Romance: Bearilicious: BBW Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance Collection (Werebear, Bear Shifter, BBW Paranormal Romance) Read online

  Bearilicious

  Bear Shifter Romance Collection

  Ashley Hunter

  Introduction

  Hi! Thank you for downloading Bearilicious, my ultimate box set featuring 10 bear shifter romance books. This is a great opportunity to own 10 sexy bear shifter romance books in one limited edition digital boxed set.

  The perfect blend of romance, sex and action involving beautiful curvy heroines and their incredibly sexy werebears.

  Each story in Bearilicious is sure to keep you hooked till the end!

  This is your chance to own them all!

  1 Owned By Her Bear

  2 Protected By The Bear

  3 Taken By The Bearillionaire

  4 Bought By The Military Bear

  5 Loving Her Bear

  6 Saved For The Bear King

  7 Rescued By Her Bear

  8 Bride For The Bear Cowboy

  9 The Bear Guard

  10 The Playbear’s Offer

  Owned By Her Bear

  Ashley Hunter

   Copyright 2015 by Ashley Hunter

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced

  in any way whatsoever, without written permission

  from the author, except in case of brief

  quotations embodied in critical reviews

  and articles.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any

  person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  First edition, 2015

  I.

  The car door flew open so hard. It rebounded on its hinge and hit Shelly as she threw herself from the car. The force of the impact made her slip on the mud and she stumbled a couple steps before falling to her hands and knees.

  “Get back here, Shelly!”

  The cold, unspoken threat in Bryant’s voice sent thick fear coursing through her limbs. She pushed herself up just as Bryant rounded the front of the car.

  “Where do you think you’re going, huh? Where are you going to go?”

  Shelly glanced over her shoulder to see him advancing on her. His wild eyes, those fists clenched at his sides.

  Instinct took over. Without a thought, Shelly ran. Her sneakers miraculously found purchase in the mud, and she launched herself forward and into the woods.

  “Hey,” Bryant said, shocked.

  Then, more forcefully, “Hey! Get back here!”

  His steps pounded the forest floor as he gave chase. The breaking branches echoed in the night, as if the forest itself chased her.

  “Where’s your fat ass going to go, Shelly?”

  Her lungs blew out breaths rapid-fired, her legs sending her through the trees. The side of her face was hot where he’d hit her.

  It felt swollen, throbbing with every furious beat of her heart. The torn pieces of her shirt flapped behind her as she ran and some confused part of her brain tried to keep them closed around her to preserve her modesty.

  Hah! Modesty. Could she ever consider herself modest again after what Bryant just tried to pull?

  Branches snagged at her clothes, some low twigs tripping her up sneakers.

  “Shelly,” Bryant screamed from behind her.

  “You can’t run from me, Shelly!”

  Tears streaked out the corner of her eyes as she ran, her plump legs quickly losing strength. Her vision began to blur just as she plowed through the branches of some tall shrubs, the twigs scraping against the skin of her arms and face.

  She cried out in surprise as creepy sharp somethings fell down the collar of her shirt. Spinning and screaming, she shook out of the tatters of her shirt, left in only her bra, and kept running.

  The branches of the bushes cracked and bent as Bryant burst through them, only steps behind her.

  Shelly continued to run, her steps now little more than exhausted stumbles.

  A hand grabbed her arm, nearly jerking her off of her feet.

  “Gotcha, bitch.”

  Shelly screamed.

  That scream was drowned out by a monstrous roar.

  The little moonlight shining down on them was completely blocked out by the towering presence of a bear. Huge fangs glistened, dripping with saliva as the bear roared again.

  Bryant stumbled backward, pulling Shelly down with him as he fell. Too scared and exhausted to run, Shelly just curled up.

  Eyes closed, she could only hear as the bear advanced on Bryant, who went screaming off into the night.

  She knew it was stupid, but a part of her was surprised he would just leave her to die at the hands of that bear. They were together, boyfriend and girlfriend. Sure it wasn’t the best relationship, but they were together.

  Now the bear was returning, its heavy steps not unlike Bryant’s, as it closed the distance to her. Hot air puffed against her head, moving her hair as the bear snuffed at her.

  This was it.

  This was how she died.

  She squeezed her eyes closed, waiting to be torn to pieces. Instead, the massive wet nose nudged against her back. Too scared and confused to move, she waited.

  Nudge.

