Bear-ly Spring Read online

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELEVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  BEAR-LY SPRING

  BY

  M.L. BRIERS

  AND

  A.B LEE

  Copyright © 2017, M L Briers

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced whatsoever without written permission of the author, except for brief exerts in reviews. Any unauthorised reproduction or distribution of the material herein is illegal and may result in criminal proceedings. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded to the internet or distributed via electronic or print without prior consent.

  Note from the Author;

  All names, places, and incidents contained herein are purely fictional and have no basis in actual events or linked to actual Humans, Witches, Vampires, Werewolves, Lycans, Werebears or persons living, dead or undead.

  Copyright © 2017, Cover Design by; Rebecca Pau at The Final Wrap.

  Table of Contents

  BEAR-LY SPRING

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELEVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  CHAPTER ONE

  ~

  Elijah kicked the door of his truck closed with his booted foot and turned to take in the one horse town. He hated having to make these supply runs. Seeing just one human made his bear irritable for a few days afterwards, and an irritable bear wasn’t something that he needed in his life.

  He felt his hands fisting into tight balls at his sides and the tension started to wrack through his body. It was worse now that he could scent the people in the air, and he made a concerted effort to turn off his heightened sense of smell.

  Humans annoyed him. More so now that they weren’t oblivious to his kind anymore.

  He hated the tourists that came in search of shifters, like they were freaks in a carnival, or curiosities to stare at. Worse still were the shifter groupies that just wanted to say that they’d banged a shifter, and that’s all that it was, all that it could ever be, because they weren’t true mates.

  One true mate for every shifter in the world, and that world was a damn big place. It was little wonder that not every split apart found their other true self.

  He missed the days when shifters hid in plain sight. Sure, it was annoying having to hide his bear side from the world, but not as annoying as being treated differently because of the fur just under his skin.

  Elijah made a concerted effort to shake out his fists and forced his hands into the front pockets of his jeans as he started towards the hardware store. He needed to get this over with pretty damn quickly and get back to his cabin before he decided that ripping someone’s head off was a damn fine idea.

  Spring was in the air and with spring came tourism and those tourists were damned annoying. Invading the land like ants at a picnic, swarming all over the damn place and catching his bear unawares.

  He had to be careful in the tourist months not to eat anybody. He kind of liked that thought and kind of hated it at the same time.

  He didn’t want to take a human life, and yet some of those damn humans were also culpable to say the least, getting lost on his mountain … buy a damn map and compass! Sneaking up on his bear like it was harmless … it was a wild animal for God sake, anything but harmless.

  Elijah pushed open the door to the hardware store and stepped inside. He might have turned his senses off but that didn’t stop a little of the scent of fresh wood getting through. He liked that scent – it calmed both him and his bear.

  “Elijah…” Old Mr Cummings looked up from his monthly fishing magazine; his washed out blue eyes taking the man in, and nodded his sandy grey head of hair to him, and he nodded back.

  There were only a few humans that he could stomach in town and Cummings was one of them. The man respected the hell out of the land and the wildlife, and he respected him for that.

  The old man was only one of a few select townsfolk who had known of the shifters existence before the world did, and that was because he’d been attacked by a wolf up on the mountain in his younger days and left for dead.

  The general consensus was to let him die of his injuries, but Elijah’s father had enlisted the help of the vampire to save his life.

  Those acts of kindness from his people to humans were the start of the end for the shifter’s anonymity, and one day he expected it to be their downfall.

  Elijah wasn’t that blind – he viewed most humans with suspicion and mistrust and it didn’t bother him one bit that a lot of the townsfolk viewed him in much the same way.

  The old man dragged himself to his feet and placed his magazine down on the counter top…

  “So, your order came in. Let me just get Andy to help you get it out to your truck…” Cummings offered.

  “I’ve got it.” Elijah grumbled at the thought of someone thinking he needed a human to help him do anything, least of carry stuff. With a build like he had he didn’t need some puny human to shift a few bags of cement, mortar and sand, and a few lengths of wood from one place to another.

  “Of course you have…” Nathan grinned to himself.

  Elijah was well known on the mountain and around town for being the original bad mood bear with a sore head. He’d know him since he was a cub and he’d been fine with people when he was growing up, used to run around the store like it was a playground when he’d come in with his father.

