“I have to talk to you, Thorn. It’s very serious. Your life is in danger.”
Thorn was downwind of her. Her cat jumped to life inside her. A moment later, he was close enough for his scent to scud toward her on the wind. Too close. He reared up on his hind legs, towering three feet over her head. With a roar she felt in her gut, the huge animal swiped at her.
Had her cat not been alerted, Felicity’s head would be rolling in the grass next to a bunch of garbage bags. Instead, Felicity ducked and caught a glancing blow to her shoulder. If you could call it that. The paw hit her like a sledgehammer, spinning her halfway around before knocking her to the muddy grass.
The enormous bear crashed down toward her with both paws. Felicity had enough sense to roll as quickly as she could under her car. Oh, but her car was so small, the space beneath tiny. Claws swept beneath, nearly shearing her scalp off. Then, the car rocked. She saw the driver side tires lift off the ground. Holy shit!
As quickly as she could, she scooted out from under her car and skidded beneath Thorn’s truck like a baserunner sliding into home. Immediately, she began shucking her clothes. Why the hell had she decided on wearing jeans? Between the snug denim and the wet rain, getting them off was like trying to peel a watermelon.
Blood flowed from her wounds, dripping down into the mud. She heard the bear snuffing the air, catching the scent. In seconds, the bear collided with the truck, bellowing in frustration.
The bear hadn’t given her much time. Thorn’s truck rocked with its attempt to get at her. A claw swept through the mud and gravel just inches from her. Sweater off, bra off, she belly-crawled to the far side of the vehicle. As she clambered from beneath, she shifted, four feet giving her speed.
Felicity made for the woods behind the trailer. With an angry roar, the bear spotted her. Sprinting all out, she rounded the trailer. Her ears picked up the sound of dread. Those giant feet slapped in the mud, the bear now in pursuit.
She was screwed. The brown bear was bigger, faster, stronger than Felicity. The huff of his breath and stamp of his racing feet grew closer as she ran.
Chapter Seventeen
Anger propelled Thorn through the night, an unguided missile. At the boundary of his land and the national forest, he stopped, drawing in air, searching for a scent. Nothing, there was nothing. The tracks he found were his own. Trees used as backscratchers carried Thorn’s scent.
Zig-zagging across his range, he searched. There were no bear kills, no sleeping dens that were unfamiliar. Panting, he stopped at the wide bole of an ancient fir. Thorn rose on his hind legs and bellowed a challenge. His roar echoed through the trunks. He heard no response.
Thorn let his bones crackle down and compress, his fur recede. He needed his human brain. Gazing across the black expanse dappled with moonlight, he thought it over. This bear was a shifter. He could easily have driven to Thorn’s woods, vandalized the trailer, and driven off again. It seemed like a pussy thing to do, but there was no other bear out here.
He beared-up and loped to a spawning stream that cut through the land. The bear drank deeply, immune to the critters in the mountain stream. Refreshed, he followed the stream up the slope. In half a mile, the stream ran under a low bridge. Just beyond was a turnout that could easily hide a vehicle in the dark.
Thorn saw none, but closer inspection revealed tire tracks. These were fresh, just filling with water from the rain. The bear growled its version of “you son of a bitch,” before enveloping itself again in the woods.
Paralleling the road, he made for his trailer. At the same time he caught a glimpse of the light on in his kitchen, the scent came to him. Bear scent. The odor was strong despite the storm. A female, he knew. Thorn jogged toward the source. Getting nearer, he caught another scent, a familiar one that sent his heart racing. Felicity.
Sprinting, he reached his driveway in minutes. Felicity’s little sports car stood next to his truck. Was that blood he smelled? He condensed down to man-shape. “Felicity?”
Blood in the driveway, made pink by the rain. He saw it leading from under the little car to his truck. Both vehicles were dented, claw marks visible in the paint. Thorn crouched down, seeing dig marks in the gravel. He put it together in his mind. Felicity had fled the bear attack by slipping under her car, and then under Thorn’s truck. After that—
Impact and pain drove Thorn face first into the driveway. He rolled over to see the bear above him, paw raised to strike. Thorn managed to get an arm up to ward off the swat. For his trouble, his flesh was torn, the elbow cracking and popping in a frightening way.
