Taming Her Bears: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance

by Jade Alters

  I felt myself being picked up and placed on something warm. The luxurious furs. I embraced them, burying my arms deep into them. I slept on my stomach, my arms and legs wrapped around a rippling body of fur, my cheek resting against the velvety softness. When I woke, I was in a dark, dusty cabin that was just beginning to heat up from the fire in the wood burner. I was covered with a couple of well-worn army blankets, but no furs.

  “You should have spoken up sooner,” said Darkhorse. “You were suffering hypothermia.”

  I tried to orient myself and make sense of why there were only the two of us. “What’s going on, Darkhorse?”

  He looked at me in surprise. “Oh. Well, Roy and Lee are fishing, and Josh is chopping firewood. The owner left a nice crib, but he’s been gone for a while. Several months, I would say; probably won’t be back until spring. I found some dry cereal, if you want some, and popcorn. No butter, but there’s salt.”

  “No, I don’t mean that. You came here with no weapons. None. Not even a blade. Some of the branches the boys brought back for the lean-to were four inches thick. How did they snap them like that? How do you catch your fish? Why is it that every time I fall asleep, I feel like I’m being covered by a fur rug? And most curious of all, Darkhorse—why, when I first saw you, were your clothes rolled up in your wetsuit? Why weren’t you wearing them under your wetsuit? You were naked!”

  “Yes, I was, wasn’t I? That was inconvenient.”

  “I apologize for hitting you.”

  “No, don’t. You can’t hurt my skull. It’s too thick.”

  “So, what are you? A secret military experiment for a perfect soldier?”

  “No experiment. I’ve always been this way.”

  “What way is that?”

  He knocked some sand off the drying radio receiver and wiped at it with a cloth. “You’ll have to ask Josh.”

  I didn’t want to ask Captain Josh. I wanted my answer now, but I waited. I fumed and waited, stalking up to the window and peering out at the darkening sky and bleakly falling rain. I could have sworn that instead of two men fishing by the dock, I saw two bears. I shook my head and strained to see if I could find the captain by the wood pile. I made out a flickering shadow, which satisfied me, so I turned back to the pier. Lee and Roy were walking back to the house, a string of fish in each hand.

  Suddenly, I didn’t really want to know what they were.

  The boys started the fish frying and boiled some rice they had found in the cupboard to go with it. Captain Josh brought in a load of firewood that would keep us warm all evening. The disturbing thoughts of what they could be gave way to the more pleasant aspects of who they were to me.

  Rummaging around in the cupboards, Darkhorse had found several bottles of homemade cranberry wine—a thick, sweet alcohol that will knock the antlers off a moose. By the time we had gotten through the second bottle, we were all feeling a bit loopy. It seemed very funny to me, all of a sudden, that I was literally on a deserted island with four of the biggest heartthrobs a girl could imagine, posturing and pumping themselves up in front of me. Josh and Darkhorse were strutting around, shoulders back, heads held high, flexing their very impressive muscles. Lee kept breathing into his hands and smoothing back his hair.

  I leaned against Roy, the quietest and the most markedly different of the four. Instead of strutting around the cabin, he was sitting next to me on the bed, playing around with a Japanese puzzle box. There were several lined up on a shelf, along with a few hand-whittled objects. The cabin owner clearly liked to keep his hands busy.

  So did Roy. I leaned a little harder. He dropped his head to his chest and pushed at the puzzle pieces more intently. I grabbed his shirt just under the collar and breathed in his musky scent. It was sensory overload. My wine-addled brain burst with the full flavor of lust.

  “What did the Viking say to the state trooper when he was being arrested?” I asked him, my voice slurring.

  He shook his head. I tickled him under the chin, breathing the words huskily. “Nothing. He was too drunk to notice.” I laughed wildly as though I had made a terrific joke, and cocked one eye, trying to correct my double-vision. His expression could have been interpreted as alarm or intrigue. It made me feel wonderfully naughty, as though I was seducing a virgin.

