Big Bear Mountain - The Complete Series Read online

  “What am I supposed to be doing while you’re off doing your secret squirrel mountaineering shit, then?” Both hands rested firmly on her hips. A definite sign she wasn’t happy being left behind.

  “I won’t be long. Just wait here and let me do my thing. I can’t focus on what I have to do and look out for you as well. You don’t know the first thing about climbing. It’s too dangerous.”

  “I don’t care. I’m coming with you.” Her hands remained firmly braced on her hips.

  Jarrad took a length of rope from his pack and threw it to Elle. It hit her fair in the chest, and then fell to the ground.

  “Good catch,” he teased.

  “Nice throw,” Elle shot right back at him.

  “Tie me a figure eight on a bight.”

  “Fine.” Elle left the rope on the ground, turned and walked toward a nearby boulder and sat down with a loud humph.

  Jarrad was learning fast. He knew she was anything but ‘fine’.

  An hour later, sweating and panting, Jarrad climbed over the ridge where he’d left Elle with their equipment and provisions. He had Elle’s overnight bag slung loosely over his shoulder, ready to return it to her. But something wasn’t right. He surveyed the scene. Everything was where he’d left it. Almost everything.

  Elle was nowhere to be found. The rock where she’d sat and glared at him angrily when he departed to look for the car wreck was bare.

  Not quite bare. A small radio receiver sat where Elle had staged her sit-in protest.

  Jarrad’s hands balled into fists as he trembled with rage. His bear roared furiously and demanded to be released. They both wanted to find the ones who’d taken their mate and tear them apart. Limb by limb.

  The radio squawked loudly, and then went silent. Jarrad picked it up in his hand, the small device looking absurdly small in his broad hand. He didn’t speak.

  “Thank you for being so brave Mr. Mountain Rescue and finding our money and data card.

  “Now, you will return them to us if you ever want to see your girlfriend again.”

  Jarrad knew they couldn’t have gone far in this terrain with a prisoner. He looked around as he considered his next move.

  “We don’t have time to play games. You will leave the bag where it is and leave this place,” the voice was laced with a peculiar accent Jarrad couldn’t identify through the static, “or we will be forced to bring down a storm of shit on you.”

  Keying the mic, Jarrad responded, “I think you mean shit storm, asshole.”

  “Do not play games with us. Leave the bag and go. Now, or there will be a storm coming to you.”

  A laser beam from a snipers tactical scope flashed twice on the ground at Jarrad’s feet.

  Before he crushed the radio transmitter in his hand, Jarrad had one final thing to say to the men who had taken Elle.

  “No, you got that wrong, too. I am the storm. And I’m coming your way.”

  Chapter 30

  If there was one thing Jarrad knew better than anyone, it was his mountain. He knew there was only one place they could have reached in the time he’d been gone and where they could still have line of sight on him right now. Bear Claw Ridge.

  If he left them Elle’s bag for them, as he’d been instructed, they were both as good as dead. The bag was his only leverage and he wasn’t about to let it out of his hands. He’d die before he let anything happen to Elle.

  Avoiding looking toward the ridge where he knew they were holed up, Jarrad hoisted the bag securely across his shoulder and jumped over an embankment and headed down the mountain in the direction from which he’d come only minutes before. Getting behind them, unseen, was his only chance to save them both.

  As he made his way through a heavily wooded area, Jarrad shifted and allowed his bear free reign, as it had been eager to do since finding Elle missing. The hulking creature bounded between the trees with a grace and elegance that was surprising for a creature so large. It looked beautiful, but that was the last thing on the bears mind.

  Killing the cartel goons and rescuing Elle was his sole reason for being at that moment. Nothing else mattered.

  Elle saw it first. Although her hands were zip tied behind her back and her ankles similarly restrained, they hadn’t bothered to blindfold her. After all, she’d be dead soon enough, so it didn’t matter that she saw their faces.

