Mail-Order Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (BRIDES fur BEARS Book 5) by Natalie Kristen

CHAPTER
ONE

    Lauren Sanchez tugged gently
at her four-year-old nephew's hand. “Come on, Eddie, let's go
home.”
    Eddie nodded and looked up at
her. Lauren saw that the little boy's eyes were dry. “Okay,
Aunt Lauren.”
    As they walked through the
cemetery gates, Eddie turned to glance over his shoulder. “Goodbye,
Papa,” the boy whispered before turning around and staring
stoically ahead.
    Lauren's heart constricted
painfully in her chest. Her little nephew was only four, but he was
now an orphan. Eddie had lost his mom when he was a baby, and now,
he was burying his father. Lauren glanced worriedly at the boy. He
hadn't shed a single tear.
    “Eddie...” she
began softly.
    “I want to go home,
Aunt Lauren. With you,” Eddie said in a plaintive voice.
    Lauren blinked rapidly, the
meaning and weight of the little boy's words slamming into her gut.
“Oh Eddie,” she cried, bending down to hug him tightly.
“Of course you're coming home with me! You're my nephew, my
family.”
    “You...won't leave me,
will you, Aunt Lauren?” he asked, swallowing hard. He was
trying so hard not to cry, but Lauren could see the stark fear in his
dark brown eyes.
    “I will never leave
you,” Lauren said fiercely. “We stay together, no matter
what.”
    “Promise?” He
held out his little pinky.
    “Promise!”
Lauren pinky-promised.
    A pinky-promise was the most
sacred, serious vow, and a four-year-old knew that. Satisfied that
his Aunt Lauren would never abandon him now, Eddie nodded and managed
a tiny, wavering smile.
    Lauren took Eddie's hand
firmly and started down the street, refusing to look back at her
brother's grave. Alex was her elder brother, and she grieved for
him. But she hadn't been too shocked when the police knocked on her
door to inform her that Alex had been killed in a bar brawl.
    After his wife died, Alex
spent his days drinking and gambling instead of caring for his young
son. At first, Lauren had tried to comfort him and talk to him. She
knew how devastating it was to lose someone you loved so unexpectedly
and she gave him the space and time to come to terms with his loss
and pull himself together. But Alex never pulled himself together.
Instead, he pulled them all down with him.
    Her brother seemed to have
forgotten that he even had a son. He drank, gambled and womanized.
He didn't come home and he didn't pay the rent. Lauren had to take
her little nephew in and care for him, or the boy would have no roof
over his head and no food in his tummy. She worked as a sales
assistant in a shoe boutique. She loved shoes and was an efficient,
hardworking employee. She could never afford to buy a nice pair for
herself, but she loved her job. Her boss paid her well and she
enjoyed interacting with the customers and seeing their glowing,
satisfied faces as they walked out of the shop with their purchases.
    But after work, while the
other young, carefree, single ladies in town enjoyed a nice dinner
with friends or went on a hot date, Lauren rushed home to care for
her nephew. Her landlady was sweet and helped take care of the boy
while she was at work, but she couldn't possibly ask Mrs Gururani to
continue babysitting Eddie in the evenings as well. Mrs Gururani had
her own kids to take care of. Her youngest son was just a year older
than Eddie.
    Lauren often showed Eddie
photos of his mom. She wanted Eddie to know that his mom loved him.
It was bad enough that the boy could see that his father didn't want
him, didn't care for him. “You should have seen her face when
she first held you in her arms,” Lauren would tell Eddie.
“Your mother was so proud, so happy! She loved you very, very
much.”
    And now Eddie had lost the
one remaining parent he had. Granted Alex hadn't been much of a
father, but still, he was Eddie's dad. Now Eddie only had her.
    Lauren tightened her grip on
Eddie's small, quivering hand as they crossed the street. His hand
was cold and clammy.
    “Aunt Lauren,”
Eddie began in a