“Majority rules,” Tyler said with a silly grin. “Welcome to the club, recruit.”
The guys slept on her apartment floor. Her roommate elbowed her in the side when Mary asked if she minded. She pulled Mary aside and whispered, “Are you kidding? Five hot dudes in our apartment? Why didn’t you invite them over sooner?”
Mary rolled her eyes. All the shifters in the room could hear the girl clearly, and Mary didn’t want their egos stroked any more than necessary. Half the guys had big enough heads as it was. The next morning, she woke up early and made breakfast. She quickly ran out of food, and she knew that they were likely going to stop on the way to the forest to deal with the appetites of the bikers.
When they were down in the parking lot, Mary asked, “So, whose bike do I get to ride on?”
Brett pointed at Tyler. “Your idea, you get to deal with her.”
Tyler smiled. “Alright recruit. Hop up.”
Mary settled behind Tyler. She wrapped her arms around his muscular torso. He let her wear his cut again, and she couldn’t help but tilt her head to sniff the soft leather every once in a while. It smelled just like him.
They were on the road for all of an hour when Aiden motioned that they pull off at the nearest rest stop. He and Brian went inside to find food while the rest of them filled up their bikes.
As Brian and Aiden exited the little shop, half a dozen bikers pulled into the gas station. “Fuck me,” Brett hissed.
“What’s wrong?” Mary asked. Her brother’s eyes had gone completely dark and Tyler pushed her behind him, shielding her from the other men on the bikes.
“It’s the fucking Tribe. Damnit.”
Brian and Aiden jogged towards the rest of the Clan. The other bikers pulled right in front of them, blocking their exit.
“Look who we have here. On Tribe land,” one of the bikers said with a scowl. He had a nasty scar running down the side of his face. It looked like a bear had clawed him. Mary’s heart sank. Whoever these guys were, they were bad news.
“We’re passing through, fuck off.”
“No one gave you permission to pass through our territory, half breeds,” the man spat.
Mary could feel her hackles rising. These were the same bigoted shit heads who had tried to hurt Brian and his new wife. Before she could stop herself, she stepped around Tyler and looked right into the eyes of the asshole who thought he was better than she was just because he couldn’t turn into an animal. Moron.
“Hey, shithead. Back the fuck off and we won’t rip your arms off. Am I making myself clear?”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tyler flinch.
“Who do we have here? A little bear bitch.” He pulled a knife from his pocket. “Let’s see what she looks like skinned.”
Everyone around her jumped into action. Tyler pushed her further back as he collided head on with the biker who threatened her. His fists moved rapidly. Brett and Aiden were in a squabble with two of the bikers who had still been sitting on their bikes.
Mary felt helpless. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do. She looked at the abandoned bikes and an idea hit her. She circled around the fighting men and braced both hands on one of the Tribe bikes and pushed with all her might. It toppled over and hit the ground with a resounding crash that made everyone stop fighting for just a moment.
Mary turned to another bike and pushed again. This time it toppled into a second bike, bringing them both to the ground.
“Fucking bitch!” Mary’s eyes widened as three of the Tribe bikers broke off from the group and headed towards her. She leapt over the fallen bike, happy she had done hurdles in high school, and screamed at her brother and his friends.
“Go! Go!” They wasted no time jumping on their bikes and revving the engines. They pealed out of the parking lot one by one. Mary jumped on Tyler’s bike, almost sliding off the back as he gunned it forward. She grabbed his waist and clutched at him desperately.
They heard a few gunshots in the distance, but they were already down the road.
When they finally arrived at the outskirts of the forest, Brett motioned for them to pull into the tiny parking lot just off a long, unpaved side road. He stopped his engine and leaned forward, his head hitting his handle bars.
“Mary, next time you want to try to diffuse a possibly violent situation, do me a favor and don’t get involved.”
“Trust me, I don’t ever want to be near something like that again.”
“The biker life not really for you, kiddo?” Tyler elbowed her in the side and she rolled her eyes at him. She popped the collar of the cut she was still wearing.
“I live for the biker life.” Tyler laughed and slid off his bike.
“Enough chatting,” Brian said as diplomatically as possible. “Let’s hunt.”
Mary followed the pack as they marched into the woods. She crashed into Tyler’s back when they all stopped abruptly. Aiden yanked off his t-shirt and had his pants halfway off before Mary realized that they were in the spot they were going to shift.