Was this the bastard who was fucking up his land? Thorn was gonna kick this bitch’s ass. Hopefully.
As big as he was, no man stood a chance against a bear. His already mangled arm was proof of that. Though the bear was not the giant he had expected, it would only take the animal a few seconds to dispatch him.
Thorn yelled, “Fuck!” in the creature’s face. Flinching away from the noise, the bear retaliated. It took a chunk of flesh out of Thorn’s shoulder. He needed to shift, just a split second to concentrate. With his good arm, he landed a fierce punch on the bear’s snout. Growling and moaning, the beast backed off.
It was enough.
Despite all the shifting he’d done this night, he brought the bear back full force. He was five times the sow’s size, driven by fury, frustration and pain. Rising on his hind legs, Thorn put all he had into a backhanded swat to the rival bear’s head.
That was all she wrote. Rolling ass over teakettle, the enemy bear collided with the side of his truck. She bounced off. Landed face-first in the gravel. Thorn dropped to all fours and moved in for the kill.
But stopped. The black bear shrunk before his eyes, fur parting and retreating. A mass of curly dark hair remained, the bear shape twisted into the hourglass voluptuousness of a woman. Thorn recognized her scent, even though he couldn’t believe it.
With a gentle paw, he turned her over to look at her face. At first, of course, he saw the big, bouncy tits. Above that was a face he knew too well.
The owner of the Squirrels Nuts bar—Sally.
“What. Thee. Fuck?”
***
What could she do? Shifting to cat form had healed her some, but even in perfect health, the monster behind her could outrun, out-climb, and outswim her despite its mass. Claws extended, she dug into the dirt, maneuvering around the trees in a way the bear couldn’t. It would only buy her a little time, she knew.
There was only one physical fete she could perform that a bulky bear could not. Her mind raced, trying to figure out how to best turn that to her advantage. If she could. Ahead, the woods opened up. The trees she had been tightly been maneuvering around would no longer slow the animal behind her.
Cats had instinctive maps in their heads far more accurate than a human. Just hours before, she had playfully attacked Thorn from a high ledge. It stood over a stream. Ears guided her toward running water as the cat plotted the fastest route.
She crossed a meadow. With each of her sprinting steps, the bear gained one. He was going to run her to ground before she made it. Cat muscles strained for more acceleration. There it was, just ahead, the stream.
On the opposite side was a game track. Felicity flew through the water and burst through the underbrush. She startled a flock of birds into flight. Behind her, so close behind her, the bear startled as the birds flew into its face.
Up the track she ran, brush crashing and cracking at her back with the monster’s progress. There it was—the ledge! She had to time it perfectly, or she would hit the rocky face and rebound right into the bear’s clutches. Felicity sprang for the narrow ledge. It stood more than twenty feet up. Exhausted as she was, she landed on top of it.
As well as bears could climb trees, they couldn’t scale a sheer rocky face. Felicity turned to give the animal a triumphant scream. It was gone. Her powerful eyes swept the area below. How could such an enormous creature vanish like that?
Ear
s picked up a sound, not far away, the starting of an engine. Moments later, headlights swept the trees above her. She sat on her haunches, breathing deep. Whatever else that beast might be, he was very familiar with these woods. Felicity had not known the stream that ran beneath the road.
Remembering the state of the trailer, Felicity leapt back off the ledge and ran through the woods the way she’d come. That bear had come from behind Thorn’s trailer. Was Thorn hurt, or worse?
In the clearing behind the trailer, she caught Thorn’s scent. She twisted herself back into human shape and ran around to the front door.
“Felicity.” Thorn stood in the doorway, the door hanging off one hinge. He wore only his jeans, his skin wet with rain. His arm was mangled, but partly healed. He’d had time to shift after an attack. His eyes widened. “You’re hurt.”
Gentle hands swept the hair off her shoulder. Claw marks had healed, but not fully. He bent down and kissed her there, like a mother making it better. Then he cupped her chin and kissed her lips.
