The Clawed Squad: The Twins (The Bear Shifters of Clawed Ranch Book 3) Read online

  Contents

  Copyright

  About

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

  Bonus Material

  More Books by Kim Fox

  The Clawed Squad:

  The Twins

  The Bear Shifters of Clawed Ranch Book Three

  By KIM FOX

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  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Contains explicit love scenes and adult language.

  18+

  www.AuthorKimFox.com

  Copyright © 2016 by Kim Fox

  Layla Winters is out of shape, out of breath, and out of luck. After a series of strange circumstances, she finds herself hanging from Montana’s highest cliff without a hope to survive. That is until two identical twin bear shifters come racing up the mountain to save her.

  Slate and Karl Ember are two bear shifter twins looking for a mate. Karl wants to complete the triad which is any twin bear shifter’s destiny but his brother Slate has a problem with sharing, and there’s no way that Slate is going to share a mate. But when the curvy and quick witted, Layla, literally falls into their muscular arms, all bets are off.

  Layla is perfect for Slate, but she’s also perfect for his brother, Karl. Can the two brothers learn to share a mate or will they both go down fighting?

  No violence, danger, or suspense in this one! Just a whole lot of laughs and hot menage action between a beautiful curvy woman and her two muscular bear shifters. Plus, Stetson and Alexander settle their dispute and finally find out which of them is the baddest polar bear shifter in Colwood, Montana!

  MFM. No Cliffhanger. HEA.

  one

  “Non-athletic?” Layla said to herself as she squeezed the steering wheel. “Man, fuck him!”

  She would’ve started crying if she weren’t so mad! Two months of Crossfit and all of a sudden he’s fucking God’s gift to women? He was more overweight than I was when we first started dating!

  Layla gritted her teeth and hit the gas. Her car was flying down the highway with the music blaring so loud that she couldn’t hear her own teeth grinding. She had crossed South Dakota’s state line and was headed into…wait…where the heck am I?

  Away from Owen. That’s all that matters.

  There was a gas station up ahead attached to a Burger Zone and Layla grunted in frustration as she yanked the steering wheel to the side and turned into it. Her gas light had been on for a while and she had to stop even though she just wanted to keep flooring it.

  She got out of her car and slammed the door closed, picturing Owen’s stupid head in between the door and the car. Her heart was pounding and her hands kept clenching into fists whenever she thought of him. She was still furious.

  She and Owen had been together for two years. She had given up her amazing and cheap apartment to move in with him two months ago and he just kicked her out. They were both always a little round and a bit heavier than the next person but that never bothered either of them before.

  Then a few weeks ago Owen joined a Crossfit gym and started to slim down. Layla had tried to join him for a class once but it didn’t go so well. She had always been so clumsy and was never very coordinated. She hurt her shoulder on the second exercise and vowed never to go back. Over the weeks, Owen dropped a few clothes sizes and all of a sudden he was acting like he was too good for her. Then he met his Crossfit buddy Nikki…

  Fucking pig. Layla yanked the gas pump out of the machine and thrust it into her car’s vagina. She stepped back and looked at her curvy reflection in her car’s shiny paint.

  Owen won’t have the last laugh. I will!

  She placed her hands on her hips and turned from side to side looking at all of her many curves. I’m going to work out and get so ripped! I’ll be shredded. I’ll have a six pack-no, a ten pack, a tight ass, toned arms…ooohh…

  Layla turned around when she noticed a sign behind her. Burger Zone had a new a burger out called the Triple Decker Heart Wrecker. I’ve been wanting to try that…

  No! I’m getting in shape!

  She had to get even hotter than Nikki to show Owen what he gave up.

  Ten minutes later she was sitting in her car finishing up the Triple Decker Heart Wrecker burger. Last one, I promise. “Diet starts now!” she said as she crumpled up the wax paper wrapper into a tight ball.

  “Oops.” She had missed one fry in the bag. Mmmm, yum. Diet starts now!

  Layla stepped out of the car with her empty bag and looked around for the first time. It was beautiful out here. After Owen had dropped the bomb on her she just got into her car and started driving. She didn’t know where she was going and she didn’t care. She had been driving for two hours and was now deep in the mountains. The air was crisp and the sun was out. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath of the mountain air. Her heart rate slowed with every deep breath and she started to feel better.

  Owen had always been a bit of a jerk anyway. Maybe this would be good for her.

  A car pulled into the parking lot and two pretty girls stepped out, threading their pretty hands through their pretty hair and swaying their pretty asses as they walked. They were so slim and fit. That’s what I’m going to look like.

  “Excuse me,” Layla said as she walked over.

  They both turned and smiled. The blonde driver had all kinds of weird straps wrapped around her waist and legs like she had forgotten to take off her sex swing or something.

