Bear's Curvy Mate: BBW Shape Shifter Paranormal Romance (Nightbrook Book 2) Read online

  BEAR’S CURVY MATE

  By

  Natalie Kristen

  Town of Nightbrook

  MATED TO THREE WEREBEARS

  BEAR’S CURVY MATE

  Copyright © 2018 by Natalie Kristen

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without the author’s written permission, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are used fictitiously or are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual locales, events, establishments or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Epilogue

  Also by Natalie Kristen

  About the Author

  About this Book

  Hollie Crawford was brought into a wolf pack as a little girl. But as a half-breed, she can’t shift and she was relegated to the lowest rank in the pack.

  Watching and observing the pack dynamics as an outcast, Hollie instinctively and intuitively knows that something is not quite right with her pack.

  Things come to a head one night when she is dragged into the forest to be punished for a crime she didn’t commit.

  Kyle Anderson doesn’t quite know what is up with his bear. His beast is acting up, becoming increasingly aggressive and angsty of late.

  When Kyle saves a feisty, curvy redhead from a vicious assault, his bear knows that he has found his mate.

  He swears he will do everything to keep Hollie safe and heal her wounds. But not all her wounds are visible.

  Hollie never really knew what normal was.

  But Kyle is showing her that a normal life is possible even after everything she’s been through.

  Can this peace and happiness really last?

  Can this strong, protective and incredibly sexy man truly be hers?

  Or will her past come back with a vengeance to destroy her and those she has grown to love?

  * * * * *

  CHAPTER ONE

  Hollie Crawford bit back a curse when she heard someone yell her name. “Hollie! Hollie, you’re wanted in the main dining hall! Now!”

  Hollie jerked her head up and grimaced. “M-me? Why...” Why me? Again.

  She sucked in a fortifying breath and squared her shoulders. “Are you sure? I didn’t do anything.” She shook her head quickly and corrected, “I mean, I do all my chores and...” And pretty much do the work of ten people, but...who’s counting?

  Hollie bit her lip and kept a neutral expression. It would do her no good, no good at all to voice her thoughts out loud. She was the lowest-ranking member of the Black Blade pack, so it was in her best interest to just stay silent. In fact, it was the only way to stay alive.

  The lieutenant stood at the kitchen door and glared at her. “Yes, I’m sure. I’ve been ordered to escort you to the Alpha. Move, Hollie,” he snapped.

  Wincing, Hollie dried her shaking hands on her apron and made her way past the other cooks in the large kitchen. She felt all eyes on her, but none of those eyes were sympathetic. In fact, some of the cooks were smirking. There was a sadistic gleam in their eyes. She heard someone blow out a sigh of relief and mutter under his breath, “Thank goodness it’s not me.”

  As long as someone else got in trouble with the higher-ups, the rest were safe. For the time being.

  It was every wolf for himself in the Black Blade pack.

  When something went wrong, you just had to point the finger, pin the blame on someone else and shift the attention away from yourself.

  As long as the problem, any problem, could be dumped on a scapegoat, things would be fine. The rest of the pack could carry on as if the problem had been solved. Everyone would be happy. Everyone but the scapegoat.

  But Hollie never liked playing this sick game in the pack. Instinctively and intuitively, she just knew that there was something very wrong with her pack.

  The very heart of it was rotten.

  Hollie had never been in any other shifter pack, but she suspected that the incessant backbiting, malicious gossiping and snitching that went on in the Black Blade pack wasn’t exactly the norm in other packs.

  In fact, the Alpha and Beta actively encouraged and even rewarded this practice and behavior in the pack. The seeds of distrust, disloyalty and discord were sown among the pack members.

  The members were brainwashed to be loyal only to the Alpha and Beta, but not to their pack mates. It was almost like a totalitarian regime, where the people were completely subservient and unquestioningly obedient to the leaders.

  Was this how other shifter packs were run? Hollie had no idea. She was kept busy from dawn to dusk, working in the kitchen and helping out with the cleaning, gardening, ironing and a myriad of never-ending chores. She had no friends outside the pack. She had just turned twenty-one, but her knowledge of life outside the pack was severely limited.

  Hollie had been with the Black Blade pack since she was a toddler. After her mom died, her dad brought her into the pack. Her dad was a wolf shifter, a lieutenant in the Black Blade pack, but her mom was full human. Hollie was a half-breed, and she quickly learned that half-breeds weren’t allowed the same rights and privileges as the rest of the pack.

  Her dad was a lieutenant, a good soldier, and his loyalty was to his Alpha. Growing up, Hollie hardly ever saw him. He was always away on missions and jobs that he never talked to her about. There was a strict pecking order in the pack and being a half-breed, she was at the very bottom of the hierarchy.

