The Fox and her Bear (Mating Call Dating Agency, #2)
The Fox and Her Bear
An Alpha Werebear Romance
Thank you so much for taking the time to check out my new book! Click here to subscribe to my mailing list to keep up to date on all my new releases, giveaways, and free books!
The Mating Call Dating Agency
Lynn Red
(c)2015
Also by Lynn Red
Jamesburg Shifter Romance
Bear Me Away (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance)
Kendal Creek Bears
Can't Bear To Run
Can't Bear to Hide
Mating Call Dating Agency
Hare Today Bear Tomorrow
The Fox and her Bear
The Broken Pine Bears
Two Bears are Better Than One (Alpha Werebear Paranormal Romance)
Between a Bear and a Hard Place (Alpha Werebear Romance)
The Jamesburg Shifters
Bearing It All (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance)
Bear With Me (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance)
Bearly Breathing (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance)
Bearly Hanging On
Bear Your Teeth (Alpha Werebear Paranormal Shifter Romance)
The Jamesburg Shifters Volume 2
The Jamesburg Shifters Volume 1 (BBW Alpha Werewolf Werebear Paranormal Romance)
To Catch a Wolf (BBW Werewolf Shifter Romance)
Standalone
Lion In Wait (A Paranormal Alpha Lion Romance)
Werewolf Wedding
Horns for the Harem Girl
Watch for more at Lynn Red’s site.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Also By Lynn Red
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Keep reading for a bunch of great excerpts from more steamy, sexy, hilarious Lynn Red romances! | Hare Today, Bear Tomorrow
Can’t Bear to Run
Lion in Wait
Bearly Hanging On
To Catch a Wolf
Two Bears are Better than One
Further Reading: Can't Bear to Hide
Also By Lynn Red
About the Author
1
“Hold on, Mrs. Katz! Please! I know that your pet squirrel is up a tree, and I know that your pet bats are harassing him, but—”
The chatter on the other end of White Creek’s emergency line grew to a fever pitch and then quelled a bit.
“Sometimes I really wish it was appropriate to put some of these people on speaker,” Angie Holton, dispatcher extraordinaire, said to her desk mate. As soon as Mrs. Katz calmed down, she pressed the button to un-mute her headset.
“Okay, here, I’ll tell you what I can do. I’ve got a couple of officers on patrol over that way. I can ask them—ASK THEM—to check in. But listen, if they’re too busy doing anything else, you’ll have to wait until they’re free. Okay?”
Mrs. Katz squawked something about the unfairness of life and how the police never take her seriously.
“Yes, I understand, but this is the best I can do. We’ve got a lot of calls tonight and unfortunately, your bats harassing your squirrel doesn’t take precedence over,” she paused, looking at the current dispatch instructions. “A lost dog, three angry jackals causing a problem at a bar down town, or... well look, it’s just not an emergency.”
There was some more gabbing, another round of complaining, but finally Mrs. Katz admitted that maybe it wasn’t as big a deal as she was making it out to be. Satisfied that help was on the way, she hung up.
“She’s really a sweetheart,” Angie said to her co-worker. “She just gets excited.”
“I don’t know how you do it, Ange,” Colton said. He was an armadillo-shifting hobbyist jazz singer who croaked when he talked. She called him Louis, after Armstrong. “You’re here every single night and you never snap at anyone. I’m only part time, and I’m almost murderous after a couple hours.”
She shrugged. “It’s just one of those things. Anyway, I’m off in ten. Actually that’s how I do it. Eye on the prize, work to live and all that. Oh God, I have a date tonight! I completely forgot.”
Angie stood up, peeling herself out of the old faux-leather office chair she’d occupied like a cocoon for the past twelve hours. Her legs scritched off the pleather, and she bent down to pop her back. “Maybe I’ll just cancel.”
“It’s weird that you call it night. It’s just after dawn and all,” he said.
“Yeah, when you work graveyard as long as I have, you start thinking of things strangely. The whole world is asleep when you’re awake, except for the real crazies.”
