Maddie Mine: Boulder Bear Shifters

By Rena Marks

She's on the run from a monster, but I'm here to protect her. No one ever expected me to fail.

 

Our lives changed the day she stumbled into our small mountain lodge to avoid the dark. I didn't expect anger to surge when she flinched. I didn't expect protectiveness to overflow, or the insatiable need to care for her.

I didn't expect jealousy when my crew wanted to feed her. She didn't expect a fight to break out—and watch me shift into a bear right before her eyes.

My life changed when she found out what we were. Now that she saw it, I can't let her go. I want her to be my mate.

But the life she ran from threatens to invade our newfound happiness. Can we protect her? Or will she pay the price for daring to leave a man of the law?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rena Marks
• Release date: Oct 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215643877

Rena Marks

Welcome to my Worlds! Rena Marks is a bestselling author with over eighty-five novels under her belt. She combines her love of science fiction with paranormal romance because no matter what happens in real life, a happy-ever-after never disappoints. Come get lost in my worlds for a few hours!

Book preview

Chapter One

Maddie:

THE SUN WAS WINNING the race, sinking down faster beyond the line of the horizon, and the woods were darkening by the moment.

Maddie didn’t dare press the gas pedal any deeper, despite the urge to get to the next town before the sun lost its golden glow completely. The winding, twisty roads in the mountains could be dangerous. Shadows engulfed the corners. She was frightened an animal would jump from the trees into her path.

The dark terrified her, turned her into a cowering woman she didn’t even recognize. Or really, didn’t want to recognize.

Her heart started to pound, then began hammering, the blood rushing through her veins. Despite the air conditioning in her Subaru, the damp curls underneath her hastily twisted topknot stuck uncomfortably to the back of her neck.

She wasn’t going to make it. Despite researching exactly what time the sun would set, and wanting to leave earlier, but she couldn’t. She’d had bags packed and tossed in the trunk for hours. He was watching, his patrol vehicle parked across the street from her bay window where she could see him. Couldn’t even complain because what was he doing wrong, finishing reports in his car? He was on duty. It was all plausible.

On paper.

As soon as his car rolled away, she turned on a small lamp to make it look like she was home, lifted the garage manually so the neighbors wouldn’t hear, rolled her car out, closed the garage door, and was gone in the opposite direction. She didn’t even bother to turn the car on. She just popped it into neutral and let it coast down the street, all the way through the neighborhood until there was no other way she could go, and then she started the engine.

She knew what would happen soon enough. He’d have a friend park his patrol car there to replace him, sending her a message that she was constantly being watched. Except this time, they were watching an empty house.

She’d considered leaving tomorrow when it took him so long to depart, but she’d already calculated the time until sundown. What she didn’t calculate was the fact that the sun set earlier in the west, hiding behind the mountains and the trees. The lack of city lights, making everything darker, not that her older car had quality headlights anyway.

As rows of pine trees sped by, she almost missed a tiny entrance opening that ran across a bridge covering a creek, but at the last moment noticed a row of cabins and a small, decrepit sign with the words Bare Mountain Lodge hand-carved that she could barely make out. Ha. Did they mean the lodge was bare? Or was it a play on words because there were bears in the mountains? She cranked her steering wheel, making a hard left and the squeal of the brakes probably left marks on the tiny bridge.

She parked at the first door, the one marked with a simple sign marked office, with the dimmest, bare-bulb porch light she’d ever seen. She stepped out of her car and felt a sense of relief as soon as her feet hit the ground.

She’d gotten away.

The air was much cooler in the mountains than in the city, smelled sweeter too. Smelled clean and fresh and damp from the stream.

The door was unlocked. There was an old lamp lit inside the office, but nobody waited behind the desk. An old-fashioned bell sat on the counter. She rang it once and waited patiently, hating that her back was to the door.

A quick glance over her shoulder showed her that her car was safe and still parked outside where she left it. That was a habit she had, always looking over her shoulder.

Growing more impatient, she rang the bell again and waited. Still, no one came.

No one was working.

She had no choice now. She couldn’t go back out there; she couldn’t drive in the dark. She’d missed out on what little daylight there was by turning into this—a giggle bubbled up in her chest—this resort. This mountain retreat. This very basic, DIY-signed, unadvertised campground. Out of spite she dinged the little bell harder, as if it could ring louder with the violent way she pushed the button on top. Then hell, because she had nothing to lose, she rang it continuously, over and over and over, just because she could.

If no one was here, maybe she could sleep here all night. Maybe parked in her car, but at least it was warm in the office. At first light, she could haul away before anybody noticed her.

What? A voice barked behind her.

Oh, formed on her lips as she spun around to face a giant shape. I-I’m sorry. I didn’t know... I thought no one was here to hear it.

Obviously. He glared at her.

Even irritated, there was no hiding his sex appeal. This guy was built like a linebacker. A dark scruff lined his jaw, and he had close-cropped, wavy black hair. His brown eyes were so dark, they appeared black, the irises blending with his pupils.

