by Edith DuBois
“I’m not scared. I want to be scared, but I’m just not.”
“It’s all part of this whole bear thing, little darlin’.” Joseph spoke from behind her, and she grinned at the promotion her nickname had received.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, there’s a particular reason Caleb here hasn’t seen you in weeks.”
“And why is that?” Elena looked deep into Caleb’s eyes, wanting him to answer.
“I did something foolish. You see, when a bear-shifter is in bear form and catches the scent of a human woman, no matter who she is, her scent will belong to that bear as long as she hasn’t already been mated by another bear or bears.
“And after that incident in the diner, I shifted, and I ran back to where I knew I would find your scent, and then I took a big ol’ whiff. Now, it wasn’t as strong or as potent as if I had smelled you in the flesh. If that had been the case, there would have been no stopping me. I would have had you right then and there.”
Elena’s cheeks flamed, remembering her encounter with Joseph from a few hours before. Apparently he was experiencing similar recollections because she felt his cock stir to life, and he pressed himself affectionately against her rear.
“Elena knows exactly what that’s like,” he said. Elena sheepishly met Caleb’s gaze, but he looked down at her with such hot desire that she soon forgot her embarrassment. God help her, but she wanted these men again.
“Anyway,” Caleb drawled, “after that, if I came across you again, bear form or not, it would have been pretty much the same thing. We would have gotten one whiff of each other and then, bam!” His sudden shout startled Elena, but he had tightened his arms around her, anticipating her reaction. He smiled wickedly down at her as he pressed his cock against her stomach. “There would have been no stopping us.”
“So how is it that your scent affects me? I get the whole ‘I’m a bear-shifter’ thing for you two, but how does it work for me?”
“Well, we only know this from our parents—”
“Your parents? Do they live here? Are they bear-shifters? I want to meet them!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Joseph said. “Slow down, little darlin’. We’re getting there. Besides, as soon as the new generation of bear-shifters—that’s us right now and will be our children someday—comes into full power, the old ones—our parents—are no longer bound to this land by magic. In other words, they get the heck out of dodge.”
“Sounds neat,” Elena said flatly, a little worried about the whole bound to this land by magic part.
Caleb continued. “Don’t get the wrong impression. Our parents, our parents’ parents, every ancestor in our bear-shifter lineage has fought and bled and died for this land, but can you imagine living here your whole life without ever being able to leave? Not even for a week can you leave without this nagging sensation that you are so completely and utterly in the wrong place. And then suddenly, you’re free from that?”
“Okay, I get that, but how is it possible that none of you can leave? What if you have to go? What if it’s a matter of life or death? Can’t you just get in your car and go?”
Caleb shot her a wry smile. “If only, if only. With each generation of bear-shifters, one select shifter out of the shifter families—”
Elena shot up from her relaxed and slouching position. “Families? As in there are more than one?”
“Sure,” Caleb said, unruffled by her interruption. “There are five. So as I was saying, one select shifter will be able to leave at will. In our generation, that is Noah Strong. Coincidentally, he’s also the youngest bear-shifter. But for the rest of us, every time a bear-shifter tries to leave, something inevitably happens to keep him here. Sudden illness. A string of cancelled flights.
“One time a generation or so ago a bear-shifter sat in an airport for more than a week, waiting for a flight. Finally, he just had to give up. He wasn’t getting out of Savage Valley. Anyway, from what our mother has told us, once your scent has taken root in our minds and in our bodies, it triggers a response in you—the woman that we want to claim. It’s all part of the old Shoshone magic that runs through our blood.”
“Old Shoshone magic?” Elena didn’t bother hiding her skepticism. “That sounds a little hokey to me.”
“Well, obviously there’s no real scientific explanation for what we are. All we have to go on are our family legends.”
“And family legend says…” Joseph nibbled on her neck playfully, causing Elena to emit a squeak of surprise. “…that once we smell our woman, she smells us.”
