Bearly Mated (BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) Read online

  When they were gone, Lizzie found a small corner against the back wall of the store and sank to the step stool there. She dropped her face into her hands and sobbed until she had nothing left.

  Chapter Twelve

  “You’re going after her?” Daniel asked.

  Patrick paused, but only because it was Daniel. He wouldn’t give a soul on the planet another second of his time after he had been delayed two fucking weeks. “Do you know what it’s been like without her?”

  “Patrick, what’s done is done. She made her choice.”

  “Her choice?” Patrick took his time turning around to face his brother. He had to because time was all he had to keep him from ripping Daniel apart. He felt the teeth sharpen in his mouth, and claws grew out from his fingernails. “She. Is. My. Mate.”

  “I know but—”

  “You don’t know. Your ignorance is as pathetic as a human’s.” Patrick snarled as he approached Daniel, each step placed precisely. He was aware he moved as if he stalked his brother, but he couldn’t help it. Losing Lizzie had robbed him of his sanity, and only finding her would restore it. “Let it sink in. Lizzie is my mate. She was turning. Slowly, but she was turning.”

  Daniel got a curious look on his face as if he considered what Patrick said.

  “Lizzie will continue to change—alone—without her alpha to guide her.”

  “Shit!”

  “That’s right,” Patrick snapped. “If she shifts without me, she might die. If she dies…”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You’re sorry?” Patrick flared his nostrils and got into his brother’s face. “Lizzie comes before you and before every single person in our pack. I will walk away from leading if it means I have to lose her, or don’t you get that?”

  “I get it now. I’ll go with you.”

  “I don’t need you,” Patrick snapped.

  Daniel grabbed his arm when he started to turn away, and Patrick growled. His brother had never been afraid of him even though Daniel knew the difference in their strengths. “Don’t be stubborn. That attack you kept from her could happen again. If you leave town alone, I won’t be there this time to have your back. Come on, Patrick. Let me help make this right. I’ll keep you safe until she’s in your arms again.”

  Patrick snorted. “When did you become a romantic?”

  Amusement lit Daniel’s gaze. “Okay, how about this? I’ll stay with you until you’re laying between her legs again.”

  Patrick’s cock twitched. Why did Daniel have to bring up sex? His balls were blue, and he hadn’t slept in days because every time he closed his eyes, her face appeared before him. He would have gone after her right away, if not for a damn uprising among the pack. Annie and Daniel both had fought hard at his side to contain the violence, and Patrick had had to face the human officials and convince them not to repeal certain laws that had made life easier for his kind. The whole process frustrated and stretched him almost to breaking point. Things were far from settled now, but he couldn’t last another day. He had to find Lizzie or risk taking off the next human or shifter’s head who challenged his views.

  “Is she safe?” Daniel asked when they walked out to Patrick’s car.

  Patrick yanked his door open and paused to close his eyes. He concentrated and felt his bear stirring. Their bond was steady and growing stronger by the day. She was fine but desperately unhappy. He had to get to her soon because she didn’t understand that what she felt wasn’t just about human love. And she did love him, he thought with pleasure.

  Daniel slid into the passenger side of the car and shut his door. “Annie?”

  A nerve ticked in Patrick’s jaw. “I’ve called for her. She hasn’t answered.

  “Is she okay?”

  “She’s fine.” Patrick started the car. “I can force her to come to me, but I won’t do that. It’s Annie’s decision to stand with me.”

  “She knows you’re going for Lizzie, and she hoped you would choose her.”

  “She knew better than that!”

  “Whoa, bro. Just the messenger.” Daniel tapped fingers against his leg. “There’s something else.”

  “I’m waiting.”

  “Annie and I…” Daniel muttered the rest, but Patrick understood him.

  Patrick’s car became unusable, and he stood with one paw in his brother’s chest, pinning him to the ground. Words were impossible at that point because Patrick had shifted and ripped his clothes apart. His brother gagged, but he pressed hard. Rage tore through Patrick.

  “Please, give me a chance to help you get her back. I was wrong.”

