Double Bear Trouble: Werebear BBW Menage Romance (Hockey Bear Season Book 1) Read online

  Double Bear Trouble

  Hockey Bear Season

  Anya Nowlan

  Contents

  A Little Taste…

  Copyright

  1. Chloe

  2. Dante

  3. Dominic

  4. Chloe

  5. Dante

  6. Chloe

  7. Chloe

  8. Dominic

  9. Chloe

  10. Dante

  11. Chloe

  12. Dominic

  13. Chloe

  14. Chloe

  15. Dante

  16. Dominic

  17. Chloe

  18. Chloe

  19. Dante

  20. Chloe

  21. Dominic

  22. Chloe

  23. Dante

  24. Dominic

  25. Chloe

  26. Chloe

  27. Dante

  28. Chloe

  29. Dominic

  30. Dante

  31. Chloe

  32. Dante

  33. Chloe

  34. Dominic

  35. Chloe

  36. Dante

  Epilogue

  Want More?

  About the Author

  Thank you for reading!

  A Little Taste…

  “You still owe me that drink, Chloe. Don’t think I’ve forgotten,” Dante said, letting the pull he felt towards her echo in his voice.

  “Don’t listen to him, Peaches. I’ll show you a good time,” Dominic winked, not one to let the attention fall away from himself for too long.

  “I don’t really want to spend time with either of you,” Chloe huffed, looking anywhere but at them.

  The way she squirmed a little at the notion made him think she wasn’t quite as adamant about it as she would have liked to be.

  “That’s not the impression I got when I had you in my arms,” Dante teased.

  “Or when you were straddling me,” Dominic quickly added, as they both scowled at each other.

  “Those were both accidents!” Chloe demanded, her voice rising.

  “I have to say, I didn’t think our taste in women was all that similar. But Peaches here is proof we really are brothers. I can finally stop pestering dad into admitting you were adopted,” Dominic said with a wink and a smile.

  “She really is something, isn’t she?” Dante all but sighed, watching Chloe stare daggers at the both of them.

  “Finally, something we can agree on. Now we have to figure out which one of us gets to take her home.”

  Dante was opening his mouth, ready to launch into an argument with Dominic, when Chloe cut in.

  “That’s it, I’m leaving. I don’t have to listen to any more of this,” Chloe huffed, her face flushed as she stomped over to the door and opened it, only to come face to face with Janice.

  “Good, you’re all here,” the woman said, brushing past Chloe and slipping her phone into her purse. “I see you’ve already met Dante and Dominic Kenner.”

  Chloe’s eyes grew wide as she remained standing still at the door.

  “These are the Kenner twins? Sally’s former clients?” she asked, flabbergasted.

  Dante cocked a brow and crossed his arms across his chest. He got a feeling he knew where this was going… and he didn’t mind one bit.

  Janice had always had their backs, but this time, she was really giving them more than she knew.

  I have to remember to send her a basket for Christmas or something.

  Copyright © 2017 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.

  Double Bear Trouble

  Hockey Bear Season

  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

  One

  Chloe

  “You wanted to see me?” Chloe asked, hesitantly popping her head into her boss’ office.

  With the way people were packing up their desks all around her, being called in by Janice Lance, sports agent extraordinaire, wasn’t filling her with optimism. Chloe wasn’t even a full-fledged agent yet, only an assistant to one, so she wasn’t exactly irreplaceable.

  With people who had much more experience than her getting laid off one after the other, she was already bracing herself for a gentle, or on Janice’s case, a not-so-gentle ‘letting you go’ speech.

  “Yes, come on in,” the woman said, slamming her office phone down on the receiver with evident frustration.

  Wearing an impeccable pantsuit and with her dark hair in a sleek pony, the mere sight of her made Chloe feel inferior. Janice was sitting at her mahogany desk, looking markedly unhappy. She gathered herself somewhat as Chloe stepped inside, closing the door after her.

  “You’re probably wondering what I want to talk to you about,” Janice said, tapping a perfectly manicured nail on the edge of her desk.

  Running her palms down her pencil skirt, Chloe moved closer, sitting down on one of the chairs opposite Janice.

  “I think I have an idea,” she replied, trying hard to keep the sigh out of her voice.

  “Do you now?” Janice commented, raising an arched brow at her.

  Chloe wasn’t usually one to get easily flustered, having dealt with more than one rowdy professional athlete, but most of the time Janice was a lot scarier than the huge, muscled dudes she had to help wrangle.

  And she’s the one writing my paychecks.

  Not letting herself get distracted by Chloe’s embarrassed silence, Janice leaned back in her chair and continued on.

  “I’ve been keeping an eye on you, Miss Marks,” she said, in a tone that made Chloe question whether that was a good thing or not. “You’re motivated, intelligent, hard-working. All things I value. You could benefit from being a little more cutthroat, but you’ll get there eventually.”

