The Bond: Bound to the Bear (BBW Paranormal Erotic Romance) (Mates of the Walkers Book 1) Read online

  THE BOND: BOUND TO THE BEAR

  BBW WEREBEAR EROTIC ROMANCE SHORT

  BY

  ANYA NOWLAN

  HINT OF WHAT IS TO COME IN THIS BOOK

  The voluptuous redhead had just extended her arms over her head and reached for the sky, when the door to the house flung open. Startled, Missy froze in place, her blue eyes going wide as the owner stepped out, his heavy boots thudding against the smooth wood of the deck. When she recognized who it was, she lowered her hands and smiled widely. Caleb stood before her, looking a lot less dumbfounded than she had expected him to. Her eyes rowed over his big body, his broad chest and the plaid shirt thrown over it making him look like the most delicious lumberjack she had ever seen. His jeans were worn and clung to him just right, his broad palms thrust into his pockets. The gaze of his brown eyes upon her made her stutter and choke on her words again, Missy not managing to find the sentences she had been trying to construct for the past several days.

  Caleb didn’t say a word as he walked off of the porch and covered the distance between himself and the curvy waitress with a few long strides, barreling down upon her like a demon was chasing him. Before she could react, he had drawn her into his warm embrace and kissed her deeply on the lips, his hot tongue dipping into her mouth. Missy’s mind went blank as she felt him push her against him, holding her there securely and lifting her up on her tip-toes to kiss her better. Her eyes closed and her mouth responded to his need, tasting his leathery taste. His musky scent filled her nostrils, making her head spin even more than it already was. She grabbed him by the arms hungrily, disappearing into his grasp. Missy felt insignificantly small in his emrace, as if she was just a little girl next to him at her 5’10’’ height.

  Copyright © 2015 Anya Nowlan

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The Bond: Bound to the Bear

  BBW Werebear Erotic Romance Short

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this work may be used, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means by anyone but the purchaser for their own personal use. This book may not be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of Anya Nowlan. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material is prohibited without the express written permission of the author.

  Cover image © DepositPhotos, users curaphotography, jukai5

  You can find all of my books here:

  Amazon Author Page

  www.anyanowlan.com

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  HINT OF WHAT IS TO COME IN THIS BOOK

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  WANT MORE?

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER ONE

  Missy sighed under her breath, adjusting the straps on her heavy backpack. She had spent the last four days splitting her time between cursing her choices in packing and the fact that she hadn’t broken in her boots before setting off on the long trip. Then again, when she had made the rash decision to go off on this particular adventure, she hadn’t really had much time to plan. The price of that were sore feet and aching shoulders.

  At least the air and view are fantastic, she thought to herself glumly, eyes scooting around herself constantly in search for something familiar.

  She was deep in the Colorado countryside, surrounded by gorgeous landscape and about as far from outright civilization as she could get. There was a method to her madness in choosing the destination, but after six days of wandering up one hillside after another, she was beginning to have doubts about her master plan. As she slipped a bit on loose stones while scrambling up a sharper edge on the peak she was currently busy conquering, she had to take a moment to question her reasoning again.

  It’s not like you can be sure he’s here, Missy, she chided herself, a look of marked worry falling over her features.

  Missy really didn’t have anything concrete to base her assumptions off of and if she stopped to think about it, she would just want to kick herself. But, people in love were known to do slightly silly things, so she hid herself behind that. It was better than facing the very distinct possibility that she had managed to get herself lost in the wilderness with just a few days of supplies left for nothing but a baseless hunch.

  He has to be here, he just has to. Well, he didn’t, really, but she sure hoped he was.

  She brushed a lock of her fiery red hair behind her ear and trudged onward. The first time she had met the big lug of a man kept coming back to her. It had been a sleepy day at the bar she worked at when the handsome brute walked in, looking like he could fell a tree just by leaning on it. Missy remembered how her heart had beaten loudly in her chest, threatening to deafen her with its incessant pummeling. She had drunk in the sight of the gorgeous man, rugged but attractive in a wild kind of way, and the barkeep had to nudge her with his elbow to get her to go over to actually take his order. Missy had stammered and stuttered as she asked for what he wanted to eat and when he spoke to her, the heat pooling between her legs had erupted wildly and made her wet with blind lust. She had known then and there that she wanted that man and by the way he looked at her, curvy and tall as she was, she thought he wanted her as well. It was odd and struck her out of nowhere, but there was no denying her immediate interest in the man.

  A few times during his meal they tried and failed to make small-talk, gagging on their words and fumbling their sentences when Missy came to refill his strong black coffee or bring him his dessert. When he had left, Missy’s cheeks had burned with embarrassment. She had gone from a confident, sassy woman to a babbling teenager in a few seconds flat and she almost wanted to kick herself for not being able to get the guy’s number before he ducked out of the bar. Literally, he had to duck to fit through the door, as it was not made for men quite that tall. It had taken the better part of the day for Missy to get a grip over herself and to start paying attention to her work, but the soothing chestnut eyes of the muscled man and his deep voice still reverberated through her whenever she wasn’t strictly focusing on something else.

