Awakened by the Guardian: a Novella

She's convinced she's broken. He's about to prove otherwise.

Margaret Taylor has spent years believing something is wrong with her-asexual in a world obsessed with desire, she's used her best friend, Gary Baldner, as a shield against every man who wanted more than she could give. But when Gary shifts into a grizzly for the first time, her carefully controlled world shatters. The man she's secretly loved for two years is now something neither of them understands.

Gary built his fortune from a wheelchair and mastered his paralysis through patience and control. Becoming a bear changes everything-including giving him a body that finally, fully works. But an obsessed colleague-turned-monster is hunting Margaret through Detroit's plague-ridden streets, and Gary's grizzly instincts won't let him leave her unprotected, even if it means staying in fur far longer than anyone thinks safe.

Surviving means Margaret must face what she's always feared feeling. Gary must master a body that responds to her as nothing ever has. And when the blazing connection between them refuses to be denied, they discover that love doesn't require a body-or a heart-to work the way anyone expects.

She needs courage. He needs her heart.

Together, they'll discover that love is the fiercest transformation of all.

Copyright 2018 Katherine Grill; 2026 Greyle Entertainment, LLC Originally published as Bad Ass Bear