Excerpt: The Bear Who Loved Me by Kathy Lyons

The first in a wild shifter series from USA TODAY bestselling author Kathy Lyons.
WHEN AN ALPHA MEETS HIS MATCH . . .
Between singlehandedly running her bakery and raising her teenaged nephew, Becca Weitz thought she had a decent grip on "normal." Then her nephew vanishes, and life as she's known it changes forever. Local legends are true: bear shifters exist . . . and her nephew is part of their clan. As is Carl Carman, the sexy, larger-than-life man who has sworn to find her nephew-and the other young shifters who've gone missing.
As the leader of his clan, Carl is surrounded by enemies. He's learned the hard way that keeping a firm leash on his inner beast is key to survival, though his feelings for Becca test his legendary control. Then danger stalks too close, and Carl realizes he must unleash the raging, primal force within to protect everything he holds dear. But can Becca trust his grizzly side with her life-and her heart?

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Kathy Lyons is the wild, adventurous half of USA TODAY bestselling author Jade Lee. A lover of all things fantastical, Kathy spent much of her childhood in Narnia, Middle Earth, Amber, and Earthsea, just to name a few.  There is nothing she adores more than turning an ordinary day into something magical, which is what happens all the time in her books. Winner of several industry awards including the Prism-Best of the Best, Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice, and Fresh Fiction's Steamiest Read, Kathy has published over fifty romance novels, and she's just getting started. Check out her latest news at KathyLyons.com.




