by Sophie Stern
Richard is a great guy, but I’ll never forget the look on his face when he first took in my white fur, my snout, and my paws.
He gave me pure shock, which was quickly replaced with delight and admiration. I shifted back before he could start petting me.
“How do you handle this?” He asked me, ignoring the fact that I was now nude in front of him. “How do you deal with the stress of having such a huge secret?”
“Lots of drinking,” I said drily, reaching for my own beer, which hadn’t spilled.
“Oh, shit,” he said, suddenly realizing his drink was all over the floor. He scrambled for a towel, a rag, anything. His hands wrapped around my shirt and before I could protest, he had cleaned up his beer. He handed me back the sopping wet shirt and just said, “I have some questions.”
Now, all these years later, I’m getting ready to reveal myself to none other than his kid sister.
She’s not a kid anymore: not by a long shot.
Still, a wave of nervousness washes through me. I shouldn’t be scared or worried. Not this time. She’s not going to reject me, freak out, or run away. She wouldn’t. I have to show her, though, and tonight is as good a time as any.
She’s carrying my cub. She’s got my sweet, little cub growing inside of her and I really just couldn’t be happier. I’ve always wanted children, always wanted cubs. I’ve always wanted to be a father and Mia is giving me that chance.
It’s not just about the baby, though.
I’ve wanted her for a long time. The night we spent together was incredible. I feel like fate is smiling at me with this second shot at having something with her, but this time, I don’t want one night.
I want forever.
And in order for that to happen, I have to show her this. I have to show her who I really am. I have to show her who our cub is going to be one day. I have to show her what to expect.
Shifters aren’t dangerous. Not really. Not the way the world seems to think of animals as dangerous. Even if we can’t speak while we’re in shifter form, we can still communicate and we’re still conscious of ourselves and the people around us. Being a shifter, in my opinion, is nothing but advantageous.
I can protect my family, for one thing, but I also heal faster than humans. I recover more quickly. I have my shifter-abs that Mia seems to like so much.
But as much as I know she likes looking at me, I’m going to shift. I’m going to change. I’m going to let her see me as a bear. She’s about to find out what she’s really getting into and Mia will either love it or she’ll run away.
I kick off my shoes. I’m going to do this. I’m going to shift and change and let Mia see me. My pants follow the shoes, and she makes an honorable effort to keep looking at my face instead of my cock, which is hard for her. Yeah, I want her. I want all of her. Even now, even worrying what she’ll say when she sees me, I’m hard as a fucking rock. All the kissing has started to get to me. All the touching is arousing me in so many ways and when we’re done with this, when we’re done with the difficult part, I’m going to take her harder than anyone ever has before.
I’m going to lay claim to Mia because she might not know it yet, but she’s my mate. She’s mine: now and forever.
Before I can back out, before I can say I’m too nervous for something this big, before I can wimp out, I shift.
“Oh!” I hear her gasp in surprise as my flesh and abs disappear, replaced with pure, white fur. “You’re a polar bear!”
I look back at her, my green eyes blinking, waiting to see what she does. Mia is looking at me with pure admiration, pure excitement on her face.
“Hey now,” she grins. “I thought you said polar bears don’t have to live in cold places.” If I could smile, I would. “Colorado, really?” She says.
It’s true that shifters don’t have to live in specific climates, but a lot of times, we naturally prefer those areas our non-shifter counterparts do. A lot of my family lives in Alaska, but a few live in Colorado. A few like the summers here just as much as they like the long, wonderful winters.
I know I do.
I like the mountains. I like the woods. I like the damn snow here.
And right now, I really, really like the way Mia is looking at me.
“You’re a beautiful bear,” she murmurs. “Can I?” She reaches her hand out, but waits, hesitates. She wants me to give her permission, but she doesn’t realize she already has it.
Mia could do any damn thing she wants to me and I wouldn’t protest. I wouldn’t fight it. I wouldn’t do anything but sit there and take it because I’m fucking in love with her. I think part of me always has been. She lives up to the stories. She lives up to everything Richard said about her, but she’s so much more.
She’s different in some ways. She’s older, she’s more mature. She’s got the energy of a teenager and the curiosity of one, too, but she’s more relaxed than I expected her to be. She’s got the confidence of an adult.
She’s going to be a mother now.
She’s going to be a good one.
I nod my head and Mia reaches for my nose. She touches it with her finger and giggles.
“It’s cold,” she whispers. Then she pets my head, running her hands through my fur. I don’t know if anyone has ever touched me like this before, and suddenly I realize why my friend Wyatt Blair likes being mated to a human female. Hope is sweet and curvy, like Mia, and I wonder if she touches Wyatt the way Mia is touching me now.
Mia is touching me like she’s never seen anything so beautiful before.
I’ve been with shifter females before and since the novelty of shifters can fade after awhile, we never did this. I was never in shifter form while they were in human form, or vice versa. I dated a few humans in college, but we were never close enough for me to trust them like this. I never told them I was a shifter. I certainly never offered myself for them to touch and play with at their discretion.
But for Mia?
I’m offering her everything: all of me. She can do whatever she wants to me in this moment and I don’t even care. As long as she smiles, as long as she stays here with me, she can do anything.
