Mated to the Wilde Bear

Chapter 1: Laurel

“If you want to move up in this company, you’ve got to go down.”

Laurel read the note one last time—handwritten and complete with a little smiley face and a penis hanging out of the mouth—before tearing it into tiny little pieces with her fingernails. When she was done, she carried it to the trash can and lit the damn thing on fire with the lighter she’d stolen from her assistant. Screw Jones and his disgusting come-ons. The next time he sent her a nasty note like that one, she’d shift inside his office and claw his balls off.

After eleven years with the Wyoming Department of Transportation, she was sick of the kind of men who ran the workplace. But she was even sicker of ignoring them. Notes like these made it almost impossible not to give in to her animal. She needed to shift. And fast.

Another wave of heat washed over her. Sweat broke out on her brow and lip before she wiped it away, a sure sign she’d resisted her animal for too long now. God, these hot flashes were making it hard to see the words on the paper. She could not afford this. Not today, with her monthly reports due by midnight.

At the door to the conference room, someone cleared their throat. Laurel looked up to find Scott, her administrative assistant, casting furtive glances around the room. Great, he probably thought she was trying to get freaky with herself or something. As the only woman in management, Laurel knew what they said about her. About what she must have done to “climb the ladder” to get here.

“Yes?” Laurel snapped.

“Um, Gerald called for you,” Scott said in a nasally voice. He had a habit of looking everywhere but at Laurel.

“I’ll take it in here,” she said, already reaching for the phone in the center of the table.

“He’s already gone. A plane to catch,” Scott explained.

“Then what did he?—”

Scott shoved his glasses higher up his nose and finally met her gaze. “An emergency call out on Highway Six. Near Cripple Creek. Mountain biker went down in a gorge. Boss wants you to handle the field report and coordinate with Blue Bear Search and Rescue.”

Laurel frowned. “Why Search and Rescue?” she asked. “Shouldn’t we call the Ranger’s office?”

“Like I said, he’s stuck in a gorge, ma’am. No human can get in there.” He practically sneered at that, and Laurel quickly realized the unspoken meaning behind his words. Of course. Gerald wanted a shifter. Scott despised them, as did a number of others whom she’d met here. The world as a whole might have accepted the existence of shifters, but individually, there were always exceptions.

She’d been extra careful to keep her animal hidden around Scott. Around everyone, actually. In her experience, sharing that part of herself always ended in hurt and disappointment—and usually someone leaving for good.

“Right.” She closed the folder containing the budget reports she’d been assembling and pushed to her feet. “Radio whoever’s on site. I’m on my way.”

Scott nodded and scurried off. Laurel packed up her paperwork a little slower than she probably should have. A mountain biker’s life was at stake, after all. But she’d avoided this particular part of the DOT’s job for years, and she dreaded having to do it today—even if she was only filling in for Gerald.

Being on site for emergency calls meant dealing with Blue Bear Search and Rescue. And they weren’t just any Search and Rescue, but the Wilde Mountain Crew. Just thinking about them brought on another hot flash. A combination of anticipation and panic. What if it was Wilde Bear himself?

She’d only ever seen the alpha polar bear from afar, but he was breathtaking and terrifying even from a distance. And he was rumored to be a party boy back in the day, although she hadn’t seen him with a single female since she’d moved here last August. Maybe he kept his partying behind closed doors. Heat rose along her neck as she pictured what sort of partying that might be.

She quickly shook it off again. She’d carved out a very sheltered life for herself here in Blue Hole these last couple of years. Private, careful, always professional. And now she was going to be face to face with the one group of people who could ruin it all for her, who could easily figure out her secret.