To Tame a Bear Read online

  Table of Contents

  TO TAME A BEAR

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Thank you!

  TO TAME A BEAR

  Emilia Hartley

  © Copyright 2018 by Blues Publishing. - All rights reserved.

  The contents of this book may not be reproduced, duplicated or transmitted without direct written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Legal Notice:

  This book is copyright protected. This is only for personal use. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s permission.

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

  Chapter One

  Dominic ached.

  Every step was pain, but he did his best to shove it aside and keep working. It was the only time he could ignore his beast’s roars and snarls. His knees and heels shrieked with lancing pain.

  Step.

  Step.

  He dropped a log into the forwarder.

  It crashed and bounced along with the rest. When he turned, Reid crashed into his shoulder. Pain flared, hot and devouring. Dom snarled instinctively. Reid stepped back, but his lips curled in response. His friend tempered his expression, but Dom had no such control.

  Not anymore.

  The best he could do was spin away from Reid. He focused on the stack of nearby logs, taking them one by one to the forwarder that would drive them down the mountain to a lumber vendor. His progress was slow and torturous, but he did his best to hide his pain from the others.

  Ever since the fight at the top of the hill, Dom’s life had been changed. The things Richard’s shifters had done to him to keep him from fighting back had left scars that ran deeper than he thought possible. Though he had healed, pain gripped him night and day. It drove his beast wild, to the edge of reason.

  The creature seemed on an unending rampage. It wanted to fight its way through everything that stood in front of it, friend or foe. Dom knew it feared being forced to kneel again. It feared being made weak and would kill everyone around it to keep that from happening again. It was dangerous, his beast, but Dom managed to keep it under control.

  For the time being.

  Step.

  Step.

  He hoisted the log to throw it in, but something slammed into his shoulder. He fell forward and caught himself on the back of the truck. His hand wanted to curl into the pain that overtook it. His shoulder throbbed.

  Worst of all, his knees shook.

  Before he could stop himself, he dropped his log and whirled on the shifter behind him. Reid raised his brows, as if to say so what. Dom’s body moved of its own accord. No—the beast moved him. It pulled his fist back. It brought it down on Reid’s jaw.

  His friend fumbled back under the force of it. Dom wasn’t one to start fights. For as long as they’d known each other, Dom had been the one to break up fights. He was always the hand of reason, the hand of justice. Now, his knuckles broke open when he brought his fist down again.

  Reid didn’t cower. He fought back. The pain of Reid’s punch was nothing compared to what Dom was living with. Dom’s mind echoed with the growls of his beast. The monster lapped up the violence. It enjoyed watching Reid stagger away with each blow.

  Dom fought to pull it back, to lock away his beast, but his own anger only fueled it. They hit the ground in a flurry of fists. Dom pummeled his friend, his thoughts melting into the beast’s until he couldn’t tell which was which.

  Finally, hands gripped him and pulled him back. Reid quickly threw one last punch. It caught Dom in the chin, jarring his teeth and making his vision swim. Dom growled and lunged away from those holding him. Before he could reach Reid, his friends grappled him again.

  They forced him to the ground, pressing his cheek into the dirt. Sticks and slivers poked through his new beard and into his skin.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” Morgan snapped.

  Morgan yanked Dom to his feet, putting himself between his friend and Reid. The way Morgan looked at him made a wave of revulsion crash into Dom’s stomach. The pain returned. It crept in, little by little until its claws seemed to sink into Dom’s soul.

  He let out a breath and tried to apologize. Instead, his beast’s angry growl slipped out. He swallowed the sound, but not before they all heard it.

  “You need to get your shit together,” Morgan warned him. His tone was gentle, but the warning was clear. Dom could see it in his eyes, the fear that they would have to do something about him if he didn’t change.

  But he had changed. Dom didn’t know if he could do it again so quickly. For the longest time, the one they’d worried about had been Orion. He was the one prone to fights, unable to bear the beast someone had given him. Now, that same concern and defensiveness was pointed toward Dom.

  Who had been level headed. Who had been calculating. Who, once upon a time, had his shit together.

  Before anyone could say more, Dom turned away from them. He went back to work. If they wanted answers, Dom wasn’t ready to give them. He didn’t even know if he had answers. All he had was the burning bead of anger that lived inside his chest.

  When he turned with a new log in his hands, he found they’d replaced Reid with Orion. The slim, young shifter bent and picked up the log Dom had dropped. Their eyes met as they passed. Orion gave Dom a wide berth. It wasn’t out of fear.

  Orion knew what it was like.

  He knew what to do.

  Dom sighed and tossed his log into the forwarder. They treated him like he was broken. It made him want to fight, to prove them wrong, but it didn’t change the fact that they were right.

  He grabbed the next log, each step growing heavier, and chucked it into the truck with a snarl. The last log went flying so hard that it left a dent.