“Are you saying you’re crazy?”
Angie popped her head left and right, cracking the top of her neck. “Must be. I fit right in with ‘em, I guess. Hopefully this guy doesn’t count as a member of the loony bin, but who knows.”
“Who is it? Maybe I know ‘em?”
“I can’t remember his name,” Angie said with a sigh. She hated dates. Hated the pressure, hated the expectations of constant chatter and small talk. She liked the idea of dating, but the actual execution? Yeesh. “Oh, Jake Lamar, an EMT I guess. No one else will go on a date at half past seven in the morning. So, I guess I have to take what I can get.”
She tapped a slow rhythm on her forehead with her fingertips. Of all Ange’s nervous habits, this was one of the strangest. Well, it was if you don’t count her obsessive-compulsive juggling during times of extreme stress, anyway.
“Well, I’ll just make the best of it, I guess.”
“You ever thought of actually finding someone? Not just going out with whoever asks, I mean, actually doing something about it?”
For a second, Ange chewed her bottom lip, tasting the remains of her half hour old application of grape-flavored lip gloss. On one hand, she could tell him about her extensive interview and questionnaire with the Mating Call agency, but at the same time, she’d have to explain it to him. Even though Colton was a pal, it probably just wasn’t worth the time investment, especially since she was already about ten minutes behind.
“I don’t know,” she said, “I kinda don’t have any time. And with my bizarre schedule, finding said time is almost impossible. I guess I could shift to days, but honestly I wasn’t joking about being with my people. Foxes get along better at night anyway.”
He shrugged, and gave her one of those ‘sure, if that’s what you want to do’ looks. The funny thing about it all was, she had no idea why she was so resistant to asking anyone for help. She always had been, though. Self-reliance was good and all, but at some point, yeah, help was pretty much a necessity.
“Well I’ll see ya,” she said with a sigh. “Same fox time, same fox channel.”
As she slid her ID badge through the security reader, Colton was singing the theme to the old Batman show, but instead of Batman, he was saying Foxgirl. Shaking her head and laughing under her breath, Angie stepped out of the dusty old back room of the White Creek Police Department, said her greetings to the familiar faces she strode past, and was almost blinded by the scorching late fall sun. In something she could only imagine was a great cosmic joke, at this time of year, the sun rose directly above a bank of trees opposite the PD, and she ended up squinting and blind for about two minutes after she walked through the door.
Almost immediately after settling into her old Camry and turning on the ignition, she started thinking about what Colton had said. Even though she’d already done all her stuff for Eve over at Mating Call, it had been
months since she heard anything. At some point, she started wondering if maybe there really wasn’t anyone for her at all.
“A fox-shifting cat lady,” she said with another long, tired sigh. “Somehow, I don’t think that’s what I have in mind for my future. Even so, straits are looking sort of dire.”
Aside from the juggling, her constant out-loud rambling was another of her habits. She’d never gone to see a therapist, because she saw no need – for Angie, the best therapist was whatever was in the room with her at any given time.
She backed out of the parking lot, drove approximately a half block, and then turned into the craggy, pothole-filled parking lot of Dan’s Donut Kingdom. “Of all the places for a first date,” she said, grinning to herself. “Well, at least this place has some damn good pancakes. And I can get a beer. Things could be worse, huh?”
“Hell yeah they could!” came a voice from her left. “Come on! I’ve been waiting all night for this!”
And there he was, Jake Lamar. He had for some reason front-tucked his scrubs, and was wearing a blazer over them. He looked like a big, green clown. All he needed to complete the Bozo look was a big rainbow colored afro, but his front-flipped ‘do was almost there. “Hey Jake,” she said. “I didn’t realize you were standing there. Nice to meet you.” A normal person would have been embarrassed, but what the hell – after arguing about Mrs. Katz’s pet squirrel, she was just about a mile past caring.
