Alpha Bear (Alpha Bites #2) Read online

  Alpha Bear

  Alpha Bites Book 2

  Mandy Rosko

  Contents

  Freebie Starter Library

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Epilogue

  Freebie Starter Library

  Other Books By Mandy Rosko

  Copyright

  About the Author

  Freebie Starter Library

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  Alpha Bear

  Alpha Bites Book Two

  USA Today Bestselling Author Mandy Rosko

  1

  Dane Green was a Goddamn alpha bear shifter, and he was going to put on his own pants without any help from the leggy redhead standing in front of him.

  "You can cross your arms all you want. I'm not going to change my mind."

  Lois shook her head. "You can barely stand up on your own. You need some help."

  "Yeah? Well, last time I checked, you weren't a nurse, and this was awkward a long time ago, so you can get out. Right now."

  Of course, she didn't move. It was like the woman was trying to spite him. The fact that she had her arms crossed right under those perfect breasts, pushing them up higher than what should have been normal didn’t help anything. She was good-looking. That was the problem. Even when her wavy hair was up in that messy ponytail, her tight jeans that had holes in the knees and thighs, like she didn’t care what she looked like, she was a beautiful distraction. It wasn't helping with keeping his attention on the matter at hand.

  Which was basically that he wasn't going to let some human boss him around. No matter how good she happened to smell as she did it.

  "You scared away the omegas. Even Katie won't come near you."

  Dane ran his hand through his hair. He grunted when it caused him to pull at still healing wounds.

  Of course, the woman had to jump all over that. "See? You're still hurt."

  "I'm healing just fine." Dane put his hand on the bandages around his middle.

  He wasn't healing just fine. If he had been, then he should have been out of bed a week ago. His wounds should've been closed by now, but they still bled bright red through his bandages if he so much as moved the wrong way. He should be out running through the trees, making sure Dennis wasn't trying to come back onto the territory. That was his damned job.

  Instead, he was healing at a snail's pace.

  Or a human's. Miranda's claws hadn't cut him that deep. He didn't get what the problem was.

  "And Katie isn't afraid of me. She's not scared of any of us. She's just pissed off."

  Dane was willing to bet that Katie also knew he didn't want this woman near him, which was why she was staying away, handing over her responsibilities to the redhead. Her way of getting back at Dane for snapping at her so much.

  “Yeah, well I guess that makes sense since you’re not the bad guy you tried to paint yourself as.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You’re not a killer. You were a Navy Seal. You tried telling me you killed people as if you liked it or something.”

  Anna had probably given away that little secret. It wasn’t like he kept his dog tags out anywhere Red could see them. He smiled at her. “How do you know I didn’t like it?”

  She stared back at him with a thoughtful frown.

  Those blue eyes boring him into him made him uncomfortable. His smile melted away. "What?"

  Lois's tongue slid out, wetting her lips. Dane tensed. She always did that. Did she realize she'd done that now?

  "Why do you hate me?"

  Dane rolled his eyes. He would've flopped back onto the mattress he was sitting on if there wasn't the risk of opening his wounds again. Stupid healing.

  "I don't hate you. I just don't want you near me."

  That was a big difference.

  One that the woman in front of him didn't seem to get. "Okay, so why do you not want me near you? I'm the only one who wants to help you get better. I'm not going to hurt you if that's what you're worried about."

  "Are you serious?" Dane asked. He struggled not to laugh, but he couldn't keep himself from smiling. "You think I'm worried about you hurting me?"

  Her frown deepened. Her stupidly cute button nose crinkled, which made the effect so much worse. "Okay, so then what's the problem? Are you just trying to act like a big shot and pretend like you don't need any help?"

  "I don't."

  "You can't even stand up to get your pants on."

  "Speaking of me not wearing any pants, you can either get out of here, or you can do me a favor and help me out of my boxers if you're so dead set on sticking around."

  She tensed. Dane smiled. There. That ought to do it.

  But then, instead of swearing at him, calling him a bastard or something, and running out, she rolled her eyes. "Don't be an asshole. If you want to get into some clothes and sit outside, I'll help you do that. I'm not offering to undress you."

  "That's a shame."

  She tilted her head to the side a little. "Why's that?"

  Dane shrugged. "If I'm going to have a woman in my room barking at me about my clothes, I'd rather she barked at me to get them off than to put them on."

  The fact that he'd said the word barking twice when describing her should have sent her out of there. Dane knew enough about women to know that much, but Lois still wouldn't move. She stayed right where she was, and her eyes narrowed, her slim red brows coming down in a frown.

  "You're the one who said you wanted to go outside. Not me. It's not like I'm forcing you to do something you don't want to do."

  Dane sighed. He pinched the bridge between his eyes. "Woman, you are really starting to give me a headache."

  "And stop calling me woman! I have a name."

  "I don't care."