  When her dad died on a mission when she was seven, Hollie was allowed to stay with the pack. But the shaming and taunting got a whole lot worse.

  At that time, she was just grateful that she had a roof over her head. But looking back, Hollie wondered if her life would have been better if she had been thrown out of the pack and left to her own devices.

  Out in the streets, at least she would know where the danger was coming from.

  Here, her pack mates and elders might smile at her. But behind those smiles were daggers.

  Daggers which they couldn’t wait to plant in her back.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Hollie tried to ignore the snide whispers behind her back as she walked out of the kitchen to follow the lieutenant who was waiting to escort her to the Alpha. The lie
utenant was tapping a frantic rhythm on the floor with his boot as he stood just outside the kitchen door.

  Hollie studied the young lieutenant quietly. He was swallowing repeatedly and when he noticed Hollie staring at him, he balled his fists and scowled at her.

  Hollie wasn’t intimidated. She realized that he was just trying to mask his anxiety and nervousness with a mean, hostile attitude.

  They all were.

  When the other cooks spoke ill of her and took credit for her work, they were desperately trying to safeguard their own positions in the pack. No one was safe.

  Hollie had learned very early on that no one was her friend in the Black Blade pack. Someone might pretend to be her friend for a while, but in the end, they always turned around and stabbed her in the back.

  It didn’t help that she was the only member of the pack who couldn’t shift into a wolf. She was fair game. She was an orphan, a half-breed, vulnerable and alone. She was an outcast within her own pack.

  Low-ranking wolves were assigned kitchen duty, so the kitchen was where Hollie spent most of her childhood. She had been working in the kitchen since she was a kid, washing dishes and cleaning up after the cooks.

  It was by accident that the other cooks discovered her amazing cooking skills and talent. Hollie was a natural. She could create wonderful new dishes out of simple ingredients, and she wasn’t afraid to experiment and give a fresh twist to old boring recipes. She intuitively knew how to combine various spices and foods to create exciting tastes and textures. It all just came naturally to her.

  But the older cooks exploited her talent and took all the credit for her creations. Hollie only realized what the other cooks had been doing when all the kitchen staff were summoned to the main dining hall one evening. It was Jake Carven’s sixtieth birthday and Hollie had created a dozen new dishes for their Alpha’s birthday banquet. To her utter disbelief and shock, the head cook had shamelessly stepped forward and claimed that he was the brains behind the delightful dishes that had been served to the Alpha and his guests.

  Hollie had been shocked by his audacity and dishonesty. She was just about to open her mouth and refute that outrageous lie when someone yanked her back to keep her in her place. Two large hands clamped down on her shoulders and she felt claws digging into her flesh as a warning.

  Don’t speak. Know your place, half-breed.

  She was to stand silently at the back of the line and keep quiet.

  Hollie knew that it would do her no good to fight back. No one had defended her when the other pups ganged up on her and bullied her when she was a kid. When she tried to tell someone about it or fought back, things got a lot worse for her.

  She had to bide her time. She swore she would leave the pack. One way or another. But preferably alive.

  The pack house was a sprawling bungalow with more than twenty rooms and two dining halls. A tall, forbidding iron fence surrounded the property. The pack house was built near the forest, at the very edge of the town of Nightbrook. The Black Blade pack owned a few businesses and properties in Nightbrook, and even though the pack was ostensibly wealthy, the pack members were paid very little for their services.

  Hollie saved up every penny she earned. This was her ticket to freedom. She would get out. She swore she would save up enough money and buy herself out of the pack.

  There were only two ways to leave the pack. You could buy your way out, or fight your way out. The latter was suicide. Especially for a half-breed who couldn’t shift.

  Hollie followed the lieutenant up the stairs and walked down the long corridor to the main dining hall. The main dining hall was reserved for the higher-ranking members of the pack and their guests.

  The lower-ranking members ate in the back hall. The cooks usually ate in the kitchen, but the head cook was sometimes invited to dine in the main dining hall with the Alpha.

  Hollie stepped nervously into the dining hall and saw their Alpha, Jake Carven, at the head of the long table. His wiry, white hair formed a halo around his pinched face. His son, Jasper, sat on his right. Jasper was the Beta in the pack, a position that Hollie was sure he didn’t earn through his own efforts or merits. The senior lieutenants at the table turned to look at Hollie as she entered the hall.

  Hollie gulped.

  That was not a good sign.

  No one ever gave her a second glance around the pack house. She was just a nobody. The lowest of the low.

  If someone was looking at her, it was probably to look for some fault or perceived slight.

  The lieutenant escorted her to the head of the dining table and saluted.

  Jasper Carven looked past the lieutenant and smirked at Hollie. “Hollie Crawford,” he said.

  “Yes, Beta,” she replied, sounding much calmer than she felt.