“Our scent makes you fearless, calm, and…” Caleb’s black eyes peeked over at her, studying her for a moment.
“And what?”
“Well, it can sometimes make you a little more possessive than usual.”
“Oh, I’ve never been the jealous type.” Caleb’s eyebrows shot up, but he didn’t say anything else about it.
“Another side effect known to accompany our scent is extreme lust.” To emphasize, Joseph reached around and cupped Elena’s pussy. Desire immediately blossomed in the lips of her pussy and pulsed inward. Instead of shying away from his touch like she would have with other men, her hips rocked forward. Closing her eyes, she reveled in the sensations that his rough palm conjured in her body just like the magic he spoke of.
Following that train of thought, she said, “Tell me more about this magic. What else does it do?”
“Whew!” Joseph said, a puff of his breath tickling the back of her neck. He pulled his hand away from Elena’s cunt and rolled onto his back. “That is a very broad topic.” She regretted the loss of his big, powerful hand on her pussy, but she wanted to hear more about bear magic, so she rolled onto her back and scooted up into a sitting position. Caleb followed suit, and Joseph’s voice soon rumbled next to her.
“So like Caleb said, there are five families. First, there’s us, the Kinmans, the first family to shift back into human form after the curse was laid upon our ancestors and the ancestors of all bear-shifting families.” There was a note of pride in his voice that Elena didn’t miss. “Then there’s the Greenwoods. You know Jeremiah, right?”
Elena nodded, dumbfounded. “And his brother, Jonathon.”
“He has an older brother as well, James, that I don’t believe you’ve met,” Caleb added helpfully.
“Then there are the Ashleys, the Carsons, and the Strongs.”
Elena almost couldn’t grasp it. The idea that so many mythical creatures were packed into this one tiny town made her head spin.
“Okay, so how did you all become bear-shifters in the first place?”
Joseph wriggled next to her as did Caleb, as if they were both preparing for a long story and wanted to get as comfortable as possible. When Joseph stilled, he had his head on her chest and put his hand on her knee to stroke lazy patterns across her skin with his fingertips. Caleb sat up against the headboard like Elena and held her hand in his, tracing the lines in the skin of her palm. “Well, to start off with,” Joseph said, “you should know that each of the bear-shifter families can trace their lineage back to the early 1800s. Each of our families’ forefathers were famous fur trappers ’round these parts. You’ve seen the Savage Valley bank?”
“Yes.”
“That’s actually the original fur-trading post. Now, I don’t like to mention it, but Charles Kinman—our ancestor and one of the first bear-shifters—had a particular reputation. He killed the most bears, the most elk, the most deer, beaver, foxes, coons. You name it. He held the record for most furs collected. He was a noted hunter and tracker, but he had a particular reputation for hunting down and killing black bears. That was his specialty. He delighted in it. He even made great big chairs using the fur and head of bears that he’d killed. Gruesome things.
“Our forefathers were freelance fur trappers, so while they traded regularly with the United States government, they were free to trap and kill as they pleased, and let me tell you, business was booming. Up until the curse, which
happened in 1832, Savage Valley was one of the most important trading posts in all the Rocky Mountains. Our family, along with the four other bear-shifter families, decided to make Savage Valley into a proper town. They set up the fur-trading post, found wives for themselves, and had all started families when the local Shoshone tribe got fed up with their mindless slaughter of the surrounding wildlife.” Joseph took a moment to swallow and catch his breath, so Caleb took over.
“One evening at the monthly town meeting, the residents of Savage Valley were surprised by a visit from the Shoshone Shaman, Cameahwait. He called on the great earth spirits to lay a curse on the families. The infants and the toddlers cried out and clung to their mothers as Cameahwait cast his powerful spell. The thunder rolled through the mountains and echoed through the valley. The air trembled, and after Cameahwait left the town hall, the five families—the men, the women, and the children—they all stood and left the hall, leaving the rest of the townsfolk behind. They walked into the forest, none of them speaking, and when they reached the trees, they began to undress. They continued walking through the forest, and one by one their bodies began to shift. They became bears.”
