Mated to Three Werebears: Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (Nightbrook Book 1) Read online

  MATED TO THREE WEREBEARS

  By

  Natalie Kristen

  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.

  About this Book

  Betrayed and sold by the very people she loved and trusted, Penny Dawson resolves to make her escape and live. She runs, but not far enough.

  When the wolves close in on her, Penny knows that she will be captured and tortured.

  Her hopes of getting out of this alive begin to fade...until three powerful bears show up.

  Trespassers mean trouble.

  When werebears Ryder, Dillon and Ford detect the unwelcome scent of wolves on their land, they follow the scent and witness an incredible scene.

  A wounded human female is holding her own against a pack of wolves, and screaming insults at their leader.

  The woman has a death wish, but they are not about to let her die.

  Penny finds herself in the house and arms of three insanely hot, hunky lumberjacks.

  As she fights her growing attraction to her three fierce, handsome protectors, Penny has to grapple and come to terms with the harsh and heartbreaking reality of her situation.

  But the ugly truth is always better than a beautiful lie.

  Because truth hurts...but lies kill.

  * * * * *

  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

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Epilogue

  More books by Natalie Kristen

  About the Author

  CHAPTER ONE

  Penny Dawson stopped clawing at the shackles around her ankles and slumped against the wall. There was dried blood under her nails and on her legs. She had clawed herself bloody trying to get her shackles off.

  Penny stared at the sunlight streaming through the barred windows into the room. She had been brought up to this room on the third floor once she arrived at the mansion, which she now knew was the headquarters of the Emerald pack.

  Penny wished she had paid more attention during the drive to the mansion and taken note of her surroundings, but she had been crying so hard. But once she was yanked out of the car and escorted into the glittering, sprawling mansion, she’d come to the cold, hard realization that her tears weren’t going to save her.

  No one was going to save her.

  Her parents, her only family, had sold her to a pack of wolves.

  Her parents had sold her for an undisclosed amount of money to a wealthy wolf pack in a neighboring town. The money would fund their retirement, they said.

  Penny closed her eyes in agony. She had been a dutiful, loving daughter, yet they had sold her to the wolves. She was simply their human chattel. Something to be used and discarded.

  Penny felt tears burn her eyes again and she furiously blinked them away. She refused to cry. She refused to cry for them or for herself.

  It was her fault. She had been too naive and trusting. She had allowed herself to be used, deceived and discarded by the very people who were supposed to love her.

  Penny felt a sob bubbling up. She squeezed her eyes shut, refusing to let one more tear roll down her face.

  “What’s going to happen to me?” Penny whispered.

  She bit down on her lower lip until she tasted blood. A single word issued from her bloodied lips.

  “Why.”

  She had asked herself this question over and over again but the answer was just too painful for her to accept. Forcing down her grief and anguish, Penny took a deep, fortifying breath and looked up.

  She jerked and jangled her chain in anger and defiance as she stared round the room.

  This was fake, all fake. This was just a facade. This beautifully decorated bedroom was really a prison cell. There was a comfortable-looking bed, a pretty dressing table and plush carpets.

  Oh, and let’s not forget the shackles and chains.

  The chain was long enough to allow her to move around the room, but she was still chained to the wall. Penny stared numbly at the fluffy pink comforter on the bed. She hadn’t slept in the bed at all. She had spent the night on the floor, crying, cursing and trying to break the chains which held her captive.

  How much longer would she be chained here? She had been locked in this room for two days now. She had tried to talk to the servant girl who came in to give her food and water, but the young woman only smiled sadly at her. No one else had come into the room, not even Gordon.

  She was going to be the bride of the Alpha’s son, Gordon. Being the only son of the Emerald pack Alpha, it seemed that Gordon could do whatever he wanted.

  If he wanted to use money from the pack’s coffers to buy himself a bride, no one stopped him. Penny hadn’t had much interaction with shifters, and she had no idea how shifter packs were run.

  She’d only seen Gordon once. He was a stocky man with reddish hair and close-set eyes, and he looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties. He had openly leered at her when he sauntered into her parent’s house to hand the money over to her father.