“I know,” he announced. “It’s part of my plan. I like to surprise girls and see what they’re really like, you know. I read in this book that when you catch somebody unaware, you get to see their real stuff. It’s like when you see someone eating, and they eat their soup with a straw, you know they’re dumb.”
“Soup with a straw? What book were you reading? I can’t imagine that being an instruction in a book, because—”
“The Art of the Pick Up by Dale Williams,” he said with the level of pride most people have when they have finished War and Peace. “Trust me, I’ll know in fifteen minutes if we’re gonna hit the sack together. I’ll pay for your breakfast either way.”
He cocked a smarmy, obnoxious grin that went perfectly with his sunglasses and front-tucked scrubs. “Come on, baby, don’t let time waste. I’m a busy guy, got places to go and people to see, let’s get this show on the road.”
“You... are serious right now, aren’t you?” Angie asked. “This isn’t some kind of prank?”
“Joking is for when you’re married,” he said. “Right now I’m showing you how alpha I am and how much you need me.”
She considered this for a moment. “You said you’re paying, right?”
“Hell yeah,” he said. “I’m a successful single guy. I might not make very much in take home pay, but I’ve got a huge IRA, and I know everything there is to know about the stock market. This place is great!”
He was already inside when Angie stepped out. She looked back at her car, briefly considered just leaving, but reconsidered. “After listening to him, I deserve some pancakes. So yeah, let’s do this thing.”
Her car didn’t respond, but she thought she saw one of the headlights wink as she went inside the jangling old door.
*
“So sweet thing,” he turned to Angie, who he didn’t notice rolled her eyes, “what are you gonna have?” The fantastic specimen of male leaned casually over the donut counter and actually slicked his eyebrows with his forefinger and pinky. “As for me? I’ll be doing a maple bar, two long johns – cream filled – a chocolate cake donut, and two blueberry.”
“Coffee?” Al, the proprietor of her favorite breakfast joint, gave Angie a quick merciful glance.
“Oh God no,” Captain Clown Shoe said. “That stuff’ll kill you. Give me three bottles of chocolate milk. And a Coke. And one of those apple things that are all bumpy.”
“A fritter?” Al lifted an eyebrow. He wasn’t the sort to lay his feelings out on the table, so a raised eyebrow for Al was about as emotive as ranting and screaming would be for someone less taciturn.
“Whatever,” her date said, leaning back and grinning at her again.
“Are you sure you’re not from an 80s movie?” She asked him.
“I guess I do bear a lot of resemblance to Emilio Estevez, huh?”
“That’s... not quite what I meant. I was thinking more Mike Damone from Fast Times. Anyway, I’ll take a short stack and a beer, Al.”
“Comin’ right up, godspeed, Ange,” he said with a sly wink.
The two went to a table, one that was far away from both the front door, and the bathroom, which Jake insisted was a ‘romantic’ choice that was sure to impress. Angie, for her part, simply smiled in the way a kindergarten teacher does when little Jimmy pisses his pants for the fourth time in one day.
“So, let me get to know you before we get to the good part,” Jake said. He was still wearing his sunglasses. Of course he was. “We should at least know a few things about each other before we start makin’ whoopie.”
“I don’t even know how to take that series of words,” Angie said. “Look, I’m a dispatcher, you’re an EMT, and I know you’re trying to impress me but I’d really rather just have a normal date with some nice conversation.”
“Yeah,” he said. “That’s what a beta would do.”
“No, I’m serious, drop the bullshit, Jake. I just got finished answering phone calls about drunk fights, grease fires and squirrels getting chased by pet bats. The last thing I need is to be a pick up artist experiment. If you want to keep trying out your lines and your... whatever this is, then I’ll just have my pancakes and leave. And the beer. God I need that beer.”
“Here you go,” Al plunked the food and drinks down on the table. Jake was still just staring at her, mouth slightly agape, when he stuffed the maple bar into it. “Enjoy. And no murder.”
He winked at Angie again. She gave him a little grin.