Her eyes widened at the sight of Aiden’s chest. It was covered in tattoos and scars. Many of them bisecting. She wondered what had happened.
She shook herself out of it. “I’m going to go shift over there,” she pointed to a patch of trees. It didn’t seem like anyone was paying much attention to her, so she marched a few feet away and began to undress. She folded her clothes and lay them down on a log. She took a deep breath and let the change take her over. A tingle started at the top of her head, moving rapidly down her body. Her toes curled as she felt the hair all over her body lengthen. She let out a soft groan as she fell to the ground on all fours.
Then came the part that hurt. Her scull elongated and her bones creaked as her skeleton changed. When she took her next breath, she took it as a bear.
She stretched slightly and began to walk towards the smell of her brother. As she got her sea legs back she moved a bit faster. There was something so fantastically liberating about being able to shift again, especially after so long. Everything smelled better as a bear than it did as a human. She took a deep breath and rubbed her paws into the lush grass.
The five bears turned to look at her as she approached them. Their coats were all slightly different colors, but Tyler’s was by far the lightest. He almost didn’t look like a real bear; he was like someone’s imagined rendering of one. Brett nodded his head and everyone followed him further into the woods. It didn’t take long for them to start running.
Mary loved the feeling of her paws hitting the grass with each powerful bound. She relaxed into her movement. As they slowed at a clearing she nipped at Tyler’s heels. He turned and growled playfully at her. When he turned his head, she did it again. This time, he nipped back.
As a bear she was a bit smaller than the rest of them. Her fur was a bit lighter as well. She leapt towards them, her mouth open and her tongue out. It was surprisingly puppy-like. Tyler could tell that she hadn’t shifted in a while.
When they stopped in the clearing, she nipped at his heels and he turned and bared his teeth. He could smell deer in the air and he wanted to taste the meat. But Mary was distracting. She pranced around him, butting her head against him like she was a puppy who wanted to play with an older dog.
And then she put her mouth around his neck, and turned tail and ran from the clearing. Tyler moved automatically and on instinct. Mary had challenged his status by doing that and he was going to get back at her.
She moved quickly, but he soon caught up. He leapt onto her, and she shifted into human form almost immediately. He followed suit, his body getting smaller and thinner, his fur receding until they were just two people lying on the grass. He looked down, and his heart almost fell out of his mouth. There was nothing between the two of them. She was gorgeous. Her breasts were heaving with the effort of running from him, and she could feel the soft skin of her legs against his.
“Uh,” he began. He could feel himself hardening.
She smiled up at him. “You got me!”
He closed his eyes and took a slow, deep breath, willing himself to think of boring things like icebergs and golf. But it didn’t really work. He felt her hand on his face. “Tyler?” she asked, tentatively.
He looked down at her. Her mouth was slightly parted, and her eyes were full of questions. He couldn’t help himself. He kissed her. He pressed his naked body against hers, loving the way she molded against him perfectly. She wrapped her arms around his neck and the kiss deepened.
Then the realization of what they were doing hit him and he pulled away. “We shouldn’t. Brett would be pissed…” he trailed off. Her lips looked well-kissed and lush.
“Right.” He could hear the disappointment in her voice. He moved off of her and she stood up. He tried not to look at her as she moved. “No big deal!” she said, the cheer in her voice sounded so forced.
“We should get back to the others,” he attempted diplomacy.
“Yeah.” She closed her eyes and began to shift. He followed suit.
They spent two nights out in the woods and Tyler had to fight with himself the whole time. He had invited her. He did this to himself. But every time he looked at her, he wanted to kiss her. The years they had spent bonding together as teenagers came rushing back to him and he wanted to hit himself for being an idiot kid and thinking that there would be better and more interesting girls when he got to college. His perfect girl was right in front of him. Literally.
And she was his best friend’s sister. Tyler didn’t want to think about what Brett would think if Tyler actually started dating Mary. He wasn’t sure he wanted to imagine it, but he certainly did want to imagine dating Mary.
Mary drove back with Brett, and Tyler wanted to kick himself for missing the opportunity to be close to her again. They pulled into the parking lot of her apartment complex and she grabbed her bag.
She gave everyone hugs and turned to go, but Brett stopped her. “Oh! Before I forget, April and I are engaged,” Brett said.
Mary’s eyes widened. “And you didn’t tell me immediately?” she screeched. She went to hit her brother on the shoulder, while she asked for details about the wedding. Tyler took the moment of craziness to pull Mary’s phone from her back pocket, put his number in, and then text himself so he had her number. He may have been acting a bit crazy, but there was still something between them, that much had been clear in the forest. And he wasn’t going to be an idiot and mess things up like he did when he went off to school.
