Shifters' Storm

by Vonna Harper

  Bugling, he’d approached from behind, reared, planted his front legs along the first one’s sides and curled his buttocks inward. His long, heavy cock first stabbed between the cow’s rear legs and then rammed into the dripping, soft opening. Once, twice, three times he’d thrust deep. As the cow started to collapse, he’d backed away from her and headed toward the second one.

  Mating twice had only fed his need to keep spilling himself until he was too spent to stand. Nostrils quivering, he’d been looking for another receptive cow when something beyond the drive to impregnate gripped him. Reluctantly turning his back on his harem, he’d let a sharp distant blast lead him to this meadow.

  The retort hadn’t been repeated, but deep inside resided the understanding that he was more than four legs, a heavy rack and hungry cock. That other thing needed answers.

  His compulsion to learn the truth had was still so powerful he dismissed both the great newcomer and the two-legged creature.

  Not wanting to do what he had to, he approached the dead elk. This one’s antlers were half the size of his. That and the narrow chest and slender neck told him this male hadn’t yet seen its second winter. Dark blood had pooled around a ragged hole behind his shoulder, but although he couldn’t quite make sense of that, Songan had no trouble determining what else had been done to the young male. The sex organs had been removed.

  Rage as powerful as any rut urge engulfed him. Whirling, he again faced the oversize creature he now recognized as a bear but with a coloring he’d never seen. He couldn’t save the young elk, but he could avenge—

  Pawing the ground so dirt and grass flew about, he lowered his head. The strange bear hoisted himself onto his hindquarters and swung his front legs up and out. Deadly claws raked the air. A sound like thunder burst from the gaping mouth.

  The two-legged creature gasped. Out of the corner of his eyes, the elk saw that she—he knew that much—was aiming what looked like a branch at the sky. The branch bellowed, the sound nearly identical to what he’d heard this morning, only much louder. Startled, he turned his attention from the bear to the she-creature. Lowering the thunder-branch, she pointed it first at the bear and then him.

  She started chattering, her mouth and throat moving, eyes saying she was afraid but not terrified. Even with everything he was trying to make sense of, he admired her courage.

  Her eyes carried more than warning and determination, and as her chattering slowed and then quieted, he studied the huge brown bear. The creature was back down on all fours and staring at the she. It tipped its head to the side as if trying to make sense of the now soft sounds. No longer having to concentrate on how much of a threat the grizzly presented helped cool the elk’s blood, but it was more than that. With every breath he took, he dismissed more of the death and bear smells and became more aware of the she.

  Her. Female. Touching him in ways he needed. Triggering memories.

  “Songan,” she said. “Songan.”

  Feeling as if she might splinter into a thousand pieces, Rane repeated the shape-shifter’s name in the singsong tone she’d relied on over the years. It could be her imagination, her need to make order out of today’s craziness, but she swore she was getting through to him. One thing she was certain of, the beautiful bull elk who was her friend and sometimes sex partner was focused on her instead of the grizzly or the inert body. Knowing she didn’t dare do the same added to her fear that she might not be able to hold everything together. Dismissing the grizzly could get her killed today.

  Determined to put an end to the standoff, she leveled the rifle at the bear while continuing to mutter Songan’s name. Something about the grizzly still felt off. Its—his—eyes hinted at impossible intelligence for an animal. Her stomach tightened as a possibility occurred to her, but that would have to wait.

  Taking a deep breath, she yelled, “Go!” at the grizzly. Teeth clenched, she fired, aiming several feet over his body. Her arms jerked upward, and for an instant, she couldn’t see anything. The bear, sounding startled or angry or both, roared.

  “You heard me! Go! You’re not wanted here.”

  The beast reared and dropped to the ground with a thud. His lips curled back, exposing his teeth.

  Willing her arms to hold steady, she fired again. This bullet streaked less than a foot above the bear’s back. The echo went on and on. Instead of attacking her or running away, which was what she was hoping for, she swore the beast’s eyes told her not to panic.

  “Go, please. I don’t want to kill you, so just get the hell out of here!” Like her puny deer rifle could bring down a thousand-pound monster.

  What she was tempted to interpret as a frown pulled the grizzly’s eyes together. His attention flicked to Songan, then back on her. She swore he sighed before slowly and regally backing away. After a final look at Songan, the mass of muscle and bone turned and loped away. Moments later, he’d disappeared into the close-growing evergreens marking the end of the meadow. Despite that, his essence remained. He was still in the area.

  Now that the immediate threat had been dealt with, Rane waited for relief to weaken her muscles. Instead, regret closed around her. Irrational as the thought was, she wanted the beast to return. If he did, she imagined herself slowly approaching, reaching out and touching the great body.

  As far as she knew, the elk shifter hadn’t moved while she was dealing with the bear. Accustomed as she was to Songan’s behavior when he was in elk form, she knew not to expect much of him intellectually. Right now all that truly mattered was whether he knew she was part of his world.