  Gordon never spoke a word to her during the exchange. He just barked orders to his men and watched as his two burly bodyguards grabbed Penny and shoved her into the waiting car. Money had changed hands, and she was now the property of the Emerald pack. Shell-shocked and stricken with grief, Penny hadn’t put up a fight at all.

  As the car sped away from her parents’ house, Penny had twisted round to take one last look at her parents.

  But they were nowhere in sight. />
  No one was even at the window. The front door was closed.

  That door was closed to her forever.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Penny shuffled to the dressing table and forced herself to finish the tray of food which the servant girl had left there the night before. The food was cold but she ate everything. She had to keep her strength up. If no one was coming to save her, she would have to save herself. She had to find a way to escape.

  “I won’t be chained again,” Penny hissed, swiping the back of her hand angrily across her mouth. Her parents had chained her to them, psychologically and emotionally. They didn’t use a physical chain. Instead, they used guilt, shame and blame.

  She had been the only one to stay in their hometown. So many of her friends from school had left their sleepy little hometown to chase their dreams in the big city. Penny had wanted to go with them. The world was waiting for her. She just had to step out into the world and embrace those exciting opportunities and experiences.

  One by one, her friends had left town, and they all left with their parents’ blessings. Their parents had cheered them on and encouraged them to spread their wings.

  Penny shook her head and laughed bitterly. “My parents did the exact opposite,” she said aloud. “They clipped my wings instead. They never wanted me to fly.”

  When Penny tried to talk to her parents about her hopes and dreams for her future, her parents’ bizarre reaction had stunned her. On hindsight, she should have realized that they were trying to manipulate and guilt-trip her. But in that moment, she had been too shocked, confused and upset to think straight.

  Her mother’s reaction had been dramatic, to say the least. When Penny mentioned that she was considering moving to the city with her friends, her mother had burst into tears and started wailing hysterically.

  And the accusations and insults started coming hard and fast. Her mother accused her of being selfish, ungrateful and heartless.

  “How can you be so selfish, Penny? You only think of yourself. You know your father’s health is failing, and his eyesight isn’t what it used to be. In fact, he may lose his sight altogether in the next few years! And you want to abandon your poor, aging parents! Do you want to drive your father to an early grave? After all we’ve done for you! You want to leave? Oh, you break our hearts!” her mother had screamed at her. “I never thought my daughter would be so ungrateful and heartless! You wouldn’t do this to us if you had a heart. If you cared for us, you would stay with us.”

  Penny stayed.

  Against her better judgment, she stayed.

  Penny stayed on in her quiet, boring hometown and helped her parents in their bookkeeping business. She did all the chores around the house and took care of her parents. She cooked and cleaned for them, and helped them in their business.

  She never thought they were using her. She didn’t mind helping her parents because…family was family. Her parents made her believe that they had her interests at heart, that they only wanted what was best for her.

  “Lies,” Penny whispered. “All lies.”

  Her parents only wanted what was best for themselves. They wanted her to work for them for free, take care of them and sacrifice her youth and dreams for them.

  Her parents had manipulated and controlled her like a little puppet. And when the opportunity came up, they simply sold her to a pack of wolves without a second thought.

  Penny squeezed her eyes shut to keep the tears in. “I thought that if I stayed and showed them how much I cared for them, they would...love me,” she whispered.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Penny took a deep breath and when she opened her eyes, they were clear and dry.

  She blinked and the room transformed into her parents’ kitchen. The scene unfolded before her eyes. It was the last hour that she’d spent with her parents. It was the last conversation she would ever have with her parents.

  She saw every detail of her parents’ kitchen. Her mom hardly cooked so Penny was the one who prepared all their meals. Penny remembered that she had been about to start with the dinner preparations when she saw her dad come into the kitchen. This was surprising, since her dad almost never stepped into the kitchen.

  Her dad shuffled up to her and coughed awkwardly. “Penny, you know...there’s something I need to tell you.”

  Penny put down the pot that she was holding very slowly and softly.

  She stared at her father, and something strange happened. She suddenly felt as though she were staring at a complete stranger.

  There was something very different about her father.

  Her father was looking at her directly. His eyes were sharp and focused.

  “You know that my health and my eyesight isn’t so good, right?” He coughed into his fist and cleared his throat repeatedly. “In fact, I can hardly see beyond this table. I don’t know how long I can keep the business going. I might go blind soon, so I need to make plans,” her father said. “You know, plans for the future.”

