Baby Protector Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Baby Paranormal Romance (Who's the Daddy? Book 4)
Read Baby Protector Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Baby Paranormal Romance (Who's the Daddy? Book 4) Online
Authors: Raines,Harmony
Tags: #General Fiction
Baby
Protector Bear
***
All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written consent of the author or publisher.
This is a work of fiction and is intended for mature audiences only. All characters within are eighteen years of age or older. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, actual events or places is purely coincidental.
© 2016 Harmony Raines
Kindle Edition
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Baby Protector Bear
Joel has been a protector of people his whole life. Now the stakes have been raised. When his mate offers to protect baby Sam, he has no choice but to volunteer to stand by her side. One look at her luscious curvy body tells him he’d like to lie in her bed too.
But this is serious, this is life or death. Yet being around her makes his bear a little unpredictable, and he knows he would rip the head off any man who even thinks about hurting her. Can he control himself, and claim his mate?
Chrissie has witnessed, first hand, how a family can be torn apart when bad things happen. It’s a guilt that has followed her around since she was six years old. It’s molded her life, made her the woman she is today—who is not the woman her mother would like her to be.
Born into a wealthy family, she should be a society wife, like her sister, instead she works for social services, helping wherever she can. Only this time, she isn’t just changing someone else’s life, she is risking her own.
When faced with a choice of who is going to help protect baby Sam, she picks Joel, big and tough, the kind of man you’d want by your side in a fight. The only problem is, the way he looks at her, she’s sure he’s thinking he’d like to be next to her in her bed too.
Not happening. No way. Never. Relationships and marriage are her sister’s thing.
So why does he make her heart skip, and other parts of her body want to melt right into him?
Common sense tells her to choose someone else. But Joel makes it clear he is doing the choosing. And he doesn’t plan on ever letting her go.
“There’s a rumor going around that one of us will have to babysit that poor kid from the Krieg case,” Johnson said, walking into the office and sitting down at his desk.
“The Krieg case?” Joel asked. He had been working at bringing down drug dealers for last few years, with some stints undercover. His recent move to Homicide meant he wasn’t up to speed with all of the recent cases.
“Angela Manilla. Got her throat slit last week. Double tragedy: her mom walked in while the perp was still on the scene, raised the alarm, and delayed him long enough for us to get there. Unfortunately, the mother went into shock and had a heart attack. She’s now in the hospital, not expected to make it. Angela’s baby was the target.”
“How do you know the perp meant to take him, and not just kill him?” Joel asked.
“Because he was known to us. Hired hand for Krieg.” Johnson looked across to Joel. “Meanest son-of-a-bitch that ever got put on this planet. I’d say born on this planet, but the guy was spawned by the devil, if you ask me.”
“Johnson’s biased. Got stung by Krieg when he was a rookie,” his partner, Landy, said, shaking his head.
“And I have been meaning to bring that guy down ever since. Doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as normal people,” Johnson looked as if he’d like to spit, but saved it. Instead he settled for scowling. “One day I’m going to get him.”
“Krieg made Johnson puke on his first day. Cut a woman up real bad, didn’t he?” Landy asked, although he must have heard the same story a thousand times. These two had been partners for five years. Five years was a long time to get to know someone.
Joel thought of his own partner, Liam, the reason he had transferred to Homicide. They had worked together for nearly seven years, and knew each other inside and out. He hid his smile, knowing it wasn’t appropriate, considering the topic of conversation, but Liam was off on his honeymoon with his new mate, Carla, and Joel couldn’t be happier for him.
Of course, Joel’s shifter side was a complete secret; the only person who knew was his old boss—and someone well up the food chain, but Joel didn’t have his name, just his number. With strict instructions it was for emergencies only.
“So why did Krieg want the baby?” Joel asked, picking up the conversation.
