Bears in Flight: Book Four - Supernatural Bounty Hunters Romance Novellas Read online

  Maybe he just needed a bit of release. He’d split with his last girlfriend two months ago and hadn’t been with anyone else since. Damn, kooky, hippy had tried to turn him vegan. He was a bear for hell’s sake! He needed meat.

  He should go to a bar and pick up a woman. It didn’t have to be serious; he could just have a little fun. Would his bear like that too? He tried to connect with his animal but the sullen bear turned his back on him and rested on his considerable backside. Suit yourself, you surly, hairy beast.

  Of course, he needed to get the damn sewer smell off him first.

  Gingerly, he sniffed his skin. The rank odor still lingered. He sighed and gave his pink skin another thorough scrub.

  Fucking Jackson.

  *

  Mia jiggled her keys in the lock and quickly slipped into the dark office. She held her breath waiting for the alarm and was surprised when it didn’t go off.

  Alma, her manager, had spent half an hour that morning lecturing her on the importance of setting the alarm. She was surprised that Alma would forget.

  Still, not important. She could set it on her way out.

  Without turning on the lights, she dashed over to her desk and started rifling through the drawers. Crap, where were they?

  She froze. Her inner rabbit mewled in alarm and all the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She wasn’t alone. Her nose twitched as she sniffed and she was alarmed to scent bear. Holy hell, a bear was robbing them!

  Only, her rabbit wasn’t scared. No, the strange little beast was almost… panting. She did have to admit that the delicious mixture of cinnamon and honey smelt decidedly good. So homey and warm and sexy…

  Mia screamed in alarm as two enormous arms grabbed her. They wrapped themselves around her tiny body and lifted her clean out of her office chair.

  She twisted and squirmed and kicked her legs, but it was all to no avail. Her attacker was too strong, too big, too naked? Was that his naked chest she felt against her back? Oh, lord!

  “Don’t struggle,” he rumbled and immediately she stilled, entranced by the deep, throaty voice resonating through her body.

  She went limp in his arms and he relaxed his death-lock grip. The silence stretched between them until she felt and heard him press his nose into her hair and sniff. A pleasurable shiver danced over her spine as he let out a soft growl.

  Without letting her feet touch the ground, he turned her in his arms so they were facing each other.

  In the darkness of the room, illuminated slightly by the slivers of light from the outside street lamps, she took in the hard lines of his smiling, handsome face.

  “I’m Logan,” he purred so quietly she almost didn’t hear.

  “Mia,” she squeaked.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you… Mia.”

  Chapter One

  Present day - Friday

  “Nobody move!” yelled the rough voice.

  The patrons of the jewelry shop looked around bewildered until they saw the two black-clad figures quickly making their way toward them.

  There were several gasps and cries as they saw the shotguns the two intruders were waving around. They were both enormous and looked particularly menacing clothed completely in black and wearing ski masks.

  “Where’s the manager?” yelled the second intruder.

  People gasped when they realized it was a woman. It was so unexpected. One middle-aged customer looked her up and down and huffed - do women rob jewelry stores too, now?!

  “Where’s the fucking manager?” she yelled again.

  A terrified looking sales assistant stepped forward. “He’s ummm, he’s out to lunch.”

  “What? It’s only 11.30!”

  The young assistant bobbed her head. “He always goes early…” she told them apologetically as her voice trailed off.

  The larger of the robbers – the male – growled. They guessed, given how tall and broad he was that he was a shifter, but this just confirmed it and terrified them even more.

  “Who else has keys to the safe?” roared the female, a hint of exasperation in her voice.

  The assistant shook her head vehemently. “No one.”

  “Fine!” snarled the woman. “Get the bags,” she ordered the male.

  He pulled several bags out of his backpack and threw them at people throughout the store. The female started walking around the store smashing the display cases.

  “All of you start filling up those bags,” she ordered.

  Everyone looked at one another uncertainly.

  “Fill up the fucking bags!” she roared and waved her gun around. They quickly did as she said.