He texted her the next day and apologized for kissing her. When they stopped driving for the evening, he checked his phone and there was a simple message from her.
Like I said, no big deal.
He wasn’t going to let her go that easily. He sent another text, asking about her classes. Her response was immediate and his stomach fluttered. He wanted to laugh. The tables were certainly turned. She had a crush on him when she was a teenager, now he had a crush on her.
They sent a few messages back and forth before he fell asleep on the motel bed. He did the same thing the next day, and the next, and the next. Soon it felt like his phone was constantly buzzing in his pocket. Then, one evening he called her.
One night, during what had become their nightly phone call, Mary asked him a question that made his heart beat faster. “Ty, my roommate is going out of town for the weekend. If you’re not busy, do you want to spend the weekend here?”
“Of course.”
The next Friday, he drove to her apartment directly from work. He arrived rather late in the evening. As he walked around the building from the parking lot, he noticed that the window that looked into her living room was thrown open and he could see her puttering around.
“Mary!” he called. She looked up and then turned towards the window. “Mary!” he said again.
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” he called up at the open window as she got closer. She stuck her head out of the window and looked down at him.
“Tyler?” She leaned out further, as if she was trying to get a better look at him, but it was hard with the lack of light.
“You’re going to fall out, silly.”
“I’m not! But come around to the front door. Why didn’t you just text me?”
“This seemed like a little more fun, Juliet.”
“If I was any less secure, I’d be worried that you didn’t remember my name.”
“How could I ever forget your name? Mary, Mary, quite contrary.”
“Stop joking around and get your butt up here!”
Tyler laughed and took a step back. “Do you want me to climb?”
“No! Go to the damn front door!” She leaned out further, bracing her hands on the window ledge. She was hanging halfway out the window. He was sure she was going to fall right out, and then their evening together would be a trip to the hospital. But she didn’t. She slid back inside. “Seriously. Go to the front door and I’ll buzz you up.” She disappeared and the window closed.
He walked around the building and at the front door he pressed her apartment call button. There was a loud buzzing noise and the click of a lock. He pulled the door open and entered the lobby. A tired-looking security guard barely raised his head from his newspaper.
The apartment building wasn’t in the best neighborhood. It was a mile or so off of main campus, and Mary had assured him that the area was mostly students, which was why it didn’t look the most appealing.
He made it up the stairs, the elevator was broken, and before he raised his hand to knock on the door, it flew open.
Mary had never taken so long to figure out what she was going to wear before. She was an adult. In grad school. She had a career track in psychology planned out for herself. And she spent an hour and a half trying on outfits that she had worn countless times before, on many dates, and still wasn’t thrilled with her final pick.
“You look beautiful.”
Okay, maybe it wasn’t so bad. The dress was better suited to warmer weather. It cut off at her knees, and hugged her waist before flaring at the hips. He took a step towards her and put his hands on her hips. He didn’t make another move. She liked that she had to meet him half way with things. He wasn’t pushy. He opened the door, she had to walk through it.
She stepped forward and stood on her tip toes. He was so much bigger than she was. Even bigger than Brett. She had always been taller than they were, even though she was younger, until they hit puberty. Then they both dwarfed her. She leaned in for a kiss but stopped an inch from his lips. “Remember when I was taller than you were?”
He laughed. “For like five minutes.”
“For like a whole year.”
She put one foot on the top of his heavy biker boot and tested it. It didn’t give. And then she stood on the other foot as well. Even with the extra help, she was still shorter. “Well, you aren’t any more.” He closed the gap between their lips and she wrapped her arms around him.
She balanced on his boots as she kissed him. She loved kissing him. He was somehow both rough and gentle at the same time. He slowly pulled away, and she frowned in disappointment. She had wanted to kiss him since she was thirteen, now that they were actually dating she felt like every moment she spent not kissing him was a moment wasted.
“We need to stop for right now,” he said throatily.
“Why?” she purred, leaning in again.
“Because kissing you makes me a little crazy. And we had actual real plans for tonight.”
They did. And she was excited. They were going to have a normal, boring evening a catch up. And eat pizza. She stepped off his boots. “I have pizza menus!”
Joel (BBW Bear Shifter Wedding Romance) (Grizzly Groomsmen Book 5) Page 131