by Casey Elliot
He hoped she was stupid enough not to notice the wound on his shoulder or how extremely convenient it was for him to be there. He didn’t think there would be enough words in his vocabulary to explain that.
He went back to the scene where he killed the men who kidnapped her, but the girl was nowhere to be found. He looked around, frowning, as he saw that there were only two bodies on the ground instead of three.
Lucas cursed. That guy was probably still alive and looking for the girl as well. He needed to take him out fast, preferably before he finds her, but in his condition, he wouldn’t be able to transform. He wasn’t healing as fast as he usually did because he was still exhausted from the competition earlier, but he took a deep breath through clenched teeth and willed himself to bear with it. Exposing their secret was not an option.
The wolves howled once more and Lucas cursed, as he completely forgot about them during the scuffle. The wolves added another complication he’d rather not have when he wasn’t at his one hundred per cent best. Now, he really had to find her, soon.
Thankfully, she didn’t get too far, spotting her almost immediately as he turned right on a fork on the road. She was sitting on a fallen log and massaging her ankle.
‘She probably sprained it,’ Lucas thought, as he watched her. He grabbed a few branches and rustled the leaves off, making her look apprehensively in his general direction. He shook it some more, purposely making a lot of noise before slowly emerging from his spot, her eyes widening as she caught sight of him.
“Hey, what are you doing out here? Lucas asked, furrowing his brows, pretending to be slightly curious and annoyed at finding her here. She didn’t answer and continued to stare at him, so he popped one of his eyebrows next, and that snapped her out of her trance.
‘She’s quite the looker,’ Lucas mused, staring at her with veiled interest. He had been with a fair number of women before, all of whom were really beautiful, but this girl was on a whole other level.
She was stunning with her long black hair reaching past her waist and contrasting with her creamy white skin that looked supple and soft to touch. Her brown eyes looked so expressive and deep that he felt like he could drown just by looking into them.
She walked toward him and placed her hand on her arm, her eyes shining with fright.
“Oh please, help me! There were these men who took me here while I was asleep and they were about to rape me, but then there was this bear or something and,” Justine couldn’t continue narrating to this stranger the gruesome details of what happened, and she burst into tears, still holding onto him.
Lucas grimaced, but rubbed Justine’s back in an effort to comfort her. She settled down a bit after a few moments, and Lucas looked at her directly in the eye.
“It’s not safe here. I heard wolves coming closer and we have to get out of here, okay?” he said, and Justine nodded. He took her hand and pulled her up to her feet and over to the path out of there. Justine frowned as she remembered that Lucas never told her his name, how he got there, or anything.
She opened her mouth to ask when something grabbed her from behind, pulling her away from Lucas. She gasped and tried to get away, but the arm holding her to the guy’s chest was too strong and she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the tip of the knife pointed right at her face.
Lucas glared at the man whom he hadn’t managed to kill earlier, as he mentally berated himself for losing his guard. The guy never should’ve been able to sneak up on him like that, and it was a very elementary mistake. The man’s eyes were crazed, as he tightened his grip around Justine, shuffling his feet as he looked at Lucas, and then to Justine and then everywhere else.
“You! Get me out of here or I’ll kill her! It doesn’t matter to me anymore, I just want to get out!” the man cried hysterically and Lucas raised his arm calmly, attempting to placate the individual.
“Calm down” Lucas said, but that made the man point the knife threateningly at him, his hands shaking violently.
“No! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill her if you don’t lead me out of this place!” he cried, walking backward and pulling Justine with her.
Lucas saw some rustling in the bushes and, by then, he knew it was too late. A grey wolf jumped out from the side, snapping at the guy’s arm and making him scream. He let go of Justine and tried swinging his arm to get the wolf off, but to no avail. He dropped the knife and Lucas immediately lunged for it before it hit the ground, then he spun around quickly, putting Justine behind his back as he adjusted his stance and readied himself for an attack.
“If I don’t look like I can handle this, do me a favor and run!” Lucas urged Justine, and she didn’t have time to reply when a wolf lunged up at Lucas. He managed to kick it in the face before turning to another wolf that jumped up to charge him. He caught it by its snout, crushing it closed with one hand, as he stabbed the knife to its jugular.
Justine had jumped away as soon as the second wolf had charged at Lucas, and she watched, horrified as three wolves attacked Lucas at once, one of them biting at his arm and not letting go, one on his leg, and the other on his shoulder making Lucas yelp. Lucas kicked the wolf on his leg off before grabbing the one on his back and throwing him to a tree. He grabbed the wolf’s stomach and wrenched him off, removing its hold on his arm before slamming it on the ground and stomping on its ribs, killing it.
More and more wolves emerged, most of them focusing on attacking Lucas, and Justine managed to find a long branch she used as a weapon to keep one or two wolves away. She swung the weapon haphazardly, so much so that she wasn’t hitting anything, and so one wolf managed to sink its teeth into the tip of the branch and yank it away from her, the action pulling her to the ground. Justine’s eyes widened as the wolves surrounded her, and her eyes darted around for anything to help her out.
She heard Lucas yell into the heavens and she turned her head, only to gasp at what she saw.
