The Right to Bear Arms: BBW Military Paranormal Romance (Wild Operatives, #1) Read Online Free PDF

invite him to dinner, Russ beat me to the punch.
    “I’d... like to do this again soon, Daniela. If you’d like.”
    “I would.”
    Relief flooded his features, as if he’d been afraid I’d turn him down. That idea never passed through my mind. It wasn’t just that he was sexy as all get out — he was a great guy, too. I had honestly enjoyed chatting with him all afternoon.

Chapter Three
    ~Russ~
    T he conversation and dinner with Daniela seemed to cure my wanderlust for the entire evening. By the time she left, the desire to strip out of my clothes and enjoy an evening stroll was long gone. The bear in me was equally satisfied by her company. Something about her appealed to my inner beast and soothed the animal at the core of my spirit. Had my bear recognized her as a potential mate?
    It was that attraction that had drawn me to use her rear yard as my path each night. When I saw her brand new hammock stretched between the trees, impulse drove me to climb aboard and make myself comfortable for a while. I didn’t count on passing out until past dawn, and I didn’t count on her seeing me. I certainly didn’t count on her feeding me.
    I’d taken a shine to Daniela from the very first time she offered me food while unaware of my true identity. It took a special sort of person to accept a wild animal in their backyard without any intentions of shooting it. Reappearing afterward required a battle of ethics — was it immoral to return morning after morning, knowing she’d provide me a meal, or was my animal form facilitating something we both seemed to crave?
    I was born this way. Most shifters inherited the trait from a parent, with exception to a few of our magical brethren like the loup-garou. A werewolf could infect a mortal human on the full moon, transferring a spark of the magic that allowed them to shapeshift. Most purists didn’t believe in creating new blood from lowly humans though. I’d run into a couple inbred packs in my day that would give Harry Potter’s Death Eaters a run for their money.
    While we were all uniquely different, we had a couple of similarities between our species. All shifters got the wanderlust from time to time, an irresistible urge to go back to our animal roots and roam through our native habitats. I could sate mine by taking a walk in my own backyard, but others, like my pal Taylor, weren’t so lucky. He had to drive into the country to shed his human flesh and prowl the hills in his natural mountain lion state. Ian was probably the safest among us. It took a bold bastard to shoot at our national bird. As for the rest of our old squad, their animal talents ranged from conspicuous to damned near invisible.
    I spent half of my enlistment period as a Special Forces operative in an elite group exclusive to shapeshifters. Ian was the second generation leader of the squad, following in his father’s footsteps. Together, we were unstoppable and we accomplished the impossible, handling critical government jobs from infiltration to surveillance.
    Since I was officially out of the Army, I remained on as a contracted employee. Lucky for me, they hadn’t needed me back for anything big since my retirement. It’d be a lie to say I wasn’t relieved for the break from war and battle, but I received damned good paychecks as a consultant. Between that and my Army pension, I was financially secure to enjoy life without any monetary concerns.
    After Daniela was gone, I laid in my bed imagining the pressure of her lips beneath mine. The feeling of lust for a woman had been gone for so long that its return almost struck me as foreign.
    There’d been no one since Katie, and wanting Daniela almost felt like a betrayal to my wife of sixteen years. The rational part of me also knew she wouldn’t want me to sulk at home in eternal mourning of her memory.
    To make use of my surplus meat from the grill out, I invited Daniela over again the next night. During a dinner of reheated burgers and sweet tea,