Laura sighed deeply. Her long hair wavered as it rested on her breasts. Fuck me if my eyes weren't drawn to her chest, straight to the faint cleavage sticking up above her robe.
I thought she'd been a knockout in that tight white wedding dress yesterday. But today, in a simple robe that was a little big on her, she made me want to jump out of my chair and tear it away.
My bear smacked his lips, needling me to do it. Had to hold that greedy bastard back.
“You're right. I guess we can be mature adults about all this. Just because you're – what? – ten years older than me doesn't mean you've got a monopoly on reason.”
I almost let out a snort. The girl didn't look a day over twenty.
What the fuck did she know about common sense, anyway?
Didn't know if she was short on it because she was beautiful, young, or just a natural spitfire. She was right about one thing.
Her good looks and exotic scent were driving me insane. No wonder I could barely hold a stern discussion here without babbling like an idiot. I shook my head slightly, fighting the flashes of testosterone in my blood, the bear's growl raging in my head, calling out to claim her.
She looked up when I didn't answer.
Fuck. My eyes were still glued to her breasts, hot enough to burn right through the robe and expose her supple flesh in all its glory.
Her hands went up, and then came down on her thighs hard. She pulled her robe tighter, curling her lips in annoyance.
“There's something else making this so difficult, isn't there?” she said in a low, uncertain tone. “It's not just hate and distrust that's screwing things up here.”
Alarms clattered in my skull. I wanted to leap right over the coffee table between us, shake her, and tell her she was wrong.
I didn't want to admit I'd been caught red handed ogling her sweet body. And if I was, then I wanted to show her she was wrong about it screwing things up. Wrong in every wrong, sweaty, unstoppable way.
“Yeah. You're right,” I admitted.
Damn it. There goes the hard line I needed to fucking take here.
My bear grinned at me from within. He knew there was only one thing getting hard here.
“I get it. You're a pervert.” The redness on Laura's face deepened. “You're some kinda sicko who wants me, even though we're a completely different species.”
What the fuck? Did she really just say that?
I stood up, one octave away from a full on roar. Rage came shooting up my throat, hot and painful.
Just when I thought I figured out how to tame this little tiger, she got her claws into me again.
Catching an Alpha off his game once in a blue moon was nothing unusual. Catching him twice?
Hell fucking no!
“If that's what you think, then maybe you should look in the mirror, baby.” I stared her down, puffing out my chest.
Her lips parted and she gasped in surprise.
I took a step toward her. My bear snorted restlessly, feeling the same sensation he got when he was about to tear into an enticing morsel.
“That's right, Laura. I've seen the way you've been looking at me since we got to the altar together.
You have the nerve to call me a pervert when you're the one who passed out at one sight of these guns?” I folded my hands and flexed my muscles as hard as I could.
“Please!” She rolled her eyes, but the flustered sweat on her brow and beet red sheen to her cheeks told the real story. “I would never–“
“Bullshit, you wouldn't. You want me. Bad. You hate it, and you tell yourself it's sick and twisted.” I rounded the table and snatched at her arm with one hand.
“Keep telling yourself, little tiger. You're acting out because you're secretly hot as hell for this old bear.”
She squealed in surprise as I pulled her close. Didn't stop with my hold on her wrists. They swung around her back, dove low, and cupped the full ass I'd been waiting for what felt like a fucking eternity to get my hands on.
A ferocious growl pushed past my lips when I squeezed her there. She jerked like I'd hit her with an electric current.
“You're crazy. Insane, demented, barbaric bear!” She wrinkled her face in pathetic fake disgust, and I only squeezed her harder.
The robe slipped down her shoulders now that she was standing. Her breasts were almost bare as I smashed them against my chest, separated only by two thin layers of fabric. I could feel how tense her nipples were, how perfectly rough her need matched mine.
My cock jerked hard in my pants. I held her, refilling my lungs slowly.
Big mistake. Breathing only fed the blaze kicking up in every muscle. Once it got going, there was no holding me back, and no more denying the bear's bestial urges either.
“Fuck, you smell as amazing as you look. I'm man enough to tell you every part of me's screaming right now to throw you to the floor and push between your legs with everything I've got. I'm not gonna run away from this desire, baby, no matter who tells me it's fucked up and forbidden.”
Laura swallowed. She shuddered, and her soft flesh got several degrees hotter. She tried to look away from me, but my breath on her neck got her attention, prickling her skin with goosebumps.
“I think we both need to see how right it can be. That's why I'm gonna take one taste. One good, long taste of your sweet lips. If it doesn't give us both some serious fucking gravity to calm down and be civil, then at least it'll scratch the urge.” I brought my face lower, whispering in her ear. “Here's the difference between you and I, beautiful. You can't control it, so you fight me instead. I can't fight it, but I'm sure as hell gonna control it on my terms. ”
“Wait, wait, you can't–“
I didn't allow her to finish. I smothered her in the long, hard, unshakeable kiss I promised, feeling the flames roar high when she moaned into my mouth.
My bear went wild. Lightning raged in her supple flesh too, her tiger putting up one hell of a fight –
or else urging her into me. I couldn't tell yet, but I wanted to.
