by Kim Fox
He stopped suddenly and his body went rigid. She looked at him nervously and inched closer to him while looking around, but seeing nothing.
“What is it?” she whispered.
He raised his chin and smelled the air like an animal. Did he just sniff?
“It’s okay,” he said, relaxing a bit but staring into the forest ahead. “Let’s just make it quick.”
They walked to the stables and Julius slowly opened the door, trying not to make any sound. A lone wolf howled in the distance and cold shivers erupted down Ava’s spine. All of a sudden the crowded subways and overpriced coffee shops back home didn’t sound too bad anymore.
“Don’t worry,” Julius whispered, sensing her fear. “They won’t bother us. They know better.”
They know better? This guy was full of strange comments. What could they do to a pack of wolves? He wasn’t even armed.
The sound of cows stirring in the distance came flowing down with the cool breeze. “Not again,” Julius muttered as he looked out into the dark night.
“What is it?” Ava asked feeling her heart thumping in her chest.
“Nothing to worry about,” he said calmly. “I just have to go check on the cattle. Walk around, enjoy the horses. But try not to wake them up.”
She gulped. “You’re leaving me?”
“I’ll be right back,” he said, taking her hand in his and cupping his other hand over it. “Just stay in here and you’ll be fine.”
She felt an empty feeling in the pit of her stomach but he seemed so great and she didn’t want him to think she was a spineless coward. “Okay,” she nodded. “I’ll be fine.” I hope.
One of the cows let out a bellow and Julius tensed up. “Just stay in here,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”
He closed the door of the stable and vanished, leaving Ava all alone. “I’m not alone,” she whispered to herself. “I’m with the horses and Julius is right outside.”
She tiptoed through the stables gasping and smiling at all of the horses. Most were sleeping standing up, just swaying gently with their eyes closed, but a few were lying on the hay-covered ground.
This was surreal. She couldn’t imagine a life in this rugged wilderness and being surrounded by horses every day. She’d be lying if she said it was a dream come true. This was too good that she hadn’t even thought of dreaming it up in the first place.
“I’ll come visit you guys tomorrow,” she whispered to the lumbering giants, “after you guys have had your morning coffee.”
Ava heard a sound outside the stable and she walked back to the door. Julius was back and she had a lot of questions for him. She wanted to know each one of the horses’ names, what they ate, their ages, and a million other things.
She inched the door open, careful not to wake the horses behind her, and slid out of the stable. She closed the door behind her and looked around. “Julius,” she whispered but he didn’t answer.
She gulped as she heard footsteps on the side of the building. She stepped along the wall and peeked around the corner. A huge gray wolf was staring right at her.
She whipped her head back around the corner and leaned up against the wall, frozen in her heels. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” she whispered to herself over and over again as she closed her eyes and tried to pretend that she was anywhere but right here, in the middle of the wild with a wolf about to eat her.
Open your eyes, Ava. She slowly pried her eyes open and whimpered when she saw what was standing in front of her. Two wolves, another gray one and one with a reddish tint, were a few feet away and slowly approaching her with their teeth barred and the fur on their backs raised. They didn’t look too friendly.
Ava took shallow rasping breaths and couldn’t hear anything over the sound of her heartbeat thrashing in her ears. She flattened herself against the wall in hopes that she would dissolve through it.
She wanted to call out, to scream for help, but her words were stuck in her throat for some reason and she was too dizzy and panicked to even remember the guy’s name.
The third gray wolf came trotting around the corner and joined his two friends. He lowered his head and growled at her.
Ava closed her eyes and whimpered. So this is how I die. Eaten by wolves. She wondered if they would put that on her tombstone: Ava King. Eaten by wolves.
The wolves stepped back as the ground began to rumble. She felt tiny vibrations on the ground that grew more fierce and violent with each passing second. Earthquake?
The horses woke up in the stables behind her and started neighing and whining as the rumbling increased. This can’t be good. Ava was picturing a whole pack of wolves coming to join their friends for the feast. Her.
The wolves stepped back and bolted as an enormous grizzly bear burst out from the side of the stables. Ava cringed as the terrifying bear trotted after them for a few yards and then slowed to a stop. He turned and locked his fierce green eyes on Ava.
She finally found her voice as he stalked back towards her, never taking his stunning eyes off her.
Ava opened her mouth and screamed.
five
Ava screamed until her throat burned, she screamed until the horses whined and stomped their feet behind her, she screamed until the light turned on in the log mansion that was way too far away, and she screamed until every animal in the forest must have been awake and rooting for the ferocious grizzly bear to eat her already so they could go back to sleep.
The bear paused in front of her and watched her curiously. “Julius,” she gasped when her screams dried up. “Julius, help.”
The grizzly bear cocked his head to the side as he gazed at her. His eyes looked strangely familiar. They reminded her of Julius’ impossibly green eyes. They were so beautiful, and likely the last thing in her life that she was about to see.
She gasped as the bear began to shake. At first it was a few quick tremors, as if he just got zapped with an electric shock. Then it increased to full-blown shakes and convulsions that shook the ground that she was standing on.
