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

the living room to look in the refrigerator. There was a half empty package of hot dogs and head of romaine lettuce. Aside from that, she had half a bottle of mustard and two eggs. Lily knew she needed to go to the grocery store, but couldn’t afford anything until after her paycheck.
    She grabbed the lettuce and hotdogs and chopped up a salad and fried the hotdogs in a pan. When she had a reasonable meal, she put it on plates and called Theo to the tiny two-person table she had shoved up against the wall in the living room. They sat down to their dinner and ate their meager meal. Theo didn’t really seem to mind, but he gobbled up his hotdogs and most of his salad before skipping off back to the television.
    “Is almost bath time, buddy,” Lily said, ruffling his hair with her fingers. “Fifteen more minutes.”
    “Okay, Mommy,” Theo said, smiling up at Lily.
    She loved her son so much sometimes it made her heart hurt. She wanted to give him so much more than she was able to. Most of the time, she felt like she was totally screwing up. She went to the kitchen and began cleaning up after the meal. Scraping mustard off a plate and into the garbage can, Lily thought about her options.
    Theo’s dad was a lost cause. Lily knew that much. But did that mean that she had to be alone for the rest of her life? Theo was getting to an age where he could really use a male role model. For Lily, the loneliness was becoming too difficult to bear. She needed someone to share her life with.
    She had heard about a new shifter dating website that a lot the local shifter males were signing up for. Local girls were getting a hundred percent discount if they used a code printed in the local paper.
    When she was done with the dishes, she went to the living room and directed Theo into the bathroom for his bath. As she sat watching him play with his rubber ducky, she pulled her cheap smartphone out of her pocket and tried to navigate to the dating app.
    Her Wi-Fi and cheap phone were taking so long to load, she gave up and helped Theo get ready for bed. After she pulled his red striped pajamas down over his head and stuck him into bed, Lily turned on his nightlight and walked to the door.
    “Good night, Buddy, I love you,” Lily said, turning out the light.
    “I love you too, Mommy,” Theo said in a sleepy voice.
    Lily closed the door behind her and went to the living room, where her futon served as her bed. Being a single mom and a waitress didn’t afford her a two-bedroom apartment. Lily slept in the living room. It wasn’t an ideal setup, but it was all they really needed.
    She took the ancient laptop off the coffee table and pulled it up on her lap. The thing felt overheated almost instantly, but it had better internet access. She clicked over to the website, Mate.com, and clicked on the sign-up button.
    Was it crazy to sign up for a shifter/human dating website? She had been involved with a shifter before. He had even told her that she was his fated mate the one time they made love. That hadn’t seemed to matter. He’d left her anyway.
    Her son had been shifting since he was two and a half years old. At first, it had been one of those exciting baby milestones that Lily could only share with herself. Theo’s pediatrician didn’t even know that her baby was a shifter. All they knew was that he was big for his age, healthy, and smart as a whip. It wasn’t until he started preschool that the shifting had become a problem.
    Theo had a hard time controlling his shift when he got excited playing with his friends. The first time he shifted at school, he’d almost given his preschool teacher a heart attack. That was the first daycare he’d been kicked out of. Ever since, Lily had tried to coach Theo on holding his bear in, but he’d had an accident more than once.
    She was still at a loss every day as to how to raise a shifter child. She had to remind him daily not to show his incredible physical skills on the playground. She needed