Bunny and the Bear: A Shifter Romance Novella, #1

By Cassandra Johnson

Nineteen-year-old Tiffany Bradwell is a cashier at a local grocery store, her life isn't especially exciting, but it isn't what she would call boring either. Tiffany has established a routine for her life; she's also a were-rabbit with no family and no pack to turn too, until all that changes one night when she escapes being eaten by a bear.

A were-bear.

In the heat of the moment, the two make passionate love to one another.

Finding herself alone in the morning, Tiffany realized that she doesn't even know her mystery man's name or how she will ever find him again.

Can there be love between a bunny and a bear?

But that is only the beginning of the changes that are to follow their one-night stand.

Tiffany takes a chance and becomes friends with a local bondsman and decides to spice up her life by helping Margaret Birdie of Jail-bird Bail Bonds tracks down one of their latest bond-'hoppers', but that is when things start to get a little 'hare-y'.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cassandra Johnson
• Release date: Sep 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393706533

Cassandra Johnson

Growing up in the deep south I was taught some precious life lessons; you should always answer with Ma'am or Sir, tea that isn't sweet and iced is blasphemy, and that you catch a lot more flies with sugar than you do with vinegar. I was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas but I was raised in the small town of Marion, Arkansas a short fifteen-minute drive from Memphis, the birthplace of rock and roll. While it may not seem like an accomplishment to some, I am proud to say that I was a published author before the age of thirty and I have many more books left in my head to share with the world. My first novel, LRR Hood is a twist on the classic Little Red Riding Hood fable, and I currently have two more books lined up for a trilogy series of the main character, Elle Marshal's dramatic encounter with werewolves, one of my favorite mythical creatures. My writing continued to evolve from the time I was a teenager, getting involved in text-based roleplay games where my friends and I would create storyboards where we each contributed to the story through the eyes of the character's we chose to write for. I also love fan-fiction and was an avid reader and still am to this day. I decided to throw my hat in the ring and write some of my own fanfictions until eventually, I wanted to work with characters that were my own. From those days I continued to write short stories that never reached the public until I was introduced to Kindle Direct Publishing because while I wanted to be a writer and I wanted to publish my work, I never truly believed that anyone would publish my writing and I now have a work in progress list as long as my arm, and it continues to grow every day, LRR Hood won't be the last you hear from me.

Book preview

1.

Nineteen-year-old Tiffany Bradwell looked at the clock on the register for the fifteenth time in the last minute. It was ten forty-five and her shift ended at eleven o’clock.

Tiffany suffered from varying degrees of depression and anxiety, perhaps it came from the sense of having no one. No family to turn to, no pack to lean on during those hard times when every sense in your body began to ache and tingle, craving the release of the full moon. Of course, were’s of her species were often ostracized. Rabbits weren’t exactly vicious, but they suffered from the same symptoms as those of wolves, bears, coyotes and every other were in the world. Nevertheless, Tiffany was never taken seriously by other packs, and given that rabbits were so rare in the shifter community –she felt alone and unwanted. Were-rabbits were usually seen as the lowest shifter in the food chain, totem pole –whatever you wanted to call it. Her family had been killed by a group of hunters two years ago leaving her an orphan. The men didn’t know that they were shifters of course, when they found the bodies of a man and a woman naked in the woods, they reported them to police and told them that they had been hunting rabbits. Their deaths were chalked up as an accident, her parents were buried, and Tiffany had to find a way to move on.

Sometimes, the emptiness of their loss was so great, she sought some way to release the pain. Shifting was absolutely one of them, but without anyone to run freely with, Tiffany pushed the shift as far as she could until she could barely stand it anymore. Sometimes, she hurt herself on purpose just to push the aching need back. The result was a myriad of scars on her thighs and legs. It wasn’t until she was in unbearable physical pain, that she couldn’t ignore her needs anymore. As lonely as she felt, why would it truly matter what she did to herself? Was it healthy? Of course not. But it worked –at least until she reached the dangerous stages.

Tiffany would be forced into a shift after a period, where she had no control over it –it could happen at any time, at any place.

She was putting herself in danger as well as the entire species of shifters. If humans ever knew about them? They could barely accept one another who were of different skin color, how would they react to a human who can turn into an animal?

Tonight, was the night. She would have to turn and shed her skin for a furry pelt, to run freely for the first time in nearly three moons. Tiffany had never stretched it out this long before and now, she was afraid of what might happen if she waited any longer. Even this morning she felt the pounding of her pulse in her ears, begging her. The tension in her muscles, the pain in her abdomen. Her co-workers chalked it up to her monthly. Oh, they had no freaking idea just what kind of monthly it was.

Tiffany looked at the clock again. Just a few more minutes until she could clock out and the store was dead at this hour, but there was no way that Ryland would let her clock out early, it didn’t matter if there was no one in the store.

Cleaning her register, she went around, wiping down the remaining five that were left in a mess by their cashiers for the day. Only Tiffany ever cleaned up her workstation when it was getting close to the end of her shift. Sometimes she worked the closing shift and came in for the opening shift, so she liked to come to work and find a nice clean area to work in that she didn’t have to struggle to clean up around checking customers.