Excerpt from THE BEAR WHO LOVED ME by Kathy Lyons

Alan Carman was so happy he was singing. Rarely in life was everything exactly perfect. The sun was shining. He’d just been paid, pitiful an amount though that might be. And now he was headed home, flying down the freeway on a beautiful late summer day to tell his brother the most amazing news.
Which made it typical for his life that sirens started blaring right behind him. Cop car. A quick look down showed that he hadn’t been speeding, but the flashing lights were pretty clear, so he braked and pulled over.
Damn. Though—upside—even this wasn’t dimming his mood because today was a great day. His life had just changed for the better. The amazing, the absolutely, wonderful, joyous yes- all-is-exactly-as-it-ought-to-be better! Then he looked back and saw the police officer step out of her car. He knew that walk. Knew that body even though it was encased in the intimidating uniform of a state police officer. And now that he saw her, he also knew that God had given him exactly the most perfect day.
He grinned and lowered his window. This was going to be fun.
“License and registration, please.” Her voice was clipped, her eyes hidden behind mirrored sunglasses, and she in no way indicated that they’d grown up within a few miles of one another.
“Hi, Tonya. Guess what?”
Officer Tonya Kappes, gorgeous grizzly-shifter and all around badass, didn’t react though he watched carefully for any hint of softening. No relaxation of her spine, no tilt to her lips. Nothing despite the fact that she’d been his one obsession since his fourteenth birthday. He knew from his brother Carl when she started working for the state police. And he’d watched the news just in case she hit the media spotlight. For years they’d had no direct contact while he went through law school and she flew through the police academy. But now, on this day of all days, she was here pulling him over.
Must be fate.
“Come on, Tonya. It’s me on a beautiful day. Guess what?”
“Alan.” Just his name spoken in a flat voice. “Hand me your license and registration, please.”
Well, at least she recognized him. That was something, right? Still smiling—though the expression was getting more strained by the second—he pulled out his wallet and handed over his driver’s license. A moment later, he passed her his insurance information.
“Do you have any idea how fast you were going?” she asked, her voice deadpan.
“Yeah. Seventy.”
“You were in a fifty-five zone.”
What? “No way. I know this route like the back of my hand. It’s not—”
“Changed last week.”
A speed trap. Of course.
“Damn it, doesn’t Michigan have any other way to fund themselves?”
“There were notices in all the local papers.”
“I’ve been working in Detroit.” He huffed out a breath. “Hell, Tonya, I’ll pay the ridiculous ticket. I’ll even donate to the policeman’s ball or whatever charity you want. Just do me one little favor and ask me what’s up!”
Pause. A long one, damn it. And then she lowered her sunglasses. Her sweet baby blues appeared and he almost melted right there. Sure she was all Officer Ice Queen, but right there were the eyes that had lived in his fantasies for over a decade.
“What’s. Up.”
“I passed the bar. As of today, I’m a real, live, honest-to-goodness attorney.”
He watched her face for her reaction. He waited for a whoop of joy or a slap of congratulations. Something that indicated she knew what this meant to him. Instead, her lips curved into a slow, shallow smile.
“Congratulations, Counselor.”
He huffed out a breath. That was a bit anticlimactic. So he abruptly twisted, crossed his arms, and leaned them against the car door such that he was as close as he could get to her without climbing out of his car. Then he smiled his most charming smile at her.
She arched her brows, but beyond that, didn’t seem to react at all.
“Celebrate with me, Tonya.”
“I’m in a relationship.”
Ah. Well that put a damper on his hormones, but even so he still wanted to catch up with her. “That’s great,” he lied. “Tell me about him.”
“Her.”
His brows arched. “Really?”
She nodded slowly. “If you tell a soul—”
“Not a word. I swear. But only if you tell me all about it.”
“Got a kink gene you want to indulge?” she drawled, her voice heavy with sarcasm.
He held up his hand. “No, Tonya. I got an interest in you. We grew up together. You gave me my first kiss—”
She flushed at that, and he took it with a measure of pride that she remembered it. Maybe even thought of it as pleasurably as he did.
“We’ve missed each other these last years. I’ve kept up through Carl but—”
“You still dating the Chinese girl?”
He shook his head.
“The brunette?”
So she had been paying attention. Good. “Jade and I are on the outs right now. She’s headed to New York and big city law. Couldn’t understand why I was going back to Gladwin.”
Tonya jolted. “You are?”
He nodded. “Carl really needs the help since Dad died. Has for a while, and I can’t keep splitting my time between Detroit and home.”
“So you quit Detroit?”
He grinned. “Yup. Turned in my notice today.”
“But what are you going to do in Gladwin? The clan can’t have that much legal work—”
“You’d be surprised. Plus, I’ll be looking in the surrounding area for work. Bay City isn’t that far. It won’t be a lot of money, but my expenses are low.” He shrugged. “Once Carl gets everything stabilized, I can look for a more permanent solution.”
“He’ll be grateful for the help.”
“So what about it?” he pressed. “Tell me all about your girlfriend over dinner? My treat?”
“Of course it’s your treat,” she said as she handed him back his license and registration. “Since I just accidentally screwed up this ticket.” She ripped up the moving violation, then gave him directions to a chain restaurant. “I’ll meet you there in an hour.”
“Bring your girl,” he said. “I’d love to meet her.”
She flashed him a sheepish look. “She’s actually a guy named Brian. He’s a dentist and the exact opposite of the meatheads I work with every damn day.”
