Her Choice To Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Dating Agency Romance (Fated and Mated Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Foreword

  Chapter One – Mae

  Chapter Two – Jay

  Chapter Three – Mae

  Chapter Four – Jay

  Chapter Five – Mae

  Chapter Six – Jay

  Chapter Seven – Mae

  Chapter Eight – Jay

  Chapter Nine – Mae

  Chapter Ten – Jay

  Chapter Eleven – Mae

  Chapter Twelve – Jay

  Chapter Thirteen – Mae

  Chapter Fourteen – Jay

  Chapter Fifteen – Mae

  Chapter Sixteen – Jay

  Chapter Seventeen – Mae

  Chapter Eighteen – Jay

  Chapter Nineteen – Mae

  Get In Touch

  Also By Harmony Raines

  Her Choice To Bear

  Fated and Mated

  Book Two

  ***

  All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written consent of the author or publisher.

  This is a work of fiction and is intended for mature audiences only. All characters within are eighteen years of age or older. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, actual events or places is purely coincidental.

  © 2016 Harmony Raines

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  Her Choice To Bear

  Mae is a bear shifter, although she doesn’t really know what that means, because she has been raised by her non-shifter gran since the death of her parents. Determined to find her mate, she signs up to Fated and Mated, but gets no reply from the man she knows is her mate.

  Only when she checks the profile, does she find something is wrong. A quick phone call later, and she is put in touch with Jay, her true mate. Only problem is, they live a hundred miles apart, and she has promised her gran a trip to the beach, and he has to work as a ranger.

  But all is not lost when Gran and her friends, Joan and Katie, decide a trip to the mountains will do them good. All that freezing cold mountain air will be good for their poor old aching bones, right?

  Jay is surprised when Mae turns up in Grizzly Hollows, but he is still reeling from a death on the mountain. When he sees that one of them will have to make a choice as to where they live, and knowing how attached Mae is to her gran, will he give up his life on the mountain for his mate?

  Find out what happens when their worlds collide, and choices have to be made.

  Chapter One – Mae

  “Is there anything else I can get you, Gran?” Mae asked, plumping up the cushion as her gran leaned back in her favorite chair. They had been out all afternoon, visiting her gran’s friends, which generally meant they had been sitting around drinking tea and gossiping about the small town of Marillo Marsh.

  “No thank you, Mae. If you can just pass me the remote, I’ll watch TV for a while.” Her gran settled down, nursing her broken wrist, as she tried to get comfortable. “I’ll be glad to get this thing off.”

  “One more week,” Mae said. “As long as you behave yourself.”

  “When do I not behave myself?” her gran asked with a wink.

  “You forget how long I’ve known you. Together with Joan and Katie, you get up to more than I ever have,” Mae said good-naturedly. She loved the three women dearly, and they had watched Mae grow up since she was seven. That was the age she had become an orphan.

  “What trouble can we possibly get up to at the beach?” The old lady began flicking through channels, looking innocent, with her gray hair pulled back in a bun, and her glasses perched on her nose. Yes. Perfectly innocent.

  “That is what worries me. Listening the tales of your past adventures, I’m not sure if I know what I’m letting myself in for.”

  “Young bear like you can keep us all in order.”

  “But none of the others know that about me, do they?” Mae stated.

  “No, they don’t. That secret was best left untold. I know it’s not been easy for you, Mae. But you’ve been happy here, haven’t you?” Her gran looked all misty-eyed, and Mae came and put her arms around her and hugged her.

  “I have. More than you’ll ever know, and more than I ever thought possible.”

  “That makes me so happy.” She patted Mae’s hand. “I can only imagine how hard it must have been growing up with no one else like you.” Her gran was never really comfortable talking about Mae’s ability to shift. In fact, Mae was pretty sure that most of the time she let herself forget about Mae’s special ability.

  “That’s why I want to find my mate.” The one thing her gran was always open about was how much her mom and dad loved each other. There was some kind of bond between a shifter and their mate, and she wanted to experience it for herself.

  “And you will, soon enough.”

  “If he ever replies.” Mae sighed and, leaving her gran, went to check her phone again.

  “Maybe he’s out of town,” her gran called.

  “Maybe,” she said and swiped her phone, checking her email for a message from Fated and Mated. Nothing. “Or maybe he took one look at your profile and decided you weren’t his type,” she murmured to herself.

  “I don’t want to hear you talking like that.”

  “I know, Gran.” Her gran might not be a shifter, but she had the ears of a bat: she must have shifter blood in her somewhere.

  “Let’s take another look at that profile again.”

  Mae got up, and headed back to the sitting room, where her gran had settled down to watch her latest favorite drama on TV. Perching on the arm of her chair, making sure she didn’t knock her gran’s arm, Mae flicked through to the Fated and Mated site, and clicked on the profile for Tad.

  “What the hell?” Mae asked.

