Releasing the Bear: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (The Callaghan Clan Book 2)
Read Releasing the Bear: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (The Callaghan Clan Book 2) Online
Authors: Meredith Clarke,Ashlee Sinn
R
ELEASING THE
B
EAR
MEREDITH CLARKE
ASHLEE SINN
Copyright © 2016 Ashlee Sinn
No part of this book may be reproduced, uploaded to the Internet, or copied without permission from the author. The author respectfully asks that you please support artistic expression and help promote anti-piracy efforts by purchasing a copy of this book at the authorized online outlets. This is a work of fiction intended for mature audiences only.
Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Some may be used for parody purposes. Any resemblance to events, locales, business establishments, or actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is purely coincidental.
All sexual activities depicted occur between consenting characters 18 years or older who are not blood related.
rELEASing the Bear
Brennan Callaghan is tired of suppressing his bear. The animal inside has been infatuated with finding a mate ever since he set his sights on Scarlett. But Scarlett isn’t a grizzly and Brennan’s human side insists it’s a mating that can’t happen. So when he’s forced to work with the alluring and gorgeous wolf shifter with the emerald green eyes, he finds it increasingly difficult to continue fighting with nature.
Scarlett Kani wears many hats. Caretaker to her alpha uncle, Tik’a pack enforcer, and entrepreneur. She’s convinced she doesn’t need a mate right now despite what her wolf is telling her. Even if there is a masculine, protective, and gorgeous grizzly shifter that keeps finding his way into her life. But when a video is released and their secret lives are threatened to be exposed, she quickly discovers that Brennan may be the perfect mate to have by her side.
I should leave. I should turn my truck around, drive out of this parking lot, and crawl back to my home. Me being here was a mistake. I’ve known every single time I sat outside the inconspicuous club. Night after night I questioned why I kept listening to him. Why do I torment myself?
Yet night after night it’s been harder to resist his command. Besides, leaving here meant hanging out with Brandt and Emma and seeing them gush over their renewed love and twin cubs on the way. If I could make myself do what the human in me wanted, I would find a place on my own where no one could tempt my bear. I’d lived that way for a long time and it had suited me just fine.
But then I met
her
.
Silken black hair. Eyes that tilted up in the corners to enhance the exoticness. Legs that stretched for miles until they reached her athletic hips. And a brute strength that could stop even the most obnoxious man in his steps. From the first day my bear met her, he’d been uneasy and determined.
Car doors slammed somewhere nearby, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked around the dark parking lot, mindlessly gazing over the shadows as though hunting for something. A group of young, college-aged men laughed as they walked behind my truck. Their drunken shouts caught my attention and I quietly slipped out of the seat. But when I closed the driver side door, it caused them to notice me.
“Hey man! Happy fucking Friday!” A guy wearing a University of Alaska tee shirt lifted a bottle of beer in celebration. He stumbled over his feet and two of his friends caught him a second before he would have fallen. “You celebrating something?”
I stared at the man, not really hearing his question at first. Celebrating? Not exactly. I shook my head.
“Well, come join us!” he slurred.
“What are you celebrating?” I asked, unable to stop myself. I didn’t socialize much anymore and there was something appealing about letting go every once in a while.
The man belched before answering. “I’m getting married tomorrow!” He laughed and his six friends joined in. In a chorus of shouts, they both congratulated him and gave him a hard time.
“How old are you?” I needed to know. Not sure why, exactly. I just did. Or maybe my impatient bear did. Thankfully, the guy didn’t take offense.
“Twenty-three.”
“Going on forty-five,” his friend teased.
“Old and married already,” another one joked. Then he looked at me. “They’ve been together since middle school.”
“Wow,” I said.
“What can I say?” the guy continued. “Once you go Jack, you never go back.”
As the group laughed, I walked closer to them. My younger brother, Bo, had been hooking up with girls since he was twelve, and Brandt, the oldest, had latched onto Emma early on. But I had never experienced a bond like that and found my curiosity getting the best of me.
“Whoa, man,” Jack said, raising his hand and stumbling back. “You’re fucking huge!” He didn’t sound scared, just…impressed.