“So not a muscle guy?”
“More like a ninety-pound weakling, but he makes me smile.”
“So why say you’re with a girl?”
Her gaze canted away. “Because guys stop arguing when I say I’m on a different team. Plus it helps them understand a female cop. Apparently only lesbos can be butch.”
He frowned and he tried to sort out what she’d just said. “You know that makes no sense, right?”
“And when did the human race ever make sense, Counselor?”
She had a point. And he had a desperate urge to learn more about what it took to be a female cop. What it had cost her and how it worked with the whole shifter thing. She started to walk away, but he reached out to touch her hand. Warm fingertips to hot skin. He brushed across the back of her hand and felt a jolt all the way through his body that lingered in his dick. And even more shocking, she seemed to have felt something, too. Her eyes widened and her breath caught. But that was the only reaction he could see.
“Alan?”
“Does he know? About the bear thing?”
Tonya’s face paled and she shook her head. “He’s so normal, you know? I liked that about him. Not macho, not paranormal, just a boring dentist raised by nice middle-class people. Hell, the weirdest thing about him is he’s part Chippewa on his mom’s side. He even has allergies and hates camping.”
Alan listened carefully, keeping his expression neutral. She clearly had reservations about the relationship, but there was also a softness in her tone. A yearning that lay underneath her words that spoke of a deeper connection with the man.
“Do you love him?”
“I think so,” she said. “Maybe. Or maybe I just want the whole white-picket-fence thing.”
“Bring him to dinner. Let me meet him.”
She arched a brow. “You looking to give dating advice, Counselor?”
He snorted. “Never. I just want you happy, is all.” And wasn’t that God’s honest truth? “And I want to see if this dentist can do that.” Apparently, he couldn’t even say the man’s name.
She swallowed. “He’s going to propose soon. He bought a ring.”
Oh shit. This was serious. “You’re sure?”
“I saw the receipt. Didn’t mean to snoop, but he was careless.”
And Tonya noticed things. It was part of being a cop. “So that’s a good thing, right?”
“So I’m going to have to tell him. About the bear thing.”
Right. Always a dicey proposition. “Have you talked to Carl? Gotten his okay and all?” It was standard practice to ask permission from the alpha for revelations like this. It was rarely denied. Not in this day and age. But alphas liked to keep track of who was in on the secret and who wasn’t. And since she was a woman who followed the letter of the law, Tonya would be particular about following clan rules.
“Everything’s in place to tell Brian,” she said. “I just can’t seem to actually do it.”
“Do you need help?”
Her eyes sharpened for a moment. She looked like she was about to bite his head off for suggesting such a thing, and so he held up his hands in surrender.
“It was just an offer. I don’t know how I could help, but sometimes—”
“I know,” she said, cutting him off. Then she rubbed a hand over her face. “I haven’t gone running in a while and it’s making me antsy.”
He didn’t have to ask what kind of running she meant. Every shifter had to go animal wild for a time. Just let the bear out of the cage and go tromping through the woods in their natural form. “Have you tried Mark’s new software program? It takes the edge off.”
“Yeah. I love it, but it’s not enough.”
He nodded. He couldn’t relate to the need to go native, but he did understand it. So he touched her hand again, and this time the electrical surge was more like a warm wash of energy—sweet and gentle. “Call Brian and tell him you’re getting together with an old friend tonight. Celebrate my passing the bar and all,” he added with a grin.
“Yeah, I will—”
“But then go get your bear on at the state park. I’ll bring food to the campground for afterward and keep hold of your keys and stuff.” Shifters always ended up ravenous after a run. And it was always reassuring to know that someone watched the home fires while the animal went native. This he knew from years of holding car keys and warming the grill while bear play went on in the woods. They needed it, and he took comfort in keeping things safe while the clan went wild.
Tonya wasn’t immune to the lure. She hesitated, clearly tempted. “It’s been a long while, Alan. I might not be done until well after midnight.”
He shrugged. “I got no plans.”
Then she gave in. He saw it first in her eyes, which flashed gratitude even when her body was still trying to resist. But then every part of her sagged with relief.
“Thanks, Alan.”
“No problem.”
And it wasn’t. Not even when she didn’t return to the campsite until after three in the morning. Not when she ate two steaks and finished the last of his beer. It wasn’t a problem until she kissed him on the cheek and hopped into her car, flushed and excited to return to her dentist.
Then he stood by his car and gave up hiding the boner that throbbed through every cell in his body. And he realized that while she was headed to her boyfriend, he was so very alone.
He thought the feeling would ease over time. He thought he would get past this childhood crush that was more about nostalgia than anything else. After all, she’d been his first kiss and it had blown his teenage mind.
But three months later, she showed up in Gladwin. She’d gotten a job as the sheriff’s newest deputy. Carl told him that the bear revelation hadn’t gone well with the dentist and she needed a change in scenery. And when Alan went to see Tonya, she was a totally different person.
All her defenses were up. Her shoulders were tight and her eyes were haunted. She declared in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t gay, but she sure as hell was over men. Her exact words were, “I’ve decided I’m asexual.”

