Billionbears' New Honey: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Mail-Order Bride Menage Romance
Read Billionbears' New Honey: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Mail-Order Bride Menage Romance Online
Authors: Anya Nowlan
B
ILLIONBEARS’
N
EW
H
ONEY
S
HIFTER
G
ROVE
B
RIDES
B
OOK 2
BY
A
NYA
N
OWLAN
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.
Billionbears’ New Honey
Shifter Grove Brides
Book 2
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 ©
Jack of Covers
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
Danni
“I don’t know when I’ll find a nice boy,” Danni said with a gentle smile, clipping the last few ends in the elderly woman’s impressive coif.
“Well, I still keep sayin’ that it’s a real shame if a nice girl like you can’t find a man in a town full of shifters! Girl, with your curves, I know they’re trackin’ a path right up to your door! Don’t you go thinking’you can fool Mama Dean!”
Danni grabbed a smaller mirror and brought it up behind the graying bear shifter, showing her the do from all angles. The corners of her mouth twitched as Mama Dean strung her fingers through her hair and beamed, smiling wide.
“Do you like it?” Danni asked, begging and pleading with the spirits above that the matronly mama bear would just drop the topic already.
“You know, I was just sayin’ to Michelle the other day that we need a good girl for hair, and then you arrived like a true angel! Yes, I love it! And I’ll be sure to send everyone your way, don’t you doubt that!”
The curvy woman got up and grabbed Danni in a heartfelt, loving hug. Danni couldn’t help but grin, the smile stretching ear to ear like she was a kid getting cuddled by her grandma.
“Now, you get this place all set up and then we can have real spa parties in here, you hear? Don’t forget a freezer for the bubbly! I want to hear all about it when you start drivin’ all these cowboys here outta minds!”
“I’ll keep that in mind, Miss Dean,” Danni said, laughing.
“
Mama
Dean. Don’t you forget it. But look at the time! I better get goin’ if I want to get home before my boys do!”
Mama Dean unclasped her purse and retrieved a crisp 100-dollar bill. She tucked it into Danni’s hands and was already rushing out the door before Danni could go to the little metal box that served as her till for the time being.
“I can’t take this, Mama Dean!” Danni yelled, running to the door in an attempt to catch her.
Mama Dean called over her shoulder, “Buy yourself somethin’ pretty for the parlor, girl! See you in a few weeks!”
Danni stood at the door, the bill still in her outstretched hand and a surprised look on her face. She sighed, smiling, and curled her fingers around the money. The street was nice and calm, as it always was in Shifter Grove, and warm sunlight beat down on the pavement – a myriad of sandy-colored stones, carefully laid down to form a pedestrian road.
Sometimes, when Danni came to work in the mornings from her little cottage outside of town, she’d skip along the stones and pretend the ground was lava. Shifter Grove did that to her, made her feel like every day was worth living and every moment worth enjoying again. She’d missed that feeling.
Inhaling the fresh, early summer air, Danni retreated back into the parlor. She hid the money in the box and, grabbing for a broom, began to sweep up the hair. Her parlor, Danni’s Salon, had been open for just two weeks, but she’d already learned the wealth of love and friendship Shifter Grove offered.
Having arrived as a nobody and knowing no one in town, she had expected to have to work hard before she earned anyone’s trust. Instead, she’d found herself immediately surrounded by curious faces and shifters and humans alike willing to give her a helping hand. She still wondered whether the way she looked when she arrived had anything to do with it or whether Teresa, Slate’s wife, was right and that Shifter Grove just
really
needed someone who knew their way around a pair of scissors.
Chuckling to herself, Danni turned on the radio. The deep bass of a clubbish pop song filled the air and she twirled around, shaking her booty to it. Work went easier when she was having fun, and having fun was all she was about lately! Well, in reasonable quantities, anyway.
Danni was still amazed she’d found her way to Shifter Grove at all. An Ohio girl through and through, she hadn’t dreamt of ending up in Idaho, but a girl had to make big decisions when she found out that her life wasn’t all it had seemed to be. Danni only had to walk in on her cheating fiancée to realize that the life of a good, well-mannered call-center drone was not all it was cracked up to be. Especially if her fiancée was screwing Debby, the biggest bitch from work, on the side.
Fuck Debby,
Danni thought in an uncharacteristic bout of annoyance.
Though she hadn’t said it out loud, her hand clamped over her mouth immediately and she glanced around herself as if to check whether no one had been around to spy on her thoughts. Shaking her head, Danni let that smile spread over her lips again and started swinging her hips to the beat of the song, giving the salon a thorough once over.
Taylor, her fiancée, was in the past now. Right along with Debby. When she’d confronted him about what he’d done, the werelion shifter had just spread his arms and shrugged.
“But I can’t help it, baby. You know I need to spread the goods around,” he’d said.
It still made her gag a little, but Danni did her best to push it into the background. It had brought some negative changes along with the positive ones, though. For one, Danni wasn’t entirely sure she could ever really trust a man the way she had before. How do you go back to allowing someone to keep your heart when it just got trampled on by the last man given the privilege?
Well, bygones were bygones, and she was just going to have to deal with it the best she could.
Her new life in Shifter Grove was certainly helping. The rent she was paying for her salon and her new home was just ridiculously low. The cottage was owned by the Warfang brothers and the salon building by Warren Sawtooth’s wife Kasey. Danni had thoroughly expected to have to get a job and work for a few years before she could even hope to open up her own hair place – a secret dream she’d always had – but when Kacey heard about Danni’s aspirations, everything suddenly started falling into place.
Kacey, Teresa and the rest of the local women kept telling Danni that she was doing them a favor by opening a place where they could get pampered, but Danni recognized things for what they were – kindness. Pure and utter kindness, the likes of which could only be found in Shifter Grove.
That was a really fortunate exit on the turnpike,
Danni thought warmly as she emptied the scoop of hair into the bin.
She’d just stopped for a quick bite, after having been led to Sunrise Diner by the signs pointing in its direction, but by the time she was drinking coffee and having pie, she knew she couldn’t leave. There was just something about Shifter Grove that felt like… like magic. Men who worked hard and played even harder, and women who could keep up and match the men beat for beat – she loved it. Though she was sure there was plenty of small town drama to go around, so far Danni had only seen the best side of Shifter Grove, and it seemed like nothing could mar it.
Danni had never really fit in anywhere as easily as she fit in there. Though she wasn’t a shifter herself, she understood their mindset and shared their values. Plus, Mama Dean was right, it was nice to be appreciated for all her curves and her vivacious personality. Even though she had made a strict pact with herself that there would be no dating for a while – at least until she could look at a man again and not wonder whether he’d ever cheated on anyone before – it was incredibly hard sticking to that agreement.
Because damn, the men in Shifter Grove! They should have been outlawed for how freaking hot they were. The weather was getting warmer bit by bit and Danni had already seen a few of the residents walk around shirtless. She wasn’t a gawker, but those guys sure made her head turn. And she hadn’t made a rule against looking, so she could steal glances at them to her heart’s content.
Danni stopped in the middle of her mostly vacant parlor. So far she only had a rickety table, a big mirror and a chair. Even the little kit of essentials she had brought with her seemed like barely enough as each day brought new customers. There was plenty of work to be done, and that suited Danni just fine.
If you’re working hard, you can’t think about that bastard,
she mused quietly, her smile wavering again.
Okay, so maybe she wasn’t completely over it yet. Maybe it was going to take a bit of time. Or maybe she just needed the right kind of man…