Bear Your Teeth (Alpha Werebear Paranormal Shifter Romance) Read Online Free Page B

responsibility, there was a little to be desired.
    He’d started working when he was thirteen, lying about his age to get a job sacking groceries. Having a huge, full beard turns out to help with that kind of thing. He just never stopped. He was the oldest of the bunch by three years, so by the time he was thinking about going off to college, he was helping his parents support twelve younger siblings. Mom was fertile, especially when it came to twins.
    Thor turned the picture of the whole Melton crew around, it usually faced outward, and looked at them. It was taken two years ago, just after he’d left the commune and moved to Cedar Falls. “I used to think this was the big time, you know?”
    “What, dentistry? Or the town?” Abby walked in, grabbed one of the chairs that was scattered with model train catalogues, and sat on top of them.
    “I’m glad we’re at a point in our professional relationship that you’re comfortable sitting on my stuff.”
    She shrugged. “I’m glad we’re at a point where you don’t bother to hide the model train catalogs when it’s just you and me in the office.”
    He smirked at that, knowing she was right. She was the first friend he really had in town, and hell, really the only one. After he moved to the Falls, he spent a solid year building his practice as one of the only two – and the only licensed – dentist in a town of just about six thousand people. He’d spent lots of time thinking about relaxing, kicking back, finding a mate and getting himself a brood of cubs just like his mom and dad, but... okay maybe not just like that. He’d always thought two was a better number than thirteen.
    “You wanna get married?” he asked casually. This wasn’t the first time, or the second, or the tenth.
    “Sure,” Abby shot back. “But you oughta know that I’m not much into body hair. Might be a sticking point.”
    That wasn’t the first time she’d given him that line, not by a long shot. She, outside of the pair of bulldog shifters, and the Lewis crew, was the only soul around who knew about the whole bear thing.
    “Why didn’t it ever bother you?” he asked, leaning back in the chair and deftly picking the engineer’s cap up off his desk, stashing it in a drawer.
    “The train thing? It does. Always did.”
    He glowered playfully.
    “Oh right, bear. Well, to be honest, you’re not the only one I know. I mean you’re the only bear, but I’ve known Clark and Dana forever, and I never understood why people were such pricks to them.” Clark and Dana were the bulldogs. “There’s all kinds of stuff we get along with, religion, Republicans, why not people who turn into animals?”
    He snorted a laugh. “I kissed someone yesterday.”
    “I know.”
    “You what? How? You weren’t back there.”
    “Because I know you and I know her. Both of you were all bashful and smiley and wouldn’t hold eye contact with me after she left. Paprika’s a cool chica, you know? She’s got some problems, but they mostly have to do with her crazy, way-too-open mom, and her sister who apparently is some kind of lunatic.” Abby stood up and leaned over the desk. She slid a hand slowly over the smooth, oak desktop and down the front, inches from Thor’s stomach.
    “But what she doesn’t do is date.”
    Her fingers locked on the knob, she slid it backwards, and retrieved the puffy, blue and white striped cap. “At least, she doesn’t date train engineers.” A wry smile crept across Abby’s lips. She set the hat atop Thor’s dark-brown mop and sat back in her chair. “I went to high school with her.”
    “Everyone goes to high school with everyone here,” Thor said.
    “Right, as opposed to just going to high school with your brother and sister?”
    “Touché,” he said with a grin. “I just don’t know what the hell came over me. It was like... well I was reading online ads for other jobs, I was feeling kinda listless, I guess, and then she showed up and it was like a