Mountain Bear (Return to Bear Creek Book 2)
Table of Contents
Copyright
Foreword
Chapter One – Caroline
Chapter Two – Carter
Chapter Three – Caroline
Chapter Four – Carter
Chapter Five – Caroline
Chapter Six – Carter
Chapter Seven – Caroline
Chapter Eight – Carter
Chapter Nine – Caroline
Chapter Ten – Carter
Chapter Eleven – Caroline
Chapter Twelve – Carter
Chapter Thirteen – Caroline
Chapter Fourteen – Carter
Chapter Fifteen – Caroline
Chapter Sixteen – Carter
Chapter Seventeen – Caroline
Epilogue
Get In Touch
Also By Harmony Raines
Mountain Bear
Return to Bear Creek
(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.
© 2017 Harmony Raines
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Mountain Bear
Caroline has seen her brother, Jamie, find his mate, and his happily ever after. However, she can’t see the same happiness ever being hers since the man she loved died. Not that he would ever have been hers, fate had seen to that. But no matter how many times she reminds herself he belonged to another, her heart is still in pieces.
So a chance to climb a mountain, to ask reclusive movie star Eden Carter about some land, seems like the perfect opportunity to put her thoughts in order and let go of the past. Little does she know; her future is waiting for her at the top of the mountain—if she can only persuade him to come back down.
Everyone wanted a piece of him. Carter Eden was at the height of his career when an incident involving a fan made him turn his back on that life. Now his mate is here, and he knows that the only way they will ever be happy is if he deals with his past and goes back to the real world with Caroline.
Can these two unlikely mates find happiness?
Chapter One – Caroline
“Are you sure you did the right thing, asking me to be his guardian if anything happens to either of you?” Caroline asked. She was holding baby Richard, and staring down into his clear, innocent, blue eyes, trying to ignore the sound of her biological clock ticking away.
“Perfectly sure,” Jamie, her brother, replied. “I know you would protect him and love him as your own.”
“That isn’t saying a lot,” Caroline replied. “I’m not the maternal type, remember?”
“Aren’t you, Caro?” Jamie asked, his eyebrow arched. He always was too good at reading her mind.
“I couldn’t do what you’ve done. Taking on two kids. That is the most heroic thing I’ve ever witnessed,” Caroline said, tearing her eyes off Richard to watch Jasper toddling around the garden with Juliet in tow. They were giggling like idiots. When Jasper lost his balance and sat down hard on his bottom, Juliet would copy him and they would laugh so hard it looked as if Jasper might puke. It was wonderful to see them so happy, despite having lost their real parents, but Jamie and his mate Dani were doing an amazing job. Not of making them forget, but of making them happy. And happiness was what everyone craved.
“You would have done the same thing if Rich and Mary had asked,” Jamie said, who had left the army to move back to Bear Creek and be their guardian.
“Do you still miss them?” Caroline’s voice hitched as she remembered Richard, whom she had a crush on a mile wide, even after he met his mate and she knew it was never going to happen between them.
“Every day,” Jamie admitted. “But this life is for living.”
Caroline pushed aside the melancholy mood that threatened to shove her pride to one side. Despite her words, she was proud to be little Richard’s godparent. He’d been named after Jasper and Juliet’s father, who had tragically been killed along with their mom, Mary, in a car accident, and that gave Caroline one small tenuous link to him.
Rich’s death had been particularly hard for Caroline. She regretted not getting to know Mary, but her feelings for Rich had been too difficult, a decision she would always regret. Looking at it now, Caroline realized she had been selfish, too wrapped up in her own disappointment to tell Rich and Mary how happy she was for them.
“Naming days are supposed to be happy,” Dani said, coming up to them. Dani was Jamie’s mate, and the mother of Richard, who Caroline had decided was the most beautiful baby in the world.
“They are,” Caroline agreed, reluctantly handing Richard over to Dani. “So I am going to find a drink, and then go and be nice to Richard’s other godparent. If I can find the old dragon.”
“Don’t let Fiona hear you call her old. She doesn’t mind ancient, but old, that hits a nerve,” Dani said.
“Fiona and I are developing a special relationship,” Caroline confided. Fiona, who worked for social services, had stuck by Jamie when false accusations had been leveled at him by Wilma. Fiona had been instrumental in getting the charges dropped.
“A special relationship.” Jamie chuckled. “We thought you were having a battle of wills. Who could spoil Richard the most.”
“There is no competition. A tank tops a dragon any day,” Caroline announced.
“But you don’t drive a tank anymore, sweetie,” Fiona said, coming up behind her. Fiona, a real live, fire-breathing dragon shifter had a habit of doing that.
“Fiona.” Dani kissed her on the cheek, making her blush. Fiona was an enigma, none of them could figure her out. She had an unfathomable depth of emotion, but she liked to hide it behind a hard exterior. “Thank you once again. Both of you for agreeing to be Richard’s godparents. It means a lot to both of us.”
