Bucking Bearback

By Becca Fanning

Sun Valley is being threatened by an evil werewolf corporation that has its eye set on destroying the place. Jeanie Buchanan is a pawn in this game of greed and revenge. Sent to Sun Valley to do a survey of the land, she is ill prepared for what she finds there.
Mixing personal and business has never been Jeanie’s style but when Ryan Hunt comes to her aid, she can hardly believe her luck. In him she finds not only a hunk but a kindred spirit. Things heat up as the evil master minds of the plot to destroy Ryan’s home come to Sun Valley to seal the deal.
But will Ryan and Jeanie be able to stop the council from selling the land to Petersen-Snow? Will they have to lose their friend to Petersen’s mad desire for revenge? When it all comes down to a duel, Jeanie has to face the possibility that she will lose the love of her life.
This 15,000+ word novella has hot Bear Shifter action, a Happily Ever After, no cheating and no cliffhangers! I've attached some free stories afterward as my thanks to you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gizmo Media
• Release date: May 23, 2021

Book preview

Fanning

Chapter 1

Jeanie Buchanan found herself surrounded by pine and spruce. She loved spending time out in nature and it seemed that Sun Valley was as close to authentic nature as you could get nowadays. Birds sang around her as the breeze whispered in the trees. She stood for a moment and closed her eyes. Life was oozing out of the ground all around her as her feet crunched the needles that carpeted the forest floor. Behind her the mountains rose into the sky. It was beginning to get chilly in these parts and she zipped her jacket closed.

Strands of her long auburn hair waved in the breeze that carried a hint of ice. If she dragged this Environmental Impact Assessment out she might be able to get her company to sponsor her being here through the winter. She loved winter in the mountains. But it was quite clear that they really wanted a rush on things.

Petersen-Snow was a huge client of the Wilkes Environment Assessment Agency who were her current employers. Her manager, George Chavez, had made it abundantly clear that any deviation or delay would see Jeanie out on her ass. She couldn’t help that she did her job properly. It wasn’t her fault that she felt a sense of obligation to actually visit the sites before they became office blocks, mine dumps or landfills, or whatever else their clients had in mind. With Jeanie there was no compromise and she didn’t care about politics. She was however becoming vaguely aware that perhaps she should start to care about those things, if she planned to stay employed.

Originally from Chicago, Illinois, she had moved to New York right after graduating with the promise of work at Wilkes. She had been there for five years now and she thought she did a good job, but lately her manager had been irritated with her thoroughness.

George would often berate her for her travel account, her reports that were always more than competent and complete, and her flagrant disregard for specific instructions to ignore certain things.

It’s not that you’re not good at your job, Jeanie. You’re too good, he would complain. You just don’t have to turn over each rock in the place to see if there’s some endangered species of butterfly or something.

Well, George, turning over each rock is kind of what this is about. And you will never find a butterfly under one. Unless some total douche has put it there, she would retort.

And so it would go.

This time she was told to go out to Sun Valley, look around and then approve the deal.

Jeanie Buchannan had other ideas.

She took out her camera. Yes, she could use her phone, but she loved her Canon with its awesome zoom lens and it went everywhere with her anyway. Sighting through the eyepiece Jeanie captured the light as it slanted through the leaves turning the world around her a lovely shade of green. It was so peaceful here. She could forget just about everything. And even better, there was no mobile phone service here. No signal. It was like stepping back into the eighties but without the bad hair.

The Canon clicked with great self-satisfaction as she took pic after pic. There were colorful birds and small animals in the brush that she caught glimpses of through the lens. Then suddenly she saw something out of the corner of her eye.

It was big and black. Jeanie started in surprise.

She turned but there was nothing there just tree trunks. Jeanie smiled to herself. Alone in a spooky forest and her mind was already playing tricks on her.

No more horrors for you, she told herself aloud.

She sighted through the lens. There it was again the movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned and saw nothing but trees.

Then she heard something in front of her and she turned her head.

This time she saw it properly. A big black bear was standing not ten yards from her. He was huge and shaggy with a thick, luxuriant coat. He raised his muzzle in the air and sniffed. She was down wind. Well that would make things interesting. If the bear decided she was food, well then that was it. That would certainly spell the end of her. There was no way that Jeanie was going to make it to her car that she’d left up on the side of the road. Not unless she suddenly morphed into Hussein Bolt, which was unlikely.

The bear turned his shaggy head and bellowed. It was a raw, guttural sound that just emanated power. Jeanie let out an involuntary whimper as she stood transfixed. The roar was answered a moment later from behind her. Jeanie turned very slowly as though she was standing in treacle. Out from behind the trunks of the trees a big black shape