Bear Run — Belinda Meyers

ALICE: Raised to hate bear shifters, she's got enough problems, what with her idiot brother and father giving her guff all the time about her weight and general uselessness. Now, on her very first "hunting" trip - hunting bear shifters, that is - she realizes something big. Shifters aren't the demons her father and brother think they are. As soon as her father shoots one, wounding it, Alice leaps in to protect it from being killed. That's when it Shifts, changing from a bear to a tall, naked and very sexy man. and she realizes she might be in over her head. Oh, and great! He's got a bullet wound in the shoulder thanks to her Pa. Now she has to choose between her family and a man she's never met before. TAGGART: He's got BIG problems. Raised all his life in the deep woods by a radical bear shifter crew that hates the outside world, the Black Valley clan, he's decided enough is enough. He wants something different for his life. But as soon as he breaks loose of the crew and sets out for the bright lights of Pine Ridge, a small mountain town, he gets shot. Darn the luck! And who's the only one that sticks up for him but the curvy daughter of the sniper himself?Now Alice and Taggart must go on the run not just from her family but from all the bear shifters of Black Valley, but how can they trust each other when each was raised to hate the other? Things get REALLY complicated when they realize that each has feelings for the other. This is a standalone HEA short novel of 30,000 words, first in the Pine Ridge series.