Authors: Josie Walker
CHAPTER FOUR
B
acon… she smelled bacon. Before she could even get excited about the delicious aroma she remembered that she was flat broke. She opened her eyes slowly, preparing to psych herself up to face yet another crappy day. The moment she saw her surroundings she was instantly confused, because instead of the wide open sky above her there was a white plastered ceiling. Equally concerning was the fact that she was no longer on the hard park bench. No, she was in some stranger’s bed.
She performed a careful scan of the room, attempting to absorb every detail from the Country Bear Jamboree bedspread to the extensive Lego collection on the table in the corner. This bedroom had all the marking of a child’s room, so where was the kid? A loud argument erupted somewhere else in the house so she decided that sneaking out before she had any awkward encounters was probably her best move.
Spying her backpack and shoes near the door, she tried not to make a sound as she made her way over to them. She looped the pack over her shoulder, slipped on her sneakers, and carefully turned the knob. She winced when the unoiled hinges let out a little squeak as she opened the door, but thanks to the shouting no one seemed to notice.
She was no dummy, so she headed in the opposite direction of all the yelling, which just so happened to be the area where all the heavenly breakfast smells were emanating from. She paused in the open doorway, noting straight away that the kitchen was already occupied. A trim elderly woman with white hair pulled back in a clip and an apron tied around her waist was leaning over a sink full of dirty dishes, sunk up to her elbows in soapy water.
Just beyond the stooped elderly woman was a screened porch door, which meant that there were only ten steps standing between her and her freedom. She took small careful steps, praying that the floor wouldn’t squeak and betray her presence. She was halfway there when her stomach betrayed her by growling loudly. The woman didn’t so much as turn her head or pause in her scrubbing as she spoke.
“Why don’t you have a seat and fix yourself a plate. They’ll be done arguing soon enough.”
Michelle stood frozen like a deer caught in headlights, unable to move in either direction now that she’d been caught.
“I’m Gigi by the way. I do the cookin’ round here.”
The woman snorted amusedly when Michelle still hadn’t answered her, let alone moved towards the table. She dried her hands on a dishtowel and gave her a gentle nudge towards the table. Then Gigi heaped a plate full of bacon, eggs, and french toast and plopped it down on the table in front of her. She eyed the food warily. Granted, she was starving... but these people were strangers. If she didn’t eat her breakfast it would be the start of day three with no food.
She briefly considered the fact that it could be drugged, but the old woman seemed harmless enough. She knew she wasn’t likely to get any other free meal offers while she was busy job hunting, and she somehow doubted that a town this size had a homeless shelter.
“Thank you,” she finally murmured graciously. She seized a crispy piece of bacon and tried not to moan as the rich flavor danced across her taste buds. “How did I get here?” she asked in between bites.
“I just do the cooking,” Gigi replied. “You’ll have to save your questions for the Itan.”
“What’s an Itan?” Michelle asked, wanting to know more about the person who had taken her in.
“The Itan’s the man in charge. He’s also my dad,” replied a husky voice from behind her, a voice that flipped a switch inside her and let all her hormones come out to play at the same time. She swiveled around in her chair and said the first thing that popped into her head.
“You’re the dumb model who made me get off the bench,” she accused him, waving her hands about wildly as it all came flooding back. She found that she was angry and embarrassed all at once.
“Well after you fainted…” he began.
“I’ve never fainted in my life,” she argued standing up to face him and planting both hands firmly on her hips.
“Call it what you will… you passed out and then I carried you here.”
She stared him down as she tried to calculate whether or not he really was strong enough to have carried her ANYWHERE. “Whatever,” she muttered. “It doesn’t matter, because I’m leaving now and I doubt we’ll be seeing each other again anyhow.” When she tried to reach for her backpack he nudged it out of the way and she hissed angrily as she tried to get past him.
“You can’t leave,” he said firmly.
“You can’t tell me what to do,” she countered loudly.
“But I can,” growled a big burly man in his sixties. “I’m Ty, and I’m the Itan. You need to pop a squat and start talking about those tigers you saw.”
Her eyes widened in horror as she wondered if these men had somehow been sent by the tigers to find out what she knew. Had they managed to track her down already?
“How do you know about the tigers?” she asked suspiciously.
“I heard you muttering about men shifting into tigers after I said you couldn’t sleep on the park bench,” the dumb model reminded her.
“So what? You thought that gave you the right to kidnap me?” she asked incredulously. “I’m sure none of this is real anyway. People can’t turn into animals,” she lied trying to sneak past the model and make a run for it, but her plan backfired when he snatched her up and planted her on top of his lap.
