Heart of the Bear (The Heart Chronicles #3)

By Alyssa Rose Ivy

Love often comes when we least expect it.
Bear shifter Shaw is at a loss. His role as an agent for the Rangers has him running non-stop, and he can’t get over his best friend's decision to quit in the dead of night. He’s not thrilled about being partnered with a human for his latest mission, until he meets Janie.
Janie is homesick. The excitement of being a consultant for a supernatural agency has worn off, and all she wants to do is go home. She’s about to call it quits until she gets to know her new partner, Shaw.
Working together on a mission with high stakes and deception at every turn, Janie and Shaw might just have to take their partnership to a whole different level.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alyssa Rose Ivy
• Release date: Feb 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005879174

Alyssa Rose Ivy

Alyssa Rose Ivy is the bestselling author of more than fifty novels with over one million books sold worldwide. She loves to weave stories with romance and humor, and she is best known for writing about college boys with wings. After surviving law school and earning her masters in library science, she turned back to her creative side and decided to write. Although raised in the New York area, she fell in love with the South after moving to New Orleans for college. She lives in Alabama with her two children, and she can usually be found with a cup of coffee in her hand.Series by Alyssa Rose IvyThe Chronicles- New Adult Paranormal and Fantasy Romance-The Crescent Chronicles-The Empire Chronicles-The Dire Wolves Chronicles-The Allure Chronicles-The Forged Chronicles-The Grizzly Brothers Chronicles-The Pteron Chronicles-The Heart Chronicles-The Triton ChroniclesOther Paranormal/Fantasy/Dystopian Romance- Full Moons- The Corded Saga- Willow Harbor- Vampire Emails- Lunar Academy-Ghostly ShadowsYA Fantasy Romance-The Afterglow TrilogyNA/Mature YA Science Fiction Romance-Half LightContemporary Romance/ Romantic Comedy-The Hazards Series-Clayton Falls-The Mixology Series-Life After FallingVisit me on the web at:http://www.alyssaroseivy.comwww.facebook.com/AlyssaRoseIvytwitter.com/AlyssaRoseIvyhttps://www.instagram.com/alyssaroseivy/Sign up for my new release newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ktlSj

Book preview

Heart of the Bear

Heart of the Bear

The Heart Chronicles

Alyssa Rose Ivy

Copyright © 2021 by Alyssa Rose Ivy

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Cover: Cover Couture Designs

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Contents

1. Janie

2. Shaw

3. Janie

4. Shaw

5. Janie

6. Shaw

7. Janie

8. Shaw

9. Janie

10. Shaw

11. Janie

12. Shaw

13. Janie

14. Shaw

Thank You

Afterword

Flight

Preface

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Janie

Inever imagined I’d miss Pepperville so much. I’d spent a great deal of my life wishing I could move away, and the rest of it coming to terms with my love for the small town, despite its limitations. Now, I would do just about anything to get back home.

I missed my house. I missed my friends. I missed teaching history at the high school. Sure, it had been my choice to leave, but now I wanted nothing more than to head back and get a cup of coffee while catching up with all the locals I had been tired of before I left. That’s how life was. You got what you thought you wanted, only to wish you’d kept everything the same.

My phone buzzed. I looked over at where I’d tossed it while reclining on the hotel bed. I was so tired of hotel beds. Really I was so tired of hotels. No matter where you were, they all seemed the same.

I gave myself a few seconds before I glanced at the phone screen.

Be in the car now.

An order. I’m not sure why I hadn’t expected all the orders when I agreed to consult for an elite supernatural organization, but I hadn’t. Not really, at least not enough. I’d been prepared for the stress and the lack of control over most of my daily life, but I hadn’t thought the rest through.

Be there in five. I knew I didn’t have five minutes, but I was taking them anyway. Well, at least two. Maybe not the biggest act of defiance, but it was one. It counted as something.

I packed what few items I had unpacked and tossed them into my no longer quite so new suitcase. It’s funny how something that was once exciting—using my first new piece of luggage since college— becomes something completely boring. Just a tool to get through the drudgery of life.

I took one last glance around the room, the room that had been my home for a few weeks, and headed down the hall to the elevator. I was so close to paying off the last of my student loans. Once I did that, I was done. I was going home.

Why so glum? Reginald, my handler for the lack of a better term, glanced over at me as we pulled out of the hotel parking lot. In the beginning he was introduced as my partner, but it became very clear who called all the shots.

No reason. Lying. Yet another change in me since agreeing to consult with the Rangers. I’d never lied so routinely before.

You are lying. He glanced over as he called me out.

Am I? I gazed out the window, watching the strip malls that all looked exactly the same.

Yes.

I’m homesick. That wasn’t a lie. I was very homesick, even if I didn’t quite know what part of home I was homesick for.

I’m sorry.

Not your fault. It was no one’s fault really. Well, other than my own. I was the one who had taken the position without fully thinking it through.

Hopefully you can get back for a visit soon.

I want more than a visit. I wasn’t sure where this burst of honesty was coming from, but I didn’t have the energy to hold it back.

So you think. A few days back in your old life, and you’d be ready to get back to work.

Maybe. I pulled my eyes from the window. Where are we going this time?

Massachusetts. Fall River to be specific.

And why are we going there? Has The Society taken an interest in the history of textile manufacturing? I leaned back in the seat, trying to get comfortable as we merged onto the interstate.

Because you knew that’s what Fall River was known for without my saying anything?

Yes… at this point that shouldn’t surprise you. I took off my tennis shoes and pulled my feet under my legs.

No, it shouldn’t. I’ll admit at first I didn’t get why they were paying a human so much to consult, but you are like a walking encyclopedia of history and you know how to research.

Maybe I could do this remotely? Just show up when it’s time to actually search the archives that have no online access?

