Bear Commitment: Pleasant Valley Shifters

By Marlie Monroe

To protect her son, she must guard her heart. 

A fresh start…

Lila returned home to Pleasant Valley to give her half-shifter, half-human son a stable, loving home far away from the bad influences in the city. With her parents’ guidance, she hopes to safely guide her son through puberty and his first volatile transition from boy to beast. 

An animal instinct…

Grizzly shifter Stuart Watson wasn’t looking for love while campaigning for reelection as county sheriff. However, there was no denying he’d met his match after his first encounter with Lila. The feisty brunette is everything he ever wanted in a woman. All he has to do is convince his reluctant mate and her rebellious son to give him a chance to prove his worth.

A love worth risking it all…

Before Stuart can stake his claim, Lila’s life is endangered by the person she loves most. He races to rescue his mate, determined to save the day and safeguard their future. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marlie Monroe Books
• Release date: Feb 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386684787

Book preview

About Bear Commitment

To protect her son, she must guard her heart.

A fresh start...

Lila returned home to Pleasant Valley to give her half-shifter, half-human son a stable, loving home far away from the bad influences in the city. With her parents’ guidance, she hopes to safely guide her son through puberty and his first volatile transition from boy to beast.

An animal instinct...

Grizzly shifter Stuart Watson wasn’t looking for love while campaigning for reelection as county sheriff. However, there was no denying he’d met his match after his first encounter with Lila. The feisty brunette is everything he ever wanted in a woman. All he has to do is convince his reluctant mate and her rebellious son to give him a chance to prove his worth.

A love worth risking it all...

Before Stuart can stake his claim, Lila’s life is endangered by the person she loves most. He races to rescue his mate, determined to save the day and safeguard their future.

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License Notes: This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All rights reserved. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

Copyright © 2015 by Marlie Monroe

Edited by Jersey Devil Editing

This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book contains sexually explicit content which is suitable only for mature adults.

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Bear Commitment

Pleasant Valley Shifters

Marlie Monroe

Chapter One

Lila Foster knew moving home was the right decision. However, nearly six weeks after the big move, she still had to remind herself daily exactly why moving had been such a great idea. Otherwise, she would have already dived off the cliff of sanity and hit the stark-raving mad ocean below.

So far she’d only had to remind herself she was living with her parents again by choice and not by force a grand total of three times. One of those was when she’d discovered Mom had done her laundry again, after repeatedly being asked not to, and had shrunk another handful of her panties. Pretty soon she’d need to buy new underwear or start running around with a bare ass. She couldn’t really afford either option. A second reminder was needed when she caught Dad sneaking her son Quinn cookies for breakfast instead of the perfectly fine oatmeal and fruit salad she’d gotten up early to cook for the whole family. The last, but not least needed reminder came when she’d dropped her son off at the high school and gotten a terse whatever in response to her have a good day.

Not that her son’s attitude had anything to do with her folks. Despite her hopes, Quinn’s attitude hadn’t gotten any better since the move. If anything, he’d become even more withdrawn. She knew fourteen was a rough age, full of angst and drama, but she didn’t remember the anger.

Quinn was pissed off all the time, for seemingly no reason, and she didn’t know how to change it. Every attempt to cheer him up was met with scorn and rejection. She’d truly believed getting him away from the crowd of juvenile delinquents he’d been hanging out with back in the city would make a difference. So far the only silver lining she could pinpoint was his lack of access to the booze and pot he’d been busted with over the summer. However, just because she had yet to see an improvement didn’t mean she was giving up. If Quinn’s happiness and welfare depended on her digging deep to scrounge up every least shred of hope she could find, then she would dig a damn hole to China. She wasn’t giving up on her baby. She was going to love that child until he had no choice but to start loving himself.

Lila pulled into her parents’ driveway, killed the engine, and jumped out of the car before the radio had even shut off. She had an hour to shower, change, and get her butt to work. She’d been lucky to land a nursing job at the hospital almost right away and enjoyed her work, if not the hours in which she did it. Swing shift sucked, but it was the price she had to pay to get her foot in the door. All she had to do was bide her time and wait until something on a more stable shift opened up. In the meantime, she would make do. She’d gotten by on a hell of a lot less than she had now.

She hurried through the living room, waved to her dad on the couch, and continued on down the hallway beyond to the smallest room in the house which she’d claimed for her own. At one time, her dad had used the space as his home office. Since he retired, the room had been collecting dust. Although it was barely large enough for the full-size bed and dresser she’d stuffed inside, there was enough room for the bare essentials, which was all she’d ever need. It wasn’t as if she’d ever be using the space to entertain. That part of her life was permanently on hold.

While she’d claimed the cramped downstairs bedroom, Quinn had taken her old room upstairs. He needed the extra space more than she did.

She rifled through her closet, pulled out bright pink scrubs, and set them on the foot of the bed while she dug through the top dresser drawer for undergarments. With a fresh bra and panty set in hand, she darted across the hall to the one and only bathroom on the first floor to shower.

Twenty minutes later, she stepped out of bathtub to discover she’d left her clothes on the foot of her bed. Typical. The bigger the rush, the more scattered her memory tended to be. She pulled on her bra and panties, spent an eternity blow-drying her long, thick hair, and then applied just enough makeup to keep her from looking like an extra on The Walking Dead. Satisfied with her appearance, she yanked open the door and found herself face-to-face with the biggest damn man she’d ever seen in her life. His dark eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed as he looked her over from head to toe. Realizing she was standing almost naked in front of a complete stranger, she shrieked and backpedaled, slamming the door in his face. Her fingers trembled over the lock, taking twice the amount of time needed to turn the simple latch.

Holy shit. Her face heated and her pulse raced. Who the hell was that guy?

Knuckles rapped softly on the door, followed by a low, deep voice. I’m sorry if I startled you. Your dad said it would be all right if I used the bathroom. He didn’t warn me it was already in use.

Okay. So her dad knew the guy. He must be all right then. Don’t worry about it. Could you, um, turn around or something? I need to get to my room across the hall, but I forgot to bring clothes into the bathroom with me.

That sounds like quite the predicament.

I guess.

He chuckled quietly. You coming out?

Maybe. Do you have your back to the door?

Sure.

That didn’t sound very convincing, but it wasn’t as if he hadn’t already gotten an eyeful of her body. She unlocked the door and turned the knob. Taking a deep breath, she yanked it open and rushed forward. True to his word, the guy stood facing away from the bathroom. She glanced at him as she hurried by, noticed his shoulders were wide enough to block half the light spilling down the hall from the living room, ran into her room, and shut the door behind her.

She closed her eyes and rested her forehead against the door. Her day was off to a wonderful start. Maybe she could flash someone at work as an encore.

With a sigh, she turned to her waiting clothes and finished getting dressed. She grabbed her purse and keys off the dresser and headed out. The handsome stranger was sitting on the couch with her dad when Lila walked into the room.

Come over here for a second, Lila. Her dad waved her over. Have you met Stuart Watson? He’s our local sheriff.

No, I can’t say that I have.

The