Claimed by the Claws Read online

  Claimed by the Claws

  A Bear Shifter Romance

  Laura Wylde

  © Copyright 2018 by CWG Publishers - All rights reserved.

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  Contents

  From Laura

  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

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  The End

  From Laura

  Thank you so much for picking up Claimed by the Claws. I just wanted to let you know that if you haven’t already claimed your copy of my first book, Mated to the Claws, you can do so here:

  Bree was a bit shy. She wanted to have the boldness that her friend Sandra had, but she shied away from confrontation.

  It didn’t help that her last boyfriend was a biker and he wasn’t letting her go. Greg was everywhere she was and it drove her crazy. She swore off men altogether, sure that it was the only way she was going to find peace in her life.

  Then came Daxton. He was back in town after serving in the military and the small town of Lost Hills had changed, a lot. It was not the place he’d left and it didn’t take long for him to see that Greg was now in charge.

  Daxton wasn’t going to stand for it, and he certainly wasn’t going to stand for the guy putting his hands on Bree. He saw it happening from afar and came to her rescue.

  It started another war between the two sides and Bree was thrown in the middle of it. While she thought that she knew what she was getting herself into, Bree was about to find out that she had no clue.

  Daxton and the others had a secret and it threatened to turn her whole life upside down.

  Chapter 1

  Sandra

  “Alright class, I know that we are all excited to get out of here, but we have to tone it down a little bit. You don’t want the principal to have to come back in here, do you?”

  Everyone agreed that they didn’t want that to happen. The kids were used to me and I was rather lenient, but it wouldn’t be the first time that the principal had been called into the classroom by another teacher. Since Bree was next to me, I knew that it wasn’t her that was telling on me. It was sad when the kids weren’t the tattle tales. I could almost guess who it was. I was sure that it was Mrs. Beverly. She was old and rude and had never liked me much since I started there.

  The kids started to calm down and I watched them start to pick up their things. We hadn’t done much in the way of work today, but we had gone over some of the bigger and better projects that we’d done throughout the year and I was happy to have the time to reminisce. I figured that the kids should enjoy their summer, not get bombarded with a bunch of work to take with them.

  I looked at the clock and even my desk was practically empty. I was ready to go, just the same as they were, and I was watching the clock just the same. While I loved my job and my students, there was a big part of me that was looking forward to the freedom of the summer.

  It was hard for me to think about anything else when the sun was getting brighter and it was already warming up. Too many days in the last month, I had looked outside and wished that I was out there in the sunshine, just like every other kid in my class. There was just something about the school at the end of the year that started to make it feel more like a jail than anything else and I was ready to break free.

  There was only a few minutes left in the day and I had a couple of my students come towards me in tears.

  “What is a matter, Ophelia?”

  “I don’t want to leave.”

  “This isn’t the last day honey. I will see you tomorrow, remember? Tomorrow is the last day, but when you come back next year, guess what?”

  “What?”

  “I will still be here and we will still see each other at lunch time and in the halls.”

  Ophelia started to brighten up a little bit, but she still wanted to tell me that she was going to miss me. She gave me a hug and I almost melted. The kids were crazy to deal with half of the time, but I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. Moments like this made it all worth it on the worst days.

  A few other kids came up to me as they were leaving when the bell rang. I was trying to tell myself that I wasn’t going to let the last day get to me, but who was I kidding. The last day always did this to me and even though this was only my third year, it seemed to get worse and worse, it was hard not to get attached. It made me wonder if I was ever going to have any of my own. Sad part was, I had to do this all over again the next day. It was a half of a day, but all of the emotions were going to be there.

  The classroom was empty in minutes, but it was still a mess. It was strange to be in there when there weren’t any kids running around and yelling. I didn’t know what I was feeling at the moment, but I was going to miss them. I knew that I would see them in their classes for second grade, but it wasn’t going to be the same. I would have another set of kids in a few months and there was part of me that wanted to keep them. But I knew I couldn’t.

  I was sad, but when I saw Bree come in, I knew that it would be better now. She was looking about as sad I was feeling, and I knew that she was far more upset than me. She was a gentle soul and I could see that her mascara had ran a little bit from crying.

