Read A Taste of Honeybear Wine (BBW Bear Shifter Standalone Romance Novel) (Bearfield Book 2) for Free Online Page B

fault.
    “So wait, why are you apologizing to me if not for the arrest?”
    “Because I called your brothers before I came to get you. They’re waiting at the station already.”
    Michael’s heart plummeted. “Damn it, Pete. You didn’t need to do that.”
    “I did. I really did. The woman you robbed last night—her mother is here and she wants to throw the book at you. Breaking and entering, burglary, indecent exposure, assault, battery and about forty other state laws that you broke doing your damn fool pleasure.” Pete’s mustache bristled as he lectured Michael, quivering with outrage. Getting an earful from Alison’s mom was the last thing he wanted. And it wasn’t like he could send Michael off to jail. You can’t put a shifter in prison. The captivity would drive him bananas until he either shifted in front of his jailers or smashed the walls down and ran off. Either way, attention would turn to Bearfield and that wasn’t something they could afford.  
    Michael had to do everything he could to placate Alison’s mom, or he’d have to go into exile. Leave Bearfield forever. He couldn’t do that, though—it was his home.
    “You know I didn’t steal anything, Pete. I’m not a thief. I was just doing a little recon before the auction.”
    “Damn fool. If you’d stopped to talk to me or your brother you would have known there was an heir located. But no, like usual you wander off half-cocked and naked and let everyone else clean up your mess.”
    Shame burned on Michael’s face. “It was a raven, Petey. A raven shifter stole the box. I saw him. A greasy little guy with lank black hair and the biggest damn nose you’ve ever seen.”
    Pete’s eyes went wide. “A raven? They haven’t been so bold in ages. Not since your daddy was alpha.” He crossed his arms and for a moment Michael saw him not as the blundering old sheriff, but as his distant uncle standing at his father’s side, helping adjudicate the affairs of the bear-blooded and shifter-kin of the mountain. He hadn’t held that post in twenty years, but something of the old crafty adviser still lurked behind those comically large eyebrows.
    “Look, I can explain—” Michael began, but Pete cut him off.
    “This box. Is the pendant inside? Is that what you went blundering about for?”
    “If I didn’t go after it, someone else would have!”
    “You fool. You damn fool.” Pete spat, looking angrier than Michael had ever seen him. “You should have just told me or Marcus. We could have done something. But now we’re all at risk. And not just from the mortal world, but also from those bastards over at Rook’s Roost. If they figure out what the pendant is, we’re screwed, my boy.”
    He didn’t want to think about this. About any of this. Michael wanted to find Alison, to charm her off her feet and into his bed and find every obscene noise he could sweat out of her. He didn’t want to get involved in a shifter war. Not now.  
    He opened the back door of the patrol car to climb in.
    “You’re not really going to wear that, are you?” Pete asked, his eyebrows rising high enough that Michael could see his bleary blue eyes. “This woman’s your mate, Michael. You could at least try to impress her and her people.”
    Michael looked down at the green Carebear on his shirt, the four-leaf clover on its belly like a talisman against the world. He shrugged at the old cop. “It’s my lucky shirt,” he said.

    When they pulled up to the station, a crowd was waiting outside. Not just Alison and two skinny women that had the same eyes as her, but otherwise resembled her not all, but also Marcie Jackson, Shawna Killdeer, Mina, Matt and Marcus. More people would have gathered to glower at him, but the parking lot outside the little station was completely full.  
    “Can you just keep driving, Pete? Drop me at the edge of Rook’s Roost and I’ll get the box back.” Michael couldn’t bring himself to look out the window. He glimpsed the