Lucas had his teeth bared as he raised his head up into the sky, his clothes ripped and cut off in some parts, revealing scratches and bite marks caked with blood. Slowly, the hair on his head grew in length, his skin growing hair at an accelerated rate, and he seemed to be growing bigger and taller. His ears moved to the top of his head as his mouth elongated into a short snout and his face became covered with hair.
Time seemed to have stopped for Justine at that moment, as she couldn’t believe her eyes.
She had just watched a man transform… into a bear.
Fully transformed, Lucas used his body to slam into the wolves and make quick work of their bodies by using his claws to slash at their stomachs, swiping at their heads whenever they jumped and got too close, sometimes catching the head and forcefully prying their mouths open and breaking their jaws.
He made quick work of them, his kills so brutal that some of the wolves ended up running away. There was nothing but blood and carnage all around by the time he dropped the last wolf into the ground. He turned his whole body toward Justine and she flinched, thinking he was going to kill her next.
“Hey,” a voice said, and Justine snapped her eyes open, looking straight into Lucas’ green-blue eyes before automatically going down to his naked, well-sculpted chest and everything beneath it.
She took a breath, then another, and then her eyes rolled to the back of her head as she fainted.
*****
Justine moaned before she opened her eyes, realizing that Lucas was carrying her bridal style. He peeked down at her before looking ahead again, and he adjusted his hold on her.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. You can put me down now,” Justine said, and Lucas shook his head, tightening his grip on her back.
“Unless you want to scream at my junk again, I’m not going let you down just yet,” he said, raising his eyebrow at her in amusement, and Justine blushed as she remembered what happened.
“Well, it’s not like I see something like that every day,” she muttered, making Lucas snort.
“As opposed to seeing me turn into
a bear and rip everything into shreds?” he said casually, and Justine froze before raising her eyes to look at him. He shrugged, already knowing what she was thinking. “It’s not like we could pretend it didn’t happen. We both know why I had to. All I’m asking is you don’t say anything about it,” he said.
“You seem awfully level-headed about my knowing such a huge secret,” she observed.
“Like I said, there’s no point,” they had finally reached the exit of the forest and Lucas walked over to his bike, placing Justine down on the seat. She turned her head away quickly, as Lucas walked over to the compartment of his bike and took out a pair of jeans and a shirt and started to put them on.
“Do you always keep extra clothes with you?” she asked.
“I never really know when I need to transform on the fly, so it’s a necessity,” he replied.
Once he was done, he asked her for directions to her place and they set off, Lucas giving her his helmet and his jacket to keep her warm as they drove off. What felt like minutes of travel to Justine was actually a half an hour’s drive. She had been quite content to lean her head on his back, feeling his warmth through his shirt with her arms wrapped around his waist.
Lucas whistled low as he stopped his bike in front of Justine’s place and took his helmet off to admire her residence. He helped Justine take her helmet off and walked her to her front door, and that’s when she realized that she hadn’t thanked him yet.
“Would you like to come inside? I can fix you a burger or something,” Justine offered lamely, and Lucas smiled.
“Aren’t you even scared of me after you saw what I could become?” he asked. She bit her lip and looked down on the ground, embarrassed.
“To be honest, I don’t know what to think about you having this weird power to turn into some kind of were-bear, but… I also know that if you were going to hurt me, you would’ve done that already. Heck, I doubt you’d have saved me in the first place,” she said softly. Lucas’ smile wiped off his face and he nodded, all trace of humor gone.
Justine opened the door and Lucas was just as amazed at the interior of her house as he was on the exterior of it. Her place looked larger inside, and he suddenly felt inferior compared to her obviously well-off lifestyle.
“Where’s the rest of the folks?” Lucas asked, and she shook her head.
“My parents died when I was young, and the butler who took care of me died when I was in high school. I’ve lived alone since then,” she replied. She waved her hand, gesturing at him to follow her into the kitchen. She opened the fridge and took out a lot of food and ingredients, a couple of them were in danger of toppling over, so Lucas went and took them off of her hands and placed them onto the counter. She smiled gratefully at him before grabbing an apron off the hangers and put it on before getting to work.
Lucas watched; enthralled as she cooked with such efficiency and finesse, a stark contrast from the spoiled, never-lifted-a-finger-in-her-life-to-work person that she put on. In almost no time at all, she had molded and fried burgers from scratch, even managing to make a small serving of baked potatoes while she was at it.
“You’re amazing,” he whispered, and Justine stuck her tongue out at him.
“Shut up and eat, you big lug,” she said, pretending to be annoyed.
They ate their fill, and since Lucas wasn’t much for conversation, Justine did most of the talking. It was surprising enough for her that Lucas was paying attention to every word she said, but she wasn’t expecting him to open up as much as he was opening up to her now.
“Don’t you get lonely living here by yourself?” Lucas asked. Justine’s mirth slipped off and she gathered up the plates and put them in the sink, scrubbing them so she didn’t have to look at him. Lucas frowned.