  “Why do you look so upset? Most of us are happy that we will be able to have a couple of months off.”

  Bree just gave me a dirty look and told me th
at I wasn’t no better.

  “You aren’t fooling anyone Sandra. I know that you’re just as upset as I am about it.”

  I told her that I wasn’t, but I was. It was really hard not to miss all of the kid’s sweet faces. They were always happy to see me, and it was a feeling that I was going to miss over the summer. But there was other feelings that I wanted more, and I was ready to get started on something new.

  “I am a little sad, but I’m ready for the summer. I am ready for the beach and the sun and drinks in the middle of the day. I’m sure that I am going to miss the kids, but I will make sure that there are enough other things on my mind, that I won’t miss them all that much.”

  “I don’t know what I’m going to do for the summer. It’s going to be weird because I’m not even teaching summer school this year. This will be my first summer off since before I went to college.”

  I just clicked my tongue at her. There was no way that she was going to get the peaceful summer that she was looking for. Bree was a girl that was always in her shell and I felt like it was my job to pull her out of it. I don’t know how successful I was going to be, it was almost impossible sometimes to get her to come out with me, but this summer, things were going to be different. I was going to hound her until it was impossible for her to refuse me.

  “Well, today is a new day and I want to make sure that we change that. You are not getting another job. You don’t need it. We are going to have a good time this summer and I’m not going to take no for an answer.”

  It was clear that Bree wasn’t too happy with what I was saying. She wanted to stay home because she was an introvert, but I wanted to get out. Bree needed to get out as well and the more I tried to push her out there, the more she fought me. I wasn’t going to take no for an answer anymore.

  “I will try to get out some, but you know that partying at the clubs is not really my thing.”

  “I know, but you’re never going to meet a guy if you always have your nose in a book.”

  Bree made a face at me and told me that she wasn’t looking.

  “You have to move on eventually. You have to put yourself back out there. Every woman in here would die to have your body and you’re just wasting it.”

  Bree didn’t want to hear it, she never did. She was convinced that she was too big, but I just tried to tell her that it was all in her head. While Bree was a little bit bigger than I was, she was also proportioned perfectly so it just made her look even better. She had the big ass and tits that was all the rage. I would have killed for her body, but Bree didn’t see it.

  It was funny because she said that she wanted to look like me, and I wanted to look like her. We were on two different sides of the spectrum, but at the end of the day, neither one of us was happy completely with the skin we were in. It seemed to be something that all women had in common, whether it was warranted or not.

  “Whatever Sandra. You’re just saying that so that I will go out with you tonight. You’re not slick. You never are because you never want anything else.”

  I could see that she was trying to back out of it before I even had a chance to talk her into it. I wanted to go out tonight, have some drinks and kick off what I hoped would be a great summer. Bree wasn’t playing the game and I really wanted her to.

  “Come on Bree. Let’s go out tonight and celebrate.”

  “What are we celebrating? Do you have some news?”

  I sighed to myself. She really was impossible.

  “No, but this is the second to last day of school and it feels like something that we should be celebrating.”

  “You just want an excuse to drink.”

  I wasn’t going to argue with her, because there really was no point. I did want her to come with me, but not as an excuse. I really didn’t need one. I wanted her to go because once Bree chilled out and let her hair down, she was entertaining as well.

  “No, I want you to come with, so I don’t have to go by myself.”

  Bree wasn’t able to say no to that and she had this look on her face like she wasn’t happy that I had roped her into. I didn’t care how upset she was with me at the moment. I was sure that once she found a new man and started a new relationship, it was going to be better. I was just sure of it. I was sure that she would say yes and when she nodded her head reluctantly, it was hard for me to pretend that I wasn’t stoked, and I hugged her to me.

  “We’re going to have such a great time. You know that, don’t you?”

  Bree wasn’t too sure about it, but I was sure. I was going to make sure that she had a good time and then it would be easier to get her out later. I was trying hard to break her little cocoon, even if she wasn’t able to do it herself.