“Dude, seriously. What are you, like six-five, six-six?” The man holding Jack’s arm let go and stood directly in front of me. I mean, I’m almost six feet and you’re…you’re…”
“Taller?” I added with a smirk.
Jack laughed so hard he almost choked while the other guys joined in. “I like you. You’re hilarious.” Jack took another swig of his beer and then pointed to the front door. “Come on. You should join us Mr. Giant Man.”
I sometimes forgot I was the largest of my brothers and that it wasn’t normal to be this size. But in our clan, all of the men were bulky enough to play professional ball. It was simply the norm.
My bear rumbled deep inside of me. He didn’t like to socialize and I usually listened to him. But tonight I needed something to distract me from the fact that this was my fourth trip here in as many weeks. I worried that she would notice and call me out on my visits. If I walked inside with a group celebrating the last night of bachelorhood, maybe it wouldn’t seem too weird.
Without answering them, we all walked up to the front door. The bouncer, Seth, nodded at me. Close to my size, I’d recognized him for what he was several weeks ago. Most wolves weren’t built like a grizzly shifter, but this was one man I wouldn’t want to tangle with unless absolutely necessary. “Welcome back, Brennan.”
I heard the slight inclination of a tease hidden in his words. He’d let me in night after night without asking too many questions. But now, as he eyed the group of young men around me, he raised a dark brow.
“These guys with you?”
I nodded.
He studied them, chewing on the toothpick hanging off the right side of his mouth. “Why are you here?” he asked, his gruff voice carrying over the darkened parking lot.
“I’m getting married tomorrow,” Jack said, although his voice shook in trepidation. Humans had instincts too, they just rarely listened to him. Jack wasn’t too drunk to notice the vibe given off by the dominant shifter in front of him. Smart human.
Seth huffed. “Sucker.”
With a grunt, I tried to hide my laugh. That was exactly my thought about the institution of marriage. Or even our shifter culture of mating. I’d never like the idea that my choice in who I spent my life with would one day be dictated by the animal inside of me. I would rather be alone. Looking at Seth’s crossed arms and that toothpick flicking around in his mouth, I wondered if Seth had the same feelings.
“Uh…thanks?” Jack said, sobering up rather quickly.
Seth waited, making the humans shift back and forth on their feet. Finally, he stepped aside and nodded toward the door. “Go ahead.” As Jack walked forward, Seth held out an arm in front of him. “And don’t forget to tip your dancers.”
With a hurried nod, the group rushed to the entrance. When they opened the door, a cloud of cigarette smoke and heavy metal music rushed out. They let the door close behind them, leaving me and Seth alone again in the silence.
“Scarlett’s behind the bar tonight,” he said with a smirk.
“Okay.” I tried not to give anything away.
“Jesus man, you need to do something about that.” He waved his hand back and forth in front of his nose like he was getting rid of a smell. “Your bear is stinking up this place.”
I knew what he was talking about, but chose not to acknowledge him. My bear wanted Scarlett, the Tik’a wolf pack enforcer. My bear wanted a wolf. And I hated him for it. But the pheromones my animal put into the air, couldn’t be controlled—even if I wanted them to stop.
“Just fuck her already,” Seth groaned as I walked past him and pulled open the heavy wood door.
Ignoring his harsh words and trying to tell my bear not to rip his throat out, I entered the strip club. While my clan had been in the fish processing business in the Homer spit for generations, the Tik’a pack had invested in strip clubs and bars. Scarlett had actually purchased two more once she became their enforcer, and rumor had it that they’d already doubled their investment in just a few short years.
One more thing about her that appealed to my human side—she was business savvy.
Jack rushed over to me, slipping on the floor and almost spilling the liquid from the shot glass. “Hey Giant Man. Have a shot. On me.”
I forced a smile, having a hard time pushing the bear back down. He didn’t like this scrawny man in front of me. He only wanted to see Scarlett. “Thanks and congrats,” I said just before downing the whiskey. Whiskey. Not a fan.
The music suddenly changed from a late 1980’s metal ballad to a seductive Latin inspired pop song. “Oh, yeah. Carla’s up!” Jack shouted in my ear. “She is gorgeous.”
