Taming the Beast

James growled and pinched the bridge of his nose. Who was he kidding? He hadn’t been able to hack it after the war, and that was with a company that was already successful. What made him think he would be able to do it all over again after so many years of spiraling further into his own

insanity? The only option in front of him was to put an ad in the paper for a cleaning lady who did not work for Fate Mountain Cleaning.

That’s what he should do. Find a different cleaning lady and forget that he had ever met Matilda.

Without a thought, his inner grizzly riled up inside his mind. It started to bellow so loudly James thought his brain might crack and blood might start to pour out of ears. He clamped his hands over his ears and screamed at himself.

“Shut the hell up!”

But it made no difference. The wild animal inside him was furious that James was not going to claim his mate. The ferocity of his inner beast was the main thing that kept him isolated from the world. It had driven him away from his company and up onto the mountain to be alone.

He often had no control over the animal, and could feel it breaking through the bounds of his humanity. His sharp canine teeth began to descend in his mouth and his claws began to grow out of his fingernails against his will.

James scrambled up from his chair and hurried out of his room and down the hall out the back door of the mansion as quickly as he could. There, he stood barefoot in the snow. The grizzly was emerging without permission, and there was nothing James could do to stop it.

He tried to pull off his sweater, but the animal ripped through before he could. He let out a strangled scream that quickly turned into a roar as his body contorted and shifted into its grizzly bear form. The sharp pain snapped through him as he fell onto his four huge paws in the snow.

The animal panted in the cold air, its hot breath puffing out in front of him. His beastly senses picked up the sounds and smells of the forest beyond the mansion’s grounds. The beast wanted to hunt.

James’s human mind was tucked so deep behind the mind of the animal that he had no choice but to follow the grizzly as it galloped through the grounds and into the forest beyond. He smelled the musky scent of deer and heard the rapidly beating hearts of squirrels and rabbits in their dens.

Lust pulsed inside the beast’s mind, driving him on. He picked up the trail of a small creature that he followed deeper and deeper into the evergreen forest.

Paws crunched on the frozen snow. In the distance, a fox hopped into the rabbit hole, trying to catch his own supper.

James’s human mind knew that the bear did not need to hunt for food. There was a massive supply of anything he wanted to eat back at the house. But not even James’s gourmet cooking was enough to satisfy the bear.

No, James’s beast wanted blood. He wanted to kill. He wanted to feel the life force flowing from his prey as its blood lapped over his tongue.

The grizzly sniffed the air, standing downwind from the fox. Without warning, the grizzly charged at the little creature, taking it by surprise. The massive beast smacked at the little creature with his paw and sent it tumbling.

He bit at the little canine before the fox turned and bit back, sinking its sharp teeth into the grizzly’s flesh. The grizzly pulled away and growled. In that split second, the fox bounded off into the snow, escaping the bear’s grasp.

Disappointed, the grizzly roared. He would not be put off. He picked up another scent: the rabbits, and the den the fox was hunting. He began to dig with his massive paws, burrowing deeper and deeper into the den. His muzzle dove into the tunnel and his jaws snapped at the little creature within. He caught one of the little rabbits and crunched its head between his jaws. He pulled the animal from the burrow and ate it in several big gulps.

Hungry for more, he tore apart the warren, eating half a dozen rabbits, some tiny, some larger. Finally sated by the kills, the grizzly started back toward the mansion, carrying James’s mind and body with him.

The human inside fought to take control. By the time he made it to his back porch, he’d used every ounce of his strength to force his grizzly to shift. In the end, James found himself naked and shivering, still dripping with blood from the rabbits he’d devoured.

He made his way into the house, feeling vulnerable and sick to his stomach. He just needed to shower and to clean off. Then maybe he would feel better about what he had done.

It was the same every time he lost control: he vowed to never allow it to happen again, but no matter what, it always did.

Chapter 7

“Can’t believe you’re kicking me out of the house, Mother,” Matilda said, crossing her arms over her chest.

“I need this room for storage. Maybe you can ask Mr. Hill if you can live in his mansion. I know he needs someone to clean every day. It only makes sense for you to stay there until you have earned enough money to move to Portland.”

“Mom, this guy is legitimately crazy. I can’t believe you would suggest I live with him. What happened to motherly protectiveness?”

“That went out the window when you moved to the valley with your idiot boyfriend,” her mom said, patting her cheek.

Matilda rolled her eyes and groaned. “Mom. You cannot be serious. He almost fired me yesterday. What makes you think he’s going to allow me to live in his mansion?”

“James Hill is a very messy man with a lot of money. He needs a cleaning lady. You are the very last cleaning lady on Fate Mountain who is willing to work with him,” her mother said. “What did you do to annoy him anyway?”

“I didn’t do anything!” Matilda objected. “I cleaned the kitchen like a champ. You would not believe how disgusting that place was. By the time I was done, every surface was gleaming.”