  Was it testing to see if she was dead? Maybe it would go away.

  Shelly hugged her knees tightly to her chest, just waiting to see what the bear would do.

  After a few long seconds, it grunted, snorted, and then scooped her up in its massive paws. The claws somehow missed scratching her as it lifted her into the air and swung her around to land on its back.

  By reflex, she grabbed onto its fur to keep from falling off.

  The head, bigger than a microwave, turned to look at her from one eye, and it grunted, as if asking a question.

  Shelly looked around her, lost and confused. It seemed to want her to hang on, so she adjusted her seat and got a better grip of the fur around its shoulders.

  “O-okay,” she said. The bear snorted, and then began lumbering through the woods.

  What the hell was happening? One moment, she was being chased by Bryant, and now she was riding a bear. Was this real?

  Not knowing what else to do, she reached up and checked to see if she had banged her head on a rock at some point. Maybe this was all a dream.

  She rode atop the bear’s back for at least a couple of miles. The forest rolled beneath her, the back of the bear gently shifting from side to side as it strolled along.

  In that time, she’d had a chance to regain her breath and the strength returned to her legs. The bear never made any threatening moves towards her, but just walked along.

  Compared to the bear, she actually felt small for the first time in her life. Shelly had never been the paper doll guys always wanted. The bear, though, hardly even seemed to notice she was there.

  They came to the base of a boulder set into a hill. The bear, clearly the beast marking its territory, had clawed all the trees surrounding the boulder.

  Shelly’s heart quickened. Maybe it was taking her back to its cave to eat her in peace?

  That humungous head swung back and nipped at the cuff of her pants, giving her a gentle tug. Shelly swallowed.

  Bears don’t carry their prey on their back. She had no idea what was going to happen next, but she had to tell herself that it would be okay. She couldn’t sit on the bear’s back forever.

  So, scared but determined, she slid down the bear’s ribcage and landed on her feet. Having straddled the giant spine of the animal for so long, Shelly’s hips suddenly ached at no long
er being stretched to the sides.

  She sucked in a breath through her teeth and stretched her legs out.

  The bear moved and she turned to face it. Just when she thought everything would be okay, the great beast reared up onto its hind legs.

  Shelly had never been more scared in her life. Her head barely came to its chest. The moon disappeared behind its head again as it looked calmly down at her.

  “Oh God,” she breathed.

  Then, right before her eyes, the bear began shrinking. Its arms and legs became longer in proportion to the body. The fur disappeared back into its skin and it took two steps forward.

  The bear that had rescued her became a man.

  II.

  Sharp blue eyes watched her face for expressions, his mouth set in apprehension.

  Something in her head said, he should’ve had mussed up hair and a wild man’s beard, but he was surprisingly clean-shaven.

  Instead of filthy locks, he had a short crew cut. He had the arms and legs of the bear he had just been, however, all muscle and power.

  A man he may be now, but he still looked like he could tear someone apart with his bare hands… or maybe lift her up and press her back against a tree.

  Shelly closed her eyes and shook her head. No, where did that come from? What a thought to have at a time like this.

  Still, one of the most attractive men she’d ever seen stood in front of her, naked. Naked and blessed, by the looks of it.

  “Are you okay?” His deep voice reverberated through her chest.

  A swell surged through her, and she had to take a deep breath or risk passing out.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  “You can call me Aaron.”

  “Well Aaron,” she said, suddenly becoming self-conscious of her own lack of a shirt and tried to cover her supple breasts with her arms.

  “I’m Shelly. Would you mind putting on some clothes?”

  “Huh?” he asked, confused.

  Then he looked down at him, and startled. “Ah, yes.”

  Was it her imagination, or was he growing hard as was looking at her? That was absurd, right?

  He had turned away before she could see anything else, and moved behind a tree.

  After a bit of moving and shaking, he came out, wearing a pair of jeans and some sneakers.

  “Sorry,” he said as he approached her with a large button-up shirt.

  “One easily becomes accustomed to nudity after so long. Here, take this.”

  “Thank you,” she said and slipped her arms through the sleeves.

  He was so muscular that his shirt didn’t just fit; it was actually loose on her.

  In all her life, she always wanted to do the cute thing where she wore her boyfriend’s clothes, but they were always skinnier than her, and her arms or legs stretched out whatever she put on.

