Puck Bear Brides: Complete Series (BBW Werebear Paranormal Sport Romance Boxed Set) (25 page)

Her high-pitched yelp was loud enough to get the bear and the wolves to look at her, all of them thrown for a moment. But Heath’s eyes seemed to grow soft as he looked at Sable, and it was a moment too late that she realized that she’d actually helped her stepbrothers. As if controlled by the same mind, the two werewolves burst forward, their maws twisted with snarls, their teeth sinking into Heath’s neck.

Heath roared, rearing up on his powerful back legs and trying to shove the wolves off. His claws hooked into Caleb’s side and with a whine, the wolf was thrown off, leaving only Cayman to still hold on. Sable watched in horror as Caleb slumped to the ground, trying to get back up. She heard footsteps behind her back and looking over her shoulder, she could see Remy, Solo, Coach Jefferson, and a couple other team members running toward the action.

“Oh thank God,” she whispered.

When she looked back to Heath and Cayman, she caught the exact moment when Heath slammed Cayman into the ground, crushing him underneath his massive weight. But Heath hopped up a second later, seeing the Predators draw near, and took several steps back. Sable found her bearings again and sprinted to him, stepping between him and the Predators like she had at the diner.

“It’s okay,” she whispered. “I saw everything.”

“What the fuck is going on here?” Coach Jefferson demanded, Caleb and Cayman both shifting back. “Who started this?”

Caleb had a deep gash in his side and Cayman was disoriented, clutching his head and trying to breathe with more than tight wheezes.

“It was him,” Caleb said, pointing at Heath.

“What? Fuck you, man,” Sable snarled back, glancing back at Heath, who was now back in human form, towering over her with a stern look on his face. “I saw you two going for him. No way he started this. You were supposed to be out of here ten minutes ago and I’m damn sure you two assholes were waiting for him here.”

She looked to Heath for confirmation and he shrugged his shoulders mildly, his lips sealed. Goddamn men and their odd sense of “honor.” Even when the wolves were determined to gut him, Heath wouldn’t rat them out to their coach. Any fighting like that could mean getting kicked from a team or benched. The only scuffles anyone wanted to see had to take place on the ice. Off of it, they were supposed to be one happy, cuddly family of professional ass-kickers.

“This true?” Coach Jefferson asked, turning his attention to the Lynderly twins, strewn out on the snow.

“I don’t know what she’s talking about,” Cayman wheezed.

“I bet you don’t,” the scraggly coach said. “Fine, load these two fuckers on the bus. I’ll deal with you later. And you,” he said, pointing at Heath, who raised up his hands like it was a stick-up. “You better bet I’ll talk to Wiley as well about this. I don’t care who started it, you’re supposed to be smarter than this. All three of you.”

Sable bit her tongue, wanting so bad to butt into the conversation again, but she waited patiently until the Predators scooped up her growling, pissed-off stepbrothers, carting them back to the bus.

“I’ll catch up,” she yelled after them, getting a half-hearted wave from Solo in response.

Then she twisted around, coming to face Heath, and slammed both her palms into his chest in apparent aggravation. He didn’t move an inch. Damn hot, strong hockey player, impervious to her annoyance.

“What the hell was that?” she asked, not entirely sure if she was asking about her stepbrothers ending up strewn on the snow or the fact that he hadn’t hit her up on SassyDate after the game like she’d thought he would.

“What? They came for me. I defended myself. I didn’t kill them or even wound them that bad,” Heath said with a mild smile, his hands slipping around her waist and pulling her to him.

Sable gasped as she felt herself pushing up against him, her hands still on his wide chest but not trying to fight with him anymore.

“I saw that. I meant… never mind,” she said, looking down.

“Use your words, baby,” he said, his voice soft, almost a purr.

“I thought you wanted to see me after the game,” she said, feeling like a teenager.

“I want to see you all the time,” he said, his voice breathy.

Sable found her chin being tilted upward to face him, his green eyes filled with mirth at the sight of her pouting lips and confused expression.

“You didn’t text me though.”

“No cell reception down in the dressing rooms. Or in most of Shifter Grove, really. I get the feeling that the locals don’t really want to fix that.”