  After a final look in the direction the grizzly had gone, he approached the carcass. His graceful head topped by a massive rack hung as if he was reluctant to acknowledge what couldn’t be denied. It took effort for her not to touch Songan in sympathy, but experience had taught her to have patience when he was like this. Shifting her gaze, she noted that the dead elk had been shot in the side behind its front legs. Seeing lacerated flesh where its sex organs had been again made her sick to her stomach.

  “Who did this?” she muttered around clenched teeth. “What kind of bastard…”

  The bull elk she’d come here in hopes of finding stepped between her and the carcass. She wondered whether he was more concerned with protecting one of his kind or shielding her. His eyes darkened, and he again lowered his head as if the weight of his antlers was more than he could bear.

  “I’m sorry. This was the work of poachers, damnable killers. I can’t call them human.”

  Until now she hadn’t had time to consider that whoever had shot the young elk might still be around, but with the grizzly no longer constituting a threat, if it was, she was able to concentrate on other things. If the hunter or hunters hadn’t put considerable distance between themselves and what they obviously had no more use for, they’d heard her shoot. They might have even heard her cry out. Songan and she were vulnerable. Maybe as much as her mother had been.

  “It’s too late to wish I’d been quiet,” she told Songan as he continued to regard her. “The damage is done. Oh, I’m so sorry I said that.” She jerked her head at the carcass. “That’s real damage.”

  The magnificent elk, who was much more than that to her, looked down at what could have been one of his offspring.

  “Do you know what I’m thinking?” she continued. “Do my words make sense?”

  With her attention fully on him, she searched her memory for what Songan had looked like the last time she’d seen him like this. Her mother still lived—had lived—in Forestville, and Rane had tried to see her every few months. Each time she did, Songan and she hooked up, but if her memory was right, she hadn’t seen him as an elk for a couple of years.

  “You’ve matured,” she told him. “All bulked up. You’re also full of fire because it’s that time of the year.” She reluctantly nodded at the inert form. “I’d hoped I’d find you here. The meadow’s a favorite place for the herd this time of year. But I wasn’t sure—I know what bulls are like d
uring rut. Nothing takes them from the females. Not even death.”

  The elk continued to study her. His eyes made her think of wet and impenetrable obsidian. Suddenly weary, she lowered her rifle to the ground. Then she pressed the base of her hand to her forehead. Memories of the days and nights with Songan washed over her, and pressure of another kind ground into her. Maybe her sexual awareness was nothing more than needing to distance herself from the nightmare she’d been living and responding to Songan’s high testosterone level. Maybe.

  “I’ve been looking for you. I need your help.” Feeling exposed by her admission, she ran her hand into her hair, disrupting the thick, shoulder-blade-length mass as she did. “Maybe human concerns mean nothing to you this time of year. Maybe you don’t know what happened.”

  Only a few minutes ago, she’d considered herself part of the world she’d grown up in. Now she felt as if she’d lost touch with everything except pure male animal. She’d stare at him as long as he stared at her, and when that was over and he’d gone back to being nothing except a bull elk, what? Return to her mother’s empty house? Continue to be alone while the desire for justice overwhelmed her.

  “Songan,” she whispered. “I need you.”

  The elk shuddered. She’d seen the transformation and knew what to expect. Still, it had been awhile, and she’d forgotten how much power was involved.

  Even though she knew it wasn’t true, as he jerked and shivered, she half believed he’d been struck by lightning. Wave after wave of movement rolled down the rut-swollen neck and through the solid body. The waves came faster and faster until she could no longer distinguish where one ended and another began.

  Similar to a balloon robbed of air, the form before her shrank and morphed from rich golden brown to flesh color. Front legs transformed themselves into arms. The massive rack disappeared. One heartbeat, she was watching an elk. The next, the man she’d given her virginity to stood naked before her.

  Recalling that he’d need several minutes to adjust to the change, she clenched her fingers and studied six feet three inches of muscled male. The last time she’d seen Songan, which had been some six months ago, she’d talked him into stepping on the scales. He’d weighed just over two hundred pounds, but it looked as if he’d put on at least twenty more, every ounce of it muscle.

  When in human form, which was about half of the time, Songan and his fellow shifters gravitated toward physical labor. Political and economic factors had led to a decreased need for timber in recent years, but several tracks of mostly lodgepole pine had opened up for harvesting this year. Her mother’s e-mails had kept her up-to-date about work on the new logging roads into the area and the massive, expensive equipment that now did what hundreds of loggers had once accomplished. Despite those changes, the two women had agreed there’d always be a need for men who understood trees and the dangers inherent in working among them.

  Even as he stood naked with his hair-dusted belly and muscled ass, Rane acknowledged that Songan was one of those strong, brave and resourceful men. He belonged in the wilderness even more than she did.

  He needed a haircut and hadn’t shaved for days. His thick, long, red-black hair had been combed by the wind. The way he stood with his legs spread and his arms out from his sides made her wonder if he felt as if the world was tipping under him. She could only guess what changing felt like. He gave no indication he was aware of her as he took in the meadow with its slender, white-barked aspens and the large pines surrounding them. Obviously he was reluctant to leave his animal half.

  Songan had an erection. She’d never seen a more potent cock, all dark prominent veins and thick foreskin ringing the base of his cockhead. Thinking about how she loved to slide the sleek foreskin about made her hands sweat.

