Read Grizzly Flying High (Air Bear Shifters 1) Online

Authors: Sloane Meyers

Tags: #Paranormal, #Contemporary, #Fiction, #Romance, #Forever Love, #Adult, #Erotic, #Bear Shifter, #Mate, #Secrets, #Supernatural, #Protection, #Bachelor, #Single Woman, #Alaskan Grizzlies, #Alaskan Wilderness, #Journey, #Tour Company, #Pilot, #Airplanes, #Bush Pilots, #Clan Crisis, #Clan Alpha, #Life Restrictions, #Charade, #High Flyer

Grizzly Flying High (Air Bear Shifters 1)

BOOK: Grizzly Flying High (Air Bear Shifters 1)
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Grizzly Flying High

 

Air Bear Shifters, Book 1

             

 

By Sloane Meyers

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Similarities to actual people or events are entirely coincidental.

 

Copyright © 2016 by Sloane Meyers. All rights reserved.

Chapter One

 

Sawyer Williams tugged at the tight knot of his tie, wondering if it was too early in the evening to just take the damn thing off already. He could count on one hand the number of times he had worn a suit and tie in the last year, and there was a good reason for that: he hated dressing up, so he only did so when absolutely required. Usually for weddings and funerals. Today, happily, it was a wedding and not a funeral that had forced him to ditch his comfortable “jeans and t-shirt” look for the more constricting suit and button down shirt. He had traveled from his home in southern Alaska to Glacier Point, the northernmost city in Alaska, to watch his good friend, Ben, tie the knot.

The ceremony had been short, but the reception had been going for several hours with no signs of stopping any time soon. Sawyer had already given a toast to the happy couple right before they cut their wedding cake, but a new round of toasts had just started up. These toasts came from guests who, by this point, were well on their way to drunk—and the drunken toasts were admittedly more entertaining than the sober ones had been. Sawyer watched with interest, sipping on his club soda with a lime wedge dunked in it. He was avoiding alcohol, because he planned to fly home early the next morning. It was already nearing midnight, and aviation regulations required at least eight hours between drinking and flying. Sawyer worked as a pilot, giving private air tours through his tour company, Frost Peak Tours. Even though he could have delegated much of the actual flying to other pilots, he loved being in the air. In fact, he much preferred flying to sitting at home, alone in his large, empty cabin.

He wasn’t lonely for lack of options. As alpha to the Frost Peak Grizzlies, he had a steady stream of single, shifter females vying for his attention. But none of them sparked any interest in Sawyer. Sure, they were beautiful, accomplished women. But they were too eager to please. Too ready to do whatever he asked, because he was the clan’s alpha. He wanted a woman with a little fight in her, but even the feistiest women in his clan seemed to grow meek around the commanding presence of their alpha.

Sawyer sighed as he leaned back in his chair and took another sip of his soda. He had long ago accepted that lack of love was one of the prices he had paid for the great honor of being alpha. He may not have romance in his life, but he had a tour company he loved, and a clan full of the best Alaskan grizzlies the state had ever seen. Life, on the whole, had been good to him.

Sawyer was startled out of his reverie by a shuffling noise to his right. He looked over to see a strikingly beautiful woman sitting next to him, and he recognized her as a shifter from one of the northern polar bear clans. He thought he remembered meeting her a few years ago during a meeting of several clans to discuss getting rid of some scientists who had been trying to destroy shifters, but now he couldn’t quite remember her name. Luckily, she happily introduced herself as she sat down.

“Hey. I’m Sabrina. You’re Sawyer, right?” she asked, fluttering her dark eyelashes at him.

“Yup, I’m Sawyer.”

She nodded. “I remember you. You’re the Grizzly alpha from Frost Peak. How are things down there? I haven’t been south in ages now, although I’m thinking of taking a little vacation down there this winter.”

As she spoke, she reached over and rested her hand casually on Sawyer’s forearm. He stiffened at her touch. Her eyes looked like they were having trouble focusing, probably due to a few too many glasses of wine. But she didn’t have any trouble making her intentions clear. She crossed her legs and leaned in toward Sawyer, letting the skirt of her short black dress inch up to the top of her thighs. She was giving Sawyer an open invitation to spend the night with her, and he knew it. But he wasn’t interested.

“Things in Frost Peak are fine. Busy,” Sawyer said, pulling his arm away and taking a long drag from his drink. He looked away from Sabrina and tried to give the latest toast-giver his undivided attention. But his would-be lover didn’t take the hint. She leaned in closer to him, her warm breath tickling his ear.

