by Chant, Zoe
He made a circuit of the cabin, checking in every window. Quiet, empty, deserted. There was no sign of life. His anxiety was growing, and his skin rippled and twitched as his bear demanded that he find his mate now. He moved round to the back of the cabin, where damage would not be seen. With a silent vow to himself to fix the damage as soon as possible, he planted himself firmly, pivoted, and drove his heel firmly against the catch. Wood splintered and popped, finally giving way on the third blow.
He entered the house, breathing in deeply, searching for the fragrance that belonged to his mate. It was there, but faint, faded. She was not here, had not been here for a while. Nevertheless, he took the time to stalk from room to room. She was not there.
He left the cabin at a jog, forcing the door closed again, hopefully it would hold. Beside her car, he found a clear footprint, oriented in the direction of the tree line. He growled under his breath and followed, finding another footprint.
The wind picked up, keening mournfully through the trees, and James shivered. His inner bear demanded to be set free, to find his mate, and James had had enough of resisting.
He let himself go and shifted, body burning with heat, burning away the chill of the air. The world sprang into life, and he let the bear take over. His mate needed to be found.
The forest, this forest was his home, his territory, and he knew it well. He knew every scent, knew what belonged and what didn’t. She did not belong in the forest, and her sweetness, although muted by the rain, was sourness amongst the pines. She was easy to follow.
The great Kodiak bear made his way through the sodden and arctic night, traveling in a straight line, determined to find the object of his affections. She was his, and his alone. No one and nothing would take her away from him.
The first visual sign the bear came across was a long, dark gouge taken out of the side of a small channel. Two handprints were nearly eroded on the opposite bank, but they confirmed that she had been there.
Time passed, although the bear did not notice, or care.
Finally, though the rain was trying to melt it, the unique scent of his mate filled the air. She was close, so close now, and the bear tried his best to work out her location.
She lay half in and half out of a small stream, visible in the moonlight, her red hair wetted and plastered tight to her skull. A black bruise flowered on her temple, and she shivered sharply, even in unconsciousness. The bear rumbled worriedly, nosing gently at his mate. She twitched at the touch of his nose, and he did in again, just to elicit a reaction.
Hands were of more use to him, and the bear retreated, leaving James kneeling at Nessas side. She was cold to the touch, and her lips were bluing with the cold. He stripped off his oilskin and laid it over her, gently stroking her cheek to rouse her.
She blinked slowly, eyes cracking open, trying to see through the darkness and the rain. As her eyes opened, he let out a relieved sigh.
“Hold still, sweet. I’ve got you.”
“James?” she asked.
“None other. Lets get you back to the heat.”
He scooped her up, bridal style, cradling her in tight, with the oilskin still draped over her. He pushed himself up from his knees one at a time, bracing himself carefully. Nessa made an inarticulate noise and burrowed her head into his chest, her eyes sliding fully closed again.
He made his way back through the trees, letting the bear’s fading senses guide his own. It was unhappy at the state of its chosen mate and was lingering longer than usual, guiding him, helping him.
His mate. His Nessa.
He wanted to rage at her for risking herself, he wanted to hold her close so that she would never face danger again. He wanted her, and her alone. And these feelings were all his, not those of the bear. He wanted her, wanted to see if this woman could accept him in his entirety.
In a short span, she had opened his eyes and his mind.
The cabin was a welcome sight and brought his mental soul-searching and realizations to an end. Nessa was still asleep in his arms, some of the blue color fading from her lips. The fire in the hearth, once leaping high was now nothing more than glowing embers. As he knelt to lay Nessa on the rug in front of the hearth, James tried to think what to do.
He left her there, wrapped in his coat, throwing a handful of sticks on the embers to get the fire burning again. He grabbed a few towels from the bathroom, and a quilt from the bedroom, before returning to her side. The flames were beginning to catch, but without the heat of his body, she had started to shiver.
Her clothes were soaked through, clinging coldly to her skin. Methodically, James stripped her, wrapping her in a towel every time he exposed another piece of skin. Gradually her shivering reduced, and her face eased into lines of relaxation. When he was sure that she was dry, he wrapped the quilt around her and laid a hand gently on her cheek.
She cracked one eye open at the touch, feeling wrapped in a cocoon of gathering warmth. She tilted her head into the caressing touch and felt him start with surprise.
“You should be resting, sweet,” he said.
It was hard to form the words through the haze of tiredness, but Nessa did her best. “Am.”
“Warm enough?”
“Am. Want you.”
“You just want me for my heat,” he joked, even as he lay down beside her, spooning around her.
“Bear warmer, better on floor.” She tried to make the words clear, but felt her lover stiffen. “Saw you. Was upset, not now.”
“We’ll talk later, sweet. Rest.”
“Change,” she demanded as best she could.