  Inevitably they would just get upset with her, which defeated the purpose. It was the juxtaposition of those memories and the fact that she was currently swimming in this man’s shirt that turned her on even more than she already was.

  The shirt had the smell of a piece of clothing that had been laid out in the forest, but also of a man. It wasn’t rank, but instead the masculine musk of a man that didn’t need to wear cologne.

  “I have no idea what’s happening right now,” she said, her face buried in her shoulder, as she smelled the shirt.

  “My cottage isn’t far from here. I always shift and keep my clothes just a bit of distance away from my home for safety reasons. Come, the forest is a dangerous place, even for a bear. You’re welcome to stay with me the night and rest. In the morning, if you like, I can take you back to the road and we’ll find you a ride home.”

  Shelly looked up from the shirt and glanced back the way they had come. The prospect of staying the night with this complete stranger should’ve made her more apprehensive, but something in the way he looked at her actually made her feel calmer, instead of anxious.

  That alone threw up red flags, but even those were quelled by the fact that he had single-handedly rescued her from Bryant’s drunken episode.

  When he would get like that, she had been so scared that she secretly wanted someone to intervene, to rescue her. No one ever did.

  He would yell at her in public, calling her fat and making sure she knew just how lucky she was to have a guy like him.

  Shelly shook her head to get Bryant’s voice out and looked at Aaron.

  He raised his brows questioningly, and held out a hand to her.

  Something about the gesture made her feel like a lady and she couldn’t stop the smile as she placed her fingers in his hand.

  “You have a lovely smile,” he said and closed his hand around hers.

  Shelly felt the heat rise to her face and she had to look away.

  Of course, this brought her nose near the fabric of his shirt again, and she breathed deeply of the scent.

  Aaron led her by the hand through the woods. She was certain he could have moved much faster without her, but he walked slowly, moving branches out of her way and making sure she watched her step so she wouldn’t trip.

  It was a short walk before the trees broke and they entered a clearing.

  A pond near the center was fed by a stream that trickled in from the tree line. On the other side of that stream was Aaron’s cottage.

  It was a cozy home made from logs. A porch wrapped around the whole building, a couple of rocking chairs in the front by the door.

  “This is where you live?”

  “It is,” he said simply, guiding her to a series of small stepping-stones to cross the stream.

  “Did you build this yourself?” she asked as she stepped on the first stone.

  He helped her across the five stones, and when they were both on the other side he smiled at her.

  “I did.”

  “It’s beautiful, like something out of a catalogue. Places like this don’t exist in real life. Know what I mean?”

  Aaron frowned thoughtfully and shook his head. “I don’t.”

  “What’s with the two word answers?” she asked as he guided her up the bank and to the steps of the cottage.

  “What more is there to say? Am I not answering your questions?”

  Shelly looked away and hugged the shirt around her, suddenly feeling chilled.

  Was he making fun of her? “I guess.”

  Aaron reached for her, stepping closer until his body pressed against hers and brought her face to meet his.

  “What is it?”

  She hadn’t buttoned the shirt closed, which left it open at the bottom.

  She could feel the skin of his stomach pressed against her own and it sent goose flesh down her arms. He was so warm.

  “It just feels like you’re annoyed with me.”

  The way his eyes opened in surprise was the most genuine expression she’d ever witnessed, and it made her feel stupid in an instant.

  “Annoyed? You were praising my home. There is no greater pride.”

  Shelly watched his mouth as he spoke, the way his lips formed each word. When he licked his lips slowly, she realized she was staring and looked up to see him watching her.

  The air sighed from her lungs, and her mouth went dry. How was he so raw and sexy without even trying?

  “Why were you short with me, then?”

  “Short? I am sorry. Not my intention. I am very to the point. Perhaps it is a flaw, but when I see something I want, I don’t mince words to get it.”

  Shelly swallowed and looked away; suddenly embarrassed by the way he stared at her. This was crazy. They just met!

  III.

  “Do you have any water?”

  “Yes, inside.”

  She looked up at him to see if he was making fun of her, but instead he smiled and winked.

  “Very funny.”

  “Ah ha! You see? Two words can be effective.”

  Shelly giggled and rolled her eyes at him.

  They entered the house, t
he smell of wood and nature strong and pleasant. There were no lights, so other than the moonlight streaming in from the windows, she was blind.

  Aaron walked across the room without issue, leaving her near the door. She felt along the wall for a light switch but felt only the smooth wood of the logs under her fingers.