Hero Bear Read online

  Sunshine gasped and groaned as he lapped over her core, growling deeper with each flick of his tongue. He dipped inside her channel and slid over her clit, circling his heavy tongue over her tight, swollen bud in a mind-shattering movement.

  His tongue vibrated and circled and pressed, throbbing on her clit and dipping into her pussy as he held her hands down at her sides. He pushed her frantically toward the edge of release. Her grizzly roared inside her mind pacing back and forth and rolling over on her back, mewling and growling.

  Sunshine couldn't hold back a second longer as the flood of hot lava swept through her from the base of her spine and up into her brain. It exploded in her core like an eruption of magma against Harrison's mouth. Her pussy throbbed as he licked her. He groaned at the feeling of her clenching core and continued to hold down her wrists, caressing her pulse points with his thumbs. He didn't let her come down.

  He thrust his tongue into her channel, the long thick muscle pushing deep inside her, only to slide out and devour her clit once again. She growled and looked up at him as he consumed her. She moaned his name as her body clenched and erupted yet again.

  She tugged her hands out from under his and ran her fingers through his hair. Reaching down for his shoulders, she drew him up toward her. The light of his animal glowed in his eyes as he pulled off his underwear and revealed his thick, hard, throbbing manhood. She reached out to stroke him as he drew closer, claiming her mouth with the taste of her sex on his lips.

  She gasped and kissed him as he sank between her thighs. Harrison flicked the head of his cock between her legs, sliding into the moisture of her body and his mouth. He thumped against her clit, circling around and around and dipping slightly into her core.

  "Do you want me to use protection?" he asked.

  Sunshine looked down at his massive cock buried an inch inside her pussy and all she could think was how much she wanted him. Skin to skin, flesh to flesh, deep inside her. If a cub resulted from their mating, all the better. He was her mate and she was his. Nothing could be more perfect or right or true.

  "No," she said, gripping his hips and pulling him toward her.

  He growled and plunged inside her, making her gasp for air as she arched her back and her eyes went wide, staring at the ceiling. He rested deep inside her as she clung to his back.

  "Are you okay," he asked between kisses on her cheeks and neck and chest.

  "Oh yes," she breathed.

  Harrison drew back and thrust again, pushing her ever closer to a new mind-shattering release. All she could do was hold on for the ride as the massive grizzly bear took her curvy little body with complete abandon. He pulled her arms up over her head and held them down as he took her for the ride of her life, thrusting deeper and harder with each tilt of his hips. Sunshine felt herself growing ever closer to orgasm.

  She fell over the edge and tumbled into oblivion. Gliding along the stars in the heavens, he looked into her eyes, his shifter so close. Her grizzly teeth extended in her mouth as Harrison ran his sharp canines over her neck.

  "I'm going to claim you," he growled.

  "I'm going to claim you, too.” Her orgasm hit a new peak.

  They bit deep into each other's flesh, gripping each other as he shot his seed deep into her womb. Groaning, they held each other, his body releasing everything he had inside her. Her body clenched around his cock, milking it for every last drop of semen. Neither of them breathed or moved as they held each other with their sharp teeth.

  Long moments passed as the claiming mingled between them. A whole new level of awakening and connection burst forward. This was a place where the human mind did not belong. A place where it didn't matter that they had just met. They were fated and they belonged together. In that eternal moment, they had always known each other, their bodies mingled, hot and sweaty. In that instant, all things exploded into existence.

  Time stood still as their bears ran across the galaxies together. Constellations of stars and consciousness came together to form something completely new. Where two separate beings had been before, now there was one. Harrison and Sunshine no longer existed as individuals. They were now one being, one heart, one mind, one creation. She could feel him, and everything that was him, deep in her soul. She never wanted to go back to how it was before, when she was alone. She knew that he felt the same thing.

