Free Bearing It All (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance) by Lynn Red Page A

that...?”
    He let out a scoff. Luckily, my office phone started ringing before he could get really cranked up. “Sorry,” I said, “one second, okay?”
    I picked up the phone, looking out the glass front of the library to see Henry waving. “Hey,” she said. “Figured you might need a save unless you were just really hard up to talk about Nintendo games.”
    “How did you know?” I asked, grinning and looking at the desk so I didn’t accidentally laugh. Luckily, Quigley stepped away a little bit, and started looking at the DVD racks. “I have no idea what to say to this guy.”
    “I knew because that’s Quigley Daniels. He’s in one of my history classes, and somehow manages to tie every single discussion point back to computer games.” Henry laughed. “Drives Duggan nuts. Anyway, speaking of Duggan, I gotta get back to my office. He’s got me grading a pile of essays. “You doing anything later?”
    I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face. “Yeah, Crag, he’s... well, he’s coming back to town tonight, and—”
    “Be careful, Viola,” Henry said.
    “Careful? Of what?” I asked. “He’s a good guy, we’re just gonna go out and—”
    “This is me you’re talking to, Viola, it’s me, Henry. How long have we been friends? I know you, okay? I’m not gonna lecture you but... yeah, just be careful.”
    I laughed nervously, like I didn’t know what she was talking about. “What’s so dangerous? What am I looking out for?”
    “Your heart,” she said.
    That hit me in the chest like a rock thrown out of a train. “Oh,” I said, gulping.
    “Sorry, but I had to say it. Let me know how it goes, all right?” She asked. “I’m pulling for you girly, but I don’t want to see you hurt. By the way, did you notice his eyes last night?”
    “The color? Or those tattoos?” I was just about chomping on my lip to try and hide my excitement.
    “Oh God, Viola, those tattoos,” she said. “I mean, tats aren’t exactly rare in a town full of inked up werewolves and werebears, but still... holy shit, but they somehow make him even hotter.”
    I let out a hollow laugh. “You know,” I started to say then stopped myself before I got to the part about him chasing me through the woods and cornering me. Somehow, I didn’t think a story about my crush rampaging around after me through the woods was exactly what she wanted to hear.
    I gulped. I just called him my crush. What am I? Eighteen?
    “You okay?” Henry asked. “Sounds like you just swallowed a frog.”
    At that, I chuckled. “No, I was just thinking about all this stuff. Anyway, it’s nothing you want to hear. Nothing we haven’t talked about a thousand times. I’ll call you later?”
    Quigley Daniels got bored of waiting and took off. He shot Henry a weird look on his way out, but she just smiled and waved. “Thank God that’s over, huh?” she asked. “All right. Good luck tonight, and remember what I said.”
    “I will,” I promised. “I’ll call you later.”
    *
    T he thing that arrived in front of my apartment was not a motorcycle.
    I mean, it was technically two wheels arranged in a line on a frame, but... holy shit .
    I heard it coming from like halfway down the street, and I wasn’t even in the part of my apartment that faces the parking lot. At first, I figured that it must be some kind of diesel-chugging semi, or a big giant truck or something, but no.
    No, of course it wasn’t.
    As soon as I heard it, I checked my watch and went outside.
    The thing that roared into my parking lot, and probably irritated the hell out of my landlady, Mrs. Whipplebottom, was the biggest, chrome-blinged-outest thing I’d ever seen. To be fair, everything irritated Mrs. Whipplebottom though. I looked back to see if she’d poked her head out yet to be nosy, and wasn’t surprised at all when she pulled it back inside and shut her door. She slammed it so hard the knocker bounced twice when it swung closed.
    Overhead, the fat,