Does a Bear Shift in the Woods (Bear Bites Book 4)

“
S
o you’re a wolf shifter
, eh? What pack?” The man at the bar tries to give me an encouraging smile, but it just comes across as a bit smarmy.

Ugh. I toy with my drink, wondering if I have enough courage to blatantly get up and leave. It’d be rude as heck, and Pine Falls is a small town. I should probably just suck it up. “Is it obvious?”

“Scent,” he says, and taps his nose. Then he lazes back on the barstool, spreading his legs. “I’m kinda like the alpha in this area, you know.”

Kinda like? You either are or you aren’t. “Wow,” I murmur, pretending to be impressed. “I’m Thorne pack, out of Sacramento. You must be one of the Millers if you’re the local alpha.”

His face flushes. “Yuuup,” he says slowly and looks away, which tells me everything. He’s not a Miller, and he’s not an alpha. He’s just looking to score some fresh werewolf pussy.

Nice try, buddy.

“So what brings you here?” He waves at the bartender, indicating he wants his check. “Findin’ a mate?”

I frown at him. “No, of course not.”

“Uh huh.” He clearly doesn’t believe me.

“That’s really not it at all.” I play with my drink for a bit longer. It’s an unexciting screwdriver, but it’s also really hard for a bartender to mess those up, so they’re my go-to at a new place. “Wanted a change of pace. Saw someone advertising for a cottage rental in the area and I waited until I saw someone post a job in my wheelhouse—”

He stands up, cutting me off. “Well, good luck to you, honey. Maybe I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah,” I say dryly. “Sure thing.” I watch as he leaves, and I’m all alone at the small bar. Pine Falls is currently not in tourist season so things are quiet, or so I’m told. Right now the bar itself is pretty damn deserted, which is fine. No more creeps hitting on me.

I’m not surprised he threw down the ‘mate’ card so early, though. Pine Falls is shifter central in the North—which is why I found out about the cabin and the job here. Me? I’d just really wanted to get out of California and away from my old pack. Things got real awkward in Thorne territory when my ex became the new alpha and indicated there’d be room in his bed for me
and
his current alpha female.

So generous of him. Yuck.

So I got the hell out of Dodge. I’d been bored in California and was looking to start somewhere new, anyhow. Pine Falls, Minnesota, is definitely new to me. So far it seems nice enough, and the local wolf pack is run by family, which means they’re content to let me fringe as an omega: not quite part of the pack itself but still included enough to appease my shifter side.

The door opens, and I turn to look. Two women enter, waving at me excitedly. “There you are!”

“Hey,” I say, getting to my feet. I put a few dollars down for the bartender and gesture at a booth in the back. “Want to sit over here?”

Ryann Brown is considered the unofficial welcoming crew here in Pine Falls. She’s not a shifter, but she’s mated to a big burly were-bear named Mal, so that pretty much makes her one of the team. She beams at me and slides into the booth, all sunny smiles and swingy floral dress.

With her is Adelaide Laurent, my boss and a human woman who runs the town spa. She recently expanded to add hair and nails (aka me) in her quest to beautify Pine Falls and to add an option for bored wives when their husbands want to play mountain man. Both of them have welcomed me to Pine Falls and are now my closest friends here.

It’s weird to have two human friends who are involved in shifter relationships, but I’m happy with it. They’re nice and fun to be around, and after the pack fiasco back in California? I’m happy to go lone wolf for a while.

“You want me to buy the first round?” I ask them, sliding in next to Ryann and bringing my screwdriver with me.

Ryann wrinkles her cute little button nose. “Nah, I’m not drinking. Unless there’s coffee. That, I’m all over.”

“I’m sure they can make you coffee,” I say with a smile. “Would you two rather go to the restaurant instead?”Pine Falls has an infamous waffle restaurant—home to the most maple confections one can possibly toss onto a breakfast plate.

“Not me,” Adelaide says. “Amaretto sour here.” I wave over a server as she rubs her forehead. “Been a long day today. I had a customer who kept calling and swearing I had somehow stolen his credit card information. I tried explaining that his wife came every week and that’s why he had all those charges, but he didn’t believe me, and she won’t ’fess up.”

“That sucks,” Ryann says sympathetically. “That why you’re drinking, Madison?”

“Call me Maddie, and nah. I just met the local ‘alpha.’” I use my fingers for quotes. “He hit on me and then suggested I’d moved here because I needed a man.”

