ROMANCE: NAVY SEAL ROMANCE: Morning After (Military Bad Boy Pregnancy Romance Collection) (New Adult Alpha Male Paranormal Short Stories Collection)

by Silver Ocean Publishing

  Michael, as the only Alpha in his clan, made full use of it. He had his pick of the litter—whichever female he wanted, he got. There were seven of them in total, each a worthy candidate to carry on the clan line. In fact, it would have been beneficial if he bred each of the seven full of cubs, but it was so dull to him.

  If and when he chose to meet with one of the females, they turned around and submissively got on their hands and knees, hardly letting Michael see their beautiful, voluptuous bodies, let alone their faces. He would rut into them like an animal, with all of the greed of an Alpha, and he would finish shortly after. It was fun, in a sense, but it was nothing like the thrill he craved.

  The forest at the edge of the human settlement was thickest, they thought it would keep out the bears. Their theory was only partially true. Sure, it acted as a sort of boundary line to warn bears, but that didn’t mean a starving bear wouldn’t wander farther. Michael, by all accounts, was a starving bear.

  The winter had been hard on his clan, with three more bears dying and the rest of them half-starved. He wore only his deerskin pants and tanned hide boots, and he knew he would stand out in the patches of buildings that humans liked to call a town. He stood at the edge of the trees, contemplating what his best option was. He could smell food nearby if he turned his nose into the wind, the scents of a few humans and of the food they had brought with them.

  He followed the scent, strong nose raised in the air. He broke through the trees into a light clearing, spotting the humans immediately. There were three girls, two of which were so skinny they looked unhealthy. The third was plump, but beautifully so. She had a roundness to her cheeks and her entire being that Michael hadn’t had the luxury of seeing for years. The women of his clan were all so skinny, he couldn’t help but step forward, yearning to hold the girl in his arms.

  One of the skinny girls screamed when he stepped out of the woods, and Michael froze.

  “A freak!” she screeched. Her tone was so high-pitched that it hurt Michael’s ears. He could imagine how he looked to three human girls, his wild, curly hair out of control, and each of his ribs visible. He curled his lip at the girls, baring his pointed fangs, but that only seemed to make them scream louder.

  “He’s a bear!” the second one yelled. She bolted upright, and her second friend followed.

  The plump girl, the one Michael had his eyes on, was staring at him with wide, but curious orbs. Michael backed away from the three, though kept his eyes on the bigger girl. The three of them had yet to run, however, the third girl began to cautiously rise to her feet. She maintained eye contact with Michael as she reached down, grabbing a plate of the food. Michael wondered what the three of them had been doing in the heaviest part of the forest eating without any sort of self-defense.

  “Lindsay!” one of the two hissed. “What are you doing?”

  “Guys,” Lindsay said, continuing to keep her level green eyes on Michael’s own brown ones, “he’s scared, and he’s hungry, look at him.” Her voice was low, a tone that fell easily upon Michael’s ears rather than the other girls’ squeals.

  “Lindsay, you can’t feed a bear just because he’s hungry!” one said. “He’ll keep coming back for more!”

  “And what’s wrong with that?” Lindsay asked. She was finally a few steps away from Michael, holding the plate out to him. He had yet to say anything. “Are you hungry?”

  Michael nodded. Lindsay’s beautiful smile grew, and normally Michael would have taken a show of teeth as a threatening display, but this human had exactly zero fangs. Each of her teeth were flat or rounded, and he longed to run his tongue across them, to experience that feeling for himself. Lindsay extended the plate of food, and Michael grabbed a handful of the contents. It was all sustenance that he had never seen before, a white mash that was sweet and creamy, and little green vegetables. There was more, but he stuck to the mash and the vegetables. He was used to eating what small game he could catch, and berries if the season had been good. Change was welcome.

  Michael sniffed at Lindsay as he ate, looking over her and admiring each of her qualities. Her cheekbones, though hidden behind a nice protection of baby fat, were prominent and beautiful, highlighting her eyes. She had full, kissable lips, and what Michael wouldn’t give to do just that.

