Bad Boy Bear (3 Volumes in 1)

By Mandy Rosko

Danielle Reade needs to appraise a house in a backwater town. There's no Starbucks, and the bars on her phone are a joke. 
 
 
Making matters worse, someone is living in the house. Ashford Altman is the tall, sexy brother of the original owner. And he's refusing to leave. Despite the strange situation, Ashford calls to her in a way Danielle never experienced before in her life. Confused and flustered, Danielle bolts before she can do something stupid. Like ask for his number. Or kiss him. 
 
 
When Ashford shows up at her door, Danielle can't resist. She throws herself at him, but the return of the bear halts everything, especially when she learns this bear isn't the same one Ashford chased away. This bear is Ashford, and the man Danielle was kissing is his twin brother, James. 
 
 
They're alpha bear shifters with a score to settle against each other. James' poor leadership led to Ashford taking control of the pack, and now that Danielle has arrived, there's a new problem for them to face. 
 
 
Both men are mated to her, and Danielle is drawn equally to them. 
 
 
Can she only choose one?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mandy Rosko
• Release date: Jun 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386118947

Mandy Rosko

USA Today Bestselling and award winning author Mandy Rosko loves writing paranormal romances with werewolves, dragons and people with special powers. She is the author of the Things in the Night Series, Night and Day, and the Dangerous Creatures Series.She does M/F, M/M, a touch of medieval under her other pen name, Rizzo Rosko, and pretty much anything else she's in the mood to write (which makes things confusing for readers since that means she's too much of a flake to stick to any one brand).Favorite authors right now are anyone who writes dangerous and tortured heroes ;)If you want to keep up to date on the sexy guys in my hot new releases, then sign up for my Newsletter and receive a free copy of The Vampire's Curse: http://mandyrosko.com/contact.htmlAnd on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MandyRoskoRomanceThings in the Night Series:The Vampire's CurseThe Legend of the WerewolfThe Shepard's AgonyThe Dragon and the Wolf (A prequel novella)Night and Day Series:Night and DayThe Calm Before The StormAll Hell Breaking LooseBook Four Coming Soon!Dangerous Creatures:Burns Like FireA Shock To Your SystemAs Cold As Ice Coming December 8th 2015

Book preview

1

Danielle Reade stared up at the massive house before her. A three story home, three fireplaces, two and a half bathrooms, a pool in the back yard, old but beautiful brickwork where there was any, and sitting in the peace and quiet of the British Columbia woods.

It should have been featured in a magazine. The front cover of a magazine.

How in the hell this thing had come to be built up here, and why anyone would risk not paying their taxes for it was beyond her.

Technically, it was a small mansion, designed to look like a log cabin, or maybe that had been what it had started out as before everything else had been added on. Either way, the wrap around deck and two car garage made it clear that this was not a simple cabin, and she couldn’t wait to put her heels onto the wooded deck so she could walk properly. Even the walk from her car up even if the size didn’t give it away. The driveway was long, but also unpaved.

Gravel. Gravel was hell for her heels.

Walking anywhere in the small town way down the hill had been hell. The pavement here wasn’t as smooth or well cared for as it was in the city, and she’d gotten a couple of smirking looks from the locals when they’d noticed her shoes.

Danielle should have expected that in a town with only 500 people. If she’d driven another hour and a half up North, she would have made it to Alaska.

All that to appraise the worth of this property so the bank could sell it.

Two million, maybe three, she said, lifting her hands and making two L shapes with her finger and thumbs.

She put them together, as though getting ready to take a photo with her mind. Anyone who saw a picture of this place would be willing to put down whatever they had to get it, she was sure of that.

The mountains were right behind the house, up higher, giving off the perfect backdrop with their snowy tops. An artist should paint this picture. She already knew where the river was, and the streams that also flowed downhill along the property would make for good fishing.

That’s what she’d been told when she’d gotten her lunch from the corner store/post office/LCBO stop.

It had also been a coffee shop.

The people here were chatty and friendly, but not overly so when they realized what she was here for.