  Nathan didn’t know what had happened between that boy and the man he was today, but he missed that wide eyed kid that had a grin for everybody…

  “I saw your brother two days ago…” Nathan offered and noted the way that the man’s broad shoulders pulled back, his chin lifted only slightly, but enough, and his eyes narrowed.

  There was a long pause before Elijah just grunted back.

  “He’s doing well…” Nathan tried again. He’d always try, but he never seemed to get anywhere with either brother. “You not going to ask about him?”

  Elijah twisted his head to one side and regarded the man with a blank stare. He knew Nathan’s routine, expected it, and it was g
etting old fast – much like the man himself.

  “Okay, well … can’t say I didn’t try,” Nathan shrugged his shoulders on a sigh. “He asked about you…” Nathan said on an afterthought and Elijah grunted again.

  “Okay, so that was a lie, but he would have if you two weren’t such knuckleheads.” The old man offered in a gruff no nonsense tone and got a snort back for his troubles.

  “Fine…!” Nathan gave up as he always did. “Your stuff’s out back. Don’t scare the hell out of Andy with your bad mood bear routine.”

  “Who the hell is Andy?” Elijah growled back with something of a sneer.

  “My sister, Annabel, it’s her grandchild. Came to stay for a while to find the family roots…” He snorted at the thought of it. He leaned over the counter and shot a quick look down the shop to see if anyone was there. “I think it’s cos there was some trouble back home…” he whispered before straightening up as far as his body would let him and saying no more.

  Great! Another human with a chip on their shoulder… just what this town needs.

  Well that kid had better not venture onto my land or I’ll kick his backside right back down the damn mountain…

  “Good luck with that.” Elijah snorted, deciding to end the saga of the family drama right there as he turned towards the back to retrieve his stuff and get the hell out of there before the old man decided to share anymore family stuff with him.

  He wanted to be home. His bear wanted to be home, and he had troubles of his own without taking on anyone else’s.

  ~

  ~

  ~

  Jethro drove through the town in his pickup truck and pulled up outside the hardware store. He didn’t have much to collect on this run only what he hadn’t been able to get a few days earlier, so parking down the side street to use the loading door wasn’t necessary – he’d leave that spot for someone who was picking up a big delivery.

  His eyes flicked to the bakery and the thought of one of Aunt May’s apple pies. A nice deep dish filed pie with the best crust that he’d ever tasted in his life and as sweet as honey inside. His stomach grumbled at the thought of the taste of that on his tongue.

  The woman wasn’t really anyone’s Aunt, but every kid growing up in the area had been told to call her that from day one. She didn’t have chick nor child and yet she treated every local kid as if they were family.

  He liked that. The woman was solid gold in his book, even if she had a little bit of witch in her. As was Nathan Cummings from the hardware store – that man was like an Uncle to the town too.

  They were good people – humans – but still, you couldn’t have everything and he didn’t have a problem with any of them as long as they didn’t have a problem with him or his bear.

  Jethro was torn between going to the bakers first or last just in case he missed out of one of Aunt May’s pies, but he was parked in front of Nathan’s and he just was only picking up. He reasoned that he’d be done with the hardware store in a matter of minutes and then he planned on getting him some pie that he could have after he grilled some steaks that evening.

  ~

  ~

  ~

  Elijah turned down the side of the wood store and ran right into her. The fact that there was a female messing around in the back of the store was bad enough, but this one was pint sized and easily swept off her feet.

  He heard her breath leave her body the moment that she ran into the solid wall of his chest. She bounced right off of him and would have ended up on her backside on the ground had he not been fast in collecting her in his arms and yanking her back against him.

  He might not have liked humans, or females, and especially not human females very much, but he didn’t want to be the one to break one either. She gasped in a breath and blew it back out on a stream of curse words that would have made a sailor blush...

  That kind of amused him. Not that she could tell, as she snapped her head back on her neck and offered those curses up to the giant of a man with the stone hard stare and enough muscles to wonder if Popeye had a love child with The Terminator.

  “You should watch where you’re going…” Elijah grumbled.

  His instinct was to growl, but his years of training around humans still stalled the urge when he came across a stranger, and a female one to boot. They tended to scare easily and he didn’t need to be deafened by a shrew screaming her lungs out.

  “Well, if I’d known there was a brick wall walking around back here I might have…” She offered back with the kind of death glare that made him wonder if this female was a witch, and enough acid in her tone to strip paint from a door…

  He was tempted to sniff the air. To casually take her scent, and yet, witch or human, it didn’t much matter, except for the whole zapping part, because she’d annoyed him anyway.