Then she slammed the door in his face.

Excerpt & GIVEAWAY: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl (Roald Dahl 100)

Now that he's won the chocolate factory, what's next for Charlie? Last seen flying through the sky in a giant elevator in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," Charlie Bucket's back for another adventure. When the giant elevator picks up speed, Charlie, Willy Wonka, and the gang are sent hurtling through space and time. Visiting the world ' first space hotel, battling the dreaded Vermicious Knids, and saving the world are only a few stops along this remarkable, intergalactic joyride."












Roald Dahl (1916–1990) was one of the world’s most imaginative, successful and beloved storytellers. He was born in Wales of Norwegian parents and spent much of his childhood in England. After establishing himself as a writer for adults with short story collections such as Kiss Kiss and Tales of the Unexpected, Roald Dahl began writing children's stories in 1960 while living with his family in both the U.S. and in England. His first stories were written as entertainment for his own children, to whom many of his books are dedicated. 
Roald Dahl’s first children’s story, The Gremlins, was a story about little creatures that were responsible for the various mechanical failures on airplanes. The Gremlins came to the attention of both First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who loved to read the story to her grandchildren, and Walt Disney, with whom Roald Dahl had discussions about the production of a movie. 
Roald Dahl was inspired by American culture and by many of the most quintessential American landmarks to write some of his most memorable passages, such as the thrilling final scenes in James and the Giant Peach - when the peach lands on the Empire State Building! Upon the publication of James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl began work on the story that would later be published as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and today, Roald Dahl’s stories are available in 58 languages and, by a conservative estimate, have sold more than 200 million copies. 
Roald Dahl also enjoyed great success for the screenplays he wrote for both the James Bond film You Only Live Twice in 1967 and for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, released one year later, which went on to become a beloved family film.  Roald Dahl’s popularity continues to increase as his fantastic novels, including James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Matilda, The BFG, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, delight an ever-growing legion of fans.  Two charities have been founded in Roald Dahl’s memory: the first charity, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity, created in 1991, focuses on making life better for seriously ill children through the funding of specialist nurses, innovative medical training, hospitals, and individual families across the UK. The second charity, The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre – a unique cultural, literary and education hub – opened in June 2005 in Great Missenden where Roald Dahl lived and wrote many of his best-loved works. 10% of income from Roald Dahl books and adaptations are donated to the two Roald Dahl charities. 
On September 13, 2006, the first national Roald Dahl Day was celebrated, on what would have been the author’s 90th birthday. The event proved such a success that Roald Dahl Day is now marked annually all over the world. September 13, 2016 is Roald Dahl 100, marking 100 years since the birth of the world’s number one storyteller. There will be celebrations for Roald Dahl 100 throughout 2016, delivering a year packed with gloriumptious treats and surprises for everyone.





1
Mr. Wonka Goes Too Far
The last time we saw Charlie, he was riding high above his home town in the Great Glass Elevator. Only a short while before, Mr. Wonka had told him that the whole gigantic fabulous Chocolate Factory was his, and now our small friend was returning in triumph with his entire family to take over. The passengers in the Elevator (just to remind you) were:

Charlie Bucket,
our hero.
Mr. Willy Wonka,
chocolate-maker extraordinary.
Mr. and Mrs. Bucket,
Charlie’s father and mother.
Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine,
Mr. Bucket’s father and mother.
Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina,
Mrs. Bucket’s father and mother.