  “I was just wondering where I am,” Layla said. She put her hand on her forehead and shook her head. Can I sound more like a crazy person?

  “In a parking lot,” the blonde answered, leaning back and looking unsure.

  Layla laughed. “I got that much. I mean what town…maybe what state?”

  “Are you lost?” the brunette asked with a chuckle. She was wearing black gloves with the finger tips cut off, looking like Lara Croft. “We’re in Montana. And up there,” she said, pointing up the road, “is the town of Colwood.”

  Layla nodded her head as she glanced at the girls’ toned arms and fit legs. I want those arms. And I’ll take a pair of those legs too.

  “Thanks,” Layla said, dumping her empty bag of burger regret into the garbage and then heading back to her car. She stopped and took a deep breath.

  “One more thing,” she said, turning around. “Can I ask what you guys do to stay so fit?”

  The blonde glanced down at the straps wrapped around her upper thighs. “We go rock climbing. It’s a great workout. Hold on,” she said, opening her door and searching insi
de of her car. She came back out with a pamphlet in her hands. “Here you go. It’s up there.”

  Layla followed her pointing finger to one of the tallest mountains in the distance. There was a huge cliff face like someone had just sliced the mountain in two with a giant Samurai sword. “That’s the best rock climbing in Montana,” she said.

  It was a bit much. Layla was hoping they were going to say that they went on a leisurely fifteen-minute walk and then had a fat free frozen yogurt. Rock climbing was a bit too intense for someone as clumsy as her.

  “Okay, thanks,” Layla said, feeling a heaviness settle into her body. She would never be as hot as Nikki. Why even bother trying?

  She folded the pamphlet and slid it into her back pocket as she turned and walked back to her car with slumped shoulders. This is ridiculous. Just go back home. Oh, wait. Thanks a lot, Owen you asshole, I don’t have one.

  “Hey!” the blonde called out to her.

  “Yeah?” she asked, turning around. Her friend, the brunette, was heading inside the gas station.

  The woman’s face softened as she tilted her head. “You okay?”

  Layla sighed. All of her pent-up, furious anger had all washed away in that moment. She was left with a devastated and broken heart instead. I like the anger better, she thought as she fought back tears.

  “Just guy trouble,” she said with her chin trembling.

  “And you want to get back at him by getting fit?” she asked with a grin as she walked over.

  “Yeah,” Layla said with a laugh. “Pretty stupid, right?” She wiped her eyes as she shook her head. “Sorry. When I’m balls deep in a pity party, it’s not usually in public.”

  “It’s okay,” she said with warm, comforting eyes. “I’ve been there. And it’s not stupid. Just remember. Only one person can change your life: you.”

  “I can’t climb mountains,” Layla said with a laugh. Just picturing it made her want to cross her legs to keep from peeing her pants. She was terrified of heights.

  “Life is a mountain,” the woman said. “You can either sit at the bottom and watch people climb to the top or you can get off your ass and make that mountain your bitch.”

  Layla gulped as she stared at the high peak in the distance. Low hanging clouds covered the mountain top in a chilling mist and large birds dipped and dove, looking like vultures hungry to eat any overweight, wannabe rock climbers foolish enough to venture over there.

  “I’ll think about it,” Layla said with a nod. There’s no way I’m going over there.

  “Do it!” the woman said firmly. “It’s not the mountain that you need to conquer. It’s yourself.”

  Layla gulped as she looked at the daunting mountain one last time. She thanked the pretty little blonde Yoda and got in her car.

  How do I get back home? She grabbed her phone to check on Google maps and her background picture popped up. It was a smiling selfie of her and Owen. It was like a punch in the gut and for the first time that morning she realized how bad he had hurt her. How could he say that he wasn’t attracted to her anymore? How could he be so cruel?

  The tears started coming and she dipped her head so that the pretty girls wouldn’t see her crying. You can cry for one minute. That’s it.

  But she needed two. Or maybe it was five. Okay, six (stop judging).

  When her tears dried up she wiped her eyes (and the screen on her phone) and stared out the window. The mountain was staring back at her, challenging her, daring her to try it.

  “Alright, mountain,” she said, shoving her keys in the ignition. “Prepare to be my bitch!”

  “I’m sorry, I called you a bitch!” Layla screamed, clinging to the rock cliff with burning fingers. She was so high up. She was sure to die. “Just please don’t kill me!” she gasped as the fierce wind whistled along the rock face, slamming into her in an effort to throw her off. “You’re wonderful, I’m the bitch.”

  “Miss,” the instructor said as he held the rope which was the only thing keeping her from plummeting to her grisly death. “My shift ends in an hour so can you either climb up or get down?”

  Layla gasped as she glanced over her shoulder. She was only four feet up but it felt like four hundred. “I’m trying,” she said, clinging to the rock so tight that her knuckles were as white as snow.

