Bear Triplets (Triplet Harems Book 2) Read online

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  Bear Triplets

  Triplet Harems

  By: J.L. Wilder

  Click to Receive a Free Copy of Brother’s Wolf (Full length)

  Table of Contents

  Bear Triplets

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  Next in Series: Wolf Triplets

  More Books by J.L. Wilder

  About The Author

  Bear Triplets

  CHAPTER 1

  APRIL

  April Hawke couldn’t find her son anywhere. Fear ran through her like a cold spike. Her heart raced as she searched frantically through all the rooms of the small cabin in the Montana woods that she called her home.

  It was pointless to look around the house, and she knew it. If Sean, her son, were there, she’d be able to smell his scent. He had the most peculiar smell—like cedar and fresh air and, strangely enough, tobacco. It was the last of those scents that stuck with her the most, a memory of her deadbeat husband Sam who smoked like a chimney.

  As a wolf shifter, her sense of smell was keen. She could smell anything, especially her son, from miles off. Her not being able to catch wind of him was troubling.

  “Sean!” she called out. “Where the heck are you?” She wanted to say a word other than “heck.” But scaring Sean would only make him less likely to want to come back.

  Nothing, no reply. Her heart continued to race as she went through room after room, finally stepping outside into the cool night air. The sky was brilliant with stars, like diamonds thrown across an ink-black blanket. The moon was nearing its monthly fullness—the full moon when a wolf shifter was at its most powerful.

  But April wasn’t in the mood to appreciate the night sky. All she wanted was to find her son. He’d been running off more and more like this over the last few months. April told him each time not to do it again, but he never listened.

  It was no surprise to her. Sean was ten, getting close to the age when a shifter boy would be considered a man in the eyes of the rest of the community. And with her husband out of her life, she knew he was suffering from a lack of a strong male figure.

  April made a quick circle around the small cabin as if she might spot him hiding in a nook she hadn’t already checked. But, of course, she found nothing. When she was back to the front of the cabin, she stopped, fear and hopelessness welling up inside of her. April dropped onto the porch and sat, cradling her head in her hands as she said a silent prayer for her son to come back.

  He always did, of course. He didn’t know the area as well as April did and was smart enough not to run off too far from the cabin. But she was a mother, and mothers always worried about their children.

  She caught the scent of something—tobacco. April lifted her head up, her eyes alert. She sniffed the air again and again, detecting more of the scent. Along with the tobacco, there was cedar, followed by the smell of fresh, clean air.

  Sean. She stood up, staring deeply into the woods for any sign of him.

  “Sean!” she called out. “Come on! You know I hate when you do this.”

  The scent grew stronger and stronger, more relief taking hold as she realized it meant her son was coming close.

  Her heart began to race again, but this time for a different reason. She stood on her tiptoes, peering out into the woods.

  After several long minutes, she caught sight of a rustling in the leaves, followed by the glint of golden eyes among the shrouded dark. The eyes were brilliant orbs, the same color as Sean’s father. Then there was the puff of air from a wolf’s nose.

  It was him.

  “Sean!”

  The wolf stepped out of the shadows, its form small and lean, but showing the musculature of a male wolf on the verge of developing into its adult form. Sean drew close, coming to a stop a couple dozen feet from April.

  He was scared, and she could tell. The black hair on the back of his neck stood up straight, and his middle was arched. Sean was in for a scolding, and he knew it.

  “You shift back right now, this instant!” April’s voice was stern—she’d had to take this tone with Sean more often than she’d liked over the last year since they’d fled Sam and made their home out in the woods.

  The wolf stayed still for a moment before ducking its head down and shifting. April watched as the wolf changed from a black-furred wolf to a lean, ten-year-old boy.

  Sean was skinny but sturdy, with long limbs and a chest that April knew would one day be full and stout. His hair was jet black, like the fur of his wolf form. His face was lean with sharp features, the baby fat of his cheeks diminishing by the day. April could already see the handsome man he’d soon grow up into.

  And then there were his eyes. They were, like in his wolf form, golden and brilliant. April found herself worrying at times that they were too striking, that they’d catch the attention of humans who would know right away that the boy they were looking at was something other than human.

  “Mom!” he said, his voice still high, not having broken yet. “You don’t need to freaking yell at me all the time!”

  He stayed where he stood, and April pointed to the ground in front of her. “Get over here, right now!”

  Sean let out a frustrated sigh as if she’d given him the most unreasonable request he could imagine.

  “Right. Now!”

  With one more frustrated shrug of his shoulders, Sean came over to April with big exaggerated steps of annoyance. Once he was in front of her, April looked him over quickly and carefully, making sure that nothing had happened to him. After she was satisfied, she dropped down and threw her skinny arms around him, pulling her son into a tight hug.

