Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 27964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 140(@200wpm)___ 112(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 140(@200wpm)___ 112(@250wpm)___ 93(@300wpm)
My grizzly bear is one step away from snapping and I feel like I'm losing my mind.
He has one overwhelming obsession.
Finding her.
My mate. The one I'm destined to be with.
Watching my brothers find their mates while mine never shows up is enough to kill a man.
But just as I'm about to crack, she walks into my life, all soft curves and shy smiles.
The second I smell her sweet intoxicating scent, the beast goes quiet.
We know she's mine.
The torturous wait is finally over.
All that's left to do is mark her.
And I'll do it while bending her over, growling against her skin, and saying the filthiest things she's ever heard until she's begging for it.
The fun is about to begin.
Welcome to Heat & Ink where hot possessive tattoo artists leave their mark in more ways than one.
The Heat & Ink series mixes Contemporary, Sci Fi Romance, and Paranormal in three standalone stories by best-selling STEAMY authors, Hope Ford, Michele Mills, and Olivia T. Turner
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
CHAPTER ONE
Magnus
It’s only Monday morning and my bear is already in a mood. I try to ignore the irritated grunts and vicious snarls in my ears as I sit down at the table for our weekly meeting.
I’m the only one struggling today. And why wouldn’t I be? I’m the only one without a mate.
My younger brother, Julian, sits down at the table in the back of our tattoo shop with a carefree smile on his face. He has a big piece of the banana bread his mate Lainey made for us. My stomach is swirling. It’s a mess. I couldn’t eat if my life depended on it.
“How are you doing this morning?” my sister Victoria asks as she takes a seat beside me. Her mate, and my best friend, Adrian, sits beside her, ripping off a chunk of the banana bread on the table, leaving crumbs everywhere.
“I’m fine,” I lie. I’m never fine. Not anymore. Not since my inner grizzly bear decided that he was done waiting for our mate. Not since he decided he was going to make my life miserable until she got here.
Victoria isn’t buying it. She tilts her head as she gives me that sympathetic look that I hate so much. I hate being a victim. I hate people looking at me like I’m weak. “You sure?” she whispers.
I nod. “I’m better.”
At least that part is true. I am a little better.
My maniac grizzly bear hasn’t burst out of me and destroyed our tattoo shop in a rage lately. He hasn’t kept me prisoner inside while he ran across three states, terrorizing everyone he passed.
My dickhead bear did both of those things a few weeks ago, so all-in-all, this is not so bad. I can take a little bit of angry grunts and groans over all that.
“Alright, let’s get started,” Julian says as he opens a file and pulls out an order form. “I have a customer coming in about twenty minutes.”
He shoves the rest of the banana bread into his mouth and my stomach twists. When was the last time I ate? When was the last time I slept?
Fuck, I’m such a mess.
“Victoria, did you order that shipment of ink?” Julian asks.
“Yes,” she says, looking it up on her phone. “Should be here tomorrow.”
“Awesome,” he says. “I booked that ad in the local paper again, although I don’t know why, we’re pretty much booked solid for the next two months.”
Our tattoo shop, Heat & Ink, is the hottest shop in Montana. I opened it a few years ago with my siblings and we’re all talented artists. Victoria might be the best tattoo artist when it comes to flowers this world has ever seen. Her roses and lilies can take your breath away.
Julian specializes in realistic animals, and I can pretty much do it all. Once we got started, we’ve been unstoppable. Word of mouth has traveled like wildfire and we always have people coming from out of state to get inked by us.
Adrian, a polar bear shifter who has been my best friend my whole life, recently joined the team when my grizzly was having one of his feral episodes. He mated with my sister and he’s so talented and we’re so busy that we decided to keep him on full time.
My dreams have come true. I have my own successful tattoo shop, working with the people I love the most in this world, and we’re a huge success. I’m only missing one thing…
I shift in my seat as my grizzly bear paces around angrily inside, wanting to burst out and wreak havoc on this cruel world that is keeping him from his mate. My jaw clenches and I squeeze my hand into a fist under the table as he snarls in my ear.
“Did you pay the power bill?” Julian asks Adrian.
“Power bill paid,” he says, looking over his paper. “Phone bill paid, water bill paid, internet paid, taxes paid, everything fucking paid. Boom. I rule.”
Victoria’s beautiful smile reaches her bright green eyes as she rubs her mate’s back. Her straight black hair is pulled back into a ponytail, tattoos covering her arms and hands. She’s so happy. I’m happy for her. I’m happy for all of them.
It’s just… hard.
It’s hard to enjoy anything or focus on anything when she’s not here. It kills me to know that my fated mate is out in the world, vulnerable to all of the dangers around her. It hurts knowing that every second I’m without her is a second wasted. A second I’ll never get back.
I stare at the table as my savage bear paces around all bitter and bleak. The meeting goes on as I sit in silence. I was always the one who took control of the weekly team meetings. I was the one who ran the shop. Hell, I’m the one who got us a tattoo machine all those years ago. I’m the one who started all of this, signed the lease, secured the franchise, bought the equipment and furniture. I’m the one who used to order the ink shipments and pay the water bill. I used to do it all.