Bear Mountain Baby: Shifter Romance (Bear Mountain Shifters) Read online

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

   Copyright 2017 by Sky Winters- All rights reserved.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

  Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

  Bear Mountain Baby

  Shifter Romance

  By: Sky Winters

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  Table of Contents

  Bear Mountain Baby

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  NYC Vamps Bonus

  ComeShift Series Bonus

  NYC Shifters Bonus

  Preview of Bear Mountain Bride

  About The Author

  Bear Mountain Baby

  CHAPTER 1

  Olivia Willet ran through the woods, her breath ragged, her bare feet hitting the dirt with soft thuds punctuated by the occasional snapping branch. The night was dark, the only light the silver of the moon above. Its glow illuminated Olivia’s way as she ran, its curved form peeking out through the branches that crisscrossed above her, as though a silent witness to her escape. Her pace was uneven, her arms held tight against the baby bump on her stomach, as though she might drop it and leave it behind if she didn’t keep it close.

  “I hear you out there!” called Brody, the almost-husband that she’d left yesterday, the day of their wedding.

  A wedding that, if she had her say, wouldn’t ever happen. Not in a million years.

  Frustrated tears formed in Olivia’s eyes as she ran. She was mad at her slowness, her body sluggish and clumsy with pregnancy. Pressing against a nearby tree and regaining her breath in slow, labored draws, she wondered what her next step would be.

  She thought she’d gotten away. Taking the car and what few belongings she had, Olivia had escaped in the middle of the night and drove for hours, the fear of Brody’s anger offset by the wild thrill of the escape and the happiness that she felt from getting out from under the thumb of the man she once loved. As she caught her breath, the moonlight above sliced through the canopy of leaves, the glow landing on her arm, right on the finger-shaped bruises that Brody had left on her skin. As silly as she felt thinking it, it was almost as if nature was reminding her of what she needed to do, of what was at stake for her and her child if she didn’t succeed in her escape.

  “There’s three of us and one of you!” called Brody, his booming voice edged with a rage that she knew all too well. “You think you can outrun us, you got another goddamn thing coming!”

  The words cut like knife edges into her heart, deflating her spirit. She knew he was right—there was simply no way a nine-months-pregnant woman could outrun three fit men, no matter how desperately she needed to escape.

  Her breath restored, Olivia launched into another run, her arms once again wrapped around her belly.

  How did he know? she thought, her mind going back to the moment only a few hours ago when she returned to the upstate New York motel where she’d been hiding out. How did he know that I’d be there?

  She knew driving her car away from the city that she needed to put as much distance between her and him as possible. Brody wasn’t the type to take an insult like his fiancée leaving him two days before his wedding lying down. And Olivia knew that he’d be hot on her tail as soon as he realized she was gone. He was out late for his bachelor party; she figured that he’d pass out drunk like he always did, wake up around noon hungover and groggy. She assumed that she’d have at least a half a day to get as far away as possible.

  But she didn’t count on her pregnant body rebelling against her as she drove, filling her with a fatigue that was overwhelming. She knew she shouldn’t have stopped, that she needed to drive or die trying, but the need to sleep was just too much. Nor did she count on seeing Brody’s car, that menacing, black Mercedes, parked outside of the motel lobby. She didn’t know what to do. She panicked, grabbed her things, and drove off, the peeling of her tires out of the motel parking lot the final proof that Brody needed to know that his prey was here.

  She couldn’t outdrive him. Her economy car was no match for his Mercedes. So she’d pulled off onto some forgotten road near Bear Mountain, one of the many lonely peaks that rose into the night sky. She drove as far into the woods as she could, only stopping when the thick trunks of the woods made it impossible to pass in any way but on foot.

  And then she ran.

  Olivia kept on, not knowing where she was going, chiding herself for forgetting her shoes with every step of her bare feet on the cold, muddy earth.

  “You better stop now!” yelled Brody. “Think about what happens if you fall right on your face! Think about that baby in your belly!”

  Again, he was right. But before his words cut into her too deeply, she remembered why she was running, what this man was capable of. The thought of her child living under the same roof as this man who’d caused her so much pain was enough to make her feel sick to her stomach.

  But the muscles in her legs screamed out; her pregnant body needed rest and calm, not what she was putting it through. Part of her wanted to stop, to give in, to accept the punishment that would surely come.

  Propping her hand against another tree, she attempted to catch her breath once more. And as she stood, a strange sight caught her eye. It was lights. Lights that looked like a city’s.

  That’s impossible, she thought. The nearest city’s miles from here.

  Whatever the source of the lights was, Olivia knew it was her only hope. Rejuvenated, she took off once again towards the lights. She ran, praying for a ranger station, or better yet, a logging camp. The lights grew larger and larger in the distance, and after several minutes of pained running, she grew close enough to see just what it was.

