Read First Bear: BBW Shapeshifter BWWM Werebear Paranormal Romance (Wild Alpha Shifters Book 1) for Free Online

she wouldn’t know that once they chose a mate they mated for life. Of course, there were other things that Jada wouldn’t know as well. Before choosing a mate, bear shifters tended to be promiscuous. They sowed a lot of wild oats, and as a result, there was bear blood in the general population. Women and men who were perfectly normal in every other way often had traces of bear within them, and even though they couldn’t shift, the other shifters would sense it was there. It was that residual bear blood that drew shifters like a magnet.
    So even though Brandon knew that Jada was the one, he also knew that he would have to play his cards very carefully. There was too much he needed to tell her, too much he needed to explain, and some of it, he thought, could be frightening. Looking ahead, he knew he needed to proceed cautiously. So despite the fact that he ached to be inside of her, even though there was nothing he wanted more than to make her his, he didn’t go inside her apartment. Instead he went back to his ancestral home, greeted his father warmly, and did his best to sleep through the night.

    ************************

    Jada wasn’t sure what Brandon was thinking. He had pretty much professed his love to her back at the hot spring. And the time they’d had together had been a little slice of heaven on earth. But then to leave her outside her apartment door with a peck on the cheek? She didn’t get it. After their fiery encounter in the forest, Brandon had brought her to the police station, where she had given her statement about the incident.  
    It turned out it wasn’t the first time Croyston had made unwelcome advances toward women. He’d been reported before. The women had always backed down, though, because nobody had the balls to testify against him in open court. Jada vowed to change that and she told the police as much. She wasn’t about to let that guy manhandle any other women. She would testify against him. She would see that he got his just punishment.
    Jada understood that Brandon might think she was fragile after what had happened. She got that he slowed it down when the hikers approached on the trail. That made sense. No reason to get hauled in for indecent exposure. But why not stay once he’d brought her to her apartment? She had invited him for tea. For tea. How obvious could you get? She had pressed her thighs together even as she had said the words.
    Would you like to come in for tea?
    The tingle inside of her had grown to such an extent that she wasn’t sure she would be able to control herself. Thinking of what Brandon could do with just his tongue had made Jada long for more. She had imagined what he could do with his other parts. She had imagined him filling her up inside. But Brandon had declined. He had said he had a big day coming up, but he’d drop by the dealership in the morning to say hello. Why the change of heart? Was he done with her already? Had he used her up after a single interrupted escapade in the woods? She almost thought he loved her. She certainly had feelings for him. Had he used her just for sex?
    Jada, you’re going down a dangerous path, young lady.
    Jada still called herself young lady, even though of late she had begun to feel her biological clock tick. What was she thinking, anyhow? Brandon was a player. Whatever he might claim, that was what he was. She’d learned that back when he stood her up for the prom. But Jada was no longer a schoolgirl. Maybe hooking up with Brandon had been a mistake. To expect a man, any man, to change was an exercise in futility. No, she would be happy with what they’d had. All his talk of them being together forever was just talk, Jada told herself as she got ready for work.
    But even though she told herself that what had happened between them was a one-time thing, she still got dolled up just a little more than usual for her day at the office. She pulled on a set of sheer, black stockings and a push-up bra that put the girls