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

“I’ll, uh, go get the tablets,” John said in the awkward silence that fell between them.


“I’ll come with you,” Nick said, surprising John.


Mitch stayed where he was. The fact he hadn’t raised an objection to Nick being alone with John spoke volumes.


Inside John’s cottage, Nick cleared his throat. “Mitch, he’s a good man.”


John nodded, not sure where the older man was going.


John didn’t say anything, unsure as to how much Mitch had told him.


“I imagine it can’t be easy for him.”


“Aren’t you…” John fumbled for the right words. He was tired, it was the middle of the night, and he hadn’t had much sleep. “…shocked at discovering what Mitch is?” John still couldn’t get his head around it.


Nick shrugged. “I’d already had my suspicions. I’ve spent a long time at sea and seen things that would make your hair curl. So, no, I’m not shocked.”


Chapter 79