Spotting a lady with a full cart coming towards the registers, she popped out, seemingly from nowhere, her reflexes showing off the urgency of her need. Right this way, ma’am. I’m on register three. Tiffany smiled and hurried to beat her there, unlocking her register as the system was on a timer and if left inactive for three minutes then it automatically logged you out. Signed in, she pulled the cart a little closer and smiled again.

I bet you’re about to get off work for the night, aren’t you? The blonde asked her. By Tiffany’s guestimate, the woman was probably in her early fifties, her hair was bleached blonde, but she could still make out fine gray hairs that she was trying to beat back with the aid of a top salon stylist. She was pretty, and she would always be a good-looking woman. Tiffany could already sense she was one of the good ones.

Yes, ma’am at eleven actually. The time has just been dragging on and on. I was happy to see you come up. It helps the time go by a lot faster. Tiffany replied with a little chuckle as she took her shoppers discount card and scanned it before she began to scan each of the items in her cart.

I remember those days, I worked at this chain a long time ago for about ten years. I was a cashier as well as bookkeeper. I can remember those days and nights when the store was slow, and it felt like the clock would just get stuck. The woman supplied with a genuine laugh as she moved down to the end of the conveyer belt and began to sack her groceries while Tiffany scanned them.

Yes, that is exactly me right now. I was so relieved to see you. What do you do for a living now, if you don’t mind me asking? Tiffany didn’t think she looked old enough to have retired, but hopefully, if she had left the store, she left for something much better.

My husband is a bail bondsman, so after we got married, I left to help him. I even took some classes to become a private detective –it makes being a bondsman very helpful when people decide to disappear. She told Tiffany.

Wow, that must be very exciting work, Tiffany said, taken aback, she imagined that it was a very demanding line of work, but at least she got to work with her husband, and she’d gotten to expand her knowledge of the field and even further into detective work. Do you ever do work for the police? Tiffany asked, grabbing the scan-gun to get the two cases of water loaded onto the bottom of the cart before she rolled it down to meet the woman and began to sack up items as well.

I do from time to time, but what I primarily deal with are spouses who want to know if their wife or husband is cheating on them. I truly enjoy it when I get to sink my teeth into a real case, something with a little more depth than just finding out which no-tell motel someone’s spouse is taking another warm body to. My name is Margaret by the way. Extending her hand, Tiffany stopped what she was doing to grasp it, she had a nice firm grip but not so firm that it hurt. This wasn’t a pissing contest.

I’m Tiffany, it’s really nice to meet you. Your job sounds incredible. Hitting the total button, Margaret slipped her chip card into the card reader and pressed all the necessary buttons.

It’s been a pleasure talking to you, Tiffany. Say... you wouldn’t happen to be interested in getting out of this line of work? I mean, I’m not knocking it. It paid the bills for many years, but eventually, you kind of want to try something new. Margaret was putting away her debit card, taking something from inside of her wallet. It was a card.

I don’t know, I probably wouldn’t be awfully good at it, Tiffany replied, though her honeyed eyes watched what Margret was doing, eagerly, her fingers twitched.

Hey, how do you know if you never give it a try? Here’s my card. If you ever want to ride along or know more about the bondsmen business, come by the office and we can hang out for the day and I’ll show you around. It’s hard as hell finding good people sometimes and I get a good vibe from you. Handing Tiffany the card, she took it quickly, looking at it a second as the receipt paper printed and smiled, quickly pushed it into the pocket of her apron.

I’d really like that. Thank you. The drawer popped open, and she took a quick look at the monitor. Are two tens okay? Margaret needed cashback.

That’s perfect.

Taking out two tens, she ripped the receipt off the printer and handed it over to the woman. Have a good night. It was nice to meet you again.

You too. You come to see me some time. Margaret said before she put everything in her purse and pushed her cart away.

Glancing at the clock, it was two minutes after eleven and Ryland was at the front, unlocking the doors to let Margaret out of the store. Smiling, she logged out of her register and quickly went back to the break room to clock out and take her purse out of her locker.

Even if she never saw Margaret again, she’d helped get her through the most agonizing fifteen minutes at this job she had ever experienced, and Tiffany would always cherish the woman’s optimism for that.

2.

The mountains of rural Virginia were one of the best places to be when you were shifting, at least that was always what she believed until her family was killed. Tiffany never understood why they shifted during the day, but it had always been safe –now that Tiffany was all on her own, she strictly stuck to nocturnal practices. Hunters weren’t out in these woods at night, plus the forty-five-minute drive it had taken her to get to her favorite spot had helped a little more time pass. No one would be out at this time of the night. No humans, no hunters, no problems.

Maybe it was part of being a shifter rabbit, but Tiffany always had strong thighs, and the moonlight gleamed off her porcelain skin as she stepped out of her battered ’94 Accord. Tiffany looked around, though she could already tell there was no one around in this isolated area.

With the door of her car still open, she lifted her blue polo shirt over her head and tossed it into the seat of the car, removing her bra and black shorts soon after, during the summer months, Tom’s, the store she