  Whose future?

  But Penny didn’t voice her question out loud. Instead, she stayed silent and watched her father with a growing, sickening realization.

  Her father continued speaking but Penny wasn’t really listening. She kept watching his eyes.

  “Because of my failing eyesight, I can’t run the business forever. We need to live, and the money’s good. We just couldn’t turn down the offer...” Her father had smiled then. “The money is enough for us to live comfortably for the rest of our lives. We can wind up the business and retire!”

  Her mother had interjected at this point, saying, “It’s not like we can depend on you, Penny. You don’t even have a job!”

  Penny hadn’t even realized that her mother had stepped into the kitchen. Unable to move or speak, Penny could only stare at these two people in front of her, people who called themselves her parents. She opened her mouth but no words came out.

  She was stunned at her mother’s callous words. She wanted to tell her mother that she could have been working and living in the city all these years if it hadn’t been for her mother’s pleas, threats and theatrics. All this time that she had been helping them in their bookkeeping business they never paid her a salary. Penny suddenly realized with stark, terrifying clarity that her parents had never appreciated, understood or even truly cared for her.

  But it was what her father did and said next that truly shattered the mirror.

  Penny realized right there and then that she had been living in a funhouse mirror. Truth and reality had been distorted and warped beyond belief and comprehension.

  She was their daughter in name only. Her parents really saw her as a slave, a slave to be manipulated, used and sold for a profit.

  Her father pointed to the clock on the wall and announced, “It’s four o’clock now. The Emerald pack is sending someone to collect you at five. You should get ready.”

  Like a robot, Penny pivoted round to look at the clock. It was indeed four o’clock sharp.

  The clock was hanging on the far wall, and the numbers on the clock were extremely small and rather faint.

  The pain that shot through her heart was so raw and piercing it almost brought her to her knees. Gripping the edge of the kitchen table, Penny lifted her chin to look straight into her father’s eyes.

  His eyes were clear, sharp and focused. “You can see the time,” was all she said.

  “Yes, of course, I can see the...” He stopped abruptly when he realized that his mask had slipped. Immediately, he made his gaze unfocused and blank, and pretended to feel his way around. “I’m just guessing the time. You know I can’t see so well,” he mumbled. “I...I can’t see beyond this table. You know that.”

  There was nothing wrong with his eyes at all.

  His eyesight wasn’t failing.

  He could see perfectly well. It was all an act.

  They had just been putting on an act, pretending to be frail and weak to stop her from leaving them and living her life, a life she
deserved.

  Penny blinked hard and the scene crumpled like a piece of paper.

  She was back in the room.

  A prisoner.

  She had been a prisoner her whole frickin’ life.

  Penny moved to the window and gripped the bars. She glared at the chains at her feet and her fists tightened.

  All this time, she had been chained up like a slave. She had let her parents put an invisible chain around her.

  “They. Never. Loved. Me.” Her words were harsh and jagged in the silence.

  Her parents never even said goodbye to her. They had been so busy counting the money in the briefcase.

  Swallowing her pain and anger, Penny tested her shackles again. She had to free herself.

  She had been a slave to her parents, and she refused to be a slave-bride to the spoiled, entitled son of the Emerald pack Alpha.

  Penny jerked when she heard the door open quietly behind her.

  It was the same servant girl who had been coming into the room to deliver her food for the past two days.

  The woman closed the door and her eyes settled on the dried blood around Penny’s ankles.

  “Please help me,” Penny blurted out desperately. “Please...”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Penny held her breath and watched the woman limp across the room to her. The woman’s limp wasn’t very noticeable but Penny saw that she favored her right leg. She always kept her head lowered when she came into the room, but now she met Penny’s eyes and Penny realized that they were studying and assessing each other.

  The woman was wearing a dull, shapeless uniform, and her blond hair was pulled back into a low ponytail. She looked to be just a few years older than Penny, and Penny estimated that she was in her mid-twenties.

  Penny opened her mouth to speak but the woman pressed her finger to her lips and crouched down. She produced a small key from her pocket and swiftly unlocked the shackles around Penny’s ankles.

  As she helped Penny up, Penny managed to stammer, “T-thank you.”