Bearly In Control
Authors: Kim Fox
Tags: #PNR, #Shifters, #werebear, #Paranormal Romance, #bear shifter, #shapeshifter, #werewolf, #romantic comedy, #fantasy, #funny
BEARLY
In Control
Edwin & Grace
By KIM FOX
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This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Contains explicit love scenes and adult language.
18+
Copyright © 2015 by Kim Fox
Other titles in the Werebears of New Hampshire series:
Book One
Book Two
Book Three
Book Four (Last Book)
one
“So what do I say again when I meet her Dad?” Edwin asked.
He was standing on the platform waiting for his train at the station. He was heading to New York City to see his mate Grace. Connor and Sidney were seeing him off.
“You say ‘Hi I’m the guy that’s porking your daughter,’” Sidney said with a laugh, his thick arms crossed over his massive chest.
Edwin nodded. “Okay,” he said, repeating the words under his breath.
“No,” Connor said, pushing Sidney away. “Don’t listen to him.” Connor pulled Edwin to the side and straightened his jacket. “He’s a Senator so remember to be respectful. Tell him that he has a nice home. Compliment him. Say nice things about Grace.”
This was so confusing. Edwin had so much to remember. He had been a feral werebear when Connor had took him in and now he had no idea how to act in social situations.
“What’s a Senator again?” Edwin asked.
“It’s a politician,” Connor said, smoothing out a wrinkle in Edwin’s jacket.
Edwin had so much to learn. “What do they do?”
Connor looked up and to the right. “Uh, they vote on stuff and…Sidney?” Connor looked to the giant werebear by his side for help.
“Senators say speeches and wear suits…” Sidney trailed off. “Just tell him you’re a fan.”
People started to swarm around them as it got closer to the train’s departure time. A man in a leather jacket bumped into Edwin. He jerked his head around from side to side, nervous with all of the strangers nearby. Edwin didn’t like being in crowds.
That kid by the magazine stand holding a toy truck was staring at him and it was freaking him out. There was a man with long hair playing a guitar beside the tracks. It sounded like an owl screeching in pain. Edwin didn’t like this place.
Connor placed his hand on Edwin’s shoulder. “It’s okay buddy. They’re just people. They’re not going to hurt you. Just ignore them.”
Edwin turned his head towards an old lady walking by. His stomach was rolling and he felt nauseous.
“What if someone talks to me?” he asked.
Connor exhaled. “We talked about this remember?”
Edwin didn’t remember. This was terrifying. He wanted to go back to the woods and sleep under the stars. He wanted to be surrounded by trees instead of concrete and hear the chirping of crickets instead of the murmur of people walking by on their cell phones. This was not his ideal environment.
A couple pushing a baby stroller came dangerously close to him. He closed his eyes and ripped open the top button of his shirt. He was so hot all of a sudden.
“What’s wrong with him?” Sidney asked. “He looks like he’s having a panic attack.”
“He’s not,” Connor said.
“I think he has a brain tumor.”
Connor waved Sidney away. “Will you give us a minute?”
Connor placed his other hand on Edwin’s shoulder and stared at him face to face. His stare was already calming him down. Connor was good at centering him and taking away some of his social anxiety. Edwin certainly had enough to spare. He wished that his boss was coming with him.
“Are you sure you’re okay to go?” Connor asked as low as a whisper.
Edwin swallowed hard and steeled his nerves. He had to go see his mate, Grace. It had been three weeks since the last time they had seen each other. A wonderful night where they got lost in the woods after a kayaking accident. Edwin had saved the city girl from a pack of wolves and then they spent the rest of the night making love under the stars.
“I’ll be okay,” Edwin said, not believing his own words.
“You’ve never been in a city before,” Connor said. Edwin was abandoned by his human parents when he was only ten years old. He phased into his bear in his parent’s house one day. They thought he was possessed by some sort of demon and drove him deep into the woods and released him.
Edwin had spent his whole teenage years and the beginning of his twenties in his bear form. It was only when Connor found him eating out of a dumpster behind a Chinese restaurant a few months ago and offered him a job that he had started to live in his human form. Connor had been rehabilitating him and helping him to live among humans. But he still had a lot to learn. Like how to stop phasing every time a stranger looked at him funny.
Connor pulled out Edwin’s train ticket. “The city is no place for a werebear,” he said, “and definitely no place for your bear.” He leaned in close. “Whatever you do don’t phase.”
“Or you’ll end up with a tranquilizer dart in your neck and wake up in a circus riding a tricycle with a propeller beanie on your head,” Sidney said. “I’d pay good money to see that.”
Connor pushed Sidney away but he was so large that he didn’t budge. “I’m going to sell you to the circus,” he warned. “As a sword swallower.”