Grandma Josephine, Grandma Georgina and Grandpa George were still in bed, the bed having been pushed on board just before take off. Grandpa Joe, as you remember, had gotten out of bed to go around the Chocolate Factory with Charlie.
The Great Glass Elevator was a thousand feet up and cruising nicely. The sky was a brilliant blue. Everybody on board was wildly excited at the thought of going to live in the famous Chocolate Factory. Grandpa Joe was singing. Charlie was jumping up and down. Mr. and Mrs. Bucket were smiling for the first time in years, and the three old ones in the bed were grinning at one another with pink toothless gums.
“What in the world keeps this thing up in the air?” croaked Grandma Josephine.
“Skyhooks,” said Mr. Wonka. 
“You amaze me,” said Grandma Josephine.
“Dear lady,” said Mr. Wonka, “you are new to the scene. When you have been with us a little longer, nothing will amaze you.”
“These skyhooks,” said Grandma Josephine. “I assume one end is hooked onto this contraption we’re riding in. Right?”
“Right,” said Mr. Wonka.
“What’s the other end hooked onto?” said Grandma Josephine.
“Every day,” said Mr. Wonka, “I get deafer and deafer. Remind me, please, to call up my ear doctor the moment we get back.”
“Charlie,” said Grandma Josephine. “I don’t think I trust this gentleman very much.”
“Nor do I,” said Grandma Georgina. “He footless around.”
Charlie leaned over the bed and whispered to the two old women. “Please,” he said, “don’t spoil everything. Mr. Wonka is a fantastic man. He’s my friend. I love him.”
“Charlie’s right,” whispered Grandpa Joe, joining the group. “Now you be quiet, Josie, and don’t make trouble.”
“We must hurry!” said Mr. Wonka. “We have so much time and so little to do! No! Wait! Strike that! Reverse it Thank you! Now back to the factory!” he cried, clapping his hands once and springing two feet in the air with two feet. “Back we fly to the factory! But we must go up before we can come down! We must go higher and higher!”
“What did I tell you!” said Grandma Josephine. “The man’s cracked!”
“Be quiet, Josie,” said Grandpa Joe. “Mr. Wonka knows exactly what he’s doing.”
“He’s cracked as a crab!” said Grandma Georgina.
“We must go higher!” said Mr. Wonka. “We must go tremendously high! Hold onto your stomachs!” He pressed a brown button. The Elevator shuddered, and then with a fearful whooshing noise it shot vertically upward like a rocket. Everybody clutched hold of everybody else and as the great machine gathered speed, the rushing whooshing sound of the wind outside grew louder and louder and shriller and shriller until it became a piercing shriek and you had to yell to make yourself heard.
“Stop!” yelled Grandma Josephine. “Joe, you make him stop! I want to get off!”
“Save us!” yelled Grandma Georgina.
“Go down!” yelled Grandpa George.
“No, no!” Mr. Wonka yelled back. “We’ve got to go up!”
“But why?” they all shouted at once. “Why up and not down?”
“Because the higher we are when we start coming down, the faster we’ll be going when we hit,” said Mr. Wonka. “We’ve got to be going at an absolutely sizzling speed when we hit!”
“When we hit what?” they cried
“The factory, of course,” answered Mr. Wonka.
“You must be whackers!” said Grandma Josephine. “We’ll all be pulpified!”
“We’ll be scrambled like eggs!” said Grandma Georgina.
“That,” said Mr. Wonka, “is a chance we shall have to take.”
“You’re joking,” said Grandma Josephine. “Tell us you’re joking.”
“Madam,” said Mr. Wonka, “I never joke.”
“Oh, my dears!” cried Grandma Georgina. “We’ll be lixivated, every one of us!”
“More than likely,” said Mr. Wonka.
Grandma Josephine screamed and disappeared under the bedclothes. Grandma Georgina clutched Grandpa George so tight he changed shape. Mr. and Mrs. Bucket stood hugging each other, speechless with fright. Only Charlie and Grandpa Joe kept moderately cool. They had traveled a long way with Mr. Wonka and had grown accustomed to surprises. But as the Great Elevator continued to streak upward, farther and farther away from the earth, even Charlie began to feel a trifle nervous. “Mr. Wonka!” he yelled above the noise. “What I don’t understand is why we’ve got to come down at such a terrific speed.”
“My dear boy,” Mr. Wonka answered, “if we don’t come down at a terrific speed, we’ll never burst our way back in through the roof of the factory. It’s not easy to punch a hole in a roof as strong as that.”
“But there’s a hole in it already,” said Charlie. “We made it when we came out.”
“Then we shall make another,” said Mr. Wonka. “Two holes are better than one. Any mouse will tell you that.”