  Chapter 2

  Bree

  We agreed to meet up a little bit later. She wanted to go to the bar, because in the drive-through town of Lost Hills, there weren’t too many places to go. I was sure that we were going to go off the interstate a ways.

  Sandra wouldn’t let me leave earlier until I agreed to go and I knew that I would have much rather stayed at home. It was the last thing that I wanted to do, going out. I didn’t want to go out, get dressed up and get judged, but I was trying to make her happy.

  While Sandra said she wanted my body, I didn’t know why. I liked it sometimes, but I had always rather been a little smaller and petite. I am voluptuous, curvy, thick, all of the things that I didn’t want to be. Sometimes I just wanted to be that tiny girl that her boyfriend could pick up and twirl around with. I don’t think that was ever going to happen with me.

  I stared at the reflection in the mirror and I knew that I was going to have to get myself together. I didn’t want to, and I was going to have to work harder at hiding that fact. At the moment, it was out for anyone to see.

  I put on a dress that I knew my mother wouldn't approve of. It fit me like a glove and I ran my hands down the silken fabric that felt so good. It was something that my mother would have thought would make me look like a Jezebel. For some reason she really like that word and after my friend Tabitha got pregnant in the eighth grade, all I ever heard about was how I wasn’t going to be a Jezebel like her. About the time my best friend was having her baby, mom was making me put more clothes on. When that wasn't enough to keep stray eyes away from my early budding body, she sent me away. If you could only see me now, I thought to myself.

  I was satisfied with the way it fit my curves. It was almost ashamed that I hadn’t taken it out and worn in so long. I forgot the way it made me feel. Or it was more likely that I had nowhere to wear it. While Sandra tried to get me out a lot, I was the one that was always canceling plans. She wanted to go out and have fun. She was single, and she wanted to change that. I didn't. I’d had enough of the dating world for a while.

  My phone rang, and I walked into the living room to pick it up. It was Sandra and she was wanting to know if I was ready to go. She didn't want to get there if I wasn't there, but I thought I had more time. I noticed the time on the phone and told her that I was going to be a few more minutes.

  “What do you have to do?”

  “I don't know, stuff. I have to put my face on at least. You know I hate putting on makeup, so it takes a little while because I’m not very good at it.”

  “Well then, I'm coming over. I will have you straightened up in no time.”

  I knew what she wanted to do. Sandra was convinced that I needed a makeover. She thought that I dressed to dowdy, her words not mine. It was not something that I liked to hear, but I could see her point sometimes. Sometimes I didn't want to deal with male attention and it was just easier to wear things a little baggier to ward them off. They didn’t notice me and I think that was a trait that I had picked up from my mother after all of her years from trying to hide me from lustful me. I internalized a lot of it and that meant that I was not too comfortable with guys looking at me.

  I tried to tell her that I didn't need her to come by, but she was going to anyway, so I didn't even try to stop her
. Sandra said she would be over in a few minutes and I commiserated about what she was going to do. She was going to want to put fake eyelashes and red lipstick on me. I just knew it.

  Almost ready by the time she got to my house, I tried to tell her that I didn't need to put makeup on. I didn't really like to wear makeup all that much. It was most likely why I wasn’t very good at it. I just never did it.

  “Come on you have to find someone, at least for the night. You can't wear that dress and wear nothing on your face.”

  I know to her that somehow made sense, but to me, it didn't make any sense at all. I asked her why it was so important, and she answered with a question of our own.

  “You want to find yourself a man, don't you?”

  I was shaking my head before I could really think about it. The last guy I’d been with was Greg and while it was hot and intense for a little while, when the truth came out everything changed. Greg was nothing like I thought he was. He represented himself all wrong. He’d been a thug and had lied to me the whole time. I just hadn’t been able to rectify it in my head.

  “After Greg, do you really think that I want to find another man? I still hear from him now and again and he sent me flowers a couple weeks ago. When I break up with a guy, even if it's best for both of us, it seems like it is just easier to move away. They don't want to let things go, and it looks like Greg doesn't want to either. He keeps saying that he wants to get back together, and I certainly don't need another Greg running around. He takes up all that time and energy that I have it as it is.”