“Oh, Thorn, I thought that bear killed you.” She kissed him back, throwing her good arm around his neck. “I don’t know what I’d do if you—”
“You saw it?” He held her at arm’s length. “Is that what hurt you? I’m gonna find that motherfucker and tear it a new asshole. Maybe two. Sonofabitch trashed my trailer.”
“There’s a reason he’s after you, Thorn. That’s why I came here, to warn you, help you.”
He shook his head. “It’s my problem, I’ll deal with it.”
“You don’t understand the danger. We need to make this our problem.”
Thorn blew out his cheeks. “There’s more than just this asshole bear to deal with.”
“Thorn?”
Felicity jerked toward the sound of a female voice issuing from the trailer. She frowned at Thorn. “You’ve got someone in there?”
“Yeah, it’s—”
Felicity gave him a hard shove. “I thought we…” Teeth bared, she stalked toward the broken door.
“Hold on, babe, I can explain.”
She jumped up the steps of the trailer and saw the woman in the living room. Sally, the bar owner lay naked on the couch.
Chapter Eighteen
“Are you fucking kidding me?” She whirled on Thorn as he stepped in behind her.
His palms were held up to her. “This isn’t that kind of thing.”
“No?” Felicity faced Sally again. “Let’s see, sex hair, flushed, kinda sweaty, naked, huge boobs, it looks like a tornado swept through here. What doesn’t this look like?”
“Her arm—”
“Oh, we’re looking at her arm, are we?”
“He’s mine,” Sally said from the couch, stretching. “I told you. You can insult me, make fun of me all you want. But I win.”
Felicity pressed her lips together. No retort came to her. “Fine. You win. You both win. Enjoy yourselves. Thorn, you can fuck the bartender all you want. In fact, why don’t you both go fuck yourselves?”
“Whoa, whoa, hang on,” Thorn said.
Her inner cat snarled through Felicity’s throat. She shoved past him. Furious, she grabbed her soggy, soiled clothes from under her car, fished out the keys. “You bastard,” she said, yanking on the jeans.
He came out the door, heading for her. She gunned the car to life. If the driveway was wide enough to turn around, she would’ve run into him. Instead, she backed out, tires tossing gravel.
“Asshole sonofabitch,” she said through her teeth as she sped down the road. Let the bear get him, she didn’t give a shit. Although she did her best to keep her anger up, by the time she reached Ripple, the tears started.
Glad of the late hour, she padded upstairs and packed her bags, roughly swiping tears from her face the whole time. Cats were proud. Cats didn’t cry. When a cat was hurt, it crawled into hiding so no one could see it was weak.
How could he do this to her? Didn’t they have a thing? Thorn was probably too stupid to recognize a thing when he saw it. Never before had she experienced anything like she had with the bear. Even her cat side knew there was something special about their relationship. Being with him made her reckless and crazy.
Maybe too crazy. Why would anyone give their heart to a bear?
Didn’t he feel the same? He must! How couldn’t he? But just like a man, he would throw it all away at the first flash of big boobs. She dragged her bags through the quiet house. The flowers still sat on the dining room table. The arrangement was a casket spray, funeral flowers. Maybe that was fitting, in hindsight.
She cursed herself as she drove through the dark. Felicity had just been playing. It was all fun and games until someone got hurt, she supposed. She was the one seducing Thorn, not the other way around. So why was her heart so broken?
With all the scheming and banter and crazy sex, shed fallen in love with Thorn? Part of her still ached for the man, orphaned at a young age, so naïve about the world, so alone.
Felicity sat up straighter. Well, fuck him. Maybe he deserved to be alone. She stepped hard on the gas.
***
“That’s right, Thorn, you can fuck the bartender all you want.”
Ohh shit. Felicity was so mad. He couldn’t blame her. For all the years he’d known Sally, he never thought of her as sexy. But now, exposed and squirming around on his couch, he couldn’t help but take her in. She was bustier than Felicity by a lot and far more voluptuous. Wasp-waist, flaring hips, short but shapely legs, cute feet. Her skin was flawless and pale, pink nipples ridiculously small. Most alluring were her eyes. He felt drawn in, as if pushed toward her by a high wind, a fierce wave. His dick woke up to say hello.