“I hear you’re one of the best pilots in Alaska,” she said. “Rumor has it that you’ve flown fearlessly through blizzards.”

Sawyer told himself not to take the bait, but he couldn’t help it. Nothing made him prouder than his skill in the sky. “I’m not afraid of a blizzard,” he said, his chest puffing up a little. “I’ve flown through the worst Alaska has to offer, and come out on the other side without a scratch.”

Encouraged, Sabrina leaned in closer, so that her lips were almost touching the side of Sawyer’s face. A mixture of red wine and her rose perfume hit Sawyer’s nose, and he couldn’t quite decide whether the smell was intoxicating or nauseating. “I hear you’re still single. What’s a handsome, badass pilot like you doing without a copilot?” she asked, batting her eyelashes again, and hiking her dress even higher. Sawyer averted his eyes, which required a lot of effort on his part because his inner beast wanted nothing more than to stare at Sabrina’s perfect, muscular thighs. But despite her physical beauty, her spirit did nothing for him. There was no chemistry, no deep attraction there. And Sawyer had wasted too much of his life on girls who held nothing more than physical attraction for him. He wasn’t interested in a woman unless she did more for him than just give him a hard-on. Not that physical attraction didn’t matter, but he was too old to base a relationship decision solely on looks.

“I am single,” Sawyer said, putting his glass down on the table with a loud thud. “By choice.”

Sabrina laughed, undeterred by his standoffish attitude. “Well, maybe it’s time to change that choice,” she said, putting her hand on his knee and slowly beginning to run it up his thigh. “Even big, tough alphas need a little softness in their life now and then. And, trust me, there are parts of me so soft that it would blow your mind.”

“I have to go,” Sawyer said, standing abruptly and walking away from Sabrina’s bold touch. He didn’t want to torture himself any longer by catching glimpses of her beautiful body, which he knew he would never allow himself to have. And he didn’t want her to make a fool of herself. He remembered her as a bright, intelligent woman, and he knew that she was only acting so audaciously flirtatious because the alcohol had given her false courage.

Sawyer made his way through the wedding crowd toward the bar. As he walked, he felt all eyes turning toward him. He was used to being stared at. Any man hiding a grizzly within him was bound to have a commanding presence, even when he was in full human form. Sawyer glanced at the dance floor and saw several of his friends from other clans dancing with their lifemates. Despite his slightly sour mood, Sawyer couldn’t keep a grin from spreading across his face as he watched his polar bear shifter friend, Ryker, dancing up a storm with his wife, Kenzie.

As Sawyer stood in line at the bar, he let his eyes glide over the gathered crowd. Strong, handsome men in suits walked about with beautiful women on their arms. Even those who had come to the ceremony alone seemed to be pairing off as the evening wore on. A few moments later, one of the single women in the crowd who still had not snagged herself a date for the evening sidled up next to him in line. She appeared to be even tipsier than Sabrina had been.

“Hey, handsome,” she said, shamelessly putting her hand on Sawyer’s chest. “Do you want to check out the dance floor with me?”

Sawyer started to pull away, mumbling something about how he didn’t like to dance, when a buzzing in his pocket saved him. His satellite mobile phone, which he used to keep on top of what was going on with his tour company no matter how far into the wilderness he might be, had started ringing.

“Frost Peak Tours,” Sawyer answered the call as he walked toward the edge of the reception area, trying to find a quiet spot.

“Sawyer! I’m glad I caught you,” came a familiar voice on the line.

“Chance, buddy,” Sawyer said. “Good to hear from you. What’s up?” Chance was one of Sawyer’s best friends, and he flew almost as many tour flights each year as Sawyer did. Sawyer always left him in charge of the tour company when he was away.

“Well, we’ve been really busy here,” Chance said. “I’m really sorry to bug you at the wedding, but we just had a corporate group request our flying services. They have seven guys coming into Alaska tomorrow on some sort of corporate retreat. Whatever company they had arranged to fly them up north just called and told them they’re overbooked. The guys are kind of desperate and are offering us twice our normal fee if we fly them up north tomorrow afternoon, and then fly them back two days later. They’re even offering to cover the cost of two nights at the resort for the pilot if he doesn’t want to fly back and forth in between. The only problem is that all of our pilots are booked out right now except you. I hate to lose the business, but unless you can make it back and be ready to fly by tomorrow afternoon we’ll have to turn them down.”

