by Bianca D’Arc
She fell silent. She didn’t really want to get into all that tonight. She’d opened up to Bob more than she’d ever opened up to anyone on such short acquaintance. Feeling vulnerable, she decided she’d done enough sharing for one night.
“It’s getting late.” She deliberately took her hand back from Bob’s grasp and immediately missed his warmth.
“If you ever want to talk, while I’m here or even after I go home, all you have to do is call me,” Bob offered in that soft, steady voice that nearly melted her heart. “I understand loss and I won’t judge. From what you’ve told me already, you’ve been through more than most shifters, and at a very young age. You have my respect, Serena. And my thanks.”
“Thanks?” That surprised her into looking at him. His face was solemn and oh, so handsome in the dark night. “What for?”
“For trusting me.” He scooted closer and reached out one big hand to cup her cheek.
She allowed the touch because on some level, she realized, she did trust him. The thought should have alarmed her. Instead, it warmed her.
He moved closer and she didn’t dare even breathe as his mouth hovered near hers. And then their lips met and warmth spread from that light contact, downward through her body to her core. When he pressed closer, she didn’t resist. If anything, she met him halfway. Maybe more than halfway. It was as if she was starved for the gentle, yet erotic contact of his mouth on hers as he deepened the kiss into realms of pure pleasure.
His tongue stroked inside her mouth, the pressure easy, coaxing. His passion didn’t frighten her, oddly enough. Instead, it seemed to spark something to life inside her she’d thought extinguished forever. She moved into his arms, wanting more, and he gave it to her.
He gave her all she asked for and just a little bit more, pressing his advantage, pushing her gently to the next level bit by little bit. She sighed as his teeth bit her lower lip when he pulled away. Damn, the man was sexy.
She’d practically climbed into his lap, but he paused to look deep into her eyes.
Not what she had expected.
He’d stopped to let her think. Or perhaps to verify that she was thinking at all.
“You drive me wild, kitten,” he breathed, his hands petting her back and roaming down to her waist. Only the thin layer of her cotton dress separated them and for an untamed moment, she wanted it gone. Then sanity returned.
Her breathing hitched. “You do the same to me,” she admitted. “It’s not something I’m used to.” Shyness returned in a flash and she cringed at her own words. This Redstone Alpha was a worldly man. He lived in a place the rest of the world called Sin City. She must seem the most awful bumpkin to a guy like him.
She tried to pull out of his embrace, but he wouldn’t let her go. He wasn’t forceful about it, but he held her fast until she stilled.
“Look at me, kitten,” he said in a very quiet, very serious voice. He was so gentle with her. It was enough to make her eyes tear. Why was this one man—this one, unattainable man—so good to her?
Looking up to meet his gaze, she felt horribly vulnerable. The look in his eyes though… It wasn’t impatient or condemning, or even questioning. Any of those things would only have agitated her more. No, Bob Redstone’s gaze held understanding. And patience. And most of all, compassion.
Sweet Mother of All, he was a special man.
“I think we might have something here, though I know you’re scared.” His deep voice warmed the cold places in her soul. “Heck, I think I’m a little scared too, if you want to know the truth. Now, big bad Alphas aren’t supposed to admit stuff like that, so if you repeat it, I’ll deny it.” He moved one hand up to push a tendril of hair away from her face. The touch was so light, so caring. He touched her like she was made of spun glass, and it made her breath catch. “Just don’t run from me, okay? If I push you too far, I promise I won’t bite you if you push back. Well, not unless you want me to.” He winked at her and just like that, his humorous little innuendo almost made her laugh.
“I’m just not sure… This is all so confusing.”
He stroked her hair back again, pausing to lift her chin with his index finger so she would meet his gaze.
“I know. It’s new to me too. New and beautiful, and something I want to explore. Don’t you?” His gaze was full of hopeful understanding and a bit of very male satisfaction, if she was any judge. “We’ll take this at whatever pace you set, kitten. But we will explore this thing between us. That’s a promise you can bank on.” His gaze turned serious and she felt the import of his amazing words in every nerve. “I’ve never felt this kind of instant attraction to anyone. It feels important to me. Don’t tell me you don’t feel it too.” He moved closer and placed a gentle kiss on her brow and she shivered in response, the pleasure of his small touch working its way like lightning down her spine. “If you try to deny it, I won’t believe you anyway. Your response to my kisses tells me all I need to know,” he whispered before letting her go.
She didn’t move far, though only moments ago she had wanted to flee. He had a way about him that forestalled her usual adrenaline-induced attempts at escape. She took a deep breath, wanting for once to deal with a situation rather than run from it.
“I can’t make you any promises. My past…well…I’m the first to admit I’m more than a little damaged. There are still things you don’t know about me.” She looked away, watching the water flow sluggishly into the pond from the little stream before it flowed out again on the other side. “I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to tell you about it all.”
“You don’t have to tell me everything,” he answered from the darkness on her right. “But you should tell somebody. A healer or a priestess. Somebody who can help you deal with your past and recover from it. So you can move on.”