  “Songan, it’s me, Rane.”

  “I know.”

  His eyes no longer had that faraway and unfocused look, but his unemotional tone told her he hadn’t completed the transformation. He’d once explained that he felt as if he belonged nowhere while morphing from human to animal or back again, and although he’d said nothing about being alarmed by the experience, she didn’t see how it could be otherwise. He didn’t want to be touched until he was fully in one body or the other.

  She’d waited long enough. She had to remind him of what they’d once had.

  Otherwise, he might never understand her need for him.

  Her legs had grown weak. Either that or knowing what she was asking of them had stripped strength from them. Whichever it was, she had to concentrate on walking. As a result, when she looked up at him, she was closer than she thought she’d be.

  Warmth flowed from his naked form to reach and caress her skin through her clothing. If the cool mountain air had made an impact on him, he gave no indication as he placed his broad, strong hands on her shoulders. She’d left her backpack and rifle behind. Except for the clothes she suddenly wanted nothing to do with, she and Songan were equals. Hopefully alone.

  Will you help me? was what she’d believed would be the first thing to come out of her mouth once they stood face to face. But sex had always defined their relationship. It still did.

  “You’re back,” he said.

  “My mother—you can’t be surprised to see me.”

  “I’m sorry, Rane. Sorry about what happened to her and what’s happening to me right now.” Letting go of one shoulder, he cupped his cock. “This time of year, I can’t fight the elk in me. I wanted to be there for you, but—”

  “I know.” Strangely, staring at what she could see of his cock was easier on her nerves than looking into his eyes. All except needing to have it buried inside her. “Remember, I was here when you matured. The first fall when the rut hit you—”

  “I wanted to fuck your brains out.”

  “Not just want. You did.”

  Maybe he was no longer interested in going down memory lane. More likely sex held the upper hand as he pulled her against him. Her face mashed into his chest. Even as she turned her head so she could breathe, his cock grinding at her belly loosened and moistened her pussy.

  Clouds were starting to gather, a brisk wind pushing them and bringing a faint, distant scent of snow. Except for acknowledging the cool air, she paid little attention to the change. It would take a lot more than a breeze to kill the desire tearing at her.

  Songan’s hold let up a little. Freeing her arms, she wrapped them around his neck. No doubt about it, being in rut added bulk and muscle to his human form. As a wildlife biologist, she was familiar with the creatures that inhabited the Northwest forests. Songan was at his sexual peak. Depending on how well he took care of himself and how many bull-to-bull battles he got into, he could stay like this for years. Be everything she wanted in a man.

  In a distracted way, she knew she had no business letting his body take control of hers, but she’d been fantasizing about this moment for too long, when she could be free of grief. Needed it too much. She’d gone looking for him because she wanted justice for her mother, but even that would have to wait.

  First and maybe always came feeding this awesome hunger.

  A low whimper escaped her as she stood on her toes, tilted her head and raked her teeth over the side of his neck. Grunting, he lifted her off her feet. Since moving away from Forestville, she’d engaged in rough sex with two men, but they hadn’t outweighed her by over a hundred pounds and weren’t more than a foot taller.

  They weren’t half animal.

  “What’s this?” Smiling slightly, he turned his head so she could see the red marks she’d left on him. “Some point you’re trying to make?”

  “Impulse. Craziness.”

  “Caused by what?”

  My mother’s murder. “It’s not like we’ve ever set any limits set on what happens between us. Let me down.”

  Smiling, he shook both his head and her. “Like you said, no limits or boundaries.”

  He’s in his prime, dangerously so. Don’t do something stupid. Despite her warning, howe
ver, she lightly pressed a knee to his groin. “Things haven’t changed with you. You still insist on being in control.”

  “Human nature.” Giving her a look she couldn’t fathom, he lowered her to the ground but kept his hands on her waist. Her fingers dragged over his neck.

  “You aren’t human, not all the way.”

  “And you can’t handle it. That’s why you left.”

  “That wasn’t the only reason, and you know it. It was time for me to find out who I was. In part to break the addiction between us.” Any other woman would probably be too intimidated to say what she just had, but Songan brought out something strong and wild in her, something she didn’t understand or trust.

  “You also wanted more than any elk shifter can give,” he said. “Me being there all the time.”

  “Not now. That’s not what I—”

  “What then?” he demanded. “Damn it, Rane. I am what I am, just as you are.”

  “What are you saying?” Lightning hadn’t struck. Songan and Songan alone was responsible for what raged through her. “That I don’t live up to your expectations because I’m not a shifter?”

  “I’ve always accepted you. I just wish you felt the same way.”

  “It’s easier for you. You don’t have to deal with human emotions all the time.” The words weren’t out before she wished she could take them back. “Look, I’m sorry. This is hardly the time to—what brought you here?” She nodded in the direction of the dead elk. “Did you sense—maybe you heard shots.”

  “I don’t know.” Letting up on the pressure around her waist, he started stroking her there. Her nerves jumped. “Maybe you’re responsible.”

  He was talking about the powerful connection that had once existed between them, a connection she’d believed she had to sever if she was ever going to live her own life.