  The sun glistened against the soft fur on its head. Then she saw the eyes. Elle would recognize those eyes anywhere. Jarrad’s bear. Her bear. He’d come for her.

  Her bear had come to save her. To protect her. She knew Jarrad would come the moment she saw them approach, guns up and aimed at her. She never had a moment of doubt, so she didn’t put up fight when they took her. There was no point getting shot when she’d be free soon enough, anyway. Her man and his bear would see to that. She could sense it, as if they were connected even though they were apart. She felt safe, despite the three gun toting thugs surrounding her.

  With a blood curdling roar, the beast reared up from behind the foliage, behind which it had been concealed, towering above the three armed gangsters. One of them ran at the sight of the growling creature, screaming something in a language Elle couldn’t understand, but she had a fair idea what he was saying, regardless.

  A gunshot rang out. One of the gunman pointed a smoking Glock 17 at the bear. Elle screamed. She needn’t have worried, though; Jarrad’s gift was not limited to his ability to transform into a bear. As Elle would learn over time, Jarrad and his bear were quite impervious to most injuries and had extraordinarily fast healing abilities in the rare event they were ever injured.

  With an almighty swipe of its huge paw, the bear knocked the gun and the man responsible for firing it, clear across the clearing and into a rocky outcrop where he landed with a sickening thud.

  Schlock … schlock

  Even in his bear form, Jarrad recognized the familiar sound of a military grade Mossberg 590A1 tactical shotgun being racked. He’d heard that sound often during his tour in Iraq. Only then, he and his team were the ones doing the racking and the enemy were on the receiving end. He’d seen the damage the weapon could inflict. It was lethal. Not even a fast healing, resilient bear could survive that impact at close range.

  Chapter 31

  Jarrad had no choice. If he remained in his bear form, he’d be shot and killed in seconds. Changing back to his human form was his and Elle’s only chance. The shotgun wielding thug stood wide eyed and shocked into silence as Jarrad transformed in front of him.

  “Put hand in sky,” the gunman ordered with a thick accent.

  “I think you mean reach for the sky, cowboy,” Jarrad said to himself as he complied, raising both hands. Curiously, though, he held one finger extended on his right hand. Elle noticed this peculiar gesture but couldn’t make sense of it. She did ten seconds later, though, when a laser dot appeared in the center of the gunman’s forehead.

  Jarrad’s fist closed tightly and the laser dot became a larger circle from which a drop of blood oozed. The Mossberg fell to the ground. Dead even before he dropped the weapon, the gunman collapsed a few seconds later with a look of disbelief frozen on his face.

  “Do I even want to know how you did that?” Elle asked, trembling in Jarrad’s embrace as he held her close.

  Jarrad snorted a short laugh, remembering he hadn’t shared his backup plan with her. “That was Rosie’s grandson. He owed me a favor and just happens to be in the army sniper training school.” He laughed again, “Top of his class, too, if you hadn’t already guessed. He’s had our backs since we left Rosie’s.”

  “That man,” she pointed to the dead gunman, “he was going to kill us, wasn’t he, even if he got the money and the SD card?”

  “What he thought he was going to do and what I would have let him do are two very different things, sweetheart. I was never going to let him hurt you.”

  Elle clung to him like she never wanted to let him go. In the distance, the familiar beat of helicopter rotors ca
rried through the still mountain air.

  “Here comes our ride, baby. I’ve got a room booked for us at Rosie’s. What’s say we get you out of here?”

  “Did I pass?” she asked anxiously.

  “Pass what?”

  “You know … the bonding thing. Did I do it right?”

  The bear within mewled with satisfaction. He had, indeed, bonded with the true mate he had chosen for them.

  “You did better than pass. You did perfect. Hopefully, I’ll show you how well you did later.”

  She looked up at him and smiled a smile that melted the heart of her big, tough, soldier bear.

  Chapter 32

  The aching need that had been clawing within her, ever since Jarrad had pleasured her with his talented tongue, began to stir once again the moment they were alone in the small room at the B&B Rosie had kindly let them have, now that Jarrad was, technically, homeless.

