Bear Mated: A BBW Bear Shifter Paranomal Romance (Pine Ridge BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance Series Book 2) (2 page)

“That could have been handled more
civilly,” she said.

“He was an
assface
and I wanted to be gone.”

“I thought he was quite nice.”

Rick’s animal growled in fury
inside him. “He was an
assface
,” he repeated. They
reached the
treeline
and passed into the forest on
the far side of the road. Rick untied the jacket from around his waist and
offered it to her.

“You keep it,” she said. “Really.”

He shook his head, adamant. “I
don’t need it.”

“I think you do.”

He grinned. “Am I distracting you?”

“Yes.”

“Too bad.”

He tossed the jacket at her and she
had no choice but to catch it. His grin widened as she reluctantly shrugged it
on, sniffing it as she did.

“Now you smell like me,” he said,
and patted his cock, just in case she didn’t get it.

She got it. Her look was frosty.
“Just keep moving, Winnie.”

Rick Barnes was an asshole. Of that Barbara was certain. A big, red-hot flaming
asshole who thought he has the hottest thing on God’s good earth. The really,
really annoying part was that he might be right. He was so hot she’d already
soaked her panties from just being in his vicinity, and she was mortified that
he probably knew it, especially with his shifter senses. Knew what power he had
over her. Hell, of all women. Well, all hetero women, anyway. But why did he
have to be a big flaming donkey’s rear end about it?

And the jacket she was wearing
really did smell like his cock now—primal, musky, slightly funky, but in a
totally sexy way. It made her even wetter to wear the thing, damn it all. It
was as if he’d claimed her, somehow. Put his mark on her.

Did she even
want
his mark? He was a jerk!

“Can you smell him?” she asked,
forcing her mind back to business; it was like wrangling a wild stallion. Or a
mare in heat, more like. “The thief?”

Rick was prowling up and down the
forest, nostrils quivering. At last he nodded, then led in a certain direction.

“Took off this way,” he said.
“Follow me.” With a glance over his shoulder, he added, “I
know
you like to follow, don’t you?”

Since he wasn’t watching where he
was going, a branch whacked him on the head, and he turned back around,
grumbling under his breath and rubbing his scalp. She laughed.

“Watch the trail, Winnie.”

“Don’t call me that,” he said.

“How about Pooh?”

“
Definitely
not Pooh.”

“Barney?” she suggested.

“Now you’re just making stuff up.
Barney’s a dinosaur.”

“Okay, well then Smokey. My final
offer.”

“Rejected! Cagney!”

She smiled. Okay, he could be kind
of funny when he wasn’t being such a total
jerkface
.

She dodged a branch, stepped over a
root and kept after him. It was amazing how swiftly and easily such a big man
could cut through the forest, almost like he was a part of it. He
was
a part of it, she thought. Or half
of him was.

“What
are
shifters?” she heard herself ask.

His voice was deadpan. “Uh, people
that shift?”

“Can the
wisetalk
,
Winnie. I mean really. How did shifters come about? It’s magic, right? Has to
be.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“Then what?”

His voice became low. Mysterious.
Maybe even a little … reverential. “Some say our abilities come from the Fae
Lands.”

“
Fae
Lands? As in faeries?”

“And elves and—yeah. That place. I
don’t know if it’s really magical over there, but their laws—you know, like
physics or whatever—work different.”

She tapped her chin. “And your
people come from there? That’s why you’re … well, different?”

His broad shoulders rose up and
down. “I don’t know if we came from the Fae Lands or if some of the power there
just seeped through, or if some elf from over there came over here a hundred
thousand years ago and started horsing around, or what, but a lot of my kind
believes our animals were put into us by the Fae Lands, one way or another.”

“Do you believe it?”

Again his voice came, strangely
hesitant and quiet. Respectful. “Yeah,” he said at last. “I do.”

She liked the sound of his voice
when he was being all awed and reverent. It made her realize there was a
different side to him than his big swinging dick—or rather, the side of him
that
was
a big swinging dick. The
actual
dick wasn’t something she had a
problem with. Even from the back she could see his balls bouncing and his long
cock occasionally slapping against a meaty thigh.

Don’t
look at it
, she thought, and wrested her gaze away. It wasn’t easy.