  “Now,” I continued breathing in his ear. “If I had been that state trooper arresting a Viking, I would make sure he noticed.” I pulled off my sweater top and gave him a big smile. “Don’t you think he would notice?”

  “I think he would notice,” Roy mumbled. He dropped his puzzle to pull me into the contour of his arm. He began nuzzling my neck while his hand slid under my bra, his fingers finding the nerve endings of a nipple.

  I sighed with pleasure and turned my head to look at Lee. “You, too, Lee. I think you’re cute, too. Come over and kiss me.”

  He snuggled close on the other side, his hand unsnapping my bra, liberating my breasts for them all to see. Roy continued playing with them, holding one up to kiss its pulsing pink tip. I felt my breasts swelling, the nipples standing to full attention. “All of you. All of you. All my gorgeous men,” I moaned.

  I didn’t know what had gotten into me. I wanted them all. I was hungry and couldn’t be satisfied until I had touched and kissed and held each of them. It was as though I had been starved for love and now couldn’t get enough of it. It didn’t make sense. There was always someone available, but someone wasn’t the same as getting off like a rocket launcher.

  There was Josh, his short-cropped hair tending to curl slightly, the ocean weather already etching lines at the sides of his eyes. Even under our strange conditions, he commanded respect. He was a leader, yet around a woman, he had the sweetness of a St. Bernard puppy. He was sitting on the floor, leaning against the bed, his hand crawling deliciously between my legs. I sucked in my stomach and unzipped my pants. Grasping on both sides, he pulled them down, kissing each inch of newly exposed flesh until he came to the short-haired, golden triangle. Combing through it gently, he brushed the hair away from the opening and slipped his tongue inside. I tightened my hands into fists and felt him hold them down while he licked me.

  Meanwhile, Darkhorse had finished pulling my pants away, leaving me completely naked. As soon as I had been completely stripped, they all stopped a moment to look. The sensation of having four men gaze at me in the middle of erotic foreplay made me hotter than a fire engine. I squirmed in protest and they went back to the serious business of kissing me on the face and neck, fondling my breasts and running their hands down the insides of my arms, my sides, and curving around to cup my buttocks. They left my legs free.

  Darkhorse began kissing me at the ankles and working upwards, each kiss a lightning bolt traveling up my inner thighs to that fountain exploding with desire. He had gotten between my legs, his thumbs working ahead of him, kneading and pushing against the tender insides until my thighs opened wider, letting him in.

  Sweet wine, how you speak to me! I was rolling shamelessly on waves of bliss. My hands slid over their taut, beautiful muscles. I tasted their salty flesh, felt it press urgently against me. I gathered them to me, bringing them inside me. I came, over and over, with each man, exploding in exquisite delight.

  The night sped drunkenly on its way. One by one, we fell asleep from pure exhaustion, our arms wrapped tightly around each other. Once again, I dreamed I was covered with furs. They were the most luxurious furs imaginable, so plush, I sprawled on my stomach and pressed against the soft hides, savoring the plush feel against my nude body.

  I woke slowly, curious that my dream had carried over into consciousness. I still felt I was enveloped in a pile of furs. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, then froze, paralyzed with fear. I was in a pile on the floor with four large, wild animals. I screamed and tried to scramble to my feet, but my legs were too wobbly. I sat in the pile and screamed some more.

  The four bears woke up and looked at me sleepily. As they became fully awake, their eyes widened in absolute astonish
ment. They rolled away from me and sat back on their haunches. I waited for them to dash forward and eat me, every bone in my body rattling and quaking. Instead of lunging toward me, though, they crouched with their heads lowered and began quivering, as though ashamed. As they quivered, they groaned and whimpered, and suddenly started to shrink. Their hair disappeared. Where there had been four bears, there were now four naked men—the same naked men I had made love to the night before.

  “I am never touching wine again,” I announced firmly.

  Captain Josh hastily pulled his pants on and began stoking up the fire in the stove. “I’m sorry. We should have told you before things happened.”

  “That you’re bears?” I asked weakly.

  “That we’re shapeshifters.”

  “You shift into animals.”

  “Only bears.”

