Bear in a Billion: EXPOSED (#1) (2 page)

Ethan knew then that it was no accident he had sensed her drowning. It was a primal connection his bear had with the world. From the moment he had laid eyes on her, his bear had appreciated the woman’s generous curves. A bear like him not only enjoyed and desired, but needed a woman of those proportions. A woman who could handle his Alpha body, a woman who wasn’t too delicate to be claimed.

The California grizzly was long extinct, since the gold rush, in fact, but they used to live all over coastal California, feeding on the rich ecosystem where land meets sea. Grizzly shifters weren’t much different. Though far from extinct, they were rare, and they too enjoyed the rich life the California coast provided.

Ethan had been in the area for most of his life. He grew up farther down the coast, but he’d been surfing since he could crawl. Growing up a grizzly shifter among mostly humans hadn’t been easy. It could sometimes be tough to relate to people when you had a grizzly bear inside of you, just itching to get out. Not that shifters were all that different. They dreamed like humans, they bled like humans, they just happened to have a few advantages. They lived a very long time, they recovered from injury easily, and best of all, they got to roam free in their bear forms. Unfortunately, roaming as a bear was very hard to do in California of late, which is why Ethan now spent his time in Coop Cove. The mountains and forest land in the area offered his bear some space to get out and about. All in all, Ethan enjoyed a pretty relaxed lifestyle on the oceanfront. But what he didn’t have was a mate. Most of the women he met were nice enough, but not his type. He just hadn’t felt that spark.

Until today.

From the moment he’d pulled that sweet, drowning swimmer from the waves, he’d felt his bear calling out to her, hoping, praying she would be all right. It had been touch and go. Her limbs were languid and he worried that she had swallowed too much water. He hadn’t been hopeful when he had lowered his lips to hers and breathed life into her, but he did it anyway. He had to see if he could bring her back. And when she had burped in his face, he had felt his bear roar in joy.

He didn’t know this woman. He didn’t know why she was having such an effect on him. But he knew this. Whoever she was, his bear was telling him she was the one. And whatever the cost, whatever the obstacles, he would claim her as his mate.
 

**********************

Haley awoke disoriented. The morning sun shone through the window, but she couldn’t remember where she was. The metal bed, the rustic wood paneling, the surfboard hanging from the wall. What was this place? And it slowly came back to her. Her Uncle Steve’s surf cabin. She turned her head to the side to see a single white tulip lying on the sheet beside her. Her favorite flower. How had that gotten there? A moment later, there was a knock at the door. Her friend Katie poked her head in.

“Hey, girl, how you doing?” Katie asked.

“I’d be fine if I could remember where I was.”

“Your Uncle’s place? California? My. Name. Is. Katie?”

“I know your name, weirdo.”

“Well, that’s a relief.”

Katie took a seat on the side of her bed. She was one of Haley’s two best friends and a big curvy girl in her own right. A little fairer skinned than Haley and a lot more outgoing. Katie was the funny one.

“Is our girl all right?” a second voice said.

Haley immediately recognized the voice of her other best friend, Laila. Laila entered the room. She was curvy too, but shorter than them, with stunning green eyes and perfectly coiffed short brown hair. Laila was the organized one. The one who planned this trip, the one who planned meals, the one who planned everything. Katie and Laila were so different from each other Haley often thought of them as oil and vinegar. If her two friends were the dressing, she was the salad that held the whole crazy thing together. Haley pulled herself out of bed. Her legs were working again, and she felt reasonably healthy after her near-drowning experience. The sleep had done her good. She picked up the tulip and brought it to her nose.

“Where did the flower come from?” Haley asked.

“The question is where did the surfer who left the flower come from?” Katie said.

“So what’s it like to be saved by a hot guy like that?” Laila asked.

“Awesome,” Haley said. “The saving part that is. The hot part I didn’t really notice.”

“Liar!” Katie shouted.

“Really, Katie, after nearly drowning I’m sure men were the farthest thing from Haley’s mind,” Laila said.

“Don’t give me that. He was H.O.T. hot.”

“And she was practically D.E.A.D. dead,” Laila said. “Give the girl a break.”

“It’s fine, Laila. Yeah, I suppose if I’d looked at him in that way, I’d have to admit he was hot,” Haley said.

“So you did look.”

“I said
if
I did,” Haley said self-consciously. She was a little more private a person than Katie, and sometimes she liked to keep things to herself for a while before sharing them.

“You looked,” Katie said with a grin.

“Katie,” Laila said.

“Look, look, look, look, look,” Katie teased.

Yes, she had looked. She’d looked and looked, and then looked some more, completely unable to believe the turn of circumstance. Her rescuer was more than strong and handsome. He had a kind, honest soul. She could sense it under all that rippled muscle. And that was important in a man. Maybe the most important thing. Because it meant he was more than an ornament. It meant he was trustworthy.

Katie buzzed out of the room and Laila handed Haley her robe.
 

“Drowning or no drowning, you’ve got a busy day ahead of you,” Laila said. “Time to find a job.”

Haley pulled on her robe and took a shower. It was her cousin who had told her about her uncle’s cabin. He wasn’t going to be using it for the summer and had offered it up to family. And the best part? It was in sunny California. Land of dreams. Haley had jumped at the opportunity to go West for the summer. Even though she didn’t have a job waiting for her, she was a hard worker and she knew she’d be able to find something to pay the bills. Katie and Laila had leaped on board as well. All three of them had arrived yesterday morning, and though her uncle’s cabin had needed a little TLC, things hadn’t shaped up too badly. They had scrubbed and dusted and cleaned and washed until the place looked pretty darn good.