  "This is ridiculous. I don't know why I bother." Lois marched to his dresser instead of his door. She opened it and pulled out the first pair of jeans she found. She tossed them at Dane. "Put those on if you can do it so easily."

  He caught them when she threw them at him, but just barely. The arm he used was the one that had been slashed up the least.

  The backs of his legs, however, were another story. It was starting to hurt just sitting there.

  To spite the woman in front of him, Dane growled at her for good measure as he shook out the jeans, then lifted his foot to stick it in one of the legs.

  Tried to. His back had received the worst of the attack from Miranda's claws and teeth. He could shuffle around on his own two feet if he tried, but it was bending over, like he was trying to do right now, that posed the biggest problem.

  Dane grit his teeth. He could feel the scabs of his wounds pulling through the bandages as he tried to stick his leg into the jeans. His heart pounded, and a layer of sweat formed on his forehead and neck. His hands trembled. Dane dropped the jeans. He gasped for breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

  Lois rushed forward, picking them up.

  "It's okay. Here, lift your foot."

  Dane kept right on gasping, but he lifted his
foot. "God, I hate you for this."

  "Sure you do, now come on. Up."

  He lifted his foot higher, gritting his teeth at the pain.

  He waited for her to throw that in his face, to tell him it wouldn't have hurt so much if he'd just done as she'd said first instead of trying to prove he could dress himself like a grown man.

  She didn't. Despite the way his skin had burned that first time he'd touched her, back when he'd kidnapped her and brought her here, he only barely got that feeling right now. He couldn't tell if it was because of the clinical way she was touching him now, or if the pain he felt was overshadowing that feeling.

  She pushed the jeans up his hips with only a little help from him. He wasn't just going to sit there and let her do everything after all.

  To be honest, though, with how close she was kneeling, and with only a thin layer of black cotton between her plump pink lips and his cock, well, he was starting to be grateful for the pain because he wasn't in the mood to get a hard-on right about now.

  "Okay, I’m gonna have to get you to stand for the next part."

  "Great."

  She held out her small hands, and the only reason he took them right away was because he didn't want to show her that he was about to hesitate over something like that. He was not at all worried about touching her hands. Or her skin. He wasn't concerned about what it felt like to feel her skin on his. Not at all.

  Dane pushed himself to his feet as much as he could as Lois pulled him up. That way she wouldn't have to work too hard to get him to his feet, and he wouldn't feel so damned useless.

  "I got the rest. I got it!" he snapped.

  "Stay still."

  Lois got to her knees, grabbed the waist of his jeans, and pulled them high up enough that he could grab them without bending over.

  "Okay, okay. I have it now."

  "What's the matter? You can look at me, you know."

  Dane grinned, and he did just that. "It's not about not looking at you, it's about seeing you on your knees while my pants are open."

  Those bright blue eyes flew wide, and a blush that was almost as bright as her hair bloomed across her face.

  This time, she was the one who didn't look at him as she got to her feet.

  Dane laughed.

  "Shut up!" Lois punched him in the arm.

  And normally, that tiny fist wouldn't have done jack against his strength, except that oh-so small fist landed right in the middle of one of his bandages. Over a healing slash wound left by Miranda.

  It was like the sweet spot of pain points on his body.

  "Oh shit! Oh shit, I'm sorry. I didn't mean, fuck!"

  Dane kept his teeth clenched tightly together. That trembling, sweating feeling came back. His teeth lengthened in his mouth, got sharper, and he felt his claws coming out.

  "You didn't see that you were punching me on one of my bandages?" he asked, his lips as tense as his words.

  Lois didn't move. Dane looked at her, and she cringed back. Her voice wavered as she glanced down at his claws.

  This was it. This was where he got rid of her once and for all. He'd sent her from the room once before. This time, he had to do it permanently.

  But as much as having her fear him seemed like the best course of action, and the most fun, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He wanted to. God, he really wanted to, but for some reason…

  Dane sighed. "I'm not like Miranda. I can control it. It just hurt, a lot, so my claws came out. That's all."

  Lois's shoulders slumped, but not as though she was relieved. More as if she was underwhelmed. "Oh."

  Dane frowned, and since he was starting to get the feeling back in his arm, he did up the zipper and button of his jeans while he had the chance. "You got over that fear quickly."

  "It's not really you I'm scared of. If you say you can control it, then I believe you."

  "Wonderful. I almost wish you did still fear me."

  And he could have solved that little problem if he'd just told her the bear was coming out and she needed to run for her life.

  But no. He'd just had to be truthful, like an idiot.

  He growled.

  She smiled up at him. “Do you want me to be scared of you?”

  “Right now, I’m really wishing you would be.”

  Lois gently pulled at the bandage on the shoulder she’d punched. “I think you’re just a sour puss.” Her brows lifted. “And I’m stunned, but it’s not bleeding again.”

