Bear With Me (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance) Read online

  Bear With Me

  An Alpha Werebear Shifter Romance

  by

  Lynn Red

  A Jamesburg Shifters novel

  Copyright 2014

  Connect with me online at my Facebook page: facebook.com/lynn.red.946

  Click here to sign up for my mailing list to get the latest news and exclusive excerpts, contests, and cover reveals! Or navigate to: http://eepurl.com/G1q2X

  Also by Lynn Red

  The Alpha's Kiss

  Change For Me (Werewolf Romance)

  Shift Into Me (Alpha Werewolf Romance)

  Howl For Me (Alpha Werewolf Shifter Paranormal Romance)

  The Jamesburg Shifters

  To Catch a Wolf (BBW Werewolf Shifter Romance)

  Bearing It All (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance)

  Bear With Me (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance)

  Watch for more at Lynn Red’s site.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Also By Lynn Red

  Dedication

  -1- | Erik & Izzy

  -2- | Rex Lee, One Bad Bear

  -3- | Lilah Jorgenson, Misfit Raccoon

  -4- | Rex

  -5- | Lilah

  -6- | Lilah

  -7- | Lilah

  -8- | Lilah

  -9- | Lilah

  -10- | Rex

  -11- | Lilah

  -12- | Lilah

  -13- | Langston C. Graves, J.D., Ph.D., D.Phil

  -14- | Lilah

  -15- | Rex

  -16- | Lilah

  -17- | Lilah

  -18- | Langston Graves

  -19- | Lilah

  -20- | Rex

  -21- | Langston Graves

  -22- | Lilah

  -23- | Lilah

  -24- | Lilah

  -25- | Lilah

  -26- | Lilah

  -27- | Lilah

  -28- | Lilah

  Keep reading for bonus excerpts from my bestselling books Change For Me and To Catch a Wolf! | Connect with me online at my Facebook page: facebook.com/lynn.red.946 | Click here to sign up for my mailing list to get the latest news and exclusive excerpts, contests, and cover reveals! Or navigate to: http://eepurl.com/G1q2X

  -Change For Me (The Alpha’s Kiss #1)-

  -To Catch a Wolf (A Jamesburg Shifters Novel)-

  Further Reading: Bearing It All (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance)

  Also By Lynn Red

  About the Author

  For you, who make it all possible - thank you for everything!

  -1-

  Erik & Izzy

  “Hold on a second!” Erik shouted with a hitch in his breath. This was the first time in a week he and his mate managed to steal a few minutes behind his closed door, and they’d only been back here eight minutes before someone started knocking.

  Erik Danniken, alpha and mayor of Jamesburg, was just plain tired of being a bureaucrat. No, wait, that’s not really true. He loved being able to do pretty much whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. What he was tired of, honestly?

  Signing off on budgets.

  Good thing he and his mate Izzy had a long vacation coming up. She wanted to go on a three week yoga retreat in San Diego. He agreed, because... come on? Yoga retreat? He couldn’t imagine anything better than three weeks of Izzy in stretch pants. If it meant he had to do some warrior pose and some sun salutations? He could live with that.

  “Don’t pay attention to that,” he said, looking down at Isabel. “We put all that, uh, that noise-cancelling stuff all over the walls for a reason.”

  He bent down and sucked a kiss behind her ear. Goosebumps trailed down Izzy’s perfect neck in a warm, sweet wave. She arched her back a little, inviting him closer between her legs. The warmth there tantalized the huge werewolf, teasing him just enough that the hair on his arms started getting a little thicker and heavier with every breath.

  “You make me crazy,” he whispered, trailing kisses along her jaw and finally driving his tongue between her teeth, exploring every line and curve in her mouth for just a second.

  “I make you crazy?” Izzy giggled. “You’ve got me pinned against your desk, there’s an irritated hedgehog professor outside the door, and you’re saying that I am the one making the crazy?”

  She took a breath, but only one. Eagerly, desperately, Erik pushed her skirt up and shoved her panties to the side, then drove in. Wet heat crept down the insides of her legs, letting him enter her without any resistance at all.

