Billionbears' New Honey: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Mail-Order Bride Menage Romance Read online

  BILLIONBEARS’ NEW HONEY

  SHIFTER GROVE BRIDES

  BOOK 2

  BY

  ANYA NOWLAN

  Copyright © 2015 Anya Nowlan

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Billionbears’ New Honey

  Shifter Grove Brides

  Book 2

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this work may be used, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means by anyone but the purchaser for their own personal use. This book may not be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of Anya Nowlan. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material is prohibited without the express written permission of the author.

  Cover © Jack of Covers

  You can find all of my books here:

  Amazon Author Page

  www.anyanowlan.com

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  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

  EPILOGUE

  LIGHT HIS FIRE EXCERPT

  WANT MORE?

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER ONE

  Danni

  “I don’t know when I’ll find a nice boy,” Danni said with a gentle smile, clipping the last few ends in the elderly woman’s impressive coif.

  “Well, I still keep sayin’ that it’s a real shame if a nice girl like you can’t find a man in a town full of shifters! Girl, with your curves, I know they’re trackin’ a path right up to your door! Don’t you go thinking’you can fool Mama Dean!”

  Danni grabbed a smaller mirror and brought it up behind the graying bear shifter, showing her the do from all angles. The corners of her mouth twitched as Mama Dean strung her fingers through her hair and beamed, smiling wide.

  “Do you like it?” Danni asked, begging and pleading with the spirits above that the matronly mama bear would just drop the topic already.

  “You know, I was just sayin’ to Michelle the other day that we need a good girl for hair, and then you arrived like a true angel! Yes, I love it! And I’ll be sure to send everyone your way, don’t you doubt that!”

  The curvy woman got up and grabbed Danni in a heartfelt, loving hug. Danni couldn’t help but grin, the smile stretching ear to ear like she was a kid getting cuddled by her grandma.

  “Now, you get this place all set up and then we can have real spa parties in here, you hear? Don’t forget a freezer for the bubbly! I want to hear all about it when you start drivin’ all these cowboys here outta minds!”

  “I’ll keep that in mind, Miss Dean,” Danni said, laughing.

  “Mama Dean. Don’t you forget it. But look at the time! I better get goin’ if I want to get home before my boys do!”

  Mama Dean unclasped her purse and retrieved a crisp 100-dollar bill. She tucked it into Danni’s hands and was already rushing out the door before Danni could go to the little metal box that served as her till for the time being.

  “I can’t take this, Mama Dean!” Danni yelled, running to the door in an attempt to catch her.

  Mama Dean called over her shoulder, “Buy yourself somethin’ pretty for the parlor, girl! See you in a few weeks!”

  Danni stood at the door, the bill still in her outstretched hand and a surprised look on her face. She sighed, smiling, and curled her fingers around the money. The street was nice and calm, as it always was in Shifter Grove, and warm sunlight beat down on the pavement – a myriad of sandy-colored stones, carefully laid down to form a pedestrian road.

  Sometimes, when Danni came to work in the mornings from her little cottage outside of town, she’d skip along the stones and pretend the ground was lava. Shifter Grove did that to her, made her feel like every day was worth living and every moment worth enjoying again. She’d missed that feeling.

  Inhaling the fresh, early summer air, Danni retreated back into the parlor. She hid the money in the box and, grabbing for a broom, began to sweep up the hair. Her parlor, Danni’s Salon, had been open for just two weeks, but she’d already learned the wealth of love and friendship Shifter Grove offered.

  Having arrived as a nobody and knowing no one in town, she had expected to have to work hard before she earned anyone’s trust. Instead, she’d found herself immediately surrounded by curious faces and shifters and humans alike willing to give her a helping hand. She still wondered whether the way she looked when she arrived had anything to do with it or whether Teresa, Slate’s wife, was right and that Shifter Grove just really needed someone who knew their way around a pair of scissors.

  Chuckling to herself, Danni turned on the radio. The deep bass of a clubbish pop song filled the air and she twirled around, shaking her booty to it. Work went easier when she was having fun, and having fun was all she was about lately! Well, in reasonable quantities, anyway.

  Danni was still amazed she’d found her way to Shifter Grove at all. An Ohio girl through and through, she hadn’t dreamt of ending up in Idaho, but a girl had to make big decisions when she found out that her life wasn’t all it had seemed to be. Danni only had to walk in on her cheating fiancée to realize that the life of a good, well-mannered call-center drone was not all it was cracked up to be. Especially if her fiancée was screwing Debby, the biggest bitch from work, on the side.

  Fuck Debby, Danni thought in an uncharacteristic bout of annoyance.

  Though she hadn’t said it out loud, her hand clamped over her mouth immediately and she glanced around herself as if to check whether no one had been around to spy on her thoughts. Shaking her head, Danni let that smile spread over her lips again and started swinging her hips to the beat of the song, giving the salon a thorough once over.

