Second Chance with the Shifter

by Leela Ash

  “I need you Freya. You’re the perfect woman to continue my family’s legacy with… I know it sounds crazy, but we are a dying breed and I need someone like you, someone beautiful and strong to carry my child.”

  Freya’s mouth dropped open. Of all the things she had been expecting to hear, that was not one of them.

  “I…I…” she stammered, but Kellan continued.

  “Julie knew you were the one, and the second I met you, so did I,” he said. “I know it sounds crazy. I never thought it would happen this way either, but you can’t deny what we have… There’s something between us. It was there instantly, and it’s only getting stronger.”

  He took hold of her face and shivers of lust ran up her spine.

  “Give yourself to me, Freya, and you’ll have everything you’ve ever wanted. We will be a family, we’ll be united, and all of this will be yours.”

  “But I’m at college,” she stammered.

  “And you can still finish,” he said. “I inherited this house and all of my parent’s fortune. I have more than enough money to keep you, support you and help you finish your studies if you give me a cub.”

  “A what?” Freya said with disbelief.

  “A cub,” he said again as he stroked her cheek. “Give me the heir I need, help me continue my family’s dynasty and you will be forever rewarded.”

  Her whole skin was prickling and suddenly things all began to make sense. The statues of bears dotted around the estate, his gruffness and the heat that oozed from his pores. Kellan was a shifter and he needed to breed before his family line was extinguished. Freya looked up at the man in front of her and knew that she wanted nothing more than to help him. She loved him, and she loved Julie. He was right: In the short time they had known each other, their connection had been forged and was intensifying with each second they spent together.

  She already couldn’t imagine her life without them… Could she be the one to help them in the way they needed?

  As she looked up to the sky, she saw the moon was rising above the tops of the trees. It was full and casting silvery light all around them. Kellan’s eyes were growing darker and wider, and Freya could sense the change in him. He was turning.

  “I want you so bad,” he said as he kissed her again. “I’ve never wanted anyone as much in my entire life. You’re my one true mate.”

  Freya felt a knot of fear and lust in her belly and a wetness between her legs. She was aching for him and knew that she wanted to give herself to him, but she was so nervous, she was afraid to let go.

  “You’re a virgin,” he whispered. “I can tell.”

  Freya blushed and nodded. She could see the bulge in his pants getting bigger, and it was turning her on so much she could barely control herself.

  “I can only breed with a virgin,” he looked at her dead in the eyes again before he kissed her and led her back onto the rocks.

  Freya wrapped her legs around him and let him pin her hands back high above her. He ran his hands up her side and cupped her big, bountiful breasts before kissing up the side of her neck. His touch was electric and as the passion flowed through him, the more animalistic he became.

  The moon was directly over them and as he slipped Freya’s panties down and released his impressive manhood, a wave of power rolled over him as he tore out of his skin and into the great hulking beast in front of her. As he penetrated her for the first time, Freya screamed with pleasure and delight. She had never had a man inside of her before, never mind one as powerful as Kellan. As he shifted into his bear form, he continued to ravage her and thrust himself in and out of her. The feeling of fur against her skin was divine and as he ravished her soft and curvy body, his strokes became more intense and passionate.

  Freya was on the verge of release, and she gripped him with her legs and moaned as his huge cock pounded her. As he fucked her, he grunted hard and fast and began cumming in a hot and powerful wave. He shot his load right up inside of her and Freya could feel it hitting her inside walls. She gasped as her own orgasm thundered through her. She was being taken by the bear and it was the most intense and amazing experience of her entire life.

  As he emptied himself inside of her and they became one, she knew instantly that she would be his forever. Kellan had claimed her, and she was going to give him cubs. She could already feel the magic happening inside of her, and she nuzzled into him and breathed in the scent of his sweat and sex.

  “I love you,” Kellan panted as he withdrew and his fur gave way to his human form. His strong and hulking frame was in front of her, his muscles glistening in the moonlight.

  “I love you, too,” she smiled.

  ***

  They walked back up to the house arm in arm, their passion strong and overflowing. There was no way Julie wouldn’t be able to tell the second she saw them that her plan had worked. As they emerged from the woods and Freya looked up at the amazing house, she couldn’t believe that it was about to become her home. She had fallen on her feet, taken in by an incredible family and made into one of their own… and now they were going to have a baby. It all seemed so surreal.

  Julie stood up on the terrace as she saw them approaching and clapped her hands together excitedly.

  “You two look amazing together,” she beamed. “I just knew the second I saw you that you were Kellan’s mate.”

  Freya nuzzled into him again, and he wrapped his arm around her tightly.

  “You did good, Sis,” he smiled. “And you’ll soon be an aunty so you better get practicing your babysitting skills.”

  Julie squealed with glee and jumped on the spot.

  “A cub for us,” she smiled. She rushed forward and hugged Freya. “You have no idea how much this means to us all.”

  Freya nodded and smiled. She had no idea how, but she really did understand. This was her fate and she was welcoming it with open arms.

  “This calls for a celebration,” Freya said as she looked up at Julie and Kellan.