“So, wait,” Jake said, finally chewing and swallowing the half maple bar that was crammed in his maw. “You’re not impressed?”
“Oh honey,” she said with a sigh. “I would be more impressed if you picked your nose and told me about what you found. When’s the last time you went on an actual date with an actual woman instead of reading about how to do it on the internet?”
Jake put his maple bar down and chose one of the long johns instead. He took a smaller bite that time, one that was almost reasonable. Then he drank a long slug of milk, and shrugged. “I dunno, high school, I guess?”
He chewed another hunk of donut.
“You’re not bad,” she said. “You don’t need to do the whole creep act to get girls. Just act like yourself. Now, let’s try all this again.”
Angie stood up with a sigh and gathered her stuff. “Come on,” she said, “up, up.”
“You’re leaving?”
“No, honey, we’re trying again. We’re going back to the car, Al’s going to leave our food right where it is, but we’re going to get you some practice at not acting like a mixture between the Fonz and, I dunno, Ted Bundy.”
After he had departed for their date mulligan, Al caught Angie’s sleeve. “How do you put up with this? And now you’re teaching him how to date? What are you, some kind of guardian angel for idiots?”
“Sometimes it feels like it,” she said, pushing a fallen tendril of red curl out of her face and back behind her ear. “But he ain’t that bad. It can’t hurt to teach him a few things about not being a creep, can it?”
Al just laughed and shook his head. “Your puppy is waiting,” he said.
And so he was. Just like an obedient Pomeranian, Jake Lamar was standing right by the front door of Al’s Donut Kingdom, and had taken off his sunglasses. “Well, here goes nothing,” Angie said.
Al patted her on the shoulder as she turned, and when she made her way to the front door, she found it propped open. “Sorry,” Jake said. “I just wasn’t sure what to do.”
She clapped him on both cheeks with her palms. “You
’re gonna be just fine, kid,” she said. “Look, we can’t all be amazing at everything, right? You can restart a heart, but with my help, you might just melt a few without looking like a blind date practical joke. Trust me, just do what I say and you’ll be fine.”
The rest of breakfast was far more boring, and far more normal. By the end of it, his manners seemed a lot less alien, and she’d had four beers so it was all good, but when she got home, Angie was straight up exhausted. She collapsed into her very old and very duct-taped recliner, and rubbed her forehead with the heel of her hand. After massaging herself for a moment, she grabbed her phone and flicked through the news for a few minutes, and then went for a quick shower.
She came back down her hall, completely naked except for a towel wrapped around her head, and fell back into her chair like a very tired jellyfish.
“When’s she gonna call?” Angie asked her silent phone. “I’m thinking I need someone more than I realized, especially after that mess.”
The late morning sun peeked through the shuttered bay window in her living room. A gentle rain began to patter the grass outside, and the little pond she’d dug to put some koi in, and then never bothered to actually buy the fish. The gentle rhythm lulled her into a semi-sleep, the kind that was warm and soft and came and went gently as the rain ebbed and flowed.
When she closed her eyes, she saw flashes – familiar ones – of a guy with green eyes and carelessly perfect hair. His face was gentle but firm, and every time he clenched his jaws, his cheekbones stood out. “Who are you?” she asked in her dreamy, half-unconscious voice. This wasn’t the first time she’d had a visit from this beautiful stranger as her day faded into her backward night.
The soft rain wrapped her in a blanket of soft security. But it wasn’t sleep that made her feel safe and warm – it was this unknown man’s touch, his hand and his fingers wrapping around hers.
“Who are you?” she asked again.
He just smiled in answer. A soft, lilting music caressed her ears in time with the drops of rain against her window. “Why can’t you show up for real?”
Another smile, almost ghostly. Who was this? She started to burrow into a confused hole of questioning that reminded her semiconscious brain that she was falling asleep. And just like that, he was gone. As her eyes fluttered open to a fairly hefty burst of thunder, Angie pushed the drapes apart with her toe and looked outside. She’d put her chair right next to the big bay window just so she could do this.