  They were clearly all very embarrassed. They put on their clothes without speaking, boiled water for coffee and cooked oatmeal with generous amounts of sugar. “We’re going to have to do something for the owner to make up for all the stuff we’re helping ourselves to,” observed Roy.

  Captain Josh scanned our meager belongings. “We’ll leave him the medical kit and the flashlights. And the Bunsen burner. We won’t need them once we get off this island.”

  None of them made eye contact. I couldn’t really be angry with them; they had been nothing except respectful and helpful. The whole naked party had been my idea, after all. I busied myself with cleaning the ransacked kitchen. “You know,” I said, putting away a box of unopened corn flakes. “We need to talk about this.”

  Captain Josh gave up pretending he had things to do and sat down at the table. “I’m sorry. We didn’t know how to tell you. Then, all this happened… if I had been in my right mind, I would have stopped it. We don’t take advantage of women. That’s not who we are.”

  “You can begin right there,” I said. “Who are you, exactly? Or what are you? Are you mutants?”

  “Mutants? No!” Josh looked offended. “My parents were both shape-shifters. It’s passed on genetically and it’s not exclusive among bears.”

  “Like Sasquatch and wolves?”

  “Among others. We are protectors. We are members of the bear clan, and our faces have been carved into the totems. Don’t you ever wonder why our military insignia is the bear and not some other animal?”

  “I’m Russian; I’m a pragmatist. Russians like bears. Alaskans like bears. Canadians like maple leaves. That’s the way the world turns.”

  “So, you like us?” asked Lee, with the eagerness of a young boy.

  I looked at him with as much annoyance as I could gather for one so guileless. “You only scared the shit out of me three times. This last time, I nearly had a heart attack.”

  Lee shook his head mournfully. “Fermented cranberries will do it to us every time. We stop thinking. We turn into bears to stay warm. We over-sleep.”

  “I saw three brown bears and a white one.”

  “I’m a grizzly,” volunteered Darkhorse, who always seemed pleased with delivering information about himself. “I’m from the Rockies, but I spent most of my growing years in Seward. The Alaskan Coast Guard broke up the Russian-Canadian-Alaskan fishing wars when I was a kid. I knew right then that these guys were bad asses, and that was where I wanted to be.”

  “I’m a brown bear,” said Lee. “I was born and raised just outside Fairbanks. It was while I was studying at the University of Alaska that I decided I wanted to become a Coast Guard. I like ice breaking.”

  “I’m a Kodiak,” Josh put in. “My people have always guarded the Aleutian waters. We helped make America safe during World War II. “

  Roy blushed. “I’m a polar bear. My ancestors came over as prospectors two hundred years ago. They settled in Nome. I’m like you, Natalia—I’m native to Alaska, but I’m not a Native.”

  Josh waved his hand in a gesture of dismissal. “We can’t all be perfect. How do you feel about us now—as a group, I mean? Are you going to choose one of us as a boyfriend, or do you just want to forget anything happened?”

  Forget? I gave a short laugh that sounded more like a bark. It was impossible to forget the juiciest night of my life—and the most shocking morning. But choose a boyfriend? In Alaskan society, it was common for a woman to have more than one boyfriend. Single men were as plentiful as snowshoe rabbits, but single women were as difficult to find as gold nuggets. A lot of single women worked out their romances on a rotating basis. When the guy she was with fucked up, he went to the back of the line and number two became available.

  I didn’t have an assembly line, yet. I had friends. I’d dated casually, but had never fallen head over heels. At twenty-three years old, I wasn’t in a hurry. I wasn’t sure an assembly line was the answer—not at any time in my life, and certainly not with these fellas. They were matched to a T in terms of good looks, fabulous builds, and quirky behaviors, and they were bonded. Brotherhood-type bonded. You get in the middle of a brotherhood bond, and you become a wedge that drives them apart. Or, you can be the glue that keeps them together.

  “No, I’m not going to forget it. I’m not going to choose, either. I don’t want to play games. I like all of you equally. If you can accept that, so can I.”