  She smiled, baring her perfect teeth.

  “Thank you,” Chloe quickly mumbled, dumbfounded.

  Is this some kind of new firing strategy? Build ‘em up before you send them packing?

  The part about working hard was definitely true. She’d had her nose to the grindstone from the moment she arrived at Top Potential a little less than a year ago. One of the leading companies in the field, she had been more than thrilled to get a position at TP so quickly after finishing school.

  But after a scandal involving a basketball player they represented having a coke-fueled orgy in his hotel room, the company was ‘restructuring’. After accusations rose about one of their agents ignoring the player’s drug problem, and maybe even helping the guy score the coke, TP had to clean up their own image for a change, and fast.

  Which meant cleaning house.

  “So, starting Monday, you’ll be replacing Steve,” Janice said, crossing her legs under the desk.

  “I’m sorry, what?” Chloe blurted out, in a moment where her brain hadn’t caught up to her mouth yet.

  Steve was one of the company’s senior agents. Chloe hadn’t even known he’d been fired. The man had somewhat of a reputation as a womanizer, but by al
l accounts, he was very good at his job. The fact that Janice thought Chloe could replace him was somewhat mind-boggling.

  It wasn’t that Chloe thought she wasn’t good at her job, she knew she was. But after being certain she was going to be fired only a moment ago, she had trouble processing the news.

  “You’re getting a promotion,” Janice said slowly, leaving pauses between the words.

  God, she must think I’m such an idiot.

  “Thank you so much for this opportunity, Miss Lance. You won’t regret it,” she quickly said, before her boss had a chance to change her mind and give the promotion to someone else.

  “I better not,” Janice said, the smile that had been hovering on her lips suddenly gone. “I think we need a new approach here at TP,” she said, grimacing.

  Janice had made her disdain at the name known as soon as she had come on board, and still regularly made a face when she caught herself shortening Top Performance to TP.

  Chloe had to admit, making people think of toilet paper was probably not the ideal thing one wanted to do when bringing up the company you work for. But they were a brand now, and brand recognition was important. There would be no changing the name now.

  “Not everyone thinks I’m making the right call with you. Management was hesitant to put someone so new out there on the front lines. I assured them you were the right person for the job. I hope I don’t have to eat my words.”

  There was a definite edge to Janice’s voice now, making Chloe tense up in her seat.

  “You won’t,” she replied, straightening her shoulders and looking Janice straight in the eye.

  It was time to step up, and that also meant not getting tongue-tied and nervous around her boss.

  “That’s what I like to hear. Now get back to work.”

  Janice waved a dismissive hand at her.

  Chloe jumped up, giving Janice a quick nod before leaving her office. The promotion was a big deal, and something she had always aimed for. But these weren’t the circumstances she had been expecting. Many of her friends at the agency were now jobless, and she was under more pressure than ever to deliver.

  One misstep, and I’m next, she thought, watching Kyle, one of the agents, clearing the photos of his family off his desk and placing them into a cardboard box.

  Looking at the time on her computer screen, she was due for a break. She’d already had lunch behind her desk, and her shoulders and back were tensing up. The talk with Janice definitely hadn’t helped in that regard.

  Grabbing her purse from her desk, she got her phone and slipped out into the hallway.

  If there was ever a time to call up your best friend, this was it.

  “Hey, Amy,” she said as she walked, after her friend picked up.

  “Oh, no. Personal calls during work hours. Something terrible has happened. Did you get fired?” Amy asked, not bothering with greetings.

  “No, I didn’t get fired,” she replied, rolling her eyes.

  Though that’s a really good guess.

  “Don’t you roll your eyes at me,” Amy shot back, clucking her tongue.

  “I didn’t,” Chloe insisted, quickly glancing down either side of the hallway, half-expecting to see Amy lurking there somewhere.

  “I could hear it in your voice, dude.”

  Amy insisted on calling everyone and everything dude. Most of the time she sounded more like a stoned surfer than the extremely competent legal assistant that she actually was. Chloe chalked it up to her growing up in Southern California, and having legitimate hippies for parents.

  “Okay, stop stalling. You wouldn’t be hitting me up in the middle of the workday if something major hadn’t happened. Spill.”

  “I got a promotion,” Chloe sighed, sounding more dejected than excited.

  “That’s great!” Amy exclaimed. “Wait, why do you sound like that’s a bad thing?”

  “Because half of the company just got fired! Janice has high expectations of me, and I don’t know if I’m ready for this.”

  “Of course you’re ready. You’ve been working towards this since you got to TP. And you should be proud about being in the half that didn’t get fired. Instead, you got promoted. I’d say that’s pretty great. You’re on the winning end of that play.”

  “I guess I don’t know if I deserve this. I only ever got into sports to impress him, to have something in common, you know…”

  To make him proud. To try and be the son my dad always wanted but never got.

