Bear in a Billion: EXPOSED (#1)
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Authors: Zola Bird
Tags: #romance, #paranormal, #fantasy, #shapeshifters, #BWWM Paranormal BBW Bear Shifter Romance
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Bear in a Billion: EXPOSED
by
Zola Bird
Exposed
He’s a bear.
She’s reporter.
And she won't stop until she digs up the truth.
Haley Rose is curvy, cute, and ambitious. After being laid off from her job as a small-town newspaper reporter, she's left rural Ohio with her two best friends for a summer of freewheeling surf, sand, and sun on the California coast.
Ethan Stone is a grizzly shifter and a surfer. He's waxing down his board on the beach when his bear senses a call for help from the waves.
From the moment Ethan pulls Haley's near lifeless body from the ocean, he knows that she's the one. And when they touch, the magic is confirmed. Sparks fly. They kiss. They find each other. Anything seems possible.
But Ethan has his secrets. And when Haley investigates a story about bear shifters, those secrets come back to haunt him.
Will Ethan be able to win Haley's heart once the truth about him is exposed?
And will Haley choose love or career?
Ethan knows Haley is the one, but now he has to prove it to her.
Only then, will Haley know the meaning of true love.
And only then will Ethan be able to claim his mate.
Bear in a Billion: EXPOSED
by
Zola Bird
Contents
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Bear in a Billion: EXPOSED
BBW Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance
by
Zola Bird
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, brands, locations, media, corporations, institutions, organizations and incidents are the product of the author's imagination, or, if real, are used fictitiously without any intent to describe their actual conduct. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication and/or use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Published By
Bear Shifter Romance Press
Bear in a Billion: EXPOSED
Copyright © 2015 by Zola Bird
All rights reserved. The reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the author.
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement (including infringement without monetary gain) is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
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Chapter One
Haley Rose took a big gulp of air. The current tugged at her feet as she struggled to keep her head above water. Then it pulled her down. Why was this happening to her? One moment, she was swimming on a warm California day, and the next, she couldn’t get back to shore. She tried to swim, but the current was just too strong. She just kept getting pulled farther and farther away from land. Haley gasped as she broke through the surface again. Her friends on the beach were no more than specks now and getting smaller by the moment.
A big wave crashed down, and Haley held her breath as she went under once more. It felt like she was being crushed under a mountain of liquid. White water swirled. She couldn’t see anything. She could only remember how it had all begun.
Oh, crap. Please tell me my twenty-nine-year-old life isn’t flashing before my eyes.
It had started with Haley losing her job in Ohio. Then losing her boyfriend. Then the long drive to California with her friends. And now this.
Haley took a gulp of air as she broke through to the surface. She was a big, curvy woman, which she figured helped in her current circumstances. At least she could float. She waved her arms desperately at the shore, but it was no use. She was too far away. Haley felt the current wrench at her feet, pulling her down again. Another wave rolled over her and she held her breath.
Gulp.
The monstrous wave pushed her farther down than the last. Haley’s lungs burned.
Water swirled and frothed as the wave continued to push her deeper, and slowly her world went dark. Haley didn’t know which way was up. She didn’t know which way was anywhere. She couldn’t see. All she could do was feel the water beating at her, twisting her round and round. But she was stubborn. She wasn’t going to let it all end like this. There was no way. She reached up, grasping for the surface, lungs bursting, but still she felt nothing. Nothing but the endless ocean. So much for a fun, freewheeling summer. Her California dream had become a nightmare.
**********************
Ethan Stone sensed trouble. Or more accurately, Ethan’s bear sensed trouble, and his bear never lied. Somebody was drowning, a woman, and Ethan had every intention of getting to her fast. He paddled swiftly through the towering waves on his surfboard. Ethan was a grizzly shifter, but he hadn’t experienced this before—a certainty deep within his soul that his future mate was drowning.
Rationally, it was hard to explain, but that was exactly what he felt—his mate was in need. Ethan paddled as strongly as he could, his well-toned arms burning with the effort. If shifting would have helped, he would have done it, but Ethan knew that shifting wasn’t always the solution to every problem.
Besides, when he got to her, if he got to her, he’d have to pull her up on the board to bring her back. His human form would be better suited to that purpose. Grizzly shifters were very similar to most people in their human state, but in their animal form, they were indistinguishable from a regular grizzly bear. Suffice it to say, he didn’t want to kill the poor woman with fright. So he paddled, strong and true, until he saw a hand, five tired fingers, sticking out of the water. He was almost there, so close, but another huge wave was building. He needed to get there before the wave. But then the hand sank down.
