Her Bear To Keep (Second Chance Shifters 5) by Meredith Clarke Page A

asked.
    “Our children are all grown and mated, have been for years,” Mrs. Kline began, “and Harold and I were having a fine time being alone together, but we both agreed that something was missing. Then one day, Harold heard of this young cub who’d been left behind by her pack. We never did find out if it was intentional or not, but no one wanted to raise a child that wasn’t their own, especially one that was a different breed, so we discussed it and decided to take her in ourselves. Word got around, and we started getting calls whenever there was a child of a shifter that had been abandoned for whatever reason… Dead parents, parents who didn’t want a female child, sometimes just lost. We did what we could to find their families if there were any to be found, and if not, we kept them with us. Eventually, we were getting calls from all over the country from people who heard about what we were doing. Some wanted to tell us about children who needed help, while others asked if they could adopt.”
    “We didn’t know that one child would turn into hundreds, but we’ve never regretted our decision,” Mr. Kline said. “We’ve placed one hundred and eighty-seven children into happy homes. We keep in touch with all of them.”
    “That’s amazing,” Mika said, and Tyson agreed.
    “Hopefully, your home will be numbers one eighty-eight, eighty-nine, and ninety,” Mr. Kline added with a wink.
    Tyson left with the promise to return, and as he and Mika made their way back to the SUV, Ty turned to his friend and said, “This is more than I can ever repay.”
    Mika opened his door, looked at Ty over the top of the vehicle, and replied, “The only repayment I need is to see one or more of those kids, laughing in your house with you and your woman.”
    God, I hoped that happens, Ty thought, the picture perfect in his head.

Jordan
    S he was sitting on the edge of a bed in a motel room, wondering if she was making the second biggest mistake of her life.
    Everyone Jordan cared about seemed to think she was… Mia, Dixie, Ty… maybe the only thing standing in the way of her happiness was herself.
    Vicious meowed in protest as he settled on one of the pillows at the head of the bed. He’d turned his nose up as soon as he’d seen their accommodations for the night, and Jordan knew that even her cat wasn’t a fan of her moving away.
    The keys to her apartment had been turned in, she’d said goodbye to everyone at the Luncheonette, and the U-Haul filled with her belongings was parked outside the motel on the outskirts of Spring Creek.
    She’d done everything she needed to do, so why was she still in town? Why hadn’t she driven further before stopping for the night? Why was it so hard for her to actually leave?
    Tyson.
    He was the thing that was keeping Jordan from following through with her plan. The thought of leaving without saying goodbye seemed unnecessarily cruel. And cowardly.
    Was she afraid he’d talk her out of it? Afraid that he was the one person who had the ability to?
    Jordan threw herself back onto the bed and let out a small scream of frustration.
    “What am I doing, Vicious?”
    The cat didn’t answer, but seconds later, there was pounding on the door.
    No one knew where she was, so Jordan was contemplating not answering when she heard Tyson’s voice.
    “I know you’re in there, Jordan. Open up.”
    Rushing more eagerly than a person who was certain about leaving would, Jordan opened the door and watched Ty stalk inside.
    Her eyes took him in greedily, as if she hadn’t seen him in months rather than days, and she was trying to commit every gorgeous part of him to memory when his angry gaze hit her with full force.
    “What the hell are you doing?” he asked as Jordan shut the door behind her.
    “Moving?” Her answer came out as more of a question than a statement, causing Ty to raise his brow in question.
    “Where?”
    “Texas,” she squeaked as his face darkened.
    “No.”
    His command