Ryann’s eyes widen. “He did
not
.”

“He did.”

Adelaide gives me a sympathetic look. “You’re gonna get that a lot here, you know. Most of the time when someone moves to Pine Falls from another state, it’s because they’re looking to hook up with another shifter. At least, that’s what Cole tells me. Lots of hooking up when a new shifter moves here.”

So I can expect a lot more of the last run-in? Goody. “Can’t a girl just want a job and a change of pace without some dick?”

“No,” both of them say, then burst out laughing.

“Ugh. I swear I’m not here to pick up a man!” Even as I exclaim it, the server saunters over. His scent fills my nostrils—not wolf. Bear, maybe. And my eyes widen when he gives me a flirty wink and puts a new screwdriver down for me.

“On the house, sugar.” He gets the girls’ orders, and I try to ignore the phone number written on the napkin under my drink. Hell.

This is going to be real weird for a while. I’m nothing special to look at—brown hair, big hips, maybe a few more freckles than I probably should have. But because I’m a shifter, and because I’m here, everyone thinks I’m desperate for a man.

And the thought makes me defensive. When the server leaves, I lean in. “I swear I’m not here for a guy.”

“You can tell us that, but no one’s going to believe you.” Ryann looks like she’s buying in to the hype at this point. “It’s okay to admit it, you know. People hit a certain age and they start to get the baby bug. Look at Adelaide here. She’s here for three years and then overnight, she and Cole can’t keep their hands off each other—”

Adelaide bats a hand on Ryann’s arm to shut her up, but she’s grinning. “She’s got a point.”

I scowl. “I just want to start my life over, maybe make a few women feel good about themselves. Or men, if that’s what they want. Is that so terrible?” The last thing I want at the moment is a romantic entanglement. Most wolf guys are super possessive…at least until the alpha shows up. Then they’re all, “Hey, I suppose I can share with the big dog.”

Ugh. Sometimes I wish I was human like these two. They seem utterly happy to let their men be the shifters and for them to be completely vanilla humans.

“Here?” Ryann asks. “The only reason Adelaide and I were single for so long was because we’re human. You being a shifter? You won’t stand a chance.”

My heart sinks, especially at the ‘so long’ part. Ryann’s all of twenty-one if she’s a day. If she thinks she was on the market for a long time, I’m going to be doomed to be hit on by every shifter in Northern Minnesota. “What can I do? I just want to be left alone.”

Adelaide thinks for a moment, then snaps her fingers. “A makeover.” At my frown, she continues. “Not you. You’re cute enough as it is. Someone else. You need to give someone everyone’s familiar with a new, impressive look. That’ll show everyone in town you mean business.”

It sounds kind of…stupid. “I’m not sure…”

“Ooooh,” Ryann coos. “We could make it a game! The next person to walk into the bar is the one that Maddie has to make over, no matter who it is. Man or woman. And once you do, I’d be happy to spread some rumors on your behalf that you have a long-distance boyfriend.”

“Or,” I say, “You could spread the rumors on my behalf because you’re good friends and we could skip the whole makeover thing?”

Ryann and Adelaide exchange a look. Then Ryann shakes her head, an impish grin on her face. “Here’s the thing, Maddie. It’s real slow in town. Real slow. People need entertainment.”

“Including my friends?” I ask dryly.

She winks at me.

I sigh and look at the door. “Okay then. Next person who comes through that door is getting the full Madison Thorne treatment. No pore will remain untouched, no follicle un-dyed, no cuticle un-trimmed.”

“Awesome,” Ryann says, and Adelaide gives an excited little hop in her seat. Boy, they must be right about things being slow around here if this is considered fun.

All three of us stare at the door to the bar, waiting to see who comes in. I cross my fingers under the table, hoping for a soccer mom who just needs a quick beer. Or something. Heck, I can even make do with a young, hot metrosexual who can wear a great fauxhawk and impress his girlfriend. Something easy.

The door creaks open.

The three of us tense in our seats.

Heavy, muddy boots stomp in. I look up in horror at the man who’s just walked through the door. He’s got a bristling, overgrown beard that sticks out in every direction. His hair is long, tangled, and hangs on the shoulders of his dirty plaid shirt. He’s enormous, and even from here I can smell the scent of were-bear and sawdust and sweat on his skin. I know that lumbersexuals are hot right now, but those guys are sculpted, almost effete versions of the raw man standing in the doorway of the bar. This man would give Paul Bunyan a run for his money. All he needs is a blue ox.

