Free First Bear: BBW Shapeshifter BWWM Werebear Paranormal Romance (Wild Alpha Shifters Book 1) by Zola Bird Page A

a bear,” he said. “That’s what I wanted to tell you. I can turn into a bear.”
    “Yeah,” Jada said. “That’s the part I was talking about.”
    “Let me take you home,” Brandon said. “You need to see a doctor.”
    Jada eyed him warily. He could tell that she was scared. Who wouldn’t be after what she had been through? And then seeing him shift? He needed to let her know that he was no threat to her, that everything was all right.
    “Jada?”
    She inched away from him, screwdriver at the ready.
    “Just stay where you are, Brandon.”

    ************************

    One eye on Brandon, Jada warily approached the car. She recognized it as Croyston’s second vehicle: a BMW sedan. They had done service work on it before. She got inside. Good. The keys were there. Thank goodness for small miracles. She watched Brandon in the rearview mirror. Had she really just seen what she thought she’d seen? Had she just watched that grizzly bear transform into Brandon Heller? She needed to calm down. She needed to center herself. But Brandon needed her help. He was bleeding from his left arm. She needed to get him to a hospital. What was she? Nuts? There was no way she going to let him into the car after what had just happened. Not a chance. Nobody would do that. That would be crazy.
    Jada fired up the car and peeled out of there, leaving Brandon in her dust. If she had seen what she thought she had just seen, he wasn’t getting anywhere near her. Maybe that wasn’t Brandon in the rearview mirror at all. Maybe it was some kind of weird vision. A monster? Who knew what kind of thing? She kept driving. But maybe it really was Brandon. Maybe he really needed her help. What to do? The one thing she knew was she needed to get to the police station. She glanced in her rearview mirror again. Ah, hell… He looked so forlorn back there, this giant hunk of a man standing naked and dejected in the middle of the road. Jada stomped on the brakes. She threw the car into reverse and rolled down the window.
    “Get in,” Jada said.
    “Are you sure?” Brandon asked.
    “Get in, before I change my mind.”

Chapter Seven

    Jada drove to the rear of the dealership and grabbed Brandon a set of blue mechanic’s coveralls. Then she asked him to get out of the car. She needed to go to the police station, she needed to tell her story, and she needed to think. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she might even need to go to the hospital. One thing she was sure of was that she wanted to be in the company of people she could trust, and right now, Brandon Heller was definitely not one of those people.
    Jada explained what had happened to the police officer. Wild Summit had a small police department and she knew the man in passing. She found it harder than she thought to tell her story, but she told it all. She explained how Ray Croyston had surprised her outside the dry cleaner’s, and how she had woken up in the trunk of his car. She told him how Croyston had brought her to the old mine site and shot at her, and how the brown bear had attacked Croyston. About all she left out was Brandon Heller. And truthfully, she wasn’t sure how she could begin to tell them that part of the story. Not without sounding completely insane.
    Jada went home to discover her broken door. Her landlord, fortunately, was already at work fixing it. When he was done, she shut herself inside with the express purpose of talking to nobody until she could get her head around what had just happened. Sure, she had been abducted by a loon. But don’t forget the real elephant in the room.
    Brandon Heller.
    Brandon Heller was a bear.
    The man was a bear!
    Jada had to sit down just to think about it. Brandon was hurt. She hoped he had gotten attention for that arm. Maybe she should have been nicer about that. But get real. He was a bear! Amanda had left at least ten messages for her. She wanted to call her back, but what was she supposed to tell her? She felt so alone. If this