  “Mo-om!” he said. “Why do you do this every time I go out?”

  “Because you scare the hell out of me every time you go out! Why do you think?”

  He squirmed out of her arms and stepped back. “You don’t need to act like this. I’m fine.”

  “But I don’t know that. When you’re gone, anything could happen to you. All sorts of shifters around these parts. What would you do if you ran into a pack of bears?”

  He grinned, and April could tell right away that he was going to give her an answer she wouldn’t like.

  “I’d tear ‘em all apart!” he said, making pulling gestures with his hands as if he were ripping a small animal limb-from-limb. “Then, I’d eat ‘em!”

  “If you think a wolf your age would be able to kill a single bear, let alone a pack of them, you’ve got another thing coming.”

  “OK. Maybe not now, but when I get bigger.”

  “Right. So that means you’d better be careful.”

  “I am careful. I stay near the cabin.”

  “No, you don’t. If you’re far enough away that I can’t smell you, you’re too far.”

  Sean shrugged, apparently bored with the conversation. “Can we go inside? I’m hungry.
”

  April wanted to chew Sean out more, really let him know that he’d done something wrong. But more than that, she knew that as a growing wolf, he needed to eat.

  “Fine. But I’m not done with you yet.”

  “I know, I know.”

  April opened the door, and Sean stepped into the cabin, April following closely behind.

  The home wasn’t much. It was small, with only a kitchen, living room, and two bedrooms—one for her, and one for Sean. When April had taken Sean and left her old life behind, she’d only had a small amount of money, enough to rent the cabin for a year and keep them in supplies. She’d taken a part-time waiting job in Pembroke, the small town of four hundred a mile or so down the road. But the job didn’t pay much and being a single mother didn’t exactly leave her with an abundance of time for work.

  Things were getting lean. She knew they’d be chewing through their savings before too long, and April had no idea what they’d do once that happened.

  Something had to change, but April had no idea what that might look like. She knew she needed a mate. But between work and her son, she had no time to even think about something like that.

  April put the thoughts out of her mind as best she could.

  “Sit,” she said, pointing to the small wooden dining room table.

  Sean obeyed, knowing there’d be food as his reward. Once he was at the table, April opened up the icebox and checked what was inside. There was food—mostly meat. But not much of it. Her gut tightened at the idea of running out, having to go back into town and spend what little money she had left on the next month of goods.

  Her son was growing, eating more and more food by the day. April found herself often considering hunting, going out into the woods and taking kills. But between the other shifters and the hunters she often spotted lurking around the grounds, she knew it was a bad idea. The only thing that scared her worse than running out of money was something happening to her that would leave Sean on his own.

  She set a cast-iron skillet on the stove, threw down a pat of butter, and waited for it to melt before dropping a couple of steaks onto the sizzling surface.

  “We need to talk about this,” she said, turning her back to the food.

  “What?”

  “You know what. Running off like that.”

  “I told you, I don’t go very far.”

  “You know damn well that’s not the point.”

  “Mom! I’ll be fine. You don’t need to keep babying me all the time.”

  Words popped into April’s head that were true but that she knew wouldn’t find much purchase with Sean—that in her eyes, she’d always been his baby.

  But Sean was more than that to her—he was her everything.

  “I’m going to keep babying you until you finally learn to act responsibly.”

  “I know how to be responsible. I’m almost a man!”

  “Almost is the important word there.”

  She turned her attention back to the stove, making sure the steaks were seared just enough. When she was satisfied, she brought out two plates and dropped the bloody, rare steaks on top of them, juices pooling below. Then she set them on the table and poured two glasses of milk.

  Sean didn’t waste any time tearing into his meat. He ate like the animal he was, ripping into the steak with both hands. April was happy to see the boy had such an appetite, but she knew eating like that wouldn’t exactly fly in the world of humans.

  “You and I need to talk,” she said.

  “We’re already talking.” His mouth was surrounded by juices.

  “I mean seriously talk. You can’t go running off like that anymore. I’m not messing around here, Sean. It’s a dangerous world out there, and you’re being careless.”

  He chewed and swallowed, washing it down with milk. “You always say that. And every time I come back fine.”

  “So far. But you don’t know what’s out there. You don’t know what kind of shifters there are.”

  He scoffed. “You’re only saying that because of Dad.”

  April was stunned. Sean had taken tones with her before, but this was almost beyond the pale.

  “No, Sean. I’m saying it because I know how dangerous shifters can be.”

