out for Maverick when we go downstairs. Never know when he’s going to launch a sneak attack.”

“That’s true,” Harmony said, her pulse racing again as they left her room and headed downstairs. She kept her purse over her shoulder and clutched it against her like a security object.

She could no longer delay the inevitable.

She was going to see Maverick McAllister again.