Bearly Hanging On (A Werebear Shifter BBW Romance) (Laid Bear Book 3) (15 page)

Part of him was afraid of hurting her but she wasn’t a frail little thing who might break in two. She was strong and solid, built for his insatiable need. He was determined to put her to the test.

Inside him, pressure built, tightening low in his belly as he and his bear claimed their mate. Crystal clamped down on him with each thrust, her own climax building quickly.
 

Swiveling his hips slightly on each stroke hit all the right spots to make her shiver and grunt. The tension in the air was thick as they both rode the flow of their pleasure to the end. Mist swirled around them, cooling their feverish skin, and the roar of the waters below were barely audible above the roar of the blood pounding through their veins and into each other’s soul, connecting them through all time.

Chet was nearly at the precipice but he wouldn’t fall over the ledge until Crystal came with him. He’d waited too long to hurry things now, and he wouldn’t leave her behind. They would take that leap together and for the rest of their lives.
 

As if on cue, her cries grew louder, more frantic as she clung to him. “Ah! Ah! Ah!”

The whole world started trembling as they reached the pinnacle. White light pulsed behind his eyelids and they stepped off the edge into oblivion, riding the tide of mutual bliss, their love surging between them on a river of invisible energy.

As their shudders eased, Chet collected her in his arms, pulling her to his damp chest. “I’m still shaking,” he panted, a trickle of sweat tickling its way down his neck.

Sighing happily, Crystal snuggled into him. “Me, too,” she breathed.

A moment later she burst out laughing. He felt so good, so absolutely perfect in that moment, he didn’t even take offense. Chuckling at her giggles but having no idea what she was laughing at, he asked, “What’s so funny?”

“We’re such dorks.
We’re
not shaking, the rock is!”

She was right. Tremble Rock had lived up to its reputation and was vibrating under their naked bodies. He could almost feel it in his teeth. The sheer power the water that was able to make this massive piece of granite quiver was awe-inspiring.

As was the love he felt for his mate. Pulling her tighter, he smiled into her hair, breathing her in. “I will never stop loving you, Crystal. It’s you and me forever, right?”

Her answer was just a whisper but it had the strength of a nuclear blast. “Forever.”

EPILOGUE

Seattle, 1992

A ray of light burned orange behind Chet’s closed eyelids, waking him gently. Stretching out every which way, he reached all four corners of their queen-sized bed without touching Crystal. She was up already.

That wasn’t unusual these days. Every day that brought her closer to delivering their baby, the earlier she woke up. He was worried at first but she calmed his fears.
 

“I like watching the sunrise,” she insisted. “Maybe you should start watching it with me, Tubbs.”

He loved that she still called him Tubbs after all these years. The silly nickname was such a part of their relationship that he knew she’d be calling him that when they were old and gray. They’d have to explain who Tubbs was to their grandkids, but it would be a fun tale to tell.

He lay there for a minute, basking in the sun, thinking back on their life together so far and wondering what the future would bring. If the last six years were just a taste of what was to come, he couldn’t wait to find out.
 

After leaving Port Numas, they moved into a small apartment in a sketchy neighborhood in Seattle. It was all they could afford after his parents cut him out of their lives. Crystal waitressed and Chet worked two jobs, doing his best to pass as a human. During the day, he worked as a janitor at the apartment complex in trade for rent and at night he was a telemarketer for a home security company.
 

The first six months or so were pretty tough. Not only did he have to come to grips with no longer having a family or any of his old friends, but he was working jobs that, in his previous life, he would have considered beneath him. It was a tremendous blow to his ego, but one for which he was now grateful. He’d needed to be taken down a peg or two — or maybe a hundred.
 

If it hadn’t been for Crystal, he wouldn’t have made it through that early rough patch. Her acid wit and no-bullshit attitude gave him perspective on life that he never would have had in Malibu. It took longer than he cared to admit, but eventually he came to understand that working for a living — no matter the job — was never a shameful thing. It was called being a man and taking care of business.

Not long after that epiphany, he started thinking outside the box. He learned maintenance skills from his coworkers and was quickly promoted up the ranks until he was the super for the entire complex, managing a staff of workers.
 

That allowed him to quit the heinous telemarketing job — one of his best days ever — and spend his evenings making love to his new bride. The wedding had been a simple civil service job at City Hall. Crystal’s mom and her flavor-of-the-month were the witnesses because her grandparents were ‘busy’ that day. It broke Chet’s heart because he knew it broke her heart, but it was what it was. They’d warmed up to him over the years and, now that Crystal was having a baby, they were calling nearly every day.

It didn’t hurt that he’d graduated from cleaning piss out of stairwells to building a small but lucrative business owning rental homes. He only had five so far but the profits allowed them to move into a nice home in a better neighborhood.
 

Nearly every day of his life, Chet wondered what he would be doing if he hadn’t met Crystal. It always gave him shivers to imagine the soul-sucking debauchery he might have joined in. While he missed his family, he didn’t miss his old life. Not even a little bit.

He did have a couple small lifelines back to his family. His cousin Sandy stayed in touch when she could, filling him in on all the goings-on. Her parents wouldn’t have approved but she wasn’t one for rules.
 

She’d just gone through her rite of passage and was off to college, determined to stay single long enough to become a lawyer. “My fated mate, if he’s even out there, can just wait till I’m ready,” she wrote in a letter a few weeks earlier.
 

Chet’s brother, Brad, also maintained contact with him, frequently sending him photos of his adorable nephew Max. Damn, that kid was awesome.
 

