All About the Bear (Grizzly Cove Book 1) Read online

  TALES OF THE WERE

  GRIZZLY COVE

  ALL ABOUT THE BEAR

  BY

  BIANCA D’ARC

  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.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Copyright © 2015 Bianca D’Arc

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Welcome to Grizzly Cove, where the sheriff has more than just the peace to protect.

  The proprietor of the new bakery in town is clueless about the dual nature of her nearest neighbors, but not for long. It’ll be up to Sheriff Brody to clue her in and convince her to stay calm—and in his bed—for the next fifty years or so.

  DEDICATION

  With heartfelt thanks to Jessica Bimberg, the first editor to see value in my work, way back in 2005. I’m so happy to be working with you again, Jess!

  And, as always, to my family, who continue to make allowances for the crazy writer in their midst. I couldn’t do it without your love and support.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  I wrote my first werebear way back in 2006. He was a supporting character in my first werewolf book, Lords of the Were. His name was Rocco Garibaldi and he finally got his own book, called simply, Rocky, in 2013. Since then, it seems a plethora of werebears have popped up all around, and because of that, I hesitated before starting this series.

  I was concerned that there might be too many werebear stories out there. That maybe readers were tired of them. But then I realized, I had to be true to the story in my heart and even so, my bears needed to tell their stories.

  I hope you will enjoy the bears of Grizzly Cove.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Author’s Note

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Excerpt from Mating Dance

  About the Author

  Other Books by Bianca D’Arc

  Coming Soon

  PROLOGUE

  “You want us to what?”

  The question came from Brody, one of the highest ranked of John’s lieutenants. If he couldn’t convince Brody of the genius of his idea, he’d never have a shot at convincing the rest.

  “We’re going to pretend we’re an artists’ colony. That’s the most sensible way we can fly under the radar around here.” He’d researched it, and it was the only plan that made sense for this part of the country.

  “But none of us are artists,” Brody insisted.

  “You can use a chainsaw, can’t you?” He pointed at Brody, then went around the circle of his top men who were all gathered to hear the latest mission plan. “We all know Drew whittles in his spare time. And Sven can carve ice. Remember the swan he made when we were undercover as caterers that time?”

  “Tell me it’s the fucking polar bear that came up with this,” Peter the Russian shot a disgusted look at Sven, who flipped him the bird casually as he sat back to listen. Sven could always be counted on to listen first before jumping to conclusions.

  As Alpha of this team of misfits, John had his work cut out for him, but he wouldn’t have it any other way. All bear shifters, they’d bonded together over years of covert missions and top-secret assignments. And now, when the world had gone to hell and it was time to regroup, John had finally put his long-term plan into motion.

  He’d been quietly buying up a huge tract of land near the very tip of Washington State over the past several decades. Every spare dollar he’d ever earned had gone into the project. He considered it an investment, and now that he had finally revealed his master plan to his men, he hoped they would take a more active role in buying up the rest of the land that they needed.

  It was wild country with few inhabitants, yet the city wasn’t too far away as the crow flies. And there were humans nearby. An Indian reservation and other coastal communities. If John and his team set up house here, they’d have to come up with a plausible cover story as to why there was suddenly a new settlement made up mostly of men in this remote area.

  John had a plan to even out the numbers, too, but they’d have to be in residence first before he could put out the call through the shifter community to invite female bears who were looking for a change—and possibly a mate—to join them. There would probably be a few humans passing through on occasion, so they really needed that good cover story for their little community.

  John laid out the long-term plan for them all for the first time, and thankfully, they listened. Bears were tricky. Most liked to roam alone, only settling down with a mate and raising their family much later in life—if at all. And they usually didn’t live in such close proximity to their Alpha, which was more a ceremonial title than an actual authoritative one.

  But John had been commanding officer to every one of the men who gathered around him at one time or another, and the role of leadership fell naturally to him. He might not be the biggest bear in the group, but he was universally believed to be the smartest when it came to strategy. He had hope for his people that they seemed to understand. He wanted to see these men, who had given so much of themselves to help protect the innocent, have fulfilling lives of their own now that they were retiring from the human world and its troubles.

  Things had changed drastically in the shifter community. Dark times had accelerated John’s plans for his men, but though they remained poised to help, the greater war seemed to be in a lull at the moment. Which left the bears at loose ends. That was why John had brought them all here, to Washington State, to lay the base for what he hoped would be a community that would last for generations.

  It was a social experiment the likes of which had never really been attempted in the modern age. At least not on this scale. But if anyone could do it, John knew his men could. Bears were both strong and patient.