  Taylor, her fiancée, was in the past now. Right along with Debby. When she’d confronted him about what he’d done, the werelion shifter had just spread his arms and shrugged.

  “But I can’t help it, baby. You know I need to spread the goods around,” he’d said.

  It still made her gag a little, but Danni did her best to push it into the background. It had brought some negative changes along with the positive ones, though. For one, Danni wasn’t entirely sure she could ever really trust a man the way she had before. How do you go back to allowing someone to keep your heart when it just got trampled on by the last man given the privilege?

  Well, bygones were bygones, and she was just going to have to deal with it the best she could.

  Her new life in Shifter Grove was certainly helping. The rent she was paying for her salon and her new home was just ridiculously low. The cottage was owned by the Warfang brothers and the salon building by Warren Sawtooth’s wife Kasey. Danni had thoroughly expected to have to get a job and work for a few years before she could even hope to open up her own hair place – a secret dream she’d always had – but when Kacey heard about Danni’s aspirations, everything suddenly started falling into place.

  Kacey, Teresa and the rest of the local women kept telling Danni that she was
doing them a favor by opening a place where they could get pampered, but Danni recognized things for what they were – kindness. Pure and utter kindness, the likes of which could only be found in Shifter Grove.

  That was a really fortunate exit on the turnpike, Danni thought warmly as she emptied the scoop of hair into the bin.

  She’d just stopped for a quick bite, after having been led to Sunrise Diner by the signs pointing in its direction, but by the time she was drinking coffee and having pie, she knew she couldn’t leave. There was just something about Shifter Grove that felt like… like magic. Men who worked hard and played even harder, and women who could keep up and match the men beat for beat – she loved it. Though she was sure there was plenty of small town drama to go around, so far Danni had only seen the best side of Shifter Grove, and it seemed like nothing could mar it.

  Danni had never really fit in anywhere as easily as she fit in there. Though she wasn’t a shifter herself, she understood their mindset and shared their values. Plus, Mama Dean was right, it was nice to be appreciated for all her curves and her vivacious personality. Even though she had made a strict pact with herself that there would be no dating for a while – at least until she could look at a man again and not wonder whether he’d ever cheated on anyone before – it was incredibly hard sticking to that agreement.

  Because damn, the men in Shifter Grove! They should have been outlawed for how freaking hot they were. The weather was getting warmer bit by bit and Danni had already seen a few of the residents walk around shirtless. She wasn’t a gawker, but those guys sure made her head turn. And she hadn’t made a rule against looking, so she could steal glances at them to her heart’s content.

  Danni stopped in the middle of her mostly vacant parlor. So far she only had a rickety table, a big mirror and a chair. Even the little kit of essentials she had brought with her seemed like barely enough as each day brought new customers. There was plenty of work to be done, and that suited Danni just fine.

  If you’re working hard, you can’t think about that bastard, she mused quietly, her smile wavering again.

  Okay, so maybe she wasn’t completely over it yet. Maybe it was going to take a bit of time. Or maybe she just needed the right kind of man…

  CHAPTER TWO

  Rhett

  “We ain’t in Kansas no more,” Rush Dean drawled in his best Southern twang.

  Any other time, it would have scraped at Rhett’s ears, but this time he didn’t mind. Hell, he even chuckled.

  “You’re right about that,” Rhett agreed.

  They were both sitting on the hoods of their matching blue F-250s, and the nearer they’d got to Shifter Grove, the more awkward he felt driving the big truck. He was no cowboy, and neither was his brother, or at least they hadn’t been for a long time. The sun was slowly setting behind the hulking mountains, and Shifter Grove, nestled in a cushy little valley, was basking in the last rays. The Dean brothers had stopped on a hillside that gave them a good view of the town – they needed a moment of peace before rolling in.

  Rhett hadn’t even had to radio Rush to ask him to pull over. Operating on the same wavelength as usual, Rush had probably got the idea of taking a break before rolling into town at the same moment as Rhett had. Anyway, when they came to a stop, neither one of them was even a little bit surprised at what the other had been thinking.

  “So, you think Mama’s gonna have a big spread waiting for us? I’m fucking famished,” Rush said, leaning back on his elbows and chewing on some sort of stalk he’d plucked from the tall grass.

  Rhett shrugged. His thoughts were as far from food as they could have been, though he heard his stomach growling angrily at him – maybe dinner was a good idea. They hadn’t stopped to eat since dawn when they rolled past a pancake place and went to town on their all-you-can-eat policy. Those people didn’t know what they were getting themselves into, offering unlimited servings to two Mississippi black bears. But the pancakes had been damn delicious, and the Dean boys had left a generous tip.

  “Probably. I bet she’ll be ecstatic to see us.”

  “Billionaire boys return to their mother, the town remains indifferent,” Rush said, moving his hand through the air as if envisioning a headline in the local newspaper.

