by Nox, Serena
The scream was an oncoming freight train, building higher and higher in volume even as it dropped lower and lower. The force of my roar propelled me forward and I dropped to my hands and knees and roared at my attackers, the sound carrying over the crash of thunder that roiled overhead.
A shadow burst forth from the trees. Mitchell whirled a second too late, his gun firing into the empty air.
Because the bear was upon him.
I screamed again, this time a human noise. The bear was savaging Mitchell. One swipe of his paw opened his steaming guts out to the hissing rain. Mitchell's snarl became a rictus of fear and death before my eyes. I screamed again.
Dwayne lifted his rifle even as he staggered backwards from the bear's onslaught. I heard the crack of gunshot, but could not tell if the bullet found its mark before the bear knocked Dwayne backward. He struggled for a futile moment as he tried to jam his rifle butt into the bear's slavering jaws, but the beast's strength overwhelmed him.
I turned away from his horrible scream as the bear's jaws closed around his head. But even the thunder could not drown out the terrible, killing crunch.
I crouched low, curling myself into a tight ball, willing it to be quick. I knew it would hurt; I just wanted it to be over fast.
But the killing blow never came.
I rose stupidly, shaking with fear. The bear was standing over Dwayne's body, seeming assuring itself that the man was dead. When the animal saw me, he bent his head.
Amber eyes.
"Kai," I whispered.
At the sound of his name the bear bolted for the forest. "Kai!" I screamed, rushing to follow him. I tore blindly through the woods, screaming his name over and over, turning at every sound, searching for my bear, when I saw it.
Blood.
Red droplets, like fallen rubies, glistened on the sodden earth, ready to be washed away by the falling rain.
Kai
It was barely a gap in the rock, but Kai's instincts drew him forward. Squeezing through the tight space pressed painfully against the hot wound and he whimpered.
He would have to shift.
Summoning the last dredges of his strength, he pulled back on his bear, constricting the powerful, but wounded form down and down. The effort was exhausting. He collapsed against the rock wall, breathing heavily, the rain pelting his naked, vulnerable skin.
This was the first time he saw his wound with human eyes. The bullet had entered his stomach just below the ribcage. He touched his back, and grimaced to feel the exit wound, hot and ragged.
He inhaled painfully and pulled himself up into the gap in the rock. When he slid down into the cave, he saw that his bear's instincts rang true. The cavern opened up into a spacious and snug cave. He could rest here, protected from the elements, while he tried to plan his next move.
He moved slowly towards the back wall, away from the entrance. Then he sank down to the packed dirt floor and clutched his naked, shivering body. He wanted to shift, but he knew the effort would drain him too much, so he had to remain in this shivering, puny form. It angered him to feel so weak.
But he had defended Noelle. That was the most important thing. The wracking pain in his side was worth saving her life.
What Kai couldn't understand was how she had summoned him in the first place.
The clan was resting in the den, overwhelmed with the panic of getting Dov to the hospital. Ayla was a rattled, shivering mess, her brush with humanity having shaken her to her core. Keir and Lew were falling over themselves to attend to their mother and had no inclination to pay attention to anything else.
Mathe had stayed with his clan, his dire words still ringing in Kai's ears, "Vulnerable alphas are the death of a clan. We cannot merge with you until you deal with this threat."
He had been mulling that very issue in his human form when he first heard her call, not with his ears, but in his head. She screamed his name, speaking the language of bears through the telepathic link. Before he could even register how strange that was, he shifted mid-leap and barreled up the mountainside.
The rain had muddied the scents, confusing him on where she was. He had been heading to the cabin when she screamed inside of his head again, and this time there was no mistaking where she was. The tether that he had thought severed was stronger than ever as it snapped him directly to her aid.
When he reached the slight hollow, the deja vu hit hot as hard as the poisonous smell. The forest floor was once again littered with trash, there was yet another ramshackle structure. But this time he didn't halt his charge when he saw the gun. The one called Mitchell was pressing his gun into Noelle's throat. When Kai saw this there was no other recourse but to kill for his mate. He took no time to savage or maim, as much as it would have been justice for the fire. No, all he allowed himself was just a quick killing blow to rid the world of the threat.