She runs her hands through the fur on my neck.
“You’re amazing,” she whispers. “I’ve always wondered what kind of animal you were. Do you know that Richard never told me?” She speaking quietly, but openly, and I wonder if it’s easier for her to talk to me like this.
I can’t say anything back. All I can do is listen. Maybe it’s helping her to be brave. I don’t know. It’s hard to keep breathing, hard to remind myself not to hold my breath. She moves down my back and begins to pet me there. Then she walks around me still tracing her hands over my body, until she comes back to my face and strokes my head.
“You’re so gorgeous, Aidan. I had no idea.” As I look at her now, I notice the tears in her eyes. “Just think. We’re going to have a baby, Aidan: you and me. We’re going to be parents. We’re going to have a little baby bear and he’s going to be perfect, just like you. Or she,” she adds with a smile. Then Mia pats her tummy. “Maybe it’ll be a girl, but I don’t care. No matter what our baby is, he or she is going to be so loved.”
She kisses my head and I move so I’m sitting. Mia doesn’t need any prompting. She just comes up and snuggles against me, crying quietly in the moment. I wrap my arms around her, mindful of my paws, and I hold my sweet mate.
“I was scared to call you,” she admits after a moment. “I wasn’t sure if it would make me needy, you know? I thought we had this crazy connection, but you never really know with guys. It was such a spur-of-the-moment thing, you and me. It just…I didn’t want to be ‘that girl.’”
She could never be “that girl.”
She’ll only ever be amazing to me.
Slowly, I shift back, and suddenly I’m holding her against my bare skin. Mia doesn’t react except to snuggle closer to me, and I stroke her hair. I don’t mind that we’re in the middle of the woods, in the dark, on the gro
und. The only thing that matters right now is that we’re together.
“You don’t mind being with a big ol’ bear?” I ask.
“You don’t mind being with a tiny little human?” She shoots back.
“Not at all. You’re perfect to me, Mia.”
“I have some baggage.”
“We all do.”
“I have a big brother who’s a little overprotective of me.”
“I’ll deal with him.”
“Are you really okay with this? The baby thing?”
I turn Mia so that her back is to my chest, and I rest my hands on her belly.
“Mia, I’ve never wanted anything as much as I want you and this baby. I want both of you.”
“You have no idea how good it is to hear you say that.”
“Were you worried?”
“A little.”
“You shouldn’t be.”
“You’re amazing, you know that?”
“Move to Honeypot. Come live with me.”
“Okay.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it, Aidan. I’ll come to Honeypot.”
Chapter 9
Mia
We make out in the woods a little bit more before returning to Aidan’s place. The house is dark except for the porch light, which shines like a beacon.
This is going to be my home.
The realization is strange as we walk inside. Aidan locks the door, then turns to me. He’s still naked. He carried his clothes back and I didn’t complain about the view. Now that we’re home, inside this comfortable house, I’m ready to see where this is going to go. I’m ready for more.
He drops his clothes on the floor and I dive for him. He lifts me effortlessly and pushes me back against the wall. My legs wrap around him as we kiss hard, fast, deep. We’re practically eating each other alive and it’s still not enough.
I still need more, want more, crave more. His hands are on my ass and my breasts and everywhere in between, but then Aidan sets me down long enough for me to pull my clothes off as we kiss. I push him back to the couch and he sits down. Straddling him, I silently offer my breasts to him and he begins to kiss and suck.
He traces his fingers down my back and I lower myself onto him.
Memories of our night together flash through my mind.
Kissing in the doorway.
Flash.
Undressing in the living room.
Flash.
Stumbling to my room.
Flash.
Everything about that night was passionate, intense, fast. Tonight is fast, too, but it doesn’t feel like it. It feels like we’ve been taking our damn time all evening with the kissing and making out and that now, it’s finally time for the main event.
I’m more turned on than I’ve ever been in my damn life. All the tension I felt about coming to Honeypot, all the anxiety that coursed through my veins, it’s all leaving. Now the only thing I feel is relief to be wrapped in his arms, being touched by the one I care about.
By the one I’m going to be with for always.
By the one I love.
Slowly, Aidan’s cock slides inside of me, filling me. I groan at the same time he does. He holds perfectly still as I’m filled with his dick, then he kisses me hard and thrusts up into me.
“Hey, I’m on top. I’m in control.”
“Nice try, princess.”
“That’s the way this works.”
“Not with me,” he smiles. Aidan’s grin goes straight to my heart and I wonder how I’ve managed to make it the last several weeks without him. He’s so fun and relaxed and happy.
He’s so sweet.
He’s so fucking hot I can’t take much more of this.
He runs his hands over my body before settling his fingers on my clit. Rubbing me in quick, short strokes, it’s not long before I’m clenching and tightening my body around his cock.
He bites me on the shoulder.
“Come for me, naughty girl.”
“Not yet,” I murmur. I need more. Just a little bit more.
Aidan seems to know because he kisses me on the mouth then. His tongue slips past my lips and he shows me without words what he really thinks of me. He shows me he can’t live without me, either. He shows me he can’t stop thinking about me. He shows me I’m the prettiest damn thing he’s ever seen.