  Erik’s arms swelled with muscle, and his eyes went a little bit yellow as he pushed deep. Slow strokes followed desperate, eager thrusts. Every time, the cutest little gasps escaped Izzy’s half-open lips, making Erik want to never stop, ever.

  “Harder,” she whispered. “Make my thighs red.”

  She was blushing as she spoke, but damn if that didn’t get Erik going. “You never talk like that,” he said with a grin and another thrust that felt so good, so tight and so hot Erik had to blink a few times to get some self-discipline.

  Izzy grinned up at him, letting her fingers do a dance along the tattoo that went up his neck. Two buttons of Erik’s dress shirt were undone, which was enough for her to run her fingers through the fur sprouting from his normally bare chest.

  With every slam, Erik’s eyes got wilder, his fingers got bigger, and his forearms, his biceps, and his thighs all grew.

  “I don’t have all day!” Professor Duggan, the part-time city manager, part-time history professor, and full-time hedgehog, was getting impatient. “I don’t know what you’re doing in there that’s so... okay, yes I’m perfectly aware of what you’re doing.”

  “Just ignore him,” Erik said, his eyes burning hot holes in Izzy as he looked all around her face, searching for a sign that she was as close as he was. When her eyelids fluttered, and she tossed her brown curls back and forth, he got his clue. “Good God you feel good,” he groaned. “Scratch me, scratch my arms, make it hurt!”

  Izzy ran her fingernails down Erik’s flexing triceps, leaving hot, red, stinging tracks. A soft scream escaped and she tilted her hips so he could go as deep as possible. Erik roared urgently as he stretched her just a little more. She tried to muffle his noise with a hand over his mouth, but it hardly worked. “Yes, yes, yes, do it again, harder,” he whispered.

  “You’re... making me... I can’t...” Her fingers moved down Erik’s arms again, but in a halting, skipping way that matched Izzy’s breathing. “So close, I can’t...”

  Throwing back his head, Erik shoved in one last time.

  Both of them went stiff. Every muscle in their intertwined bodies tightened. Tendons all went so taut that fingers curled, toes squeaked in loafers, and then all at once, relief washed over both of them.

  Erik grasped Izzy’s hair, angling her head so he could suck at her neck, kissing her favorite places. Their bodies grasped each other, squeezing, not wanting to let go.

  Sweat ran from Erik’s temples to his neck, then dripped down onto the bare spot where Izzy’s shirt was open.

  Erik shuddered.

  Izzy clutched her wolf mate tight, wrapped her ankles around his waist, as he carried her to ecstasy.

  Thirty-three seconds later, Erik knew because he was counting, the knocking came again. Both of them were jarred out of their bliss and jolted back to reality. Erik clenched his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “I guess you better actually answer him now?” Izzy asked with a smile. She pushed Erik backwards, stood up, and adjusted herself. Going over to the window, she looked in the reflection and
tried to get her hair in some kind of order, then gave up and put it in a ponytail.

  Erik sighed heavily. “Why can’t they take a day off? Just one day off.”

  “They took a week, Erik,” Izzy said, throwing him a glance in the reflection. She pressed her lips together, then kissed off the excess lipstick into an old handkerchief. “This is the first day the city government’s been back and you want them to take another day?”

  “...Yeah?” Erik replied, shaking his head. “I guess not. Hell of a job though.”

  He crossed the room and stood beside Izzy, putting his arm around her waist and looking out the window. Below, three hyena police and one much larger officer were milling around outside the entrance to the jail, three stories below where Erik and Izzy stood.

  “Hard to believe it’s been almost a year since Ash joined the force,” Erik said.

  “What are they doing?” Izzy asked. “Looks like they’re bringing a couple bears in.”

  Erik cocked an eyebrow. “See that pasty one in the rear car? That’s Davis Edgewood. He probably couldn’t pass an IQ test if all you wanted him to do was put his name on the front. The other one,” Erik paused. “I don’t know the other one, I don’t think. Don’t recognize him anyway.”

