The look of confusion on Riley’s face only grew. “Okay,” she said uncertainly.
Hunter bit his lip and paused before continuing. He looked at Riley’s face one last time before he started speaking. He wanted to remember what her eyes looked like when they were filled with affection for him, in case he never saw that look again.
“Riley, have you ever heard of shapeshifters?”
She raised an eyebrow in his direction. “Yes,” she said, her voice sounding somewhat amused. Whatever things she might have thought he was about to say, that clearly was not on the list.
Hunter took a deep breath, and decided to spill everything in one big, quick confession. “Riley, I’m a shapeshifter. A bear shifter, to be exact. I know it sounds insane, but it’s true. I can switch back and forth between human and bear form at will. The rest of my smokejumping crew, except for Charlotte, are all bear shifters as well. And even when I’m in human form, I retain my keen bear sense for hearing and smelling. That’s how I was able to smell you and find you when you were in trouble the other day.”
Riley stared at him, her left eyebrow frozen in a questioning arch above her eye. She seemed to be trying to decide whether he was certifiably crazy or just attempting to pull her leg. Or both. Hunter met her gaze, trying to keep as sincere of an expression as possible on his face.
After a few moments of silence, he saw a look of fear cross her eyes as she took a step backwards. “Oh my god. You’re serious,” she said.
The frightened look in her eyes tore at Hunter’s heart, but he resisted the urge to step toward her and put his arms around her. He knew she needed a bit of space right now, and reaching for her would only make things worse.
“Is it contagious?” she asked, her eyes widening.
“No. It’s genetic. It’s not something you can catch, so don’t worry about that. And I’m fully in control of my actions even when I’m in bear form, so I would never hurt you. There’s nothing for you to fear.”
She kept staring at him for several more moments, not saying anything. Hunter silently pleaded with her to accept him. Or at least to give him a chance to prove that he was still a respectable, lovable man, even though he was a bear. He wished he could somehow make her see how much he cared about her. His whole life, he had been judged by nearly everyone who had discovered that he was a bear shifter. He had been called a monster and Frankenstein. He’d even had an old lady in Georgia try to cast the evil spirit out of him. But he had always brushed it off. He tried to always see the best in everyone, and when someone acted unkindly toward him, he told himself to give that person grace and remember that they probably had a lot of difficult things in their life to deal with. He had never cared that much what anyone else thought of him, until now. He desperately wanted Riley to accept him for who he was. He could handle it when a random stranger reacted to him with fear and disgust. But he didn’t know how he would cope with the blow if Riley hated him now.
When she finally spoke again, her voice sounded less afraid, and more doubtful. “You can’t be serious,” she said softly. “Shifters are just legends. People can’t actually turn into bears. Are you sure you didn’t inhale too much smoke the other day, or something? I think maybe we need to get you to a doctor. How much water have you had to drink today?”
She stepped forward toward him again, and put her hand on his forehead as if feeling to see whether he had a fever. Her eyes were full of concern as Hunter shook his head at her.
“Riley, I’m not sick. I’m telling you the truth.”
“You feel a little warm,” she said, ignoring his comment. “I think you might have a fever. Maybe we should radio your boss and see if they have a helicopter ready yet that they can send in to get us.”
“Riley!” Hunter said, reaching out to pull her hand down from his forehead. “You’re not hearing me. I’m not sick. I’m telling you the truth. This is a really hard conversation for me to have, because I love you, and I don’t want to lose you. But I need you to understand the truth about me. I need to be able to trust you, and I need you to trust me.”
Hunter held Riley’s hand as he looked into her eyes, trying to convey to her how seriously he meant his words.
“You…love me?” she asked, her voice shaking a little.
Hunter winced inwardly. Maybe this hadn’t been the best time to drop that little nugget on her, but he had meant what he said, and he wasn’t going to deny it.
“Yes. I love you.”
“And you really think you’re a bear?” she asked.