Her mouth dropped as the bear seemed to be collapsing in on himself. What is happening? His long brown hairs retracted into his body and his brown was quickly fading into a shade of pink. His ears shrunk in and his nose began to flatten. The crunching, tearing sounds were horrifying and made her stomach churn.
Ava’s mind was racing as it searched for answers that weren’t coming. She just watched with narrow, confused eyes and pursed lips.
The grizzly bear exploded into a naked man. She gasped when the man raised his head and it was Julius. He was standing before her with all of his hard, defined muscles in plain view.
“It’s okay, Ava,” he said, stepping forward with his hand stretched out. His body went blurry and the world started spinning. “Let me explain, it’s-”
He didn’t finish the sentence before he turned black and she fainted.
Julius scooped up his unconscious date off the ground and brought her into the stables. Aw, shifter! The date was going so well and now I fucked it all up.
He wouldn’t be surprised if she took off running and never came back when she woke up. This wasn’t exactly the way that he had planned to reveal to her that he was a shifter.
He laid her still body onto the piled stacks of hay and then stood up and flicked on a soft light that was on the wall. Julius had left his clothes by the cattle barn when he phased but he wasn’t about to leave her alone again to go get them. He snatched a woolen blanket that was used to cover the horses in the winter and tied it around his waist. That will have to do for now.
He should have known better to leave a city girl all alone like that. But those pesky wolves were back scaring the cattle and getting them all amped up again. There was no way the wolves could get into the barn but they still kept sniffing around lately, causing all kinds of shit.
Hopefully, they would be gone for the night now that Julius’ grizzly bear scent was spread around the area.
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Now to deal with her…
Ava looked so beautiful lying there peacefully with her eyes closed. She was breathing calmly with her gorgeous blonde hair spread out around her. Julius swallowed hard as his eyes trawled down her sleeping body to where her breasts were rising and falling with every breath.
The date had gone great, better than he had hoped actually. She was hotter than she looked in her profile picture and she was fun to be around as well. She made him laugh a lot and she laughed at his jokes, adding to them and playing along. He always wanted a woman that he could verbally spar with. It was no fun having a battle of wits with his brothers because they were hopelessly unarmed.
He bit his bottom lip as she stirred on the hay. She moaned and then opened her eyes slowly, smiling drunkenly at him at first and then jerking up into a sitting position. She looked around with half glazed over eyes as she held her hand up to her temple.
“What happened?” she asked.
How was Julius supposed to answer that question? She wouldn’t believe him even if he tried to tell her the truth.
“You fainted,” he whispered, squatting down to her level.
“I remember wolves,” she said, rubbing her gorgeous blue eyes. “And a bear.”
“They’re all gone,” he said, caressing her arm. “You’re safe now.”
“Did you?” she asked, jerking her head back and looking at him funny.
Oh, crap.
“That bear turned into you,” she said, looking at him in disbelief. “You were that bear.”
“Confusion is a common side effect for someone that just fainted,” he said calmly.
“Oh really,” she said, shrugging away from his touch. “Then why are you naked?”
Julius looked down past his bare chest to the woolen blanket wrapped around his bare legs. “I’m not. I’m wearing this.”
“You’re a shifter!” she said, staring at him in shock. Her fingers flew up to her parted lips. “Oh my God.”
“You know about shifters?” Julius asked. He thought his kind were a secret. Maybe things had changed while he was away, fighting overseas.
“I know what they are,” she said, stammering. “But I didn’t know that they existed, that you existed. I always thought they were like aliens or like Bigfoot, you know mythical things that conspiracy theorists like to discuss when they were too busy not getting laid.”
“I’m still a regular person,” he said, trying to keep her calm. He really enjoyed her company and didn’t want her running off his property screaming that a shifter lived on Vega Ranch. And there was also that pesky need for a mate/wife that he had to deal with.
She hesitantly reached out and grazed her fingertips over his chest as she stared at him with her mouth hanging open. “Is he in there?”
Julius’ bear stirred inside him and let out a soft purr in response to Ava’s touch. She snapped her hand back like she just got an electric shock but then her mouth curled up into a smile. “That’s so cool!” she said with wide blue eyes.
She reached out again with less hesitation this time and placed her palm on Julius’s pec. His bear rumbled and purred again and she smiled, showing off her white teeth.
Julius felt his cock start to harden under the blanket at being touched on his naked chest by the hot curvy girl.
“You’re not freaked out?” he asked, taking her wrist and holding her hand against him as his bear spoke to her.
She just shook her head and smiled as she stared at his chest. “He’s talking to me.”
“He is.”
“Thank you for saving me from the wolves,” she whispered to his inner animal. “You’re my hero.”
“Well, technically it was me too,” Julius said feeling a tinge of jealousy.
Her brilliant blue eyes slid up from his chest and met his. “My hero,” she whispered.
She looked so beautiful sitting there that he just couldn’t resist any longer. He leaned in and kissed her. She moaned into his mouth and the sexy sound made his dick harden under the blanket.
Her eyes were back to being glazed over when he finally pulled away. She licked her lips and let out a soft laugh as she looked at him with a drunken lust.