  “What’s wrong, dear?”

  “It’s a different picture.” Mae stared at the image in front of her. Her bear agreed there was no longer a connection between them. No mate vibes. Nothing. “I don’t understand, who would do that?”

  “Maybe there was a mix up?” Her gran frowned at the picture. “Why don’t you get in touch with them? You could phone the people who own the site.”

  “I couldn’t,” Mae said, so disappointed, she could feel tears welling up inside her.

  “Why not?” Gran set the remote down, and turned her full attention on Mae. “Because it’s easier not to?”

  Mae looked at the woman who had raised her. “I can’t explain it. When I saw him, for the first time I thought I belonged, that there was someone out there like me, who would be there for me and understand me. Sorry, I don’t mean that you don’t.”

  “I know, but I can never know what you are going through. Right?”

  “No. I looked at him, and all of a sudden everything you ever told me about my mom and dad kind of slotted into place. It made sense; I could feel how my dad must have felt for my mom. The fact that he was a shifter, too, just made it more special.”

  “Then that settles it. Phone them.”

  “And say what? Maybe I made a mistake.” Mae stared at the image in front of her. There were similari
ties to the face she had seen here before. The same dark hair, and the golden flecks in his eyes, but they were also different. This guy in this image had a longer face, his features thinner, his lips fuller.

  “Mae, do you think you made a mistake? What does your heart tell you?”

  “That I should phone.” It wasn’t just her heart: her bear was telling her the same thing, only much louder and more persistently.

  “Then you have your answer,” her gran smiled. “And I know this will turn out right.”

  “I’m glad one of us does,” she said, and took herself and her phone into her bedroom. There she noted the number of the site and then rang them, her heart racing and her bear whining as they waited for an answer.

  “Hello. Fated and Mated, Marjorie speaking, how can I help you?” The voice on the other end of the line seemed a little nervous, not quite what Mae was expecting.

  “Hello. My name is Mae Reynolds and I created an account on your website, Fated and Mated.” She suddenly became anxious too. What exactly was she supposed to say? What if this woman was simply a receptionist and had no idea about mates and shifters and all that stuff, which would get you a bed in the loony bin if you weren’t careful?

  “Did you pay for the upgrade?” Marjorie asked politely.

  “Yes, I did.”

  “Great, so you are a shifter?” Marjorie asked outright.

  “Yes.” Mae let go of her pent-up breath. “I am.”

  “Let’s take a look. Can I ask for your full name?”

  “Mae Ann Reynolds.”

  “OK. Do you mind if I check your details?” Marjorie asked.

  “No, go ahead.” They went through some security questions, and Marjorie asked her to hold for a moment. Mae was sure she could hear voices in the background, as if Marjorie was talking to someone. She had a sudden feeling there was something wrong and she wanted to hang up the phone before they told her she was a freak who had got it wrong, and she should stop harassing their other members.

  “Hi, Mae.” This was another voice. “I’m Cassie.”

  “Hello, Cassie.” She waited for Cassie to speak again.

  “I’m really sorry about the mess-up. The person you messaged is my brother.”

  “Oh.” Mae wondered if they had added family members to the site to bulk up the number of members because the site was so new.

  “I’m really sorry, but he’s just found his mate.” She sounded embarrassed, while Mae felt mortified. “Can you leave it with me so I can check on a few things?”

  “The thing is, the person I messaged—well, the picture wasn’t the same as the one that’s on the profile now.”

  “Oh” She paused before saying, “Mae. Can I call you back on this number?”

  “Sure.”

  “Let me make a few inquiries, and then I’ll get straight back to you.”

  “OK. Thanks.” The call ended with Mae feeling even more confused, and wondering if the whole thing was some elaborate hoax. A joke at her expense, but why? What did anyone have to gain by making this up?

  Chapter Two – Jay

  Jay stretched his legs out in front of the fire, and took a sip of his beer. It had been a long day, and he was tired. Lately, he had been picking up the slack from his brother, Tad, whom he worked with as a mountain ranger. Not that he blamed his brother; after all, he had just found his mate, Viv, who had been attacked on the mountain by an ex-boyfriend. She needed Tad’s care, needed him to help her heal.

  But what about Jay?

  He closed his eyes and tried to blot out the image of the dead body, crushed under the snow. He knew he had tried his best to rescue the man who had attacked Viv; there was nothing more he could have done. But that didn’t take away his feelings of failure. It had been a long time since they had had a fatality on the mountain. However, Jay knew even if deaths occurred more frequently, he would never get used to seeing the vacant expression in a dead man’s eyes.

  Looking at the flames, he tried to let them soothe him, mesmerize him. He should go and eat, but his appetite had deserted him, too. Taking another sip of his beer, he shrugged off the melancholy feeling that threatened to settle on him again. He had to shake it off, or it would eat away at him.