“Unhand me!” she screeched loudly, trying to buck herself out of his hold. “Who do you think you are?”
“For the record I know exactly who I am. My name’s Parker. Let me spell it out real simple for you. People can turn into animals, they’re called shifters. I know you were lying just now, I can smell it on you, so you might as well stick to the truth.”
“Let’s cut to the chase,” Ty rumbled. “You won’t be leaving here period. What you saw was real… Parker’s right; we can smell lies, so I wouldn’t bother in the future. Humans who see shifters have two choices… mate with a shifter… or we have to kill you. Gigi, I’m hungry,” he whined holding out an empty plate.
“Assuming I believe any of this nonsense, just who do you people expect me to marry?” she hissed.
“Me,” Parker said, leaning in so close that his lips brushed the lobe of her ear.
And this time when she swooned it had nothing to do with heatstroke.
CHAPTER FIVE
S
he woke up once again in the Country Bear kid’s room, but this time she wasn’t alone. Parker was there, but he’d been pushed to the background by three anxious females. She recognized Gigi from the kitchen, but the other two faces were new to her. Both of the women were curvy brunettes, although one appeared to be in her early thirties while the other one was no doubt pushing sixty.
“Hush! She’s awake,” ordered the younger woman. “I’m Sophia and this is my mom, Mia,” she gushed warmly. “And we’re here to make sure those grumpy bears stop scaring you.”
“Does that mean I can leave now without having to update my single Facebook status?” Michelle asked hopefully.
“Sorry, but that’s still a no go,” Sophia admitted wryly. “But we’re here to make sure that you at least have options… you know, if you don’t want the DUMB model.”
Michelle couldn’t help but be drawn in by Sophia’s chipper attitude. The woman had spunk. Under different circumstances she would have wanted to pursue a friendship.
“I’m right here,” Parker said defensively.
“Oh, we noticed. That’s what makes it so fun,” Sophia retorted sarcastically. “Full disclosure… Parker’s my brother.”
“Or you can just call him Fabio,” Mia added with a giggle.
“Mom! You promised never to call me that again,” Parker whined.
“Sorry dear. Couldn’t resist.”
“The point is we wanted you to see ALL your options before you had to choose,” Sophia interjected, driving the conversation back to the point. “So we’re trying something new in honor of my favorite TV show… drum roll please…” Sophia waited expectantly, but when Michelle refused to play along and make drum sounds she sighed in frustration and continued speaking without sound effects. “We’re going to have to work on your enthusiasm,” she muttered. “We will be holding the world’s first SHIFTER BACHELORETTE!”
“What on earth are you talking about?” Michelle asked warily.
“We spread the word on the Were Web, it’s like Facebook but only for shifters, and all the single shifters are flooding in to try to win your heart. But first things first, we’re going shopping!”
***
And so began one of the best days of her life… so long as she didn’t dwell on the whole being held hostage aspect. It was pretty hard to reconcile the fact that yesterday she’d been starving, homeless, and jobless with the fact that she was experiencing her first ever shopping spree. She didn’t know how they’d done it, but the women had actually found a store with clothing that fit her ample curves.
“With clothes like this I can almost believe that I look kind of pretty,” Michelle remarked as she modeled yet another dress for the women.
“You are a knockout,” Sophia said. “So stop being modest already. It doesn’t suit you.”
She’d made it very clear that she didn’t have any money, but Mia had insisted that this was her treat since her son had essentially forced her into the world of shifters. At some point she’d actually stopped looking at the price tags, which wasn’t easy for a woman used to scouring clearance racks and picked over goods at thrift stores.
She wondered if these pretty clothes were just a sparkly distraction set to lure her in like a fly to a web. Too bad it wasn’t going to work. It seemed almost wrong to accept extravagant gifts like these when she had no intention of marrying anyone, ever. But it wasn’t her fault if they refused to be reasonable, and she certainly couldn’t walk around naked... or worse... wearing her work clothes.
Regardless, her new wardrobe didn’t change anything. The first opportunity she saw she was out of here. However, she couldn’t help but wonder to herself if it would be so bad to be taken care of. She pushed down those dangerous thoughts fast, shelving them back in her subconscious where they belonged.
Michelle had learned the hard way that trust was dangerous, that people would ALWAYS let her down. Marriage was a risk she would never willingly take. But she’d recently hit rock bottom, and these people were offering her free food and shelter. Thanks to those murderous tiger shifters she was fresh out of viable alternatives. If she could just keep her mouth shut and pretend to play along, maybe even go on a few dates to keep everyone happy, she could buy herself some more time to find another job. As for right now, she wouldn’t have to worry about scraping together enough money to pay the rent.
