Forbidden Alpha Bear Read online

  “But first things first,” she said as she held back her shoulders and headed for the door. “Let’s see what this place is all about.”

  As she wandered down Main Street, she was fascinated by the different groups of people, and at how much fun a small town seemed to be having out there in the middle of the mountains. She had read that Bridge Hollow was a tourist hotspot, but she had never expected it to be so full of skiers, holiday makers, and families having a great time together in the midst of so much rumor and legend.

  She wandered past shops that were completely unique and rustic. She saw grocers selling Bridge Hollow’s own label jam and bread, their own ale and cider, bottles of wine, cheeses that had been made from dairy farms close by, and many other gorgeous looking treats that she couldn’t wait to devour. There was a mystical shop that had a bead curtain flapping in the breeze at the doorway and the strong smell of incense drifting out from the inside. A secondhand bookstore and coffee shop, handmade clothing and an expensive crystal wear store were all dotted across the street, and nothing seemed to be from a huge corporate chain, everything was completely unique and enchanting.

  She stopped and peered through some of the windows as she passed by, but it wasn’t until she came closer to the very center of Main Street that her mind was completely blown. She felt the tingles rush up her spine and prickle the skin on her arms as she stared up at the statue. Her mouth sagged open a little and she swallowed as she stared up at the bronze structure ahead of her.

  It was big and unmissable, right in the center of town, and it gave her the shivers because of the look of rage and power etched on its face, but also because she knew it was in reference to one of the oldest legends of Bridge Hollow.

  The statue she was looking up at was of a huge, hulking half man, half bear. It looked as if a bear was ripping out of a man’s body, turning into the beast right there in the center of Main Street. The eyes of the bear were wild and unnatural, the look of pain and bloodthirst apparent, even though it was just a statue.

  She shuddered.

  “Wow,” she whispered. “Impressive.”

  She stayed watching it for a few moments, and then the loud crack of a motorbike coming to life shook her out of her stupor and she turned to see a group of rough looking, leather-clad bikers all lined up on their Harley’s outside of what appeared to be a bar.

  The building was long and wooden, it looked big and cavernous through the windows. From the sounds coming from inside and shadows flashing across, she could already tell that it was well patronized for the evening. The bikers were leaving, but they all revved their engines as they shook each other’s hands and prepared to get going, and a group of other men waited in the doorway to the bar and waved them all off as they went, one by one, revving and howling as they flew down Main Street in the opposite direction of Pamela.

  She watched as the men in the doorway of the bar backed inside and it half closed behind them, the rock music from within was still playing loudly and thumping out through the ground to where she was standing. Pam let her eyes travel up to the sign above the door and found herself frowning when she saw the name of the place was SHIFTER’S BLISS. It sounded so PG and family friendly, but with a gang of hairy and menacing bikers out the front, she could only guess it was anything but…

  She shrugged her shoulders and felt a little grin creep across her lips. She may as well get herself in there and see what it was all about. It was her first night in a new town after all, and the more she learned before she started her job the following day, the better. Plus, she had to admit, she could kill for a beer.

  She pushed the door open and stepped inside, where she was immediately hit with the hot smell of beer, wood smoke and meat. She hadn’t realized that she was hungry, but the smell of the hog roast that was heavy in the air set her stomach growling, and her mouth began to water.

  The bar was dark and crowded, with each table seemingly filled with groups or couples. A stage was dark, but still set at the front of the room, with guitars and drums, as if a band were going to be playing later in the evening. She looked ahead to the bar and at the high stools lining the front of it. She could easily hide away and slink into the one empty booth that appeared to be free at the back of the room, eat something quietly and then get herself out of there, but for some reason, she was feeling a lot more sociable than usual, and she wanted to enjoy her first night in town before all the hard work began.

  She stepped confidently up to the long, wooden bar and sat down on one of the high stools, before she placed her purse down in front of her and instantly searched deep inside it for her phone so she had a prop to help keep her busy if she wasn’t lucky enough to get chatting to one of the locals.

  She glanced around herself and saw that a few seats down were a couple of old-timers, supping on Bridge Hollow’s own beer and smoking rolled cigarettes, and she felt the urge to smile and go speak to them, but knew she had to resist.

  She had watched plenty of TV shows to know that this was the kind of place she could hear plenty of gossip about what was happening there in town, but what she was most intrigued to know was if there was some kind of chemical plant that had been hidden off the radar that might slowly be poisoning the land around them. She had heard of hidden facilities before, ones that were privately funded, that were dabbling in questionable activities and maybe even testing on animals. If something like that was happening in such a beautiful place, never mind so close to a national park, then there was going to be one hell of a big lawsuit going down, and heads, for sure, were going to roll.

  She tried to listen in on their conversation, but the noise around her was too loud, and she quickly gave up and turned back to peer into the refrigerators behind the bar, scanning them for something to drink. When the girl who was serving finished with her customer, she glanced in Pamela’s direction and wandered over to her with a smile.

  “Hey there,” she said cheerfully. “What can I get you?”

