Midlife Daddy Bear: A Fated Mate Shifter Romance (Bear Mates Over Forty Book 2)

Midlife Daddy BearBear Mates Over Forty, Book 2Aline Ash © 2023 Aline Ash Midlife Daddy Bear, book 2 All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the author’s imagination.Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and all characters represented as 18 or over.Kindle Edition Join Aline's FB group, Aline's Aliens, for sneak peaks, giveaways, and oversharing.Get notified of new releases and special offers by signing up to Aline’s Email list Table of ContentsAbout the Book:ForewordChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 9Chapter 10Chapter 11Chapter 12Chapter 13Chapter 14Chapter 15Chapter 16Chapter 17Chapter 18EpilogueAlso by Aline AshAbout the Author About the Book:Can a dancer in her 40s, burdened with a troubled past, and a shifter Alpha with three kids start afresh, or will their past secrets and present hurdles be too much to handle? Lily With nothing left to hold her in Seattle, forty-something Lily Archer does the one thing she’s been too afraid: Start over. A chance to teach irresistibly handsome but mysterious Samuel’s nephews the art of dance brings her to picturesque Greenacre – and Lily is sure she’d found her paradise. Until she finds that nothing is at it seems. Not only is Greenacre the home to a shifter clan, but Samuel is their Alpha. Dangerous, though, and protective of his clan and the kids in his care, he’s everything Lily should stay away from. Even so, she can’t get him out of her head and for the first time in her life, she’s willing to take a chance on love. There’s only one problem. The shifters of Greenacre aren’t the only ones keeping secrets. Samuel Between the clan's decision to allow human mates, caring for his three nephews, and keeping his clan safe, Samuel has his hands full. The last thing he needed was to lose his heart to a gorgeous, angelic human. Yet Samuel can’t resist Lily. Could it be that opening the clan to the world has brought him the one thing he always longed for? His fated mate. However, when Lily’s past collides with their present, Samuel is faced with yet another heart-wrenching decision: To keep his clan safe, will he have to let go of his only chance at love? Bear Mates Over Forty ” Bear Shifters Series: Book 1: Midlife Bear Twins Book 2: Midlife Daddy Bear Book 3: Bear’s Midlife Miracle Chapter 1SamuelWhat was the use in hoping for a miracle if you didn’t truly believe it could ever happen?Even without his keen hearing, the ringing blows of an axe striking wood could be heard from the start of the path that led to the woods where Trace MacCauley was working. He chopped all of the clan’s wood. Even though he could have used more modern technology to make the job faster and easier, he liked working with his hands, and to him, the axe he used was an extension of his own body. He’d once told Samuel that cutting wood the old-fashioned way also ensured that he’d never run out of work. He cut mostly deadfall, and every spring many new trees were planted to replenish the ones that had died, fallen, or had to be cut down for building.As soon as he spotted Sam walking up, Trace lowered the axe. It hit the mossy ground with a thump. Trace let go of the handle, leaving it balancing upright. He stretched his arms overhead and then rubbed at a kink in his shoulder that he probably hadn’t even noticed until that moment.A year older and just as powerfully built, Trace was like a brother to Sam. Trace’s father had been alpha, and Trace could have gone down the same path, but instead he’d supported Samuel for that position. He tried to bear it with honor, as his father had before him.“What’s going on?” Trace walked over and slapped Sam on the back. “You look like the stress of running this place is going to make your head explode.”“That subtle, huh?”“Always. It’s nice, having a guileless face. It’s not so bad having everyone know what you’re thinking.”“Pretty sure it’s just you who would be able to call me out.”“Maybe. This about Craik?”“I don’t know. Probably. He was online dating that woman for six months and then when he asked her about moving here and described the place, she said it sounded like some hippie commune and she didn’t want to be a part of that.”“This place isn’t going to be right for everyone.”“What if it’s right for no one? There might be eight billion people in the world, but I’m pretty sure that Josephine was one in a million.”Trace’s dark eyes lit up at the sound of his mate’s name. The clan’s doctor, she was currently still the only human living in Greenacre, even though seven months before they’d opened up the clan to ensure their survival.“Jos is more than one in a million. But even if she is, and even if it takes that one in a million to be right for this place, to be a good mate to any one of us here, out of eight billion, those are still pretty good odds.”“They’re shit odds.” Sam toed at the dirt with his boot. “Some of the elders still aren’t happy, but because it hasn’t actually come to be a reality, they’re holding onto that unhappiness real tight. It’s like holding our breath. I still feel like most days we’re one photo or video away from being a government ordained lab experiment.”“You can’t be thinking like that or it will be impossible to find anyone to come here.” Trace’s eyes scanned the woods, but