Bad Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (BRIDES fur BEARS Book 1) (7 page)

Staci swallowed painfully.
She had moved to a new town and she never even thought of telling her
sister.

Why?

Pride, she realized. She'd
let pride get in the way.

Ethel had always been the
tall, beautiful, elder sister. She was smarter, prettier, more
successful, and now she was happily married with a lovely baby.

Staci didn't want to look
like a failure compared to her big sister. But—nobody was
comparing now. Her mother and aunts used to remark, “Why can't
you be more like Ethel?” Staci hadn't realized how much she'd
let those comments affect her. But her mother and aunts were no
longer around. She shouldn't let them cast a shadow over her
relationship with her only sister.

Marcus was right. He had
encouraged her to call her sister and tell her about her new life in
Shadow Point. “Just talk to her. She might be busy with her
baby, but I'm sure she has time to talk to her little sister.”

Staci sucked in a long breath
and facetimed her sister. She had a lot to tell her sister, yet she
wasn't sure what she would say to Ethel.

“Hey.” Ethel
picked up the call and her face appeared on the screen. She looked
exhausted and Staci suddenly realized that it was past midnight over
there. “Oh! Staci, is everything okay?” Ethel asked.

“Yes, yes, I...I'm
sorry. I didn't realize it was so late.”

“That's okay. I was
just feeding Chloe. I'm up at all hours, so it makes no difference
whether it's night or day.” Ethel laughed and squinted at the
screen. “Where are you? Your house looks...different.”

“I, um, I moved. I'm
still with the same bank but I transferred to their branch in Shadow
Point.”

“David is okay with
that?”

“We're no longer
together.”

“Oh Staci...”

“It's okay.”
Staci shrugged and smiled. “He's got a new girlfriend.”

“He's moved on so
quickly?” Ethel began to sound angry. “Screw him. I
don't give a shit about how that jerk is doing! How are you doing,
Staci?”

Staci smiled, a lovely warm
feeling spreading through her heart. She didn't expect Ethel to be
so angry on her behalf.

“I'm okay,” Staci
said. “In fact, I...”

Ethel's eyes rounded. She
gasped and waggled her eyebrows. “You have met a new man. And
he's hot!”

“H-how did you know?”
Staci squeaked.

“You have that look on
your face.”

Staci giggled and told her
sister a little about Marcus. Ethel seemed pleased and excited to
hear about her new life in Shadow Point.

“Beck's Builders?
Wait, let me look that up,” Ethel said and grabbed her tablet.
“Ah, there. Nice website, but there's no photo of Marcus
Beck.” Ethel looked disappointed.

“I haven't got a
picture of him myself,” Staci confessed.

“Facetime me the next
time you're with him. I'd like to say hi to him.”

“Really?”

“Really. I'd like to
talk to the man who's making my little sister so happy.”

After chatting for about half
an hour, Staci saw her sister yawn and said quickly, “I'll let
you get back to sleep now.”

“Okay. I'll call
you...tomorrow?”

Staci nodded then asked, “How
come...you haven't called me for so long? I mean, I didn't call
either, but...”

Ethel frowned and bit her
lip. “You just seemed...so busy. With your job, your
boyfriend...and you didn't seem to want to talk much to me. I
thought...”

“You thought I didn't
care,” Staci said. “And I thought you didn't care.”

Ethel sighed. “I...”
She gasped suddenly and pointed, “What's that?”

“What?”

“I...I thought I saw
someone behind you.” Ethel's eyes were wide.

Staci frowned and turned
around. “No. I'm alone at home.”

“Oh. For a moment, I
thought...” Ethel shook her head. “Maybe it's just the
light. It's very late now...”

“Yeah. I'll call you
tomorrow?” Staci made it a question. It felt really good to
talk to her big sister, but she didn't want to impose. Ethel had a
baby, a family, and she was working part-time. She might not have
time for idle gossip and…

“Oh yes!”
Ethel's eyes lit up mischievously and Staci laughed. Her sister did
want to gossip, and her sister did have time for her. “Call me
when you're on that hot date with Marcus Beck!”

CHAPTER
NINETEEN

Staci put her phone down on
the dining table and went to put her glass in the sink. She was
really glad she'd called her sister. It was wonderful to see Ethel's
face and hear her voice. “I should make the effort to visit
her more often,” Staci said to her glass. “I should let
my niece get to know her Aunt Staci better.”

Sensing a movement behind
her, Staci twisted round abruptly. Her living room was dark but
somehow she sensed that she wasn't alone in the house. Didn't Ethel
start and point at something behind her just now? Her sister had
seen something, maybe someone behind her.

Staci got up slowly and
flicked on the living room lights. Her eyes darted from corner to
corner, but everything seemed to be in order. Her things were
untouched, and she saw no one lurking in the hall.

Scanning the house, she left
the lights on in the kitchen and the living room as she walked
cautiously to her bedroom. She would just sleep with all the lights
on in her house tonight. It was silly but it made her feel safer.

Staci changed into a big
comfortable t-shirt and brushed her teeth quickly. She was about to
crawl into bed when she heard a step outside her bedroom door.

She froze and stared at the
door. Did she imagine the sound? As she moved towards the door, she
saw the door knob turn.

Choking down a scream, she
lurched towards the door to try to lock it. But the door slammed
open and she stumbled back in shock.

“Wh...who are you?”
she wheezed as she snatched up the nearest object her fingers could
reach. It happened to be a clothes hanger. With shaking hands, she
brandished the hanger in front of her like a sword.

The man laughed as he stepped
into her room. His gray hair was tied back in a low ponytail and his
eyes were like coal, hard, black and flinty. He wasn't very tall but
the way he moved told Staci that he was dangerous. Very, very
dangerous.