“Here, let me,” Parker offered, taking the bags from her as they exited the store. He’d started off inside the building, but the women had quickly shooed him outside, claiming that his hovering made them nervous.
“Um, thanks,” Michelle replied. She relinquished the bags readily enough, but the whole interaction made her feel uncomfortable. She wasn’t used to people being nice to her. Yet, here was a family that had just blown hundreds of dollars on her. She felt conflicted about the whole situation.
Deep down she felt like the women were being too nice. Paranoia began to set in and she kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Was this some kind of freaky cult? Were they preparing some sort of Silence Of The Lambs skin slicing bit? If they really did have something horrible planned for her, she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what it was they were waiting for.
“So are you a tiger too?” she asked Sophia as they drove back to the family’s house, or as they called it the “Clan Den.”
“No way,” Sophia snorted. “Tiger’s are puny and weak.”
“They didn’t look all that weak to me,” Michelle replied defensively.
“We’re bears,” Parker interjected when he saw Michelle’s escalating frustration.
And suddenly the decor in the room she was staying in made complete sense. It was a tacky tribute to their inner animals. She was surprised that the kitchen hadn’t been decked out with Fozzy Bear dishes or something equally as cheesy.
“Is that why you’re so UNBEARABLE to be around?” she asked, knowing it was a terrible pun, but unable to resist the play on words.
“Why don’t you like me?” Parker asked sounding wounded. His hand brushed her shoulder and she jerked away from his touch.
“I don’t like anyone telling me what to do, which is all that you’ve done since the moment we met.”
Michelle saw Mia’s disapproving frown and she wondered if she’d somehow gone too far. She wouldn’t have been able to defend her actions even if the older woman had offered some sort of verbal reprimand. Because she wasn’t about to admit that her body came alive when Parker stepped into a room. There was no way she wanted him to know just how gorgeous she thought he was, or how she suddenly felt empty and alone when he left the room.
She wasn’t used to any of these new feelings, so she was going to stick to emotions that she understood… like anger. “You will not fall for the dumb model,” she ordered her heart silently. “He will only break your heart and leave you worse off than before.”
CHAPTER SIX
T
here were so many cars choking the entrance that they were barely able to make it into the driveway. And then there were the shifters who’d come to try for her hand. Basically, there were hot men everywhere. It was like a freaking model convention, all that was missing were the photographers. Apparently Sophia hadn’t been lying about giving her some more options. The problem was she didn’t have time for a man right now, period. She needed to get her life back, like immediately! She wondered if anyone would notice if she made a run for it, right this moment, before the “Shifter Bachelorette” had even begun.
“Are you ready to fall in love?” Sophia gushed excitedly.
“No, but it doesn’t look like I have a say in the matter,” she muttered as she climbed out of the car.
She couldn’t take two steps without tripping over a man. She had more seductive moves thrown at her than she could have possibly remembered. Shifter’s pickup lines weren’t any better than human males’. One of the men elbowed his way through the competition, pulled her into his arms, and proceeded to “kiss” all the air out of her lungs.
Parker roared insanely behind her as he lost control. Fur began sprouting instantly over him, and she couldn’t help but think that he looked like a big brown grumpy chia pet in the making. In mere seconds he’d shifted completely into a bear and the tattered shreds of his clothing wafted to the ground around him like leaves falling from a tree in fall. Instead of scaring her, the sight kind of turned her on.
Something about the fact that he could shift into a hulking beast made her feel safe, like he’d be able to protect her from anything. More specifically, she bet he’d be able to take down a tiger or two if they ever managed to track her down. Before he could detect the dopey look of longing in her face she started yelling at him.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she accused as she poked Parker in the chest. She was surprised at the softness of his fur.
“Don’t swear,” Sophia warned her nervously, glancing swiftly over at her mother, Mia.
“I’m going to take a shower,” she announced to the group at large. When several of the men began to move suggestively closer to her Parker the bear roared again and she added “ALONE!” to her statement.
The bachelor shifters finally got a clue, and they parted before her making a path into the house. She slipped into her room and deposited her new purchases on the bed. Then she opened the door to the adjoining bathroom, making sure to lock the door behind her. There was an identical door on the other end of the bathroom so she locked that one as well.
She turned the shower up three-quarters of the way so that it could heat up before she stepped in. She stripped the new dress from her body, looping it over one of the hooks along the wall because it wasn’t really dirty yet. She sighed as the warm water sluiced over her skin. She loved the shampoo. It smelled like strawberries which had always been one of her favorite scents. She worked her hair into a rich lather, and was relieved to see that someone, no doubt Mia, had set out a new razor for her. She’d been self-conscious about her stubbly legs all day.
