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I should leave before I get tangled up with the shifters again.
But it’s too late.
I’m in too deep.
I’ve never wanted anyone as badly to claim me…
Can my twisted dream of having them both come true?
The Second Chance Shifters Box Set:
Three fiery heroines. Six Alpha shifters who’ll sweep you right off your feet.
Three standalone shifter romances. No cheating. No cliffhangers. HEA guaranteed!
Includes:
Bear Daddies
Dragon Lovers
Wild Wolves
Click here to get on the Amazon product page.
©Copyright 2022 by Lilly Wilder All rights reserved.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.
Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
Second Chance Shifters
Menage Second Chance Box Set
By: Lilly Wilder
Bear Daddies
CHAPTER 1
Will
She was a 41-year-old woman, and as I looked at her across the ballroom it might as well have been nineteen years ago.
Jenna hadn’t spotted me yet. There were too many other people present to occupy her attention. The number of people in the University ballroom spoke of how well she was thought of. She had really made something of her life, just as I always knew she would, and the room was filled with well-wishers: faculty and administrators, students, alumni, friends. They’d all turned out to celebrate her achievements. I’d kept up with her from afar in the years we’d been apart. I’d read her books and knew she was going places, just like she wanted.
The years had changed Jenna’s face, but they hadn’t etched lines onto her features or greyedher hair with age. I could still see in the woman over forty the girl in her early twenties with hair the color of autumn wheat, whom I’d loved all those years ago. She looked wiser—I’d use the word profound—but the beauty of her youth was still there in this second act of her life.
I could also still see her the other way that she was, where she still had the shape and curves of a beautiful woman, but the face of a being who was born to the forest, with soft, delicate golden-brown fur hugging that young womanly form that I loved so much to hold in my arms. She was neither fully a woman nor completely the same as my kind, but either way she was still the most beautiful, graceful thing I’d ever seen.
She stood up at a table in the front of the room near the big glass doors letting out onto the campus commons. There was one other person at the table with her, this dark, robust, stocky sort of muscular guy who looked the same age as Jenna and I were. I zeroed in on him for a moment, my instincts drawing my attention to him. People like me can always instinctively spot another “two-bodies” when we see one, and I could tell that was what he was. From the look of him, he must have been another of my own kind. We have that sort of general look and build. I reminded myself that the University and the surrounding community were heavily populated with us, just the same as the college town where Jenna and I had lived and loved almost twenty years ago. She was bound to socialize with us here. But my nostrils flared a bit at the idea of this guy being possibly something other than a social acquaintance. During the evening I would have to sniff him out a little better, so to speak.
Jenna had stood up to a warm and rousing demand of “Speech! Speech! Speech!” She was acting modest, but I could tell she loved it. Addressing the room, Jenna began to talk, and I heard again the voice that I’d last heard on that day in our youth when we so painfully said goodbye.
“I really do thank you all,” said Jenna, smiling, returning the warmth she’d been given. “I would offer the cliché of what a long trip it’s been to get to tonight, but then my life has been filled with long trips. And I’ve lovedevery oneand learned from them all, and from all the people I’ve met along the way, some of whom I’m happy to see here tonight. And I’m happy to see so many of the people who’ve helped me since I’ve been here, and so many of the people I’ve taught, and even a few that I’m now teaching. You remind me that my profession, the wonderful profession so many of us here tonight share, is not just a profession of teaching. As the professor teaches, she also learns. Those that I’ve met along the way to this night have been my teachers, as much as I’ve taught others. And that’s the way it should be.
“Tonight, the night we celebrate my tenure, marks the occasion of my settling down in one place—but not settling for less. I feel as if I belong here, as if this is where I was meant to be. And I’m happy that the administration and my colleagues agree. You’ve given me a home and I’mglad and proud to be in it. For that, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you.”
