Read Online Bear's Match (Bear Heat Book 6) by Natalie Kristen - Free Book Online Page B

be exhausted. Those cubs
can be a handful, but you handled them like a champ!”
    Nicole laughed. “They're
really cute, and fun. The kids were all so protective of Brendon,
like he was their baby brother. It's...wonderful.”
    Dylan got up and went to the
kitchen with Jade. “I'll help you get dinner ready.”
    Luke got up as well, but
Dylan said, “Go talk to Nicole.” He gave Luke a
meaningful look and closed the kitchen door behind him.
    Luke went and sat down beside
Nicole on the couch. She had a thoughtful look on her face as she
rocked the baby to sleep in her arms.
    “It's so nice to see
Jade again. And those girls are awesome. They're all human women
mated to powerful bear shifters. I think it takes a special kind of
female to tame a bear, don't you think?” Nicole was looking at
him expectantly, and Luke knew that she was waiting for him to share
his secret with her, open up to her and let her in.
    “Nicole.” Luke
took a deep breath. “I need to talk to you. About what
happened to me.”
    She shifted the snoring baby
in her arms and nodded.
    “You know I always
wanted to be a cop, right? Well, I was a cop in the city police
force. And I was a damn good one.”
    “I bet you were,”
Nicole said, smiling.
    Her smile fortified and
assured him. Grimly, he plowed on. “I was having a game of
basketball with my buddies when I fell badly and suffered a hairline
fracture in my leg. I went to the hospital to get my leg fixed. It
was just a simple treatment and I should have been in and out of the
hospital in a day. The doctor made me stay overnight for observation
and told me I could be discharged the next day.”
    Nicole nodded, encouraging
him to go on.
    “Something happened
during my stay at the hospital. Another doctor, Dr. Faizel, came and
injected something into me. What Dr. Faizel did was unauthorized,
illegal and wrong. He was working for a Mob boss, who was financing
his research. I don't know why they chose me. Maybe I was fit and
young and healthy.” Luke took a deep breath. “The
injection changed my cell structures. I was to be turned into a
lethal weapon for the Mob, a monster who could kill on command.”
    Nicole swallowed but said
nothing.
    Luke went on determinedly,
“What Dr. Faizel pumped into me was a serum containing a large
dose of bear shifter cells. I was taken to an underground chamber
hidden within the hospital premises where Dr. Faizel hoped to
continue his experiments on me. The Black Bears rescued me from that
hell, and watched over me. They told me that it might be possible to
reverse the change in me, and the doctors in the other hospital did
everything they could. I know they did.”
    Luke closed his eyes briefly.
“But they couldn't change me back. The shifter cells had
taken root in my body and rewired my system. I wasn't the same, I
wasn't human any more.”
    “But you are, Luke.
You are the same Luke I knew as a kid. The same kind, gentle boy
I've always loved,” Nicole said fervently.
    Luke shook his head.
“There's an animal, a beast in me. A big, raging, deadly bear.
I didn't want to become a killer, a murderous monster. I begged the
doctors to terminate my life, but they refused. So I climbed onto
the window ledge and prepared to end my nightmare. But Thor saved
me, and the Black Bears took me under their wing and assigned Dylan
as my mentor. They stood by me, guided me and helped me through my
Change. They trained me and taught me how to control my bear. They
were patient with me and they gave me the space and time to heal and
get back on my feet.”
    “But I bet they gave
you some tough love too,” Nicole said, quirking a lopsided
smile.
    Luke barked out a laugh.
“They sure did! The training was grueling and demanding. It
was tough, and Dylan didn't mollycoddle me. But he was a good
mentor. The best.”
    Luke looked up into Nicole's
shining eyes and said softly, “The Black Bears saved my life.
I am a bear shifter now, Nicole. I am part of the Black