“I can’t swallow swords,” Sidney replied.
“Exactly.”
The train chugged down the track and Edwin flinched as it passed them. It was so big and loud. Edwin had fought dominant bears bigger than him and had made packs of wolves whimper before his paws but this was absolutely terrifying. His hands shook and his face twitched as he felt the comforting feeling of his bear surging towards the surface.
A hard slap across his face stopped him mid-phase. His bear slunk back down within. “No phasing,” Connor snapped.
Sidney was shaking his head. “He’s not ready boss.”
“Yes I am,” Edwin spoke up. He wanted to see Grace. He had to see Grace. His bear had been torturing him since she left, begging him to go see his mate. To claim her once again.
Connor studied Edwin’s face and exhaled long and hard. He pulled a picture out of his back pocket and handed it to Edwin.
It was of the six of them: Connor, Edwin, Sidney, Rebecca, Angie and Grace standing in front of the guest house. He rubbed his thumb over Grace’s face, trying to feel her soft skin, her luscious lips. He immediately felt calm and centered.
He could do this. He would do this. For her.
“Okay,” Connor said, stepping to the side. The doors of the train were open and the passengers were already getting on. Connor handed him the ticket. “It’s okay. You’ll be okay.” He seemed to be reassuring himself more than Edwin. “Just get on the train. Remember what I told you.”
Edwin picked up his bag and headed to the train on wobbly knees. He squeezed his ticket in his fingers until the paper crumpled. The train was so big, the surfaces so smooth, the engine so loud.
You’ll be okay. Just like Connor said.
He pictured Grace’s long blond hair and slender hips. He remembered her smiling and lying in front of him naked.
Remember what Connor said.
He took a deep breath and walked towards the open door. He stopped in front of the man playing guitar with his case open in front of him. There was money inside. Coins and a couple of bills.
That must be where we pay.
Edwin dropped his ticket in the guitar case and walked up the stairs.
“Hey man!” the guy called out.
Edwin hurried towards a window seat and sat down. He placed his bag on the seat next to him so nobody would sit there.
Sidney was shaking his head with his hand over his eyes as Connor bent over the guitar case.
Connor ran into the train and handed him the ticket. “Wait until the ticket agent asks you for it,” he said.
This was so confusing. Why couldn’t Grace come stay with him in the woods? She had said there were too many mosquitoes and that she just had to show him around New York. She said that she was going to show him the best clubs in the city. Edwin wondered why she wanted to show him so many weapons.
Edwin waved to Connor as he walked back beside Sidney.
“I hope he doesn’t phase,” Connor said. Edwin could hear them from his seat with his enhanced shifter hearing.
“Think he’ll last the trip?” Sidney asked.
Connor shook his head. “I don’t think he’ll last the train ride.”
two
“Alfred where are the keys to my Porsche?” Grace asked as she tore through the drawers of the antique hutch in the lobby of her father’s mansion.
The head butler for the Briggs family, Alfred, walked over with his back straight and his chin in the air. Grace swore that his back was made of metal and incapable of bending.
“With the others Miss Briggs.” He slid open the thin top drawer. There were about twenty or so keys, most of them with Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bentley and Rolls Royce logos carved into them.
Grace snatched the Porsche key, an Easter present from her Dad, and headed for the door.
“Ci Ci,” her Dad called out as she was about to leave.
She stopped in her tracks. “Yes Daddy?”
“Are you off to pick up your new friend?” he asked. He was wearing a three piece suit even though it was a Sunday afternoon. He was rarely seen in regular clothes.
“Boyfriend,” she corrected.
He smiled tightly. “Well you are aware that this week will be an important week for our family?”
Grace nodded. Of course she knew. He had been talking about this moment since Grace was in diapers. He was going to announce that he was running as a candidate in the next Presidential election. It was all that he ever talked about.
“I hope that this Edmund-”
“Edwin.”
He forced a smile. “This Edwin is worthy of our family.”
Grace gulped. She had strong feelings for Edwin but he was definitely rough around the edges. Changing into a brown bear at the most inappropriate times for instance.
“It is highly important that nothing goes wrong this week,” he said, turning towards the mirror and combing his already perfect hair. “You have a duty to this family and I hope that you will uphold it.”
“He’s great Daddy,” she said, suddenly feeling nauseous. “You’ll love him.”
“It’s not me that I’m worried about,” he said, placing his comb back in the inner pocket of his coat. “It’s the press. Our family has to look perfect. I do wish that you would reconsider a courtship with Devon. He has a strong family name that has included numerous Senators and Governors throughout the years. Devon could even run for President one day and you could be the first lady. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”