Sure enough, a second later, the DJ opened the stage up for Carla using a very bad Spanish accent. Carla wore a short, black bob that I knew was a wig and sauntered out in a ruffled two-piece lingerie set. The mesh material hid nothing and Jack and his friends showed their appreciation by waving dollar bills around in the air. I had to smile, wondering if any of the patrons actually realized Carla was not Latin at all, and was instead one of the most obnoxious and dangerous wolves of the Tik’a pack.
The club itself was pretty busy, although business would pick up as the night ticked on. Seth had once told me that he could be here until five in the morning on some weekends. It made me appreciate helping Brandt run our family businesses—at least we could work during normal hours. The cheering picked up as Carla removed her top. She slid up and down the pole with ease, using her shifter strength to hold poses no human would ever be able to accomplish.
I let my gaze travel over the room as I stood near the entrance. Red leather seats sat at a variety of stainless steel tables arranged in an arc around the stage. Dark lighting, mahogany floors, and black curtains blocking off the private areas completed the look. Each one of the pack’s clubs had a different design. This one had always been my favorite.
Well, always as in the past four weeks since I found that I needed to see Scarlett again. Sometimes I’d tell her it was work related and come up with some stupid reason to be there. Other times, I’d just sit at the end of the bar and watch her work. I never saw her dance, apparently she didn’t do that. But I liked to watch her control the crowd. She’d earned the respect of the local shifter community many years ago, and even the humans understood that she was one woman who shouldn’t be crossed.
“Brennan Callaghan.”
I lifted my head and couldn’t hide my smile as the familiar voice trickled over my skin in soothing waves. Scarlett leaned out over the edge of the bar, looking past the patrons and only focusing on me.
“Hi, Scarlett,” I said. My voice almost cracked like a horny teenager. The bear growled inside.
“Come over here,” she teased. “Save me from these assholes.” She flicked her thumb toward two burly men in flannels and work boots who couldn’t tear their eyes away from her. When she laughed, they melted in their stools, completely unaware that she’d just insulted them.
Shaking my own head, I grabbed the only stool on the small corner of the bar. The Latin pop music continued to play, getting louder as the cheers grew. Jack and his bachelor party participants were on their feet, dancing and throwing money at Carla. “Looks like she’s going to have a good night,” I said.
Scarlett, who was watching me with her sharp emerald eyes, spared a glance back toward the stage and shrugged. “She always has good nights.”
“Jealous?” I asked.
She huffed. “Of her? Not at all.”
“She is hot,” one of the flannel men said.
“She is,” Scarlett agreed, pouring a draft and setting it in front of me. “Too bad she’ll snort most of that money up her nose.”
I raised my brows asking a silent question, but Scarlett just shrugged again. “What? It’s true.”
“I thought your uncle had warned her?” Scarlett’s uncle was the pack leader and he didn’t like his wolves dipping into the human temptations too much. Although he did allow Scarlett to run several clubs…
“He’s warned her a thousand times. But she doesn’t care.”
I took a swig of my beer and searched for some way to keep the conversation going. But I drew a blank and soon enough, someone else caught Scarlett’s attention at the other end of the bar. My bear climbed to the surface, sick of my weak human side hurting my chances of finding a mate.
She’s a wolf
, I told him.
I can’t mate with a wolf
.
As though hearing my command to my animal, Scarlett turned and stared at me. So did three other wily gentlemen sitting near her. They weren’t human. But they weren’t wolves either. Maybe coyotes? We’ve heard some rumblings about the local coyotes not being happy with the grizzly clan leader, who happened to be my brother. I narrowed my eyes at them, allowing the bear to shine through. One of the men instantly dropped his gaze, another turned to watch the dancers, but the third lifted his mug and gave me a rather unfriendly salute.
I should rip his throat out.
When that thought crossed my mind, Scarlett said something to the man that made him cower and then walked in my direction. She studied me closely, most likely assessing how dangerous I might be right now. “Why do you let them bother you?”
“I don’t.”
“Your bear does.”
I focused on her and sighed. “He’s been dictating too much lately.” Even the flannel men heard the growl in my voice and decided that they should leave.