Thorn stood his ground, forcing his eyes to her forearm. He could see a perfect bite mark there, almost healed. All forty-two teeth were evident in a narrow U-shape on both sides of her arm. Sally had been bitten by a were-bear.
She had been turned.
“Sally, you have to listen to me. Tell me about the bear that bit you.”
She smiled and stretched, posing. “How about we forget about anything but you doing me?”
Intense grinding in the back of his brain threatened to move Thorn’s feet across the floor and onto the couch. Onto Sally. It wasn’t his regular horniness, or even serious lust. This was far more insistent, the gears of his thoughts gnashing, his sex drive threatening to go into overdrive.
But Felicity was hurt. It was not his fault, or maybe on some level he didn’t understand that it was. Regardless, the pain in his heart managed to keep instinct at bay. He had to figure this out and fix it. Even if he did, would the cat-shifter ever understand?
He hurried past the couch. The amulet—where had he put it?
Sally whispered, “Where are you going?”
“Getting you a present.” He went through the closet in the bedroom; then remembered he had put it in his top dresser drawer.
“I’m hoping it’s a naked present with eight throbbing inches,” Sally called.
The clamor in his head erased his rational thoughts. Thorn recognized the chaotic grinding as the utter need to bury himself into Sally and release his seed. While he had never experienced it before, he understood what it was: mating frenzy. He tried to focus on Felicity. She was the one he wanted. Why did it take screwing the pooch so badly that Felicity ran off to make him realize how much he wanted to be with her? As much as he needed to binge on Felicity’s presence, nature would soon win out over his heart’s desire.
Silver sent a charge through his hand as he lifted the fetish on its long chain. He palmed the little silver bear, and his thoughts instantly cooled. Thorn took a breath, now able to focus on something other than his dick. If this didn’t work, he didn’t know what he would do.
Back in the tiny living room, he stood over Sally. She smiled at him, eyes lidded, arms wide. Ready for him. Even outside of the mating frenzy, a part of him wanted to say to hell with everything and dive into those huge tits. Instead, he draped the silver chain over
her. It was so long, the charm hung down to her navel.
Sally’s change was immediate. Eyes bugged, she grabbed cushions, a throw pillow, and covered herself. She scooted back into the corner of the couch, hugging herself. “What am I doing here? Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my—”
“Shh.” Thorn sat on the cushion-less couch next to her and took her arm. There was no doubt about it, that was a healed bear bite. “How did you get this?”
Sally looked at the scabbed-over injury as if seeing it for the first time. “It was in a dream.”
“Tell me.”
Her eyes went far away. “I was sleeping, and I heard noises downstairs in the bar. Just little things, pans rattling, like when the raccoons got in last spring. When I went to chase them out with a broom, there weren’t any raccoons. There was a bear, as big as the whole kitchen. He didn’t startle when he saw me, didn’t make a sound. He darted forward and bit my arm. At first, it didn’t hurt. He was pulling me out back.
“I didn’t want to go anywhere with a giant bear. When I tried to pull away, he bit down harder. Then he dragged me step by step out into the night. There was garbage everywhere. I thought, ‘darn it, I’ll have to clean all that up.’ Weird what you think in a dream. The bear kept pulling me until I was in the middle of the parking lot. I was wearing my jammies. Then, I saw the moon. I couldn’t stop looking at it, even though it got brighter than the sun.
“Next thing I know, I wake up in bed, naked. I got dressed and picked up the garbage—it wasn’t just dream garbage. There was a big bandage on my arm, but I didn’t remember putting one on. Everything seemed strange, in sharp focus. I felt good, strong.”
Thorn knew why. The enemy bear had turned her, and the moon would soon be full. For most of his life, Thorn had shifted at will, but he still felt the call, the power, of the full moon. Shifting under the brilliant silver light was the second best feeling in the world after sex. Sally had only recently been turned. She wouldn’t be able to control her bear when the moon was at full power.
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