  His beast hated them all. It hated them for being unable to understand. It hated them for understanding. Most of all, it hated them for being stronger. Because that was what changed. Both Dom and his beast knew it. What happened had weakened them.

  He knew his motions were getting erratic and dangerous. So, he turned his mind to something else. He did his best to drown his beast’s voice in mundane thoughts. First, he turned over a recipe that he’d been trying to work on. It was a Caribbean jerk spice blend. Dehydrating the lime zest and grinding it for the powder had proved difficult.

  Aimee could help, he thought. She might add a bit of sugar before grinding to temper the bitterness.

  Dom grabbed a nearby ax and set about chopping a stump. He poured the force of his fury into the motion.

  They couldn’t go near Aimee. Not anymore. He was unpredictable. If he let himself anywhere near Aimee, she would get hurt. He didn’t want to put her in danger anymore.
The echo of her body hitting the harvester rang through his skull again. It was a sound he couldn’t erase from his memory, no matter how hard he tried.

  Aimee was fragile. She was special.

  The truth was that she deserved more than Dom could give.

  He hated himself for wasting what time he’d had with her. The fight with the Den had made him wary. As much as his beast wanted to be near the otter shifter, Dom feared the threat of betrayal. Now that they knew which side Callie and Aimee stood on, Dom couldn’t go back to her.

  He’d been ruined and that had ruined whatever they could have had.

  Little by little, the sun set. Everyone went home to their mates save for Orion. The changed shifter lingered at the work-site, fiddling with machines and wires until he shut off the giant site lights. Dom knew it was a message that he should go home, too, but he didn’t want to go back to the cabin.

  Morgan and Callie had moved out. They were living in a camper, just for their own space. Dom had considered letting them have the cabin, but the gourmet kitchen still provided a good distraction. Without it, he knew he’d be worse off.

  Dom gripped the mulched stump and pulled. They had a machine that could rip the stumps from the ground, but he worked through the pain to do it himself.

  ***

  Aimee stepped carefully through the work-site. In the dark, everything was more ominous. The shadowed machines became monsters with long arms and clawed fingers. The first-aid trailer was a hulking beast at the top of the hill.

  Maybe it didn’t help that Aimee had been knocked unconscious here. What should have been a simple mountain hill had been turned into a place of nightmares. Aimee liked to think that she was resilient. She’d survived a lot, but the fight between Callie and her father left her more shaken than she wanted to admit.

  Finally, she found what she was looking for.

  The figure sat on the ground, one arm thrown over a bent knee. From the outside, Dom looked like he was lounging comfortably. Aimee knew she was the only one who could see it for what it was. He was hiding.

  She let out a sigh, feeling herself deflate, and climbed the hill toward him. The stumps in the ground had been somewhat cleared, but a few remained to make the hill treacherous. She slammed her booted feet into the churned earth to keep from slipping. It made the climb slow. Dom had all the time in the world to stand and run.

  When she finished, she was happy to see that he still sat where she’d left him. There was some small hope for him after all. At least, that was what Aimee wanted to think. Her heart had wrapped itself around Dom in the short time they’d known one another. For a long while, she could see it in his eyes that he didn’t completely trust her. It was as if he waited for her to hand them all over to Richard.

  It didn’t matter what she said. Lies were easily spent.

  But she’d fought on their side in the battle and made her loyalties clear. It should have cleared the air between them. Instead, a new cloud came and obscured them both. It hung between them, thick and impenetrable. All she could see was the shape of the man she thought she knew.

  “What are you doing out here? Haunting the hill?” She dropped to the ground beside him, even though it meant her pants would get damp and dirty. It was a small sacrifice she was willing to make.

  Dom said nothing.

  She couldn’t admit how much it hurt. His silence and the way he’d ignored her since the fight left her feeling hollow. They had something special before then, even if there had been obstacles in their way. Now, they felt worlds apart.

  Aimee desperately wanted to know what would pull them back together. Was there a magnet she could get that would draw Dom back in? A dish she could make that would win his heart all over again? She didn’t know.

  On the outside, Callie and Morgan’s relationship seemed easy. The moment Callie realized her father had lied, everything that stood between her and Morgan had disappeared. It had been simple.

  Aimee never wanted anything this difficult in her life. She’d never let the pressure to succeed at anything touch her. If she didn’t succeed, then maybe someday, she would. The distance between her and Dom felt like she needed it handled now. If she didn’t, Aimee worried she would lose him forever. That pressure scared her.

  “Go back to the cabin.” His voice was husky in the dark. “I’ll be there eventually.”

  “Eventually isn’t now. You should try now. It would feel great.”

  Even though it was dark, she could feel his eyes rake over her. She wanted them to stay, to devour her. Instead, they darted away again. She let out a breath and dug her fingers into the ground beneath her.