She could feel the struggle through tension in James’s body, and felt the moment when he made up his mind and relented. There was a soft inhalation of breath, he pressed a kiss to her neck, and then she felt a change of pressure in the air. Heat pressed against her, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, and she felt sleep rushing to claim her. As she fell into the blackness, fur tickled against the back of her neck, and she fell asleep to the contented rumbling of the great bear.
***
Nessa woke slowly, wrapped in heat that soothed her aching bones. Her head was aching and fuzzy, but as she came round, the memories unspooled through her mind. Against her back she could feel the heat of the bear, and hear his calm and even breathing. Carefully, she rolled herself over, to face her rescuer.
He was massive, making the room feel cramped and confined. He was heavily muscled, with foot pads the size of dinner plates. And she was not afraid of him. His fur was a rich deep brown, and she gave in to the urge to wriggle a hand free. She had to see if it was as soft as it looked.
Her movement rustled the towels and quilt that formed her nest, and the bear’s ears twitched. Just as she reached out and delicately placed one hand on his shoulder, his eyes opened.
She pressed against the thick fur, feeling the rumble of his breathing. His eyes stared straight into her own, and she could see the clear intelligence there. As she watched, the mist seemed to rise out of the cabin floor and coalesce around him. The fur under her fingers softened and seemed to dissolve. There was James again, lying beside her, and her hand was on his shoulder.
“Hey, sweet. Feeling better?”
“Much,” Nessa replied, grateful for the ability to talk in full sentences again now that the tiredness was gone. The questions that she wanted answers to twitched on her tongue, but she didn’t let any of them out. Instead, she wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and drew him in for a long, sweet kiss. She breathed in his scent and flicked her tongue out to taste his lips.
“Not that I’m complaining, sweet,” he said when she pulled back. “But what was that for?”
“For coming to find me. For caring. For everything,” she said, feeling unaccountably shy.
“I’d say that I’ll have to save your life more often if that’ll be my reward, but I’d rather not find you like that again. What happened?” and there was no trace in his eyes now of the guardedness
that she had seen.
“I went out, thinking to get more pictures of something, those caribou maybe. Didn’t expect the weather to turn bad so quickly, or to slip in that stream and bang my head. I just wanted to get my work done, so I could spend more time with you, without feeling guilty.”
James pressed a light kiss to her temple and brushed her hair back behind her ears. “I’m not going anywhere, Nessa. You’ll have me for as long as you want me. No need to feel guilty.”
Her heart warmed at his words. “You mean that?”
“I do,” he said solemnly.
As a confession of love went, it was certainly not the most romantic. But Nessa did not care, it was more than romantic enough for her. She tilted her head, and pressed another kiss to his lips, just because.
He broke the kiss this time, drawing a ragged breath. Nessa could feel the obvious result of their kisses pressed against her, and wiggled herself in tighter. James groaned, but rested his hands on her shoulders.
“Witch,” he breathed. “We still need to talk.”
“About?” she asked, nibbling at his lower lip.
“You. Me. Us.”
“What is there to talk about?” she asked, trying to slide a hand beneath his shirt. He gently caught her cold fingers and pulled them up to his mouth, teasing them gently with his tongue.
“How about the fact that I can turn into a bear, you know about this, and are okay with it?” he said.
“I saw you shift, yesterday, after I left for town. I came back for my purse and watched you. Then I talked to Dan and Marie in town. They set me straight,” Nessa explained, straightforwardly. “I wasn’t upset at you turning into a bear, I was upset at me for not being upset at you being able to turn into a bear.”
James puzzled this way through the convoluted logic of that sentence, while Nessa tried to distract him by burrowing in deeper to him, nuzzling the side of his neck and licking at his earlobe.
“You don’t mind?” he asked again.
She smiled and stole another kiss. “I love you,” she said simply.
His inner bear roared in delight and triumph at this declaration of his mate, and James was swept away on the flood of emotion. She loved him. His mate loved him.
With a swift movement, he rolled Nessa over onto her back and straddled her, kneeling above her. He gently lifted her arms above her head and pinned them there. Nessa looked up at him, completely unafraid, her eyes filled with her love and with her desire.
“I love you,” he breathed, as he bent over to claim her lips.
She was sweet, but the kiss was even sweeter now that he knew that she felt the same way. She moaned against his mouth. “I want you,” she murmured.
“In time, sweet, in time. Keep your hands where they are.”
Instructions given, he released his grip and moved slightly. He kissed her temples, stroking his fingers through her hair, trailing a caressing touch over her face. He laid a trail of light kisses down the side of her face, pausing to nibble an earlobe before he devoted his attention to her collarbone.
She gasped in pleasure as he licked a strip around her neck, peeling back one of the covering towels to expose more of her skin. Inch by inch, he peppered her skin with licks and kisses, slowly moving downwards. By the time he reached her naval, even the merest puff of breath against her skin was enough to make her twitch with small shocks of pleasure.