  After long, exquisite moments of complete bounded connection, they slowly withdrew their teeth from the other’s necks and let the other go. Harrison took a deep breath and rolled away, sliding out from inside her. He lay on his back and pulled her to him. She rested her head on his chest and felt his heart whack against her cheek. He caressed her hair ever so gently, sliding his thumb over her cheekbone.

  "You really are the most beautiful creature in existence.”

  "That's what I was going to say about you,” she said with a laugh.

  Chapter 9

  Harrison and Sunshine strolled hand-in-hand down to the morning buffet in the café. He was walking on cloud nine and had never felt such an amazing sense of joy and connection in his entire life. He still couldn't quite believe that he and Sunshine had mated and claimed each other last night.

  The merging of their bears and the emergence of their bond had opened a whole new realm of possibility in his heart and mind. He'd heard the stories about what it was like to find and claim your fated mate. But he’d never really believed it, not really. It had all sounded like hype, created by people who wanted to convince everyone else to be like them. But now that he had his beautiful little grizzly mate by his side, he knew that it was true. In fact, words couldn’t begin to describe how wonderful it really was.

  They found the end of the buffet line and scooped food onto their white porcelain plates. They chose omelets, sausage, cantaloupe, and waffles. Sunshine got a hot chocolate with whipped cream and he poured a cup of black coffee. They took their trays to a table by the window and chatted quietly together about their new lives.

  "I don't have that many things back at home," she said as she took a sip of hot chocolate.

  The whip cream gave her a little mustache over her top lip. He brushed it away with the pad of his thumb and then licked the cream from his skin. It tasted even more delicious after having touched her.

  "Maybe we could have your parents pack everything up and send it out here through a shipping company. That way you wouldn't have to go back there.”

  "I'm sure you could survive without me for a few days," she said with a laugh.

  "Or I could go with you and we could drive a truck back together. The cross-country trip might be fun.”

  "That's an idea too.”

  "I still haven't showed you my house.”

  "I didn't even know you owned a house."

  "I do. It's little a ranch-style three-bedroom that I bought with my veterans’ benefits after my service.”

  "What branch did you serve in?”

  "The Marines.”

  "We still have so much to learn about each other. Leave it to shifters to do everything backwards," Sunshine giggled.

  "I think it's great," he said.

  And he really did. He hadn't wanted a mate just a few days ago. But now that he had her, that's all that he wanted in his life. The truth was, if she had told him there was no way they could be together without him moving back to Fate Mountain with her, he would have gladly done it in a second. But he was grateful that she wanted to come and live with him in Fate Valley. He loved his job on the fire department and he did own a nice little house. Their lives could already begin.

  "How did you know the bride?" he asked, scooping a sausage into his mouth.

  "She and I went to the Bright Institute for Shifters together on Fate Mountain. We both graduated last year. I've been working on my web design business while she came out here to be with Kirk and start her job at the elementary school."

  "I think it's fascinating that you create websites. You really are brilliant."

  "Maybe not b
rilliant. But I guess it would be fascinating to someone who doesn’t understand HTML," she said with a laugh. "I find it fascinating that you served in the military and that you’re a firefighter. You're a real hero."

  "I wouldn't go that far."

  "You put out the fire in the chapel. And I read in the paper that you single-handedly saved a woman and a child from a burning building just the night before.”

  "Then I took a major hit on the head trying to save a cat, who had been outside all along. But that’s what led me to finally joining Mate.com."

  "You had to have a near-death experience to want a mate?" she asked with a giggle.

  "How long have you been on Mate.com?" he asked.

  "Just a couple days." she admitted. “My friends made me do it while I was drunk at the bachelorette party.”

  They both laughed and drank their hot beverages, seeing how similar they were. Fate really did work in mysterious ways. Harrison and Sunshine stood up to get another plate of food from the buffet and almost ran smack dab into a bleached blonde woman with bright pink lipstick and over-tanned skin.

  "Excuse me ma'am," he said stepping back and trying to give her space to move by.