Some of the gloating came back into
his voice: “How’s that jacket doing?”

Damn it. He must have smelled her
arousal.

“Kind of stinky,” she said.

He chuckled. “I bet you like it
stinky.”

“Do not. I’m going to have to burn
it when I get back.”
Or put it under my
pillow
.

“I think—” he started, then stopped
abruptly. He crouched down and sniffed something, and when he stood up again he
was frowning.

“What is it?” she said.

“I’m not sure, but this thief of
yours—what do you know about him?”

“Not much, except that he’s
responsible for the serial burglaries around town the last few weeks. He’s
terrorized the whole community. You must have heard about it.”

“Yeah, I remember Taggart
mentioning something his mate read in the paper. Something about a jewel
thief.”

“That’s the one,” Barb said. “Well,
it’s the biggest thing to hit Pine Ridge, crime-wise, for a long time, and I’ve
been dreaming I’d get a crack at solving the case. Then came an alarm from a
private home, and I responded just in time to see him take off in his Honda.”

“Did you get a look at him?”

“Not really.” She paused. “Why?”

“Nothing. He probably looks human,
anyway.”

She rocked backward. “You mean he’s
not?”

“He’s a shifter. I didn’t smell it
at first, but it’s stronger now. He’s definitely not human.”

She processed this. “Okay, so what
is he?”

“I don’t know. Nothing I’ve ever
smelled before.”

Where
no man has smelled before.
She smiled to herself, imagining the line spoken
by William
Shatner
. She was a big Star Trek nerd,
despite being all badass gung-ho cop.
Heh
, she thought.
Gung-ho
meets man-ho. We should get tattoos.

“What’s so funny?” Rick said,
sounding annoyed at not being in on the joke.

She glanced up from the grass
(which she’d been idly watching, since that’s what he’d been smelling), then
realized her mistake. As soon as her eyes moved up, they traced his thick legs,
then drew, like lead filings to a magnet, to his enormous dong hanging between
his sexily muscular thighs. Her eyes latched onto it and wouldn’t move, despite
the fact that she exerted all her will to do so.

“Hey, Officer
Hotpants
,
I’m up here,” he said, but he was smiling—she could see it out of the corner of
her eyes. She couldn’t see it out of the
front
of her eyes because they were still on his giant cock. Part of her couldn’t
help but wonder if it would even fit inside her; it was that huge.

At last, with an almost physical
effort, she swiveled her gaze up to meet his square-jawed, handsome face.
Liquid hazel eyes stared back at her.

“You know,” he said thoughtfully.
“It’s pretty private around here. We could—”

“No.” The word came out as a rasp.

He spread his arms wide, making his
pecs
jump. “Why not? We could always go after the
burglar when we’re done—assuming you can still walk, of course. I could carry
you if you can’t. I’ll put you over one shoulder, catch the bad guy and throw
him over the other.”

He’s
playing with me.
“Screw you,” she said, feeling her face flush with
embarrassment.

He frowned again. “What did I say?”

Was it possible he was so wrapped
up in his own charm that he didn’t realize he was the biggest flaming asshole
in the entire world?

“Let just keep going, Winnie,” she
said.

He shrugged again and started off
once more, back on the trail of the perp.

Just to keep herself talking, and
to think about something other than Rick’s magnificent ass flexing right in
front of her, she said, “We call him the Glitter Thief. The crook, I mean.
Well, obviously. Anyway, he likes to steal beautiful jewels—in fact, that’s all
he steals. No cash, no statues, no art. Just jewels. Pretty ones.”

“I’d be just happy with cash.
Certainly not like my work pays much. Of course, I don’t know what I’d do with
the money. I’m happy with what I’ve got.”

“Which crew are you with?” She knew
there were several bear shifter crews in the area; mostly they worked as
lumberjacks.

“Pine Ridge,” he said.

“Oh, you mean the guys restoring
the old ski resort?” It was called by the oh-so-original name of Pine Ridge Ski
Resort, and she knew the shifters that worked on it were called the Pine Ridge
Crew.

“That’s the one,” he said.

“Just
why
are a bunch of bear shifters restoring a ski resort, anyway?”
It was a question that had bothered her since the work on it had begun a few
months ago.