Her lips parted wider. Laura's sexy legs pushed closer, dangerously close to the hard-on straining in my pants.
Hold back? Now? No fucking way.
This is my hard line, baby, I thought. Flesh and bone's the only boundary we need.
I shoved my tongue into her mouth, aggressively pushing in and out her lips. Every jerk, every twitch, every wet kiss was a promise and a preview of the way I'd fuck her.
She withered beneath me, pure lust consuming her. I moved my hand down, grabbing to lift away the flimsy silk covering her gorgeous breasts. Fuck, I couldn't wait to feel them everywhere with my hands, my mouth, my –
Force hit me square in the chest like a cannonball. Surprisingly strong, but tigers were pretty damned fierce when they needed to be, even the females.
The shock allowed her to slip away, and she went running for the back door. I spun and only managed to take two steps before she finished fiddling with the lock, popping it open in her fingers.
“Gods! Get back here, Laura! Where do you think you're going?”
She threw her head back and gave me one quick pain stricken look. Her eyes were a kaleidoscope of conflicted emotions; fear and revulsion and delight all storming together. She raced across the patio before I could catch up, threw off her robe, and shifted.
I stood there like an idiot, watching the sleek tiger racing toward the forest.
“Just my fucking luck,” I whispered.
I picked up her fallen garment. Rage and blue balls throbbed with a devilish ache when I smelled her scent. Snarling, I threw it at the ground, and shouted an unintelligible roar into the quiet evening.
The Gods always gave Alphas ridiculous challenges to earn their keep, but this was on a whole new level.
My new wife was gone, without so much as a shake of her furry orange tail. The patchy snow leading into the woods was way too sparse to make her paw prints much use for tracking too.
I turned and went inside
for my map. Going after anybody in the dense Alaskan wilderness was never easy.
Worse, it was all I had to go by if I wanted any chance of finding her alone. No way was I gonna enlist the clan and have bears laughing behind my back.
The next few hours, days, or weeks – if the Gods were feeling especially cruel – inhaling her irresistible scent to haul her pretty ass back here promised to be pure hell.
III: Kissing the Wind (Laura)
How screwed up was I?
One minute, I was savoring the fiery, possessive kiss of the brutal bear at my lips. The next, I was tearing myself away from him and running into the cool springtime wind.
I had to escape. I had to put miles between him and I, dousing the wildfire he'd kindled inside me with cool Alaskan wilderness.
My tiger didn't know what the hell to think, and I was right there with her. She emerged on his patio when I dropped my clothes and dashed off through the dwindling snows as quickly as I could.
Last thing I needed was him catching a sight of me naked.
I was never happier to be a tiger shifter. Grizzlies were surprisingly fast for their size, but tigers could outrun them any day. I was deep in the woods before I even looked back to see if he was pursuing me.
Nope. So far, so good.
My abrupt disappearance must've shocked him, giving me a good head start. I needed it too.
James wouldn't stare into the forest forever. Only a matter of time before he summoned his bear, and began tracking me into the wild with his keen vision and smell.
Rage and shame pumped through my veins, forcing me onward. My tiger guided me.
It was good to let her have control just now, and just because she could handle the rough ground.
Primal joy blazed in her to be set free, roaming into the wild, a place Daddy had always hidden from me. Hunting on his well kept private grounds wasn't the same as free range trees and mountains.
Here, anything might happen, a wonder or a horror with every paw print on the ground.
She guided me through tangled brush and slippery rocks any human feet would've fallen on. She snorted out anguish through deadly teeth, and I watched small dragon breath puffs smoking ahead of me.
With her in control, it was easier to clear my head, easier not to think.
By nightfall, I was through the whole forest. Still bear territory, no doubt, and not anywhere I was familiar with. But it must've been at the edge because I stopped catching their scent in the woods well before I came into the clearing.
I was cold, exhausted, almost delirious with the two hour run through the forest. I crept to a nearby mountain stream and drank deep.
My stomach growled angrily. I didn't dare take human form again and expose my naked skin to the biting cold. When night fell across Alaska, it was still winter, no matter what the calendar said.
I remained a tiger, but the fierceness evaporated into exhaustion.
I shuffled to a nearby crop of rocks, where I could settle in for the night and ignore the hunger nipping at my belly.
This was the kind of pain I could ignore. Much easier than thinking about the wedding, my betrayal, my fear. Far, far easier than thinking about him.
I laid down and huddled myself into a warm furry ball, wishing I could brush my thoughts away just as easily as the empty ache in my belly.
Nothing about being involved with James Roark was easy, though.
Not the way he kissed, not the way he teased, and certainly not the way he ripped through boundaries that were never meant to be crossed. And just what had crossing those borders done to me?
I'd kissed a bear. Worse – a thousand times worse! – I'd actually loved it.
I wasn't just running from him. I was scared and sick of myself, horrified at what I was becoming.
The Laura Hisch I thought I knew was supposed to be a cold-hearted Trojan Horse to bring the Denali bears down. I was supposed to make him complacent and scope out the town, reporting back about their strength and discipline when Daddy sent his men to collect me.