  When she had left for home that evening, she had been so distracted that she almost walked in the wrong direction. After mumbled insults at herself and her scattered brain, she had spun around on her heel and marched towards her house. The path led out of the small town and through a patch of forest, with her little cottage waiting on the other side of it. Missy had barely made it into the shade of the trees when she was suddenly grabbed by strong arms from behind, clutching her purse and trying to tear it from her shoulder. She had resisted instinctively and a fraction of a second later, she had found herself standing perfectly still, the sharp edge of a hunting knife pressed to her throat.

  “Give me the purse, bitch,” a ragged voice spat at her, Missy dropping it quickly. It wasn’t worth losing her life over.

  The next thing she knew, she spotted the unmistakable form of her visitor from the bar up the road, running towards her and her assailant at breakneck speeds. For a long time, she thought that she must have been hysterical from the attack, because she could have sworn that the man had turned into a big grizzly bear right in front of her eyes, just feet before reaching them. The monstrous beast, larger than any bear she had ever heard of, roared angrily and slashed at Missy’s tormentor, the man dropping h
is knife and running off into the woods with a desperate cry on his lips. The falling knife left a small cut on her neck, a scar still marking the spot.

  Missy brought her hand to her neck, feeling the tell-tale bump under her fingertips and sweat dripping down her skin as she continued her hike. The memory of that night still haunted her. She had taken her bag and ran for dear life after that, staying with a friend for a few days. The news hadn’t reported a bear attack and everyone she talked to about it said she must have been seeing things. Grizzlies never ventured that near to human habitats in those areas and one certainly wouldn’t have come to her rescue when she was pestered by a petty criminal. Missy had almost managed to convince herself of that, until she went back to work and found a postcard waiting for her.

  “I’m sorry if I scared you. I hope you are alright. Caleb” it read, the picture of the mountain she was currently making her way towards printed on the other side of it. Missy had kept that little postcard in her pocket for the next few months, looking at it several times a day and trying to sort out her feelings about the whole thing. She had grown more and more sure that the man had turned into a bear when protecting her from the thief and thought had first scared her half to death, it had since then filled her with a surprising warmth. Little was known about shifters and they were rarely discussed, but she was certain that the man had to be one. Missy had felt a connection with him the first time she had seen him and a sensation of deep longing had taken root in her heart.

  Day after day, she had hoped for the man to walk into the bar again so she could thank him and finally muster the courage to ask him out. But he hadn’t come and the tinge of pain in her soul had become more painful by the minute, until she could take it no longer. She handed in a request for a long vacation, claned her things on the spur of a moment and taken her beaten up pick-up truck to Colorado. Missy had to find that man. Caleb had touched something within her with his kindness and the unspoken bond between them seemed to grow ever stronger. She didn’t know why, but for some reason she was certain she could find him and that he had to be in the Colorado mountainside, waiting for her.

  Lord, that sounds ridiculous, she told herself for the umpteenth time when reviewing her recent decisions. And what am I going to tell him if I do find him? ‘Thanks for saving me, I trekked into the mountains for six days in hopes of finding you and asking you out for a coffee’? Get a grip, Missy! Despite her displeasure with herself, her feet kept walking on, determined to see this out to the bitter end. Missy had just scrambled over a few fallen logs, the sun starting to dip lower in the sky and threatening to put an end to her walking for the day, when she was rooted in place by a sight before her.

  She was standing on a high hill, overlooking a valley and a river snaking through it. A few miles down, at the very belly of the vale, sat a small log cabin. Missy swallowed drily, eyeing the building and the obvious signs of life around it. The sunlight glinted off of her fiery locks of hair and brushed her reddened cheeks, her ample bosom rising and falling with short, swift breaths. Finally, she smiled, and her teeth bit into her lower lip in excitement.

  Maybe I’ve found him! she thought, hope twisting her guts. The day was coming to an end and she didn’t have much sunlight left. Missy didn’t waste any more time, starting her descent into the valley immediately.

  CHAPTER TWO

  When she finally reached the little house by the bubbling river, the sun had almost set. Missy was breathless and her clothes were soaked in sweat from rushing down the hillside as fast as she had, constantly on the verge of falling over her own feet and tumbling the rest of the way down. She inhaled deeply a bit away from the front porch of the cabin, trying to catch her breath. Last thing she wanted was to upset or frighten someone living there with the sight of a disheveled, out of breath woman, who looked a bit worse for wear. Missy unclasped the latch that held her heavy backclan over her chest and allowed it to slide off her shoulders and onto the ground slowly. She groaned deeply as she finally managed to straighten up to her full height and stretch – by far the best part of a hiking day was when the bag came off at the end of it.