  Joe and Max came out of the house with a bottle of alcohol-free champagne and Max popped the cork. They all sat around the fire pit and chinked glasses as they looked up at the moon and watched the fireflies. It was such a beautiful night and the start of an incredible journey.

  Freya looked up at Kellan and smiled. She was finally home.

  THE END

  Babies for the Bear

  Cynthia Wilde

  Copyright ©2015 by Cynthia Wilde. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Thank you so much for your interest in my work!

  Chapter 1

  Lois was on her way back to Barrow. She had been unable to take off from work to travel the previous summer, marking the first year of her life to miss the majestic views of Alaska. Now she stood looking out from the boat once again, feeling warm nostalgia for the summers spent in that tiny town on the Arctic Ocean. Her parents had brought her each year to see the whales. Her mother was a marine biologist, who loved sharing the mystery of the sea with her daughter, and her father was the doting spouse, there at her mother’s beck and call for whatever she needed. Lois closed her eyes and felt for a moment as if they were still there with her. It had been 5 years since her parents had been lost in a car accident. Barrow was all she had left of them.

  Her eyes adjusted to the reflecting sun and her heart soared as she took in the small town from a distance. Coming here was like coming home. She still rented the same room at the boarding house where her family had always stayed together, ate at the same restaurants, and haunted the same local hangouts. Her life had been so upside down for the last few years that the familiar had become a rare and precious thing. She had been on edge for a month, waiting for the trip. The laboratory where she conducted research at home had been growing smaller by the day, and
once the weather was warm enough for traveling north she was more than ready to go.

  There was still about twenty minutes from the dock and Lois spent the time repacking the few things that she had pulled out of one of her bags. She hadn’t brought much considering her plan to stay on for at least three months, so she was able to carry all of her things off the boat on her own. She walked two blocks to an old garage where she paid to keep her truck and visited with the owner, Old Merl, before she took off to the boarding house on the other side of town. Burrow was quaint; she loved everything about its rugged, small town charm.

  Lois parked her truck and walked toward an old two-story house.

  An older woman hurried out onto the porch, opening her arms toward her. “Oh! You’re finally here! I heard there’s a terrible storm coming and I was afraid you would get caught in Ketchikan.”

  Lois set her bags on the ground to embrace the nearest likeness to a mother she had left in the world. It was as if this woman had been placed in her life long ago for a future that had already been set in stone.

  They walked into the old house together and the familiarity enveloped her. It was exactly like it had always been. Her hand softly ran over the back of one of the couches. “It never changes. That’s why I love it here so much, Miss Beth.” Lois was looking around, soaking up the memories that hung in the air, thick as the scent of the large spruce beams that met overhead in the homey living room. “Do you have a lot of visitors right now?”

  “Oh just you and one other, Jeffrey, he’s in town for some hunting I think. You know how those men are, they get all riled up to kill something with a gun. He is kinda cute, maybe you two will hit it off…” Beth turned away slightly, trying to stay casual.

  Lois raised her eyebrows in amusement. “I doubt that,” she smiled dryly. “And how do you know I’m single?”

  “’Cause I know. You don’t have that glow about you yet, but just wait, it will come in time.” The older woman thought herself something of a matchmaker, and though Lois knew Beth’s successes had been due to the miniscule population of Barrow providing little opportunity for ideal prospects, she wanted to believe her. At twenty-two, she had yet to be in a substantial relationship that went beyond a few dates and awkward kisses. It was long past time for her to get serious, but she found it hard to get close to many people.

  “We’ll see, I guess. When it happens, it happens,” she resolved out loud.

  “That sounds well and good dear, but sometimes you gotta get out there and take what you want. The hell with trying to wait for it to fall in your lap, go find it.”

  Lois was surprised by the advice, but more surprised by the gumption in Beth’s expression. She considered the last few men she had written off after hardly taking time to know them. She weakly attempted to reassure herself that they hadn’t been worth her time. She could keep an open mind without changing what she wanted in a man, after all. He was out there somewhere, but she was becoming impatient.

  “What are you thinking about, dear? You’ve got the strangest look on your face,” Beth interrupted her thoughts.

  Lois blushed and started up the stairs towards her room. She knew it would already be ready for her, probably had been for a week. “Nothing, just my love life,” she laughed absently, “Maybe you’re right, Miss Beth. I need to get out more, and I will, after I get back home this fall. You know there aren’t very many men out here, even at this time of year.”

  “You never know,” said Beth with a twinkle in her eye.

  Lois nodded and promised to be down in a bit for dinner after she cleaned up. She felt tired and dirty from an entire day of travel. She had ended up sleeping in an airport during a storm in Chicago that delayed her flight, and a shower was in order. As she climbed into the relaxing steamy water, her thoughts were still on her non-existent love life and the older woman’s words. It sounded like something her mother would have said. Lois had never truly imagined allowing someone beyond the barriers she had placed between herself and the men she knew in the past. She realized the only thing that held her back from new experiences was fear of the unknown. Looking down at her body, slick with water and suds, she wondered what a man would think of her if she were indeed to open herself up to knowing someone on a deeper level.