Cold hearted? Please. That damned bear had brought me to my knees.
One kiss ripped apart my life like a nuclear bomb. Kissing him turned the whole world I knew on its head, shattering my duty to my father, my clan, and myself.
His rough grizzly heat burned through the ice that was supposed to keep us separate. Heck, even through my tiger's, and she rarely opened up to anyone.
Another savage revelation rattled my brain. I didn't belong in Tiger Bay anymore. Didn't belong anywhere after this.
I couldn't go running back there, and I certainly couldn't go to James either.
For the first time in my life, I felt truly homeless. Lost.
In my brain, my tiger paced restlessly, making me growl softly to myself.
Tonight was going to be one of the hardest nights of my life until my brain finally shut up and let me sleep. And the harsh Alaskan elements were only half the battle. The real one was inside.
Overhead, the gentle crescent moon rising over the mountains was swallowed up by dense clouds.
Thick puffy flakes began falling, landing on my fur.
My back twitched every couple minutes, brushing snow off me. I nestled tighter into myself, burying my face in my paws, hoping against all odds I'd have some of this sorted out in the morning.
Cracking wood jolted me awake. I jumped up, poised and ready to tackle any threats with teeth and claws.
The noise hadn't been as close as I thought at first. I heard it again, several feet away. Slowly, I put my paws on the rocks and lifted up, peering over them.
Caribou had arrived overnight. The herds were migrating with the changing seasons, and now at least several dozen of the beasts huddled around the big lake where the stream emptied, watering themselves.
My tiger instantly drooled at their fresh, succulent meat. I'd hunted with Daddy and his men before, a rite of passage for every tiger. But those hunts were always well organized, more like sports than serious acts of survival.
Our hunts always went after stray animals too. I didn't know the first thing about sneaking up on a herd and tearing away the more vulnerable members.
I watched the caribou crowding in for their water, sometimes jostling each other when too many beasts got too close. My stomach growled so fierce it felt like my brain was getting sucked out.
How hard could it be?
I leaped over the rocks and landed gently in the spotty snow. Last night's thick dusting was already turning to mush, but it also buffered my weight, preventing too much crunch.
Perfect for getting closer to them.
I crouched as I moved, walking low to the ground, soft and non-threatening. None of them noticed me yet.
I wasn't sure they'd freak out if they did. Tigers had hunted their kind for years, but our clans were scarce. These animals had far more common natural predators to fear.
Several cows stepped away from the water, loitering in little groups. As ripe for picking as they'd ever be.
My tiger needed fresh meat. I couldn't reign her in if I'd wanted to.
I was halfway to the small group when I heard another snap. This one was louder, and at first I thought some caribou had completely fallen on brittle wood.
Then I looked up. Half the mountain was coming down near the lake in an avalanche. Mud and snow began flowing into the water alarmingly fast, burying the first little noise I'd heard in a deafening roar.
Oh, crap!
The caribou reacted quicker than I did. I hit the ground, planting my furry face in the snow. Hooves beat the ground all around me, a panicked stampede thundering like the end of the world.
One hoof caught my tail. I screamed, springing up and lashing out with my claws, trying to chase the beasts away.
The herd was a lot more frightened of the mountain collapsing than a spitting, angry tiger. They ignored my roars and frantic slashes. Several big reindeer climbed right over me, laying their heavy feet on my back.
I
screamed as loud as I could, adding my roar to the world coming apart around me. Didn't even consider that I'd need to outrun the mess spreading across the lake.
The stampede consumed everything, burying my senses in a storm of dirt and ice and stomping hooves. More pressure clambered violently on my back, furious hooves leaving their harsh imprint on my bones.
I roared again, twisting to sink my teeth into a big furry neck. I missed it by a couple inches. Damn it, if I was going to die, then I was going to take some sorry beasts crunching on my tail with me.
I froze when I saw the huge grizzly bear. His paws slapped at my backside, urgent, but not painful.
He let me go, stood up on two legs, and opened his mouth wide, unleashing a roar so loud it vibrated to my bones.
It took me a second to realize it was James. He stepped right over me, standing in front of my body.
Apparently, the caribou took a hulking bear a lot more seriously.
They swerved around him, or slapped his sides and ran off the other way after crashing into the big brown boulder. James spread his front paws like arms, giving us more room as the last of the terrified animals fled.
When the final little calf went trailing after its momma, he dropped to all fours. We faced each other for the first time. He held himself on all fours and shifted.
My lips curled in amusement and annoyance. Then James looked up, his human eyes glowing with one stern demand.
“Run, Laura,” he said coldly. “I'll be right behind you. We've got to go. Now. ”
The whole world exploded. Ice and water began running out of the lake in thick waves, splashing us with stray water.
I turned tail and ran so fast I didn't even feel the soreness left from yesterday's flight.
The caribou weren't stupid. They understood the Alaskan wilderness better than I did, and apparently James did too. We hit the edge of the forest before the dirty tsunami filled with ice and dirt slapped the ground behind us.
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