Mail-Order Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (BRIDES fur BEARS Book 5) (2 page)

Lauren bit the inside of her
cheek. There were rumors that the Dire Wolves were wolf shifters.
She had never seen any of them in wolf form, but it made sense that
these fearsome gangsters were wolves. They were certainly as brutal
and merciless as animals.

“What about me?”
she asked Eddie with a teasing smile. “What am I?”

A bear
like you
?
she thought hopefully. If she could shift into a bear like her
father and brother, she'd be able to protect Eddie much better. If
anyone dared harm a hair on his head, she would let her inner bear
out and claw the bastard to shreds!

“You're Aunt Lauren!”
Eddie replied.

Lauren laughed. “Yes,
yes I am. All right now. Put your plate and glass in the sink and
let's get you to bed. It's been a long day and the sooner it's over,
the better,” she muttered grimly.

Eddie was fast asleep by the
time she drew the covers over his shoulders. It had been a long,
stressful, exhausting day.

Lauren sat down heavily at
the kitchen table and put her head in her hands. This was a
thoroughly rotten, horrible day, but she knew there would be even
worse days ahead.

She had to think of a way to
get the Wolves off their backs. How could Alex do this to them?

She stared at the clock on
the wall, following the movement of the second hand. Her vision
began to blur and she realized that she was crying.

For a long time, Lauren sat
alone in the kitchen, angrily wiping away her tears. She didn't want
to cry. Crying accomplished nothing, and it made her feel stupid and
weak. But she couldn't help her tears.

Her brother was a selfish
sonofabitch! She had shouldered his responsibilities during his
lifetime and now, even when he was in his grave, she had to shoulder
his debt.

It would take her years,
decades, several lifetimes to pay off his disastrous, crushing debt!

What was Alex thinking,
incurring such a mountainous debt? The simple, stark answer was—he
wasn't thinking at all. Not of them, certainly. If he had given
even the slightest thought to his family, his young son, he would
never have done this and dumped this terrible, dangerous burden on
them.

Lauren shuddered with pain,
fear and rage.

Her life was over if the Dire
Wolves got their claws into her.

CHAPTER
FOUR

Lauren knew the Dire Wolves
would never let her go so easily. She owed them, so they owned her,
body and soul. The Wolves would chain her to one of their strip
clubs and work her to death.

She was only twenty-one, and
she had her own dreams and girlish hopes. She didn't need to be
swept off her feet by some fairy-tale prince, but she did hope to
fall in love, get married and have a family. Of course Eddie would
stay with her, and he would have so many cousins to play with.

But that dream was going up
in smoke. She would never have that beautiful, happy family. And
what was going to happen to Eddie?

Alex was gone, but his
troubles hadn't gone with him. They were crashing down on their
heads, burying them alive.

Going to the sink to splash
cold water on her face, Lauren rubbed her eyes and forced herself to
think clearly.

She replayed the Wolves'
words in her mind. She remembered that older wolf, and how he had
spoken very slowly, very deliberately to her. That wolf was trying
to tell her something.

But if you are no longer
his family, we don't go after someone else's woman.

What in the world did he
mean?

She repeated the words out
loud and froze suddenly. Her eyes widened as she gripped the edge of
the sink to steady herself.

In a sudden flash of insight,
Lauren understood. The Dire Wolves were savage and violent, but
their boss held some old-fashioned ideas. Females were regarded as
the property of their fathers and husbands. Once a daughter was
married, she was considered to belong to her new family.

So—if she got married,
and changed her last name…

If your name is Sanchez,
you pay.

The way out of this
was for her to get married. It was the only way. In her
desperation, she seized on the idea and refused to let go. It was a
lifeline, the only way for her and Eddie to escape the clutches of
the Dire Wolves.

But who would marry her?

She didn't have a boyfriend,
she hadn't had one since she broke up with her high school
sweetheart. The Dire Wolves had given her just one month. Then they
would come looking for her.

She had one month to get
married.

Lauren let out a strangled
laugh. It was a desolate, hollow sound.

She slumped into a chair and
shook the ridiculous idea out of her head.

Think, Lauren! Think of a
real, practical solution!

Rubbing her eyes furiously,
she swore and swallowed a sob. No use crying. She had to come up
with a plan to save Eddie and herself.

As she dropped her hands, she
saw an old newspaper on her table. Her neighbor had dropped by a
couple of days ago and had left the paper behind. Something caught
her eye. An ad for a bride.

A mail-order bride.

Breathlessly, Lauren grabbed
the paper and read the ad. A bear shifter in Shadow Point was
looking for a bride.

The guy was thirty-five,
divorced, a tradesman and he was looking for a wife. The ad called
for an honest, healthy woman between the ages of twenty-five and
forty-five who would be willing to relocate to Shadow Point.

Lauren sucked in a breath
when she read the last line of the ad.

He was willing to consider a
widow or divorcee with kids.

Lauren stared at the words
“with kids”. This man wouldn't mind if she came with a
kid.

Without thinking, Lauren
snatched up a pen and the tattered notebook lying on the kitchen
counter. She knew next to nothing about this man. All she knew was
that he wasn't a Dire Wolf. He was a bear shifter.

Lauren gulped as she stared
at the ad again. Could she do this?

Yes, she could and she would.

This might just be her answer
and their salvation. She could be married within a month, and they
would be free of the Dire Wolves.

Her hand was shaking too
hard, but eventually she managed to get the words down on paper.

It was almost dawn when she
sealed the envelope and addressed it to the PO box listed in the ad.
The kitchen table was littered with crumpled pieces of paper and
half-drunk cups of coffee.