She nodded, touched by his understanding. “I’ve talked to Bettina a couple of times, and it has helped. I’m just not sure I’ll ever be able…” She trailed off, not knowing how to put her fears into words.
Bob put one arm around her waist, inviting her to lean against him. After only a moment of confused resistance, she did. There was nothing sexual about the touch and everything comforting. He was letting her—quite literally—lean on him. Being surrounded by his strength felt really good. Really safe.
“I’m glad you have someone you can talk to,” he whispered, resting his chin on top of her head, nuzzling her hair a bit. “If you ever feel as if you can open up to me, I’m here for you. I just want to make sure you know that. At the same time, I don’t want you to feel any pressure. I’m here if you need me. That’s all. No questions asked. No pressure applied. Okay?”
She nodded against his chest. She liked the sincerity in his words and the fact that he wasn’t pushing her on this particular topic. Her past was a minefield. A tricky place that she didn’t like to contemplate or tell others about. She knew she still had to talk through some of the things that had happened with somebody. Her cat prodded her to do it, and Bob’s words were a good reminder. Maybe she’d go look for the High Priestess, Bettina, and see if she had some time to spare.
But not right now. This time with Bob was special. Beautiful. She didn’t want to taint it with painful memories of a past best forgotten. Not tonight, at least. Not when it was so new to sit in a man’s arms in the moonlight with no demands being made, no pain, no anxiety, no worries.
“Thank you,” she whispered, knowing he would hear. She wanted to give him something—a little piece of her past that just might have an impact on their future—if, indeed, they had a future together. She took a chance and revealed something very intimate. “I’ve never had sex in my human form, though my cat played with other bobcats during the frenzy, of course.”
She referred to the time after a young shifter’s first shift when the beast demanded sex. It drove young shifters into something they called the frenzy, when the beast wanted sex all the time, anytime, until finally it was sated. The frenzy lasted anywhere from a few weeks to a fe
w years depending on the species of shifter and their personality. Hers had been really bad only for a couple of months and never had she been driven enough to do anything…extreme.
Orgies were not unheard of. Multi-partner couplings that lasted for hours or days were common. Again, it varied from shifter to shifter and among the various species.
She knew Bob was probably surprised by her admission. Sex wasn’t taboo among shifters. Far from it.
When you had to get naked to become your beast, nakedness and attraction to the opposite—or occasionally the same—sex was nothing new. Until a shifter found their true mate, nothing was really frowned upon, as long as nobody got hurt. In fact, it was considered unhealthy among some species to abstain from having sex as often as your beast half wanted it. To deny the beast was to deny half of your soul.
A shifter had to make peace with both halves of their being. Satisfying the beast was not only a duty, but a necessity. Harmony between both halves was the goal.
“Did you have bad experiences?” Bob prompted when she didn’t elaborate.
“Nothing awful. Just fumbling encounters with young guys around my own age. We were teenagers, answering the call of nature in our fur, but it wasn’t anything like what I’ve heard sex is supposed to be, and I never cared enough about any of the guys I knew to want to do it with them when my human side was in control. A lot of them made fun of me because I’d been raised partly among humans. If the human family I lived with thought I was weird, the bobcats were even worse.”
Bob was silent for a while, just holding her.
“I like humans,” he said into the dark night. “I have a few friends and a lot of business colleagues who are human. My cougar side doesn’t always understand them, but my human half sometimes wishes my life was as comparatively uncomplicated as theirs. Some of them have really big hearts and miles of compassion. That’s nothing to make fun of. I think maybe your human foster parents were probably good ones, and if they influenced your attitudes, well, that’s okay. Half of you is human, after all. We just need to find a way to get your cat and your human working together, in partnership, instead of at odds with each other.”
“That’s more or less what the priestess said.” She turned to look up at him. “How did you get so wise?” She smiled and he returned the gesture. She felt so safe with him. It was a feeling she cherished for its rarity.
“I’m an Alpha,” he quipped. “Worse than that, I’m a Redstone. You don’t grow up in my family without learning a whole lot about shifter nature.” He stroked one hand over her hair in the darkness as his expression became more serious. “We Redstones have had our share of tragedy. All the losses have made me question my beliefs a few times in my life, and I’ve developed an interest in philosophy because of it.”
She looked back at the pond, wondering about his philosophical bent. Probably like most people, she had expected one of the Alpha Redstones of Redstone Construction to be more brawn than brains. He was proving her wrong and she didn’t mind it one bit. She liked the more cerebral side of him, even though it was easy to see he had plenty of brawn to go around.
The philosopher in him though, put her at ease. She had never been so comfortable with a man and she took the time to enjoy this beautiful moment. The trickling water, the loamy scent of the earth and the almost glowing beams of moonlight made this an idyllic moment out of time. A moment worth remembering.
She felt him kiss the top of her head again and they sat by the pond for a long time, watching the night and the dark flow of water.
Chapter Four
Serena woke the next morning feeling better than she had in years. Something about the night before with Bob had changed her on a fundamental level. She felt like a baby bird just pecking through its shell. Emotionally, she had started across a bridge and she could see the other end in sight.