  “Achoo!”

  Everyone looked up to see that the male robber had lifted his ski mask to let out a huge sneeze.

  “You idiot!” screamed the female. “Put your mask back down and get the bags.”

  He grumbled, and did as he was told.

  The female pointed the gun at them in turn. “All of you, lie down on the ground and count to a thousand – out loud.”

  All the patrons and sales assistants did as they were told. The female continued to grumble at the male. After they had reached a hundred, they realized they could no longer hear her strident voice. Cautiously, people started to raise their heads, and they saw that the robbers were gone.

  The young sales assistant jumped up and ran to call the police. She then called the manager and yelled at him to get the hell back there.

  She clasped her trembling hands together. Why hadn’t she just stayed in bed that morning?

  *

  Wyatt Leeman, lion shifter and Detective in the Playa Lunar Police Department, nodded his head at the patrol officers as they held back the vultures. Reporters and civilians alike were all straining to get a look inside the jewelry shop.

  Wyatt shook his head as one of the officers lifted the crime scene tape for him.

  The shop was in one of the nicer areas of town; it was a busy shopping area full of designer shops and rich customers. There were numerous security cameras and cops patrolled the area on a regular basis. And yet, somehow, two robbers had managed to walk into the jewelry shop in the middle of the day, lift approximately four hundred thousand dollars worth of merchandise and then just disappear. Although, he did suspect that the manager might just be exaggerating the worth of the stolen property.

  He rubbed his forehead as his lion huffed. Magic. There had to be some kind of magic at work.

  He considered whether he needed to call the Council Enforcers. The Council of Supernaturals, who oversaw all supernatural species, including everyone from shifters to witches and vampires, had their own federal investigative unit. And they didn’t play nice with local authorities.

  Wyatt didn’t have any problems with them per se. However, in his experience, they took over cases and left him out of the loop. For the most part, they let local cops do their jobs – they weren’t interested in small fry things like theft. But, they seemed to be more on edge recently. Ever since a vampire had almost successfully framed one of the Council Members for a double homicide and then bribed her way onto the council.

  Honestly, he wasn’t sure he would have minded the Enforcers swooping in and taking this case. He had enough to deal with. There was a maniac going around killing women on blind dates; he was imaginatively nicknamed the ‘Blind Date Killer’ by the press. He was going round in circles with that case and he wanted it solved. He knew the Enforcers were keen to get their own paws on it, but unless they knew for certain that a supernatural creature was involved, they couldn’t. For all they knew it was just a human killing those women. They really hadn’t made much progress.

  He did a slow perusal of the store. Cops were talking to the witnesses. There wasn’t much damage really, just some broken display cabinets. Everyone was unhurt, just slightly shaken, and insurance would pay for the missing items. Still, the perpetrators might strike again, and next time someone might get hurt.

  His eyes alit on a crime scene techni
cian called Lisa. She gave him a suggestive smirk, and he scowled at her in return. They’d been kind of dating, off and on, for the past two months, as much as their schedules would allow. They both agreed to keep their relationship private, but Lisa wasn’t exactly subtle.

  Wyatt spoke a few words with the manager of the store. He’d apparently been indisposed with his mistress at the time of the robbery. Wyatt raised his eyebrows at that, and the manager explained that she had him tied up, ball gagged and was… Wyatt stopped him - he got the point. That kind of mistress.

  The sales assistant mentioned that the robbers wanted to get into the safe. The manager wasn’t sure why; he gladly showed Wyatt the contents. It only housed some items that were ready for collection, and some pieces that belonged to customers were awaiting restoration work. Wyatt asked for a list of the items and the owners, and it was gladly given.

  He shrugged when he looked through the names. It was a who’s who of Playa Lunar’s rich and elite. Perhaps the robbers thought that the items were worth more than those in the display cabinets.

  The manager confirmed Wyatt’s suspicion about security alarms. All of the glass cabinets had them, and they should have gone off when they smashed. If they had, that would have triggered a call to the cops and shutters would have come down on the door and windows. Clearly they had malfunctioned.