“I got used to it, I guess. I mean, I’ve spent so much time being alone that it’s sort of a big deal for me whenever I go out to clubs and treat everyone in there like I know them all so personally. But,” she placed the dish she was scrubbing back in the sink and turned back to him, her eyes looking so sad and so beautiful that it made his breath catch in his throat like a hiccup. “Just because I’m used to being alone doesn’t mean I don’t get lonely,” she whispered.
He got up from his seat and approached her slowly, placing his arms on either side of her as he leaned in, their breaths tickling each other’s faces.
“You don’t have to be lonely anymore,” he whispered before taking her lips in his in a searing kiss. Her hands sneaked up to his neck, still dripping with soapy water. He twitched as the drops fell down his back, and he grabbed both of her hands off his neck and wiped them on his shirt before grabbing her by the waist and lifting her up. Their tongues continued to fight for control as he turned and placed her on top of the counter, his hand climbing up from her waist and holding her breasts, squeezing it lightly until she moaned in his mouth.
He pulled away from her, taking the ends of his shirt in his hands and pulling it over his head. She pushed the straps of her dress off her shoulder before pulling one arm out of the hole, and then the other, making Lucas groan as he saw that she wasn’t wearing any bra. He helped pull the garment off of her before putting one nipple in his mouth and sucking hard. She grasped his head and pulled at his hair, as he mercilessly teased her breasts with his mouth and tongue, his fingers pinching and pulling at the other until she felt herself shaking with pleasure.
“Aren’t we… moving too fast?” Justine whispered, a part of her trying to think rationally. Lucas let her nipple go with a pop before staring at her with heated eyes.
“Do you want me to stop?” he asked, his voice low and seductive. She swallowed and shook her head, and it was all the answer he needed.
He popped the buttons on his jeans and grabbed her by her ass to pull her by the edge of the counter. He groaned as he placed his fingers on her wet heat before putting it to one side, exposing her core to him. He licked his lips hungrily and seemed to contemplate whether to eat her pussy first, but Justine made the decision for him by leaning forward and pulling at his jeans, snaking her hand inside and grabbing hold of his dick, making him hiss. She stroked him a couple of times before she pulled him out completely, positioning him at her entrance.
Lucas didn’t need any further instruction, and he didn’t give Justine much warning. He buried himself inside of her completely in full stroke. She had to lie down on her back and let the tremors of her body take over.
He pumped into her relentlessly. Feeling every inch of her squeezing him tight after each stroke, he knew he wasn’t going to last long. He moved his hand down and pinched her clit, and she cried out as her orgasm pulsated through her. He groaned as her walls clenched around him, and he released his seed inside of her, thrusting inside her over and over until she took every last drop. He collapsed on top of her, both of them breathing heavily as she cradled him, his head lying on her breasts.
They lay like this for a moment before Lucas lifted his head and looked at her with hooded eyes.
“I think I want you again,” he said, and Justine shivered.
“So, take me,” she replied, and he wasted no time in picking her up and doing just that.
*****
Justine woke up feeling deliciously sore and warm the next morning, and she smiled as she recounted the sexy things she and Lucas did in the kitchen… then the floor… then her bed, twice… then the shower… and finally in bed again as he took her from behind. He was practically insatiable, and she let him use her over and over, coming over and inside of her, and it felt incredible.
She didn’t regret a thing that happened between them, but she was worried this was just a one-time thing, despite their multiple performances last night. She didn’t know how she’d feel if it was.
She turned to her side to look at him and she was startled to find him already awake and staring at her sleepily. He pulled her closer to him and he placed a sweet kiss on her forehead before placing his forehead to hers, staring deeply in her eyes.<
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“Hey,” he said, and she smiled.
“Hey…,” she trailed off and her eyes widened as she realized something very important. “We’ve had sex for about a million times, and I still don’t know what your name is,” she said.
Lucas blinked before laughing loudly, realizing she was right. She let him laugh his heart out before glaring at him.
“Lucas. My name’s Lucas, beautiful,” he said.
“My name’s not beautiful. It’s Justine,” she said, and Lucas nodded, liking the sound of her name. “I don’t want to ruin the moment but… I’d really like to know where we stand now,” she said.
Lucas would be lying if he said he wasn’t expecting her to ask that question, but he wasn’t afraid to answer it. He was terrified of how she’ll react, though.
‘Oh well.’ Lucas thought. ‘In for a penny, in for a pound.’
“I want you,” he said, and he watched as Justine’s face broke into a smile. He paused, staring at her smiling face before he continued. “I want you as my mate,” he completed, and she frowned, not comprehending. “You’re forgetting that I can turn into a bear. It’s not just me who can do that. We’re a pack of bear-shifters.”
“Okay, hang on,” she said, sitting up and wrapping the sheets around herself as she looked at Lucas seriously. “You need to give me a play by play because I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Lucas sighed and began to tell her everything about himself and his clan, and his heart clenched painfully in his chest, as he watched Justine’s face grow more and more troubled.
“I need to think about this first,” she said finally, and he bowed his head, already knowing she wasn’t going to accept. Justine frowned at the hopeless look on his face and she cradled his head with both of her hands to look her straight in the eye. “I’m not saying ‘No’, Lucas. I’m just saying I want to think about it, okay?”