“Say no more,” Sawyer said. “I’m heading to the airport right now to get my plane and head home.”

“Well, you don’t have to leave right this second,” Chance said. “You can stay at the wedding a few more hours and hang out. We just need you home by tomorrow afternoon.”

Sawyer glanced around at the crowd, which was growing drunker by the minute, and sighed. His eyes fell on Sabrina, who caught him staring at her and gave him a suggestive little wave.

“Thanks, buddy,” Sawyer said. “But, trust me, I really do have to leave right this second. I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning.”

With that, Sawyer, hung up the phone, and went to find Ben to say his goodbyes. With any luck, he’d make it out of this reception without running across any more would-be girlfriends. Desperate, drunken women were definitely not his type. Why did wedding receptions seem to always be so full of them? He didn’t have the patience to deal with nonsense like that right now. Really, he didn’t have the patience to deal with nonsense like that, ever. He took the long way around the crowd to Ben so that he wouldn’t have to run across Sabrina again.

Ferrying around a bunch of corporate guys in his plane would be a welcome break. Odds were good he’d get to go an entire weekend without anyone hitting on him. A weekend away from women sounded like exactly what this grumpy bear needed.

Chapter Two

 

“What do you mean you’re all booked out?” Amanda Parker asked, letting her huge backpack drop to the floor with a giant thud. “I made a reservation. I have the paper right here in my backpack.”

She started digging through the front pocket of the bag, while the attendant behind the desk kept talking to her in a slightly condescending tone.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry, but we don’t have you in our system. It looks like the reservation you thought you made didn’t go through. It’s tourist season, you know. And there’s a big retreat in town this weekend. People have come from all over the United States and Canada to get in touch with their wilderness side. We’re very busy.”

Amanda glared up at the man, who was leaning over the counter to deliver his speech while she squatted on the ground next to her backpack. She was trying to remain calm, but she was quickly losing her patience with him. “Well, you better get busy finding me a room, because as soon as I find this paper, you’re going to see that my reservation
did
go through. I have a confirmation number, and my credit card was charged.”

The man continued muttering under his breath, and Amanda did her best to ignore him. Three months ago, she had spontaneously decided to quit her corporate job as the head of a marketing team at a Fortune 500 company. She had been at the company since graduating from college, and had quickly climbed the ranks thanks to her hard work and uncanny ability to know exactly which marketing campaigns would catch on. But, as her prestige and salary at the company grew to levels she had never imagined they would, her personal life had dwindled down to almost nothing. Amanda had been working upwards of eighty hours a week, and had lost touch with every friend she had. Her love life had been nonexistent, unless you considered fending off the advances of her corporate colleagues as a love life. They weren’t her type, all power and money hungry and thinking that the best way to impress her was by namedropping the famous people they knew and buying her expensive gifts.

Amanda had been successful, driven, and lonely. The lowest low for her came when she realized that she wasn’t much better than the sleazy guys at her office. Sure, she had more class than to run around thinking namedropping and buying material things made you somebody. But she still spent all of her time working, and hadn’t made an effort to make time for herself or her friends in years. She had been at the office one night, at midnight, and had been so exhausted after wrapping up a project that she had sat at her desk, staring at the degrees and accolades hanging on her wall, instead of mustering up the energy to walk down to her car and drive home.

That’s when it had hit her. What did all of this really mean? She was spending her life, her one and only life, figuring out the best way to convince people to buy things like deodorant and face wash. Over a decade ago, in high school, she had dreamed of being part of a community, of giving back and making a difference in the world, however small. But somehow those dreams had become lost in the busy whirlwind of corporate life. Amanda had decided right then and there to draft her resignation letter. Her years of business success had left her with plenty of money in the bank, so she decided to leave everything behind and go on a backpacking trip around the country. That was the sort of thing people did when they needed to find themselves, right? And Amanda desperately needed to find herself again.