  “It’s not?” Dane looked down. The scab beneath the bandage was still there, and it wasn’t oozing with red blood.

  He was shocked. Shocked and pleased. The rest of his wounds had been healing so damned slow that sometimes he could hardly move without opening wounds and making himself bleed all over the place. It had also been part of what had put him in such a bad mood, aside from this woman’s constant need to be nearby and unafraid of him.

  “Huh.”

  “There, you see? Your healing is coming back. You’re going to be fine!”

  Dane glanced at her before looking back at his wound. He poked at it just to make sure. “I always knew I was going to be fine.”

  The slow healing thing had just been a nuisance was all.

  Lois walked around him, back to his dresser. She pulled out a clean t-shirt. One of his favorites. It had the Punisher logo on it and dripped with blood.

  The woman looked at the logo, then looked at Dane.

  He smiled back at her, showing his teeth.

  She sighed and shook her head. “All right. Can you put this on, or do you need some help?”

  She was so much shorter than he was that, unless she grabbed a chair, she wouldn’t be helping him put the shirt on anyway.

  And he didn’t much feel like lifting his arms and testing the new limits of his healing.

  Dane shook his head. “I don’t need to wear that. I’m just going outside.”

  Lois tossed the shirt onto the bed. She grabbed his hand. That warm feeling rushed back through his fingers, his palm, up his arm, and settled into his chest. “Okay. I’ll walk you downstairs.”

  Dane didn’t move. He stared at her. What was this woman’s problem? “You don’t have to do this. You don’t owe me anything.”

  Once again, she wet those pink lips. Dane struggled to look away from them. “Yeah, I do. You saved my life, and your friend is taking care of my friend. I owe you a lot.”

  And those were words that should not have made the warmth in Dane’s chest swell out. “You know you’re basically my prisoner, right?” He smiled at her as he asked, watching her smile falter. “Do you still feel like you owe me anything now?”

  Lois seemed to think about it before she shrugged her shoulders and started walking with him towards his bedroom door. “You’re a pretty shitty kidnapper if I’m the one taking care of you. Willingly, I might add.”

  Dane snorted as he shifted his legs, feeling the pull of his wounds on his back and thighs. “Yes, well, mind telling me why you’re so intent on being my nurse?” He tried not to grunt with pain as he asked, or make it appear as if he was struggling more than he actually was. “I don’t think for one minute that me saving your life is the real reason you’re being such a pain in the ass.”

  Lois opened the door, and they slowly shuffled out into the hall. “You threw yourself on top of me when Miranda would’ve clawed out my insides. That’s all the reason I need.”

  He didn’t believe her. She might be beautiful, with hips and thighs that made both him and the wild animal inside turn their heads with interest whenever she walked by, but that didn’t mean her reasons for wanting to be so close to a monster were noble. She was attracted to him. He could smell it in on her. Before, he wasn’t entirely sure if it was a sexual attraction, or if she just wanted a closer look at a freak, or even a little of both, but now he was sure he knew the right answer, and it didn’t please him in the least.

  He needed to speak with the man in charge of this place. Garret needed to get
this woman out of here before Dane lost his damned mind.

  2

  “He called you his prisoner?”

  Lois nodded.

  She, Anna, and Miranda turned their heads, looking towards the three alphas. Dane was in a lounge chair in the sun, lying back, soaking up all he could get. He actually looked comfortable, and Lois was glad for that. Ever since he’d jumped in front of Miranda’s claws, he’d been walking around with nothing but a pained grimace on his face. She hadn’t liked that. Everyone had said the healing would be fast, that being a shifter, and an alpha, would help with that, but she hadn’t seen any changes.

  Had she not seen Dane shift into his other shape, more than once, she wouldn’t have thought he’d had any healing powers. But, considering she’d seen him in that form, when he’d kidnapped her and when he’d saved her life, she wouldn’t have believed he had a healing power at all.

  They were talking about something, but Lois couldn’t hear them.

  She looked to Anna, who was the younger sister of the alpha. The alpha in charge, that is. Since there happened to be more than one alpha in this pack, they all had to follow Garret.

  Lois still wasn’t sure how a pack could have more than one alpha and still function. She’s always thought there could only be one, but apparently, not where these guys were concerned.

  Lois was sitting on the wooden stairs of the deck. Miranda and Anna were sitting with her. “Anna, can you hear what they’re saying?”

  Anna had her iPod on the deck, plugged into a speaker that was pumping out One Direction songs. This was supposedly to keep the men from paying much attention to them, but right now, Lois was hoping Anna could still hear what they were saying over the music.

  Garret was a little over a hundred years old, but his sister was only twenty-three, and she so far seemed happy to have some women in the pack who were closer to her own age, so she always seemed to be hanging around them, eager to help, or to talk.

  “They’re talking about sending you away.”