Hunter let out an exasperated sigh. “Yes, I really think I’m a bear. I know I’m a bear. Do you want me to show you?”
Riley looked like she wanted to roll her eyes. “Okay,” she said. “Fine. Show me.”
“Stay where you are,” Hunter said. Then he backed up away from her until he had nearly reached the shore of the river. He rubbed his forehead once in frustration and tried to calm his nerves. This wasn’t how he had envisioned this conversation going. Maybe he should have seen it coming, but it had somehow never crossed his mind that Riley would want him to prove he was a bear by shifting. And the fact that Riley hadn’t said “I love you” back to him weighed on him. Maybe he would never hear those words from her. But he didn’t regret saying them to her. If his time with her came to an end after she realized he was a bear, at least he’d had a chance to say he loved her.
Hunter breathed in deeply and then began to shift. A whoosh of powerful wind rushed across the river as his human flesh started morphing into thick, dark fur. Where his fingers had been only moments before, large paws covered in black fur appeared. Sharp claws extended out from the paws, glistening wet as they splashed into the river water. His face was the last part of him to change. His green eyes remained the same, but his nose turned into the soft muzzle of a bear. His ears became rounded and furry, and his teeth grew large and fearsome. He let out a roar as he completed his transformation and stood before Riley as a giant black bear.
She stared at him with huge, round eyes, her jaw dropped open in shock.
Chapter Seven
Riley couldn’t believe that she was looking at a bear where Hunter had stood moments before. Maybe she was the one with a fever. This couldn’t actually be happening, could it?
It occurred to her that maybe she should be afraid. She should turn around and run, although she had no idea where she would hide out here. The forest was a sparse pile of ashes right now. But in her shocked state, she did nothing. She stood there and stared at Hunter, trying to formulate some sort of response. Could he even understand her words while he was a bear?
Tentatively, she took a step toward the bear. He remained perfectly still, looking up at her with the same piercing green eyes that had become such a familiar and comforting sight to Riley. She stepped closer and closer, until she could reach out and touch the bear’s head. Slowly, and with some trepidation, she placed her hand on his strong, fuzzy muzzle. If the bear wanted to, he could have bitten her whole arm off right now. But instead he stood there, gazing up at her patiently. Riley moved her hand from his muzzle to the top of his head, and then stroked her hand across his back. His fur was thick, but soft. She walked in a little circle around the bear, looking at him from every angle. When she had almost gone the whole way around, she noticed a large spot near his left ribcage where no fur was growing. The bear had a scar, in the exact same spot on his back that Hunter had a scar.
She could not deny that this black bear was actually Hunter. She traced the line of the scar, and a feeling of peace suddenly flooded through her. It didn’t bother her that he was a bear. When he first mentioned being a bear shifter, she’d remembered a story she’d heard about a werebear who could turn humans into werebears by biting them. But, according to Hunter, he wasn’t exactly like that. His shifting ability was genetic, not something he could pass on to her. Shifting was a unique, special part of him. As Riley processed all of the information about Hunter that had just been thrown at her, she
realized that his ability to turn into a bear actually impressed her.
He was special. She had known that from the moment she met him. He had risked his own life to save her. And then he had gone out of his way to make sure she was as comfortable as possible on their hike, even though the circumstances hadn’t been the best. And now, she was discovering that he could turn into a bear. It was just one more unique, special part of him. And Riley loved him, every part of him. She should have told him that when he’d said he loved her, but she’d still been confused in that moment about whether the whole shifting thing was actually real. Now, the realization of how much he meant to her splashed over her like a soothing, warm ray of sunshine. She threw her arms around the bear’s neck, and nuzzled her face against his furry neck.
“I love you, too, Hunter,” she said, although she still wasn’t sure whether he could understand her words while in bear form. “You’re so special.”