To be fair, Danielle wasn’t sure how comfortable she would be if she found out someone from the bank had arrived to sell a house that had belonged to one of her neighbours. Around here, everyone probably knew everyone else’s name.

She put that out of her mind for now. It wasn’t as if it mattered what the people here thought of her. She wasn’t going to stay for long, and tomorrow she’d be making another long drive back home.

Back to work. The scenery was beautiful. The air was crisp and fresh, and hell, if she’d been inclined to live all the way out here, at least two hours away from the nearest Costco and Walmart, she might have wanted to put a downpayment on this place herself.

Except then the locals might really hate her.

She walked up the wooden stairs, her hand on the carved railing. Her fingers pressed against the grooves cut into it, and she stopped short, yanking her hand back when she realized something. There were bears in it.

Huh, that’s pretty.

She couldn’t believe it, and she hadn’t noticed it at first, but there were so many grooves against her hand that she just had to look down at the railing itself.

Not just bears. There were also wolves and foxes carved into the wood. It was as if they were all frolicking together, getting along, playing, one single unit.

Danielle brushed some cherry blond hair out of her face. It had been up in a bun earlier today, but the humidity had left it frazzled, hair coming out in several spots, so she’d put it down and it was now loose around her face as she bent down to look at what had to be master work.

She shook her head, letting her fingertips gently touch the work. Lunatic. Only a lunatic would let this place go.

Danielle mentally upped the price inside her head for the property.

She really hoped now that whoever bought this place at least left the house in tact. If they didn’t, she hoped they wouldn’t destroy the carved work, or any other art she happened to find. Some people took apart the pieces they wanted of the houses they bought, and either sold them, or made them fixtures in their own homes. It would be a shame if one of those heavy Tractor Cats would come in here and rip this place apart.

Danielle rubbed her chest just over her heart, put off by the very thought of something so careless.

The townspeople, the few of them that she’d met, had seemed concerned about that. Loggers coming in and cutting down the trees , ruining the rivers and streams. Danielle had been asked questions she didn’t have the answers for.

She honestly had no idea what was on the agenda for this place. She didn’t know anymore than they did, it was up to the new buyers, and while she hadn’t cared so much when she’d bought her coffee and sandwich.

Now that she was here, she was kind of feeling some of their worries.

She let herself in with the key she’d been given. The door opened well for her. There was no squeaking noises, or any struggle on her part.

The house was apparently old. She’d been told that might have an impact on what they could price the property at, but as she stepped inside, she didn’t smell mildew or age.

She smelled a well kept home. The paperwork she’d been given stated that it hadn’t been empty for long.

Danielle felt as if she could have been walking into her own home. It was warm in here. Which was kind of crazy. She almost wanted to take off her shoes at the door.

She didn’t do that.

The house was empty of people, though the furniture had been left over. Not much of it, but it wasn’t uncommon for some homeowners to leave some of their furniture behind. Especially if they were wealthy people.

She walked over to the fireplace, noting what was above it.

A flat screen television.

Maybe it was broken?

She tried turning it on. The remote was on the glass top of a coffee table that looked to have legs made of stone.

She’d expected there to be no batteries in it, but the remote worked, and so did the television. The power in this place was still on, which she’d half expected, but she hadn’t expected the TV to work. It had no cable, though. That had been cut.

People often left behind furniture when they were in a hurry, but not electronics.

Then something else occurred to her, and Danielle was impressed. This place was way up in the bushes, isolated even by the terms of the town down the hill, and no one had broken in to steal anything.

There might be a yet at the end of that sentence.

She checked out the rest of the house, noting anything that could be remotely valuable. Marble countertops, hardwood floors. The rugs looked to be of good quality. They were clean, and while she didn’t find anything like an iPad or a computer, there were other electronics that stunned her.

High quality blenders, a coffee maker, and toaster oven were in the kitchen. The fridge was stainless steel, and so was the microwave and the oven.

Everything looked new. She checked the bedrooms. The smaller ones were still clean, their beds neatly made, nothing in the closets, which gave off the impression these were guest rooms.

Three guest rooms. An office. Two and a half baths, more marble and glass work in there.