  Lee did a little dance that nearly spun him crashing into me. “Are you going to give me a wallop the way you did Darkhorse?”

  “If you deserve it.”

  “I’ll try.”

  I had a long way to go in understanding bears.

  Josh

  I was trying to ignore what she was doing to me, but she brought it up herself. That first whiff of her, driving me insane before I had shifted into my human form. And the name “Denisovich” was so familiar. It nagged at me. I remembered hearing it years ago, but I couldn’t remember why—only that the name provoked rage. I’d burst into the clearing where that poor girl was standing without a thought as to my appearance.

  Why is the flesh so weak when it’s surrounded by gristle and bone? Beginning with the first evening out in the open, when she slept at night, I kept careful watch and noticed when the cold crept in, turning her lips blue. I shifted, giving her a warm, furry rug to lay against. Longing for their own fur coats, the others had shifted, too, cradling her in their giant paws, keeping away the stealthy night that touches with deathly, frozen fingers. I knew there was a chance she would have a conscious memory of it, but we had shifted as much for her survival as our own.

  It was a relief to see everything out in the open, like getting a rotten tooth pulled. We couldn’t say how much longer we would be on the island. The radio had dried out, but there was still the matter of cleaning and checking all the parts to make sure there would be a good connection. If we fried the radio, someone would have to swim across to get help. Natalia would not be able to withstand the water, even if she rode on our backs.

  After our initial awkward, embarrassing, and finally forthright meeting, we all went to work either patrolling the perimeter or helping Roy with his jumble of wires, circuit boards, or whatever else he needed for equipment. The sky had begun clearing by the time the radio crackled with its first signs of life. This was both a blessing and an additional worry. The clear weather meant if we carried the radio outside, we would get a stronger signal. It also meant the speed boats could come back. I hurried Roy along, wanting to get the message out ahead of the slave traders.

  Roy didn’t like to be hurried. He wasn’t a communications specialist, but his hobby was radios. He loved them. He had been a short-wave operator on the North Slope before he could spell “Mississippi” correctly. He listened to the static as though it contained its own guidance system, turning dials, wriggling loose wires, until a faint voice answered his emergency signal. “Switch me to Coast Guard Cutter 739, Commander Peter Swenson.”

  More static and a rumbling voice that rode above the white noise. “Commander Swenson speaking.”

  I grabbed the mic from Roy. “Pete, this is Josh. No tim
e to explain, but we’re marooned on an island about seven miles west of where they picked up the stranded fishermen. I need you to bring the cutter.” I gave the coordinates my best shot. “And Pete. Bring a skeleton crew. Only the most trustworthy. Bring no other personnel, enlisted or non-enlisted. You are operating under my direct orders.”

  “Yes, sir,” he said. “Thirty minutes, sir. I’ll be there inside thirty minutes.”

  I didn’t doubt him. Pete wasn’t a shapeshifter, but he was a member of a very select group that knew we were. His loyalty was unshakable. His crew would be discreet and would ask no questions. The radio sputtered and went out. Its battery was weak and there was nothing available for recharging it, but it had done what we needed it to do.

  The entire time the rest of us hung around the radio, listening to the fading voice over the wire, Darkhorse had kept guard, moving restlessly from one end of the clearing to the other. I didn’t pay much attention. Darkhorse had a radar that kept him on alert twenty-four seven. Half the time, however, it was sheer paranoia. I settled on the pier and waited for my boat.

  Darkhorse joined me a few minutes later. “Do you hear something, Captain?”

  I turned my head in the direction he indicated. In the far distance, I picked up the thin wail of a four-stroke engine. “The speed boats,” I said in a low voice. “They’re returning to the burn-out.”

  “They will be searching for Natalia.”

  I clenched my teeth so tightly together, my jaws ached. “They aren’t going to make it this far. I’m going after them.”

  “I’m going with you,” said Darkhorse.

  I had already begun strolling toward the far edge of the clearing but turned to face him. “No, you’re not. I need my lieutenant out there in front, in case the boat arrives before I get back. That’s an order, sir.”