Second Chance Bear Read online

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Foreword

  Chapter One – Joanna

  Chapter Two – Marcus

  Chapter Three – Joanna

  Chapter Four – Marcus

  Chapter Five – Joanna

  Chapter Six – Marcus

  Chapter Seven – Joanna

  Chapter Eight – Marcus

  Chapter Nine – Joanna

  Chapter Ten – Marcus

  Chapter Eleven – Joanna

  Chapter Twelve – Marcus

  Chapter Thirteen – Joanna

  Chapter Fourteen – Marcus

  Chapter Fifteen – Joanna

  Chapter Sixteen – Marcus

  Chapter Seventeen – Joanna

  Chapter Eighteen – Marcus

  Chapter Nineteen – Joanna

  Epilogue

  Also By Harmony Raines

  Get In Touch

  Second Chance Bear

  Return to Bear Creek

  Book Twenty-Two

  ***

  All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written consent of the author or publisher.

  This is a work of fiction and is intended for mature audiences only. All characters within are eighteen years of age or older. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, actual events or places is purely coincidental.

  © 2018 Harmony Raines

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  Foreword

  Joanna never expected to be left alone to raise her two adopted children. However, when her cheating husband ran off with another woman, that’s exactly what happened.

  Determined to make the most of it, and give Reece and Winnie a happy childhood, she agrees to go camping and sets off on an adventure that will lead her to Chance Heights Activity Center

  —And a bear shifter who offers her a second chance at love.

  Or maybe her first chance—since now she knows what it’s like to be loved by Marcus, nothing else can ever compare.

  Marcus Chance can’t believe it when his mate arrives for a week-long campout arranged for adopted children and their parents. Is she married? Will she accept him as both her mate and the father of her children, even though they’ve just met?

  Hell, will she accept him as a bear shifter, or will she run the other way taking his only chance of love her?

  Find out in Second Chance Bear. Where love blossoms and happy endings are guaranteed.

  Don’t miss the next book in my Return to Bear Creek series. Just let me know where to send news of my new releases by clicking/tapping HERE!

  Chapter One – Joanna

  “This will be good for us.” Joanna wished she could sound more convincing. The idea of taking her two children on an outdoor adventure at Chance Heights for a full five days was the stuff of nightmares to a logistics analyst who had found herself a single parent to her two adopted children after her husband, Julian, cheated on her.

  “I don’t want to go,” Reece told her adamantly. “It’s stupid. Who wants to go and live in a tent for five days with no TV, no internet and bugs?”

  Joanna had to agree… No, she didn’t. She truly did believe it would do them all good. A chance to get away from the house and their old life, which was a constant reminder that she had failed to keep her family together, was just what they needed. Aside from the bugs.

  She closed her eyes for a moment and composed herself before asking brightly, “Have you ever been to an outdoor adventure camp?”

  “No, he hasn’t,” Winnie answered for her brother and received a scowl that she brushed off.

  Winnie was a small child, delicate in so many ways, and yet she was the only one who could stand up to Reece without getting her head bitten off. Or worse. Although his anger issues had subsided a lot in recent weeks, they had been a plague that followed him from foster home to foster home, earning Reece a reputation. A reputation Joanna had decided he didn’t deserve even from the first day they met.

  Reece was scared. Joanna could see it in his eyes the moment she and Julian walked into the room. He wanted to be loved, to be given a chance, he was simply too scared to believe someone could love him. Since adopting Reece and Winnie, Joanna had watched the young boy bloom.

  Luckily, the breakdown of her marriage to their adoptive dad hadn’t sent Reece spiraling back into an angry abyss. Largely thanks to the new relationship he’d forged with Joanna, who understood his need for love more than anyone. But also thanks to Winnie, who had made herself a home here under Joanna’s roof and was not giving it up for anything.

  Except maybe her brother. But Reece loved his sister too much to ever test the strength of their relationship.

  “Just because I haven’t been to one, doesn’t mean I need to go to one,” Reece told Winnie flatly.

  “How do you know you won’t enjoy it?” Winnie asked, hands on her hips, as Joanna flipped the lid down on her stuffed suitcase and tugged at the zipper, hoping it wouldn’t burst open on the journey. If she managed to close it. Puffing air out of her mouth, she jabbed her knee into the soft top of the suitcase and tugged harder.

  “Because I know.” Reece folded his arms over his chest. “Who wants to sit around a campfire with a group of strangers? I like it here.”

  “We’re going.” Joanna picked up the closed suitcase triumphantly. “I am not unpacking.” She left the room with the two children following and went downstairs. Pulling open the front door, she walked down the driveway to her small car and opened the trunk.

  “I’ll do it.” Reece rushed forward and lifted the suitcase and slid it into the already tightly packed trunk. “It doesn’t fit.” He tried jamming it in again. “Nope, won’t fit.”

