Clay (BBW Secret Baby Bear Shifter Romance) (Secret Baby Bears Book 4) by Becca Fanning Read Free Book Online Page B

couldn’t be controlled. It bucked relentlessly, jerking Owen around, and there wasn’t anything anyone could do.

    Except for Owen. In a flash, the rider was no more. In his place was a bear, a brown grizzly who easily broke through the rope and rolled away.

    “He’s a shifter,” Dakota stated.

    “Thank goodness he is,” Brianna muttered, relaxing, the danger over. “Otherwise, he would have been killed.”

    Shifters were no secret. Humans had known about them for almost a century, but they were few and far between. To meet a shifter was rare. Many people never did.

    Dakota had. She knew one very well, back home.

    “I’m surprised shifters are allowed to compete,” she said, knowing their abnormal strength and instinct gave them an advantage over other athletes.

    “It’s a sore subject. A lot of folk don’t agree with it.” Brianna spoke tensely, her focus on the pen where Owen had disappeared. Dakota could tell she wanted to go to him to make sure he was okay.

    “Go,” she told Brianna. “I’ll be fine. I’ll wander outside and get some fresh air.”

    “Thanks. I won’t be long. Meet me in front of the photo booth in an hour.”

    “Sure. Sounds good.”

    As soon as Brianna was out of sight, Dakota left the stadium for the brightness of the day where the sun blazed down on numerous craft stalls, food stands, and beer tents. Crowds of people pushed past her, enjoying the festivities. Wearing jeans and a red tank top that complemented her chestnut hair, she almost fit in, if not for her fair skin. She would tan, eventually, but until then, her paleness marked her as an outsider. It was a bad thing. A very bad thing.

    Folding her arms around her, she headed for the bathrooms, but as she passed a beer tent, she was knocked to the ground by an impossibly tall cowboy with broad shoulders and arms that could tackle a dinosaur. With his golden eyes and sandy blonde hair, she found him good-looking, if he weren’t a stumbling drunk.

    “Don’t come back without my money,” a portly man with bad skin called from the tent. “You owe me, Edward Tyrell, and I always collect my debts. I don’t care who your family is or what you are.”

    In reply, Eddie picked up an empty beer bottle lying on the ground and threw it at the man, but his aim was miles off. “Bastard,” he muttered, kicking the dirt.

    Vexed, Dakota stood from the ground and dusted the dirt off her knees. Her side ached. It felt as if she’d been attacked by a boulder. “Maybe watch where you’re going next time, yeah?” she admonished.

    “Hey, you’re pretty,” Eddie said, ignoring her reprimand. “Wanna take a ride with a real cowboy?”

    “Sure, tell me when you see one,” she returned, rubbing her arm. “I don’t appreciate being knocked over.”

    Eddie frowned, genuinely concerned. “I knocked you over?”

    “Didn’t you notice?”

    His frown disappeared, cavalier once more. “I noticed how gorgeous you are.”

    Unwilling to entertain him, she turned to leave, but Eddie quickly moved in front of her. “Let me make it up to you. I’ll buy you a shot.”

    “You can buy three shots, and you can drink them yourself. I’m going home.”

    “I’ll go with you,” he said, flashing her a perfect smile, the smile of a playboy, someone who treated life like it was a game of marbles.

    Dakota wasn’t impressed. “You can go to hell, that’s where you can go.”

    It made him laugh. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

    She stepped away. “Don’t worry about where I’m from.”

    He tried to maneuver with her, but in his inebriation, he tripped over his own feet and fell into a water trough, soaking him through. “Thanks!” he called, splashing his arms. “I needed a cool down. A girl as pretty as you had me all riled up.”

    “What you need are some manners, little brother,” a man said, joining them on horseback. He was tall, like Eddie, but he had dark hair, and he was much bulkier,