  Hollie had always felt uncomfortable and uneasy in the presence of Jake and Jasper. She didn’t trust the Alpha and Beta of the Black Blade pack.

  Jake was in his early sixties, but Hollie thought he looked a lot older. His white hair was thinning and all his muscles seemed to have shrunk. Physically, he was no match for his son, Jasper. Jasper was a stocky, beefy man in his late twenties. If Jasper challenged his father to a death fight for the Alpha position, Hollie was sure that Jake would be defeated in a matter of minutes.

  So, the question was: what’s stopping Jasper?

  Jasper was a mean, violent, power-hungry bastard. So what’s stopping him from taking the Alpha position from his father by force?

  Hollie had been observing the dynamics within the upper echelons of the pack for some time. And as she observed the interactions between their Alpha and Beta, she came to realize that Jake and Jasper were actually just using each other.

  Father and son were in complete control of the pack. But to maintain their hold on power, they needed both cunning and violence.

  Jake might be old and his physical strength was waning, but his brain remained sharp as a knife. The old man was sly, shrewd and a master manipulator and liar. He could scheme and plot, and turn people against one another. His son, Jasper, was his sword, his attack dog. Jake would put his schemes into motion, and Jasper would see the schemes to completion using brute force, savagely getting rid of anyone who got in their way. Jasper had the brawn, but he didn’t have his father’s fiendish, devious brain.

  Hollie had never heard any of the lieutenants question their Alpha and Beta. But she had heard rumors of pack members being dragged out into the forest in the middle of the night.

  They were never seen again.

  Executed? Tortured to death? Buried alive?

  Hollie suppressed a shudder. Jake and Jasper had no morals, scruples or conscience.

  There was nothing stopping them from coming up with any number of trumped-up charges and execute a member of the pack they felt was a troublemaker or who didn’t drink the Kool-Aid.

  Independent thought was dangerous.

  Hollie had always kept herself out of sight. She simply did her work, stayed quiet and kept to herself. She’d learned not to share her thoughts and feelings with anyone. She only answered when she was spoken to, and she never ever spoke ill of any of her pack mates.

  She never even spoke up for herself. She just let them take all the credit for her work, and stayed in the background.

  So why was she being summoned to the main dining hall tonight?

  CHAPTER THREE

  The young lieutenant stepped back and marched out of the hall. Hollie closed her eyes briefly. She had to resist the urge to beg him to stay and not leave her alone. She didn’t even know his name. He wasn’t her friend, but at least he had no ill intentions towards her. He was just a soldier doing his job.

  She couldn’t say the same about the people in the hall.

  She didn’t want to be alone in the hall with these...predators.

  Ah, who was she kidding?

  She was always alone.

  She had been alone since her mother died.

  Hollie winced when Jasper sc
raped his chair back and stood up. “She’s here, Dad,” he said, bending towards the Alpha.

  Hollie noticed that Jasper addressed Jake not as the Alpha of the pack, but as his Dad. He was reminding everyone present of his special connection and relationship to the Alpha.

  Hollie tried not to roll her eyes. Yeah, you’re Daddy’s little boy, aren’t you?

  “Alpha, Beta, sirs,” Hollie said robotically.

  Jake grunted and narrowed his eyes at Hollie. She didn’t flinch as she met her Alpha’s sharp, glittering eyes. Jake was a wolf shifter, but Hollie couldn’t help feeling that she was staring into the eyes of a snake.

  All of a sudden, Jake hunched over and started coughing and wheezing loudly.

  Hollie watched Jasper solicitously pass his father a glass of water and murmur in his ear.

  They’re both putting on a show, Hollie thought with a sudden clarity and revulsion. They’re acting all the time. In front of the pack, and in front of each other.

  Father and son were equally despicable, unscrupulous and corrupt. Jake needed his son to keep the other wolves in line. Jasper’s blood lust and violent temper made him the perfect attack dog for his father. But Jasper didn’t have his father’s guile and cunning. He wouldn’t be able to survive on his own without his father’s backing.

  They were using each other, and Hollie had the niggling suspicion that even as they pandered to each other, they were also plotting against each other in their own sick, twisted minds.

  When Jake finally stopped coughing, Jasper turned to Hollie and pointed to the plate of half-eaten food in front of his father. “Did you cook this?” Jasper demanded.

  Hollie took a step forward and saw some potato patties on Jake’s plate.

  “I helped to mash the potatoes and stir in the butter...” she began.

  “Are you trying to kill our Alpha?” Jasper bellowed at the top of his lungs.

  His ridiculous accusation echoed round the dining hall. Hollie blinked and shook her head. What the hell was he talking about? She’d always known that Jasper wasn’t very smart, but maybe he was just mad.