  Patrick growled in his brother’s face and nipped at him. His teeth would have torn into Daniel’s flesh if, Daniel hadn’t drawn his knees up and kicked Patrick away. Daniel flipped and rolled on a shoulder to crouch before Daniel. He raised his hands, palms wide.

  “I know you’re angry, Patrick. You know I didn’t do it to hurt you.”

  Patrick stalked closer, his teeth bared.

  “I don’t want to fight my own brother. Pat, listen to reason!”

  “I should kill you right here, but I can’t make her wait any longer.”

  Patrick swung away from his brother and ran down the street until he reached a forested area. After that, he put his nose toward the ground and began tracking his mate. There was no doubt in his mind he would find her and bring her home.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The sound of shattering glass filled the diner, and heads turned from every direction. “Shit, shit, shit!” Lizzie sank to her knees and began the onerous task of cleaning up the mess.

  “That’s the fourth set of dishes you’ve broken today, Lizzie,” the manager complained, walking up behind her. “I’m starting to think I made a mistake hiring you.”

  “I’m sorry, Kate. I just…”

  “I’ve heard the excuses.” Kate planted a hand on her narrow hip. “You’re costing me money, and I’m going to have to take it out of your paycheck.”

  “I said I’m sorry, damn it!” Lizzie rounded on her in anger and cut her hand. She regretted her anger, which had been getting out of hand lately. The emotions churning inside her were at times explosive and others made her want to cry. She missed Patrick one minute and the next wanted to chop off his balls. The man and her life were making her miserable. She had most certainly not moved on as she kept trying to tell herself.

  Kate drew up to her full of height of just under five feet. Her small gray eyes snapped. “I gave you a chance without references. Nobody does that! I felt sorry for you because you looked like a bedraggled kitten coming in here a week and a half ago.”

  Lizzie tensed against the lecture. That late at night there weren’t many patrons in the small, cheap diner tucked away in the mountains. Their eyes were on Lizzie. She felt them and knew most of them pitied her. She didn’t want anyone’s pity.

  Lizzie sucked at the side of her hand where she had cut it. The coppery taste of blood disappeared. She looked again at the wound and didn’t see the tear in her skin. She was such a girl to make a fuss when she couldn’t see the damn thing.

  “Are you listening to me?” Kate’s strident voice cut across Lizzie’s skull, reminding her of Annie. At the same time, Lizzie doubled over in horrific pain. She cried out, and hugged her stomach.

  “She’s hurt,” someone said. “Stop bullying her, Kate.”

  “That’s it, Lizzie. I can’t keep a waitress who—”

  Lizzie’s ears rang. Kate’s voice died down so that Lizzie strained to hear, but hearing didn’t matter when she hurt so badly. Lizzie became aware of her own heartbeat as it pounded in her head. Her body temperature seemed to skyrocket, and she swayed, shutting her eyes. Any minute she would land in the shattered pieces of glass face first. She tried to pull herself together, but it was a no go.

  Panic set in, and then a new awareness rose inside. A pull so powerful and so desirable it drew her to her feet and opened her eyes. She searched the diner in wonder. A whis
per sounded in her head. People stared at her, but now she didn’t care. All she needed was—him.

  Lizzie’s glasses were askew. She straightened them, but she still couldn’t see, and what she craved was another view of Patrick. He stood in the doorway of the diner, tall and imposing. Her heart stopped and then raced faster. She swayed toward him, but her feet wouldn’t move. He stepped past the entry and let the door swish closed. From a distance, she heard the bell. Her ears were stuffed. Lizzie raised an awkward hand to tuck a finger in her ear and missed. Her knuckle brushed her cheek, and she realized she’d been crying.

  “It hurts. I don’t know why.”

  “You do.”

  She gasped, her eyes widening as she stared at him. He strode closer.

  “Look at her hand,” someone shouted. “She’s a shifter!”

  “I wouldn’t have hired you if I knew that,” Kate grumbled.

