Read Bear Naked Truth (Southern Shifters Book 7) for Free Online Page B

honest.
    "It depends on how serious this is. The Blackwoods broke off from our councils a long time ago and until lately no one really cared. Now they seem hell bent on causing trouble and I'm feeling a little inclined to give them a taste of their own medicine. So the short answer is probably."
    That didn't feel very reassuring. In fact, this was looking less and less like a good idea. She started to stand from her chair and Bhric's eyebrows climbed to his hairline.
    "I don't know why I thought you would be any different. I shouldn't have come here."
    A sudden growl filled the room. "Miss Baker, I don't know what game you're playing but I don't appreciate it. I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt based on Simon sending you here. He's a good man on a dangerous mission and I owe him at least that. But to compare me and my shifters to those of the Blackwood pack is a bitch move."
    Jessa sucked in a breath, grasping the back of the chair as she did.
    "Now sit down and let's finish this conversation like grown ups. You need my help and I'm willing to give it with certain conditions. The first being I have to know what you were supposed to do for the Blackwoods and why they would be so upset you couldn't deliver. I understand you are worried about this NDA you signed, but if you're hiding from them, I think that ship has sailed."
    Her head spun a little. More than likely from fatigue. Leaving the Blackwood pack at a moment's notice and finding a place to stay here, not to mention the repairs the cabin needed to keep it livable had not been easy.
    She glared at Bhric. Him implying she was behaving like a child didn't help.
    "I don't need you to treat me like shit you know. I could have stayed where I was for that. I mean I knew what the hell I was getting into with them, but I didn't expect it to be so cold and clinical." She threw up her hands. "Hell, I don't know what I expected. All I had was a contract and a check to go on."
    He pushed again. "A contract for what?"
    "A baby. Okay? I was supposed to give them a baby."

6
    C alder paced the floor at the bottom of the steps. To call his bear agitated would be the under-fucking-statement of the year. He should have never agreed to leave her with Bhric.
    Whatever this situation with the Blackwood pack was concerned him too. She was his mate.
    Bear or no bear he already knew for certain. What else could explain this level of frustration? If all he wanted from her was a hook up then he'd be in the bar having drinks and bantering with Niki and Dean while she waited.
    Instead, he paced. Back and forth. With no clue what happened up there.
    Thanks to their supersonic hearing, Bhric had recently gone to great lengths to soundproof the rooms upstairs. When his brother showed up last year to claim Niki they'd all been headed towards bat shit crazy over the mating.
    The scent of the pheromones was one thing. Having to listen to them go at it all night an entirely different story. It had been enough to force Gage out of the house before he began taking the place apart board by board.
    He'd thought it funny at the time, but he was beginning to understand it a little bit more now that he'd met Jessa. And the more time he spent with her, the more he realized his bear had been right from the beginning.
    "Hey, big guy. You all right."
    Calder whirled on Niki, his lip curled in a snarl. As much as he loved this woman, he hated that she had the ability to sneak up on him like that. Her unique engineered breeding in a science lab had made that and so much more possible.
    It also made her his friend. He'd sensed her as an outsider from the moment they met. Kind found kind and in that a friendship had been born. Something he didn't want to screw up now because of bad timing.
    "You shouldn't be here, Niki."
    "Why is that?" she asked, slowly moving closer.
    "Because I don't feel very friendly right now."
    She laughed. "That makes two of us then. Clearing those idiots tonight was not as much