Second Chance Bear and a Baby: BBW Bear Shifter Baby Paranormal Romance (Who's the Daddy? Book 3) by Harmony Raines Page A

stop me telling?”
    He laughed. “It’s more the other way around. You have captured me, and my heart and my soul is your prisoner.”
    “That doesn’t make sense.”
    “It does if you know more about how this works.”
    “You mean the bear thing.”
    “Yes.” He had led her to a small park on the outskirts of town. With kids in school, the place was deserted apart from one mom pushing her little girl on a swing.
    “So explain it to me.”
    He took a deep breath, and held it before he began. “I can change into a bear. Some people can change into other animals. We are all different, but all have one thing in common.”
    “Which is? And please don’t say you have to eat human flesh or drink human blood!”
    He laughed. “No. We eat and drink like normal people. But what we do differently, is we know when we meet our mate.”
    “Your mate? You mean wife?” she asked. She was beginning to get an idea of where this was going. All she had to do was decide if she believed him.
    “Yes. You are my mate, Carla.” He turned to face her, his eyes deep pools of longing, and she struggled to pull her gaze away. “We are meant to be together forever. I know that. Your name is written on to my soul. Life without you would be unbearable.”
    “I see.” She sat back and thought about it for a moment. “And when do you know this? Is it like love at first sight?”
    “Yes. When a shifter sets eyes on their mate, they know. It’s like the world stands still, and there are only the two of you in it. I wish you were like me, so that you could know it in the same way.”
    “So do I, Liam.” She steeled herself for what she had to say next, because she wanted nothing more than to take what he said and believe it. However, first, she needed the answer to one question. “But I need to know one thing. Who exactly was Louisa?”

Chapter Eighteen – Liam
    He hadn’t expected Carla to ask about Louisa. This was one part of the conversation he had not rehearsed in his head, because as time passed, she had begun to fade away. Not completely, she was still there, usually at night, when Liam was trying to get to sleep, and he was caught between this world and the darkness of his subconscious. However, in his waking hours, she was a ghost, a wisp of thought, nothing more.
    “Louisa was a woman I worked with. I told you that,” he began, but knew their relationship could not be built on lies. “She was also my first mate.”
    “First mate,” Carla repeated. “So this isn’t a one-shot thing like you want me to believe.”
    “It is. Usually.”
    “Please don’t mess me around, Liam. It’s hard enough trying to get my head around your change, without having to put up with anymore of your secrets.”
    He leaned forward and put his head in his hands. “It’s complicated. It’s not supposed to be. But it is.”
    “Then explain it in small words,” she said firmly.
    He gave a short laugh. “Small words. OK. Louisa was my mate; she was like me. There was a drug called Niq It, and we were trying to crack the dealer, get it off the streets. It did things to people’s minds, made them perceive things differently. It stole their memories, and their emotions.”
    “And you worked the case.”
    He nodded. “Louisa was undercover. Joel and I transferred to the squad to help take them down. As soon as I met Louisa, we both knew what we were to each other.”
    “Mates.”
    He nodded again, struggling to talk about it, but she had to know the truth. “We kept it secret, so neither of us would get moved off the case, we knew it was important to stop this drug. It stole people’s lives.”
    “And that’s how she died?”
    “Yes. She was given it. It works differently on shifters; it makes them imprint on the first person they see once they take it.”
    “Imprint. Oh…”
    “The guy she was trying to infiltrate gave her some. He knew somehow she was a shifter. But it didn’t work.”
    “Why?”
    “Because she already had