  Lizzie wanted to look to see what they were talking about, but she was still locked in Patrick’s hold.

  “Did I…?” she began but halted. Was she imagining his voice in her head?

  Patrick reached her and held out a hand toward her, palm up. She laid tentative fingers over his.

  “Yes, come with me, and I’ll make you feel better.”

  “Can you do that, Patrick? I’m scared.” She said it out loud before she knew she would. He tugged her gently to his chest and tipped her chin up to kiss her. His mouth tasted so good, and she clung to his tongue, almost nursing on it.

  Patrick straightened and brushed her hair from her eyes. He nabbed the glasses from her face, and her vision cleared. “I’ll always make you feel better. All you have to do is trust me.”

  They walked together to the exit, and Kate called after, “Don’t bother to come back, Lizzie. You’re fired!”

  Patrick rounded on her and snarled. All of the humans yelped in fear, but Lizzie whispered his name, and he was at her side in an instant. Her lover escorted her out to a car she didn’t recognize, but Lizzie didn’t care so long as she was with Patrick. From the second she saw him she knew what was eating at her all that time. Well, aside from the fire burning a hole in her gut.

  Instead of taking the highway south, which led to their home town, Patrick stopped in a nearby motel. Outside the office, Lizzie peered up at the building and clutched her stomach tighter. “This place?”

  “We won’t be inside long, baby, just enough time.”

  “Enough time for what?”

  “For you to shed the last of your humanity and join me.” He took her trembling hand, and she tried not to pass out. “You’re already my mate, Lizzie, but you must make the change.

  “You keep saying I’m your mate, but nothing ever happened.” The tears started up again, but she was sick of crying and feeling weak. She scrubbed her face, but the waterworks kept it up.

  “Lizzie.”

  His voice in her head helped to calm her.

  “Do you remember the scratches on the table?” he asked.

  “You did that.”

  “No, it was you, baby. And have you noticed you’re more aware of what the people around you are doing—when they come and when they go?”

  She gasped.

  “Your aggression and your authority have both increased. Did you see evidence of it before you left town?”

  What he said seemed impossible, but she thought back to how she had spoken to Annie. Not that she and Annie had been friends before. Lizzie had always spoken her mind, but she knew how far to push the woman. Before Lizzie left town, she had actually challenged Annie when she was feeling bitchy. Jeez, was she going to stay this pent up and angry? Then she froze. Did that mean she accepted what he was telling her? The changes had started before she ran away. Maybe no one had recognized it, including her. No one except Patrick.

  Another rush of pain overtook her. This was like she was giving birth, she thought, just all over. Even her hair hurt, it seemed. She squeezed Patrick’s hand and nodded. “Okay, let’s do this.”

  The brave words wobbled when she spoke them, but Patrick kissed her fingers and led her into the motel. They got a room, and soon Lizzie lay on the bed shaking from head to toe. She kept grasping for Patrick as if he moved, but he stayed right by her side.

  “Relax, baby, I’m here,” he soothed her. “And don’t worry about the bed. I’ll pay for it.”

  She gaped at him. “What do you mean you’ll pay?”

  The question had hardly left her lips before the beast that had been stretching and testing its space inside her, pushed more earnestly at her containment. Lizzie heard Patrick say something in her head, and she didn’t know what it was. Yet, she and the bear responded together with “yes.”

  A mental switch clicked, and she was no longer Lizzie, the klutzy, slightly nerdy, curvy human, but Lizzie, the several hundred pound bear. She had shed the trappings of soft, pink for furry brown, and in her mind, she took up half the room. When a loud crack rent the air, she opened her mouth to tell Patrick she thought she’d just broken the bed, but instead of her usual high-pitched human tones, a growl emitted.

  Beside her, still in his human form, Patrick grinned and waggled a finger. “Shh, when we’re outside, you can speak. For now, here.” He tapped his head.

  “I’m even fatter!”

  “You’re beautiful. Most importantly, you’re mine.”