After cleaning house, they had walked to the beach and Haley had gone for her fateful swim. She still hadn’t quite wrapped her mind around the whole experience—coming so close to drowning. She could barely think back on it without getting the chills. But she did know one thing. She wanted to thank the man who had saved her. She wanted to thank him and do something very special for him. After all, he had given her her life back.

Haley put on a summer dress, the light-yellow one with all the buttons down the front and headed into the rustic kitchen. Katie and Laila were already at work on their laptops. They had ordered an internet connection for the cabin before they had even arrived, so when they got there, all they had had to do was plug in the modem. A high-speed internet connection was essential because Katie worked as a call center operator and Laila as a virtual assistant. Both jobs allowed them to work online from practically anywhere in the world, but Haley wasn’t so lucky. Even though she had worked as a news reporter for a small local paper back in Ohio, so far, she hadn’t made any inroads with any of the online news outlets. So for the interim, at least, she’d have to find something else.

“Yes, sir. Push the power button and unplug the unit,” Katie said into her headset. “No, sir. Please don’t attempt to wash your modem with soap.”

 Katie was providing support for some kind of tech helpline. Frustrating job, but you did what you had to do. Laila, meanwhile, was typing up a storm as she listened to her client make note of what they wanted her to do. Laila’s job required a high degree of organization, which meant it was perfect for her. Now, Haley just had to pay her share of the living expenses. She grabbed an apple, slipped on her ballet flats and silently waved goodbye before heading out the door.

**********************

Haley spent the morning knocking on doors and trying to sell herself for whatever position was available. Coop Cove may have occupied a beautiful stretch of the California coast, but it wasn’t a big town. It consisted mostly of a single main street and the beach. There were surf shops, ice-cream shops, secondhand stores, and cafes. She wished she was farther along in her career as a news reporter, but here in the Cove, as it was known, they didn’t even have a local paper. It didn’t matter, she’d get there someday. What mattered now was that she earn enough to pay her way. Haley had brought some savings with her, but she preferred not to dip into them if she didn’t have to. So, she tried each and every business, explaining that she was new in town and looking for work. Everybody was very friendly, but she didn’t get far. Not until her last stop.

“You ever waited tables?” the gray-bearded man behind the long counter asked in a raspy voice. He had a cracked, weather-beaten face like he’d spent too many years baking under the hot sun.“For a little while,” Haley said.

“How long is a little while?”

“I worked for two weeks waiting tables at a cafe in my hometown in Ohio.”

“Only two weeks?”

“It would have been longer, but another job came through.”

Haley immediately wished she hadn’t said that. She was already worried she was going to look irresponsible by saying she was only looking for summer employment, and now to add that she had only held her waitress job for a couple weeks because something better had come along? What was she thinking? It wasn’t exactly professional.

“So what was this dream job that came through?” the man asked.

“Reporter,” Haley said. “For the local paper. I’d always wanted to be one.”

Way to go, Haley. Dig that hole deeper.

“A journalist. Nice.” The weather-beaten man hit the remote, turning on a television hanging above the counter. “I do like my cable news.” The man smiled. “Well, you won’t be around long with all those investigative journalism opportunities out there. Better grab an apron.”

“Excuse me?”

“Lunch rush starts in twenty minutes. Get a move on.”

Chapter Two

Haley grabbed an apron. Wiley, her new employer, was right about the lunch rush. The restaurant wasn’t much more than a burger joint with benches facing the big open windows onto the ocean, but it was soon full past bursting with all manner of hungry surfers. Haley was run off her feet. Between trips to the kitchen to pick up the food, she noticed that a large group had gathered on the beach. Some held signs. One man held a megaphone. It appeared to be some kind of protest. So this was California, Haley thought. She could already tell that things weren’t going to be dull in Coop Cove. It took about an hour and a half, but eventually the lunch rush cooled down to a few customers, and then, nobody at all.

“You know what time it is?” Wiley asked.

Haley took a breath. “I’m pretty sure it’s too early to be quitting time.”

“It’s ketchup time.”

“Ketchup time?”

“Haley, we sell three things here at the Surf Shack. Burgers, fries, and Cokes. Of those three items, two need ketchup. See all those little bottles?”

Haley glanced around. There was a red squeeze bottle on every table.

“They’ve got to be filled,” Wiley said. “But I’ll tell you what. How about we enjoy some good old cable journalism while we work?”

Wiley flipped on the overhead television as Haley started to gather the ketchup bottles. She brought them into the kitchen and began filling them from a large container. The lunch rush had been hard work and she was grateful for the chance to catch her breath. The talking head of a cable news anchor started to drone on. Haley enjoyed cable news, but she tended to prefer the investigative journalism side of things. She hadn’t gone to a fancy journalism school—two years community college, thank you very much—but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be good at what she wanted to do. One thing was certain—even though she was grateful for the opportunity, she wouldn’t be filling ketchup bottles forever. Wiley turned up the volume on the television.

“Now, in a Cable News exclusive,” the television anchor said, “we have obtained this shocking video. Parental guidance is recommended for our next segment—Shifters Among Us.”

Haley looked up at the screen. Shifters? Sounded interesting. They cut to a man being interviewed in a large, well-appointed living room. He sat on a leather chair in front of a sleek modern fireplace. The man wore an open-collared white shirt over his broad chest, but his face had been digitally obscured.

“I’m recording this to expose a secret to the world,” the man on the television said. Haley noted that the man’s voice had been digitally altered. “I’ve obscured my identity for my protection, but my story, our story, needs to be told.”

The guy clearly values his privacy, Haley thought.

“I want to say upfront that this is nothing to be alarmed about,” the man continued. “You are not in danger. Your families are not in danger. What I’m going to tell you may sound shocking at first, but please, hear me out. My simple message is this. We, I, belong to another species, and we live among you.”