Caleb’s hand gripped hers tightly as did Joseph’s on her knee.
After a long moment, Joseph said, “Very spooky stuff.”
His matter-of-fact tone sent them all three into a hearty bout of laughter. “Is that really true?” Elena finally asked after her laughter had subsided. “Are you really telling me that there’s an unbreakable bear curse on your family?”
“Absolutely,” Joseph answered, sounding a little affronted that she would question their story. “Just ask Bo.”
“Who’s Bo?”
“Bohagande,” Caleb answered. “He’s the current Shaman of our local Shoshone tribe. The tribe lives along Savage Creek where the mountains and the forest meet south of downtown Savage Valley. He knows all the local legends better than anyone here.”
“Hmm, I may have to hunt this Bo down. And how did you get back into human form?”
“Well,” Joseph said, “it took us a while. Legend says that the bears could still hear each other’s human thoughts but that none of them could figure out how to shift back. It was always there, bubbling below the surface, but the bears were missing something to help them get back to human form. It wasn’t until years later. Our forefather, Charles Kinman, had more gray than black on his muzzle. His wife had died, and his two sons, Robert and Henry, were in their late thirties.
“Their human thoughts had shifted. They could no longer consider themselves fully human. Their lives and their health were irrevocably tied to that of the land. They roamed the land. They protected the flora and the fauna from any invading threat, yet they were not completely whole. The sons, Robert and Henry, had never started families of their own. Although they assumed they were stuck in bear form forever, their human side couldn’t adjust to the idea of mating with a bear. Ethically, it didn’t seem right. So they had long since resigned themselves to being the last in the Kinman line.
“But then, one day while they were drinking from a river deep in the forest, they came upon a woman bathing in the water. She was a beautiful creature. They couldn’t look away from her, and then they got the fateful whiff.”
Elena snickered at the term.
“You can probably imagine what happened from there,” Caleb said, letting his hand snake up her thigh, his pinkie rubbing against the sensitive flesh of her outer lips. “As soon as they caught hold of her aroma, they shifted back into human form. And instead of frightening the woman away, she welcomed them, and she made love to them. She took care of them, taught them to read and write. She reintegrated them back into society, and soon the three were married.
“Not long after that, the Kinman brothers set out looking for wives for each of the remaining families that were stuck in bear form. And now, hundreds of years later, here we are with our very own mate.” Caleb put his nose to Elena’s hair and took a deep breath. “Mmm,” he said, his breath low and earthy. “I will never tire of this scent, Elena.”
Joseph rolled toward her and yanked the sheet from underneath her arms where she had tucked it for decency’s sake. She flinched but immediately relaxed when his big palm grabbed one of her breasts and massaged, his thumb stroking and then flicking her pert nipple.
“Face Caleb,” Joseph ordered, and Elena did what he said, not because she felt particularly inclined to obey him but because she couldn’t wait to see what he had in store for her. Caleb had already rolled to his side, and Elena watched in fascination as he locked eyes with Joseph for a long moment. Something passed between them, and then Caleb grinned down at her, his eyes full of dark promise.
Before she had another moment to ponder their connection, though, Caleb grabbed her hips. He slung a leg over her hip and used it to pull her close. He nestled the tip of his cock against her entrance. Elena rolled her hips toward him, muscles tense with anticipation of that big cock filling her for the second time that day.
Then from behind, Joseph’s strong hands began massaging the muscles of her back. He began with her shoulder blades and moved down, digging his fingertips deep into the muscles that covered her back. She moaned out in pleasure. While she was distracted, Caleb suddenly thrust himself deep inside her, taking her by surprise and causing her breath to catch in her throat. Caleb held her face in his hands as Joseph’s strong thumbs pressed into the muscles of her lower back. He kneaded the muscles there for a long moment as Caleb began his rocking motion. His movement in and out was not rushed. He took his time with each stroke, pushing so deep within her pussy, making sure to scoop his hips so as to press against her inner walls in unexpected ways. Ways that had her panting for more.