“There’s your challenge,” Ryann whispers. “Chance Eddington. I don’t know that he’s ever gotten a haircut. Or talked to a woman. Like, ever.”

Hoo boy.

I am so screwed. How am I going to get this guy to consent to a makeover?

W
omen
. I scowl. There are so many damn women around now that the shifters have been hooking up with humans. A bear can’t even go into a tavern and get a drink without having to be assaulted by flowers and weeds and shit. The worst is Cole’s new woman, Adelaide, and her fancy schmancy shop that, from all I’ve heard, is a place where people pay ladies to rub their faces. Worse, these women don’t even offer a below-the-waist massage.

Can’t figure out why I’d pay for something like that.

The only good thing that’s come of this is that I’ve been selling houses and cottages faster than they can be built. Shifters from all over are streaming into Pine Falls, and they all want places to live. The wolves want big houses, but others, like the big cats, want homes away from the water, near trees, and as far away from other folks as possible.

Good thing we live up in the great North woods where there’s a lot of land available and at cheap prices. Although with all these shifters, land prices are going to go up. Other Pine Falls residents can take advantage of that because while I’ve got about fifty acres bordering the Superior National Forest, none of that is going to any of these new shifters.

I stomp over to the bar. “Yuengling.”

I slap my fiver on the scarred chestnut bar top as Dent, the owner, slides an ice-cold beer down to my fist.

“Looks like you’re keeping busy,”he observes.

I give him a short nod to let him know that I’m not in the mood to chatter. I rode herd all day on a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears cubs who thought they knew everything there was about building because they’d helped Eli, the local shifter leader, put together a shed behind the Lodge.

Dent wanders to the other end of the bar. One of the flowers has crept up behind me. I ignore her, too.

“I know you can smell me,” she says and then climbs onto the empty stool next to me. The scent of wild honeysuckle floods every olfactory receptor I’ve got, and I nearly spill into my work pants. Fucking hell. A wolf shifter who smells like the best spring day of the year? I’m doomed.

I lift my beer to my lips and frantically try to replace her smell with that of yeast and hops. It doesn’t work. Still, I drain the bottle and signal for Dent to give me a refill. He sidles down the bar with interest in his eyes.

“I’m Dent,” he informs the shifter next to me.

I refuse to turn to look at her. It’s bad enough she smells good enough for me to want to lay her down on the bar top and lap at her until she’s creaming all over my tongue. I don’t need to see what she looks like. Once I’m done with this second beer, I’m going home and sticking my head in a manure pile until all I smell is shit.

“Maddie Thorne. I’m Adelaide’s latest hire.” Out of the corner of my eye, I see a slender hand reach out and clasp Dent’s darker, weathered one.

“Nice to meet you, Maddie. You need me to top off your screwdriver?” He doesn’t let go of her hand. Maddie leans forward, and a flash of brown sweeps by.

“Nope. I’m good, but I wouldn’t mind a burger. Rare. Hold the bun.”

“You got it.”

They continue holding hands. What is this? A date? A growl rumbles through my body. “The lady said she wants a burger,” I say between gritted teeth.

Dent’s lips curve into a slow smile. “So she did. You want anything else with that meat, sweetheart?”

And he still doesn’t let go. I reach one sawdust-covered hand and lay it on Dent’s forearm. “She just needs the hamburger.”

He bursts out laughing. “Another one bites the dust!” he chortles, and finally lets go. He strolls over to yell to his fry cook, George, that he needs a Bessie, still mooing.

“Can I buy you a drink?” Maddie asks me.

“No.” I tip my head back and drain the second bottle. It’s doing nothing to mask Maddie’s appeal. Only thing I can do is get up and leave. Pull myself outside the danger zone. Retreat to my newly built house in the woods. Move.

Move,
I order, but my body doesn’t budge.

The bear inside me has planted its big ass on the stool and isn’t getting up until Maddie’s perfect little fingernails are dug into my fur. I push a hard hand down on top of my bear’s head and swing an ugly mug toward the sweet little thing sitting at my side.

“You oughta leave,” I growl.

She arches an eyebrow at me. “Why would I do that? I’m waiting for my dinner.”

“Dent’ll deliver it to your house.” Dent would like to strip you bare. The bear snarls. He doesn’t like the idea of Dent or any other male near Maddie’s lair. My hands curl against the bar top.