  He stepped closer, and a flash of fear seemed to pass through Lindsay’s eyes. Michael could smell it now, pouring off of her body in waves. He knocked the girl’s plate aside, and then grabbed her by the shoulders. The girl let out a little scream of surprise, but Michael swallowed it down with his own mouth pressed against hers. He hungrily searched her mouth, pressing his tongue inside of that wet cavity and seeking out every place he could reach.

  The girl pushed him away shortly after, her green eyes wide and her cheeks stained a marvelous shade of red. It almost mirrored the synthetic color of her hair, and it looked absolutely amazing on her. Michael reached forward, and set his hand on Lindsay’s cheek. Her friends watched in awe, and with some touch of fear, wondering if Michael was going to do anything else.

  Instead of doing what he wanted to do, claiming the girl right then and there, he simply kept his hand on her cheek.

  “Thank you,” he said. He pulled his hand away after a moment, deciding to place it back at his side. “You’re the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Bear or not, you’re amazing,”

  “Thank you,” Lindsay quietly murmured.

  Michael backed away from her and she did the same, retreating back towards her friends. Michael found comfort as well, returning to the woods where he truly belonged.

  —

  That night, Michael sat at the small bonfire, nestled amongst a few females that had come begging to him, looking desperately for his attention. They had brought him offerings of food, but after what the human had done, he couldn’t be bothered with these skinny bear girls. He longed for them to be fuller, more rounded. He longed for something that he could grab onto and squeeze, tits that would be ripe for his mouth and his hands, greedy as a child’s.

  “What’s wrong, Michael?” one female asked. Her name was Jessie. She was young, and had once been beautiful. The famine had hit her just as hard as the others. She dropped her hand between Michael’s thighs, and began to palm at his crotch.

  He thought about throwing the girl onto her belly, pushing into her and listening to each of her skewed moans. The thoughts did nothing for him. He pushed Jessie away with a growl. She took the hint, and retreated to the other side of the bonfire. The light from the flames lit the hollowness in her cheeks, reminding Michael just how hard his clan had had it.

  “I didn’t mean to make you angry,” she said. She lowered her head, and presented the back of her neck for Michael, a sign of clear submission. “You’re never usually so quiet and broody.”

  Michael grunted. “I was thinking,” he said.

  Jessie’s eyes lit up with curiosity. She was a black bear, it was in her nature to be more curious than most of the other bears in their clan. “What were you thinking about?” she asked.

  Michael sighed, wondering where he could begin. He hardly understood the concept that humans called love, and he doubted that an uneducated, young bear would, either. “It’s nothing that you would understand,” he said.

  Jessie seemed hurt, her full lips pressing up into a pout. Sensing that Michael’s bad mood had dissipated, she slinked closer to him, approaching him on her hands and knees. Her hips swayed as she moved, and her shoulders were drawn together to accentuate the curvature of her chest.

  “You could explain it to me,” she murmured. Her voice had pitched down low, and she let out a quiet rumble.

  Michael returned the noise, letting her know that she was okay to approach him again. His foul mood had been swept away like the smoke from the fire, each of his thoughts instead consumed by the girl who had fire in each lock of her hair.

  “I met someone in the forest,” he mused. Jessie was only a few inches from him now, her back to the fire. Sh
e put her lithe hands on Michael’s knees, and gave them a little squeeze. “She was beautiful.”

  “Who was she?” Jessie asked.

  Michael curled his nose. He knew that he couldn’t tell a bear that he had encountered a human in the forest. The entire clan would have to move away to maintain their safety. “I think she was another bear,” he lied. “She was healthy, with red hair and green eyes.”

  “Like your hair?” Jessie pried. She had wiggled herself between Michael’s legs, and Michael let his mind wander. Instead of the skinny bear pressed between his thighs, it was Lindsay. She was looking up at him with those gorgeous, emerald eyes, clouded by lust and nearly unseeing. She would become the center of his world.

