Tempting The Bear: Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance (Gray Bears Book 4) Read Online Free Page B

Jackson
followed and saw his brothers flanking the doorway.
    They greeted Harper warmly and
craned their necks to look at her baby.
    “ Hi,” Harper said
shyly. “Thank you all so much...”
    Tristan put up his hand.
“We're family. We take care of our own.”
    “ Yeah. We won't let
anything happen to our baby brother's baby,” Mason drawled.
    Aidan stepped forward and told
Harper, “If you can give us a description of the man who is
hunting you and your child, the Sheriff's department will be on the
lookout for him.”
    Harper nodded and managed a
smile. “I...”
    “ Come, come, come,”
Gramma urged excitedly. “This way! Up the stairs!”
    Gramma and Ne-ma hustled
Harper up the stairs and into the nursery. Jackson let his brothers
elbow him and thump him on the back as he followed in their wake. He
had told them everything about Harper. “Harper and
Jeremy...they're important to me.” His family had smiled
knowingly when he uttered those words, and they had rallied round
him. His brothers immediately swore to protect Harper and her child
as he knew they would. Their mates leaped into action as well.
Alisa had cooked a huge pot of nutritious soup for Harper and left it
on the stove before going to the inn. Elle and Suzanne had taken the
day off and were out shopping for baby items and clothes for Harper.
    Even his brothers had taken a
few hours off work to come and welcome Harper and her baby.
    They entered the safari-themed
nursery and saw Harper turning around in a slow circle. She stared
at all the animals on the wall and gasped.
    “ Bet you've never seen a
red elephant before,” Mason chuckled.
    Aidan laughed. “Or a
pink lion.”
    Jackson went to Harper and
pointed. “Check out the purple monkeys and blue tigers.”
    “ Are you sure those are
tigers, Jackson?”
    “ Aren't they?”
    “ Nope, look carefully.
The zebras got the spots and the stripes are on the leopards,”
Aidan deadpanned.
    “ You're all smart alecks
aren't you,” Gramma sniffed, glaring at the four of them.
“Fine, so our Quick-Paint spell mixed up all the colors.”
    Ne-ma pushed up her glasses
and huffed, “We only got the last bit of the spell wrong...”
    “ Nothing's wrong,”
Harper said breathlessly. “The mixed-up colors are so inspired
and so fun! This is beautiful!
    Gramma and Ne-ma brightened up
and grinned. “You think so?”
    Harper nodded fervently.
“Yes! I love it, I really do!”

CHAPTER
NINE

    Jackson watched his brothers
crowd round Gramma and Ne-ma as they cuddled the baby and fussed
endlessly over him. He could see that his brothers were scenting the
kid, and getting their bears to recognize the little lion cub as
family.
    “ He's a cute cub,”
Tristan said, smiling at Harper. “Has he shifted yet?”
    “ Shifted?” Harper
look startled.
    “ Yes. Your son is a
lion shifter. You...know that, right?” Tristan said carefully.
    “ Yes. But I don't know
anything about shifting.” Harper wrung her hands.
    “ A shifter cub would be
able to shift in the first few hours after they're born. The shift
is almost involuntary, like a reflex,” Mason said.
    “ Like yawning or
blinking. The kid will just do it,” Aidan added.
    “ Or peeing and pooing.”
    Harper's frown deepened. “If
Jeremy doesn't shift...”
    “ His animal might be
repressed. His lion will try to get out, but when he can't shift,
his animal will grow frustrated, angry and violent. He'll suffer,”
Tristan said.
    “ And we can't help him.”
Mason raked a hand through his hair. “He needs a lion shifter
to guide him and coax his lion out. Having bears around him all the
time might make his lion retreat even further.”
    Harper paled. “Does
that mean that I need to get...Jeremy's...” She gulped audibly
and shook her head. “No! I won't let him near Jeremy, ever,”
she hissed under her breath.
    Jackson knew that she was
talking about Douglas. He went to take her cold hands in his. “It
can be any lion shifter,” he told