“Oh,” Sable replied, feeling… well, not any
less
silly than she had before.

“Are you supposed to leave?” he asked, his grip on her tightening as they peered into one another’s eyes.

“Yeah, I need to get on the bus.”

“Don’t,” he said, smiling softly.

“Why?”

“Because I love you and I want you to stay here,” he said, as if it was the most normal thing to say.

“I... what?! You just dump that on a girl, just like that?!” Sable gasped, though there was a quirk of a smile on her lips.

Love was a big word and getting a shifter to say it was even bigger. The realization of what it meant took a moment to sink in, though.

“Yeah, just like that,” Heath confirmed. “So don’t go. Stay here.”

“And do what?” Sable asked, her hands fisting around the material of his jacket.

“And fuck me until we’re both too worn out to move, of course,” he said, leaning in and kissing her.

She didn’t fight it, not one bit. No, she kissed him right back, sucking on his lower lip and eagerly conforming against his body. The rational side of her was telling her to be careful, to think about it… to give it time. But her heart told her to go for it and she’d been listening to her head too long. By the time they pulled out of the kiss, she’d made her decision.

“I’ll stay,” she said, smiling. “But you better promise to control your temper. I can’t
always
be there when someone wants to kick your ass.”

“Why not?” he asked with a smile.

EPILOGUE

Heath

A year later…

“Are you
kidding
me?! This is not what we ordered! Get this stuff right back to the goddamn Carolina bastards who sent them and tell them to read the contract for once in their lives!”

Heath ground to a halt on the ice, leaning on his stick as he listened to the sound of his lovely, blushing bride and the future mother of his firstborn scream at pretty much the top of her lungs at someone in the stands, and waving around a handful of papers. He chuckled, shaking his head as Cannon came up next to him, taking his helmet off.

“Wifey in a mood?” he asked with a smirk, cracking his neck.

“All for our continuous enjoyment,” Heath said noncommittally.

They’d been practicing wrist shots that afternoon. The regionals were close, and after the time they’d had at them the year before, Heath couldn’t wait for a repeat performance. A year had passed since the first game they’d had at the Shifter Grove Ice Arena, and this time they were going to be having the first two games out of state before returning home. The fact that they were going up against the San Diego Predators again, but this time in the regional playoffs, had everyone on edge.

Including, it seemed, his wife most of all. Sable Locklear. The light of his life.

“I better go see what’s going on,” he said, pushing off as Cannon returned to the drills, just in time to hear Coach tear him a new one for goofing off so close to an important game.

Some things never change,
Heath thought with some amusement, stepping through the gate and onto the rubber-covered floors, picking up some bladeguards from the bucket hanging next to the entrance and slipping them on after taking off his gloves and helmet.

He put his stick away, leaning it against the partition, and sauntered over to Sable, who was busy shoving the stack of paperwork into Jake’s hands—who worked as her assistant now—since the supply line manager for the Shifter Grove Shovelers was one busy lady. Quietly, Heath slipped his arms around her, letting his palms come to rest on her big belly. Nuzzling her neck, he planted a soft kiss there, making her squirm against his touch and Jake flit off, sensing that the moment of escape was now or never.

“You better be Heath or someone’s cruising for a serious bruising. Don’t think I won’t hit you just because I’m pregnant,” she said with a giggle, wiggling back against Heath and making him growl softly.

He loved the way her body felt against his and as usual, his eyes were glancing around for a small enclosed space where he could pull her to and do horrible things to her. With a sigh, he settled for a quick kiss on the side of her neck and then nipped the delicate flesh there, her scent and taste driving him wild as they always did.

“It’s me, baby, don’t worry. I won’t let anyone touch you that isn’t me,” he said with a low growl, both teasing her and meaning every word of it at the same time.

As much as he’d calmed down over the last year of them being together, he was still Heath Locklear. And he’d crack some heads if things came down to it or his woman was in any way endangered or put into an uncomfortable situation.

“Oh, good. I was worried there for a moment,” Sable said, and he could sense her rolling her eyes from the way she said that.

