Mating Dance
Authors: Bianca D'Arc
Tags: #shapeshifter, #vampire romance, #shifter romance, #shapeshifter romance, #alpha male, #bear shifter, #bear shifter romance, #shapeshifter fantasy romance, #alpha male shifter
Grizzly Cove
This book is a work of fiction. The names,
characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s
imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be
construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead,
actual events, locale or organizations is entirely
coincidental.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment
only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.
If you would like to share this book with another person, please
purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading
this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your
use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for
respecting the hard work of this author.
Copyright © 2015
Bianca D’Arc
Smashwords Edition November 2015
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be
used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
critical articles and reviews.
Tom, Grizzly Cove’s only lawyer is also a
badass grizzly bear, but he’s met his match in Ashley, the woman he
just can’t get out of his mind. She’s got a dark secret, that only
he knows. When ugliness from her past tracks her to her new home,
can Tom protect the woman he is fast coming to believe is his mate?
And more, will she allow it? Or will she run from him, and the
secrets of Grizzly Cove, forever?
Dedication
With much love and many thanks to my family,
without whom I would never have become a writer in the first
place.
I’d also like to thank my fantastic editor,
Jessica Bimberg. You’re awesome to work with, Jess!
And last, but certainly not least, many
thanks to the readers who continue to make this all possible. Your
support throughout the years has been invaluable and I sincerely
hope you enjoy our time together in Grizzly Cove…
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Tom Masdan was the one and only lawyer in
Grizzly Cove, Washington, and he liked it that way. Tom figured if
there was more than one lawyer in a town, they’d be obligated to
fight things out in court, which was one aspect of his profession
that he loathed. The conflict of the adversarial process annoyed
his inner bear and made him want to scratch, claw and just beat his
opponent into submission rather than wait to hear what some old guy
wearing a dress and sitting on a podium had to say.
Tom thought, not for the first time, that
maybe studying law hadn’t been the brightest idea he’d ever had.
Then again, shifters needed legal representation every once in
awhile, just like everybody else. That’s where he came in.
He enjoyed helping people like
himself—people who lived under the radar of the human population.
Shapeshifters had to learn to adapt to the modern, human world.
That included following the laws of the countries in which they
lived.
Tom had been born and raised in the United
States. He’d gone to an Ivy League law school back east. Since
then, he had offered his services solely to the
were
of
North America, or any
were
that needed legal representation
in the States. He filed claims, did a lot of paperwork, and helped
shapeshifters of all kinds create the paper trail that humans found
so necessary to their existence.
He had traveled all over, but he had never
found the one woman who could complete him. He’d never found his
mate.
So when his long-time friend, John
Marshall—known simply as Big John to most folks—proposed the idea
of forming their own little enclave on the Washington coast and
putting out an open call for any bear shifters who wanted to move
there, Tom was cautiously optimistic. The idea of gathering a
relatively large group of usually solitary bears in one town was
both novel and intriguing. It could also be dangerous as hell, but
Tom trusted Big John’s ultra-Alpha tendencies to keep everybody in
line.
John had asked Tom to begin the process of
turning the large, adjoining parcels of real estate John had bought
over the past several years into a new town. There were lots of
forms to file with the state of Washington, and quite a few
building contracts to oversee. He’d also overseen the real estate
deals of neighboring properties for each of the core group of bear
shifters that had joined John on this quest. It had taken a good
portion of the last several years of Tom’s life, but the town of
Grizzly Cove had finally become a reality.
It was a really good reality too. The town
was small by human standards, but already a few dozen bear shifters
had answered John’s call for settlers. There were still more males
than females, but with the recent decision to allow a few select
human-owned businesses to open up on Main Street, things were
beginning to change.
Just last week, the sheriff had found his
mate in the human woman who, along with her two sisters, owned the
new bake shop. It was a true mating, and Tom was happy for
them.
But, it had become clear that the so-called
secret of Grizzly Cove hadn’t really been that much of the secret
to the other two sisters. They’d taken the news about shapeshifters
in stride. It seemed they’d already figured it out.
Which meant that the shifter residents
weren’t being careful enough. And that the two remaining sisters
needed to agree not to spill the beans.
A job for Tom, the Alpha had said. Tom
wasn’t so sure. He might be a lawyer, but he wasn’t necessarily a
smooth talker. He did his best work on a computer, in an office. He
wasn’t the kind of attorney who schmoozed clients over
three-martini lunches.
But Big John had asked him to try, so there
Tom was, approaching the bakery he had never stepped foot in
before. It wasn’t that he was shy. It was more that he hadn’t
really wanted to interact with the new humans in town until the
experiment had been proven a success. The bakery was the first of
many applications Tom had received from business people who wanted
to open stores in their town.
The decision had been made to allow the
bakery—and the three sisters—as a trial run. Their food was
excellent, from all accounts, and most of the shifters in town
liked the women and were glad one of their comrades had found a
mate.
