Mail-Order Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (BRIDES fur BEARS Book 5) Read Free Page B

Shadow Point expecting to find
love. She was a mail-order bride, and she would be a dutiful wife to
Reid Ken. She would clean his house, cook and wash for him,
and...bear his children.
    Lauren gulped. Could she
take a stranger to bed? She had never taken a man to her bed, yet
she was supposed to be a mother to a four-year-old boy. Would Reid
be able to tell that she was a virgin?
    Her head was beginning to
pound. If she lingered any longer, she might just chicken out of the
whole deal.
    Squaring her shoulders,
Lauren held Eddie's hand and gave him a bright smile.
    “We'll be all right.
As long as we're together, everything will be all right. And—we'll
always be together. Right, son?”
    Eddie gave her a crooked
smile. “Right, Ma.”
    Glancing at the torn piece of
paper in her hand, Lauren asked for directions from a passer-by and
started making her way determinedly towards Reid Ken's house.
    She couldn't tell much about
Reid from his letters. She had received only two letters from him.
One was to thank her for replying to his ad, and the second one
informed her that he would like to meet her this weekend. He had
given her his address and sent two bus tickets with the second
letter. He hadn't said anything about getting married right away,
but maybe he didn't want to scare her off. But he did want to get
married, right? Why else would he advertise for a mail-order bride?
Lauren nodded resolutely to herself. She would have to convince him
to marry her as soon as possible. One month was almost up.
    Reid's letters had been short
and to the point. Maybe he's a very busy man, Lauren concluded. So
busy that he didn't have time to date and court a woman. But he had
been married before. The man was divorced, didn't have kids but
wanted a family.
    Lauren swallowed hard. He
would accept Eddie, wouldn't he?
    “Are you scared,
Aun...Ma?” Eddie asked softly.
    Turning to her nephew, Lauren
tried to turn her wince into a smile. “I'm just...”
    “I'm scared.”
    Lauren sighed. “So am
I, Eddie. I've never done this before.”
    Eddie giggled suddenly.
“Yeah. I don't think you've gotten married before. I've never
seen you in a big, white dress.”
    Lauren chuckled and ruffled
his hair. His hair was jet black, like hers and her brother's.
    “I don't know if I'll
be wearing a big, white dress for my wedding,” she said. Or
if I'd be getting married at all. What if Reid took one look at
them and saw her for the fraud she was?
    As they neared a simple,
single-story house, Eddie tightened his grip on her hand and
whispered fiercely, “I'll protect you, Aunt Lauren. We can
leave. You don't have to marry him if you don't want to.”
    Lauren's smile didn't reach
her eyes. “But I want to get married, Eddie,” she said
very softly.

CHAPTER
EIGHT

    Reid flung the door open as
the woman raised her fist to knock. “Oh!” She stumbled
back a step but recovered quickly. “I'm looking for Mr Reid
Ken.”
    “You're looking at
him,” Reid growled.
    She seemed taken aback at his
terse, hostile tone. Forcing a pleasant smile to her face, she
continued bravely, “My name is Lauren Sanchez, and this is
my...son, Eddie. We corresponded. I have your letters here.”
    Reid scowled. Not my
letters. My interfering, intrusive, infuriating cousin's letters.
    “Pleased to meet you,
sir. It's...real nice of you to invite us to your home. We've
traveled a long way,” the boy said, holding out his small,
trembling hand.
    Reid reached out and took the
boy's outstretched hand. It was just common courtesy, he told
himself. In truth, he had seen the fear and hope in the boy's eyes,
and saw how the boy had inched in front of Lauren so that he stood
between his mother and Reid.
    The little man was protecting
his mom. Reid admired the boy's guts.
    “Come in,” Reid
said gruffly. He started to take Lauren's bag from her shoulders but
she held on to her belongings. “It's okay, Mr Ken,” she
said politely. “I'll carry my own things. Thank