  The hot water was a blessing and she was soon feeling human again. Throwing her shoulder-length hair in a bun, she tiptoed down the hall with a towel wrapped around her. There was a tall man in the hallway next to her open door and she could tell he was looking in. He hadn’t noticed her and she almost backed into the bathroom, but she did not want to put the old clothes that reeked of fish back on after her shower.

  “Excuse me, I need to get through,” she said hurriedly. The man turned around and his blue eyes held hers for several moments before the words seemed to reach his brain enough for him to move. She thanked him and walked into her room, shutting the door softly behind her. Her heart thudded as she looked down at herself and was thankful that no part of her had been sticking out. The towel certainly exposed a bit more than she would have liked for a first meeting.

  As she was getting dressed, she couldn’t help but think about the man in the hallway. She tried to remember if Beth had given her his name, then she recalled it was Jeffrey. He was blonde and blue eyed, with broad shoulders, surely over six feet tall. It was the way in which he had looked at her and his set jaw that caused her to think about it for the rest of the evening. She really did not care for hunting, but with Beth’s words in mind, she figured she could go down to dinner with an open mind.

  Beth’s boarding house was one of the best places in town to get food. Many wanted her to turn the old place into a restaurant, but she insisted if you wanted her food, you would just have to stay the night and have dinner. It was one of Lois’ favorite times as she wasn’t much of a cook herself and had mainly subsisted on take-out in the city for the past year. There was also more than a passing thought of seeing Jeffrey again, and at least the next time, she would have some clothes on.

  Chapter 2

  Lois finally made her way downstairs and the aroma of a home cooked meal immediately greeted her as she entered the dining room. Beth had made her favorite, as she always did on the first evening of a summer trip.

  “Smells great, Miss Beth!” she chirped gleefully. Taking a seat, she smiled over at one of the men already seated at the small table. He introduced himself and Lois shook his hand. She nodded to Jeffrey, who was sitting a few chairs down the length of the table. She was unsure whether a proper introduction was even necessary at this point considering their unofficial meeting in the hall only minutes before.

  The three of them quickly fell into conversation about some of the animal sightings around the hotel, and Jeffrey’s face lit up with excitement as he told them about the polar bears he had spotted a few days before.

  “I only get to take one head home. There are some endangerment laws, but I paid a pretty penny to get the one, so I want it to be the biggest damn one I can get out there. I almost got one earlier this week, but thankfully I missed because that one was a runt compared to the two I saw today.” He paused with a confused look on his face, “They are strange creatures though. I’ve never seen an animal that acted like these bears.”

  Lois was entirely disgusted with the conversation. The idea that someone would pay money to kill something was beyond her. It was not as if he would be eating the bear, he only wanted the head as a trophy. She shook the image from her mind and decided that sleep was in order.

  Miss Beth looked at her half-full bowl with questioning eyes, and Lois shrugged. She bade the group goodnight and plodded up the stairs. Her hopes of a romance with the striking Swedish man were off the table.

  ***

  The next morning, Lois was up and at the dock before seven. The older gentlemen that had let her use his boat in previous years had died over the winter and Lois had sought other arrangements. She had talked to an old friend who suggested she contact Conner Vern. S
he knew the name from town, but had not met anyone from the locally esteemed Vern family in person. Vern Corporations owned nearly half of the business that operated in Barrow.

  Conner wasn’t able to arrange meeting with her, but keys and a schedule had been left at the boarding house for her use, so all she had to do was find the boat. Looking down at the dock number she had written down, it became clear that the boat was a lot smaller than she had hoped.

  “Well, less money on gas,” she said to herself as she looked at the small boat that was looking like a dinghy compared to all of the others docked around it. She was too eager to get out on the water for it to matter much anyway. She approached her mini boat from the dock and noticed the name, “Fate” painted across the bow. When she climbed onboard, she was pleasantly surprised. While it was old, there were many modern conveniences that she had not enjoyed in a boat before. A crocheted red blanket was neatly rolled and tied with twine, lying in the captain’s chair. She reached to unfold it, and discovered a beautiful notecard attached to the twine. It had a helpful note with basic instructions and well wishes, and at the bottom “The Verns” was signed in large scrolling letters. As she pulled the blanket tightly around her shoulders, she wondered for a moment what kind of people they were, feeling certain that members of the Vern family did not actually take the time to sign cards for placing in each of their rental boats. Starting the engine up, the purr made her smile and she was soon untying herself from the dock and taking off towards the unbroken horizon.

  The cool wind whipped in her hair and pulled the strands loose as she weaved her way around large blocks of ice that were a permanent feature in the landscape. Her eyes were always peering through the small ripples on the surface of the water, waiting to catch a glimpse of the majestic creatures she was there to see. The whales were her favorite, but there were seals and polar bears to spy on as well. She had taken her camera in hopes of getting a little work done, but the breeze distracted her from any sense of work, it was a morning for simply admiring the nature around her in reverie.