  It was a compound; that was the only way she could describe it.

  A series of large buildings, square-shaped and ringed with floodlights that looked out into the woods and overpowered the moonlight above. A tall, black fence encircled the property, which Olivia guessed was several acres. On the other side of the property, away from the compound, was a dozen or so small cabins. It was like a small town, one that she couldn’t explain.

  “I see those lights! I know that’s where you’re going!”

  Olivia scanned the property, looking for any sign of life. Her eyes locked onto a small road that led to the gate of the fence, a freestanding speaker box to the side of it. She ran over to the speaker, looking desperately for some sort of call button. Pressing what looked to be it, she spoke into the box.

  “Hello, is anyone there?”

  No res
ponse.

  “Please, if anyone’s there, I need help. Please.”

  Still, no response. Tears began to well in her eyes once again as every muscle in her body screamed for rest.

  “I don’t know if you’re listening, but if you are, my name is Olivia Willet. I’m pregnant, and I’m scared. I think my life’s in danger.”

  “There you are!”

  Olivia looked over in the direction of the voice, and saw the silhouettes of Brody and the two men he was with, their figures black amidst the bright of the flood lights. The three were only a few minutes off, and began walking towards her at a slow, menacing pace.

  “About damn time!” called Brody.

  “Please, he’s here. Please.”

  Unable to bear the sight of Brody coming close, Olivia closed her eyes.

  “Please,” she said, her finger shaking as she pressed it against the call button.

  Then, just as any last trace of hope left her body, the metallic thunk of the gate lock unfastening cut through the still of the night.

  “Come in now,” said a man’s voice from the speaker box. “And shut the gate behind you.”

  Olivia nodded, despite no one being there to see her do it, and ran towards the now-unlocked gate. She pushed it open, slid through, and shut the massive entrance behind her.

  “What the hell?” called Brody.

  Olivia ran towards the compound, up to the sturdy double-doors, and wrapped her fingers against them. Once the knock sounded, her body gave up. She collapsed in an exhausted heap, her body slumped against the cold steel of the doors.

  CHAPTER 2

  “Who is she?”

  The voice was faraway and blurry, as though being spoken through water.

  “Someone at the gate.”

  As Olivia listened to the voices, she wasn’t sure if she was in a dream.

  “’Someone at the gate’?” asked the first voice, a stern, no-nonsense man’s voice.

  “A woman,” said the second, a deep voice like the first, though less commanding. “She sounded scared.”

  “You just let a random woman onto the property?” asked another voice, also belonging to a man, this one’s tone more laid-back, less stern than the first.

  “I didn’t know what else to do,” said the second voice. “I checked the camera and there were men after her.”

  Olivia continued to slowly drift into consciousness as the men spoke, realizing that this was no dream.

  “Unbelievable,” spoke another man, his voice deep and rich. “Who knows what sort of business she was involved in. “She could’ve been on the run from criminals.”

  The laid-back voice spoke once again. “Right, and criminals in this area are the last thing we need to be dealing with.”

  “Right,” said the first voice. “Not again.”

  “She’s pregnant,” said the laid-back man. “Who’d be chasing a pregnant woman through the woods. And why?”

  Olivia’s eyes opened slowly. Her vision was blurry at first, the men standing around her nothing more than blurry masses. But after a moment, her vision cleared, and she saw that she was surrounded by three men standing over her, their gazes locked on her face.

  Without thinking, Olivia let out a scream of fright. She had no idea where she was, who these men were, or if she was safe. Instinctively, her hands shot to her belly, covering it.

  The men staggered backward at the scream, the shrill sound filling the air of the room. Olivia moved from a laying position up into a sitting one, moving as far away from the men as she could. She screamed once again, her body filled with a fear that set her body to quaking.

  After this second scream, her throat tightened as though it had been pinched shut. Adrenaline pumped through her, an animal instinct urging her to flee.

  “Easy!” said one of the men, a tall, brawny man in a white button-up shirt with slicked-back sandy blonde hair.

  “Calm down, please,” said another one of the men, this one larger than the others. His arms were heavy with massive musculature; his chest appearing on the verge of bursting through his skin-tight, black t-shirt; his own sandy-blonde hair in a close-shaved cut.

  “You’re safe here, little lady,” said the third man, a man of easy, calm posture, his body lean and strong, the outlines of his pecs exposed by the undone top buttons of his denim shirt, his hair a loose shag.

  Her back pressed against the wall, Olivia spotted a fourth man. He had shoulder-length hair and a slim, but strong body, dressed in well-fitted designer clothes. He stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows of the room, the green of the forest beyond visible behind him. He said nothing, looking away from the scene.