  So caught up in his thoughts, he jumped when his phone buzzed in his pocket. Pulling it out, he looked to see who it was calling him, hoping he wasn’t going to have to go back out onto the mountain at this time of day to track down some lost climber. He was relieved to see it was his sister Cassie calling.

  “Hi there, sis.”

  “Jay. How are you?” Her voice carried her concern, but also something else. Excitement. He wondered if she was pregnant already. That thought made him a little jealous. He put it down to feeling like the odd one out now both his brother and sister had found their mate.

  “I’m good. I was just talking to Tad…” She paused and he began to get worried.

  “Is everything OK with Viv?” he asked. The last time he had seen her, she was looking a lot better. After staying here in Grizzly Hollows for a couple of days, she was now back over at her parent’s house in Bear Valley. Next week, she would be moving into the house he shared with Tad. He was going to be feeling more and more like a third wheel.

  “She’s fine. I was asking him about his profile on Fated and Mated.” She paused again.

  “Oh, I get it, now you’re going to try to talk me into signing up, since both you and Tad found love on there.” He took another sip of his beer, trying to work out how he felt about that. Yes, he did want to find his mate, but part of him didn’t believe all three of them would be lucky enough to find their mates online.

  “Not exactly.”

  “OK, you need to spit it out, Cass. The suspense is killing me.”

  “I had a phone call earlier today. It was from a woman who said that she had seen Tad’s profile and had sent him a message a couple of days ago, thinking he was her mate.”

  “So Tad has two mates.” This was going to take some explaining.

  “No, idiot. You swapped your picture with Tad’s, didn’t you?”

  “Shit.” His beer can nearly slipped through his hand. Sitting up quickly, he put the can down and turned his full attention onto his sister, and what she had just told him. What had she just told him? “OK. Can you explain exactly what you mean?”

  “You swapped pictures. And in the same way you confused Viv, you have managed to confuse a poor young woman called Mae, who thought she found her mate. The message must be sitting in his junk folder or something. Or maybe it just got missed, I don’t know.”

  “Wait. I’ll go and log into his account.”

  “You know his password?”

  “It’s not hard to guess. Tad is a creature of habit; he always uses Trimble. You know, after that dog we owned when we were kids.”

  “Original.”

  He got up from his chair and went over to Tad’s computer. Quickly logging in, he went through the email messages. “Not there.”

  “What do you mean not there?” Cass had set the website up, and knew the system better than anyone.

  He checked again. “Tad gets so much junk.” He scrolled down the page. “Oh, wow.”

  “It’s there?” She sounded relieved. “Look, what do you want to do?”

  “Can I look at her profile? Mae, is it?” Jay asked, feeling a little nervous. This could be the beginning of the rest of his life, or it could be a huge disappointment.

  “Yes.” Cassie sounded as excited as he felt. “I have my fingers and toes crossed.”

  “Why, because it will make such good publicity for the site?” he asked, clicking search.

  “No. Because I want you to know the same happiness I have found, and Tad has found.” She sounded choked with emotion, then she cleared her throat, and added, “Plus, it means you can have a double wedding and I’ll only have to buy one new outfit.”

  “I love you, Cass,” he said as the page loaded. “That’s her.”

  “You sur
e?” Cassie asked, although there was no need to.

  “Absolutely certain. Oh, my.” He sat staring at the image in front of him, not able to get his brain to function enough to read the words on her profile page. “What the hell do I do now?”

  “Call her.”

  “Call her?” he repeated.

  “Yes.” Cassie reeled off the number, and then said, “Good luck, call her now. I’ll call you later to see how you’ve got on.”

  With that, she ended the call. Jay sat for several minutes, trying to get his head together. Then, very carefully, he called his mate.

  His mate. He only hoped he would be able to string two words together because right now, his tongue felt as if it was swollen and stuck to the roof of his mouth.

  “Hello?” a voice asked.

  “Hi, Mae. This is Jay. I think we’re mates.”

  Chapter Three – Mae

  Still feeling confused, Mae busied herself in the kitchen, cooking dinner. She was tossing the salad when her phone rang. Placing the bowl back down on the counter top, she wiped her hands, stalling for time, before she answered it. When she did, she felt composed, and ready to hear whatever Cassie had to say.

  Only it wasn’t Cassie.

  “Hi Mae. This is Jay. I think we’re mates,” a male voice said, sounding as nervous as she now felt. Mae didn’t need to be told that this was the man who she had seen on the dating site. She didn’t have the same recognition as when she had seen his picture. It was more of the tremor in his voice, the sense of nervous expectation.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m Jay. And I owe you an explanation.”

  “Hi, Jay. You are the guy from the dating site?” she asked.

  “Yes. I’m really sorry. My brother had a profile on Fated and Mated, but he went away for a couple of days, so rather stupidly, I hijacked his profile.”

  “So I saw your picture. On his profile?” She just wanted to make sure she had it right this time.