  Jessie reached out, and began to palm Michael through his pants again. That time, he didn’t push her away. He pretended that the skinny hand was replaced by strong fingers, of which the bones were barely visible. With Jessie, he could see each of her knuckles, incredibly defined. Michael didn’t think that such skinny women would be able to bear his cubs healthily.

  “In a way,” Michael said. “It was redder, like fire when it licks at the base of a tree.” He leaned back, and Jessie leaned forward. She pressed her lips against Michael’s chest, lavishing the strong muscles there with attention. “Her eyes were like the spring grass, bright green and healthy.”

  “Was she from a different clan?” Jessie asked. She had her fingers hooked into the hemline of Michael’s deerskin pants, and began to shimmy them down his hips. He wasn’t making her job any easier—in fact, he was trying to make it as difficult on the girl as possible.

  “I think so,” Michael muttered. He closed his eyes for a while, and then opened them to look up at the sky. The air was clear and crisp, and he could easily see every star. Straight above him, the moon had risen, and was a gorgeous white that lit up everything around him. The brown of Jessie’s hair was illuminated by it, and before she could even think about touching him, Michael shoved her away.

  He stood up, and raked his fingers through his hair. “Not you,” he said.

  Jessie looked up at him with hurt eyes, but eventually nodded. She stood as well, and pressed a little kiss to Michael’s cheek. With that, she turned and skittered away like a frightened mouse. Michael covered his mouth with his hand, and wondered what exactly he had just done.

  He had turned away a female in his clan, claiming that it was for another female in another clan. He knew his own lie, though. Lindsay was a human. She would never be able to breed and have a bear cub, their DNA was too incompatible. Despite having human forms, they were all truly bears, through and through.

  Michael cursed himself, and turned to slam his fist against the nearest tree. He was so stupid, thinking that he could ever be with a human. She was all he wanted, though. He tried to convince himself, as he began walking, that it was to fulfill a curiosity deep within him. He headed down the path that he had taken earlier that day, following his instincts back to the edge of the forest. It was a long walk, so he sped up his pace to a short run. If he met Lindsay again, he would only be doing it to serve a carnal desire.

  He knew that he could never be with a human, he knew that he needed to be with a bear. He, first and foremost, as an Alpha, needed to be concerned about the state of his clan. The preservation of the clan and of his life were his only two goals in life. As he broke through the last little clearing of trees and into the densely wooded boundary, he stopped. He wasn’t in the same area as before, and he turned his nose up to the sky. He could still smell Lindsay—only because her scent had been so strong, not because it had been lingering in his mind all day.

  Michael turned in the direction that Lindsay’s scent was strongest, and closely followed it. He narrowly avoided running into trees sometimes, so intent on finding her again. He wondered briefly if she had been a human without a home, the kind that tried to often to join bear clans, but died off before a year had passed. If Lindsay were that type of human, if he could bring her back with him, he would protect her with his life. He would keep her mouth full of food and her belly full of cubs—despite that it would never happen.

  After an hour’s trudge through the forest, Michael found the spot where he had met the girl just earlier that day. He looked around for any trace of her or her friends, but there was none. Carefully, Michael sat down on the ground. He leaned his back against a rough and scratchy tree, closing his eyes with a little sigh. He had been foolish traveling that far for a single human that might not remember who he was in a few days. Certainly he hadn’t made as big of an impact on her as she had on him.

  Michael felt as though he were under a spell from some cruel witch, who wanted nothing more than to curse Michael. He’d never had good luck to start, but now that he had met Lindsay, it was even worse. He closed his eyes as he leaned back, listening to the sounds of the night. It was calming to be away from other bears and the stress that came with being an Alpha.

  When he was far away from them, he could close his eyes and pretend that none of it was real. He could imagine that he wasn’t the last of his kind, and that it didn’t depend on him to continue the bloodline. Michael grinned as he let his imagination run rampant, thinking about all of the things that he could do if he were a human. He would be the worst kind, the type that didn’t care about anything else. He would live for himself and himself alone.

  And maybe for a specific woman.

