Bear Unbound: A BBW Bear-Shifter Romance (Shift Your Fate Book 1) Read Free Page B

technology back into her bag. She had more than enough time to make it for dinner. The cab started moving, but Amber couldn’t focus on the city flashing by anymore.
    Where had she met Tyler Atwood? Probably on one of those forums for book nerds she used to waste time on when she was in college. She couldn’t tell which one, but she knew they had immediately bonded over books, then movies and music. They had so much in common. For at least a year, they had spent hours, if not nights, chatting about everything and anything. College, friends, lovers, politics, concerts, hobbies… No matter how much time they had spent online, they had never gotten bored. They had exchanged pictures and started talking about more personal things. Then Amber met a guy and was in a relationship for around eight months. This was still way before Stephan Castell. She felt so comfortable with Tyler, that she told him everything. Romantic dates, arguments, disappointments, new discoveries, sex… There was nothing she had kept from him, and she knew there was nothing he had kept from her. They would call each other on their birthdays and on Christmas. Once, Amber had been so angry with her boyfriend that she had called Tyler to calm her down.
    The cab was getting close to Rebecca’s place, so Amber snapped out of her thoughts for a moment and started looking for her wallet. “Thirteen years ago,” she thought. “Good times.” She found her wallet, but the cab stopped at another red light. “Why did we drift apart, anyway?” She couldn’t remember exactly when it happened, but she was pretty sure it had been somewhere around the time she met Stephan. It might have been her fault. She was so in love with Stephan that she spent most of her time with him, or simply fantasizing about him. She and Tyler still chatted, but not as often. Then, she got married and their friendship grew even colder. It hadn’t been intentional, she knew that even now. For two years or so, Tyler had still called on her birthday and asked how she was doing. Then Ava was born, and Amber lost contact with everything and everyone from her life before Stephan. The baby ate up most of her time, and when she was old enough that her mother could focus a bit on herself, Amber had already forgotten about Tyler Atwood. And Tyler Atwood about her.
    The driver pulled in the parking lot and Amber paid. She got out of the cab and started walking towards the entrance. Her mind was still lost somewhere in the past. She tried to remember what he looked like. Shoulder-length black hair, brown eyes, sharp, noble features, full lips and a strong jaw covered in just a bit of scruff. Amber smiled to herself. “Yeah, I always had a thing for him…”
    Her heart jumped when her smartphone started ringing. Hands shaking from the shock, she struggled to get her phone out of her huge bag. The name on the bright display made her groan. It was her husband. It was the first time he was calling after she had left, but the last thing she needed was to hear his voice. He would probably yell at her, anyway, demand that she came back. “No, not today,” she whispered before rejecting the call. He’d probably call again, so she figured she might as well switch her phone off.
    That was when Amber made the decision. She was standing in front of Rebecca’s building, having just decided she didn’t want to talk to her husband. Instead of turning her phone off, however, she looked for Tyler Atwood’s number and typed a short message.
    “Hey! Remember me? I know we haven’t talked in a long time, but… well… I’m in NYC. If you’re still here, wanna meet? Amber”
    She couldn’t believe she had just tapped “send”. Her heart started beating faster, pumping adrenaline into her blood. “What am I doing?” Her whole body was tingling with anticipation and fear that he might not reply, but Amber had to admit she hadn’t felt so alive in a very long time. So what if he didn’t reply? It