He was turning to do the same to Dwayne when the bullet bit into his flesh.
He exhaled slowly. The pain was worsening and the blood loss was starting to make him dizzy. He slid down and rested his head on the dirt. He would just close his eyes for a minute. That would make the pain easier to bear.
"Do not go to sleep," she screamed in his mind. "Wake up, Kai. Wake up."
Kai's eyes flew open and he knew he must be having a vision. How else would Noelle be there in front of him? How else could she have found the small gap in the rock and tracked him down?
He knew he was hallucinating right up until the moment when she tore off her jacket and covered him with it, her soft, warm, real hand brushing against his damp, feverish skin.
"How?" he asked, finding it hard to speak.
She knelt down and brushed his damp hair back from his face. "I could ask you the same thing." She moved her hand down his chest and stopped short when she saw the bullet wound. "He did get you. That motherfucker."
"I will be fine."
"You are completely crazy. You got shot, you idiot. Well, bear-you did."
Kai blinked at her. "So you know."
Noelle sat back heavily onto the ground. "I don't know anything," she protested. "Other than I apparently know nothing at all."
She moved closer to him, shimmying so that her body was right up against his, her body heat warming him and staving off the terrible shivering that rattled his bones. She pulled closer and pressed her lips to his chest. He could barely hear her words over the beating of his heart. "I know you're not exactly human. And I also know you saved my life."
"Of course I did." Kai spoke slowly, willing her to understand. "You are my mate. We belong together."
"Mate?" her voice was curious, musing. "Is that what this is? Is that why I can feel you even when you aren't there? Is that why I know how you are feeling better than I know myself? Is that why you came when I needed you?"
"Yes," Kai said simply. "That is why."
She lifted her head, seeking and then finding his lips. Kai inhaled sharply as pain radiated up from his wound. Noelle pulled back. "Does that hurt?"
Kai felt the corners of his mouth tug upward as he looked down to where she was snuggled against him. "It does, but not as much as when you stop."
This time is was his lips that sought hers. When they brushed up against the softness, she parted them eagerly, allowing him to begin a slow, deliberate exploration of her mouth. She met his kiss with a ferocity of her own, and he could feel all of her wild emotions swirling around him in a heady stew: fear, confusion and above all of them, wild, heedless desire.
"Does it hurt now?" she whispered as she pulled back gasping from his kiss.
"No," he growled. He pushed himself up on his elbow and rolled so that he was on top of her, his naked body pressed along the length of her clothed one. She gasped to feel his desire pressing hard against her thigh and wiggled slightly, allowing him to part her legs with his. He kissed her again, with no gentleness now. No, the time for hesitation was over. He was with his mate now, and he would claim her as his.
Noelle
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br /> His face above me was so strangely beautiful, but it was already as familiar as my own reflection looking back at me. He hovered over me, drinking my face in with his eyes and I did the same.
Those amber eyes, the same ones I had recognized when he was a bear, the ones I had always known were his, were dark with desire. The way he looked at me, like a hungry predator sighting his prey, reminded me once more that he was not a human being. But when his lips came crashing into mine, his tongue plunging into my mouth hot and fevered with passion, I knew that didn't matter one bit to me anymore. What mattered was that his heavy hands were at my breasts, clutching and kneading, his thumb and forefinger drawing upward to catch my nipple through the fabric of my shirt. What mattered was that his hardened desire was pressing into my legs as he worked his lips down from my mouth, radiating kisses down and down.
He lifted my shirt and I shivered in the cool air of the cave. "How are you not freezing to death?" I giggled stupidly.
Kai smiled his slow, reluctant smile, the most beautiful sight in the world. "Because you are here to warm me up," he replied.
"I'm going to burn right up if you keep doing that," I gasped.