Hunter grunted in response, and swung his head backwards to try to nuzzle her back. Then he wriggled out of her gasp and took a few steps away from her. A few moments later, another large burst of wind hit Riley as the black bear morphed back into Hunter. His underwear had been torn off when he shifted into bear form, and he stood in front of Riley dripping wet from the river water, with his ample dick on full display.
She sucked in a deep, longing breath at the sight of it. As soon as he’d changed into human form, he had started to get an erection. Right in front of her eyes, his penis started stiffening, growing harder and lifting itself up until it stuck straight out from Hunter’s body like a rock solid flag. The late afternoon sunlight danced across his tanned skin, making his muscular body glisten as the light hit his wet body. Riley had never wanted a man as badly as she wanted Hunter right now. He looked like absolute perfection.
She tore off her own bra and underwear, then grabbed his hand to pull him out into the middle of the cool river with her. She saw his eyes flit appreciatively across her naked body, and she couldn’t help but smile with satisfaction. He obviously liked what he saw.
With the soft river water flowing over them, she pressed her naked body against his, reaching her arms around him and holding him by the back of his head. She pulled his face in toward hers and put her lips over his, slipping her tongue into his mouth and moaning in delight as she felt the soft warmth of his mouth. Even though they were in a river, she could tell that her vagina was getting wet. Her insides were juicing themselves up, getting ready for him. The anticipation of having that huge dick inside of her sent tingles throughout her body. She pressed harder against him as she moved her tongue in delightful little circles deep inside his mouth.
Suddenly, he pulled back, panting. His eyes churned and held an intensity that almost frightened her.
“Riley,” he said in a breathless voice. “I need you to understand something. When a bear shifter mates with someone who is his true lifemate, a deep bond forms. I’m sure you’re my lifemate. If we have sex, that bond is going to form. It will feel more intense for me, because I’m a shifter, but even as a human, you’ll feel something, too. This isn’t going to be just casual sex. It’s going to mean something on a deeper scale. I don’t know exactly how to explain it, but it will change you. You’ll be emotionally connected to me in a very profound way.”
Riley looked up at his eyes, nearly losing herself in the sea of passion she saw there. His words were hard to understand. She didn’t know exactly what he meant by the term “lifemate,” although it seemed somewhat self-explanatory. But she wasn’t afraid of an emotional connection. In fact, she craved it. Riley had always been the type to love with complete abandon. When she gave her heart to someone, she was all in.
She smiled at Hunter, and stretched up on her tip-toes to give him a gentle kiss on the lips. “I think nothing would make me happier than to be connected to you like that.”
Hunter let out a low growl, and reached his arms around her as he leaned down to kiss her again. The water swirled around them as his movements took on a sense of urgency. His tongue stayed in her mouth, moving back and forth with a pleasing rhythm, as his hands made their way down the front of her body to her breasts. He cupped one breast in each hand, gently squeezing their fullness and groaning in delight. His thumbs stroked back and forth across her nipples, sending warm tingles radiating throughout her entire body.
He slid his hands further down, reaching below the surface of the water and cupping her sex with his large palm. He slid one finger into her, moving it up and down, and adding a whole new intensity to the tingles that were still spreading throughout her body. He finally broke away from kissing her mouth, and moved his mouth to the side of her face to kiss her ear.
Riley moaned, savoring the tingling pressure that was filling her body. She kept her arms around his back, holding on tightly as Hunter simultaneously nibbled her ear and teased her clitoris. She could feel her pleasure growing, but just as she reached the verge of an orgasm from the motion of Hunter’s finger, he slipped his hand away and put it around her back.
“You didn’t think I was going to let you come from my finger, did you?” he teased. “No, ma’am. You’re going to experience the real thing.”
And that was the only warning she got before he thrust his rock solid erection deep into her. Riley’s eyes flew open wide at the size of his penis as it filled her. For a long, splendid moment, he held his dick there inside of her without moving. His hands were on the back of her hipbones, and he pressed her hips firmly against his hips. He looked deep into her eyes as they stood there together, connected into one being by his dick inside of her.