We don’t have the time for that. You know how time sensitive this is. When a rift opens or a crime is committed, we need to get there.

I know. I know. The rifts. These openings between worlds that had been occurring with alarming frequency were why I was even involved in the first place. Thankfully not every mission involved them, but many did.

But maybe after this mission you can visit Papayaville.

Pepperville, I corrected.

He smiled. Right.

It’s not so bad of a place. Just so you know.

I never said it was.

It’s small, but small can be good. It can also be stifling, but I was focused on the positive.

Who are you trying to convince?

I let out a slow breath. Fine. Me. I am trying to convince myself.

I really don't care where you are from. Or where anyone is from. I also don’t care where you live. Keep doing your job. I’ll keep doing mine. And we will help the world. Reginald always sounded that way. In the beginning it had thrown me off, but after a while I realized that was just his way of being, and I grew used to it.

Glad to know you care so much about me on a personal level.

Am I supposed to? He adjusted his hand on the wheel.

No…and I don’t actually care. I’m just in a funk.

And that funk is because you are missing home. Maybe focusing on the next assignment would help.

Do you ever miss home? I watched him, expecting him to ignore the question.

How is that focusing on the next assignment?

I am opting for a different distraction. Learning something about a coworker I never seemed to get to know. I was positive that was by his design.

This is going to be a tiring drive, isn’t it?

I would think real conversation might make it go faster. Why do we never have real conversation?

Yes, I miss home.

Oh. Wow. I didn’t bother to hide my surprise that he actually gave an answer.

You ask a question, I answer, and you say wow.

Yes. I looked at him. He looked tired, and for once he looked way older than his thirty-eight years. His age was one of the few things I knew about him.

I miss my wife. My kids.

Wait. What? Reginald was full of surprises all of a sudden. You have a wife and kids?

That surprises you? He glanced over at me.

I’m not surprised that you’d have them, but why haven’t you mentioned them before?

Because family has no part in our line of work.

I hope to have a family I might want to separate from work one day. Although I was beginning to lose hope it would happen. I just never seemed to meet the right guys, not that I’d had a chance to meet anyone on these missions.

He chuckled. Says the woman who’s homesick already.

One has nothing to do with the other, but how do you do it?

Do what?

Stay away from your family so long. Isn’t it hard? I was pushing my luck hoping he was going to give me any other information, but I figured it couldn’t hurt. I annoyed him plenty on a regular basis.

Of course it’s hard, but it’s my only choice.

There are other jobs. Ones that don’t keep you on the road constantly.

But this is the job I was born for. And I can help make a difference. For the general population and for my family.

Is that what this is really about? The noble cause? I hoped I wasn’t coming across as insulting, but somehow I needed to know.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the job, but yeah, I want to make a difference.

Didn’t see that coming.

You thought I was doing this for the money? He raised an eyebrow.

I don’t know. I guess I hadn’t really thought about it. And that seemed wrong somehow. Or really what was wrong was how little time I’d spent wondering about him at all. I’d quickly accepted he liked to keep all conversations focused on work. Even though naturally I was a talker, I’d worked diligently to keep myself quiet when I could.

Nor should you have. We aren’t supposed to get to know each other. We work together. That’s a big difference.

Where do they live? I asked.

Who? He rested his arm on the center console.

Your family.

Oh, not too far from where we are going actually. A bit outside Boston.

You should go see them. The thought came all at once, even though I wasn’t sure what I was going to do while he was visiting with them.

I’m hoping to.

Good. At least one of us would be spending time with the people we loved.

Is that enough about my background? Are you ready to talk about the assignment now? Reginald never sounded bored, but he never sounded excited either. It had been strange at first, the lack of emotion he had to most situations, but ultimately there was something comforting about it. It had a certain sort of stability to it.

Sure.

We aren’t working this one alone. He looked straight ahead as he spoke.

Oh? This was a development. Reginald and I had been working alone since I joined up.

We are meeting another shifter. He’s a bear.

A bear. Funny how a few years before I would have been thoroughly confused by that description. Now I knew that shifters came in nearly every animal form. Nice. Does he have a name?

Shaw. He accelerated and passed a slow moving truck. What does the name matter?

It doesn’t. But it’s nice to know the name of the person you are meeting.

For your information he can be a bit of a hothead.

Oh yeah? Like you?

I am not a hothead.

Obviously not. You are the opposite. It was a joke. I wasn’t sure what it said that after so much time working together he still didn’t know when I was joking.

Maybe Shaw gets jokes better than me.

A sense of humor is overrated.

Now I know you are in a funk.

I pulled my brown hair into a side ponytail. Nah. I’m just fiery today.

Fiery? Reginald glanced over at me. Is that what you are going to call it?

What would you call it?

Not stepping into that.

Okay. Tell me more about this case. I agreed with Reginald on one thing. I needed to distract myself.

You don’t want to know more about your new partner?

Wait. What? Somehow working with someone new had just become my having a new partner? Partner?

Yeah… I might as well tell you. You and Shaw are going to be handling this one on your own.

Uh… why? I may have given Reginald a hard time, but I liked working with him. He was good at what he did, and he was good at keeping me sane.

You going to miss me? He teased in a very non-Reginald way.

Why? I mean was it your choice? I was annoyed. Annoyed that he started this conversation telling me we were going to be working with someone new. Why mislead me?

Are you asking whether I wanted to get away from you?

Maybe not in so many words… I refused to let him know how much this shook me. I always felt weak compared to shifters, but that didn’t mean I wanted them to know that or about any of my insecurities. Strength equaled respect in the Rangers.

No. It wasn’t my suggestion. Orders from the top. But I’m sure you will be fine.

Don’t you get tired of having no say in things?

"I signed up for this job. I’m trained for