Joseph’s hands moved further down, down into the soft flesh of her ass, causing her to flinch each time his fingers dug into her flesh. She’d never realized how sensitive the skin stretching across her buttocks was. He ran both his thumbs from the top of her crevice all along the inner seam and down to just behind her pussy. He gathered some of her juices and swiped his fingers back to her hole.
Elena whimpered, nervous at the new sensations shooting within her from the back. “Hey there, little darlin’. We’re going to take care of you.” While Joseph spoke, Caleb continued to thrust deep within her pussy, and Joseph pressed his thumb along the outer rim of her tight back hole. “Just relax. Relax and trust us.”
He pushed his thumb into her hole, and Elena instinctively clenched. “Breathe,” Joseph urged her. “Take deep breaths.”
Elena did as he said. She breathed in Caleb. She breathed in Joseph. And their scents mingled until all of her fear had dissipated. When Caleb pulled out, Elena pushed back against Joseph’s thumb, suddenly needing more than just a fingertip.
“That’s my girl,” Joseph said with a pleased grumble. His other fingers gripped the globe of her ass cheek while his thumb plunged deeper.
“Oh my god,” Elena said, breathy. “That is so bloody amazing.” Joseph matched Caleb’s strokes with his thumb. Then he plucked it out and replaced it with two fingers. “I need more,” she whimpered. Caleb’s leg tightened around her, causing her legs to tighten around him. Her pussy squeezed around Caleb’s cock, and he drove deep into her body. Sweat had gathered between their bodies, and Caleb licked her neck.
“Don’t you want to come, little darlin’?” Joseph curled his fingers inside her ass, and Elena cried out.
“Yes! Bloody hell, yes! I want to come.” She grabbed Caleb’s hips, digging her nails into his flesh. A growl erupted from his throat, and he pulled out slowly then slammed hard into her. Then he pulled out slowly and then slammed into her. Then he pulled out slowly. All the while, Joseph wriggled his fingers inside her ass, stroking in and out and twitching and dragging along the tight inner walls of her hole.
Elena’s orgasm came bursting into existence. It destroyed her reason, destroyed her ability to think in a rational manner. Instead she screamed out like some wild creat
ure, and all the muscles in her body shook with the sheer pleasure that washed through her. She almost couldn’t stand it.
The orgasms they gave her sent her so far beyond the realms of control that they frightened her. But not enough to ever want to give them up. If only she could spend the rest of her life between these two men, she would probably be the happiest woman on the planet, she thought to herself.
Then another thought, chilling in its severity, came sneaking into her mind. She struggled to remember the date and suddenly realized that she only had a few more weeks until she would be heading back to London with her Rocky Mountain portfolio. Then who knew what might happen. Her portfolio could be rejected. She may have to go back into fashion photography. If it was accepted, she would most likely be assigned to a new location, and that could be anywhere on the planet.
As the aftereffects of her orgasm receded, her thoughts became sharper, more and more worried about her impending departure date. Now that she knew that such magic existed in the world, how could she ever leave it?
“Elena, honey?” Joseph pulled all of her hair into his hands and then ran his fingers gently through it.
“Yes?” Her voice came out sounding small and mousy.
“Remember us talking about the Honey Harvest Hoedown?” Caleb asked.
“Vaguely.”
“Well, it’s coming up in less than two weeks. Are you still completely set against us accompanying you there?”
“As your dates?” Joseph asked. Elena detected a small, threatening growl under the words but, for diplomacy’s sake, decided to ignore it.
She smiled first at Caleb and then turned to smile at Joseph. “Of course I’ll go with you. Do I have to dress up or anything? I didn’t really bring anything too fashionable.”
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Caleb said.
But then Joseph added, “However, there is a sort of ceremony thing at the beginning that Bo will oversee, and we’re expected to be there and be a part of it, and since you’re with us now…”