Which is how she now found herself digging through her oversized backpack in the small lobby of a hostel in Alaska. She had decided to spend the summer in Alaska because she had always wanted to visit the place, and summer seemed like the best time. She had already been here a week, hiking the most gorgeous wilderness trails she had ever been on by day, and camping under the stars at night. But she liked a break from the wilderness every now and then, so she had reserved a night in a hostel in the nearby town of Snow Valley to give her a chance to take a shower and sleep in a real bed before setting off on her next long string of hikes and camping. Only, now, this guy at the front desk wanted to tell her that she didn’t have a reservation. She knew she did, and she also had no idea where else she would stay tonight if the hostel didn’t give her a bed. It was too late to head back to the wilderness and find a campsite, and Snow Valley looked like it was completely overrun with tourists. The conference that the front desk attendant had mentioned must be a very popular one, because Amanda hadn’t seen so many people in one place since she had landed in Alaska. Amanda had a feeling that all of the other hotels and hostels in the city were full as well.

“Here it is!” Amanda said triumphantly, pulling the wrinkled paper on which her reservation confirmation was printed out of her bag. The paper was stained and torn on the edges, but it clearly had the confirmation number and today’s date as the reservation date.

The man behind the counter took the paper from Amanda with a dubious look, but his face turned slightly pale after he looked it over for a minute. “Hold on, please,” he said, his voice sounding much less antagonistic than it had a few minutes ago. “I need to go speak with my manager.”

Amanda shrugged and watched him walk into the small office behind the counter, where a heated conversation in hushed tones soon ensued. Amanda couldn’t hear everything, but it sounded like the manager was berating the front desk attendant for once again improperly entering the reservations into the system and overbooking them. At one point, the manager stood and shut the office door, so Amanda could no longer hear anything that was being said. She waited patiently in the lobby for about ten more minutes. She was hungry and needed a shower, but at this point she was just hoping that the hostel was actually going to find her a room instead of just refunding her money. She had booked a private room, but she would take even a dorm style room at this point, in order to avoid being out on the street.

Finally, the door to the office opened again, and the manager stepped out and walked toward the counter, with the front desk attendant following meekly behind him.

“Miss Parker?” the manager asked, his voice pleasant despite his strained expression. Amanda nodded in response.

“We’re very sorry, but due to a glitch in our reservation system, we’ve overbooked the hostel for the night. You’re the last one to check in, so unfortunately there aren’t any more rooms or beds available. I’ve refunded your card, and I’ve also called around to try to find you a room somewhere else, since I know most of the other hotels in Snow Valley are booked out for the night. The only thing I was able to find was a suite at the Snow Valley Ritz. We’re covering the cost for you to stay there tonight as an apology for the inconvenience.”

Amanda almost laughed out loud. Here she was, trying to live out of a backpack and stay in hostels or at campsites, and she had just found herself with a suite at the Ritz for the night. So much for escaping a life of glitz and glamour. Still, it was just one night, and it was a bed and a shower. It’s not like one night of luxury was going to completely throw off her plans to find herself and live simply.

“Alright,” Amanda said, realizing that the manager was waiting for her to reply. “Thanks for finding me another place.”

He looked a little disappointed, as though he had expected a bigger reaction from Amanda to the news that she would be staying in a suite at the Ritz. He probably thought that, like most of the hostel’s guests, she couldn’t afford to stay at the nicest room in the nicest hotel in town. But Amanda could easily afford to stay in rooms like that, and she had many times in her life. This trip was about getting rid of that kind of lifestyle, though, and figuring out who she really was when all of her material possessions and wealth weren’t distracting her mind.

The manger gave Amanda the address to the Ritz, and offered to call her a cab. She opted to walk, however. The hotel was less than a mile away, and the weather outside was beautiful. Amanda would much rather breathe in the fresh Alaskan air than the dank air of a dirty cab.

When she entered the lobby of the Ritz, she felt all eyes in the lobby turning to stare at her—and not in a good way. In a room full of men in suits and women in fancy dresses, Amanda stood out like a sore thumb. She was wearing a muddy pair of hiking pants and a pair of functional yet ugly hiking boots. Her hair was pulled up into a ratty mess on top of her head, and she hadn’t taken a shower in over a week. She was sure that her scent preceded her. Her hiking backpack looked out of place next to the designer luggage the other hotel guests were wheeling around. Amanda wanted to roll her eyes at the people staring at her. She probably had more money than many of them, and, besides, weren’t they here to experience the wilderness? Staying at the Ritz didn’t seem much like roughing it to Amanda.

Amanda walked up to the front counter, ignoring the slightly raised eyebrow of the employee who greeted her.

“Hi there,” Amanda said. “I’m Amanda Parker. The manager of the Snow Valley Hostel was supposed to have called ahead to reserve a room for me.”