  It shouldn’t hurt this much, she thought. No one knew a whole lot about how the magic of mate bonds worked. Hell, no one knew when or how they happened. Many realized it well after the fact, looking back as an epiphany rocked them. Aimee tried to look back to see if there was a moment when she and Dom bonded, but she couldn’t find it.

  She thought what she felt for Dom could be as strong as a mate bond but had no way of knowing if it was true. All she could do was sit beside him in the dark and worry. She worried about his health, about what might happen if he let it get worse and worse.

  “I hit Reid today,” he said, finally.

  “I heard.” She wrapped her arms around her legs and set her chin on her knees.

  “I’ve never started a fight with any of them in my life.”

  The words came out jilted, but she stayed silent while he spoke. They both knew he hadn’t healed properly. Aimee worried that it was his beast halting the healing process. She’d been hurt, too, and had healed just fine. It was true that his wounds had been extensive, but a shifter’s healing capabilities were strong.

  Dom should have been fine.

  Yet, she could see the way he flinched with each movement, like a man in denial of his body. Everything he did seemed to surprise him. Aimee wanted to take the burden from him. Bears were strong creatures, used to those around them being weaker, used to demanding dominance. Her otter would not react so strongly to the weakness.

  Sure, it would be a bit cranky, but it wouldn’t push her to start fights with her friends.

  “Go home, Aimee.”

  Home.

  It was a strange word to her. For Aimee, home had always been a person, never a place. She could have told him that she was home, that he was her new home, but she wasn’t sure it was true. Dom was a lot of things to her, but most of all, he was confusion.

  Aimee let loose a sigh and leaned into him. “The hole in the wall makes the cabin too cold.”

  Dom didn’t move away, but he didn’t embrace her either. “The stuff to insulate it is coming in tomorrow. It will be fixed then.”

  Aimee was going to ask for him to warm her up. She didn’t even want sex, just to be close to him. Was it so bad to ask for a bit of cuddling?

  It was if the only reason she threw herself at Dom was because she’d lost Callie. Her best friend was not dead, but it often seemed like it. Callie had found her mate once more and was spending ample time with Morgan, making up for the years they’d lost. It left Aimee feeling adrift. Could it be that Aimee reached for the first thing she could find before drifting away?

  “I’ve been wondering,” she began, speaking to the ground more than anything. “Maybe it’s time for me to leave. I could find a small city and settle down for a while. Maybe open up a small restaurant and sell it once it becomes successful. Move on and open another.”

  She wouldn’t deny that she’d thought about this a lot. Her mind tumbled over her plentiful options, but always returned to the man sitting beside her. More than anything, she wanted to find a way to weave him into her story, into her life. She had to remind herself that if he didn’t want to be a part of it, she couldn’t force him.

  “That sounds…” Dom paused.

  Aimee strained to hear any kind of inflection in his voice. She couldn’t read him the way she could read others if she listened carefully. Dom ke
pt his voice carefully measured. Nothing about it gave away his thoughts or feelings, much to Aimee’s disappointment.

  “What? It sounds what?”

  He shook his head. It infuriated her. No matter what she tried, Aimee could not break through to him. She was moments away from cracking open his coconut and pouring her feelings into it.

  Swallowing, she forced herself to stand. She brushed off her butt and looked out into the darkness while she gathered her thoughts. If he didn’t want to listen to her or confide in her, she didn’t have to stick around.

  “I’m going to go overflow your bathtub,” was all she could say before leaving Dom where he was.

  Chapter Two

  The laptop ran torturously slowly. The webpage loaded, line by line, making Aimee want to tear her hair out. Beside her was an open notebook with options scrawled across it. Across from her, Callie sat with her feet on another chair and her hand in a bowl of browned butter caramel corn Aimee had made in her endless boredom.

  It was one of those blessed moments where Callie found the strength to tear herself away from Morgan and graced Aimee’s presence. While Aimee was bitter, she was also grateful for Callie. She’d shown up just when Aimee needed her the most.

  Normally, Aimee would drown her feelings in bright clothing, loud music, and bold flavors. Handling knives and flames could be cathartic, but she found her inner thoughts overwhelming while her hands were at work. Not even cheery K-pop could drown it out.

  “You have to ask yourself what kind of weather you want,” Callie offered. “I know you weren’t a fan of Alaska’s neck-deep snow.”

  Aimee held up her pencil. “It’s more about bodies of water. Which water is the cleanest and will be swim-able all year round. Is swim-able even a word? It is now. I declare it.”

  Callie chuckled and reached for another handful of caramel corn. Aimee cocked a brow, silently asking the important questions.

  “No. I am not pregnant. It’s just…we have a lot of sex. I need to keep my energy up.” Callie’s cheeks turned pink.