“I want to eat it here. With my friends.”She tips her head back toward the table where the two human mates are sitting.

Then go. Go away and take your damn temptation with you.
I wave for Dent to come back.

“Another Yuengling?”he asks.

“No. Whiskey. Neat.” My voice is hoarse because Bear and I are fighting for dominance. Bear wants to curl up in Maddie’s lap. Or grab her by the hair and drag her home. He’d be fine with either choice. But me? I don’t want a mate. All these bears around me rushing to find their life partners are fools. They don’t realize that mates mean pain.

My parents were a mate pair. For twenty years, they were happy. They had me and my brother, Lucky. She was a long skirt, long hair, flower child, and my dad thought the sun and moon hung in the sky just to see her wander this earth. Then she died, and all the light in his eyes went out. I haven’t seen him smile in years. Mostly he sits on his front porch, drinking, and shooting his skeet gun at passing cars. Lucky and I had to hide all his live ammunition and fill his bullet pail with blanks.

Every day my dad lives without my mom is a day filled with pain that not even a case of whiskey can numb. So no, I don’t want a mate. I don’t want some honeysuckle-and-lavender-smelling girl with big hips and glossy brown hair sashaying around my house, filling it with sunshine only to take it away.

There are dangers in the North woods—other shifters, traps, stupid hunters with guns who don’t pay attention to ‘No Trespassing’ signs. A woman up here, particularly a shifter who has to run around to feel alive, is prey for those hunters.

I can’t get rid of the hunters. The local police frown on that. Not to mention that it affects the economy. Tourists aren’t big on staying in a small town known for being dangerous to visitors. So my only option is to avoid having a mate.

And I’ve done a good job of it. Until a few years ago, Pine Falls was big on bear shifters, a few wolves here and there, and only a handful of human women. None of them smelled good to me, and it was easy enough to avoid the tourists. They don’t come to construction zones.

But somewhere along the line, shifters and humans started hooking up, and now the whole goddamned town is like one bad episode of
The Bachelor
with fucking roses being handed out like candy at Halloween. I stiffen my spine.

Just because Maddie smells like heaven doesn’t mean she’s my mate. Maybe I just need to get laid. When was the last time that happened? I think back. Shit…the last time I had flesh-to-flesh contact with another woman was about four years ago when I went to a building convention down in Florida. I’d been trying to arrange a meeting with a fellow who was selling home solar panels. We have quite a few people up here who want to live completely off the grid.

I’m long past due. That’s my problem. Regular hand jobs aren’t cutting it. My attraction isn’t the result of Maddie being my mate. It’s just a regular biological reaction due to being near a sweet-smelling woman.

Hell, it could be anyone. Okay, not anyone. The humans at the table smell about as interesting as sawdust. As does every other woman in this town, but just because Maddie makes all my taste buds water and my dick spring to life doesn’t mean she’s my mate.

I peer at her out of the corner of my eye. I’m afraid to look her full in the face. It’s one thing to smell her. It’s one thing to know her hair is as pretty as cattails in a marsh. It’s another thing entirely to look her straight in the face. I don’t need that kind of beauty haunting me. And I know she’s like a fucking angel from the way that Dent keeps glancing over here as if she’s some kind of picture he hasn’t ever laid eyes on before

“You wanna have sex?”I ask abruptly.

“I, ah, what? I came to ask if I can give you a makeover.” Shock is evident in her voice. But that wasn’t a no.

“Sure. After we have sex.”I wrap up her hamburger in a napkin, throw down a couple of twenties, and then grab her hand.

“Wait a second. I didn’t come over because I wanted to go home with you. I told my friends I was going to give the next person who walked through the door a makeover. I need people in Pine Falls to see me as something other than mate material. I’m a
stylist
!”

“You can do whatever the hell you want with me. After we have sex.”

I push open the door to the tavern and drag her straight to my pickup. I’m glad I washed and vacuumed it this weekend. She protests some more about how she’s a wolf and she’s going to scratch me up. I can’t control the sexual shudder that takes hold at the thought of her claws digging into my skin.

She threatens to cut off all my hair and shave my beard and paint my toenails, but she climbs into the cab of my truck anyway.

I put the truck in gear and head home. Unless she’s cutting everything with a knife, I’m pretty safe. But I want her to be comfortable so I tell her, “I promise I’ll shower before we fuck.”