“You are welcome,” Fiona said graciously.
“You know I couldn’t say no. I love you both… all of you… so much.” Caroline didn’t usually show her emotions openly, but she hugged Jamie and Dani tightly, breathing in the scent of little Richard, and wishing that one day she would find the same kind of happiness they shared.
“We love you too. I can’t tell you how happy we are you decided not to reenlist.” Dani blushed. “In a very patriotic way, of course.”
Jamie laughed. “I think Caro and I have both done our service to our country.”
“We have, and Will’s offer was too tempting. Helping extend what Dylan started in Bear Bluff, into Bear Creek has been a different kind of duty,” Caroline said. “Which reminds me, I have to go away for a couple of days.”
“Oh, how exciting, all expenses paid, I hope,” Dani said enthusiastically. Caroline loved her new sister-in-law, as a first-grade teacher she was enthusiastic about everything, especially changing diapers. Although even Caroline could understand why Dani loved changing diapers, and all of the other messy stuff that came with having a baby. When Dani met Jamie, she was certain she would ne
ver conceive, after suffering a miscarriage a year before. The fact that she had made the beautiful baby boy Dani held in her arms more special, if that were possible.
“It is all expenses paid,” Caroline admitted with a rueful smile.
Jamie laughed, and Dani looked from one to another and said, “What am I missing?”
“My sister’s all expenses paid trip, is a two-day hike up a mountain to ask a man about a house.” Jamie put his arm around Dani and grinned at Caroline. “You should have asked for danger money, Caro. Carter Eden is one of the grumpiest men in Bear Creek. I’m surprised Will is letting you go.”
“Excuse me?” Caroline asked hotly.
“I’m surprised he is letting you go,” Jamie repeated slowly, pressing his sister’s button labeled, women are as capable as men.
“You don’t think I can handle myself?” Caroline asked.
“I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that you can handle yourself.” He grabbed her in a bear hug. “But as your brother, it is my duty to worry.”
“And as Richard’s father, it is also your duty to change his diaper, while I make sure everyone has a drink.” Dani passed the baby to his father. “Do you need a refill, Caroline?”
“No. I’m fine, thank you,” Caroline replied, as Jamie walked off, with Fiona at his side. “Do you need a hand?”
“No. You relax, it sounds as if you are going to need all of your strength before you go hiking through the mountains,” Dani insisted.
“Thanks, Dani,” Caroline said. However, she was looking forward to going into the mountains. Her time in Bear Creek, since she retired from active duty, had been one long day after another filled with organizing and arranging, a thing she was good at, when it came to troops who knew their job and obeyed orders. Civilians, that was a whole other matter.
A couple of days with only her thoughts in her head, and the sun on her face was just what she needed. She was also confident she could handle Carter Eden better than anyone else, except maybe Will, or Dylan. She was a diplomat, able to compromise but still keep her end goal in sight.
She knew Will was worried about her going, he had a protective streak a mile wide, but they had all put their names in a hat, or at least an empty cookie jar, and when her name was pulled out she insisted she was going. Alone. They were too busy for Will to spare more than one person, especially if it turned out to be a bust, and Carter Eden just disappeared into the wilderness, as he had done the last few occasions anyone had gone up to his cabin to visit him.
Not social visits, everyone knew Carter Eden didn’t do social anything. Everyone besides Caroline who had no idea who the man was until she Googled him. Carter Eden had retired from acting at the ripe old age of twenty-five, after turning his back in fame and fortune at the height of his career. Turned his back was putting it mildly. He had bought a house in Bear Creek, which also had a cabin in the mountains attached to the deeds. After a couple of months in Bear Creek, he moved to the cabin permanently. If he came down from the mountain for anything, he did it with no one knowing.
His house in Bear Creek stood empty, no one went in, and it was slowly falling into disrepair. Which was up to him, it was his house after all. However, Carter Eden also owned a parcel of land Will wanted to buy to expand the project he had started with Dylan. The land was to be used for teaching woodland skills, and horticulture. It was ideal, since it was adjacent to the buildings that had already been purchased and converted into a learning center, and a place for the local people to come together to make a community farm.
All she had to do was persuade Carter Eden it was a good idea. If she could get close enough to talk to him. For Caroline that was her main fear, that Carter Eden would take one look at her, and disappear across his mountain, and she would have wasted four days on the round trip for nothing.
Except for a chance to get her head together, and enjoy the mountains she had roamed as a girl. She cast a glance that way now, smiling wistfully, as she remembered the days she had roamed over the highest peaks with Jamie and Rich. Such happy days.
A squeal of delight pulled her back to the two children scampering around on the lawn. At least there was a part of Rich in those two smiling faces. And there was always hope that one day she might meet her mate, and have kids.