Higher and higher rushed the Great Glass Elevator until soon they could see the countries and oceans of the earth spread out below them like a map. It was all very beautiful, but when you are standing on a glass floor looking down, it gives you a nasty feeling. Even Charlie was beginning to feel frightened now. He hung on tightly to Grandpa Joe’s hand and looked up anxiously into the old man’s face. “I’m scared, Grandpa,” he said.
Grandpa Joe put an arm around Charlie’s shoulders and held him close. “So am I, Charlie,” he said.
“Mr. Wonka!” Charlie shouted. “Don’t you think this is about high enough?”
“Very nearly,” Mr. Wonka answered. “But not quite. Don’t talk to me now, please. Don’t disturb me. I must watch things very carefully at this stage. Split-second timing, my boy, that’s what it’s got to be. You see this green button. I must press it at exactly the right instant. If I’m just half a second late, then we’ll go too high!”
“What happens if we go too high?” asked Grandpa Joe.
“Do please stop talking and let me concentrate!” Mr. Wonka said.
At that precise moment, Grandma Josephine poked her head out from under the sheets and peered over the edge of the bed. Through the glass floor she saw the entire continent of North America nearly two hundred miles below and looking no bigger than a piece of candy. “Someone’s got to stop this maniac,” she screeched, and she shot out a wrinkled old hand and grabbed Mr. Wonka by the coattails and yanked him backward onto the bed.
“No, no,” cried Mr. Wonka, struggling to free himself. “Let me go! I have things to see to! Don’t disturb the pilot!”
“You madman,” shrieked Grandma Josephine, shaking Mr. Wonka so fast that his head became a blur. “You get us back home this instant!”
“Let me go!” cried Mr. Wonka. “I’ve got to press that button or we’ll go too high! Let me go! Let me go!” But Grandma Josephine hung on. “Charlie!” shouted Mr. Wonka. “Press the button! The green one! Quick, quick, quick!”
Charlie leaped across the Elevator and banged his thumb down on the green button. But as he did so, the Elevator gave a mighty groan and rolled over onto its side, and the rushing whooshing noise stopped altogether and an eerie silence took its place.
“Too late!” cried Mr. Wonka. “Oh, my goodness me, we’re cooked!” As he spoke, the bed with the three old ones in it and Mr. Wonka on top lifted gently off the floor and hung suspended in mid-air. Charlie and Grandpa Joe and Mr. and Mrs. Bucket also floated upward so that in a twink the entire company, as well as the bed, were floating around like balloons inside the Great Glass Elevator.
Now look what you’ve done!” said Mr. Wonka, floating about.
“What happened?” Grandma Josephine called out. She had floated clear of the bed and was hovering near the ceiling in her nightshirt. 
“Did we go too far?” Charlie asked.
“Too far?” cried Mr. Wonka. “I’ll say we went too far! You know where we’ve gone, my friends? We’ve gone into orbit!”
They gaped, they gasped, they stared. They were too flabbergasted to speak.
“We are now rushing around the earth at seventeen thousand miles an hour,” Mr. Wonka said. “How does that grab you?”
“I’m choking!” gasped Grandma Georgina. “I can’t breathe!”
“Of course you can’t,” said Mr. Wonka. “There’s no air up here.” He sort of swam across under the ceiling to a button marked OXYGEN. He pressed it. “You’ll be all right now,” he said. “Breathe away.”
“This is the queerest feeling,” Charlie said, swimming about. “I feel like a bubble.”
“It’s great,” said Grandpa Joe. “It feels as though I don’t weigh anything at all.”
“You don’t,” said Mr. Wonka. “None of us weighs anything—not even one ounce.”
“What piffle!” said Grandma Georgina. “I weigh eighty-seven pounds exactly.”
“Not now you don’t,” said Mr. Wonka. “You are completely weightless.”
The three old ones, Grandpa George, Grandma Georgina and Grandma Josephine were trying frantically to get back into the bed, but without success. The bed was floating about in mid-air. They, of course, were also floating, and every time they got above the bed and tried to lie down, they simply floated up out of it. Charlie and Grandpa Joe were hooting with laughter. “What’s so funny?” said Grandma Josephine.
“We’ve got you out of bed at last,” said Grandpa Joe.
“Shut up and help us back!” snapped Grandma Josephine.
“Forget it,” said Mr. Wonka. “You’ll never stay down. Just keep floating around and be happy.”

“The man’s a madman!” cried Grandma Georgina. “Watch out, I say, or he’ll lixivate the lot of us!”