Does a Bear Shift in the Woods (Bear Bites Book 4) by Ruby Dixon Page A

there’s coffee. That, I’m all over.”
    “I’m sure they can make you coffee,” I say with a smile. “Would you two rather go to the restaurant instead?”Pine Falls has an infamous waffle restaurant—home to the most maple confections one can possibly toss onto a breakfast plate.
    “Not me,” Adelaide says. “Amaretto sour here.” I wave over a server as she rubs her forehead. “Been a long day today. I had a customer who kept calling and swearing I had somehow stolen his credit card information. I tried explaining that his wife came every week and that’s why he had all those charges, but he didn’t believe me, and she won’t ’fess up.”
    “That sucks,” Ryann says sympathetically. “That why you’re drinking, Madison?”
    “Call me Maddie, and nah. I just met the local ‘alpha.’” I use my fingers for quotes. “He hit on me and then suggested I’d moved here because I needed a man.”
    Ryann’s eyes widen. “He did not .”
    “He did.”
    Adelaide gives me a sympathetic look. “You’re gonna get that a lot here, you know. Most of the time when someone moves to Pine Falls from another state, it’s because they’re looking to hook up with another shifter. At least, that’s what Cole tells me. Lots of hooking up when a new shifter moves here.”
    So I can expect a lot more of the last run-in? Goody. “Can’t a girl just want a job and a change of pace without some dick?”
    “No,” both of them say, then burst out laughing.
    “Ugh. I swear I’m not here to pick up a man!” Even as I exclaim it, the server saunters over. His scent fills my nostrils—not wolf. Bear, maybe. And my eyes widen when he gives me a flirty wink and puts a new screwdriver down for me.
    “On the house, sugar.” He gets the girls’ orders, and I try to ignore the phone number written on the napkin under my drink. Hell.
    This is going to be real weird for a while. I’m nothing special to look at—brown hair, big hips, maybe a few more freckles than I probably should have. But because I’m a shifter, and because I’m here, everyone thinks I’m desperate for a man.
    And the thought makes me defensive. When the server leaves, I lean in. “I swear I’m not here for a guy.”
    “You can tell us that, but no one’s going to believe you.” Ryann looks like she’s buying in to the hype at this point. “It’s okay to admit it, you know. People hit a certain age and they start to get the baby bug. Look at Adelaide here. She’s here for three years and then overnight, she and Cole can’t keep their hands off each other—”
    Adelaide bats a hand on Ryann’s arm to shut her up, but she’s grinning. “She’s got a point.”
    I scowl. “I just want to start my life over, maybe make a few women feel good about themselves. Or men, if that’s what they want. Is that so terrible?” The last thing I want at the moment is a romantic entanglement. Most wolf guys are super possessive…at least until the alpha shows up. Then they’re all, “Hey, I suppose I can share with the big dog.”
    Ugh. Sometimes I wish I was human like these two. They seem utterly happy to let their men be the shifters and for them to be completely vanilla humans.
    “Here?” Ryann asks. “The only reason Adelaide and I were single for so long was because we’re human. You being a shifter? You won’t stand a chance.”
    My heart sinks, especially at the ‘so long’ part. Ryann’s all of twenty-one if she’s a day. If she thinks she was on the market for a long time, I’m going to be doomed to be hit on by every shifter in Northern Minnesota. “What can I do? I just want to be left alone.”
    Adelaide thinks for a moment, then snaps her fingers. “A makeover.” At my frown, she continues. “Not you. You’re cute enough as it is. Someone else. You need to give someone everyone’s familiar with a new, impressive look. That’ll show everyone in town you mean business.”
    It sounds kind of…stupid. “I’m not