  “It will.” Joanna stepped forward and began reorganizing the trunk. She thought she’d left enough room for the last suitcase. Her suitcase. If it wouldn’t fit, she would leave it here. Even if that meant living in the same set of clothes for five days. After all, who would care? Not that she wanted anyone to care.

  Joanna blew air out of her cheeks in exasperation. She needed to get away. They all needed to get away.

  “I’ll help.” Winnie pushed a blanket to one side and then grabbed the edge of the suitcase and helped wedge it in. “I think that’ll do it.”

  “Thanks, Winnie.” With a sigh of satisfaction, Joanna slammed the trunk shut. “There.”

  To most people, packing a trunk was a minor detail. But Joanna needed the victory of preparing for the trip and packing everything they required to spend a few days living under the calm, protective gaze of a mountain. A mountain that had watched over the town of Bear Creek for millennia—so the Bear Creek tourist brochure said.

  Joanna inhaled deeply, trying to find the courage to get into the car with her two children and drive into the unknown. She had plotted the course and gone over it so many times she could drive it with her eyes closed. Why? Because she needed a win. Joanna needed to accomplish something alone. No matter how small, she had to know she could cope. Which was why they were leaving a full two hours earlier than they needed to. The Bletcher family was not going to be late.

  The Bletcher family. Joanna watched Reece and Winnie chatting excitedly about rivers and waterfalls. Were they a family? They certainly weren’t the Bletcher family. They had Julian’s name, the name she had ta
ken on their wedding day and then shared with the two children they had promised to raise together, as their own.

  Which they had, until Julian decided this life wasn’t for him. He’d made a mistake, he wasn’t a family man after all. Perhaps if the children had been his own it might be different. Joanna swallowed hard.

  Joanna’s split from her husband had been acrimonious, leaving her heart torn in two and bleeding on the floor. Even after two months she still went to bed each night and sobbed into her pillow.

  Not because she missed him. He’d stomped on any love she might harbor for him until it was a squishy mess on the floor. What she missed was the dream. A dream she thought they shared. After adopting Reece and Winnie their family should have been complete, they should be enjoying watching their children grow up while growing old together.

  “He’s an asshole,” Reece said quietly.

  Joanna bit the inside of her cheek, willing herself not to cry. “Don’t use that kind of language, please, Reece.”

  “It’s the truth.” Reece was on the defensive and she couldn’t blame him. Julian hadn’t just cheated on his wife, he’d lied to his children, too. As an eleven-year-old boy who needed stability in the home, particularly from a male role model, Julian’s deceit and subsequent desertion had hit him hard.

  “I know, but you still shouldn’t use that kind of language.” Joanna held out her arms and Reece and Winnie came in for a hug. She kissed them both on the head, something Reece only allowed if he knew no one else was around to witness. “I love you both, and we all need this trip.”

  “Do you think we might see bears and wolves?” Winnie asked excitedly. Her enthusiasm for life had kept their spirits up through all the emotional trauma.

  “We might,” Joanna answered, although she hoped they wouldn’t. The thought of camping out under the stars surrounded by wildlife was not her idea of a great vacation. Although that stemmed from a fear of the unknown rather than a fear of the outdoors. In her job, as a logistics analyst, Joanna was used to organization and order.

  However, Karen Sayer, who had supported the family through the breakup of Joanna and Julian’s marriage, had insisted it would do them good and help them establish a new bond. “Team building under canvas, what fun!” were Karen’s exact words.

  “I would love to see bears and wolves,” Winnie sighed in much the same way other children would sigh over a Disney princess.

  “I could take some photographs of them for my school project.” Reece’s eyes sparkled with excitement over the trip as he caught on to Winnie’s excitement. “I bet no one else would have pictures of wolves or bears in the wild!”

  “I suppose that might be cool.” Joanna tightened her arms around her children. “Thank you. Both of you. I just need us to do this.”

  “To prove we’re okay without Julian.” Winnie’s insightfulness shattered Joanna’s already broken heart. Winnie had spent the first seven years of her life witnessing the breakdown of relationships. First between her birth parents, and then between her mom’s many and varied new boyfriends, plus being bounced around the foster system. And finally, the breakdown of Joanna and Julian’s relationship, two people who were chosen to give her and her brother stability.

  “Yes, to prove we are okay without Julian.” After Julian left, Joanna had made a promise to herself and to her children that she would be as honest as possible with them. They needed to know she was there for them and wasn’t planning to leave them, too. Which she wasn’t. Because she couldn’t. Because she loved them more than anything else in the world.

  Her heart could mend from the loss of Julian, given enough time. But her heart would never mend if she lost the children. They completed her. They were her family now. Her love for them was fierce and true, nothing could break it.

  “We should get going.” Reece’s shift in mood lightened the atmosphere. “We don’t want to get stuck on a road through the mountains after dark. Not when there might be hungry bears or wolves.” He made his fingers into claws and chased after a squealing Winnie.

  “It’s hours and hours until it gets dark. And I’m not afraid of bears and wolves,” Winnie told her brother as she ducked around him and ran back toward the car.

