Page 52 of Fearless Bond

“How about I happen to visit you when they arrive?” Hawke said. “I could stand by and observe.”

“Maybe we can all come visit,” Jordy said ominously.

I let out a nervous chuckle. “It’s not an invasion, you know.”

“We’re small-town people, dear Calvin.” Monty lifted his beer glass and took a gulp. He wiped his beard with the back of his hand. “We impose on our neighbors and gossip. Sometimes, we carry various pieces of equipment with us too. In case we need to chop trees and shovel snow on the way to said neighbors.”

“And sometimes we punch strangers in the face if they mess with one of ours,” Jordy added.

Hawke glowered. “Orson Jordan, I’ve put you in jail once, and I’ll happily do it again.”

Smirking, Jordy shrugged and returned to the bar. There was a story hidden in there. I’d have to ask Barclay about it later.

“So, what time are we coming?” Monty urged. He looked excited.

I could see it in my head. Hawke in his uniform with the gun holster showing, Monty leaning on a shovel, Hunter with an axe, and Jordy… Jordy would hold a chainsaw in his hands. They would stand lined up in Barclay’s yard, scarier than the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. I covered my mouth with my hand, torn between terror and laughter.

“The roads should be clear by morning,” Barclay said. “If you message your father at eight and they leave immediately, they could arrive around ten.”

Hunter checked his phone. “I have a patient in the morning, but I’ll come at quarter to ten.”

“Jordy and I will be there,” Monty confirmed.

Barclay then cleverly redirected the talk to Beauville and its residents. As if with a press of a button, Monty started telling me all kinds of stories about the town—when and how it was founded, about the gold rush times, and how it almost got abandoned before the bear shifters discovered it a century ago.

“The word spread about a place in the mountains, far away from the nearest human city, where you could get a fixer-upper cabin dirt-cheap. Twenty bear families moved in over the first few years, and more followed later.”

“How did you manage to keep it secret from the tourists?” I asked.

“It’s not secret, but try to get accommodation here,” Hunter said.

Monty waggled his eyebrows. “I got six rooms only, and I rent them out when I want to whom I want.”

Barclay leaned in conspiratorially. “The last time we had developers looking around for new hotel sites, Frey chased them out of town in bearskin.”

“What? Who’s Frey?”

“Our mayor,” Monty said proudly. “And he didn’t exactly chase them. He told them nobody in town would sell them a single acre and then ensured they had a few chilling wildlife encounters during their stay.”

“He only had to do that because you let those fuckers sleep at the B&B,” Hunter muttered.

Monty threw his hands in the air. “They lied to me when they booked! Said they were visiting a cousin on his birthday. Am I to check every guest’s family tree?”

Hawke shrugged. “It wouldn’t hurt.”

I might have been clumsy about it, but I asked Hawke about his mate, Phil, and the daycare. Hawke got the sweetest smile on his otherwise frowny face as he told me about it. I learned that Phil took over the daycare twenty years ago and that they’d gone from only nine kids to more than twenty now, half of them shifters. The daycare was at the edge of the forest where the bears had built a wooden playground and even regulated a part of the creek where the kids could splash around in the summer.

Barclay nudged me under the table and said, “Calvin has a degree in early childhood development.”

I blushed.

“You do? Have you considered working as a daycare teacher?”

My cheeks burning, I stammered, “Yes. Um. I’ve always wanted to do that, but I… um…”

Hawke patted my shoulder. “You have to meet Phil. He’s been searching for new people all over the mountains. This year, we’ve had thirteen babies born in Beauville, more families aremoving in, and with the locals bringing their mates, the daycare and school will burst at the seams.”

Overwhelmed, I managed to thank him and tell him that, yes, I’d love to meet Phil and that I hoped I could help.

---