Romance: Stranded With The Alpha Bear: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (Werebear, BBW, Bear Shifter Romance) (Sweet Shifters Book 1) by Ashley Hunter Read Free Book Online Page A

think I’m a magical creature who doesn’t have to shower. Why aren’t you wearing a shirt.”
    “I was also going to take a shower.”
    “So you started undressing in the hall?”
    He paused before speaking, “I’m feeling really uncomfortable and embarrassed right now. I can’t imagine how you feel. I’ll just let you finish.”
    I tucked in the towel so it wouldn’t fall and walked by him, my arm touching his bare chest as I went. “You didn’t laugh and run, so it’s okay.”
    “Why would I do that?” I could tell he consciously tried to only look at my eyes.
    “Well, I’m not the skinniest girl so…”
    He shook his head, touching my face, “Don’t ever say something like that. You’re beautiful, inside and out.”
    I opened and closed my mouth, lost in his eyes and unsure what to say. I mumbled some kind of exit strategy and hurried to my room. I leaned against the closed door, my chest rising and falling with nervousness. I feel like a teenage girl who just had a close interaction with her crush. I need to come down from this before I go out and face him. I need to get control of myself.
    I got dressed in pajamas and sat back on the bed. Maybe now I’m hiding from him just as he hid from me. I can’t understand all these thoughts and emotions that are burning through my veins like a tingling, warm virus. The thing that bothers me about it is I thought he was such a jerk before, and, really, he has been a jerk this whole time.
    But something has softened with him. He’s being flirtier and kinder, and… and I simply can’t process it. He’s so handsome that I can’t resist him, but it feels dangerous. He is a bear-shifter after all. Still, he kept his sister’s room untouched all this time. We share a weird sentimentality for the people we’ve lost. And, for whatever morbid reason, that’s appealing to me about him.
    My stomach cried out to me, pleading for some food and maybe a drink. I guess I should brave the downstairs world. Maybe he’s asleep. He’s had a long day (I think… I don’t know. That’s what I’m going with.) I crept out, hoping to not to wake him if he happened to be asleep. As I came down the stairs, I noticed the top of his head on the couch. I tried not to just turn around and run, to be an adult about this, but it proved incredibly difficult.
    “Looking for dinner?” Christian called from his reclined position.
    I sighed, my secret retreat realized, “You caught me.”
    “I’m heating up something in the oven. I think it’s lasagna.”
    “I thought you might be asleep.” Hoped, more like.
    “I’m staying up to wait for news.”
    “News about what?”
    “The tribe is going out on a mission to find Marilyn and the other girls, if there are any. I’m stressed about it.”
    I nodded, moving into the kitchen without anything to say and checking on the lasagna in the oven.
    “I thought you might be asleep yourself since you were in your room for a while.”
    “Yeah, I was just taking a break.” I came back and sat next to him on the couch. A photo album sat in his lap. “Is that your family?”
    “It is. I haven’t looked at this in years. I didn’t want to.”
    Now what do I say? “Are you glad you are now?”
    He shrugged, “I don’t know. She might not even be found, so it might not be worth it, you know?”
    “Right.”
    “I keep a picture of her and my mom and dad on my dresser, and sometimes I wish I didn’t.”
    He set the album aside and looked at me. “I wanted to talk to you, so I’m glad you came down.”
    My heart sped up. “What about?”
    “I have to be honest with you about something.”
    “All right. I think the lasagna is almost done though.”
    He gave his slight smile, “It has a little bit. I’ve made these things enough to know.”
    I shrugged, my hopes dashed to get out of the conversation. “All right, if you want to eat burned lasagna, that’s fine.”
    He chuckled, then grabbed my hand. “Veronica, I need to