Diesel

By DJ Bryce

Sadie wants a fling, but Diesel wants forever.
Freedom.
When Sadie plans a trip to visit her sister Reagan in Alaska, nothing seems to be going right.
Her car breaks down and her view of freedom is clouded by the Grizzly Bear barreling at her.
She's lost, confused, and possibly in love?

Wild.
Bear shifter Diesel has always embraced his bear side more than the human. But when he sees a damsel in distress he can't help but feel protective of her.
The problem is, she doesn't know he's a shifter.

Together they must decide if their time in the wilderness is just a fluke, or if it's mate to be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bethany Lopez
• Release date: Feb 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463757611

DJ Bryce

Author DJ Bryce loves her men tall, dark, and Alpha. She can often be found relaxing with a cup of coffee, a handful of RedVines, and a good book, with her two dogs snoozing happily at her feet.She's a lover of The Walking Dead, Romantic Comedies, and writing sexy shifters.DJ Bryce is a pen name for USA Today Bestselling author, Bethany Lopez.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Sadie

Only me, Sadie muttered as she looked around the vast area.

Snow… that was all she could see for miles and miles. Well, and ice… snow and ice.

Sadie sighed audibly, then kicked the tire of her car, as if it were the car’s fault, and not hers, that it had run out of gas.

Stupid Sadie, she said, muttering again, even though at this point she could scream it as loud as possible, and no one would have heard her.

She’d noticed that she only had half a tank when she’d left town, but being a city girl, Sadie had been sure she’d have no problem locating a gas station along the way.

Yes, it was her first time in Alaska, and she was learning the hard way that there was a huge difference between living in rural Chicago and traveling in Alaska.

Pulling her fur-lined hood over her head and tugging the strings tightly to cocoon her face, Sadie was grateful that her sister, Reagan, had insisted she wear the well-lined coat. It was the only advice she’d taken from her practical sister, who’d been living in Alaska for the last five years.

Reagan, the sister she hadn’t seen, was the reason she was here, in fact. She was on a long overdue trip to visit since Reagan had left their home in Chicago. She’d gotten an offer to work with Outdoor Bound, a large company that was based out of Alaska. Reagan was a photographer for their catalog and loved her new life in what Sadie had just dubbed the coldest and loneliest place on earth.

If only Reagan had been able to pick me up at the airport as planned, she thought, but her sister had been given a last minute job and needed the money. She’d promised Sadie that her house would be stocked and ready for Sadie’s arrival, and that she’d return home the following day; unfortunately, she hadn’t accounted for her younger sister’s often flightiness.

Now, Sadie wondered how long she’d survive out here in the wild. Would anyone drive out this way, or was Reagan going to find her frozen body on the side of the road in a couple days?

Stop feeling sorry for yourself and move, Sadie said, her voice a little louder. Knowing that she needed to do something, other than just stand around and mope, she popped the trunk of her rental car and looked inside.

Orange cones, a spare tire, a flare gun, and a horn.

She could work with this…

Sadie posted the cones around the car, shot a flare into the sky, then began walking down the road in the direction she’d been driving. North, toward the small village Reagan had told her she lived in with six scattered neighbors.

As she walked, Sadie blew the horn in hopes that someone would hear the faint strains over the desolate expanse of snow.

She wiggled her fingers in her gloves, trying to keep the blood flowing as the cold seeped into her bones.

A sound had her spinning to the right, hope filling her at the possibility of finding someone to come to her rescue.

Instead of a person, dogsled, or god-willing, a car, what Sadie saw stopped her in her tracks, and had the horn falling from her hand, as it flew to her mouth to hold back her scream.

About a mile a way, a grizzly bear ambled toward her. Either sensing, or smelling, something in its presence, it stopped and stood on two legs. Close to seven feet tall, and over four hundred pounds of muscle, flesh and fur, the grizzly looked her dead in the eye.

Sadie was too scared to find the way the bear seemed to survey her and her situation strange; all thought had fled her, as she stood frozen to the spot. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out. Instead, she heard a whooshing sound inside her heart, right before her eyes rolled back in her head and everything turned black.

She passed out before she hit the ground, or the sound of the grizzly charging in her direction probably would have scared the life out of her.

Instead, she was unaware of the large beast’s paws crunching in the snow around her, and his snout sniffing her as he rounded her prone body.

Her body was lifted, but Sadie didn’t come to as she was carried away from the scene. Instinctively, she burrowed into the warmth of the fur that surrounded her, but her mind wasn’t ready to bring her consciousness back to the surface.

Sadie stayed passed out as they ambled across the miles of snow, before coming up on a secluded cabin nestled in the woods of the makeshift village. She didn’t wake when she was placed on the porch, nor when the sounds of bones shifting turned the bear into the large, silent man who carried her into his home and placed her on his king-sized bed, covering her reverently as he warred against the confusing emotions her presence filled him with.

Feeling safe, warm, and subconsciously relieved, Sadie snuggled into the comfy pillow and let the comforter envelope her, as she drifted deeper into sleep.

A few hours later, Sadie blinked rapidly as she tried to pull herself out of the haze of sleep and into her strange surroundings. It took her a moment to realize that she was in a bed in a strange room, and not still out on the road she’d been traveling.

Sitting up cautiously, Sadie looked around the room, hoping for some indication as to where she was. The room was sparse, with only a dresser, nightstand, and the bed. No decoration adorned the walls or filled the space. There were three closed doors, which Sadie assumed led to a closet, maybe a bathroom, and to the outside of the room.

She threw