Grabbing a clean towel she dried off her body, making nefarious plans to steal her host’s towel because it was the softest one she’d ever had the pleasure of using. Then she used the same towel to wrap up her hair. She looked around for another towel, but didn’t see any more. Choosing not to get worked up over it she shrugged her shoulders and grabbed her clothes from the hanging peg. She didn’t bother pulling them on because she wanted to put on some of her pretty new underwear.
She stubbed her toe on an uneven floorboard as she was opening the door and because she was looking down she didn’t notice Parker until they collided, hard. His arms shot out to steady her and that was when she arrived at a very shocking conclusion.
“You’re naked!”
“Like what you see?” he asked arrogantly. She wanted to throw his cocky words right back in his face, but the problem was that as far as her eyes were concerned he had every right to be proud of his body.
His hands dipped lower until they were gripping the generous globes of her ass and she waited for him to say something insulting about her oversized derriere. But apparently he could find no fault with her rear end, because the next words out of his mouth were a compliment. “I certainly like what I see,” he murmured silkily.
When he spoke he dipped his mouth down low, hovering just over her ear. Then without warning his tongue slipped out and caressed the bottom lobe. Her ears had always been so sensitive that she couldn’t hold back the soft sighs of pleasure that escaped past her lips. His mouth dropped down along her neck and he wet the curve where her neck met the slope of her shoulders with his hot tongue.
His hands rose higher and encircled her slender waist. Deep down she knew she should pull away from his grasp, slap at him, scream angrily, or do whatever it took to make him stop. But her brain had departed from her body the moment his moist mouth latched onto her. At present she couldn’t think of a single compelling reason as to why she should make him stop… not when his touch felt so good.
Why would she do anything to jeopardize this incredible feeling? Never before had she felt so wanton or so desireable. The way he touched her made her feel like she was a Greek goddess. Normally she just felt fat, she was uncomfortable in her own skin. He guided her legs up and locked them tight around his waist. His mouth pressed hungrily to her own and his chest was vibrating with something that sounded like a cross between a cat purring and a revving engine.
His tongue darted inside her mouth and she sucked it even further inside of her. Parker backed her up against the wall so that his hands could explore the tempting expanse of her flesh. He gripped the plumb curves of her thighs and followed the bend all the way past her calves to the dainty arches of her feet. He wanted to rub his scent all over her, to mark her as his own so that everyone would know that she was his.
But somehow he felt that even that wouldn’t be enough. The problem with smells was that they could easily be washed away. What he really wanted to was to bite her, thus claiming her permanently. He ran his tongue along the back of her neck as he imagined biting the soft flesh. His sharp bear teeth began to elongate, pushing through the presently human shape of his mouth.
The air was filled with the incredible musk of her arousal, and without the protection of her panties he was able to feel the exact moment when she became wet with need. He ground even closer against her and she let loose a soft moan at the sensation his movement had elicited. Her jaw dropped open and she let loose a gentle sigh as his mouth dipped down to explore her breasts. He took one of her nipples eagerly into his mouth and she seized his hair tightly in her hands, drawing him closer.
Who knows how far things would have progressed if Sophia hadn’t chosen that exact moment to knock on his door?
“Are you hiding Michelle in there?” his sister accused shrilly. “Because she doesn’t need you forcing yourself on her before she gets a fair chance to meet everyone else and see what she really wants. This it the Bachelorette here… NOT the Bachelor!”
“Put me down,” Michelle whispered angrily.
She punched him repeatedly in the side until he finally relented. He watched despondently as she streaked shamefully from the room. She hadn’t even bothered to grab the towel or her clothes from where she’d dropped them. He couldn’t help but stare at her as she stomped angrily away, especially given the fact that she was bouncing in all the right places.
Michelle slammed the door and he heard the lock click into place. He doubted she’d care if he told her that was supposed to be his bathroom too. He strode angrily to the door where Sophia was still hollering at him and ripped it open.
“You are a menace and no longer my favorite sister,” he bellowed loudly.
“I’m your only sister, and we both know you adore me,” she countered high handedly. “Why don’t you put some clothes on and learn what it takes to really woo a woman?” she replied disdainfully. Then she turned on her heel and walked away.
Parker roared angrily at her retreating figure, but she just kept on moving. He felt as though his entire family was conspiring against him. Didn’t they want him to settle down happily with his mate? His mom had been nagging at him for almost a decade that she needed grandbabies. You’d think she would at least have tried to help him out when his bear had finally found its mate!