  "You’re Melody's friend, aren't you," she said to Sunshine with a grimace.

  She walked off and sat with her friend who was as orange as she was.

  "Shifters are so rude. It's dreadful they’re taking over this town, isn't it?" she said in a loud whisper to her friend. The other woman just nodded in agreement and Sunshine narrowed her eyebrows.

  "That’s the mother of the groom," she confided in Harrison as they sat back down at their table with their second helping from the buffet.

  "She doesn't seem to like shifters very much, does she?" he said.

  Chapter 10

  As Sunshine and Harrison finished their meal, they both realized neither of them could stop thinking about who started the fire.

  “I want to get to the bottom of this,” she said. “I hate that someone tried to sabotage my best friend’s wedding.”

  “I have a list of suspects myself,” Harrison admitted.

  “So far mine are: angry mother-in-law, crazy ex-girlfriend, disgruntled groundskeeper, and local arsonist.”

  “You’re way ahead of me. I just knew about the groundskeeper and the mom.”

  “Want to help me stir the pot?” she asked with a sly smile.

  “Of course. Do you even need to ask?” She didn’t.

  “I asked around and found out Roger Ringer got a job at Fate Valley Landscaping after he was fired,” Harrison said, smiling at her as he drove down the highway fifteen minutes later.

  Sunshine felt a sense of anxiety thrumming in her chest and vibrating down into her stomach. She was nervous and giddy at the same time. It was as if they were doing something naughty by investigating the crime. But she felt like she owed it to her friend to get to the bottom of it.

  If it had been the groundskeeper, then it didn't have anything to do with Melody and Kirk. If it was the mom or the ex-girlfriend, then that was a bigger problem for Melody. Sunshine had come out here to support her friend on her wedding day. Solving this crime was just another part of it.

  They drove through town under a bright clear sky, the Christmas lights twinkling from the bows of trees and the windows of the quaint shops. The fresh snow had melted on the roads already and the sun was warm overhead. Harrison turned music on the radio and they sang together as he drove. He turned down a side road and then pulled into the parking lot outside of Fate Valley Landscaping.

  "Are you ready for this?" he asked.

  "Why not?” she said, feeling nervous, but not wanting to say so. It wasn’t as if she could hide anything from him anymore.

  They slipped out of the car and she shoved her hands in her pockets against the cold. Harrison slipped his arm through her elbow and they walked side-by-side into the front door of the landscaping company. A middle-aged woman with horn-rimmed glasses, red lipstick, and a beehive hairdo looked up at them when they entered the office.

  "How can I help you?" she asked.

  "We're looking for Roger Ringer," Harrison announced.

  "Has he done something wrong already?" the woman asked.

  "Nothing like that," Harrison said.

  "He's been nothing but trouble since he started working here. Comes to work drunk almost every day. If he hadn't worked for Fate Rock Chapel for the last fifteen years, there's no way I would've hired him."

  "Can you tell us where he is today?" Harrison asked.

  The woman looked down at her watch and then at her paperwork.

  “He’s supposed to be out at the Simpson’s estate clearing snow, but Lord knows where he really is,” she said.

  "Would it be all right if we headed out there and asked him a few questions?”

  "Well, I wouldn't try to stop you. But he needs to focus on his work, and anything that distracts him is going to cost us another day."

  "We’ll try to keep our questions to a minimum.”

  Harrison and Sunshine turned away, but the woman stopped them before they could walk out the door.

  "When you talk to him," the woman said as they turned back to her. "Make sure he's not up to any of his antics."

  "Antics?"

  "He has bad habits. He likes to mess around with his clients. I've already had complaints."

  Sunshine and Harrison looked at each other and then back at the woman.

  "Will do, ma'am," Harrison said. They hurried outside into the cold and climbed into the truck.

  "Antics? Do you think that could include setting a fire at a wedding?"

  "It's possible," Harrison said. “Let's go see what we can find out."