“Kid’s his. Angela was trying to get away from him, wanted to raise the kid to be good. Not some punk who cuts up women. She was staying with the baby and her mom in a safe-house, social services were helping her, that’s where the leak came from, if you ask me. Terrible. She should have been safe, but instead, got her throat cut.” Johnson looked pale. Reliving old crimes did that to a person. Didn’t matter how much distance you put between you and the crime, how many years went by, they could still hit you square in the gut and make you want to puke all over again.
“I’ll get you some coffee.” Joel stood up, not wanting to hear about women with their throats cut. There were enough of those kinds of victims in his own head without having to carry the burden of someone else’s.
Taking his time, he sauntered over to the coffee machine and punched in Johnson’s usual. One thing he had learned when he was a rookie, was make sure you knew how your close colleagues liked their coffee. It got your foot in the door, your face remembered, and one day might well save your ass.
You wanted these guys on your side. He sighed. Those were more the rules for the undercover drug squad than Homicide. Here he was supposed to use his brain to find the perpetrator, not his nose. Yep, as a bear, he had actually been called on, on more than one occasion, to use his heightened sense of smell to uncover the goods. Here it would be different: no one knew about Liam and Joel’s
special gift
.
The things you do for a steady job and the chance to make the world a better place.
Picking up the first coffee, he leaned against the wall, giving himself a few minutes of peace before he went back to Johnson and Landy. With Liam away, he was tagging along with them for a couple of weeks, and although he liked them a lot, he wasn’t comfortable being around them all the time, and he knew they felt the same.
When two people work closely together they fall into a particular rhythm, and having Joel around was adding an extra beat to that rhythm.
He heard Johnson laugh. That was better: Landy had gotten him away from thinking about women with their throats cut. What he wouldn’t give to be able to rid the world of men who hurt women. Or who hurt children. He couldn’t imagine a small, innocent baby being brought up by a monster who would teach him to be evil.
A child should be brought up to respect life, and all those around him, whether shifter or human. That was what his father had taught him until the day he died.
Death
. That seemed to be on his mind a lot lately. Not exactly healthy. Maybe he was coming down with something. His neck tingled at that thought. Yes, definitely something wrong with him, and it was getting worse by the minute. He looked at the coffee in his cup. Machine coffee wasn’t the best, but it had never made him ill before.
Joel stood up. His hands were clammy, and a sense of nervous energy came over him. Had he been drugged? Was this what it was like? Damn it! What if someone knew he was a shifter and had some of the drug Niq It and now he was poisoned, about to bond with the first person he saw?
He closed his eyes, not wanting that to happen. If he had to, he would crawl around with his eyes closed until he found his true mate. But how would he know? Panic filled him; his life was about to spin out of control.
“Hey, McMillan. Come on, the Chief needs a word. The Krieg thing is a go.”
Joel nodded, but he kept his eyes closed. He was not going to be bonded to Johnson. No way.
“McMillan. You OK?” Landy was there too.
Shit!
Landy grabbed Joel and placed one hand on either side of his face. “Look at me, man. Hey, look at me.” Landy began to tap his face. “Frank, let’s get him to the doc.”
“I’m fine. I have something in my eye, that’s all.”
“OK, open it. Let me have a look. This one?” Landy’s thumb was on his eyelid, trying to open it.
“I’m fine. Honestly.” Joel tried to push Landy away.
“You either open your eye and let me look at it, or I am taking you to the doc.”
“OK. Give me a second.” Joel managed to push Landy away, and then turned his back to the two men, so he now faced the wall. Then he gently prised his eyes open. All he had to do now was get out of there without directly looking at someone, because the sensations covering his body were telling him something was wrong.
“Right, if I could have everyone’s attention. That includes you three out there. I know you maybe have better things to do, but this is important. I want to introduce you to Chrissie Cartwright. Chrissie has volunteered to look after the Krieg baby and go into hiding with one of you lucky guys. Chrissie, welcome.”
“Thank you, Inspector,” a soft, sensitive voice said.
“Oh, I’m ditching you and volunteering for this job,” Landy said, with a low whistle. “Curves in all, and I mean
all,
the right places.”