Free Taming a Bear: Not Your Average Fox: BBW Shifter Romance (Red Moon Seduction) by Stella Bryce Page A

Or I’ll be having chicken for dinner.” He turned to leave the bar.
    Hawk was there when Anna fell apart. He’d always been there. He stood by her and watched her crumble. She was one of his best friends, and after years of simple friendship, they found themselves entwined and tangled together in heated lust one night. The rest they sort of let happen, but her heart wasn’t in it. He knew he was a fill-in, but hoped she’d eventually love him the way he loved her. Hawk wasn’t stupid. He saw it in Anna’s eyes when Matt walked away. She played tough, but there was no hiding her longing and desire. It stung knowing he wasn’t ever going to fill that space, but he’d damn sure try.
    Anna turned back to the television in the corner of the bar. The bitch, Bunny St. James, was on the screen. Her stomach knotted on seeing the newscaster. She was a thorn wedged tightly into her memory. Fuck, Bunny St. James. If she hadn’t intervened and if he hadn’t picked up on her scent of desperation…if he hadn’t strayed and betrayed her…she turned to Hawk, trying to shake the memory. “How was your day?”
    “How’s your heart ? That’s the real question.” The tone in his voice game him away. He watched her face. There was no denying the answer.
    Anna swallowed and looked down. She wasn’t a good liar. “I’m fine,” she said not meaning it. Would it ever get easier?
    “Right .” There was a long exaggerated pause. “I should go.” He knew his place. He’d never be what she truly needed, no matter how much she tried to convince herself. What he wanted and what she needed were two very different things.
    “Hawk, wait…” Anna stopped. What was the point? He knew. She knew. They all knew. Matt was the one she ached for. That would never change.
    With the red moon coming, all bets were off. Primal urges ran high, and it was hard to escape your truth. A red moon could make or break your relationship. It could also destroy two years of trust with one simple betrayal. Anna closed her eyes. Every fiber of her being ached for how things used to be… but there was no going back. A year may have passed, but it didn’t make it any easier.
    Matt begged her forgiveness over and over, but Anna would have none of it. She’d never trust his four-legged bear ass again. She craved his touch, his heated breath on her body, but it didn’t matter what she wanted. She didn’t trust him. It was as simple as that. It would always be there, taunting her, wondering if he’d stray again. There was no way she could live like that.
    He claimed it was a misunderstanding, but she wasn’t a fool. He played her and Bunny against one another, in a twisted charade. When the red moon came, there’d be no denying where he’d end up. And Anna knew it wasn’t her doorstep he’d be on. His urges were too strong. His bear decided what he wanted on the red moon, not his human. His human always wanted Anna…heart and soul, but his bear…his bear went after primal seduction, and he lacked control. There was guilt and sorrow and apologies, but there was no more Anna and Matt. She saw to that the moment he betrayed her.

Chapter 2
     
    Mountain View Crest was home to the shifters. The history was bleak, but they came to live in segregation as most of the pure humans feared them. Some shifters had better control of their wild streak than others. Her parents told her about earlier days, but she didn’t remember any of it. She was too young when they were forced up to Mountain View Crest, fenced off with the rest of the known shifters. Not admitting you were a shifter and being found out later held harsher penalties than voluntarily making the move. There was sadness in her mother’s eyes when she spoke of the incident that set off the segregation. Humans and shifters used to live in peace and harmony, but a mutation in a strain of genes caused some shifters to become more difficult to be around, their primal instincts lacking control.
    Her