Wild Bear (Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance) (Rescue Bears Book 2) Read Free

Juliet was a nice enough girl. Levi seemed to like her, and she made him happy. Maybe these human women didn’t deserve the full force of Shane Keenan’s wild side.
    He clicked off the phone and put it away before the matches were finished loading.

2
    L ily Mason wiped her brow with the back of her arm before reaching for another plate full of greasy diner food. She slid the plate onto a full tray and lifted it up off the counter. She wove around another waitress and through the narrow corridor behind the diner’s bar. Stepping out into the restaurant, she strode to her table and slid the plates in front of her customers.
    “Cheeseburger and fries for the gentleman and fried chicken for the lady,” Lily said after serving chicken nuggets and mini burgers to the couple’s children. “Can I get you folks anything else?” she asked.
    “That’s fine, Lily,” the woman said with a smile.
    Lily turned back down the aisle of tables to her other customers and quickly asked if they needed anything. The elderly man asked for a refill of coffee.
    Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a shifter family laughing and eating their meal together. She knew those customers. They came into the diner every Sunday afternoon as a family. They always seemed so happy.
    She poured the elderly man’s cup of coffee, passing the family on the way back to the bar. The little girl, with braids hanging around her shoulders, smiled up at Lily with her toothless grin and bright eyes. Lily smiled back, wishing her own life were as cozy as that shifter family’s was.
    She didn’t envy them their happiness, but she knew her life could never be that way—with the mother and father and children all together like that. It would never be.
    She greeted new guests at the front door and showed them to a booth by the window, handing them their menus. She wove back around the bar and stopped for a moment to take a drink of water.
    Her mind drifted to her son. Her sweet little boy Theo had never known his father. Lily hadn’t seen or heard from him in years. He didn’t even know that Theo existed, and Lily intended to keep it that way.
    She and Theo had moved so many times over the last five years of his life. Going from one place to the next, working whatever job she could find. All while trying to keep the biggest secret of her life.
    It had started to take its toll. Lily sometimes joked to herself that she was one bad day away from a nervous breakdown. But the truth was, Lily was far too strong to break. And she needed to be. With a son like Theo, she could never let her guard down.
    After refilling a table’s drinks, she took the new customers’ order and brought it back to the cook. As she was turning away from the kitchen, she stopped short in front of her boss. Mr. Buckman had owned the diner in town for a long time.
    “Excuse me,” Lily said, skirting around her boss.
    He loved to lecture her every time she was a second late or took a single phone call. She was a mom, she had responsibilities. Not that Mr. Buckman cared about her personal life. Far from it. Just because Lily had gaps in her resume and was living in a one-bedroom apartment near the highway, he thought he could treat her like garbage.
    Unfortunately for Lily, there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. She’d come to Fate Mountain because she knew it was a good place to raise her son. It had been hard to find a job or a place to live. Determination had always been one of her greatest character traits, and she’d found everything she needed to take care of her kid since she arrived.
    “I need you to work a double tonight, Lily,” Mr. Buckman said, crossing his arms over his round chest.
    He smelled of cheese and his greasy black hair was slicked back with some kind of sticky oil. Lily winced, not wanting to get too close to him. His breath smelled worse than his shirt.
    “I can’t,” she said, skirting around him and escaping out from behind the bar. “I have to