  She had just extended her arms over her head and reached for the sky, when the door to the house flung open. Startled, Missy froze in place, her blue eyes going wide as the owner stepped out, his heavy boots thudding against the smooth wood of the deck. When she recognized who it was, she lowered her hands and smiled widely. Caleb stood before her, looking a lot less dumbfounded than she had expected him to. Her eyes rowed over his big body, his broad chest and the plaid shirt thrown over it making him look like the most delicious lumberjack she had ever seen. His jeans were worn and clung to him just right, his broad palms thrust into his pockets. The gaze of his brown eyes upon her made her stutter and choke on her words again, Missy not managing to find the sentences she had been trying to construct for the past several days.

  Caleb didn’t say a word as he walked off of the porch and covered the distance between himself and Missy with a few long strides, barreling down upon her like a demon was chasing him. Before she could react, he had drawn her into his warm embrace and kissed her deeply on the lips, his hot tongue dipping into her mouth. Missy’s mind went blank as she felt him push her against him, holding her there securely and lifting her up on her tip-toes to kiss her better. Her eyes closed and her mouth responded to his need, tasting his leathery taste. His musky scent filled her nostrils, making her head spin even more than it already was. She grabbed him by the arms hungrily, disappearing into his grasp. Missy felt insignificantly small in his embrace, as if she was just a little girl next to him at her 5’10’’ height.

  The kiss seemed to last forever and when the man eventually pulled away from her, she felt that it ended much too soon. Her chest was rising and falling heavily, her cheeks lit with a blush that was more than just exertion from the climbing. His hands still grasped her firmly, locking on the small of her back and keeping her against his chiseled chest and abs without room to wriggle free. Not that she would have wanted to. His brown eyes were even more mesmerizing from that close, making her mind immediately fall to ease. She could spend hours just looking at his rugged features and running her hands through his sandy hair. The silence lingered between them until she felt that it was really time to say something, lest she never say a word to him.

  “Hi,” she managed, her voice soft and delicate and so unlike what it usually was.

  His lips broke into a wide grin, small dimples appearing on his cheeks. It took all she had to keep herself from lunging at him and drawing his delicious lips into another kiss.

  “Hey yourself,” he said, squeezing her a bit tighter. She could feel a wave of relief flush through her, his voice allowing all of the tension that had built in her since she saw him last to flood out of her. Missy giggled, her laughter light and airy. She pressed herself against him tighter and nuzzled her head into his chest, feeling like she had known the man for just about forever instead of the few minutes they had truly shared. It felt weird and wonderful at the same time, to be so consumed by a sense of oneness with someone else and to be so sure all of a sudden that he would never hurt her and do everything in his power to keep her safe.

  They stood there for a few more moments, the sun dropping behind the heavy mountains, before Caleb gave a sigh. He inhaled deeply, smelling Missy’s familiar scent. It had been making rounds in his memories for months now and it was a pleasant respite to all his worrying to have her in his arms. He had been so sure that she would come, but he hadn’t allowed himself to hope for it. The bond between a werebear and his mate was a fragile thing before they had mated, even if it took just a few moments for both of them to feel the ties binding them to each other. Caleb’s hands slowly stroked up and down the length of her back, twisting through her long hair when he reached her shoulders. He wanted to touch and experience every little piece of her, all her nooks and curves, but he knew he had to be patient. They would have a lot of time together, if they both played it
right.

  He had waited for her for a long time. His clan was small and werebears, unlike werewolves, had never managed to build into great numbers. It was made more difficult by the fact that not every bear found his mate. The bond was only struck when two souls collided and many of his kin had spent years wandering the lands in search for their betrothed one, including his younger brothers Callum and Colden. He had been like them until he met Missy. Caleb knew he couldn’t urge her on too aggressively to admit their connection and when he had caught the vile thief trying to hurt her, he had feared that all hope had been lost. His bear was mighty and savage and it didn’t take much to scare a human, so he was all the more overjoyed that the woman of his dreams had come to his doorstep. He hadn’t dared make the next move himself, sure that he would frighten her once more, but the bond had held true and led her to him instead.

  “We should go inside, it’ll get cold soon,” he said, forcing down the erection that had been steadily growing since he had laid eyes on her in the middle of his kingdom. She nodded slightly, the blush still clinging to her cheeks, and he didn’t need further allowance. His strong hands scooped her up into his arms and pressed her against his chest like she weighed nothing at all. Caleb spun around on his heel and carried Missy into his cabin, her eyes big as platters as she clung to the front of his shirt. It was as if no one had ever carried her like the tiny little damsel she was to him – preposterous, if you were to ask Caleb.