  It took some doing, but eventually, he talked them all around, and they started planning in earnest for the settlement they were going to build. The community of Grizzly Cove would soon be a reality.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Brody walked along Main Street, marveling at the way the men had risen to the challenge when John set out the parameters for this new mission. They had drafted in a bit of help from the Clan of shifters that had their own construction company in Nevada, to plan and build the small town square. Other than that, everyone had built their own little den in the woodlands that surrounded the cove.

  A few also had houses and cover businesses in town. Brody had chosen to build his home on the outskirts of town, closer than most of the outliers. His job as sheriff of the newly incorporated town of Grizzly Cove, Washington, demanded his full attention. Now that humans were coming into town with more regularity, he needed to stay on his toes so his brothers and their secret would be safe.

&nb
sp; The town square had a plethora of art galleries that were filled with all kinds of stuff the bears had thrown together. Most of it was garbage, as far as Brody was concerned, but there were a few standouts. Drew’s figurines had always been nice, and they were bringing in big bucks, mostly by accident.

  Drew had put the first triple-digit prices on them as a joke, probably also hoping nobody would buy them. Much to his surprise, the rich humans who had bought the carvings on their way through town hadn’t even blinked at the high prices.

  That set the tone. After seeing the kind of money Drew was bringing into their community, it became a point of pride among the bears to try to do better. Even Brody had gotten caught up in the competition, learning how to use his chainsaw to carve logs into—what else—bears. He liked the irony, and the humans seemed to like the bears. They didn’t bring in the same prices as Drew’s miniatures, but Brody was working on improving his technique and learning to carve other things besides his self portrait.

  When he wasn’t busy being sheriff, that is. Not that there was much crime in their small town, but Brody’s unofficial job was to keep an eye on the humans. In particular, he was watching over a trio of new arrivals who had gotten permission to open a business. Though humans had passed through, none but this group of three sisters had been brave enough to go before the town council—made up of the Alpha and his top lieutenants—to seek permits to open a business here.

  There had been long, high-level discussions about the newcomers’ bid to open a bake shop. Over a case or two of beer, the town council had decided to expand their social experiment to include the occasional human female in the town, under strictly controlled conditions.

  Those conditions included discreet surveillance by the sheriff and strict limitations on where the females in question could live. In town. That was the only option open to them. Luckily, the sisters didn’t seem to mind.

  And so, Nell Baker—with the suitably ironic surname—and her two younger sisters, opened the Grizzly Cove Bake Shop and lived in the tiny apartment above the small store. Business was booming, because bears liked sweet things and because Nell and her sisters were easy on the eyes.

  Nell, Ashley and Tina were also some of the only females for miles, though they didn’t seem aware of it, at first. Only after they had set up shop and fallen into the routine of daily life, a few months after moving in, did they seem to realize there weren’t a lot of other women in the area.

  Oh, a few female bears had answered the Alpha’s open invitation to settle in the cove, but times were tough in the realms of magic and those whose lives were touched by it. Most shifters seemed to want to stay put where they were until things settled down. Apparently, John hadn’t really thought about that when he put his plan in motion, but it couldn’t be helped now.

  The shifter world was still in a holding pattern and would be until the enemy started up their old tricks again. Until that time, the bears were going to live…and live well.

  “Afternoon, Nell,” Brody said, walking into the bakery and finding the eldest of the Baker sisters manning the shop.

  Brody liked to come by a few times a week to check on things and pick up a pie. Nell made the most delicious strawberry rhubarb pies Brody had ever tasted.

  “Now how did you know I just finished a batch of pies, Sheriff?” Nell laughed as she teased him.

  Brody tapped his nose. “It smelled like lunchtime.”

  Nell rolled her eyes at him. “Pie isn’t lunch, Sheriff.” She motioned him to take a seat and brought over a cup of black coffee.

  Because there weren’t a lot of businesses in town where a person could get a meal, the bake shop had started serving coffee and sandwiches. The sisters baked artisanal breads in addition to the sweet stuff.

  There were a few small tables inside, as well as a few wooden patio-style tables with umbrellas out front along the wide sidewalk. A lot of the men who found themselves in town during the day got their lunch from the sisters, and the ladies did a brisk business. The few tourists and hikers who came through loved the bakery too.

  In fact, one walked in as Nell set Brody’s usual turkey on whole grain sandwich down in front of him. She’d serve him the pie later, but she insisted he eat a proper lunch first, before he devoured the strawberry-honey-rhubarb confection.

  Brody watched the tourist covertly as he ate his sandwich. There was something off about the guy, but Brody couldn’t catch much of his scent from across the room and with the air conditioning unit blasting in his face. All he caught was the pungent scent of eucalyptus.