They’d visited Brad and Janey a couple times, and Janey was all set to come up to help with Crystal’s delivery. She promised to stay as long as they needed to get comfortable as new parents. He wondered if ‘forever’ might be too long.

Chet was unreasonably worried about Crystal’s pregnancy. They’d waited a long time to conceive because they wanted to be able to financially support a cub, but once she actually got knocked up, he was more worried about her and the baby’s health than money.
 

“Chet, we’re fine,” she’d soothe, rubbing her tummy, swollen with his cub. His bear strutted with pride inside him but his human side wondered what the repercussions of a human-werebear mating actually were. Sandy insisted that it would be no different from a regular werebear mating, but the old wives tales that had been instilled in him since birth were hard to dismiss.
 

Crystal had been seeing a human doctor, which suited her just fine, but Chet would have liked some reassurance from someone who instinctively knew how the pregnancy was progressing. Unfortunately, because of their non-status in the werebear community, no local clan healer would examine her so he was left in a state of limbo.
 

“Once the baby — excuse me,
cub
— is born, will you stop worrying?” she asked the night before, stroking his cheek with her soft palm.
 

He clutched it with both hands and pressed his lips to the softest part, loving her more today than the day before. He would never stop worrying about her and their soon-to-be-born cub. He would always protect them and provide for them. Every single thing he did, he did with their future in mind. They were his entire life.

And now, another day in their amazing life had started. Chet was excited to find out what it might bring. Stretching one more time, he threw back the covers, ready to get to work on the nursery. Most of the decorating was done, but he wanted to hang a sweet little bear mobile that Sandy sent. Plus he had an impossibly long list of baby items to buy before the big day came. How was it possible a tiny little baby needed so much
stuff?
He would never understand it, but if Crystal wanted it, he’d move the earth itself to get it.

Crystal was perched precariously on a chair at the kitchen table when he came down. The aroma of strong coffee roused his sleepy bear and made his mouth water. She made the best coffee. He didn’t need to look to know that she was sipping on a cup of herbal tea, as she had every morning since she took that pregnancy test so many months ago.

“Mornin’, baby,” he mumbled, leaning down to give her a mercifully quick smooch — his breath was horrendous. Dipping lower, he placed another kiss on her taut belly. “Mornin’, baby,” he repeated. It was his morning ritual. He couldn’t wait to kiss the real baby.

“How’re you feeling this morning?”

She shrugged, and he noticed she was paler than usual. “Didn’t get much sleep. My back hurt all night. I just couldn’t get in a comfortable position. The body pillow didn’t even help.”

“Seriously, I’ll move to the couch or the floor, if you’ll be more comfortable.”

Her weak smile sent up flares of concern. She wasn’t usually so tired in the morning.
 

“I told you before, it comes with the territory. I read it in my pregnancy book. He or she will be here soon enough, and then neither one of us will get to sleep.”

He stroked her head, pressing his lips to her forehead to slyly see if she was running a fever. If anything, she felt cool. That was better than hot.

“Dork, I know what you’re doing,” she smirked.
 

He smirked right back and went to pour himself a cup of glorious wake-up juice, the nectar of the gods. Crystal grunted behind him, a sound that had become very familiar over the last couple months. She’d grown so ripe with his baby that she grunted when she sat, when she stood, even when she shifted in her seat. Poor thing.
 

The next grunt sounded different, distressed. Whirling around, he was caught in her surprised gaze. Both hands clutching her belly, her mouth formed a perfect O, the edges twitching. Her eyes sparkled from the tears spilling out.
 

“Chet,” she gasped, reaching a hand toward him.

He thought his heart might leap straight out of his chest as he crossed the kitchen in a single step. His bear was on high alert, giving him speed his human side lacked. Before she could speak another word, he was on his knees in front of her, searching her face.
 

“Sweetheart? Are you okay? Is the baby okay? What’s wrong?”
 

His anxiety was pouring out of him like a raging river and he needed to get it together for her sake, but he was terrified his worst nightmares were about to come true. That the wives’ tales were true and that this was going to be the last day they would have together. He couldn’t imagine his life without her in it. No, until he held a squirming red infant in his arms, he’d be in a state of near-panic.

“Shhh,” she soothed, stroking his hair and cupping his face with her hands. And smiling. She was smiling. God, he loved her smile.

“It’s time to go, Tubbs.”

~ The End ~

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THANK YOU

for buying and reading Bearly Hanging On, a Laid Bear novel. If you had fun reading it, I would love you forever if you would pop over to Amazon to leave a review!

Bearly Hanging On
is part of the
Laid Bear
series from
New York Times & USA Today
Bestselling Author Marina Maddix. It can be read on its own, but fans of the series will recognize Chet from
Laid Bear
and
Laid Bear: The Kodiak Clan
, both of which are available on Amazon:

Laid Bear (A Werebear BBW Shifter Romance)

Curvy girl Bethany Mills can't believe her good fortune when her new neighbor turns out to be devastatingly hot. But someone that gorgeous could never fall for someone like her...could he? A charming personality and appreciation for sappy music aren't the only things Maximilian Pearce is hiding, and just when Bethany thinks she might get her very own happily ever after, a shocking revelation forces her to make a heartbreaking choice.

Sneak Peek

Chapter One

B
ethany slowly fingered a gap in her front room’s blinds so she could peek at her new neighbor. Her landlord, a big gruff guy by the name of Chet who’d never seemed to like her much, had informed her he rented out the other side of the duplex and, oh by the way, he had someone very interested in her side if she was thinking about leaving.