  Patrick walked to the door but stopped and looked back at her. She watched in silence as he shed his clothing, and then looked out the door. He must be crazy. The mountains were cold at night. Then Patrick stepped outside stark naked, and he shifted into the most amazing and fiercest grizzly she had ever seen. She realized why he had to step outside the room. Patrick wouldn’t have fit through the opening.

  The bear waggled his head, and Lizzie trundled after him, surprised she could coordinate four feet. Soon they ran among the trees, Lizzie following close behind Patrick, and him never leaving her behind.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Lizzie didn’t have to think how to change back. She didn’t even have to question what Patrick wanted. They reached a thicket, and when her alpha nosed past it, she followed and came upon a babbling brook. Patrick stood on hind legs while changing to his human form in one fluid motion. Lizzie didn’t even consider it. She followed suit.

  He extended a hand to her, and she took it as they neared the water’s edge, both naked. Lizzie stood close to Patrick, and stared at his skin, glistening in the moonlight. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears. She was becoming aware of more changes, and as she thought of the one that stuck strongest in her mind, Patrick’s cock rose to attention. She wondered if he knew how hot she was for sex.

  “I know,” he said. He glanced away from the moon, which he’d been studying to grin at her.

  “Are you reading my mind?”

  “No, I’m sensing your mood. Not to mention that pussy is dripping wet right now.”

  She realized she knew he was right with more than just the feeling of moisture between her legs. “I need your dick, Patrick.”

  When she reached for it, she expected him to stop her, but he let her stroke the thick shaft as much as she wanted. His cock throbbed in her palms, hard and ready. She smeared her thumb in precome and moaned.

  “It’s not just my dick anymore. It’s yours, and you can take it whenever you want.”

  She tossed him a sassy look, tilting her head to the side and narrowing her eyes. “So if you’re still asleep in the morning, and I want to jump onto it, I can?”

  A low rumble started in his throat. “Mm, yes, what a way to wake up, with my wife’s pussy encasing my cock.”

  A thrill raced down her spine. “Your wife. That sounded odd up until now since we haven’t had the human ceremony. I feel like I get it at last. We’re the same. We’re…one.”

  He turned to face her and cupped her cheeks between his palms. “We are. What’s mine is yours, Lizzie. I love you.”

  She gaped. “You love…?”

  “Haven�
��t I said it?”

  “I think I’d remember that!”

  He kissed her and ran a hand over her side to her hip. “Then let me say it again. I love you Lizzie Scott. I always have, and I always will.”

  Lizzie stretched up to her toes and arched into his embrace. “I love you too, Patrick. I have since I was eighteen.”

  His eyes glittered in the moonlight. “Then we were truly meant to be, because that’s when I first loved you.”

  Lizzie’s mouth fell open. She couldn’t believe it. This man? This incredibly sexy alpha had fallen for her all that time ago and loved her for so long?”

  She stepped out of his hold and smacked his arm. “What kept you?”

  Patrick chuckled and snatched her back to his chest. His arm folded around her back, preventing her from escaping again. “Lizzie, look what you took me through at twenty-six. I had to give you time to grow and mature. I’m older.”

  “Only by what about seven years or so?”

  Amusement made him shake his head. “Try seventy-five.”

  “You’re kidding,” she croaked.

  “Your husband is an old man.”

  “My husband looks no older than thirty.”

  “Then pleasure him appropriately because you are killing him with that luscious body of yours.” Patrick ran a hand over her back to her ass. He traced across the curve of her rear and angled toward her center. While she arched her back, he sank two fingers into her wet pussy, and she moaned. He gently pushed in and out of her at a steady pace, and all she could do was hang onto his shoulders, gasping in ecstasy.

  “Y-you say that,” she murmured into his chest, “but… ah, yes, Patrick!”

  He leaned down to press his mouth to her ear. “Do you want me to fuck you right here?”

  “Yes, damn it.”

  “Even when we’re not alone?”

  She blinked up at him, and slowly she became aware that he was right. At the back of her mind, she knew someone else had been following them all along. The shifter in the trees, waiting and watching in silence. She knew who it was too.