  Maybe the guy had a sore throat and was sucking on a cough drop. Brody shrugged as he downed his sandwich, continuing to watch the tourist, his instincts telling him there was more wrong with the guy than just a summer cold.

  Then the newcomer started speaking in a heavily accented voice, and his words told Brody all he needed to know. The man definitely had a one-way ticket on the bus to Crazytown.

  “I heard there’s supposed to be a lot of bears around here,” the stranger said in a voice that carried to Brody, even as he stood to intervene. “But so far, all I’ve seen is a whole lot o’ nothin’.” The man leaned over the counter that separated them and took a very obvious sniff around Nell. Brody felt the growl reverberating in his throat as the man turned. “Finally!” he said, looking with challenge at Brody as he prowled across the floor of the bakery.

  “You’d better leave the lady alone, son,” Brody growled, moving closer.

  “Why? I thought Grizzly Cove was the place where bears could be bears. Or is that just a PR slogan?” The man—scratch that, the shifter—was breaking all sorts of rules, including the most important. Don’t let the humans find out.

  “Let’s take this outside, friend.” Brody tried to intimidate the man out of the place, but apparently, a dominance contest was about to take place, whether he wanted it or not, and Nell was going to witness it. Goddess help them all.

  He tried one more time, pitching his voice so only the newcomer would hear his words. “She’s human, man. Don’t be a fool.”

  “A fool! Who’s calling Seamus O’Leary a fool?” the stranger demanded, reaching up to unbutton his shirt.

  Only then, did Brody catch the underlying scent of alcohol.

  “You’re drunk,” Brody snapped out, hoping Nell would accept that excuse for the man’s bizarre behavior.

  “I am not,” Seamus objected, continuing to unbutton his shirt.

  If the moron was going to get naked right here in the bakery and shift, Brody was going to have to do the same and show him who the bigger bear was in the most graphic terms. But Nell didn’t know about shifters. And Brody didn’t want to be the one to break it to her.

  Better to arrest the drunken Aussie and handle all of this down at the station. When the foreign shifter sobered up a bit, then maybe Brody could make some sense out of his bizarre appearance.

  Brody put one hand on the foreigner’s shoulder. “Don’t do this here,” Brody coaxed. “Come with me, and we can do it properly.”

  Seamus shook his head. “Don’t want to meet me in public, eh, mate? Why? What are you? A pansy-assed panda?”

  Brody personally knew at least one resident of the cove who would take marked exception to that comment, but he was more worried about Nell, at the moment. The Aussie’s shirt was off, and he just unbuttoned and unzipped, kicking off his sandals.

  And then, he shifted. And got a lot smaller.

  He wasn’t a big man to begin with. Built more on the wiry side than the massive scale of most of the residents of Grizzly Cove. And he was gray. With tufted ears. And he wasn’t chewing cough drops.

  He was a fucking koala bear.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Brody learned, at that point, that koala bears—cute as they seem—have big fucking teeth. The furry little gray monster swiped at him with sharp claws and bared his chompers menacingly. The little bastard wanted to fight?

  Brody looked at Nell’s pale face. She was i
n shock, and Brody knew there was no putting this genie back in the bottle. Shit.

  The crazed koala came after him again, and Brody had had enough. He tugged his embroidered golf shirt over his head and dropped trou, shifting seamlessly into his beast.

  As a five-hundred-pound grizzly bear facing a comparatively tiny koala, the match was completely uneven. The koala seemed to realize it about the same time the alcohol he’d consumed when in human form caught up with him. He shuddered once, then collapsed into what Brody belatedly understood was a drunken stupor. The dude just passed out, right there on the bakery floor.

  Brody sat back on his haunches, contemplating the hugeness of the mess the Australian had just created. Nell hadn’t quite fainted, but she was visibly shaken. Brody didn’t know how he was going to fix this.

  And then, the Alpha walked in.

  Big John took one look at the koala bear passed out on the linoleum and started to laugh.

  Brody snagged his pants in his teeth and ducked behind a display case to shift. He struggled into them while the Alpha chuckled. When he emerged, dressed only in his uniform trousers, he looked at Nell but knew he had to square things with his Alpha first. It would be up to John, what happened next.

  Although, if John had any thought about running Nell and her sisters out of town or trying to silence them permanently, he was going to have to go through Brody. He would protect the brown-eyed baker with every fiber of his being.

  Whoa. That sounded serious.

  Brody realized, in that moment, that all of the lunch hours spent here in the bakery were merely excuses to be close to Nell. He’d made up errands near the bakery, just so he could catch a glimpse of her through the window. And he’d come in more often than he probably should have.