Free Lone Bear: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Bear Mountain Book 1) by Ruby Shae Page B

had no way of knowing unless he asked, and he wouldn’t put her on the spot like that. Besides, she might have changed her mind because of his behavior. He needed to man up and make it up to her.
    Gage had most of her shifts memorized and he knew she wouldn’t be off work for a couple of hours. He hopped in his truck and made his way back to his home on the edge of town.
    Bear Mountain had been named many years ago when his father acquired some land for sale near the border of the National Park in northern Montana. At the time, the tree filled land that led to the Great White North hadn’t been claimed yet and their family had enjoyed the seclusion.
    The property consisted of the mountain with Gage’s home and the neighboring valley below. After several years passed and they needed to relocate, his father sold the growing valley and kept the family property which he eventually granted to Gage. The town grew and prospered under the original name and they’d never changed it. When bears had been more prominent in the National Park, the town’s name had been a great marketing tool. 
    Gage’s property started five miles from the center of town, and had an incline of two more miles before his home came into view. His property expanded a couple more miles in three directions and it bordered the National Park to the north.
    His bear had plenty of room to run on his own property, but he often wandered into the National Park to mix things up and people watch. Both pieces of land were marked, though not with a fence, but to his surprise, he’d had almost zero encounters with trespassers over the years.
    He went inside his home and replaced his jeans, flannel shirt and t-shirt for a pair of athletic shorts, then he ran out to one of his favorite spots in the trees to shift. The power that allowed him to shift also allowed him to keep his clothes intact as he switched from one form to another. He’d been thankful for that skill on more than one occasion.
    After his run, he planned to shower and meet Kate at the end of her shift. This time, instead of taking it easy, or slow, he’d ask her out. He felt certain she’d been about to take the plunge and ask him, something he’d been too afraid to do, so he had to make it up to her.
    Hopefully she’d give him another chance.
     
    ***
     
    Kate Sinclair ran back inside the café and rapidly blinked the tears away.
    “Everything okay, Katie?” her boss, Randy asked.
    “Yeah, it’s just cold out there. I shouldn’t have run out without a jacket.”
    “Did you return Gage’s card?”
    “Huh?” she asked as she rubbed her hands up and down her arms.
    “He forgot his card, didn’t he?” he placed a cup of coffee in front of her. “Isn’t that why you ran out?”
    “Yeah,” she lied. “I caught him and gave it back.”
    “Good girl,” he said and went back into the kitchen.
    Randy treated her more like a daughter than an employee. The café owner and his wife didn’t have any children of their own, and they’d been the first ones to welcome her into Bear Mountain—and offer her a job on the spot—when she’d decided to stay two years ago.
    That trip had changed her life.
    After years of being bounced around between relatives that didn’t want her, she’d gone to college on a scholarship and graduated with an honors degree in English. She didn’t know if she’d ever use it, but she’d gone because everyone told her she couldn’t.
    To celebrate graduating, her boyfriend and several of their friends decided to take a trip to the infamous National Park in Montana for a week of camping and hiking. She loved the outdoors and had been enjoying a great vacation until she found her boyfriend fucking her best friend in the tent next to hers. She’d left the campsite and hiked back into town on her own to wait out the rest of the week and cool off, but they’d never come back through the valley. By the time she’d figured out they’d left her behind, she’d