**********************
Haley’s lungs burned. Her eyes were closed and her head felt like it was about to explode. And then, instead of her life flashing before her eyes, she saw the strangest thing—a grizzly bear. She was in a canyon, walking along a creek, and a beautiful brown bear stood before her. She stopped in her tracks, afraid, her heart beating a mile a minute. Would the bear maul her? Chew her up and spit out the bony bits? No, she didn’t think so. The animal seemed too pure. Too proud. For some reason, she no longer felt afraid. She approached the bear. The bear stared at her. She stared back. She walked closer and closer until she was looking the majestic animal right between the eyes. Her face was so close to its furry snout that their noses almost touched. And at that moment, the bear opened its mouth, revealing a terrifying black hole. Once again, the fear came rushing back to her. After that, she neither felt nor saw anything more.
“Haley,” a hysterical voice said.
“Haley,” a calmer voice said.
“Oh, no, oh, no. Is she going to be all right? Please let her be all right,” the hysterical voice continued.
Haley heard all these things. But she saw nothing. Nothing at all. And then she felt a touch. A beautiful touch to her lips that prompted her to open her eyes. She was gazing directly into a man’s clear blue eyes. The most wonderful man she had ever seen. He had one hand propped beneath her neck and his lips were on hers…
…And he was kissing her.
Suddenly, Haley felt her stomach knot up inside her.
Burp!
She coughed up a lungful of water right in his face.
Haley gasped. The man turned away.
“She’s back with us, everyone,” the man said. “She’s going to be okay.”
Haley continued to gasp for air. She was lying on the sand, a crowd gathered around. She recognized her best friends, Katie and Laila. The man whose lips had touched hers had shaggy blonde hair, an angular jaw and a killer smile. The smile was perfect. Perfect teeth. Perfect everything. The man knelt there in a black wetsuit, his back to the sun. Even in a crouched position, Haley could tell he was tall and powerfully built. She sensed strength in the man’s presence. Raw, primal strength that resonated with the power to protect her from anything.
“Haley, are you all right?” Laila asked, swooping down beside her.
“I think so.”
“Are you sure?” Katie said, hunching down too.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she mumbled.
“Thank you so, so much for saving her,” Laila said to the man in the wetsuit.
So he was her rescuer. That was strange, she remembered only the image of a bear in her mind’s eye. A big brown grizzly bear. Too much time spent watching nature clips, maybe. Too much Youtube and seawater. Haley tried to get up.
“Whoa,” the man said. “You need to rest, California.”
Her rescuer bent down toward her. Was she still delirious or had he just called her California? Haley was determined to stand on her own two feet, and the man must have seen that, because he extended his hand, helping her up. Haley stood on wobbly legs but immediately felt her knees buckle below her. Maybe the guy was right. Maybe she was too weak to stand. But before she could fall back down again, he put a reassuring arm around her waist, holding her up. She must have fainted, because she woke up a moment later in his arms.
“We need to get you home, California. You need to lie down.”
Yes, Haley thought. He had definitely called her California. She glanced down at the wet T-shirt she wore over her bikini. ‘California’ was printed across the front of it in an old-school font. Well, that explained his name for her. And he was right about her needing to lie down.
Her tall, handsome rescuer helped her walk, and the crowd parted, revealing the trail back to the road. Haley was barefoot, Katie and Laila following at her side.
“Hang in there, Haley,” Laila said.
“We’ll get you back to the cabin in two shakes,” Katie added.
Haley appreciated their kind words, she appreciated that she was back on dry land, but most of all, she appreciated the kind stranger who had saved her from the sea. She struggled along, leaning on him until they reached the trail.
She stepped on a stick. Ow. That hurt. Haley reached for her foot, and the man seemed to sense what had happened.
“Those can be sharp,” her rescuer said. “Allow me.”
“Allow you to do what?”
“Take care of that for you.”
And with that, he scooped her up into his strong arms.
Haley was a big girl, and she wasn’t used to being lifted like that, but the way he carried her, like it was the most natural thing in the world, made her feel good. It made her feel secure. It made her feel from the moment he lifted her into his arms as though all her niggling cares and concerns had simply fallen away to be forgotten forever. It made her feel as if nothing ever would or could go wrong again, and she felt like that all the way to the point where he dropped her gently atop her bed.
**********************
Ethan couldn’t believe his good fortune. No, good fortune wasn’t the way to put it. He wasn’t about to make Haley’s ordeal all about him. Almost drowning was a terrible thing. But still, if it hadn’t happened, if his bear hadn’t told them that somebody was in trouble, he would never have met her. The rip currents had been strong lately, and it had been an ordeal paddling out there, even though he’d been surfing for most of his thirty-four years. He had barely managed to grab her hand before another monstrous wave had crashed over both of them. She hadn’t responded to his initial attempts to resuscitate her either. But Ethan pulled her on top of his board and paddled her back. When he got to the beach, he performed mouth to mouth again. And that’s when the beautiful creature had come to.