She tasted delicious and he wanted more. Ava swallowed as she raked her eyes down his bare chest to his hard abs. “Are you the only one who gets to be naked?” she asked with a grin.
Julius felt his heart swell up and his dick harden to the point of aching. He slid his hands under her shirt, feeling her soft smooth skin. She raised her hands in the air and grinned at him.
He gripped the shirt and pulled it off her in one swift movement. Her breasts were popping out of her white lacy bra and he didn’t have the willpower to take one extra half second to unhook the clasp and free them. He had to kiss them immediately. He cupped the lacy material in his hands and kissed the top of her breasts.
She moaned as she threaded her fingers through his hair and pulled his face closer to her chest. Ava’s hair tumbled onto the sides of his face, tickling his cheeks and making him stir with desire.
He gently pulled down her bra revealing her hard pink nipples. He sucked on them greedily, stopping only to give them soft kisses and to explore the curves of her perfect breasts.
Julius could have spent hours on her tits but she got impatient and laid back down on the straw. Her breasts were heaving under her heavy breathing and the sight under the soft light of the lamp was so erotic that he took a mental picture that he would remember forever.
“I’ll get a blanket to put under you,” he said. The hay must have been scratchy and uncomfortable for her and he wanted this night to be absolutely perfect, for both of them, but especially for her.
She shook her head. “I’ve always wanted to have sex in a barn,” she said. “I like it.”
He grinned as he leaned forward, cupped her breasts and kissed her soft stomach. This was a real woman, with a real woman’s body. He loved a thick, full girl that he could grab a hold of and really go to town on and not feel like he was going to snap her in two.
“What’s under the blanket, cowboy?” she asked with a smirk on her soft lips.
Julius grinned. “The beast.”
Ava swayed her hips on the haystack as a horse neighed further down in one of the stables. “I want to see the beast,” she said, biting her lip.
“He’s awoken.”
“Perfect.”
Julius smiled as he stood up and unhooked the blanket. He loved a girl who wasn’t timid and shy in the bedroom, or, well, a barn in this case, and really went for what she wanted. This Ava was constantly surprising him.
Her eyes fell from his abs to his hard cock as he let the scratchy blanket fall to the floor. A small whine escaped her throat as she stared.
“You weren’t lying when you called him a beast,” she said, not taking her eyes off it. Julius chuckled. He was well hung and he knew it. Enough girls over the years had told him that.
He dropped to a knee in front of her and slowly slipped off her heels, one by one. He kissed each ankle softly and then reached up for her belt. Her breath froze and she stiffened as he unbuckled her belt and then unzipped her jeans.
Ava lifted her hips off the hay stack and Julius slid her jeans down her full curvy legs. “Goddamn,” he muttered to himself as he took in her soft milky white legs. This girl was a dream come true. He grabbed her knees and gently spread her legs apart. Only her lacy black panties were left but they looked so good on her that he couldn’t bear to take them off.
Her breathing stopped and she closed her eyes as he leaned forward and planted a gentle wet kiss on her sex. “Mmmmm,” she moaned, making his dick ache.
He wanted to fuck her desperately but he needed to taste her first. She smelled divine and he wanted to see if she tasted equally as good.
She hissed a short breath as he slid a finger under the elastic of her panties and dragged it over her wet lips. He pulled her panties to the side, exposing her mound and gobbled up an
eyeful before leaning forward.
Her back arched and she cried out loud as he touched his tongue to her hole and slid it up her moist lips to her hard clit at the top. His bear grumbled in his chest and Julius’ pulse raced. He was done with being gentle. He couldn’t restrain himself any longer. He plunged his tongue into her wet tunnel and devoured her pussy with ravenous lips and a greedy tongue.
She moaned and massaged her tits as he worked, tasting her and drinking up her sweet juices. She tasted as beautiful as she looked and he licked her until she was biting her bottom lip and trying to pull him up while begging for him to fuck her.
Julius got up to his knees and stroked his hard cock as Ava swayed her hips before him. He slipped his fingers into the waistband of her black panties and slid them down her creamy thighs.
She spread her legs as he climbed over her with his heart pounding. He glided inside of her pussy and grunted at her tightness. His breaths were short and tight as he drove his strong hips into her over and over again.
“Your dick is so big,” she moaned in what sounded like a complaint, but the look on her face betrayed her tone. The look was anything but a complaint.
“I’ve been thinking about fucking you since the first time I saw your picture online,” he growled into her ear. And it was the truth. He couldn’t get her curvy body out of his mind.
“You didn’t disappoint, Ava,” he said as he fucked her. “Your pussy is perfect. Your tits are beautiful.”
She slid her hands up his flexed arms and whimpered as he thrust into her. “Keep whimpering like that,” he said between heavy breaths. “It’s driving me crazy. You’re driving me crazy.”
She rolled her head from side to side on the hay as she panted. Julius licked his lips and kissed her. All night with this beauty wouldn’t have been enough, but he would never last all night. Not with a girl this smoking hot.
“I’m going to fuck you harder now,” he said in a deep raspy voice. “I’m going to fuck you until your tits are bouncing up and down. Are you ready for it?”