Bear Flesh Delights

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Blurb:

A bear shifter, paranormal romance novel. Amelia never thought a midlife crisis would hit her so early, hard or fast. To find some peace, she goes on sabbatical to a secluded cabin. But fate quickly intervenes in the form of two handsome men, Joe and Skylar!

As they guide Amelia around the area, they ignite a passionate flame within her heart. But Amelia discovers a startling secret: Joe and Skylar are bear shifters.

And now she finds herself in the midst of a supernatural war with the coyote clan! With danger at every corner, will Amelia reconcile the fact that she is in love with two men at the same time? Get answers in this werebear shifter romance book by Jane Rowe.

Chapter 1

Teaching classes at a charter school in Maine had sounded like an ideal job when Amelia Friar was fresh out of college a few years ago. She’d snapped up the position and relocated from Chicago almost without even batting an eye, and she really hadn’t looked back ever since. Of course, that was partly because she had nothing in Chicago to look back to. She was the only daughter of her now-deceased parents, so home simply wasn’t there anymore.

Now, four years later and just about to turn twenty-eight, Amelia had recently been forced to take a good look at her life, and where it was going. People liked to joke around about her making a better librarian than a teacher, call her a prude, or generally discount the fact that she was a person at all. Men saw her as some untouchable little wallflower, and as a result she rarely dated, just sat in her studio apartment reading or writing or knitting something staid to wear.

To be honest, she had been so fed up with it all recently that she went against her better judgment and started to see Samuel Simmons. He was a truck driver who was hardly ever around, but every few weeks or so for about the last year, he would come by her place and she would feed him dinner. The last few times he’d been there, the man had been more amorous than usual, actually graduating from a kissing to petting at last.

But then she had discovered that it wasn’t just petting he had been doing with Sally Gothwright. Her, he’d actually gotten pregnant, and they’d be getting married in less than three days. Now, Sam kept insisting that the two of them had never been anything but friends, and as she looked back on all the time they’d spent together, she supposed he wasn’t far from wrong.

Still, it had opened her eyes to her complete ignorance of how such things worked. Here she was, degree in hand and in charge of molding young minds in a prestigious private academy, and she didn’t know the first thing about real life. Well, no more. She was about to do something to change all of that.

She had just booked a mountain cabin for two months out at Moosehead Lake, where she intended to completely reinvent herself. She intended to buy herself a better wardrobe, get her hair done, maybe even paint her nails, and most importantly, buy a swimsuit that actually showed off a bit of flesh. That one was the scariest part of it all, since her strict upbringing had prohibited her showing off much of that before now.

Nervous of her decision now that the plans were made and her bags were packed, Amelia stepped into her bathroom and stared at herself in the mirror, as if trying to make certain if she really could pull something like this off. Her hair was long and blonde, and her beautiful blue eyes really made the entirety of her face. She’d always thought they were her best feature. Though, she did have full, reddish lips which looked plump enough if she puckered them just the right way.

“You’ll do, I suppose,” she told her reflection. Then, blushing despite the fact she was alone, she dropped her robe as well, assessing the rest of her. Slim, flat tummy—and flat chest. Well, not completely flat, she supposed. Maybe a handful each, but hardly the eye-catchers required to turn heads. She briefly toyed with the idea of changing that fact too, but she immediately dismissed the thought. She didn’t think she could ever do something quite as bold as that.

In any case, all there was left to do today before heading out was to shower, and then she would be on her way. She had hired someone to drive her out to her cabin, and then she was going to go completely off the grid. Nobody would see or hear from her for the next two months, with the possible exception of an editor if she finished writing a book at all during that time. Which, given her current habit of staying home to hide, she might very well manage to do.

About an hour later, clean, clothed, and totally nervous, Amelia answered the door when the driver knocked. She stepped awkwardly aside as she indicated the baggage she intended to bring along, and the guy wordlessly grabbed up a few of the bags. Not wanting to wait for him to come back for the other three bags, Amelia grabbed those as well, pausing to lock her apartment door before following him down the stairs.

“So, you’re off to the mountains for a couple of months, huh?” he asked as he tossed her bags into the back of the van.

“Um, yes,” she nodded, rubbing her palms over the arms of her sweater. “I’ve never been.”

“You live in Maine, and you’ve never been to the mountains?” he scoffed.

“Well, I’ve lived here four years,” she explained. “I lived in Chicago before that. No, I haven’t really been much of anywhere. I just flew here to Portland on a plane and started teaching classes. That’s about it.”

“Well, I could see why you might want to go then,” he nodded as he opened the passenger door so she could get in. “I’ll get you there in one piece.”

“Thank you,” she said.

The guy got into the driver’s seat and closed his door, pulling on his seat belt at about the same time as Amelia did, which made her blush slightly and wait for his hand to move aside before she clicked in her own belt.

“So, I imagine dispatch told you this drive can take a few hours?” he asked. “The traffic seems to be doing good, but either way it’ll be over three hours, so you may want to lie back and take a nap.”

“What are you, kidding?” she protested. “And miss all the greenery going by?”

“Suit yourself,” he chuckled.

“Yes, sir, that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

*****

Despite her resolve to do otherwise, Amelia finally dozed off after a couple of hours. However, she was awake just in time to catch plenty of views as they approached Moosehead Lake itself. The greenery overpowered everything else, in fact. There was a great deal more of it than there was anything else to look at, including buildings.

“Almost there now,” said the driver with a smile, which she sleepily returned. “I think you’re going to like it out here. I can tell about these things.”

“Really?” she smirked. “How so?”

“I don’t know, just do,” he shrugged. “Here’s the place. Now, are you going to need supplies before I just leave you to it?”

“Oh, no, I guess the family in the next cabin over is helping me out with all of that,” Amelia shrugged. “Thanks for asking, though.”

“Well sure,” he grinned. “I wouldn’t want to leave you out here on your own, with no idea how to manage. The wild things would get you for sure if I did that.”

“Wild things?”

“Yeah, you know, like wolves, bears, and coyotes,” he explained. “Things that would love nothing better than to have you for lunch. Last thing we need in these parts is another incident like that last one. You need to take care of yourself.”

“Wait, what incident?”

“Oh, that’s right, it isn’t likely to have been on the news,” he scoffed. “Family came out here last year and went missing, nobody has seen them since. I wouldn’t want to see something like that happen to a nice girl like you, that’s all. I think the coyotes must’ve got ‘em. But listen to me, scaring you senseless just as I’m about to go. Sorry, ma’am. You be sure and keep that number they gave you, and let us know when you want to return to the city, okay?”