On his first night renting a cottage on the Cornish coast, widower John Tennant comes face to face with, of all things, a grizzly bear. Fearing for his life, John tries to convince the animal he isn't worth eating, and is relieved when the bear ambles away. Maintenance man Mitch Benjamin is two hundred years old but doesn’t look a day over forty. As a werebear, he needs to stay under the radar. The new renter is making that difficult. Not only is John attractive, but his vulnerability triggers all of Mitch’s protective instincts. If that wasn’t trouble enough, Mitch is struggling with his inner bear’s desire to befriend John. He knows what his bear is up to, but Mitch doesn’t want another mate. His last one was murdered ninety years ago, and he’s still grieving. John is confused by Mitch’s mixed signals. Physically, Mitch -- with his bulging muscles and hulking frame -- is a gay man’s wet dream come true. But emotionally, he keeps closing down. John discovers more comfort with the magnificent grizzly bear he occasionally meets on his evening walks along the beach. In an effort to help, Morwenna, the owner of the cottages, uses her psychic gifts to give John a message from his dead lover, George. Far from helping, it adds another layer of strangeness to what’s already turning out to be the strangest summer John can remember. Can a well-meaning medium and a determined grizzly bring John and Mitch together? Will Mitch come clean about his werebear nature? If he does, can John accept that a man and bear exist in the same body?

Summer's Lease

“Get the fuck on, you motherfucker!” This was followed by several scraping sounds.


John paused, his foot on the bottom stair.


“That’s it, you bastard,” came the same voice.


What the hell was going on up there? John went to investigate, but froze when the next stair creaked loudly. The scraping from upstairs stopped. The silence was so profound, John could hear the blood pumping in his ears.


After what felt like an eternity, a deep voice announced, “It’s okay, I’m just fixing your leaky faucet.”


Relief swept through John. Yes, of course. That explained the mess in the kitchen. He felt foolish for allowing his brain to conjure up something more sinister. He started to ascend the stairs once again.


“Thanks. That was quick, I only told Mor…” The rest of John’s words died in his throat.


There, kneeling in front of the bath, was a huge man naked to the waist, his back rippling with bulging muscles.


Chapter 6