“Um, so that we can run the ski
resort?”

“Can the attitude, Winnie.”

“Will do, Officer
Hotpants
.”

She smirked. He really was kind of
charming. And he had also successfully derailed her line of thought. Pressing
the issue, she said, “But
why
do bear
shifters want to run a ski resort, of all things?”

“Orders from the Great Alpha.”

“Okay, but why?”

He groaned. “Pushy human!”

“Just answer the question.”

“Yes, ma’am. It’s—”

He broke off and crouched, but he
wasn’t sniffing the ground this time. He was alert, with his eyes and even ears
angled up.

“What is it?” she whispered,
crouching next to him. She could smell his musky scent, even feel the heat that
emanated from him. He was so
warm
.
For a mad moment she was tempted to reach out and touch his nearest bulging
bicep.

“I heard something,” he said.

She swallowed. “Like what?”

“Like … wings.”

“I don’t get it. So there’s a bird.
Big whoop.”

He bit his lower lip in
concentration, and she couldn’t deny that it was a sexy look. She wanted to
bite it, too.

“The smell’s very strong,” he said.

She put a hand on the butt of her
pistol. “Maybe I should call it in now. Bring reinforcements.”

“Up to you.”

But she could tell that the idea
disappointed him. He wanted to go in and catch the bad guy himself—or at least
assist her in doing it. She was impressed that he could resist charging off and
doing it himself, no matter what. He had enough restraint to let her make the
decision. She was the cop, after all. This Rick Barnes might be a jerk, but he
had respect. That was something.

It was her turn to bite her lip as
she mulled the situation over. On the one hand, the station was probably
buzzing with worry about what had happened to her. She hadn’t reported in, and
the totaled cruiser had probably been found by now. On the other hand, if she
did
call in for back-up, she wouldn’t
get the bust herself. She would be the chick who wrecked her car and failed to
nab the crook by herself. She would be seen as weak. But if she went it alone
(or at least as the only cop) and caught the Glitter Thief herself, then she’d
be a hero.

She liked the thought of being a
hero. And it would help her career, too. Someday she might make lieutenant.

“Let’s do this ourselves,” she
said, and pulled out her gun, holding it so that it pointed at the ground. She
flicked the safety off. “You should stay here,” she said. “You’re an unarmed
civilian.”

His face went hard. “It’s your call
whether to send for back-up or not, Barbara, but it’s my call whether I’m
coming with you or not. And I’m coming with you.”

He
called me Barbara
. Her heart fluttered.
Get
it together
.
The Glitter Thief is
almost yours.

“Fine,” she said, “but you do what
I say.”

“Roger.”

“I’m officially deputizing you,
civilian. Understood?”

He grinned. “Does that mean we’re a
posse? I’ve always wanted to be part of a posse. I’ve certainly been in enough
posses, but never part of one.”

She rolled her eyes. “Your jokes
are terrible.”

He grinned back. “Then why are you
smiling?”

With some effort, she wiped the
expression from her face. “Let’s do this. Three. Two. One. Go!”

She rose partway. Walking hunched
over to minimize the target she made, she shoved through the foliage ahead, gun
still pointed at the ground. Her heart beat fast and hard inside her chest, and
sweat stung her eyes.
I’m doing this
,
she thought.
I’m really doing this
.
She wanted to laugh in glee. She’d dreamt of doing something like this ever
since she’d decided to become a cop. Hell, dreams of doing something like this
were why she’d wanted to be a cop in the first place. And Rick had helped make
it happen. Jerk or not, he was helping make her dreams come true. She owed him
for that, if nothing else.

Suddenly a bird cry clove the
silence of the forest. Her head snapped up. That sound had been loud. Whatever
bird had made it had been large—maybe a hawk or a vulture. Definitely no doves.

“Stick close,” she whispered over
her shoulder. Rick was just behind her, his eyes flinty and his face serious.
This wasn’t his first foray into danger, she sensed. He had done this, or at
least other risky things, before. She supposed the life of a bear shifter was
violent and filled with incident. Adventure. Well, she was an adventurer now,
too.

“I’m ready,” he said.

“Good. Now when I—”

The attack came out of nowhere.