He looked up at me from between my legs. "I haven't even begun to do anything yet," he smiled. With a little teasing flick of his tongue around my navel, he set his long, strong fingers upon the pull of my jeans zipper.
"Here, I'll help you," I urged, swatting his hands away and arching my hips upward.
He looked at me with such authority that I immediately lowered them back down again. "I will undress you, just as you will undress me. Mate unclothes mate."
"You're already naked," I pointed out.
His smile spread back across his face, like the sun peeking from behind a cloud. "Then we must be sure to make love again, so that you will have your chance."
I shivered as his fingers grasped the pull of my zipper. As he drew it down, tooth by maddening tooth, a small groan escaped my lips. "Please hurry," I begged.
"I will not," he rumbled. "I have waited my entire life for you."
"You only met me two days ago."
"My entire life," he repeated, pulling my jeans down low over my hips and exposing the hot flesh between my legs to the cool air of the cave. "It has been a very long time."
"How old are you?" I breathed.
He looked up at me and seemed to consider whether he should tell me. "You may as well tell me the truth," I informed him. "I know you're some kind of magical bear already and I'm still letting you in between my legs. Your age isn't going to make much of a difference."
"If I tell you, you will let me stay between your legs?"
"Kai!" I smiled. "You just made a joke! Is that your first?"
He smiled ruefully. "I believe it was."
I pulled him up from between my legs and kissed him, the rush of affection just as strong as the rush of desire. He kissed me back, playfully. I could feel the tug of his lips upward as he struggled not to smile again. "Why are you laughing?" I asked.
"Because I have never been so happy."
"You got shot today," I pointed out.
"It is still the best day of my many moons."
"How many moons?"
He smiled again. "I will tell you after."
"After what?"
"After this." And with that he pushed me backward so that I landed flat on my back on the packed dirt. Kneading his fingers into the quivering flesh of my thighs, he spread my legs and I heard the sharp inhalation of breath as he saw my exposed sex. "You are beautiful, Noelle," he declared, then bent his head downward.
The first little lick with his tongue nearly sent me bolt upright. Little shocks of electricity seemed to sparkle from his quicksilver tongue as he moved down from the hardened pearl of my nub and down to that aching, clutching core. He was teasing me, drawing out gasping cries as he worked slowly, slowly. I sank my fingers into his shaggy black hair, desperate to hold him in one place to give me the release I craved, but he was too strong and too determined to take me on his own terms. I felt his tongue moving everywhere at once, parting my soft folds and tasting my very essence. As my belly dropped low into my insides, my arms gave out and I fell back onto the floor again, yielding to his slow, inexorable tongue.
"How did you learn to do this?" I groaned. "Do bears....oh!"
He had slipped a finger inside of me as I spoke. My words dissolved into a string of incoherent babble as that thick finger plumbed my depths. He hooked it forward in a come-here gesture, catching my G-spot just as his tongue focused the whole of its slow, patient energy right on my buzzing, desperate nub.
The shockwave that tore through me left me gasping, my body vibrating like a plucked guitar string. Wave upon wave of pleasure built upward, crashing again and again like breakers smashing into a beach. I cried out wordlessly, my fingers tangled in his hair, my thighs clamping down on the side of his face as I worked my legs in the dirt, helpless to do anything but succumb to the pleasure.
When my last spasmodic gasp receded, Kai looked up at me, his chin glistening in the dim shaft of light that pierced the gloom of the cave. "Wow," he exhaled.
"Wow?" I laughed. "That doesn't sound like something you would say."
There was nothing reluctant about his smile this time. "I have heard humans say that word before. When they are awed. I am awed."
There was such an innocent sweetness in the way his eyes twinkled when he said that. I couldn't help but sit up and cup his face in my hands. I traced the sharp angle of his cheekbone with the tip of my finger, swirling it down to follow the whirls and trails of stubble that lined his cheeks before I pressed it to his lips. "Wow," I smiled back to him, and then kissed him, hard.