  She was lying, and she knew it. Sean was right—it was because of Sam. But she wasn’t out of line in thinking that way. Sam was a brutal man, violent and vicious. When they had first met, she’d been attracted to these traits in him. After all, a strong male was necessary to keep his female safe.

  But then drugs entered the picture, drugs and drinking. Sam had slowly spiraled into addiction, neglecting his family and spending more time with the sort of low-life shifters who encouraged this behavior. He became moody, short-tempered, and violent.

  April shuddered as she thought back to the night he’d finally gone too far, when she’d taken Sean and fled as far as she could.

  “He wasn’t that bad, you know,” said Sean. “He was a good dad.”

  “The hell he was,” said April. “You didn’t see the side of him I did. I know what kind of man he could be.”

  “At least he let me act like a wolf,” he said. “He didn’t have any problem with me running. He even said he’d take me for hunts when I got older.”

  “He only let you run because he was too drunk half the time to care. And if you think he was going to take you for hunts, you’ve got another thing coming.”

  Sean narrowed his eyes. “You always talk about him like that, and I hate it. Maybe he wasn’t around all the time, but at least he didn’t baby me like you do.”

  “I only treat you like that to keep you safe. You don’t know how much I worry when you’re gone.”

  “And I keep telling you, you don’t need to worry. I’m fine!”

  He was getting angry, and part of April didn’t want to push him. But he needed to know.

  “Sean, I’m your mother, and what I say goes. If I tell you not to run off, then that’s what you’re going to do.”

  Sean sat for a moment, and April could see the anger building in his eyes.

  “I hate this!” he finally shouted. “You keep me cooped up in here, you won’t let me go into town, and I don’t have any kids my age to hang out with. What do you want me to do?”

  April didn’t have an answer, other than the one she always gave him.

  “I just want you to be safe.”

  “But I don’t want to be safe all the time! I want to be a wolf!”

  Sean shot up from his seat and stormed off.

  “Don’t you leave the table like that!” she shouted after him.

  She heard the door to his room open and slam shut, followed by the sounds of the eighties’ punk music he played when he was upset.

  April didn’t know what to do. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she knew he had a point. Sean needed other wolves his age. And more than that, he needed older males to teach him how to be a man. Sam had been in their lives, but he was hardly the sort of role model he needed.

  She forced down the rest of her steak, not wanting it to go to waste, before cleaning up. When she was done, April went to her bedroom and took out one of the romance books she’d read time and time again.

  Part of her hated that she loved that stuff so much. After all, it was mostly ridiculous—damsels in distress being rescued by handsome princes, that sort of thing. But deep down, she hoped that she might find such a fate.

  But she knew it was almost certainly not going to happen. She didn’t have time to meet men, and even if she did, what man would want to raise another wolf’s son? The more she considered the idea, the more she realized that it was her and Sean, and that was it. She could only hope that she’d be able to raise him into a good man.

  An hour or so passed, and soon April decided it was time for bed. The music still played from Sean’s room, and she set down her book to tell him to turn it down.

  “Sean!” she said, knocking on his door. “Bedtime! Turn that down, now!”


  No response. She knocked on the door again before trying the knob—it was locked.

  “Sean, you know locked doors are against the rules in this house!”

  Again, no response. She scolded herself for not simply changing the knob to his room to one without a lock. But like so many other chores that needed doing around the house, she simply didn’t have the time.

  April went to her room and rifled through the nightstand drawer, eventually finding the key. But once she was back out in the hallway, she stopped short.

  There was no scent.

  She sniffed the air again and again, trying to detect Sean’s smell. But there was nothing.

  Her heart raced as it’d done before. April rushed to Sean’s bedroom door and slipped the key into the knob with shaking hands. The lock clicked, and she pushed the door open, the music blaring.

  “Sean?” She called the name as she scanned the room with worried eyes.

  There wasn’t any sign of him. April ran in and shut off the music before pulling the sheet off the bed, revealing three pillows that he’d place there to trick her into thinking he was asleep.

  Panic gripped her.

  Sean had left. And this time, something in April’s gut told her he wasn’t coming back.

  CHAPTER 2

  RYDER

  The hunt was on. Ryder, in his bear form, rushed through the woods as fast as his huge, powerful body could take him. He stormed through the trees, breaking through branches. His heavy paws thudded on the forest floor. On the air, he could smell the scent of the prey.

  Nothing made him feel more alive.

  The evening air was fresh, and the moonlight broke through the canopy of trees above, casting the surroundings in a silvery glow.

  He was hungry, no doubt about that. But food was plentiful. He and his triplet brothers, Jack and Stone, owned a cattle ranch. If it was fresh meat he craved, it was there for the picking. But that night was about more than simply satisfying his hunger.

  It was another craving he was after.