  “Shut your mouth, Chloe Marks. Don’t let your dumb-ass dad ruin this for you. You might have shown an interest in baseball and football to please him, but we both know it goes beyond that. Remind me again, what’s your favorite sport?”

  “Basketball,” Chloe drew out with an exaggerated sigh.

  “And is your dad into basketball?”

  “No,” she replied in much the same manner, pouting a little.

  “You are your own person and you earned this promotion all by yourself. Now stop moping around and, I don’t know, celebrate? You’ve been drowning yourself in work, I think it’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labor, don’t you?”

  “I guess…” Chloe said, sounding like a child being forced to do her chores.

  There was a staff party coming up, celebrating those leaving the agency. It would probably be a bit of an awkward party, but Chloe could bet good money on the fact that there would be decent wine there. She could say goodbye to her colleagues, while also having a drink or two. It had been a while since she had gotten out of the house.

  Or wasn’t in bed by ten.

  Geez, when did I get so boring?

  No rest for the wicked was definitely not something she could say about herself lately. There hadn’t been a wicked thought in her head, other than the occasional wish that the copy machine would burst on fire.

  “There’s no guessing about it. Live a little, Chloe. Maybe you’ll even meet someone, if you get out of your apartment once in a while. You’re too young to become a cat lady.”

  Yeah, like I have time for a relationship now, even if I wanted one, Chloe thought, almost rolling her eyes before thinking better of it.

  “I don’t even have cats,” she argued. “I don’t even like them.”

  “Yet,” Amy replied ominously.

  “Okay, mom. I better get back to work. I’ll talk to you later,” she said, avoiding the ‘meeting someone’ comment entirely.

  “Bye,” Amy chirped, before hanging up.

  Chloe marched back into the office with newfound determination. This was her dream job, and she was no stranger to hard work. She was going to show Janice her confidence in her wasn’t misplaced.

  I can’t fuck this up, she thought, glancing at her boss’ office as she sat down and rolled up her proverbial sleeves.

  Two

  Dante

  Dante kept his head down as he sat at the bar, staying away from his teammates so he wouldn’t ruin their celebration with his sour mood. His team, the Minnesota Grizzlies, had just come in third place in the National Shifter Hockey League playoffs. While that wasn’t anything to sneeze at, his sometimes overly competitive nature told him they could have done better.

  Making the playoffs had been a struggle, and everything past that felt like a downhill trot in the worst kind of way.

  I could have done better, he thought, downing his beer in an attempt to dull the pain in his shoulder.

  Hockey was a violent sport to begin with, but throw some shifters into the mix, and it could get downright brutal. Being checked by a 250-pound werebear was bound to leave a mark. Especially since Dante hadn’t let himself heal properly from the last time he got body-slammed onto the ice.

  Even with accelerated healing, and the full force of a pro hockey team behind each player, injuries could get a shifter down. And it wasn’t so easy to get up once you allowed them to start snowballing.

  Which, incidentally, was exactly what Dante had done.

  So when the goaltender, T
ate, came along and clapped him on the shoulder, he had to work hard to hide the grimace of pain flashing across his face. This wasn’t the time to let any weaknesses show.

  “Hey, man. What are you sulking about?” Tate asked, holding a shot of tequila in his hand.

  “Just tired after the big game.”

  Dante shrugged, eyeing that tequila with more than a little bit of contemplation.

  “Sure. It seems your brother doesn’t have that problem, though,” Tate grinned, pointing his chin at Dominic, surrounded by scantily-clad girls at the other end of the bar.

  “When has Dominic Kenner ever been too tired to try and get laid? The coach could put him through drills for twenty-four hours straight and he’d still find the energy to chase tail,” Dante said, tipping his beer glass to his mouth.

  “Well, you better be grateful he’s putting in the work for both of you,” Tate replied, waggling his brows and throwing a glance Dominic’s way.

  Dante sighed when he saw what Tate meant. With two blondes on his arms, Dominic was making his way through the crowd, winking at him. He suppressed a groan.

  “Good luck,” Tate grinned before slamming his shot and disappearing.

  “Brother, look who I found,” Dominic called out through the noise, even before reaching Dante at the bar.

  Let me guess, another puck bunny who knows everything about the players, and nothing about the sport?

  Not one to let his mood ruin his manners, Dante stood to greet the girls on either side of Dominic with a curt nod. They looked exactly like Dante had expected them to. Tall, curvy, impeccably made up and hot. The team only allowed the best quality of rabid fans near the players during celebrations, and less festive post-mortems.

  Dante wasn’t sure which one this party was supposed to represent, but it hardly mattered. Least of all to the women hanging off of Dominic, eating Dante up with their eyes.

  “This is Amber,” Dominic gestured to the woman on his right, “and this is Kelly,” he continued, kissing the cheek of the woman on his left.