  Pam held out her hand and waited for the girl to shake it, which she finally did, suspiciously, and cocked her head to the side.

  “Hi,” Pam beamed. “I’m Pamela, I’ve just got into town.”

  “Oh yeah?” the girl grinned and seemed to relax. “And how are you finding it so far?”

  “Great,” she said. “It seems like a friendly little place.”

  “It sure is,” the girl nodded. “I’m Wendy, here to serve all your drinking needs.”

  Pamela laughed. Wendy looked like a nice girl and couldn’t have been much older than herself.

  “Well, in that case, I would love to try one of these Bridge Hollow beers,” Pamela said as she looked back down to the row of them sitting and glinting under the light of the refrigerator.

  “Sure thing,” Wendy smiled as she reached down and collected one before she snapped off the cap and passed it across the bar top.

  “Thank you,” Pamela said, before she raised the bottle to her lips and took a sip. She had always liked beer, but this one seemed different, it was smoother and less bitter, light and airy, much like the mountain air. “Wow,” she grinned. “That’s good.”

  “It is, isn’t it!” Wendy smiled and laughed. “I love it too, definitely a good one for us girls to enjoy.”

  “I was just thinking the same thing,” Pam agreed.

  “One of the families in town makes it up on their farm,” Wendy continued. “They brew it all themselves and it goes down really well with the tourists. Are you here for the last of the ski?” Wendy’s eyes were deep blue and kind, and Pamela instantly felt at ease around here.

  “Actually, no,” she admitted, gliding into conversation with Wendy without fear and glad that she finally had someone to chat to instead of Sean. “I’m here for work.”

  Wendy raised her eyebrow.

  “Oh really?” she asked with interest. “What kind of work?”

  “Environmental,” Pamela nodded. “The company I work for has sent my colleague and me here to invest
igate the strange weather and animal activity.”

  Wendy smiled a wry smile and nodded slowly.

  “It’s been a strange couple of months,” she seemed to agree. “A lot of people around here would love to know what is going on. Especially, regarding the two hunters that went missing up on the mountain.”

  “I heard about that,” Pam continued. “Seems like a lot has been going on here.”

  “Oh, when doesn’t it!” Wendy laughed.

  A man down the other end of the bar leaned over and began to call her, tapping on the countertop and motioning with his wallet that he wanted to buy some drinks.

  “I better serve him,” she smiled, “if you want anything else, just give me a shout.”

  Pamela nodded and watched as Wendy moved down to serve the other customers, then she relaxed against the back of the stool and took another sip of her beer.

  She liked it in Shifter’s Bliss. It was raw and edgy, full of a wild mix of people, but welcoming and warm. She could hear the logs snapping in the little fires that were lit in the firepits, and she looked around, trying to figure out where the kitchen or smell of hog roast was coming from. She pulled a menu to her and started to flick through it. The pages were wrapped in plastic, no doubt to protect the paper from spills from the drunks as they drooled over the pictures when they were looking for snacks to go with their booze. As she flicked through, she noticed that in corner of each page was the image of a bear, and it didn’t take her long to recognize that it was the same snarling face from the statue in the center of town.

  She closed the menu and slid it slowly away from here and took another swallow. This was such a strange little place, full of quirks and in its own little world.

  She heard a roar of laughter coming from behind her and she turned to look over her shoulder to see the group of men who had been standing in the doorway when she arrived to wave off the bikers. They were all gathered in one of the booths that lined the back wall, and it looked like they had been there for a while, with huge empty glasses scattered around the table, empty bottles of beer and a half-full bottle of whiskey. They were clearly all very merry, some of them roughhousing with each other. Two of them got up and went to sit at a clear table next to the booth and started to have an arm wrestle.

  She laughed to herself a little and kept watching, until she felt the eyes of someone from the group on her and she let hers meet with them.

  When she saw who was watching her, her heart almost stopped in her chest and her skin began to prickle.

  His eyes were deep and dark but fixed intently on her from across the room, with a look of trouble on his face, as if he were half angry, and half unsure of what he wanted to feel.

  It was the man from the hotel.

  Ryder.

  Instinctively and out of shyness, Pamela quickly broke eye contact and looked away. She turned back to face the bar and took a deep breath.

  Oh my god, she thought. It’s him…

  She sipped her beer and tapped her cellphone to bring it to life, suddenly feeling as if she were very much on display. It didn’t matter that the bar was crowded, and that most of the people in there were either drunk or too involved in their own conversations to notice her. Now that she knew Ryder had spotter her, she knew she wasn’t going to be able to rest.

  She opened her emails and started to flick through them, trying to take her mind off the fact that one of the most handsome and sexiest men she had ever seen, and had subsequently been given a seriously nasty look from a few moments later, was right behind her.

  She loaded one of the PDFs from an email and scanned through it, not taking any of it in. She saw words like soil, minerals, ph levels… and as her eyes flickered down the page, she felt them start to water and her vision started to blur.

  She looked up and away from it, ready to try and catch Wendy’s attention, when, to her complete shock and surprise, Ryder came out of nowhere and stepped behind the bar himself.