The economy had been changing, but not that much. Unless this person had been a drug dealer or something, then Danielle couldn’t think of any reason why someone would choose to put such beautiful property at risk by not paying the taxes on it.

There was even a skylight in the middle of the spiral staircase, letting some natural light spill down onto her as she went up and down the stairs.

It was almost as if the person who had lived here just up and left. She went into the master bedroom, and it definitely had a more lived in feel to it. There was a scent that Danielle found herself breathing in deep.

It was good, though she couldn’t place it as anything familiar to her, even though it did kind of give off that familiar feel to it.

This smelled like something she should have known. This was…home.

Danielle shook her head on that one.

Okay, that was dumb. Where the hell did a thought like that come from? It had to be because this place just looked so cozy. She’d definitely want to live here if given the chance.

She had to get back to work. She checked the closets, and was immediately unnerved by all the clothes inside them.

Danielle stepped back, surveying what she’d found.

Maybe the person who had lived here really did just up and leave. Normally, when someone got an eviction notice, they still tended to pack their things, if only to put them into storage.

The appliances downstairs, the clothes here, the lived in smell…

It was almost as if someone still lived here.

A hard shiver rushed up her spine. She stepped away from the closet. She walked calmly into the joined bathroom, just because she had to see for herself, though it wasn’t as if she expected to find anything…

She found something. There were toiletries on the counter. An electric razor, shaving cream, a toothbrush and toothpaste along with a half filled bottle of mouthwash. All the things that said someone lived here.

She went to the standing shower just to be sure. She opened the glass door, knelt down and put her fingers on the floor tile.

They were wet. Holy shit. The floor of the shower was wet.

She left the bathroom, rushing as quickly as she could in her heels down the stairs.

She stopped on her way to the door, spun around, and moved back to the kitchen area. Namely the fridge.

She yanked open the stainless steel door, staring at what was inside just to quadruple check.

Milk, bread, cheese, along with fresh fruit and a pack of chicken breasts.

She didn’t need to check the date on those to know they weren’t old.

They were new. Someone was still living here. The previous owner, probably, and Danielle sure as hell didn’t want to be caught meddling around here just in case he decided to come back.

The thought that whoever owned this place might be a drug kingpin was back, and freaking her the hell out now that she knew someone was still living here.

She pushed open the front door, stumbling out, heading to the steps of the deck, and gasping hard at the vision in front of her car.

Heart launching into her throat, Danielle had to grab tightly to the carved railing to stop herself from falling the rest of the way down the stairs, or from letting her knees give out on her.

She still slid down to her ass, staring between the wooden railings at the enormous brown grizzly that snorted and huffed at the man who stood less than five feet away from it in front of her Nissan.

He stared back at the bear, fists clenched, like a wild mountain man. If mountain men wore faded jeans and plaid shirts with the sleeves rolled up.

It was almost as if he was getting ready to fly into a fight with the bear in front of him, but then both man and bear turned their attention to Danielle.

2

Those big, black nostrils on the bear flared. Danielle thought for sure she saw the eyes of that wild animal widen, as if it had just gotten an excellent sniff of what would be a proper meal.

Danielle had never so much as been in Girl Scouts. She had no idea what to do if a bear saw her and wanted to eat her.

Did playing dead actually work? Should she stay still? Should she run? If she managed to get back into the house and shut the door, would it try to get in? Would it be able to get in, was the better question.

The man with the black hair and plaid shirt held his hand out to her, as though trying to calm a wild animal, which Danielle was definitely feeling like in that moment.

Don’t move. Try not to move and you’ll be fine.

His blue eyes met hers. Her gaze locked onto his as Danielle managed to nod her head. O-okay.

He was tall, and looked strong and capable, the sort of man who spent a lot of his time in the wilderness, and she was more than willing to trust him, a complete stranger, as he told her what to do.

I won’t let it hurt you, he said, turning his attention back to the bear.

Heat rushed through Danielle’s stomach and up to her chest and neck. In that moment, she believed him. She was willing to believe whatever he said, and he said he would protect her. A small rush of relief hit her, but the bear was still down there, with him.

