Free Loving The Bear: BBW Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance (Gray Bears Book 2) by Natalie Kristen Page A

in the cafe. Maybe he
felt insecure, inferior, indignant for whatever reason. But there
was no reason to hurt her.
    Her neighbor, Roth, had
called the police after that last savage attack. Skinner was
arrested and thrown in the slammer for a year. But he was out now.
And Elle knew that he was coming after her for revenge. His jail
term was fair, maybe even inadequate, but Skinner didn't see it that
way.
    She was a bloody bitch, a
scheming, vindictive witch for sending him to jail. And he was going
to make her pay.
    Elle had moved so many times.
She never stayed in one place long enough to make new friends and
put down roots. She'd been so afraid that Skinner would find her and
hurt her again. But this was not the way to live. She had to try to
start living again, even if it was the hardest thing she had to do.
She had almost forgotten how to live, how to laugh, how to love.
    The only thing that kept her
sane was her baking.
    This modest little bakery was
her refuge and her dream.

CHAPTER
TWO

    Elle wiped down the shelves
and packed the rest of her unsold cookies and cakes into bags. She
would take some home for supper and drop the rest off at the
retirement village on her way home. The residents there loved her
baked treats, and they would help her spread the word. They would
tell their friends about it, and hopefully, more customers would walk
into her bakery.
    She switched off the lights
and stood alone in her bakery for a while. She stared out the
display window and saw a few couples strolling past her shop, hand in
hand, whispering, laughing, just enjoying each other. Their faces
looked so happy, so full of hope and love.
    Unlike her.
    She wasn't sad, she told
herself. She was keeping busy and working hard to rebuild her life.
But the stark reality was that she had never experienced true love.
Her short marriage had been a sham. Nothing about it had been true.
Skinner wasn't the man she thought he was. She hadn't really loved
him, she realized. She had been afraid of him, even at the very
beginning. His manipulation and control had been subtle initially,
and after marriage, his bullying had escalated to deadly threats and
beatings.
    Elle sighed heavily.
    She didn't want to believe
that she was destined to live the rest of her life alone. Was she so
unlovable, so undesirable?
    Surely there was someone out
there for her, someone who could truly love her for who she was, what
she was, half-witch, half broken, scars and all.
    It was a romantic notion, but
one she refused to let go of. It gave her something to hope for, to
wish for…
    “I wish...” Elle
whispered, gazing up at the silvery moon. “Oh, I wish I could
find true love, and live happily ever after!”
    Her laugh sounded sad and
forlorn in her silent bakery. Happily-ever-afters didn't exist.
This wasn't a fairy tale. This was real life, and real life wasn't
perfect and pretty. She should know. She had the scars to prove it.
    Elle looked around one last
time and prepared to lock up the premises. She went to the back to
check that everything was ready for tomorrow. She would come in
before the first light of dawn and start baking so that she could
open her shop bright and early for the breakfast crowd. The early
bird catches the worm, and she needed all the worms she could catch.
    Elle came back out to the
front of the bakery and felt a cold draft in the shop. She stared at
the door. She hadn't locked it yet but the sign indicated that the
shop was closed. Did someone open the door and walk in a while ago?
    Elle was about to step
forward when a hand closed around her throat.
    “Ah, my little wife,”
a voice hissed in her ear.
    A rough hand clamped over her
mouth before she could scream. Her eyes widened in terror and
disbelief as she stared into Skinner's remorseless, pitiless face.
    He looked the same, a little
thinner, but his black eyes still held the same hatred and contempt.
    Elle shook her head and made
a muffled sound.
    “What's that?”
Skinner