Free Bearly Hanging On (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance) (The Jamesburg Shifters Book 6) by Lynn Red Page B

bit. But this was just a local store.
    I'll make good, he thought. Somehow, I'll pay them back. He pushed the massive, sectioned door up high enough for the van to clear, and then drove it through before hopping out and closing it behind him.
    A second's rest - that door was damn heavy - found him crouched down under the sad old camera again. The whirring had taken on a kind of mournful tone, to Ryan's imagination. Instead of avoiding the arc, he strode right out into it.
    "I'm guessing as old as you are, you don't have the best resolution," he addressed the eye that swept past him but did not react. "So, at the worst, there's gonna be a fuzzy image of a big, naked guy standing here waving." He waved.
    "You did a good job, camera. We've all got our purpose."
    And with that, it was time to visit the butcher's shop.
    Although he was slightly worried about looking suspicious driving a delivery van into the competition's loading bay, he needn't have worried. Not a soul was there, and Earth Market hadn't even bothered to install a camera in the back. The loading bay here was keypad controlled, and of course the code was "1234" because everyone knows not to do it, but everyone does it anyway.
    The warehouse here was more cramped, with a long meat locker running along the west side. He poked his head in, wondering what he'd find. In his worst nightmares, the place was just hung full of massive, awkward, unwieldy rough cuts of all sorts. But a smile broke across Ryan's face when he found the light.
    "Would you look at that," he whispered to himself.
    A line of perfectly cut quarters of pork were . arranged in neat rows, ready for either further processing or packaging for wholesale. He shook his head. At some point, the other foot's gonna drop and all this good luck is going to turn out to be either a dream or the prelude to a meteor falling on my house. But for now? Shit, I'll take it.
    It took no time at all for the big bear to pull down the meat, wrap it up and deposit it in his then-sagging van. When he was finished, he had managed to play meat Tetris enough to get four pigs, and three cows shoved in the back of the van, along with the harvest from Fresh Land. His stomach started growling at a fairly alarming volume, as he looked over what he'd managed to snag. This wasn't going to be enough - not by a long shot - and it didn't take into account everyone who couldn't eat this stuff, but what the hell, it was a start.
    The van was sluggish, even more than it had been before, as it was packed with food. It had taken about a half hour to get to the road with the grocery stores on paws, but driving took all of an hour.
    His pulse raced at every stop light, every time he passed a car, and each time he drove by some night creature or another out for a stroll. But, of course, none of them reacted. None even showed him any attention past a polite nod, or in the case of one very strange man who seemed to be dressed up like Peter Pan crossed with The Joker, a wild pirouette and a fling of the arm.
    When Ryan pulled into the clearing in back of his house, near the cellar, he knew he'd have a long night ahead of him, and that's if his uncle didn't notice all the commotion.
    With the truck mostly empty, Ryan took a breather, sitting on the stump he normally used for cutting wood, and let his thoughts wander. They went to familiar places - Jamie, the folks out here in the woods - but also danced dangerously close to his own past, which he preferred to avoid. Too much pain, too much hurt. Too many deep shadows without any light in them.
    They were doors he'd closed once before, ones he didn't intend on opening again. At least not until the time was right. His old life chewed at his guts, ate him from the inside out, but... it was the past. There was no sense dwelling on it, at least not now, not while there was no new thought to have or new guilt to feel.
    "I thought I told you not to do anything stupid." His uncle's voice, light with laughter,