It made her straighten her spine because this guy—this scowling, sexy guy—triggered her awareness. He made her think things she hadn’t thought about in years.

I’m looking for a room, she said, a fake smile crossing her lips as if that would be enough of an apology.

His scowl grew deeper.

She faltered, not quite expecting that. It’s only for one night, she blurted out. It’s dark and I can’t see to drive all the way to Central City.

We’re full. This is the end of the season, he said. People book online months before now.

Her shoulders hunched in defeat. She learned to no longer argue after being told no. Okay. She turned to leave the small office, wanting to leave quickly, her humiliation complete. The first guy she’d been attracted to in a year—and he saw her as a loser, too.

Declan was right.

The wooden screen door banged behind her. Now it was pitch black out, she’d wasted precious moments inside an old office waiting for someone to show up. She should never have turned onto the decrepit bridge and should have ignored the old hidden lodge that obviously didn’t scream for new customers.

She was an idiot.

Wait. The deep, growly voice right next to her made her instinctively screech and drop, shielding her face. She had no idea how he snuck up on her.

But then it became embarrassingly clear no strike was coming. Slowly she raised herself from her flinch, shaking her hair back over her face.

Uh, you startled me, she whispered softly as if that could excuse the way a grown woman cowered. She just kept embarrassing herself in front of this hot guy. Could this day get any worse?

A muscle ticked in his jaw. The lodge is full, he said, but I own this property along with my...brothers.

There was a pause before the word brothers, which meant it could mean anything. The employee housing, he continued. We have one extra cabin you could stay in for tonight. If you want. The relief that hit was overwhelming. She nodded her head wildly, like a madwoman, up and down quickly, as if afraid he would change his mind.

I won’t be any trouble, she assured him, and his eyebrows knit together like he hadn’t even thought of that. Idiot, she chastised herself. Way to call attention that you might be trouble. He never would have thought of that had she not even mentioned the word. Just one night, she continued, her smile bright though her face was angled away from his penetrating gaze. I’ll be gone first thing in the morning.

Come this way. There was no softening of his voice as he led her down the sidewalk, but he stopped at her car. I’ll help you with a bag.

No, it’s okay. I can come back for it. The last thing she wanted was for him to see the inside of her car.

The way he turned his head made her aware that it sounded odd to refuse while they were already there in the parking lot, so she zipped her lip and slowly made her way to her car.

Your stuff will be fine here, he said, peering in the windows at the mountain of stuff that made her look like she lived in her car.

She popped the hatch on her Subaru, aware of all the boxes—and the lack of boxes—the stuff that she just piled inside because she’d run out and she couldn’t get more. She couldn’t have anyone know what she was doing. Plus, it wasn’t exactly like she could go to the grocery store and ask for boxes without the ever-watchful Officer Declan knowing. She also couldn’t order anything online to be delivered, aware he watched the packages coming and going. In the past, some had even gone missing as if he checked what she was ordering.

Riffling in the back of the car, she pulled out a small suitcase. It contained her basic essentials, her emergency stuff. If she lost everything, this was the one bag to grab. Cash, clothes, birth certificate, divorce papers. This was the bag to keep next to her at all times.

I’ll take it, he offered, leaning over to grab the handle from her grasp. Her lips formed a protest, but then their hands touched. Something zapped from his fingertips to hers, and it was beyond just static electricity. With it came a sense of awareness. His skin was so warm, his touch vibrant, and he looked as startled by the sensation as she had.

He straightened, taking the bag from her hesitant grasp. She closed the hatchback, locking it with the key fob, the alarm silent instead of honking the horn. She liked to be as unobtrusive as possible, as quiet as can be, even though this man had eyes that seemed to notice everything she did. She couldn’t act like a lunatic and pull her vital bag from his hand.

He led the way up a small set of stone steps and a small walkway path that was cordoned off with the chain and a sign that said no trespassing. It wouldn’t be a deterrent against people who really wanted to use the path, but it did let them know that this back route behind the office lodge was off limits. It would never stop Declan.

Wanting a flashlight, she pondered using the light on the cell phone. She’d kept her cell phone with her but it was turned off so the GPS would be disabled. It would only to be turned on in case of an emergency. Using the flashlight wasn’t an emergency worth getting traced for.

She’d considered buying a burner, but she hadn’t wanted to in the same town where he worked. He wouldn’t hesitate to ask anyone the contents of her purchases. More horrifying, people would answer before they thought twice about it. It wasn’t their fault. Sometimes he bragged that the authoritative tone in his voice compelled the truth. She knew otherwise. It didn’t compel the truth. It compelled you to say whatever he wanted, because you just wanted the interrogation to stop.

She understood why people broke. Why they confessed to crimes they’d never committed.

But she didn’t have to worry about seeing in the dark because he pulled a flashlight out of his pocket. Not a cell phone light, but an actual real penlight flashlight. He waved it across the trail in front of them so they could see as they walked, but all she really had to do was follow his larger body. It was amazing that such