  Does Shifter Grove even have a newspaper? Probably not.

  “I’d be surprised if we were the first in Shifter Grove, though. Shifters have been killing it lately. Must be all that pent up animal rage, making them take the business world by storm. But I don’t know how many of them return to be chided by their mother,” Rhett said, chuckling.

  He dragged a hand through his messy auburn hair and then scratched his chin. He hadn’t shaved in days. That hadn’t happened in forever. He kind of liked it.

  “Well, money can’t buy you happiness, but it sure keeps the local mammal population safe and sound,” Rush noted with a yawn, adjusting his sunglasses.

  Rhett and Rush Dean weren’t your average black bear shifters. They were Alpha twins, destined for glory since the moment they were born. To the best of their ability, they had made good on that natural ability. Not only were they athletic (Rush in particular), they’d also made it their business to know everything they could about the world around them. Rhett made his first million at eighteen, putting up a hardware exchange business back home in Mississippi, and Rush had picked up a big endorsement the same year for his mountain biking achievements.

  Now they were both made men in their own right. Together, they owned expansive oil fields in both Texas and up north, and though Rush had hung up his helmet some time ago, he still managed a number of top athletes through one of his firms. Rhett had kept close to his roots as well – he owned Dean’s Hardware, the first and foremost seller of heavy equipment in the east.

  Yet, here they were, hanging out in bumfuck Idaho, considering their options for approaching their mother. Rhett felt Rush’s clear blue eyes on him and looked over to his younger brother by a few minutes, cocking his head to the side.

  “You thinking what I’m thinking?” Rush asked.

  “That mama’s going to have us married off so fast we won’t know what hit us? Yeah.”

  “She’s going to be ecstatic…” Rush said.

  Rhett caught the thoughtfulness in his brother’s tone. He knew where it stemmed from. What were two billionaire bad boy bears doing in Idaho, visiting their mother? Why, it was easy, of course! They were twenty-nine, going on thirty, and if that big 3-0 hit before they were married… Well, there would be trouble.

  Trouble that Mama Dean would never let them forget. Rhett shook his head. Their father had passed away when he and Rush were seventeen, just on the verge of their first breakthroughs. Before he left to join the great spirits above, their father had made a deal with them. Get married by thirty or give up everything they’d achieved and start fresh. Just donate everything and learn what it feels like to live as a nobody again, a man with just a name but no substance.

  And as much as they would have wanted to, the Dean boys couldn’t go back on their word.

  “You’ll never be real men before you know the love of a good woman. And you will never be as strong apart as you would be together, with a third to complete your Triad. You boys aren’t ready for this yet, but I want you to know that there will come a day when you will need each other, and you will need someone to show you what you two are truly capable of.

  If I know anything about the Dean men then it’s that they don’t know what’s good for them unless someone shoves their face in it. So that’s what this contract is for – so you two would get your noses out of the air and see what’s actually going on around you.”

  They’d signed and sealed it and everything. And now they were a month from turning thirty and the weight of their offhanded promise – though heartfelt and earnest – had come crashing down on them.

  “We shouldn’t have put this off for so long,” Rhett murmured, sighing.

  “Well, tough shit, brother. Here we are. I ha
d my heart set on a nice Mississippi girl, but mama would never let us live it down if we picked someone she didn’t personally get to meet before we married her, so we better hope you’re handy with that dating app and find us plenty of hotties here.”

  Rush grinned wickedly, popping his shades up in his wild hair. He was wearing ripped jeans and a white wife-beater and looked every bit the laid back thrill-seeker that he was.

  Rhett snorted in response, whipping out his smartphone. He’d been poring through SassyDate for days now and he had pretty much given up all hope. He never had had much patience. Only one woman had caught his eye – a curvaceous beauty with honey-blonde hair and deep blue eyes that made him think of the ocean – but she was in Ohio and they were in Idaho and it was all sorts of dire from there on.

  For now, Rhett’s only real mission in life was to survive the first dinner with their mother and listen to the very extensive nagging session they were sure to get for being so careless with their futures. Money certainly wasn’t everything – and Rhett secretly wondered that perhaps life without their vast, amassed fortune would be so much easier – but it was the life they knew. The Dean boys loved their mother dearly, but Mama Dean was an old-school shifter, and she had never failed to remind the boys that their mission was to give her plenty of grandbabies.

  A mission they had so far failed at.

  “Anyone we like?” Rush asked.

  Rhett had kept staring at Daniela’s picture on SassyDate until Rush’s voice stirred him from his thoughts. He closed the phone and tucked it in his pocket, shrugging his shoulders. He was still wearing a clean-cut white button-up and slacks and was starting to feel painfully out of place in them. You could stick a cowboy hat on Rush and he’d fit in right as rain. But Rhett? Classic case of a country boy who needs to get the country put back in him. Tragic, really.