Danger Bear's Fated Mate

By K. R. Max

Grace - All my life, I’ve been so focused on survival, I’ve never really lived. Finding out I’m dying has me determined to grab onto life with both hands. That’s why I’m joining this medical trial, and, after one teeny, tiny, smoking hot slip-up, keeping my hands off the sexy hunk taking me there. Even if something inside me is desperate to get closer to this quiet, gorgeous man who makes me want things I’ve never dreamed of...

X-675 - I thought I knew who I was. I thought I was one of the good guys. Grace thinks I’m taking her to a medical trial. I know different, and now I’m questioning everything I am, everything I’ve done. I’ve done some terrible things.

The Haven bear shifters are the only ones I trust to keep Grace safe. The problem is, they know me, and may kill us both on sight. Even if they accept Grace, I’ll never see her again. But if my handlers catch us first, the consequences will be even worse.

K. R. Max brings you dominant alpha males, sweet, strong women, and lots of very hot and dirty shenanigans. No cheating or cliffhangers and a guaranteed happy ever after, all in a short, intense read which is sure to raise your body temperature. If this sounds like your happy place, scroll up now and click that button! Then lock the door and grab a glass of wine (or ice water)! It's about to get hot in here!

All Haven Bear Shifters books are standalones and can be read in any order, but you may get more out of each story if you read them in the order of publication, due to previous characters sometimes being mentioned in later books.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SkyTint
• Release date: Jan 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005429034

Book preview

Danger Bear’s Fated Mate

(Haven Bear Shifters #5)

by

K. R. Max

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

http://krmaxromance.com

Cover design by KR Max.

Author's Note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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Danger Bear’s Fated Mate

Grace

I look up at the outside of the municipal building, dragging in a breath, letting it out, struggling to control my nerves. This morning’s phone call from the blood donation service seems like a long way away. Maybe I misunderstood?

I shake my head. Can’t really misunderstand ‘we need to discuss your blood screening results’. I’ve been giving blood for years now and there’s never been a problem.

Until now.

A scent reaches me, something dark and musky and… damn, my pussy’s tingling. What the fuck?

I look around and my eyes clash with a sparkling golden gaze. Hello.

The eyes widen slightly as they register me, and I swear I see fireworks there—flashes of light, glittering gold and silver flakes.

It must be a trick of the light, and then they blink, and I’m able to look away.

I don’t look very far, though. Those amazing eyes are set in a strong, masculine face, all straight lines and hard planes, connected to a pair of huge shoulders on top of a solid chest leading into lean hips and powerful legs.

I suddenly realize I’m blatantly ogling a total stranger and whip my eyes back up to his. But instead of a cocky smirk, he looks...confused?

Which is weird because, with a face and body like that, I can’t believe he doesn’t get more attention than he can handle just walking down the street. I smile, a little hesitant, because I can’t believe this god is going to welcome that kind of attention from extremely curvaceous me.

Surprise, surprise, he doesn’t smile back. His eyes haven’t left mine, though, and I’m about to turn away when the corner of his mouth tips up, just a little.

He looks as hesitant as I feel, and something tilts inside me, wrapping around my pussy with heated need. Damn. A guy who looks like that and doesn’t act like he’s God’s gift to women? Cut me off a slice of that. Today is definitely my lucky day.

I suddenly remember why I’m standing outside this building. I close my eyes, telling myself that I’ve got more important things to focus on right now than a hot guy. I’ve got to go inside, and find out what the deal is. And maybe, when I come out, I could get to know this hottie a little better.

If he’s still here.

I open my eyes, ready to ask his name, but he’s gone. I blink, wondering if I’m just not seeing him, although how I could miss someone who looks like that is beyond me.

Nope. Still gone.

Maybe I hallucinated him in the first place? That’s a lowering thought.

Come on, Grace, I tell myself. No more stalling.

I swallow down the fear and push the door open, stepping inside.

It still looks the same as the last time I was here. Functional, utilitarian. Soulless. The kind of place that spawns bureaucracy.

I turn left and head down a corridor towards the room I gave blood in last time. The woman on the phone told me there was an office nearby, and I soon find it. It takes a minute to summon the courage to knock on the closed door.

Come in!

I open the door, and gape at the woman standing up and coming out from behind her desk. She’s a few inches taller than me, and curvy but slim. The kind of curvy most men actually go for, rather than my abundant frame. Her makeup is flawless, her hair perfect, and she makes me feel insignificant and frumpy just standing there.

Grace Linnerman? she asks with a smile, and I immediately feel uncharitable for not liking her. She’s warm and friendly, and I smile back.

That’s me.

Angelina Tatum, she says, holding out a hand. We shake. Take a seat.

I sit down, intertwining my fingers in hopes of hiding the trembling. Her gaze flicks down to my hands and a sympathetic expression fills her face.

So much for hiding anything.

I won’t beat around the bush, she says. The test screening looks for any signs of disease and it covers a wide range of conditions. I’m afraid your blood tested positive for cancer.

Cold washes over me, leaving me dizzy and swaying, even though I’m sitting down. Cancer? How can I have cancer? I don’t even feel ill!

You’re lucky we caught it so early, she says. It’s a very rare type, Hillcroft-Makin’s lymphoma, to give it its proper name. I’m afraid there aren’t many available therapies, and of course, they’re all prohibitively expensive. Most insurance companies don’t cover them, for that reason.

Of course they don’t. Nausea burns in my gut. I’m twenty-five years old. I didn’t even go to college. I’ve been so busy surviving since leaving foster care at eighteen that I haven’t even begun to live. A vision of green woods, filled with birdsong and the whisper of the wind through leaves, comes to me and I want to laugh, even as tears burn behind my eyes.

Guess I’m not going to get to hike the Appalachian Trail either, my dream since I was thirteen years old and saw an article on it in National Geographic magazine.

I’m so sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, says Angelina, handing me a tissue.

I hadn’t even realized I was crying.

It’s okay, I tell her, struggling to breathe. I appreciate the heads up. Do you know how long I’ve got? I’d… there are things I’d like to do.

Well, she says, hesitantly, and my heart sinks.

That bad, huh?

She gives me an apologetic smile. It’s a very aggressive disease. Normally I’d say, three months. Maybe.

I gape at her. That’s all? Fuck me.

Another thing I’ve never done. Twenty-five years old and never had sex. I sigh. I’m going to die before I’ve lived at all.

Wait…

You said ‘normally’.

This smile is a lot brighter. I did. The thing is, well, it’s risky, but there is a medical trial going on at the moment for this same form of cancer. It’s a very new treatment, groundbreaking, really, but there are always risks associated with these things. If you’re interested, that is. It’s free for you to participate, of course, and there’s actually a generous monthly stipend attached, as well as all your expenses covered for the duration of the trial, and the three years afterwards, just in case you need the extra support.

My eyes widen. Is she kidding? A chance to live a proper life, and get paid into