Understanding seemed to dawn on the man when he realized that someone else had paid for Amanda’s room. Resisting again the urge to roll her eyes, Amanda handed her credit card over for incidentals and then took her room keys from the man.

“Do you need help up with your luggage?” the man asked. Amanda declined, and slung her huge backpack onto her back before heading to the elevator. She crowded in with elegantly dressed men and women, and took a small measure of satisfaction from the surprised glance of the man next to her when he saw her hit the button for the highest floor in the hotel, where all the suites were located.

When Amanda reached her room, she entered it and slowly closed the door behind her. She gazed over the massive, luxurious space, and marveled at how strange such elegance seemed to her now. The floor-to-ceiling windows looked over a magnificent view of some snow-peaked mountains in the distance. The suite’s sitting room had two pristine, white couches, and a sparkling glass coffee table. To the left, a dining table of rich mahogany wood was decorated with a vase of fresh flowers. In the bedroom, a king-sized bed was covered with a beautiful, royal purple comforter.

Amanda set down her backpack, and opened it up to search for some clean clothes. One of the only outfits in her bag that didn’t need to be washed was a simple black dress. She took the dress out and shook it a few times, frowning at the wrinkles in the soft material. She found a hanger in one of the closets, and went into the bathroom where she hung the dress from a towel hook. Then she turned on the shower and let the hot water begin to fill the small room with steam. Hopefully, that would get enough of the wrinkles out for Amanda to be able to go eat in the hotel’s dining room without raising too many more eyebrows.

Amanda put the rest of her dirty laundry into the bag for the hotel’s laundry service, and set the back outside her door. She had to admit that laundry service was one luxury she missed from her former life. She had never been a fan of loading and unloading washing machines and dryers. Stepping back into the bathroom, Amanda adjusted the water temperature down just enough so that the hot water wouldn’t burn her skin, and then stepped into the shower. The bathroom also contained a large, jetted whirlpool tub, but Amanda was too hungry to spend time relaxing in a bath right now. Maybe later.

She did take the time to enjoy the feeling of hot water running across her hair and skin and washing away the dirt and grime of her week in the wilderness. She squeezed a generous amount of the hotel’s complimentary lavender shampoo onto her palm, and then began lathering up her scalp. She grabbed a bar of soap that felt like velvet in her palms, and used it to scrub away the remaining dirt from her skin. After rinsing away the last traces of shampoo and soap, Amanda stepped out of the shower and toweled off. She rubbed a small amount of hair gel between her palms, and then rubbed it into her hair before scrunching up her dark brown strands with the towel. She decided to let her hair air dry instead of using the blow dryer, and grabbed her dress off the towel hook to slip it on. Pleased to see that the steamy air had indeed smoothed out most of the wrinkles, Amanda quickly got dressed and then went to admire her reflection in the full-length mirror of the suite’s bedroom.

She giggled as she looked at her reflection. Even with no makeup, and slightly damp hair, she looked pretty stunning if she said so herself. She had never been—and never would be—the super skinny type. She still had curves, but her long hikes had given her some muscle definition. She was pretty pleased with the way she looked right now. Amanda sighed. If only she had a special man to appreciate her glowing, healthy new look. As quickly as the thought crossed her mind, though, Amanda pushed it away.

She hadn’t come on this trip to find love. She had come to find herself. If the universe brought her the perfect man she wouldn’t turn him away. But finding him was not the goal of this trip. Amanda slipped on a pair of black flats, and then headed for the door of her room. If she didn’t get some food soon, she might pass out from low blood sugar. She wasn’t sure exactly how many hours it had been since she’d eaten, but it had definitely been too many. She could have just ordered room service, but she didn’t like the idea of eating alone in such a huge suite. Besides, she had been alone on her hikes for the last several days. It would be nice to be around some other humans, even if those humans were the type to judge her for not having designer luggage.

Amanda stepped off the elevator, and decided to head for the hotel’s more casual restaurant, which boasted a full bar and a laid-back atmosphere. She could hardly wait to relax with a glass of wine and some comfort food. When she entered the restaurant, she tried not to wince at the number of suits she saw in the room. There were a few people dressed more casually, though, so she didn’t stick out too much with her casual black dress. Scanning the room, she noticed one man sitting alone at the bar and wearing jeans and a t-shirt. There was an empty barstool next to him, and Amanda made a beeline for it. As she got closer, she nearly gasped when she caught a better glimpse of the man.

BOOK: Grizzly Flying High (Air Bear Shifters 1)
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