  Izzy shrugged.

  “Erik!” Duggan thumped his meaty fist against the door again. “You’re done with... well, you’re done! Come open this door! Right... now!” Duggan knocked again. “The world doesn’t revolve around your mating schedule, Erik Danniken!”

  Erik turned around and lackadaisically wandered toward the door, opening it to reveal the short, squat, professorial hedgehog with his arm cocked to start banging again.

  “You gonna hit me?” Erik asked.

  “No! No, of course not!” Duggan said. “What kind of ridiculous thing to say is that? I’ve never hit anyone in my life. I was just—”

  “It was a joke, Duggan,” Erik said, rubbing his face with his palm. “I know you were knocking. Anyway, you’ve got my attention. What do you need?”

  Duggan drew his lips into a thin line that disappeared underneath his mustache. The top of his head started getting a little red and he puffed up his cheeks. “What do I need? I need you to pay attention to this pile of city ordinance violations! I need you to go through this stack of permit applications and sign them!”

  Duggan was getting so het up he was about to let his inner hedgehog shine through. His nose started getting a little longer, and hair on the back of his neck first stood up, and then got spiny. “This is just too much, Erik!”

  Erik looked down at the stack of papers Duggan flopped on his desk, and then picked it up. He shot a sly glance over at Izzy, who was giving him a narrow-eyed stare that said he needed to stop messing with Duggan. Slowly, Erik started thumbing through the papers.

  “All looks good to me,” he said. “Uh, I trust you Duggan, you’re about a thousand times better at micromanaging street light contracts than I ever could dream to be.”

  “That is it?” Duggan sniffed. He was about four seconds from losing his ability to speak. “I... did you just say it’s all fine?”

  Erik nodded, and patted the little man on the shoulder. “Sure,” he said with a shrug. “I trust you to handle this stuff more than I trust myself. That’s why you’re on my team. I know you can pay attention to these comically mundane details.”

  Duggan began breathing slow, measured breaths.

  “That’s very good!” Izzy said, encouragingly. “Where did you learn those breathing tricks?”

  “My... my doctor,” Duggan said. “She told me I had to figure out some way to calm down or I was going to have a coronary. So, I went to yoga with my wife. The instructor – Rain Ginger, she taught it to me.”

  “That’s the unicorn, right?” Erik said. “Figures, a unicorn yoga teacher. Anyway, glad you got that sorted out.”

  “You should try it, Erik,” Duggan said. “It’s done wonders for my daily outlook. You shouldn’t be so quick to look down your nose at practices that are thousands of years old, you know.”

  The idea of Professor Duggan contorting himself in down dogs and planks got Izzy giggling. “I’ve been trying to get him to go with me for years,” she said. “He won’t do it. Or wouldn’t. Then this retreat came up and somehow I was able to con him into going. Although I really want him to go to one before we leave tomorrow.”

  Erik gave her an incredulous look.

  “Wait!” she said. “I just got an idea.”

  She leaned in close and whispered something inaudibly in Erik’s ear, but as soon as she did, his ears perked up and he got a very interested look on his face. “You’ll do... what? Really? No, not really. Really?”

  Izzy grinned. “Just one class,” she said.

  Erik looked back and forth, his eyes quickly moving left and right. “Yeah okay fine. But, uh, I’m sure he doesn’t want to learn about you—”

  “Glad you got that sorted out,” Duggan said, raising his voice and with a sarcastic twist in his voice. “There... is one more thing, though.”

  “What?” Erik asked, not looking away from Izzy. He was still shaking his head at whatever she’d said to him. “More paperwork?”

  “No, nothing like that. It’s about work. The other work, I mean.”

  “The college?” Erik asked. “What about it? Food court not up to snuff?”

  “You won’t get me worked up that easily, Erik,” Duggan said, smiling smugly. “No, it’s... there’s a new hire in the art history department. He’s a bit strange.”

