Laid Bear by Eve Vaughn (e books for reading .TXT) 📕

Heath rubbed his chin as frown lines deepened in his face.

“I see your point, but she’ll have to know sooner or later, and I prefer sooner. We’ll give her time to adjust to the idea, of course, but I don’t see the point in wasting time. We only have a month before we head back home. I don’t want to spend the bulk of it tiptoeing around what we are. It’s fortunate we even found her. I thought… ” Heath broke off as his voice flooded with emotion.

Gavin knew exactly how his cousin felt. There weren’t many of his kind left because there weren’t enough females who could carry their seed. He and his cousins were descended from the Kelowna clan, a group of sentient bears who had at one point lived peacefully among humans. As time

passed

and

the

environment

changed

with

industrialization and the influx of hostile humans, their kind suffered. Diseases their systems could not handle were introduced to them, leaving only the strong to survive. Most babies came out stillborn and a large portion of their females didn’t survive childbirth.

It came to a point where the males outnumbered the females in alarming proportions. As a solution to their crisis, elders of the Kelowna reached out to the humans who knew of their existence for help. Thus began an attempt to successfully breed with humans to save their race. Of the successful attempts, two types of babies were born. The first, a newly evolved breed that could take the shape of bear and human—what the modern Kelowna now were. The second type was the onida, mostly human, without the ability to shift but able to mate and breed healthy offspring with the Kelowna.

The male to female ratio was still lopsided however, so it was decided that males would share their women, grouping every three men with one female to ensure all the males had a chance to mate. It had been an effective solution in the beginning. Eventually, however, even the onida failed to breed enough female offspring to sustain their race. Because of that, there was only a handful of their kind left.

From an early age, Gavin, along with his cousins, Heath and Logan, knew that their family’s line would end with them if they were unable to find a mate. All three of them were now in their late thirties and had even considered settling down with “regular” women for companionship in their later years.

Now that they’d found this beauty, there was no question of that.

“I know. I never thought we’d find her either, but we did, and we’ll have the rest of our lives to spend with her. I don’t think holding off a bit is asking too much. Let’s ease her into the idea a little at a time.”

Heath raked his hand through his russet hair. “I guess you’re right, but Logan won’t like this. Hell, I’m not sure I like it, but we’ll try it your way for now. One thing that worries me is when she comes to, what if she’s left someone behind, a family that may come looking for her?”

Gavin had thought about that as well, but quickly dismissed the idea, not even wanting to contemplate the prospect of losing her when they’d only just found her. “I don’t think so. When we searched through her car, it looked like she had a lot of her possessions packed up. Either she was going on a very long vacation or relocating. Besides, she’s not wearing a ring on her left ring finger, and there’s no tan line either, so I think we can safely assume she’s unattached.”

Heath leaned over the sleeping beauty, skimming his fingers along her arm. She shivered as if responding to his touch. “Zora,” he whispered her name softly.

A smile curved Gavin’s lips at the sound. Since they’d found her identification card with her name, he’d said it over and over again, savoring the word on his tongue. The name sounded sophisticated and sweet at the same time— it was perfect for her. Zora Calloway. “Gorgeous, isn’t she?”

Heath licked his lips, eyeing her with a longing with which