Bear In The Rough: Book 1: Treasure Hunt (BBW Bear Shifter Romance) by L. Foster Read Free Book Online Page A

items to have been originally found there.”
     
                  “So why did it disappear for so long?”
     
                  “Well, the island has been claimed by at least six different nations in the last 60 years. It’s been fought over by corporations and billionaires. The original owners of the stone placed it in a museum, but then the museum was snatched up by the Saltcross Mining Company when they were doing their excavating, and when they left, the museum was torn down and its treasures distributed to the four winds.”
     
                  “Yikes.”
     
                  “I know. So this wasn’t the only invaluable artifact to disappear. Dozens of others went missing at around the same time. It’s rumored that there was another stone linked to this one, known as the cipher stone. Where it wound up is anybody’s guess.”
     
                  “And the reason so many people have been fighting over the island?”
     
                  “Ostensibly because of the mango crop. But conspiracy theorists and treasure-seekers suspect otherwise. If the treasure that’s rumored to lie buried here is as big as claimed, then it’s no surprise that some of the wealthiest corporations in the world would want to get their hands on it.”
     
                  “Any clue as to what it is?”
     
                  I shook my head, stepping lightly over a protruding tree branch. “A lot of theories, some more plausible than others. Old maritime legend states that King Solomon’s fabulous wealth, which he used to finance the building of the first Jewish temple in Jerusalem, was mined on an island in the Pacific. But the exact location of his mines has never been found, and at least one wealthy investor believes they lie here.”
     
                  “Where does that story rank on the spectrum of plausibility?”
     
                  “Three, at best. There’s another story about the mysterious wealth of the Knights Templar, which was one of the richest organizations in Europe in the Middle Ages. Their wealth was so great that they attracted the attention of the king of France, who in a fit of jealousy had their leader burned at the stake. The king died within a year, and legends sprang up about a terrible curse that the leader of the Knights had spoken over him in his final agonizing moments. But to this day no one knows where or how they acquired their considerable fortune.”
     
                  “Likelihood of its being here?” he asked.
     
                  “Between a one and a two. Some people have put forward an argument, which I find slightly more persuasive, that there may be pirate treasure hidden on the island, or the wealth of a Spanish galleon on its way back from the Americas that ran aground here. One blogger even argued that Shakespeare’s first folio is buried here, which (a) everyone knows where that is, and (b) what would it be doing on an island?”
     
                  I was getting carried away with enthusiasm, but Henry merely smiled. “Well,” he said, “I’d say we have as good a chance of finding the treasure as anyone.”
     
                  “Seriously?” I asked. “Are you really suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”
     
                  “Why not? Wouldn’t you like to be enormously wealthy?”
     
                  I shook my head. “And do what, exactly? But I think I am up for an adventure.”
     
                 
     

             
     
    Chapter 6—Henry
     
     
     
     
                  It was my good fortune to find myself with nothing to do that afternoon except explore the island, and a beautiful woman eager to accompany me. Yet even as we were setting out, doubts began to set in.
     
                  The thing about shifters is, we