  “You’ve been in that spot for fifteen minutes!” he said with a roll of his eyes. He glanced at his watch and shook his head. “I hate this job,” he muttered to himself.

  It was easy for him to say. He wasn’t about to fall to his death.

  What did the blonde say? Something about conquering her inner mountain. It had been easy to get all pumped up in the parking lot of a gas station but out here on the face of the cliff was a whole other matter. Layla was having some serious second thoughts.

  “Just grab that finger hold over your head and pull yourself up,” the young instructor said with a heavy sigh. “You’re not going to fall. I’m holding the rope. You’ll be fine.”

  Layla glanced down at his skinny arms and stick-thin frame. He wouldn’t be able to hold her if she fell. She’d probably slingshot him up to the moon. And that was only one of her worries.

  “What if there’s a rock slide?” she asked, cringing as she held onto the rock. “I could get crushed.”

  “A rock slide?” he said with a chuckle. He turned and mumbled something that sounded like, “I can’t believe I get paid minimum wage for this shit.”

  Layla was about to climb down when she caught herself. No. She just pictured walking back to her car with her head hung low, sitting down, broken and defeated, and having to look at Owen’s face staring back at her from her phone.

  Just do it. For once don’t be a coward. Just once.

  She gritted her teeth, reached up and grabbed the finger hold, pulling herself up another deadly foot.

  “Finally,” the instructor said.

  Layla just ignored him. She was Layla fucking Winters! And she was going to make this mountain her bitch! One terrified foot at a time.

  She climbed and climbed, never looking down, ignoring the sharp straps cutting into the soft skin of her upper thighs, ignoring the cuts and scrapes on her hands and knees from the sharp rock of the cliff. I’m fucking doing it!

  She climbed until her shoulders ached and her toes throbbed. She climbed until her fingers went numb and she couldn’t possibly go any higher. And then she climbed some more.

  Layla gasped when she finally stopped to take a breath and look around. She was definitely higher than four feet up. The tops of the high trees were way down below. The world’s worst rock climbing instructor looked like an ant from up there.

  She began to feel a little lightheaded and her stomach started to turn. Why did I eat Burger Zone? That was a bad idea.

  The wind whistled around her ears as a hawk flew overhead, letting off a chilling cry. Layla hugged the rock face, closing her eyes as a drop of sweat slowly slid down her neck. The ropes were starting to burn her palms and it was getting really hot in the late summer sun. I should have taken off my sweater. But it was too late now.

  She craned her neck up and her heart started pounding when she saw that she was barely half way up the enormous mountain. I won’t make it. There’s no way.

  She looked back down and called out to the instructor who looked like he was playing on his phone. “Hey!” she called. “Get me a helicopter. I’m stuck!”

  “What?” he called back.

  “GET ME A HELICOPTER!” she screamed. He just shook his head and turned back to his phone. “DON’T IGNORE ME!”

  He ignored her.

  “Holy Crappucino,” she whispered, clinging to the rock with a pounding headache. The hawk flew around for a second time and she closed her eyes tight. Is he going to eat my eyes out?

  She had read an article on her Facebook feed about a bird attacking a rock climber, or something like that. Well, she just scrolled by and didn’t actually read the article, but still. It was on the Internet so
it had to be true.

  “Fuck off, bird!” she screamed as it circled around again.

  Her cut up fingers were going numb as she hung onto the rock. Sweat was dripping into her eyes, burning them like acid, and she was on the verge of having a full blown panic attack.

  I hate everything about this moment.

  But it was about to get worse. She glanced down to tell her instructor that she was stuck but he was gone. The rope, which was the only thing keeping her from becoming a human pancake, was lazily wrapped around a thin tree. She closed her eyes and gulped. “Holy Mocha Crappucino!”

  two

  “You guys haven’t found any girls?” Camilla asked, looking at them in disbelief. “Nothing? No one to even go out for a cup of coffee with?”

  Karl looked at his twin and they both shrugged. “No one has caught my eye,” Karl said. And it was true. He had been subscribed to the dating website, The Bride Guide, for a few weeks now but he didn’t seem to have any matches. He lost interest with it and stopped checking his messages, mostly because he didn’t seem to have any.

  “Yeah,” Slate said. “I want a girl that will blow my mind as soon as I see her. I want to be instantly in love and ready to fill her up with my babies immediately.”

  “Yeah,” Camilla said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes. “That’s not too much to ask.”

  Kylee let out a frustrated breath. “I think you should lower your expectations, Slate,” she said. “That doesn’t sound very realistic. Maybe get to know the girl first before you try to fill her up with your babies.”

  The twins were sitting around the firepit with the two girls having breakfast. It was another beautiful day on the ranch with the sun shining and the birds singing.