  “Just calm yourself,” said the first man, holding his palm up as though Olivia were a snarling stray dog.

  But Olivia couldn’t, and wouldn’t, calm herself. Her heart raced, her breath was ragged, and she wanted nothing more than to flee this strange place.

  “What the hell are you guys doing?” called out a woman’s voice.

  Three women stepped into the room, concerned expressions on their faces. One woman was a blonde, and the other two were brunettes—all were slim and beautiful.

  “We heard her moving in here,” said the tall, beefy man. “We figured we’d make sure she was okay.”

  “Can’t you see how scared she is?” said the blonde, her arm extended to Olivia.

  “Well,” said the man in the denim shirt, “we told her to be calm.”

  “’Be calm’?” asked one of the brunettes, a woman with short, chocolate-brown hair and small, pretty features, wearing a pair of simple blue jeans and a warm-looking beige cable knit sweater. “No woman waking up to four strange men standing over her could ever ‘be calm’; give her some space, boys.”

  The men complied, backing up from the tight half-circle they had formed around Olivia.

  “Especially one who’s pregnant,” said the other woman, a brunette with long, flowing tawny hair and stern, blue eyes.

  Olivia felt more at ease now that there were women present. She thought how true the last woman’s statement was. Waking up to these men standing over her was the last thing she wanted, as well-intentioned as it appeared they were.

  “Are you okay, sweetheart?” asked the blonde as she turned her delicate features towards Olivia, her ice-blue eyes soft.

  Olivia said nothing, her mouth a thin, pressed line. She breathed in hard through her nostrils as she looked around. She noticed the bedroom was well-appointed, clean and homey; a painting of a sun setting over a mountain landscape hung above her and a vase of alstroemerias was placed on the dark wood dresser, their color soft and pink. After a time, Olivia felt calm, the presence of the women setting her at ease.

  “I…I’m fine. I think,” she said, her arms still wrapped around her belly.

  “Good,” said the blonde. “I’m Melanie. And this is Clyde, my husband.”

  The tall, brawny man with short hair raised his hand and gave a gentle wave, a smile on his handsome face that was almost boyish.

  “Hi,” said Olivia, her voice soft, her mind still ill at ease. Looking at Melanie’s hand, she observed the large, gorgeous stone on her ring finger.

  She pointed to the man with slicked-back hair who was standing near the other brunette. “That’s Roland and his wife Winnie.”

  The pair both nodded in the same quick, business-like manner.

  “And those two are Tessa and Atticus.”

  The beautiful, long-haired brunette and the gorgeous man with the partially unbuttoned shirt standing at her side nodded, their faces softer than the previous couple.

  “We’re the Swift family,” said Atticus, gesturing to the group.

  Scanning the faces that surrounded her, Olivia noticed that the men all had the same look: their eyes were an attractive hazel, their hair was sandy blond, and they all had the same strapping physique. She wondered if they were related. But what kind of family all lives together as these people seemed to?

  A
nd through it all, the man with the shoulder-length hair stood facing the window, his back towards the rest of the group.

  “I’m gonna get you a glass of water, dear,” said Tessa, stepping out of the room.

  “Where…where am I?” asked Olivia.

  “What do you remember?” asked Melanie.

  Olivia, her pulse slowing by the moment, thought back to the previous night. Memories came back in swatches of vivid color and sound. She remembered fleeing Brody and leaving the city in a rush. She remembered the dingy motel. She remembered Brody’s car outside the lobby. And she remembered Brody and the men chasing her through the woods, cutting the distance between them and her by the second. Then she remembered strange, bright lights cutting through the moonlit dark of the forest.

  But after that, nothing.

  “I…don’t remember coming here,” she said. “Where am I??

  “You’re in the woods of upstate New York,” said Winnie, her voice low and husky. “Near Branlen.”

  “You know Branlen?” asked Melanie.

  Olivia shook her head; any town that wasn’t within a couple of miles of the city proper was unknown to her. To her, upstate New York might as well have been another country.

  “That’s near Bear Mountain,” said Tessa. “Maybe that’s a little more familiar.”

  “I’ve heard of it,” she said, taking the glass of water from Tessa once she returned to the room.

  Bringing the rim of the glass to her lips, she pulled the liquid into her with a deep draw; Olivia was surprised at exactly how thirsty she was. Looking down at the now empty glass in her hands, she considered how even this far into her pregnancy, she was still forgetting that she was feeding another body.

  “Thirsty girl,” said Tessa. “You want another?”

  “No,” said Olivia.

  “You’re probably starved,” said Tessa. “Let’s get you something to eat. You feel like walking?”

  Olivia stretched her legs out before her, her muscles tingling as the blood rushed back into them. She was feeling better by the moment, and now that the topic of food had been broached, a ravenous hunger began to swell in her stomach.