ROMANCE: Highland Bear Love : A BBW Paranormal Historical Billionaire Romance (Fantasy Alpha Male Shape Shifter Short Stories) Read Online Free PDF Page A

even though it was the wrong choice.
                  That’s what he told himself. Somewhere deep within him, his instincts cried out the opposite. She’s your mate! They screamed. Find her!
                  He shook his head and turned up the radio, trying to drown out his confusion. What if he did find her? He couldn’t trust that she wouldn’t continue lying to him, or that she wouldn’t run away again, choosing the wolves over him.
                  The city came into view, the silhouette of the buildings a shade darker than the night. He could see his offices from here. His building was amongst the tallest. The lights shone bright, his employees hard at work.
                  Suddenly, the voice of a child whispered in his ear, “Papa, save us.”
                  Nearly wrecking the car, he swerved into a ditch, a telephone pole inches from him. “What the hell was that?” he cried, and he began searching around the car, knowing full well that there was no child there.
                  Something changed inside of him. He didn’t know its source, but all anger and hurt he felt towards Kendell instantly disappeared. It was insignificant. She was his mate, and she needed him. He was sure of it now. His only thought was to find her and live up to his promise to protect her.
                  Sniffing the air, he caught her scent. It was intoxicating, with the honey of a meadow but the resilience of the sea. No one had a better sense of smell than a bear. Turning the SUV back onto the road, he followed her scent into the city to the more elite neighborhoods, parking just outside the mansion Freddie owned. She was in there – his mate. His family.
     
    ***
     

Kendell
     
                  Kendell woke next to a fireplace the size of a furnace. It was mammoth, longer than the length of her body as she lay stretched out on the floor several feet in front of it. The heat of the flames was almost intolerable, but they were not enough to burn her. She wished they had. Freddie stood nearby, watching her. She could feel his vulgar eyes on her. Waking to his company was worse than death.
    She sat upright and tried to move, but her ankle was chained to the mantle with an iron clasp. Even with the strength of a bear, she could not escape. Then she remembered why she had passed out.
                  “You shot me!” she said, glaring up at Freddie.
                  “It was a tranquilizer,” he told her, circling around her, much like the wolves when they’d chased her in the woods. “In my line of business, sometimes I need the beasts I pursue alive.”
                  “I’m not a beast,” she objected feebly, still struggling with the chain, even though her efforts were useless.
                  “But you carry one.”
                  She didn’t understand. She stopped struggling. “What do you mean?”
                  He smiled, but there was no humor in it. Only hatred. “You’re pregnant. With a bear.”
                  Instinctually, her hand went to her stomach. “That’s impossible. We only just–”
                  He cut her off, not interested in the details. “It works differently in the shifter world. That parasite within you has already latched on. You’re pregnant with his child.” Hatred wasn’t the word. Freddie was enraged, his fury burning hotter than the fire she was chained next to.
                  “What are you going to do?” she asked, suddenly much more protective of her body than she had ever been before. Death was not an option, not if what he said was true, which she knew it was. Her dream of the little bear cub, her newfound strength – it all made sense.
                  “Lucky for it, I don’t know how to destroy it without destroying you. I’ll let it grow, and when