  His eyes were still fixed on Pamela, but his expression had softened slightly. She smiled weakly at him and then looked nervously away, hoping that he wasn’t about to lay into her for what had happened back at the hotel.

  “Hey… again…,” he said as he reached down to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of beer. He snapped off the cap with his teeth and blew the bottle top into the trash. He made it look so effortless and easy, it took Pamela by surprise and she was lost for words.

  “Hi,” she finally managed to whisper, hoping that a ferocious blush wasn’t spreading out across her cheeks and entire face.

  “So, did you and your boyfriend get checked in?” he asked her, a cloud turning his face to stone.

  “He isn’t my boyfriend,” Pamela found herself snapping back. “But yes, thank you, we did.”

  He smirked and raised the bottle to his lips and took another drink.

  “Listen,” Pamela interjected before he had chance to speak again. “I’m sorry for the way Sean was back at the hotel, I want you to know that I don’t condone him or his behavior.”

  “Well, why would you?” Ryder raised his eyebrows. “He’s a total jackass. And like you said, he’s not your boyfriend, so you don’t need to apologize.”

  He grinned at her, as if he was trying to get her to bite.

  She narrowed her eyes and smirked back.

  “I just wanted you to know, we’re not all like him.”

  “What, tourists?” he half snorted. “Well, I know that.”

  “No,” she laughed. “Scientists.”

  Ryder’s eyebrows raised much like Wendy’s had done and she watched as he set the bottle of beer down and crossed his arms over his chest defensively.

  “And what is a scientist doing in this town?” he said with an underlying challenge.

  “For work,” she said matter-of-factly.

  Ryder ran his tongue under his lip and across his teeth while he kept his eyes fixed firmly on her. The way he was looking at her was unnerving, it was almost like he was hungry, and she was his next meal. But there was something so standoffish about him too, as if she were annoying him by just existing. She knew she was babbling and not acting herself, so she looked away and took another sip of her drink.

  Ryder reached down and opened the refrigerator before he pulled out another bottle and set it in front of her. She looked up into his eyes again, and she felt something move inside her heart. He was closer to her than he had been back at the hotel, and she felt a pull toward him. Her spine tingled and she felt hot all over, right under her skin and creeping up her neck. Her heart beat faster and she was sure that something gold glistened in the middle of his eyes.

  “Here,” he said. “Have this on me. Welcome to Bridge Hollow.”

  He smiled and snapped the cap off with an opener, slid the bottle right in front of her and stepped away. She watched him move behind the bar and off into the throng of waiting customers. He began to serve them, pouring drinks quickly and smashing open the register with his big, heavy hands.

  Pamela couldn’t take her eyes off him, she was completely entranced. Who was this guy? Did he work there, doing odd jobs and moonlighting at the hotel to help his aunt, or was he something else?

  She watched him out of the corner of her eye and tried not to let him see, but on a few occasions, he looked up at her and she had to turn away.

  Finally, after what seemed like a decade, Ryder strolled back to her end and leaned back against the far counter, drying clean glasses with a cloth and stacking them up in neat piles.

  She looked up and watched him and he smiled at her again.

  “So, I take it you work here then?” Pamela asked when she worked up the courage.

  He was barely even three feet away from her, but she could still feel a heat between them, as if there was a chord tugging them together.

  He nodded slowly and then his eyes met hers again.

  She felt a jolt, as if she were becoming addicted to looking into his eyes and she had just gotten a fix. T
hey were so dark and enchanting, and the gold shimmer deep inside of them, just around the pupil, was mesmerizing her and making it impossible for her to look away.

  “Yes,” he said, “I own the bar.”

  His voice was deep and gruff, and he had a confidence about him that was completely arousing. She cleared her throat and looked down at her knees, hoping she still wasn’t blushing.

  “Cool,” was all she could manage to say.

  He owned the bar she was sitting in… what were the chances? Only a few hours in town and she had already invaded this guy’s peaceful evening twice.

  He smiled and picked up another glass and kept drying it.

  “Who were the bikers?” she asked suddenly, to try and change the subject.

  Ryder’s eyes widened a bit as if he were impressed.

  “Are you sure you’re a scientist and not an investigator?” he asked with amusement.

  “I guess there’s not a whole lot in-between,” she said.

  He smiled and his demeanor softened slightly.

  “Just some guys we know,” he said. “Don’t worry, they’re harmless. I’m sure they have nothing to do with whatever you’re here to look at.”

  “The strange weather and the die offs?” she blurted out.

  She knew she had already tested the water with Wendy, but she had not stopped working since, and it was clear that if Ryder owned the bar, he would be more inclined to sit and chat with her.

  He smiled again and then turned his back on her and reached down for another beer.

  “Here,” he said as he passed it to her and set it down on top of the counter. “Enjoy, again, on me.”

  He didn’t say another word, but he stepped out from behind the bar and disappeared back toward the crowd of men who were drinking in the back booth. She looked casually over her shoulder and saw him sit among them and get back into conversation, and she wondered why people seemed to be shutting down whenever she mentioned why she was there.