  When Elle emerged from the shower, Jarrad stood before her, framed by the large window with the spectacular mountain views. The views were the big drawcard for this cozy mountain town, but right now, they weren’t the views Elle was interested in.

  Backlit by the window, Elle had a clear view of Jarrad’s broad shoulders and powerful chest tapering down to his trim, sexy waist. That was the only view she needed and she began to realize that she wanted to wake up to that view every day. For the rest of her life.

  “I’m ready,” she said, towel drying her hair.

  Jarrad looked at her. She wore nothing but a towel wrapped around her. Every one of her delightful curves on display for him and begging to be enjoyed to the fullest. With her arms upstretched as she dried her hair, she looked like a hair product model in a commercial. She took his breath away.

  “Are you sure you want this? The choice is totally yours, you know. Just because the bear and I choose you, doesn’t mean you’re obliged if you don’t feel the same way.”

  With her fingers she beckoned him closer. He crossed the room in two easy strides and stopped before his mate. Mouthing a shooshing sound, she placed her fingers gently across his lips, silencing him.

  She was sure.

  Wrapping one arm around her waist, he effortlessly picked Elle up and placed her on the bed where he leaned into her and kissed her hard and possessively, parting her lips with his tongue and exploring her fully and deeply. Claiming her with the very passion she ignited within him.

  Opening her mouth fully to receive him, she allowed his tongue to dominate hers before responding in kind, enjoying the way their tongues danced as one, suggestive of the way in which they both desired their bodies to entwine passionately.

  His hand found its way to her breast and tugged impatiently at the towel covering his prize. She arched her back so he could rid her of that barrier, exposing them for his enjoyment. And hers. Flinging the towel to the floor Jarrad stood, towering above her and admired her beauty. Her pretty face and silky hair all the way to her shapely ankles and cute feet. And every single smooth, luscious curve in between.

  The hardening in his pants drew her gaze to his crotch and she reached to unbutton him and have her first real look at his equipment. From the outline it formed down his leg, she knew she wasn’t going to be disappointed. Like everything about Jarrad, she knew it was going to be gigantic.

  “You going to run away, if I do this?” she asked mockingly, with her hands poised on his waistband.

  Jarrad shook his head. He didn’t dare speak. Sometimes the smartest comments are the ones you don’t make.

  “Good answer,” Elle acknowledged.

  Unzipping his pants, she pulled them and his boxers down in one deft motion, leaving his rigid and positively magnificent cock jutting out like a towel rail. She ran her fingertips gently up and down the length of the vein entwined shaft, pausing at the swollen crown to feel its velvety smoothness.

  The size of it made her a little apprehensive. “You’ll have to be gentle with me,” she suggested, looking again at the huge weapon before her and encircling her hand around its girth. There was a disturbing gap between the tips of her fingers and her thumb, thanks to his generous proportions.

  “I’ll be as gentle as I need to be,” was all he said in reply.

  “I need to take you just like this. Right now. Is that what you want?” he growled, his tone brimming with primal passion as he unbuttoned and removed his shirt, hurling it across the room.

  Suddenly, Elle found herself across the bed, her butt balanced on the edge and Jarrad standing between her spread thighs, guiding the head of his cock between her slick, hot folds. The heat that engulfed his swollen crown and the scent of desire his bear was inhaling told him she wanted him and was ready for him. That she wanted him to claim her and take her to become his true mate.

  Elle raised her legs and wrapped them greedily around his waist, tightening her grip as she looked up at him.

  “Yes!” She looked into his sparkling eyes. “Yes!” she snarled more forcefully, sensing his hesitation.

  Unable to hold himself back any longer, Jarrad plunged his full length deep into Elle’s waiting, moist passage. He buried himself to the hilt and felt the heat and tightness of her down every inch of his shaft.