  He spoke with another tech and discovered the system was working fine; it just apparently went out of commission for ten minutes earlier that day. Shit. Magic. It had to be.

  Wyatt prickled as he felt Lisa’s eyes on him again. This was harder than he thought it would be. He was sure that Lisa wasn’t in love with him, or even capable of falling in love with him. He knew it was just a bit of fun, and for Lisa, she was hoping that Wyatt would give her a glowing recommendation when she applied to become a lead technician. She was very ambitious.

  He would give her a recommendation but only because she was good at her job. Not for the reason Lisa thought. His lion grumbled as Wyatt fidgeted at the thought. The idea of anyone having sex to further their career made him queasy. He should break it off with her. He really should, yet he found her… convenient. He didn’t want a relationship, but he enjoyed sex. Fuck that made him feel even worse. He was using Lisa just as she was using him, but somehow he felt like he was behaving worse than she was.

  He tried to dispel those thoughts and quiet his beast as he made his way over to her.

  “Do you have something?” he asked blandly.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?” she murmured playfully.

  Yes, that’s why I asked! His lion wanted to snap and snarl at her, but he reeled it in. “Anything we can use?”

  Lisa gave him a small smile. “One of the robbers sneezed, and I have a lovely big sample of mucus here.”

  Wyatt almost burst into laughter. A robber sneezing had to be a first for him. Instead, he remained stoic and professional. “Can you run it for DNA?”

  “Well, I am working on four other cases at the moment, I don’t know how quickly I can do this.”

  She pouted prettily. If they had been alone in her apartment that might have worked, but he was at work and not in the mood. She looked a little miffed as his gaze turned icy.

  He did relent a little. If the other cases were more urgent than his, he didn’t want to push in front just because he happened to be sleeping with the technician.

  Wyatt nodded shortly. “Let me know when you get the results.”

  Seeing that she was losing him, Lisa pretended to think. “No, hold on. My other cases are vandalism and burglary. Given that this is armed robbery, I guess I could push this through first, but what do I get in return?”

  “Uh… what do you want?”

  “What do you suggest to make it worth my while?” she cooed softly.

  Wyatt had to stop himself from rolling his eyes as his lion huffed in irritation. He hated this flirty bullshit. “Dinner, tomorrow?”

  Lisa pursed her lips. “I was thinking more along the lines of you taking me to that fancy dinner next Friday.”

  Wyatt groaned inwardly. Every year, the Mayor of Playa Lunar held a reception honoring the unsung heroes of Playa Lunar. They gave out three awards every year, mostly to people who did charity and volunteer work, but sometimes to people that did things like running into burning buildings to save a baby. And given that Wyatt had done that about a month ago, he was now the uncomfortable recipient of one of the awards. Honestly, Wyatt found the whole thing embarrassing. At the time, he just did what he had to do. It’s his job to protect people. Now everyone was trying to make a big deal out of it.

  “Lisa, I wasn’t even planning on going…”

  On the day, he was just going to find a way to be caught up at work. Schmoozing with Playa Lunar’s haughtiest residents was not his idea of fun. Although, clearly, it was Lisa’s. He could just imagine her flirting and networking with all those bozos.

  He looked down on Lisa’s irritated face and considered his options. Either, he could say no, and she’d punish him by making him wait for more than a week for his DNA results or he could just give in and take her. And he really did want to get this case out of the way so he could get back to the Blind Date Killer. Damnit.

  Wyatt sighed his most martyred sigh. “Fine, I’ll take you.”

  His lion growled in disapproval as Lisa’s face lit up, and she flashed him a cocky grin.

  “I’ll get this done right away.”

  Wyatt watched her flounce away, immediately regretting his decision.

  *

  Three days later - Monday

  Wyatt signaled to the enormous rhino shifter cop, who gave him a stony nod in return.