She twisted around in his grasp, coming to face him, and Heath beamed down at her happy, smiling face. The pregnancy made her look even more delectable, those wide hips of hers begging to be touched and her joyous glow making him take notice more than ever before. The more
his
she was, the worse he wanted even more of her.

“How’s our little hockey genius?” he asked, putting a hand on her belly and rubbing it gently.

“Hey, don’t put expectations on him! What if he wants to be a pianist or something?”

“A werebear pianist? That’ll be the day,” Heath scoffed. “No, I’ll take a football player. Or if he really insists, he can become an engineer. No pianists in the Locklear family.”

“Even if I tell you that’s what he
really
wants to be?” Sable asked, batting her long lashes up at him.

Heath sighed, squeezing her carefully against him. “Fine. Maybe then.”

“That’s what I figured,” she said victoriously, tugging him down by his jersey to kiss him on the lips.

She was in a team jersey as well, but wearing Shifter Grove Shovelers colors—green and white—proudly. When Heath had first come to Shifter Grove, he couldn’t imagine settling in there or finding any kind of happiness. Now, though? He couldn’t see a way he could ever leave. It was the best place in the world to raise his kids, with plenty of open space, likeminded people and shifters, and a certain kind of camaraderie that he was sure he couldn’t find anywhere else in the world.

It was home. And with his wife by his side, Heath Locklear had finally found his center.

“I love you,” Sable whispered, pulling back slightly to look him in the eyes before he kissed her lightly on her lips again.

“I love you too, baby,” he murmured.

“Good. Because you’re going to need that love if you end up losing to the Predators this weekend. Who knows, I might move back to San Diego if that happens,” Sable said with a flourish, looking up to the heavens sorrowfully.

“Riiiight,” Heath said, nodding with a smug smirk. “You wouldn’t last a day in the heat anymore.”

“Oh, but I thought
Heath brings the heat,
” she teased, using the tagline his fans had given him way back when.

“Different kind of heat, baby,” he said with a snicker, planting a kiss on her forehead.

“Locklear! Get the hell back on the ice!” a booming voice called, shaking him out of his blissful moment.

With a sigh, Heath hung his head and let go of his wife.

“Duty calls,” he said. “Or at least his demonic watchdog, Coach.”

“You need to promise me you won’t obliterate my stepbrothers when we’re in San Diego though,” Sable said half-heartedly as Heath took off the blade guards once more and hopped out onto the ice as Sable leaned against the partition.

Heath crossed his heart, holding up his hand as he shoved his helmet back on.

“I’ll try my best,” he said, totally not meaning it.

Those two got what was coming for them every time they played together, and even after a year, there was no love lost between the Lynderly twins and Heath. Frankly, neither side seemed to care much. Heath got the girl, the life, and the calm he’d been searching for. Everything else came second. 
 

BEAR NO DEFEAT

PUCK BEAR BRIDES

BOOK 4

BY

ANYA
NOWLAN
 

CHAPTER ONE

Jax

“Come on,”Jax seethed, his teeth gritted as he blew across the snow in a last-ditch effort to get to the opposing goal.

The seconds were running out on the clock and everyone were rushing the goal like it was some sort of pathway to eternal bliss. Frankly, it might as well have been, but this roadway to heaven was paved with snarling Colorado Mountain Lions players, and those guys were in no mood to let anyone pass.

The last moments of the very last game of the Western Conference National Shifter Hockey League Regionals were upon them, and the crowd in Boulder, Colorado had fallen almost eerily silent. The whole Shifter Grove team, affectionately calling themselves the Shovelers for lack of a better name at the moment, had risen up as an angry tide, reading the tie on the scoreboard far too well.

The Mountain Lions would kick their asses if it came to a shootout. Their only option was to get the puck in the net one more time or face fairly certain defeat. And that Jax could not bear.

Cannon and Heath, the first line of the Shifter Grove Shovelers and one of the best offensive partnerships in the league, were getting hammered hard and it was Jax who got the puck passed to him from the front when Cannon got just about tackled. He passed it on to Leo with a wrist shot before one of the Mountain Lions defenders could come at him, the younger of the twin grinder pair picking up the puck smoothly and faking past another defender on his way toward the goal.