The scent of me still clung to his lips and the taste inflamed me. My hands moved down of their own power, and for the first time I let myself take hold of that perfect member that had taunted me the first time we met.
I circled the shaft in my hand; delighting in how it stiffened the minute I touched it. Kai let out a low, animal growl, and kissed me harder, forcing himself deeper into my mouth as our tongues swirled and danced and mingled. He felt so good in my hand; heavy and powerful, yet smooth and elegant at the same time. My hand began to move in appreciation, delighting in the feel of him, but the ardent gasp that escaped his lips inflamed me further and I began to move my hand faster.
"Lean back," I whispered, pressing my hand into his chest, firmly.
He looked me full-on with those amber eyes, and then ducked his head. Then he answered my unspoken question. "This means that I submit to you," he growled.
The memories of each time he had given me the same look hit me all at once. He had been submitting to me from the moment I first saw his bear, when I ordered him to go away. To know that such a powerful being was willingly bending to my will sent a rush of pride through me. I was about to command him to do something else, when I heard the low growl that was emanating from his throat.
"You don't sound like you're submitting," I observed carefully, as my hand circled the bulbous head of his tip. "You sound like you want to eat me."
"I want to do that too," he growled loudly, his amber eyes dark with hunger.
"Stop it," I commanded. "You already had your turn."
He hissed a long exhalation, but kept his chin down as he looked at me. I felt a burst of triumph as I lowered my head to flick my tongue over his tip. I had this huge bear-man at my mercy, completely under my spell. And I intended to keep him there.
With the first swipe of my tongue, he threw his head back and groaned with such abandon that I became a woman possessed. I laved my tongue up and down the whole length of him, making him slick and slippery before I closed my lips tightly around the tip and moved slowly down.
The more I took of him, the louder he groaned, his hips working in a slow, seductive roll as he tried to push more of himself down my throat. But I was in charge, he was submitting to me. I pushed my hands against his thighs, forcing his thrusti
ng hips down. Then I tossed my long hair back over my shoulder and slammed my lips down, burying the full length of him in my throat.
He roared with both his animal and human tongues. The merging of voices was so alien, so thrilling, that a chill raked down my spine to hear it. The air was vibrating around my ears, the loud thrumming sound that I had heard before. I looked up and saw his face melting and merging, shifting between animal and human, and I pulled back in fear.
"Noelle," Kai gasped. "Do not be afraid."
"I'm not," I lied.
HIs face snapped back into focus and he moved over me, pulling himself up to a kneeling position with a painful grimace. His huge arms folded me to his chest and I pressed my ear to his heart, listening as the wild banging slowed and calmed.
"I nearly lost control," Kai explained. "You brought me too close to the edge."
After a second, I had to giggle. "You mean, I am just that good?"
"Yes," he replied in his formal way. "You are that good."
I melted backwards in his arms as he moved above me. I felt a prodding at the cleft between my legs and I opened them wide. "Kai," I whispered.
He looked up at me and I bent my head down, keeping my eyes pinned on his.
His eyes went wide with surprise and hunger, and suddenly the gentle being who had been embracing me once before was transformed. The power that was in him was suddenly made apparent to me and I realized how foolish I had been to think I could command such a creature. The rock hard tip of his desire was at my entrance and I closed my eyes, anticipating the swift, painful thrust that I knew was coming.
But instead I felt his thumb press authoritatively against my nub. As I gasped upward, I felt a downward rush flood out to greet him and he slipped inside of me almost as if by accident. His eyes went wide and somehow darker as he began to move his hips, thrusting inside of me, touching all of those secret places that he could now claim as his.
I clutched my fingers into his back and wrapped my legs around his waist, urging him ever upward. The surging motion of his hips and the relentless pressure of his thumb against my clit combined in a whirling sensation of falling and flying all at once. I cried out his name, held fast in his gaze, and as the pressure inside of me built and built, I clutched more tightly to him, clinging to him for dear life. I abandoned all control of my body, allowing him to move me, to mold me, to take me for his for as long and hard as he wanted.