  “Yeah, well, this is a man’s store…” he grumbled down to her.

  That whole satin being dragged over gravel voice of his made the hairs on her body stand to attention – hell, not just the hairs, there were other parts of her too that seemed mighty enthralled with it as well.

  Or maybe she was just repulsed…? No, there was definitely nothing repulsive about the man.

  “I should make you eat those words…” She turned her body left then right, snapping off the hold that he had on her, and taking just one little step back so that she didn’t get a pain in her neck while looking up at him.

  “How’s that?” He lifted just one dark eyebrow and stared down at her absolutely emotionless.

  The man was a goliath, and from the way that he was practically breathing smoke down his nose, not a gentle giant, either.

  “Four by four around the head should do the trick,” she said, curling her top lip in disdain and offering him a glare that was all her own.

  CHAPTER TWO

  ~

  Andy had dealt with bullies before and this one was no different. Using his size to try to intimidate her … those broad shoulders and big muscled arms stuffed inside a leather jacket did little to impress her. Neither did the male chauvinistic BS rhetoric that he offered with almost every word that came out of his mouth…

  His eyes took her in. The whole five foot nothing of her in one go.

  Elijah planted his feet and crossed his arms over his broad, muscled chest. The woman was feisty for a human, he’d give her that. Feisty and weird …

  Who dyed the tips of their black hair purple?

  What, was she in training to be a vampire or something?

  “That’s all well and good if you can lift one…” he sneered back. “You’ll need a man to cut one down to size for you, wouldn’t want you to break a fingernail … get a splinter…”

  Elijah watched as she craned her head forward on her neck towards him. Her eyes narrowed, and that death glare turned into a look of pure disbelief mixed with anger, as her cheeks turned bright red beneath the layer of too – much makeup that she wore…

  One hand went to her hip and the other reached up as she pointed her finger at him … just like a witch … but he couldn’t feel any magic in the air.

  “You’re a…” She started, with as much venom in her tone as a rattlesnake, but she was cut short by the approach of Nathan Cummings.

  “Did you find what you were…?” The old man stopped shuffling down the aisle and eyed the scene in front of him… “You met Andy…” his tone didn’t sound too impressed. One look at the she-demon’s face and there was little wonder.

  “Andy…?” Elijah spat out as he twisted up his face at the misunderstanding. He thought Andy was a guy … some guy! “This is your sister’s…?”

  “Yes, yes…” Nathan sighed. He hadn’t missed the standoff between the two, nor had he missed the way that his niece was getting ready to bat one out of the cage … probably try to take the shifter’s head clean off given the chance and the bat … “She has … anger issues.”

  “You can say that again.” Elijah snorted his contempt for the woman. “Not to mentio
n a mouth like a sailor on shore leave.”

  “Why don’t you…?” Andy screwed up her face and went in for round two, even if she hadn’t been able to complete round one yet.

  “Head down the back and find your order!” Nathan said right over the top of her, and she snorted her contempt for the both of them…

  “Reckon I will,” Elijah said giving her one more long hard stare.

  He noted the way that her top lip twitched just a little in anger and it amused him some more. That was a feat in itself, nothing much amused him anymore.

  “There’s a vice down there, stick your head in it and I’ll be down to…” Andy said and he started on by her…

  “Andy!” Nathan blocked her verbal attack once more with a tone that sounded full of frustration.

  Elijah cracked the smallest of grins as he kept walking without looking back over his shoulder at her, even as he felt the urge to do it.

  Hell, if she came at him with that four by four it would probably have been worth the cracked skull, because he hadn’t been that amused by anyone or had that long a conversation in a very long time.

  He had the weirdest image in his mind’s eye of her all screaming like a banshee and clinging to his back like a spider monkey while he tried reaching around to get her off …

  She’d certainly got his attention.

  ~

  ~

  ~

  “He’s a paying customer and an old family friend…” Nathan grumbled as she followed him towards the front of the store.

  “He’s also a misogynistic, male chauvinist pig…” She stopped short when her Uncle did, almost crashing into his back. She’d expected the old man to turn around and give her one of his harmless glares, but that never happened.

  “Jethro…!” The man sounded more than surprised to see the second man mountain walk in through the door.

  Andy had to rise up on tiptoe to be able to look over her Uncle’s shoulder and get a better view, and then she eyed him from head to toe and back up again…