Thanks to Jamie and Dani, that thought no longer terrified Caroline. If motherhood was her next job, she would embrace it. But to do that she would have to let go of part of herself. She would have to loosen up, step back from her military training, the training that had filled the hole in her heart left by her unrequited love for Rich. Love that she had to let go of if she was ever going to let anyone else in.
No. No matter how this trip ended, it wouldn’t be a waste of her time.
Chapter Two – Carter
It was another beautiful day. Partly because of the weather, and partly because it was all his, to do with as he, or his bear, pleased. So what if a small sliver of him craved human company? That small sliver was not enough to make him come down off this mountain and go back to his old life.
That life was gone, finished. He barely revisited it in his thoughts, he certainly was not going to revisit it for real. Yet sometimes, when the nights were long, and he sat out on his porch looking up at the stars, he wondered what it would be like to share his world with someone who cared about him. Really cared about him. Not his career, not his money, but cared for Carter Eden, and who he really was.
He doubted such a woman existed. Everyone he had ever met had been tainted by either his acting career, or what had followed after. The what followed after was why Carter had come here to the mountain and shut himself off from the human race, in every way he possibly could.
OK, so he did think about his past more than he liked to admit. He turned his thoughts to the future, and the fish he had caught only an hour ago, and how he was going to cook them over an open fire, while drinking beer. Or his excuse for a beer. It tasted good, and left him feeling chilled and relaxed, not only while drinking it, but while making it too. His change in lifestyle had certainly made him embrace all aspects of survival, and he had come to the conclusion that homebrewed beer was as vital to him as food.
Carter chuckled to himself as he neared his cabin, he was finally going insane, talking to yourself for three years did that to a person. He hefted his pack onto his back, feeling the satisfaction of having caught his own dinner creeping through him. Damn, if his management team could see him now. Gone were the days when he only had to mention he wanted something, and a runner would go get it for him, before he had a chance to change his mind.
Anything, everything, food, drink, women. Not that he hadn’t enjoyed it all. Until that day…
A scent came to him on the breeze as it shifted to the west, someone was here. Had they purposefully stayed upwind of him so he wouldn’t know they were here? Now the wind had betrayed them.
He stood still, undecided. Did he run, or did he see what they wanted? He so very rarely had visitors, the world could be on the brink of disaster, a meteor strike, or some other cataclysmic episode and he would never know. Which was good. Who would want to know the end was coming?
Hey, wasn’t that a plot for one of the movies he’d starred in?
“Mr. Eden?” A voice came to him—female, strong. Yet gentle, with a hint of something else… Something that compelled him to stay, and not run.
She was sitting on his porch, her pack by her side, a water bottle in her hand. She did not look like the sneak-up-on-you type, she also looked as if she was capable of hunting him down no matter where he went.
“Yes.”
She got up, put her water bottle down, and brushed her hands off. Did he imagine the slight tremor in her hands, or the way she looked at him nervously, as if expecting him to explode? Or was it a shiver of recognition?
He sniffed the air, a habit his human form had picked up over the years. Carter had never thought much of it, but now he saw himself through her eyes. Saw the mountain m
an, with his scruffy beard, his worn clothes, patched up with mismatched fabric where he had worn through the knee of his favorite combats. He could not remember the last time he had combed his hair. But at least he had washed, plunging into the ice-cold river earlier, after he had caught his fish. He always had his priorities in the right order.
She stepped off the porch, and introduced herself. “I’m Caroline.”
“That tells me your name, but not who you are,” Carter stated. His heart rate increased, his nostrils flared, and his bear woke up inside his head, alert as he too recognized this woman for who she was.
“Who I am?” she asked, musing over his question.
“Don’t you know?” he teased gently. She was dressed for the terrain, in good walking boots, maybe even army issue, and dark green combat pants, which did not look as if they had been put on as a fashion statement.
Her expression showed her confusion. “Up until six months ago, I’d have said yes. But lately, I’m not so sure.”
It was an honest answer, and honesty meant a lot to Carter, he’d lived in a fake world and his tolerance level was low. “So is this a pilgrimage?” he asked, edging closer to her, wanting to touch her, to feel a connection with a human being, with this particular human being.
“A pilgrimage?” Her expression cleared and her eyes widened. “You mean a pilgrimage to see the great Carter Eden?”
He laughed. “You would be surprised.”
“OK, let me set you at ease there, Mr. Eden. I have no interest in you…”
“Are you sure?” he asked, taking another step closer. “You were honest in your answer about not knowing who you were. Please don’t blow it now.”
“Blow it!” She straightened her stance, he’d upset her. “I didn’t come here to bare my soul to you.”
“I’m not asking you to,” he said quickly. “I’m sorry.” He shook his head. “Being on my own so long has made me rusty where it comes to social etiquette. When you are the only person you speak to all day, unless you count the squirrels, then you expect straight honest answers, because there is no reason to hide anything from yourself…”