Bear Mountain and Project Zed collide in the newest Bear Mountain title! A Monster for Two Bears picks up after the Project Zed series has been over for many months.
Sent away for their own safety, Kai and Lane have lived away from Bear Mountain for nearly a decade. Calls from home finally bring them back for an extended visit. Lane’s papa is ill… and Kai needs to confront the demons of his past—namely the death of his father, Gregor, and his brother’s part in it.
Declan is happy his younger brothers have finally come home and now is his chance to convince them to stay. Only it’s more difficult than he expected it to be. His brothers are happy with the new lives they’ve built for themselves and they don’t want to return to the valley.
Only Kai and Lane come face to face with a true reason to stay, a broken, battered male—one of the freed Zed victims who’s struggling to find his way in a new world.
Turi’s struggle for mental health makes him skittish at best. The instinct to surrender is at war with his own inner demons. He pushes Kai and Lane away, refusing to accept himself as worthy of love.
Will he push them all the way out of Bear Mountain—or can they help him find the peace he needs to heal before it’s too late?
Kai drove in through the center of the city, craning to get a good look at everything. Finally, he stopped the car in front of one of the taller buildings—a hotel—and got out to look around. He moved to the sidewalk and took a few steps down so he could see better. There was a new city hall across a large open green space. A museum. A hospital. Restaurants. A movie theater. A scattering of new shops.
A whole new world.
And then it hit him.
It was laid out very much like the old village square—just on a grander scale.
Lane exited the SUV and walked his way. “I know Father said they’d built a lot. Still, it’s a lot more than I anticipated.”
“Doesn’t quite look like home anymore,” Kai said, his voice low.
Lane turned to look at him. “Things change. You know that.” He cast another look around the new city center. “We can come back and look around some more later,” Lane said. “I really want to see my papa.”
“Of course,” Kai said, shaking his head. “Sorry. I was just so shocked. I didn’t want to run into something.”
Shocked was an understatement.
Kai followed Lane back to the SUV. Just as they approached, a door to the hotel opened and an unkempt man came barreling out and ran smack into Lane, nearly knocking them both over.
Reaching out, Kai grabbed Lane’s arm.
Only he missed and grabbed the man’s.
Heat washed through his body, and a moan nearly bubbled from his lips. A scent filled his lungs and made his bear roar in his ears.
Mine!
Kai’s eyes widened at the word whispered through his mind.
He tugged on that arm, forcing the man to spin. Kai took a good look at him.
A shifter…
Kai’s stare searched over the overgrown beard and long hair, trying to get some idea what the man looked like underneath it all. When he landed on two bright, shining blue eyes peeking out amid the light brown hair with golden highlights, he saw the guy looked as if he felt as stunned as Kai did. Drawing in a scent, he wasn’t quite sure what kind of shifter he was looking at. There was lion… or was it bear? Or was it wolf?
Omega.
“Sorry,” the man said, backing away and looking scared. “I… I gotta go…”
“Wait,” Lane said, taking a step forward.
The man ignored them and raced away, but his scent remained. It washed over Kai again as the breeze sent more of it to his nose, mixed with the scent of autumn leaves.
Bear doesn’t lie with bear… bear lies with human.
Of course, he wasn’t sure if the man was bear or not. His scent had been so confusing, but bear… shifter. It was all interchangeable. There had been reasons why humans were needed into the mix. Shifter blood was too volatile.
Too much of it and their kind went feral.
Looks like he might already be a bit feral.
Of course, the old law had been changed, but it was still hardwired into who he was. This wasn’t the kind of mate he’d anticipated—some bedraggled guy who looked homeless.
Was he?
Was this man living off the streets of Bear Mountain, needing help?
His bear roared even louder, demanding he do something.
“We should go after him,” Lane murmured, looking off-balance.
“Your papa,” Kai spat, against his bear’s wishes. The need to follow the man clawed at his gut. But he fought it, forcing himself to hold back. “You wanted to see your papa. We should go.”
Lane frowned, the desire to see his papa at war with the innate animal craving coursing through both their veins.
Kai had always heard the need was strong, but there was no way he could’ve understood that strength. Not until now.
His bear wreaked havoc within his body and mind.
“Yeah. Papa,” Lane whispered before walking to the SUV’s passenger door.
Kai watched as Lane slid in. Before he went to the driver’s side, he caught a glimpse of the man in the distance, walking down the sidewalk. He took a left and disappeared—which only made his bear roar within.
Not a shifter. Anything but a shifter.
