A Pair of Bears: Bear Shifter Menage Paranormal Romance (9 page)

She slowly returned to her own body, relaxed and happy. Eli kissed her throat. Jackson kissed her lips. They lifted her between them, moving down to sprawl atop the bed in a comfortable heap. Both men adjusted their positions, instinctively seeking to get even closer to her, and she moved to fit herself to them. Then they lay in a cozy tangle, clasped in each other’s arms.

Paisley stretched out between her mates, with Eli’s arms around her shoulders and Jackson’s around her waist, and drifted into the most peaceful sleep of her life.

Epilogue

Paisley

Paisley lay comfortably curled up on the couch with her head on Eli’s shoulder and her feet in Jackson’s lap. She tilted her head to get a better view of the big-screen TV. They’d watched the video of Victor Reed ripping off his own armor in terror about thirty times now, but it never got old.

The news anchor shook her head disapprovingly, and stated, “SmartDefense CEO Victor Reed faces criminal charges for knowingly and recklessly selling a dangerously defective product. The most serious of these charges is second-degree murder for the death of Navy SEAL Ryan Martinez. Meanwhile, SmartDefense stocks continue to plunge.”

“Come on,” Eli muttered, as the news anchor continued discussing stocks. “What about the Navy?”

“There’s no way the Navy will keep the contract after this,” Jackson assured him. “No way.”

“We have breaking news,” exclaimed the anchor. “The US Navy just announced that they’ve canceled their contract with SmartDefense.”

“Mission accomplished.” Eli clicked off the TV, an amazed smile spreading across his face.

“We did it.” Jackson sounded like he could hardly believe it. “God knows how many lives we saved.”

“We won,” Paisley said. “Guys, we
won
!”

All three of them broke into spontaneous cheers. Paisley threw her arms in the air and yelled with abandon. Jackson and Eli were shouting too, their deeper voices ringing out and echoing against the walls. Hearing how happy they sounded, Paisley’s heart lifted till it felt light as a cat’s whisker.

“Now what?” Paisley asked, when they finally stopped yelling.

“We all stick together,” Eli said.

“Stick together and do what?” Paisley asked.

Jackson kissed her cheek. “I want to bring you home to meet my family.”

“Mine too,” said Eli.

“Are they going to care that I’m a cat burglar?” Paisley asked doubtfully. “Because I don’t like to lie. That’s a big part of why I don’t like to meet people.”

“You’re a cat burglar
for justice
,” Jackson pointed out. “That’s different.”

Eli shook his head. “Like Jackson said. You’re not a
criminal
criminal. You’re Robin Hood. They’ll think it’s cool. Especially my younger brothers.”

“You have younger brothers?” Paisley smiled, not just at the thought of a lot of little Elis running around, but because she liked that she was still learning things about him. There was still so much they didn’t know about each other. And they had all the time in the world to find out.

“Three of them,” Eli said. “And Jackson has three older sisters.”

“We’re like this weird reverse matched set,” Jackson said. Excitedly, he added, “My sisters will love you! My aunts too.”

“And my uncles,” said Eli. “And my grandparents.” 

“My cousins.”

“My great-grandma.”

“My wolverine video gaming buddies.”

“My old SEAL team.”

A familiar flicker of wariness rose in Paisley, then faded away. She’d already taken the big plunge in committing herself to the men. Meeting their friends and families didn’t scare her. If they were anything like Eli and Jackson, she’d probably even like them.

“Sure,” she said. “Let’s go.”

Both men straightened up, seeming delighted at the idea. Warm happiness washed through her at yet another reminder of how much they cared about her. It was that important to them that she meet their families, and that she wanted to meet them. They’d never force her into anything she didn’t want, and they wanted to share every part of their lives with her.

“You can finally try the pie at the diner,” Jackson suggested.

“I’ll take you climbing,” added Eli. “You ever climb a real cliff, Paisley? You’d love it.”

“It sounds great,” she assured them. “But after I’m done meeting everyone, what then?”

The three of them looked at each other, and she once again knew that they were all thinking the same thing.

“I’d hate to give up what I’ve been doing,” Paisley said. “But I’m just one person. I can steal stolen money and give it back to the victims, but I can’t put criminals out of business. I never could have done what the three of us did to SmartDefense.”

“I’ve always been a bit jealous of what Eli does— did,” Jackson admitted. “I love inventing, but it’s not exactly saving the world. We destroyed SmartDefense, but there’s lots of crooked companies and bad people left. And it seems like we’re good at taking them down.”

“Hacker, fighter, climber.” Eli indicated Jackson, himself, and Paisley. “We make a great team. Let’s stay a team.”

Paisley threw one arm around each of her bears, and they both leaned down to kiss her cheeks. She felt the rough tickle of Eli’s stubble and the smoothness of Jackson’s fresh-shaved face, and then the warmth of each man’s lips.

She’d rarely imagined a happy ending for herself, and the few times that she had, she’d seen herself as a lone warrior for justice. She’d never imagined herself with even one man, let alone two men who were brave and strong, smart and funny, handsome and sexy, passionate and kind. Most of all, she’d never imagined herself daring to love and be loved.

All that, and justice too.

“Me and my pair of bears,” Paisley murmured, turning to kiss each man in turn. “Okay, guys. Let’s go save the world.”

***

A note from Zoe Chant

Thank you for buying my book! I hope you enjoyed it. If you’d like to be alerted by email when I release my next book, please
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Please consider reviewing
A Pair of Bears
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The cover of
A Pair of Bears
was designed by Augusta Scarlett.

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