Free Bear Fire: Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (BBW) (Pine Ridge BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance Series Book 4) by Belinda Meyers

complete
its circuit of the mansion that quickly. If nothing else, the creatures were
slow.
    Clomp,
clomp.
    Jackie pulled out a glimmering
purple crystal, held it up to the light for a moment, gathering her thoughts,
then spoke a series of words. The world blurred around her and Matt, and she
felt queasy in her belly.
    “What the heck?” said Matt. He must
be feeling it, too.
    Clomp
clomp.
    Jackie felt the energies building
in her. She grabbed Matt’s hand with one hand and pressed the other against the
painting. Energies swirled around her, faster and faster, and she could hear
the roar of wind in her ears. Beside her Matt cursed.
    Clomp
clo—
    Suddenly the energy faded, and
Jackie and Matt stood on a beach beneath a black sky while a majestic ocean
pounded the rocky beach. Now Jackie really could smell the salt and feel the
seaspray on her cheeks and neck. A quaint little town sprawled beside the shore,
the same one from the painting, and up on a high ridge a lighthouse shone like
a star.
    “Amazing,” Jackie said, and stuffed
the crystal back in its pouch.
    But when she turned to Matt, he
wasn’t staring at the ocean or the town. He was watching her.
    “No,” he said softly. “ You’re amazing.”
    She cleared her throat. “Okay,
let’s find Tannenbaum, restore my fire and get out of here before Walsh comes.
Or find some way to fight him.”
    “I’m betting dragonfire would
inconvenience him a bit.”
    “Yeah, if he didn’t steal it from
me again.”
    “There is that.”
    They were still holding hands, and
she started toward town, tugging him along with her. She cast a glance back at
him, enjoying the sight of the naked bear shifter mountain man SEAL hero framed
against the raging ocean while the lighthouse blinked on its ridge above. It
was a sight she knew she would never forget. And she’d been right about his
manhood, too. Though it was even colder here than it had been in the mansion,
his cock hadn’t shrunk at all. Mmm, it looked good.
    Feeling her cheeks burn, she turned
back around. Stumbled a bit, kept going. They entered the town. Old-fashioned
stone buildings, most one story but a few two-story, loomed around them, and
fog slithered over the cobblestone streets. Little if any sound came from the
buildings.
    “It’s like a ghost town,” Matt
said, careful to keep his voice low.
    “Well, no one actually lives here,”
Jackie said. “It’s not even a real place. It’s like a little bubble reality, a
sphere of existence that’s kind of tucked away in the bigger, realer world, if
that makes any sense.”
    “So how do we find Tannenbaum? He
said he could hear water. Well, you can hear it all over town.”
    “It’s not a very big town. I guess
we just go house to house and see if there’s any noise or activity.”
    He nodded. Once more, he took
point, glancing around each corner they came to, then gesturing her forward
when he judged the coast to be clear. They looked in the window of every house
or business they passed. Finally they saw a light peering out of a structure
ahead—what looked like a tavern. Approaching it warily, they attempted to peek
in through the windows, but the drapes were drawn.
    Matt looked at her sideways. “Are
you ready to go in? Anything could be waiting for us in there.”
    She straightened her back and stuck
out her chin. “I’m ready.”
    He grinned, wrapped his hand around
the knob and shoved the door in.

 
    Chapter 8

 
 
    Matt’s grin turned into a scowl as he swept the chamber with
his penetrating gaze. He’d been trained to spot and defeat ambushes, and he
peered around him with an expert’s ability to foil attack.
    It was a simple room with a bar
along the back and a few chairs and tables that had been pushed to the edge of
the chamber, leaving plenty of room for the centerpiece: in the middle of the
room a thin man dressed in golf clothes sat strapped to a chair, ropes
criss-crossing his chest, arms and legs. A gag had been placed over