The man moved soundlessly,
like a predator, and with the smallest movement, a knife appeared in
his hand.

“What do y-you w-want?
Just who are you?” Staci stammered, backing away.

The man's eyes glittered
menacingly. “I used to be a bear tamer. I've been searching
for my bears. They've run away, you see,” he went on in a
deceptively calm, reasonable tone. “They attacked me and
escaped.”

Staci knew at once who he
was. “You...you are Bazl.”

He gave her a wide smile and
pretended to be impressed. “You know my name. You must know
Marcus and his brothers very well. You trust him. And he...loves
you.”

Bazl twirled his knife
through his fingers and gave a mocking laugh.

“You're not dead,”
Staci whispered, shaking her head. “Marcus didn't kill you.”

“Oh, he stabbed a knife
in my belly and left me for dead. Then he ran off with my bears. So
you see, I have some unfinished business to see to. I will not die
before I finish Marcus Beck off. He destroyed me and I swear I will
see him destroyed!”

“No...”

Bazl's hollow laughter died
suddenly. He locked his eyes on her and snarled, “I have
waited so long for this.”

Staci backed into a corner
and held the clothes hanger out in front of her. It wasn't a very
effective weapon but it was better than nothing. She could aim for
his eyes and kick him where it mattered.

“I wanted to go after
the twins, but they're no longer small, defenseless bear cubs.”
Bazl smiled as he prowled towards her. “A human woman is a
much easier target. I don't want to hurt you, but I will enjoy
hurting
him
.”

CHAPTER
TWENTY

Marcus's eyes opened and he
sat up uneasily. His bear growled and clawed at him, forcing him to
throw his legs over the side of the bed and stand up.

As he snapped on his bedside
light, his phone chirped and vibrated insistently. Marcus frowned at
the unknown number on the screen. Someone was calling him from
overseas.

“Hello?” he
growled. Who would call him at two o'clock in the morning? It was
probably a wrong number.

“Hello,” a female
voice answered. “Is this Marcus Beck?” she asked
tentatively.

“Yes, I'm Marcus. Who
is this?”

“I...I'm Staci's
sister, Ethel. I don't know if...”

“Yes, Staci's told me
about you,” Marcus said at once. “Hi, Ethel. What can I
do for you?” His tone warmed immediately but he was still
confused. Why would Staci's big sister call him in the middle of the
night? Unless…

“I'm really sorry to
call you at this hour, Marcus, but I'm worried about Staci,”
Ethel said.

“Staci...” He
was already yanking a t-shirt over his head.

“Yes. I was talking to
her tonight. She looked and sounded really happy, but...I thought I
saw someone behind her when I was talking to her. Staci turned
around to look but she saw nothing. I told her it was probably just
my imagination but after I put down the phone, I just felt that
something was wrong. I tried calling her back but she's not picking
up. I'm really worried. I looked up your number on your website and
called you. I'm overseas so I can't go check on her, but...”

“I'm on it,”
Marcus told her at once. “I'm grabbing my car keys as we
speak. I'll drive over to Staci's house right now and I'll call you
back.”

“Thank you, Marcus...”

“Thank you for calling
me, Ethel.” He paused and said, “Staci is lucky to have
you. You're a very good big sister.”

“No I'm not,”
Ethel said. “I was too...ah, never mind that now.
Please...just call me back.”

“I will.”

Marcus rushed out of his room
and ran down the stairs. He saw Joshua hurry out of the kitchen with
a sandwich in his hand. “Where are you going?” Joshua
demanded, cramming his midnight snack in his mouth.

“Staci...” Marcus
snapped, throwing the front door wide open and racing towards his
car.

Joshua rushed after him, but
Marcus was already reversing down the driveway. With a squeal of
tires, he roared down the street, speeding to Staci's house.

He leaped out of his car and
pounded up the front steps to the little house. All the lights were
on in the house. The front door was slightly ajar and he burst into
the house, bellowing her name.

He went to her room and saw
drops of blood on the floor. It was Staci's blood. The scent of her
fear hung in the air, and he detected the scent of another human
male.

He inhaled sharply, and tried
to order his thoughts and emotions. The scent was horribly familiar,
but in his pain and confusion, he just couldn't place it.

Marcus felt his claws
elongating, and he was about to let his angry bear take over when he
heard the sound of another car screech to a halt in front of Staci's
house. His brothers came clattering into the house, speaking and
shushing each other together.

“Marcus!” Joshua
crashed into his shoulder.

“Where's Staci?”
Jax asked, looking around. “Ah! No...”

The twins stared at the
droplets of blood on the floor and their eyes widened. They were
sniffing hard, and they had the same look of cold fury in their eyes.
They recognized the scent of the man who had taken Staci. It was
the same man who had killed their mother, captured them and tortured
them for years.

“Bazl,” Jax and
Joshua growled. “Bazl is not dead!”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE

Staci opened her eyes and
gasped in pain. She tried her best to ignore that throbbing pain at
the back of her head as she wriggled against the ropes binding her
wrists and ankles.

She cried out in shock as a
spider ran across her bare feet. Blinking hard, she looked around
and saw peeling, cracked walls and boarded up windows. It looked
like she was in an abandoned house. There were some old, dilapidated
houses at the edge of town, so Staci hoped that she was still in
Shadow Point.

Bazl had knocked her out with
a sharp blow to her head, and she had only been vaguely aware of the
sound of a car engine. She had heard no other sound as she drifted
in and out of consciousness.

“Good morning,”
Bazl said pleasantly.

Staci jerked her head in the
direction of his voice. Bazl was sitting on a stool, watching her in
the dark. His blade gleamed as he spun it in the air.