“Come,” he bites my bottom lip hard and that’s it. I come undone on top of him. Everything goes dark and then it comes back to light. My body spasms, tensing, and I feel him coming inside of me at the same time.
Our hearts might be connected and now our bodies are, too. Now our souls are.
He wraps his arms around me and pulls me flush against him. I rest my head on Aidan’s shoulder and close my eyes, just thinking about how I feel, just thinking about everything that happened today.
When I came to Honeypot, I didn’t think he’d ask me to stay with him, to be his, but now that I’m here, now that I’m in Aidan’s arms, nothing could tear me away.
***
“Your room is huge.”
“All the better to fuck you in.”
“Seriously?”
He shrugs and flicks on the bedside lamp. It casts a small glow in the room and I can’t help but smile. If I thought I was in love with Aidan, I’m definitely in love with his polar bear bedroom.
I walk further in the room and look around. There’s a big bed in the center of the room. When I fantasize about being rich and buying my dream house, this is definitely the kind of bed I picture. The four-poster bed frame showcases a big white comforter with tons and tons of throw pillows.
Scurrying onto the bed, I snuggle into the pillows.
“Ah,” I say.
“Comfy?”
“You have no idea.”
“Actually, since it’s my room, I’d say I have a very good idea.”
“Do you bring a lot of people here?”
“Jealous?”
“No.” A little. No.
“No.”
“Why not?”
Aidan just laughs and climbs onto the bed with me. We rest on top of the comforter, on top of the pillows, on top of the best damn mattress I’ve ever been on in my life, and we hold each other for a little while.
“I was serious when I said I want you to stay.”
“I was serious when I said you would,” I tell him. I need to stop holding my breath. Breathe, Mia. Breathe.
“Do you need to give notice at work?”
“Two weeks. A month if I want to be generous.”
“The idea of being without you for another month makes me crazy,” he whispers. “But we can do what you want.”
“Two weeks it is.”
He kisses me again and smiles.
“You know, you never did tell me what you do for work.”
“I work at a bakery.”
His eyes open wide and I know he’s trying to tell if I’m fucking with him. I’m not. I had no idea he was a baker, but part of me thinks I should have figured it out.
“So, I’m going to be needing a new job soon,” I say with a smile. “Know any bakeries in the area that have openings? I’m very good at banana bread. It’s kind of my specialty.”
“Hmm,” he says, tapping his chin thoughtfully. I pick up a pillow and smack it with him. Aidan pretends to be hurt and playfully rolls back on the bed, and I’m instantly caught by how damn fine he is.
“I know you’re okay,” I say.
“I’m not. You really hurt me.”
“Aw, do you want me to kiss it better?”
With that, the mood suddenly shifts, and he nods slowly. No longer are we playfully giggling and laughing and talking about the future. No, the future is now, in this moment, and we’re both ready to find out what’s going to happen.
He’s on his back and I lean over him, eyeing his soft pink lips. I want to kiss him until the world ends. He’s that damn amazing. The world isn’t ending, though. It’s only just beginning. My life
feels like it’s been on hold, just waiting for this, just waiting for right now, and I’m not going to do anything to try to slow it down. I’m not going to do anything but enjoy this moment.
“Does it hurt here?” I kiss his cheek.
“No.”
“How about here?” I kiss his other cheek.
“No.”
“Hmm, what about over here?” My lips touch his neck.
“Lower,” he whispers, his voice deep and husky. Aroused.
“Here?” I run my fingers over his hard chest and down to his abs. His cock is hard. I can see it, but I don’t touch him there. Not yet. He’s teased me more than enough for one night. I think it’s my turn to do a little teasing of my own.
I kiss his nipples, one at a time. I don’t know if men really like having their nipples licked, but it feels good when someone does it to me, so why not find out? He groans a little as I lick and suck, so I think that Aidan, at least, likes the feeling.
“Does that make it all better?” I ask in a whisper.
“Keep going,” he says, forgetting about his pretend pain. Mission accomplished. I feel a wave of womanly satisfaction at knowing I’ve managed to turn him on this much. He’s aroused to the point where he forgot about the game we were playing and he just wants me.
He needs me.
I run my hands down his stomach, over his hard abs. I lick and kiss my way down, slowly moving over his body. His skin is soft beneath my hands and I just want more. I’m careful to avoid his cock as I make my way past his belly button and over the start of his dark pubic hair.
I know what he wants because I want it too. I want to suck Aidan’s cock until he can’t help but come in my mouth. I want to feel his seed wash over my tongue and down my throat. I want to make him lose control.
Something tells me that Aidan is used to being in control. It wouldn’t shock me if he was quite the planner, a Type-A personality kind of guy. That’s fine. It probably makes him an excellent business owner and a quality baker.
But everyone needs to let loose a little bit sometimes and tonight is Aidan’s time. Instead of taking his cock in my mouth, I decide to tease him a little bit more. I move to his hip and bite him there. He’s a little sensitive, and he jerks slightly in surprise. His dick rubs against my breast and I hold still for a second, enjoying the feeling. Then I keep moving.