  Wyatt knocked on the door to the apartment and shouted, “Police, open up.”

  There was some shuffling within and breaking glass. The rhino put a huge boot to the door and it splintered off its hinges. Wyatt and the other cops rushed into the apartment, sweeping through the rooms.

  The DNA on the mucus had come back with a match to a bear shifter called Brick Jones. He’d been arrested and had endured numerous stints in prison. He was easy enough to track down.

  They found their target trying to crawl out of the tiny bathroom window. It was a no go. The bear shifter was far too big and had gotten stuck.

  Wyatt managed to control himself as the bear’s arms and legs flailed, but his colleagues couldn’t help the snickers.

  The rhino shifter let out a yell and, leaving the stuck bear with a couple of officers, Wyatt ran to the back of the apartment. He found the rhino struggling to control a she-bear. The rhino had a long scratch down his face and looked very pissed off. The she-bear had apparently been hiding in the closet and lashed out when the rhino found her. She was currently hissing and spitting at Wyatt.

  Wyatt couldn’t help a small smile as his lion growled in triumph. He didn’t know for sure, but he’d bet anything that this was the other robber. With any luck, all the items they stole would be in the apartment too.

  Well, well, well. Everything seemed to be going his way.

  Chapter Two

  Mia grumbled as she searched through her cavernous purse. Where were her darn keys? After searching for five minutes, and mumbling various hellos to her coming and going neighbors, she smiled in success and eagerly let herself in.

  She frowned as she looked at the boxes. Her new apartment wasn’t as nice as her old one, and she was having trouble getting used to it. She’d rearranged the furniture five times to make it more appealing, but so far – zilch.

  Although, the fact that someone had broken into her old apartment and smashed all her mirrors made that place unappealing. She was hoping it was just some random destruction, but it sure felt personal.

  Naturally after that, she had to move out of that apartment. It had been hard enough getting permission to move out of her parents’ home. It would have been hell trying to stay there after that. Her dad had taken to posting guards outside her apartment 24/7. And that had pu
t a serious cramp in her private life… So she gave in and moved.

  Mia locked and bolted the door before leaning against it. She took a moment to enjoy the familiar, lingering scent of cinnamon and honey. Hmmm, glorious. Her rabbit twittered in agreement.

  While her dad’s minions had been guarding her old apartment, she couldn’t have her boyfriend, Logan, come round and see her. That would have been reported directly back to her father, and then she would have been in serious trouble. It would have been Armageddon time in the Blau household.

  Her dad didn’t know about Logan… yet. She was planning to tell him, but she was waiting for the right moment. Perhaps in about sixty years time, ten years after he’d died, she’d go and whisper it to his gravestone. Maybe.

  No, seriously, she fully intended to tell him after her 25th birthday. Then, according to Den laws, she’d be an adult and her dad wouldn’t be allowed to boss her around anymore. Well, he could, but he certainly wouldn’t be permitted to force her into an arranged marriage. Yep, she just had to make it to her birthday. Three months and counting.

  Her dad wouldn’t be happy that she was intending to mate, and blood bond, with a seven-foot bear shifter who was a good nine years older than her, but he’d get over it. Logan was her true mate, and she was not going to give him up. Nuh-uh, no way.

  Mia kicked off her shoes and made her way into the living room and flipped on the light. She jumped as the hulking form sprawled on her couch was illuminated.

  Her heartbeat thumped louder than a drum, and she clutched her hand to her chest. “Jeez, Logan, you gave me a fright. Why were you sat in the dark?”

  His tough but handsome face twisted into a frown. “Why didn’t you wait for me?”

  Mia shuffled her feet awkwardly. “I didn’t know how long you would be. I didn’t want to put you out.”

  Since her apartment was broken into, her dad wasn’t the only one overly concerned about her safety. These days, Logan barely let her go anywhere on her own.

  His massive chest heaved up and down, and she saw that his eyes had already darkened to the black of his bear. She felt a thrill of fear mixed with arousal making her little rabbit sigh.