The man was actually growling at the bear. He pulled his lips back, showing off his perfectly white teeth, as if his tiny incisors were supposed to be threatening to a grizzly bear, but maybe this was an actual tactic to ward off large animals.

Danielle was desperate enough to take it. She was willing to take anything she could get if it meant she wasn’t going to be entirely alone here.

Better to walk outside with a man and a bear, than to walk outside with just a bear, especially when she hardly got any bars up here, and the Wi-Fi on her phone was nonexistent.

Danielle opted for staying absolutely still. She didn’t let herself move. She barely allowed herself to breathe. Right in that moment, she realized that even if she wanted to run, she couldn’t. Her legs were numb and trembling. She couldn’t move. She had to rely on this stranger to save her from the enormous animal that could probably take both of their heads off with one clean swipe of his claws.

The man held a hand out to the bear. Was he trying to make himself look bigger? What if he got hurt? The bear could attack him and kill him and Danielle wouldn’t be able to do a thing to help him.

She didn’t want him to get hurt. She didn’t want him to die.

The bear snorted, stomped its feet, and opened its wide mouth in a deafening roar at the man in front of him.

I’m not moving, the man said, as if he thought the grizzly could understand.

It clearly didn’t like anyone getting in the way of its dinner. Why it wasn’t making a meal out of this guy was something Danielle couldn’t figure out, but was grateful for as she worked on making her legs, feet and toes work for her, she didn’t care.

She just wanted to get out of this alive. She wanted him to get out of this alive. She didn’t want to see anyone killed and eaten in front of her. She didn’t want that!

The bear stomped its paws and bellowed at the man in front of it again, as though getting ready to charge.

Danielle’s terror took over.

Go away! she yelled.

Stupid. Stupid and something she only did because her panic and desperation had welled up inside her.

She had to shout. She had to scream at something, so she just let it out.

The bear stopped roaring at the man in front of it, turning its gaze back to her, solidifying how stupid a move that had been.

Don’t even think about it, the man warned, and did he just step between her and the bear?

He was crazy. He had to be if he thought a wild animal would be able to understand him.

And yet somehow, the bear did seem to understand.

It lowered its massive head, a deep, resounding growl sounding from within its chest, those eyes murderous, as if the man before it presented an honest threat.

It didn’t charge. For whatever miracle that was, Danielle would take it. She watched, stunned as the bear snorted at her, turned, and lumbered away. After a few steps it started to run for the trees and shrubs. It made the branches and leaves sway as it vanished, out of sight, but definitely not out of mind.

Danielle felt like she was going to throw up. She’d never felt her stomach flutter like this before, and her face was overheating from what she’d just witnessed.

She pressed her cheeks against the cool wood of the railing. She groaned when it wasn’t enough to soothe away what had just happened.

Are you okay? Here, come here.

Hands touched her shoulders, pulling her out of the state of shock she’d just been in. Danielle jerked at the touch, yanking away from him, a cry escaping her mouth.

It’s okay, it’s okay. The hands immediately left her. The man in front of her held them palm up, as though still trying to soothe the terrified animal in front of him.

Yeah, she was definitely a scared rabbit in that moment, because holy hell, she just saw a bear. A real bear, and not one behind the bars of a cage in a zoo.

Danielle didn’t think she’d ever seen a bear in a zoo either. She didn’t go to zoos, but there had definitely been an angry bear standing inches away from her car.

This man had been closer to that massive animal than she had, and yet he was comforting her.

Are…are you okay? Did it hurt you? she asked, remembering in that moment that he’d been in danger, too. He’d definitely been more at risk than she had, and she still couldn’t believe he’d defended her at all.

She pulled her phone out of her purse, noting the low bars, but trying to get her fingers to stop shaking long enough so she could get a call out to 9-1-1 anyway.

I’ll…I’ll call for help. Someone will come for us.

Shh, no, it’s okay. I’m fine, unless you need an ambulance?

His blue eyes were so calm. He could have been a dark haired Chris Hemsworth. He was the