Humans made decent mates, and bears couldn’t
be picky. There weren’t a lot of bears in the first place, and it
wasn’t uncommon for them to find mates outside their species. A lot
of bear shifters took human mates. It didn’t diminish the magic.
Bears had more than most shifters, and Tom often thought, that’s
why they were kind of rare. But what did he know? Only the Mother
of All—the Goddess who watched over all shifters—knew for
certain.
The bell over the door tinkled as Tom pushed
into the bakery. Immediately, he was surrounded by the most
scrumptious scents of baking bread, honey and some kind of cheese.
He took stock of the place and realized he was the only customer
this early in the day. Only one of the sisters was there, working
in the back.
That would be the middle sister, he’d been
told. She worked the morning shift, and her name was Ashley Baker.
The irony of the Baker sisters owning a bakery had struck Tom as
suspicious when he’d first seen their application, but he’d done
thorough background checks on all three women, and they really were
named Baker and had been since their birth.
The blonde woman came out from behind one of
the ovens, wiping her hands on her apron as she greeted him. She
took up her position behind the counter with a brisk sort of
efficiency, and Tom was struck momentarily dumb when she
smiled.
“Good morning,” she said brightly. “What can
I get for you?”
Sonuva… Tom’s bear sat up and wanted to
roar. It liked the woman.
Hell, it more than
liked
her. It was
thinking
mate
.
No way.
Tom cleared his throat, realizing the woman
was looking at him strangely. She’d asked him something…
Oh, yeah. She wanted to know why he was
there. He stuck his hand out over the counter with a jerky
movement.
“Hi, I’m Tom. Tom Masdan.”
Smooth, buddy. Real smooth.
Tom
grimaced inwardly at his own awkwardness.
She wiped her hand once more and took his
for a brisk shake. She was eyeing him with a sort of amused
wariness as she looked more closely at him.
“You’re the town lawyer. I recognize your
name from the contracts we signed when we moved in.”
His turn to talk. Dammit. He wasn’t ready
for this. He’d been caught completely flat-footed by the woman. His
discomfort turned to anger as he shook her hand. Anger at himself,
for being such a dork.
Then he got lost in the feel of her soft
skin against his palm. She was delicate and womanly, and her hand
held a faint grit of powder. Probably flour, he reasoned with the
small part of his brain that was still functioning.
She was looking at him strangely again. Oh,
yeah. He was supposed to say something.
“Yeah, uh…” He cleared his throat as she
withdrew her hand, and he had to let her go. He didn’t want to let
her go, but he couldn’t very well drag her over the top of the
counter by her fingertips, now, could he? “Yes. I’m the
lawyer.”
Also, apparently, he was an idiot. Stating
the obvious. He mentally kicked himself and cleared his throat
again, looking around the bakery, searching for something to say
that wouldn’t make him appear even stupider. Breathing in the
delicious aromas, he was struck with inspiration.
“So, uh, what are you baking back there? It
smells really good.”
She smiled again. He’d said the right
thing.
“I’ve got one oven full of artisanal breads,
a tray of honey buns, and I’m just putting the finishing touches on
some cheese danish. Any of that strike your fancy? The danish are
delish.” Was she teasing him or was this her normal manner? He
couldn’t be sure, having stayed far away from the Baker sisters
since they’d moved in.
“I’ll have a danish if they’re ready,” he
replied, needing time to think.
He asked her for a cup of coffee too and
decided to stay for a bit, using one of the tables scattered around
the front of the shop to eat and spend time getting his sanity
back.
She moved away from the counter as he
scrambled for equilibrium. She bustled around in the back for a
bit, but it wasn’t long before she returned with a cheesy
confection on a plate that smelled really good. Tom’s stomach
grumbled as she placed the steaming cup of coffee next to the plate
on a small tray. He paid her for the snack and took his tray to the
closest table without another word.
Chapter Two
Ashley Baker was intrigued by the tall man.
He’d seemed gruff and a little odd, but maybe he was just having a
bad morning or something. It was early, even for the early risers
of Grizzly Cove. The sun was just barely breaking over the mountain
to the east, painting the dark waters of the cove in cheery golden
ripples. It was her favorite time of day, and she seldom shared it
with anyone, for the simple reason that nobody ever really came
into the bakery this early.
Normally, she would take a break as dawn
arrived, sipping her coffee while staring out at the waters of the
cove, the sun rising from behind her, giving her a stunning view of
the cove and the wildlife that inhabited it. She saw all kinds of
birds, even a few seals occasionally. And she had a pet seagull she
threw crumbs to every morning when he came up to the door of the
bakery.
Sure enough, there he was now. Ashley
grabbed the little dish of bread crumbs she saved for the old bird
and headed for the door.
“If you feed that thing, you’ll have the
whole flock here in no time,” the man said as she approached the
door.