  “A bit strange?” Erik finally turned away from Izzy and looked over at Duggan. “In a town full of hyena cops, hedgehog professors, zombie-menagerie-owning witch doctors, and a woman who is literally named Crazy Mary, you’re concerned about a professor being a little eccentric?”

  “She isn’t literally named Crazy Mary. She’s just too old to remember her actual name. Anyway, it might be nothing,” Duggan admitted. “But then again, every time I’ve talked to the guy, he’s seemed like a head case.”

  “Just... just wait a second,” Erik said. He pinched the bridge of his nose again. Izzy laughed to herself as she watched his patience melt away right before her eyes. “You’re concerned about a professor. About a socially aloof professor. Socially... aloof... professor. Right?”

  Duggan squinted slightly. “Yes, I suppose that’s about the extent of it. He gives me very strange vibes.”

  “Vibes.” Erik said flatly. “He gives you bad vibes.” He started thumbing through the pile of permit proposals.

  “What are you looking for?” Izzy asked.

  “To see if one of these is Duggan asking permission to start a hippie commune.”

  Izzy started giggling, and Duggan narrowed his eyes. “Now you listen here, Erik Danniken. Who was it that made you realize there was something going on with Jenga and his zombie a year and a half ago? Remember when he was trying to hatch a bank robbery... er, money laundering... uh, well, when he was trying to steal that money?”

  “Yes, of course I do,” Erik said. “And I do trust your judgment. I’m just not really sure what you’re driving at here. A new professor – what’s his name, even?”

  “Langston something,” Duggan said. “Graves? Something along those lines. He’s very stern all the time, but he has these eyes that sparkle. He walks into a room and seems to command the energy within it.” His voice got very spacy and strange for a second, as though he was entering a trance.

  “Sounds like you’ve got a crush, Duggan,” Erik said. Izzy snorted in spite of herself, then clapped her hand over her mouth.

  Duggan, though, wasn’t paying a lick of attention. “He speaks in this low, kind of resonant, slow tone, and he...”

  Suddenly, he shook his head, like he was snapping himself out of a dream. “All I’m saying is that he’s very strange. I’m normally not very suspicious of—”

  Erik cocked an eyebrow.

  “Right, okay, fine so I might be a suspicious sort of
person. I’m just saying there’s more to this character than he’s letting on. I heard he doesn’t even have a dog.”

  “A dog? Do you have a dog?” Erik asked.

  “No, but I’m not entirely a human. He is. Humans are supposed to have dogs. Man’s best friend and all that.”

  “Maybe he’s allergic?” Izzy offered. “Has he done anything wrong? Does he have a cat?”

  Duggan shook his head, almost despondently. “No, I suppose not. I might just be a bit startled at the change in faculty. After all, the community college has had almost exactly the same staff for as long as I can remember.”

  Erik clapped his diminutive friend on the shoulder and led him toward the door. “I’m sure that’s all it is. Why don’t you invite him out for a beer, maybe feed him some of your wife Gretchen’s Dorito casserole and see if he loosens up a little? I’m sure he’s just nervous about living in a new place. And after all, this is a different sort of place to get used to, you know.”

  “I... I suppose you’re right,” Duggan said. “But if anything odd starts happening at the school, don’t forget what I said.”

  Absent mindedly, the professor started down the hall before turning back. “Oh, and Erik?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Happy anniversary. I almost forgot.” Duggan waved over his shoulder, and disappeared down the stairs.

  “Thanks,” Erik called after him, turning back to Izzy. “Time flies, huh?”

  “Yeah,” she said, smiling and reclining against the desk.

  Erik took a second just to look at her, to drink her in. After all this time, he still couldn’t believe how lucky he’d gotten. “People go their whole lives never feeling like this,” he said, moving across the room and sweeping a fallen tendril of brown hair back behind Izzy’s ear. “And yet, here I am.”

  “Here we are,” she corrected him. “And yeah.”

  He leaned in and she met his lips, kissing him before he got all the way to hers.

  “You’re going to make me do this again, aren’t you?” Erik was tugging on his shirt. The third button opened and Izzy slid her hand inside, her fingertips trailing along the lines of his defined chest.