  She made a sound he interpreted as pain and started to withdraw, but the look on her face told him another story and he smiled as they looked at each other with lust and desire burning in each other’s eyes. No, the sound that caught in her throat was one of supreme pleasure, not pain; although she wasn’t sure she even knew the difference between them as his cock throbbed within her, stretching her to accommodate him.

  Reaching down, Jarrad grabbed her breasts firmly and held her in place as he began to piston his eager cock in and out of her pussy. Each time he withdraw, she ached for him to fill her again. Over and Over.

  “Tell me!” he commanded as his pumping became more and more frantic.

  Elle hooked her feet behind the small of his back and rested them on the tight muscles of his ass. Words failed her as the heat began to erupt from her sex to the pit of her stomach, threatening to overwhelm her entire body.

  “Tell me!” Jarrad screamed, his eyes blazing with primitive carnality.

  “Yes! I want …”

  “Say it!” he demanded again.

  “I want … I want to be your mate!” she finally managed to say just before the orgasm that had been building within her exploded and left her without the ability to speak. Only guttural sounds she didn’t recognize as words emerged from her mouth as she was pushed to new heights as Jarrad erupted within her, filling her with his hot seed.

  They locked eyes as they each came and the bond she had formed earlier was forged into something else. Something permanent.

  Sweating and breathless, Jarrad collapsed alongside Elle and spooned her from behind, tracing his fingers along her spine, caressing the nape of her neck and the sensitive area he found at the base of her spine, just above her ass.

  “Mmmmmm” The power of speech hadn’t returned to her as yet.

  “Bonded and mated. It’s done. You’re not a bear shifter, so you can leave any time and I’ll never try to stop you, if that’s what you want to do. But I can never leave you. I’ll protect you and care for you until my dying breath. That’s what a true mate does. I hope you understand that.”

  Elle rolled over to face her mate. With the back of her hand she traced her knuckles down his beautiful cheekbone, over his shoulders and eventually to his scar. She touched it with her fingertips and thought of all he’d been through and all he had done to save her. This was the man she wanted to wake up to every morning. Forever.

  “I’m not going anywhere. Ever. This is where my heart belongs, now and we can build a new home, for the two of us and our family.”

  “Cubs,” Jarrad added.

  “What?” Elle’s nose wrinkled in that cute way only Jarrad seemed to notice.

  “That’s what bear shifter children are called — cubs.”

  “OK, for us and o
ur cubs then.”

  He hugged her tight and let every one of her curves fit into the outline of his muscles, like they were made to be together.

  Then a thought popped into her head and she just had to ask. “You said I wasn’t a bear shifter … can human mates ever become bear shifters?”

  Epilogue

  Spring in the mountains was breathtaking. Nothing Elle had experienced in her life prepared her for the natural beauty that now surrounded her. She sat on the half-finished roof, her roofing hammer in one hand and a handful of nails in the other, admiring the surrounding landscape as she took a short break from nailing the cedar shingles into place.

  None of the beauty that surrounded her, though, compared to the beauty of her man running through the forest, chasing raccoons and jackrabbits. No matter how hard he worked building their home, he always needed to let his bear have a good run each day and burn off some energy. Those had become her favorite time of the day. Well, her second favorite.

  As one cheeky jackrabbit scurried down its burrow, to the bear’s very vocal frustration, a news report on her portable radio caught Elle’s attention. She cranked up the volume and wished that Jarrad was there to hear the news.

  It seemed that a number of veteran’s foundations across the country had received anonymous donations from sources that couldn’t be identified. Hundreds of millions of dollars had been electronically transferred to the bank accounts of the foundations, all of which are tasked with providing veterans with housing, career training and medical assistance and various other support services.

  When the registered account holders were contacted by the various foundation’s lawyers, they all declined to comment. Some even denied knowing anything about the donations.

  Elle smiled to herself.

  Jarrad had shifted back into his human form and was making his way to the cabin, curious as to the reason behind Elle’s happy face.