  They’d be all right. The three of them together could face anything. Except maybe hungry bears or wolves. Joanna made a mental note to keep pepper spray where she could reach it at all times.

  “Okay, let’s get going. If you need the bathroom, go now. I’ll grab some snacks for the journey. Then we can hit the road.” They headed back inside where Joanna made one last circuit of the house to make sure all the doors and windows were secured before grabbing healthy snacks out of the fridge. Then she added a few unhealthy snacks. Life was all about balance after all.

  A half hour later they were all seated in the car, ready to embark on a new adventure. “Do you have everything you need?” Joanna glanced up at the rearview mirror and studied the happy faces of her children.

  “Yes!” Winnie shouted with excitement.

  “Yes,” Reece replied, head down, tapping his phone screen and giggling over a video.

  “Just think, you can spend the whole time talking to people instead of texting them.” Joanna backed the car out of the driveway. Before she drove away, she took a last look at the house she’d shared with Julian since they got married over ten years ago. When they returned she needed to put it up for sale and find a smaller house. Julian, the asshole, was demanding they sell it so he could buy a house with his new girlfriend.

  Joanna’s stomach turned over at the thought of selling the house. But after talking it over with Reece and Winnie they had decided that a fresh start, maybe even in a new town, might be best for all of them.

  Perhaps Bear Creek, the nearest town to Chance Heights Activity Center, might be worth considering. As long as the local bears and wolves weren’t too scary.

  She’d had enough of being scared.

  “I’ve never slept in a tent.” Winnie’s sweet voice broke through Joanna’s thoughts and turned her attention to the present. Joanna had promised herself this vacation was about living in the present. There was no room in her life for worrying about the future or reliving the past. Neither of which were hers to control.

  “Neither have I.” Joanna looked in the rearview mirror and smiled at Winnie’s reaction. “My parents were not the outdoors type. They preferred hotels and room service.”

  “Room service…” Winnie leaned her head back on the headrest and contemplated that for a moment. “I’ve never stayed in a hotel with room service either.”

  “Well, perhaps on our next big adventure we can go to the beach and stay in a hotel.” Joanna was lucky that her job meant she could work from home most of the time. Or a hotel room, or a tent, if she had Wi-Fi. Although not on this trip. This trip was all about unplugging from their normal life and enjoying new experiences.

  “What about going somewhere on a plane?” Reece asked. “We’ve never been on a plane either.”

  “Oh, I’d love to fly!” Winnie looked wistfully up at the clouds. “Can you imagine what it must be like to be a bird?”

  “I can. You could fly high up in the sky and look down on the world below.” Joanna added a trip abroad to her list of things to do with the kids.

  “And poop on everyone,” Reece added helpfully.

  “Yuck,” Winnie made a retching sound. “Why would you want to do that?”

  “Because you could.” Reece wriggled excitedly in his seat. “You could go find someone you didn’t like and drop a nice, smelly bird poop on their head.”

  “That’s not nice,” Joanna told Reece, but in her head, she was imagining a big flock of birds dropping big runny bird poop on Julian and his new love, Olive. Olive who would likely give birth to all the children Julian ever wanted. And still looked perfectly toned.

  “I think we missed the turn.” Winnie pointed to the road they just passed.

  And that’s what happens if you let your mind wand
er to the past or the present, Joanna told herself ruefully.

  “Yep, that was it,” Reece confirmed, looking at his phone, which displayed the route on Google maps.

  “I’ll turn around.” Joanna drove a little further and found another narrow road to the left which she drove along until she reached a place suitable for turning the car around. Soon they were heading in the right direction…with the mountains surrounding Bear Creek visible in the distance.

  “Wow, I’ve never seen real mountains before either,” Winnie said in awe.

  “I have, but not like this.” Joanna watched as the tall peaks grew larger and larger, filling the horizon, the closer they drove toward them.

  “Do we get to climb the mountains?” Reece asked as he leaned on his window and stared at the mountain in wonder. He sounded like a child for once, not the grown-up he pretended to be. Reece had spent his life taking care of his sister and picking up the pieces each time his mom got her heart broken and went on a drinking binge until she found the next man.

  His life was a rollercoaster of expectation. Each time his mom found herself alone, he became his mom’s little man until the next boyfriend entered her life and he was demoted to an inconsequential child who should be seen and not heard.

  Joanna was determined to keep her family on an even footing and give them a strong sense of stability.

  Which was why she’d also made a vow to remain celibate until things settled down and the kids became secure once more. She couldn’t allow a string of boyfriends through her door, and into her bed. That would be unsettling, both for her and the children.

  Or perhaps she was using that as an excuse to keep any man who showed interest in her at arm’s length.

  “So?” Reece asked.

  “So what?” Joanna asked as she spotted the sign to Bear Creek and turned off the main highway onto a road with tall trees lining both sides, which created an archway overhead. The directions told her to follow the road for a half a mile and then take another left turn along a narrow road that would eventually lead them to Chance Heights.