“Please reply,”
she whispered fervently.

CHAPTER
FIVE

Reid Ken was polishing off
his stack of pancakes when his front door slammed open and his
cousin, Damien, burst into his house. Reid sipped his black, bitter
coffee and made a mental note to keep his front door locked even when
he was at home.

No one would invade the home
of a bear shifter unless they wanted their heads ripped right off
their shoulders. But at least a locked door would keep his nosy
cousin out. On second thought, maybe it wouldn't.

Reid glared at Damien as the
guy sauntered to the kitchen and poured himself a big cup of coffee.
Scraping a chair back, Damien plonked himself down and stared at the
empty plate in front of Reid.

“You didn't save any
pancakes for me?” Damien accused.

“Breakfast for one,”
was Reid's curt, pointed answer.

Damien shrugged and took a
gulp of his coffee. Immediately, his eyes watered as he exploded in
a violent coughing fit. Still spluttering, he grimaced and spat out
a string of curses. “Good God! Do you drink this stuff every
morning? No wonder you're always in such a foul mood.”

After pounding himself on the
back, Damien settled down and picked up his cup again. He eyed Reid
and his coffee suspiciously. Sniffing the thick, dark brew in his
cup, Damien stirred the coffee with his finger and mused, “I
bet I can strip paint with this.” His expression was a mixture
of both awe and disgust.

Reid waited for his cousin to
leave, but Damien simply pushed his cup aside and continued sitting
at the kitchen table. He twiddled his thumbs and stared around
Reid's small single-story house. Reid knew what was coming.

“You know what this
house needs?” Damien began.

“I know what this house
doesn't
need,” Reid growled.

Damien ignored him and sang,
“It needs a woman's touch!”

Reid didn't dignify that
statement with a response. Lately his cousin seemed to get a kick
out of throwing women at him. Either Damien was thinking of
moonlighting as a matchmaker, or he was tired of living.

But it was no use telling
Damien
not
to do something. The rascal didn't know the
meaning of the word “no”.

Reid finished his coffee and
glanced at his bare, starkly furnished house. He used to own a much
bigger house, and a thriving plumbing company. He even had a shop
selling plumbing supplies and he had a few good employees. But he
had to let them all go. He'd had to sell his shop, his business, his
house, everything he'd worked so hard for. He was now worse off than
he had been before his fiasco of a marriage. That marriage and
divorce had ruined him.

“Why are you still
here?” Reid snapped at last. “Don't you have some place
to go?”

“Nope,” Damien
answered cheerfully. “It's Saturday. I don't have to work.”
Damien worked for Beck's Builders, a reputable renovation and
remodeling company. Reid did a few plumbing projects for them and
had gotten to know the bosses and crew of Beck's Builders pretty
well. They were a rowdy, fun-loving bunch, and Damien was always
trying to get Reid to hang out with them. But Reid preferred to just
go home after work and get some peace and quiet. It was quiet in his
small, empty house all right, but he hadn't had peace for some time.
He was too bitter and angry at all that he'd lost. He had been too
young and foolish. Marriage was nothing but a bloody booby trap.
The divorce settlement had cost him everything.

Reid got up and took his
plate to the sink. “Well, you can't stay here. I'm going
out.”

Damien perked up and peered
at him curiously. “Where are you going? You never go out.”

When Reid ground his teeth,
Damien huffed and folded his arms. “You're just trying to get
rid of me.”

Reid threw up his hands.
“Why are you really here, Damien?”

Damien chewed his lip and
glanced away. Reid recognized the look. Damien looked guilty as
hell.

Reid pinched the bridge of
his nose. “What have you done this time?”

“What makes you think I
did anything?” Damien huffed indignantly.

Reid merely raised a brow.

“Okay, okay.”
Damien cleared his throat. “I, um, I came to tell you
something.”

“Go on.”

“I got you something.”

Reid narrowed his eyes.
“What did you get me?”

Damien rubbed his hands
gleefully, looking like he had just pulled off the ultimate prank.

“I got you a mail-order
bride!”

CHAPTER
SIX

“You did what?”
Reid roared.

The windows shook with the
force and ferocity of his roar, but Damien was unfazed.

“You heard me. I got
you a bride,” Damien said sulkily. “I thought you'd be
happy.”

“You thought...”
Reid sputtered in fury.

“You've been moping
around since...you know.”

“I've not been
moping...”

“Yeah, but you've been
storming around, scowling and glowering at every woman in town. Not
every woman is like Shelly.”

A muscle ticked violently in
Reid's jaw at the mention of his ex-wife.

“It's been three years
since your divorce, Reid,” Damien went on. “I know
Shelly cheated on you and took you to the cleaners, but not all women
are like that. You haven't touched a woman in three years.
Three...years!” Damien shook his head vehemently. “That's
not healthy. Your bear has needs, Reid. So do you...”

Without waiting for Damien to
finish, Reid yanked his cousin up by the collar and growled, “You'd
better make this go away.”

“You mean make
her
go away,” Damien deadpanned, showing not a hint of remorse.

He shrugged out of Reid's
grip and glanced at his watch. “But...I think it's too late
now. She should be on her way. In fact, she'll be arriving very
soon. You'd better start sweeping up those crumbs on the floor and
straightening those cushions.”

Reid's eyes widened.
“You...invited her here?” he shouted. “You sent
for her?”

“Uh-uh. I didn't send
for her,” Damien corrected. “
You
did. She's
coming to your house.”