  He sighed at the thought, and ran a hand through his hair. He had been stupid to travel out so far from his den just in the hope of seeing her again. He didn’t blame himself too much, he honestly couldn’t have helped it. What if he hadn’t used all of that time and energy, and missed her? He amused himself with the thought that maybe Lindsay was out and about at night, seeking Michael out.

  A god seemed to shine on him, for a branch snapped in front of him. Michael stood up immediately, rearing for a fight and ready to protect himself. It wasn’t rare that bears were attacked by humans for daring to intrude on human territory.

  “Woah, woah, calm down!” the human cried. She had her hands held out in front of her, and Michael paused, his eyes wide.

  He immediately calmed down, taking in the fire-red hair and the bright green eyes. He could hardly see her, but the moon perfectly illuminated her eyes, just a simple filtering through the canopy of leaves above them. Michael allowed himself to stare at Lindsay for a long time before he surged forward and hugged her. She squeaked in surprise, and hesitantly wrapped her warm arms around him. Being next to her reminded Michael of when he was a baby, when he would snuggle up to his mother with his siblings.

  Michael tightened his arms around Lindsay, and pressed his nose against her neck. She wore a light misting of a scent that he didn’t recognize. It was a sweet smell, like the ripest berries or fruits. Underneath the artificial smells, Michael took in a whiff of simply Lindsay. She smelled just as amazing as she had that morning, and Michael nuzzled closer to her.

  “Why are you here?” he asked, not moving his head from where it was buried in the crook of her neck. “I thought you would have returned to your home by now.”

  “I was at home,” Lindsay said. “I came back out because I thought that maybe you would be here.” Her hands trailed up and down Michael’s spine, feeling each of the bumps in his spine and the ridges between his ribs.

  “You came out here for me?” Michael asked. His eyes were wide as he pulled away from Lindsay, looking her up and down. “Why did you do that?” he asked. “It’s dangerous out here, there could have been another bear, or a crazy human, or something.” He furrowed his eyebrows at Lindsay. She was dressed in a loose shirt and a pair of fluffy, soft pants. “Were you asleep before this?”

  “Yes,” Lindsay said with a slightly awkward laugh. “Well, yes and no. I was getting ready to sleep, but I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

  Michael smiled at Lindsay, pressing a hand against her cheek and caressing the cheekbone hidden under delicate skin. Her skin was smooth
like a child’s, as though she had absolutely no scars or even tiny lines.

  “I was thinking about you, too,” he said with a smile. “I couldn’t think about anything or anybody else.”

  “So you came out here to meet me?” Lindsay asked.

  Michael nodded with a grin. “That’s exactly why I came out here,” he said. “Is that why you came out here?”

  “Yes,” Lindsay replied.

  Michael leaned forward, and Lindsay met him halfway. Their lips met in a sweet touch, far calmer and less fervent than the one they had shared earlier that day. Michael felt each of the hairs on his arms stand on end, and could feel the back of his neck spark alight with shivers. Electricity coursed through his body, numbing the tips of his fingers and all the way to his toes.

  Lindsay pulled away after a moment, and pushed Michael’s curly hair away from his forehead. She pressed a kiss there, too. Michael wrapped his arms around Lindsay again, pulling the woman against his body. It was a crushing sort of force, but not one that he minded.

  “I can’t believe you came out here for me,” he said. He had a dumb smile on his face, and when he got the opportunity, he kissed Lindsay again. His kiss was harder, and with each time he pressed their lips together, he increased the pressure.

  After what had to have been the fourth or fifth short kiss, Michael made the next one last longer. Their lips slid together, one pair moving against the other like a machine in perfect tandem. Michael peeked his tongue out of his mouth, and began to press it against Lindsay’s lips, seeking entrance to her mouth. She seemed hesitant at first, but began to open her mouth gradually for Michael.

  He dipped his tongue into her mouth as he was granted access, trying to take it slow with the girl. Michael doubted that humans were like bears, and no doubt Lindsay would not be okay with him taking her right then and there. As much as he wanted to, he forced himself to be patient. He had to treat it like hunting, the calmer he was and the more he waited, the better his prize would be.