  They headed down the road and followed the directions the woman at the landscaping company had given them. They pulled between two stone pillars onto a road lined with bare limbed winter trees. On either side of the long road were white fences, housing thoroughbred horses, covered in snow blankets.

  The horses meandered about in the snow, looking for the last vestiges of grass in the pasture. Harrison headed toward the barns where two more horses were eating hay and oats from a trough. The house itself was a three-story mansion, made of stone and brick with gabled windows and two chimneys, billowing with wood smoke.

  Sunshine spotted the Fate Valley Landscaping van parked near the big red barn. Harrison pulled up to the van and parked the truck. Roger was nowhere to be seen. They climbed out and looked around. Sunshine felt nervous, but her curiosity was stronger than her apprehension. They peeked into the barn and didn't find anyone there. Harrison pointed at a trail of footprints on the fresh snow along a stone path.

  They followed the footprints and found Roger sitting under a gazebo with a snow blower at his side and a bottle of whiskey in his hand. His baseball cap sat low over his eyes, and the distinct sound of snoring buzzed from between his lips. Harrison bent over and shook the man's shoulder.

  "Hey, buddy," Harrison said.

  Roger Ringer startled awake, pushing back his baseball cap, his eyes wide, almost dropping the bottle on the cold wood floor of the gazebo.

  "Who are you? What do you want?"

  "My name is Harrison Cole and this is Sunshine Blackthorn. We have a few questions for you about the day of the Fate Rock Chapel fire.”

  "I don't know nothing about no fires," he said.

  "We found your rake right near the scene of the crime," Sunshine said. “And more than a few people heard you threatening the owner of the chapel that day."

  "I was angry," Roger said. "I worked for them fifteen years. Just because a man likes his drink in the middle of the day doesn't mean you can just lay ‘im off like that. No loyalty, no loyalty at all, I say."

  Sunshine looked at Harrison, and he raised an eyebrow. She didn't want to anger Roger any more. She didn't think he had a very good chance of maintaining his current employment if he kept drinking on the job. But she wasn't going to tell him that.

  "I un
derstand why you're angry," Sunshine said. "They just fired you out of the blue like that. After all those years of service."

  "That's right, ma'am," he said. "What's a man have to do to get some loyalty around here anymore?" He staggered to his feet, gripping the bottle. The snow blower forgotten on the floor.

  "So, when did you leave Fate Rock that day?" Harrison asked.

  "I left right after they fired me. Must've forgot my rake in my hurry to leave. Those jerks really did me a disservice. I gotta say. I still haven't forgiven them," he said taking a swig of whiskey.

  "We just spoke with your current employer at Fate Valley Landscaping," Sunshine said carefully, hoping to help the man. "She said not to get up to any of your antics."

  "Antics! I'll show you antics," he said, staggering toward her on wobbly legs.

  She backed up as he grabbed the snow blower and then turned down the trail. Sunshine and Harrison followed behind him. He yanked the motor and pulled it to life, blowing the pressurized air at bales of straw. He blew the straw all over the place, littering the ground with a huge mess. Sunshine crinkled up her eyebrows and looked at Harrison questioningly. He shrugged, and they watched Roger in the process of losing another job. When he was done, he turned off the snow blower, his chest heaving from exertion.

  "I see what you mean," Sunshine said, slowly backing away and pulling Harrison with her. They turned to leave more confused than ever.

  "You can tell the lady at Fate Valley Landscaping I don't need this job," he said.

  Sunshine looked over her shoulder to see Roger taking another swig of whiskey as they hurried away from the deranged groundskeeper.

  "Do you think it was him?" Sunshine asked as they piled into the truck and turned out of the driveway.

  "Well, let’s just say, he’s still on my suspect list," Harrison said.

  Chapter 11

  "I'm ready for lunch. How about you?" Harrison asked Sunshine as he drove away from the Simpson estate.