“Do you like it?” he asked, his voice husky.
Riley could only nod in response.
“Good. Because it likes you,” he said. And then he began thrusting. His motions were smooth, but powerful. River water splashed around them as he rocked Riley back and forth, hitting every possible pleasure point inside of her. She felt the warm tingling in her body growing to a seemingly impossible level, and she bit her lip and moaned loudly as the colors and sounds of the world around her seemed to turn into one giant blur. All she could focus on was Hunter’s face in front of her. His eyes churned with desire, and she felt herself tingling from the sight of them as well as from the intensity of his large penis inside of her. She held out as long as she could, trying to prolong the maddeningly wonderful feeling of pressure that he had stirred up inside of her. When she couldn’t hold it back anymore, she threw her head back and let out a scream of delight as she gave in to the waves of the orgasm that washed over her. The hottest, most intense sensation she had ever felt coursed through her veins as she felt her muscles clamping over and over around Hunter.
As soon as she found her release, he let himself come inside of her. He held her hips and gave one last deep thrust into her. Then he filled her with a pulsing, hot stream as he groaned and threw his head back to let out a magnificent roar.
They held each other as the intensity of the moment slowly faded away. Riley’s long dark hair hung dripping wet around her shoulders, and droplets of water slowly beaded up and fell from Hunter’s short hair. He slid out of her and put his arms around her, holding her close and kissing the top of her head.
Riley was so overcome with emotion that she couldn’t speak. Just as Hunter had predicted, having sex with him had taken their connection to a deeper level. She felt linked to him in a way that she never had to any man before him. She wasn’t exactly a spiritual person, but she could tell that there was something deeper there. She sighed happily as she rested her head against his chest. For several minutes, Hunter held her there as they enjoyed the warmth of each other’s arms.
Finally, Hunter broke their embrace and gave Riley a nudge toward the shoreline.
“Let’s get out and dry off before the sun sets,” he said.
Riley happily let him take her hand and guide her out of the water. They lay down on some large smooth rocks at the river’s edge, and laced their fingers together
as they stared up at the slowly darkening sky.
“So, what’s this lifemate business all about?” Riley asked. “Is a lifemate like a husband or wife?”
“Sort of,” Hunter said. “But the bond is much stronger than just a marriage certificate. It can’t be broken by a divorce. Once you’re bonded to someone as their lifemate, you’re their lifemate for, well, life.”
“So, are you bonded to me now?” Riley asked.
Hunter paused before answering. “Yes,” he said, then looked over at her. “I know it’s a lot to take in, when you just met someone. It sounds crazy. But when you realize that lifemates are fated to find each other and be with each other from before even the moment they were born, it makes sense. Once you meet the person you’re meant to be with, things tend to move quickly.”
“I felt…different, after we had sex. I felt somehow connected to you in a way I never have to anyone before.”
Hunter smiled. “That’s the lifemate bond. It’s very strong, and it cements itself once you mate with your fated lifemate.”
“It’s funny that you say ‘mated’ instead of ‘had sex,’” Riley said.
“I know. It’s a bear thing,” Hunter said. He looked back up at the sky again, and Riley followed suit. It didn’t make sense to her that someone could be bonded for life just because they had sex, but she did feel pretty amazing after her little river romp with Hunter. The last few days had brought a lot of interesting changes to her life.
“I still can’t believe you’re a bear,” she said.
“I still can’t believe you didn’t run away screaming into the woods,” Hunter said.
“What woods? Everything out here is burnt to a crisp. I wouldn’t have anywhere to hide. And I’m pretty sure I can’t outrun a bear.”
Hunter chuckled.
“Seriously, though. I obviously wasn’t expecting you to be part bear, but after getting over the initial shock of it, I actually think it’s kind of cool.”
Fire Bear Shifters: The Complete Series Page 14