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

“Why would Mitch want to keep clothes down here?”


The bear tried not to smile, imagining how his human would have to explain that one.


John then started to talk about Mitch. “I like him, more than I should. He’s, well, tall, dark, and handsome. I thought he was kinda invincible and therefore unapproachable.” John sighed. “But then he told me earlier this evening that he couldn’t read. Wow, that bit of vulnerability, I guess you’d call it, just made me…” John swallowed and blinked away a tear. “Made me want him all the more.” Looking up at the roof of the cave, he added in a quieter voice, “Sorry, George.”


The bear could sense his human side was shocked and embarrassed at John’s revelation.


“But I know I shouldn’t feel that way about Mitch. I mean, come on, I’ve only known him a week. It’s not fair on George, and it can only be one way because Mitch doesn’t feel the same way.”


Chapter 46