“Warm enough, sweet?” he asked, as he unwrapped her legs, pressing two light kisses to the junction of each of her thighs.
“Mmhm,” she replied, as she tried to twitch her hips upwards, begging for more kisses. He lightly pushed her down again and continued making his way down her body. He took his time, devouring every inch of his mate, laid bare for his delectation. She was beautiful, and tasted beautiful. Her little moans and shivers were like music to his ears, and his cock was already aching, desperate to be enclosed in her warmth. But this was not about him, this was about her, his mate. This was all about her pleasure.
He kissed his way down her legs and breathed on her feet, feeling her giggle and squirm to escape his teasing touch. He slid himself upwards, once more kissing the inside of her thighs.
“Want more?” he asked teasingly.
“Please,” she begged, arching her hips upwards towards him. He lowered his head and obliged.
She was already wet, and at the first touch of his tongue, she made a high-pitched note in the back of her throat, and her hands came down to twine in his hair. He pushed deeper into her folds, tongue flickering in and out, finding all the best places to touch, taste, and tease.
He lost himself in the taste and scent of her, losing himself in the feedback of pleasure that he was getting. His cock ached against the constraints of his underwear, and he found himself flexing his hips, simply for the pleasurable sensation. She was almost purring with each touch, panting as the pleasure built inside her. Her thighs rhythmically tensed around his head as she tried to force herself down on him, force his tongue in deeper.
He felt it the moment that she hit her peak, tasted the pleasure as her thighs tensed around him. Her spine arched up from the ground and then fell back limp to the mat, her breathing slowly. Her body trembled as he pulled away with a final gentle kiss, and wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand. She lay sprawled on the mat, skin flushed red, and James thought that he had never seen a more beautiful sight.
Her eyes fluttered open, and she reached for him. But not to pull him in close to cuddle, instead she reached for his belt, pulling his shirt free.
“I want you inside me,” she said firmly.
James felt his cock jump at that simple demand and was quick to strip down, tossing his clothes on the sofa. The second that his hard cock was exposed, Nessa had her hand wrapped around it and began to make gentle stroking motions. He leaned into her touch helplessly, eyes closing as he was touched by his mate.
She released him, only to draw him down to lie beside her. James felt a thrill of pleasure run through him as skin touched skin. Nessa shifted, and James felt her warm heat engulf him completely.
“I’m yours,” she murmured, and James began to move.
She moved with him, flexing her hips and drawing him deeper and deeper into her core. He opened his eyes and stared straight at her, willing her to feel his love for her. They moved together, and James felt his need growing, pleasure setting his nerves on fire. His mate, his love, his Nessa had her eyes closed, and she looked angelic as she moved with him. He was past the point of no return, past thinking about anything other than the fire that ran over and through him. When he came, he came with a strangled shout, feeling Nessa spasm around him again as his own climax drew another one out of her.
She wrapped her legs around him and burrowed her head into his chest.
“I love you,” she murmured.
“I love you, sweet,” he replied.
“I don’t want to leave you,” she whispered, but he still heard her. Pleased shock raced through him, and he drew Nessa in tight to his chest. She tilted her head up and met his eyes, and he could see the love shining back at him.
“Stay,” he breathed, as he brushed his lips over hers. “Make this your home. Stay with me.”
He saw the moment that his words registered with her, and the joy that sparkled in her glorious eyes, the realization that he wanted her to stay just as much as she wanted to.
She laughed, shakily. “I will?” she said, and it was a question at first. He could see the thoughts flitting across her face, and he marveled at how open this beautiful woman was to him.
“I will,” she repeated, but it was more of a declaration now, confidence and triumph in her voice. “This is where I want to be. I’ll make it work.”
“We’ll make it work,” he said, and kissed the tip of her nose.
“We will,” she said, and a more wonderful promise, James had never heard.
***
Later that evening, Nessa, well wrapped up, was sitting on a chair o
ut on the porch, steaming mug of coffee in her hands. Overhead, the stars were shining brightly through the sparse cloud cover, and the moon was rising. She was happy, contented, at peace with herself, and with the world.
She could live here, out in the wilds. So long as she had James, she could live anywhere. She had enough savings that she didn’t have to find a job straightaway, if at all, but she knew that she couldn’t sit idle for long. He had promised to do all that he could to help her, and he said that he had savings of his own that would see them comfortable. Theirs wouldn’t be a fancy life, but they would be comfortable.
From out of the tree line stepped the great Kodiak bear. Its dark eyes focused on her straightaway, even as the silver moonlight gilded its deep brown fur. She couldn’t resist and reached for the camera beside her. This photo would not go with the others and her letter of resignation to her boss. This photo was for her, and her alone.
Her James. Her bear.
A note from Zoe Chant
Thank you for buying my book! I hope you enjoyed it. If you’d like to be emailed when I release my next book, please click here to be added to my mailing list.
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The cover of Kodiak Moment was designed by Augusta Scarlet
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