She wanted to get to the other side of that bridge and find her future waiting there for her—whatever that might be. If Bob was in it, so much the better, but if not, she would always remember him with fondness for the way he’d helped her begin the journey across. He didn’t have to do that. He didn’t have to be so kind and gentle, so caring and patient. There was no doubt in her mind, he was a very special man. A true Alpha that protected the weak and nurtured those who needed his help.
But she didn’t want to be a wounded shifter in need of his help. No, she wanted to be on more equal footing with him. Not that she’d ever be an Alpha. No, she just wanted to be more comfortable in her own skin and able to claim her own birthright as a shifter. That would put her on more solid footing for the future. Shifter to shifter, whatever other differences they may have, they were both shifters, and she needed to be comfortable with that part of her being before she could go any further on this journey of discovery.
That thought firmly in mind, she bounced out of bed, dressed quickly and set off in search of the High Priestess, Bettina. Serena practically hopped down the stairs in the Pack house to find the woman she was looking for waiting at the bottom, a broad smile on her elfin face. Serena laughed.
“How did you know?” she asked the first question that popped into her head.
“When the heart is ready, the teacher will come,” Bettina replied with a teasing grin that belied her mystical words. “I hear they’re making chocolate chip pancakes. Would you like to join me for a far too sugary breakfast and then we can take a little walk outside. What do you say?”
Bob resumed work with Rocky, giving his take on the different reports his Clan had sent to the Lords. Somehow it wasn’t that tough to be grilled by the big grizzly bear shifter after spending those precious hours with Serena last night. She had a calming effect on his spirit. She brought peace to his world.
He was concerned about her past, but willing to let her come to him on that. She was healing. That was the important thing. She had crossed some of her self-imposed boundaries last night just by coming to him. Of that he was certain.
He would help her cross more, if she was agreeable. He would be there for her when she wanted to spread her wings. He would catch her if she stumbled and never let her fall.
He and Rocky finished discussing the second to last report about mid-morning and took a short break during which Rocky went out of his office briefly, to get more coffee. Bob stood and stretched, looking out the window. The room they were using was at the front of the house and the window looked out on the small cleared area which led to a gravel road that snaked around the mountain. It was a private road, open only to the locals and authorized visitors. The same road led past the cabin he was using, only his front door was on the other side, lower down the mountain.
Bob was looking at a tall, full evergreen that had been planted in the center of the clearing. It hadn’t grown there naturally, he was certain. None of the surrounding trees were of the same variety and there was nothing nearby to indicate it had grown in place and simply been left when the rest of the area was cleared. Unless he was missing something, this one had been put there deliberately.
Allowing his thoughts to wander, Bob was almost taken by surprise when two sets of little paws landed on his booted feet. He looked down, careful not to move, lest he somehow trod on the little creatures.
Sure enough, two sets of baby grizzly paws were pinning his toes to the ground—or trying to. They were really too little to do much damage, and cute as buttons.
Bob let the baby grizzlies chew on his boot laces. The laces were reasonably clean, since the boots were new. He didn’t mind the little scratches from the bears’ claws. They were so tiny, it was kind of adorable.
“Well, hello there, little ones. Where did you come from?”
Two little faces looked up when he spoke and Bob had to blink a few times to make sure he was really seeing what he thought he was seeing.
“Twins?” he wondered aloud, sniffing to be certain of the scent of them. They were definitely shifters, and definitely closely related. Twins. Judging by the look of them, identic
al twins. “Sweet Mother of All,” Bob whispered, shocked at their appearance.
“Damn.” Rocky’s voice came from the open doorway. “They’re escape artists, I swear.” He walked in and deposited a fresh carafe of coffee on his desk, then walked over to Bob, watching the baby bears the whole time. “You two.” Rocky’s voice brooked no argument. “Out. Your mama’s probably looking all over for you.”
The baby bears looked rueful and made little sorrowful grunting noises as they let go of Bob’s boot laces and trotted toward Rocky on unsteady, baby paws. He bent and scooped them into his arms.
“Rock, have you seen—” A slightly frantic, feminine voice came from the doorway, the woman stopping short when she saw the bear cubs in Rocky’s arms. She looked at Bob, her expression fearful.
“It’s okay. I know what they are, and I will never divulge knowledge of their existence, even to my own family. Their safety is paramount.” Bob lowered himself to one knee, which he could see surprised the woman. A human woman, by her scent. Rocky looked impressed as he held the two babies—one in each arm. The twins were looking straight at Bob as he put his hand over his heart. “I swear fealty now and for always to the Lady, Her Light and the Lords She has blessed to walk among us and guide us.”
Bob bowed his head after speaking the vow. It was nothing new to him, but apparently Rocky hadn’t expected it. They hadn’t gotten that far in going over the reports yet, but he’d learn soon enough about the oaths all of the Las Vegas shifters and vamps had taken in recent months.
The moment the words were out of his mouth, Bob felt a little zing of magic that made him look up. The baby bears were both looking at him as just a little of their magic reached out to touch him. The bears turned into wriggling human toddlers in Rocky’s arms, and they both laughed and smiled at Bob in a way that made him join in. They were such joyful children.