Simply Bears: A Ten Book Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance Collection

by Simply Shifters

  The inside of Donovan's "personal office" turned out to resemble a torture chamber more than it did a hotshot attorney's working space. A table was laid out with different shaped knives and thin metal picks. Handcuffs hung from the ceiling beside nooses of heavy rope. There were a few dark stains on the floor that looked suspiciously like blood. A game room for psychopaths.

  On the one hand Nikki had to admire Donovan's ability to maintain his human shape. How many times had he been in a courtroom, arguing high profile cases, as Bryant Donovan attorney at law? And all this time he was really a primeval monstrosity that was making Nikki's stomach threaten to spill out everything she'd eaten since she was six.

  "That's okay, dear one," he said to her. "I don't need you to talk to me. I just need you to form the bridge for me."

  The muscles at the backs of her legs were starting to ache. She wished there were some way to get her hands out of the damned cuffs but she could already feel blood dripping down the length of her right arm where the restraint had cut into her skin. Taking her hand off just to get one arm free didn't seem like a smart plan. Neither did anything else. Her mind kept running through scenarios that were vivid in detail and useless in practice. All of her new-found reflexes and fighting skills were failing her.

  She had the feeling that if she couldn't come up with something soon she wouldn't ever get to know how different she was from every other Black woman in Manhattan. Even though she was something more than human, dead was dead. No coming back from that.

  Right?

  Sure. Maybe. Truthfully, she didn't know any more.

  "I won't help you," she told Donovan. Her voice shook badly and she still couldn't look into his eyes. Not just because they were layered on top of each other up and down the side of his necks either. Yes. Necks, plural.

  Something glossy and slimy stroked her cheek. It curled obscenely and tickled her lip before she turned her head away with a growl.

  "You will help me," he said to her. "I don't need your consent. All I need is that gorgeous body of yours."

  Instinct kicked in with a jolt.

  Her foot smashed into something solid on the Primus Secor as she pulled on the chains above her to give herself better leverage. It was a good hit and it should have done serious injury. For just a moment, Nikki had a hope that she could get out of this.

  Until the body of the Shift just wrapped itself around her leg and pulled her closer, taking her other foot off the floor and leaving her hanging painfully by her wrists.

  She could smell its breath washing over her face even though she kept her eyes closed tightly shut. It was the smell of hamburger left out in the sun all day. When he stroked the side of her neck and coiled into her hair a tickling sensation made her want to gag.

  "Does that hurt?" he asked, a note of glee in the dark shadows of his voice.

  Nikki gritted her teeth and kept from telling him exactly how this absolutely, definitely hurt.

  Donovan laughed and sucked her leg further into his body. She was being pulled into him and all she could do was hang there and bleed.

  His body slid up hers, oozing and twining around her, until she was covered in black goop up to her waist. She felt it slipping into her pants, down against her skin, and up her shirt, and then the scream did well up in her throat and burst out of her and she couldn't stop it. His sickening warmth cupped her under her breasts, and pushed her bra aside, and at the same time it followed the curve of her ass and went down the backs of her legs.

  When her clothes became too tight to hold both her and his seeping body parts, they burst at their seams and tore away from her and left her naked to his touch. Her skin crawled, tickling touches like insects roaming over her everywhere.

  "Don't worry," he hissed. "This will all be over soon."

  She screamed again, and again, and again…

  ***

  When she saw them again, Max and Arcan were in a room in the basement, held to a wall in chains just like she had been not fifteen minutes ago. Max, the big bull of a White man with a baby-boy expression and a blonde head to match, stood slumped against the cold cinderblock wall, his hands above his head and in manacles bigger than the ones that had confined her slim wrists. His black shirt had been torn to shreds that hung off his bulky shoulders. His pants and underwear and boots were gone. Cuts that hadn't healed yet had been deliberately carved into his chest. His head was lowered and he didn't see her coming in.

  Arcan did. Even though he was in the same situation as Max he stood tall and proud, his Black skin slick with sweat and trails of blood. His shirt had been cut up the middle of his torso from waist to neck, and designs had been sliced into his flesh that were only now healing. Rips in his pants were stained darker with his own blood. His eyes widened when he saw her, and she could see the questions turning behind them.

  The Ursallin healed from almost any wound instantaneously. For those cuts to still be visible on their flesh like that meant that they had been cut deep. Very deep.

  She liked it.

  Around the room, a space that was fifty feet square and bare as a poor man's cupboard, a dozen Shifts stood unmoving like impressionist statues rendered from crude oil. They turned all at the same time to stare at her as she came in, letting the spring loaded wooden door slam shut behind her. She ignored them. They were no threat to her.

  They inclined their misshapen heads and stepped back.

  Arcan kicked Max in the shin where he hung closely next to him. The motion brought a look of pain to Arcan's lean face. They'd been worked over good.

  Nikki licked her lips at the thought of it.

  Max lifted his head up slowly, and when he caught sight of her, naked and glorious in her Black skin, this look of absolute relief came over him. "Nikki," he breathed.

  Walking to the exact center of the room she stood, putting a hand on her hip and leaning her leg out, displaying herself for them to see. She was still naked, and she found that she liked her body. It was dark and mysterious and deeply beautiful. She'd never really paid attention to how sexual she was before. Now, she felt every fiber of her being in a way that thrilled her. Pleasure was what she wanted.

  Pleasure was what she would take. From everyone. From the whole damned world…

  …until it bled.

  "Nikki?" Max's voice was uncertain now as he watched her standing there.

  Arcan was more direct. "How are you here? Where's Donovan?"

  She decided it wasn't a question she wanted to answer right now. Scanning the melty, abhorrent faces of the Shifts around them one at a time, she said a single word.

  "Leave."

  With much quivering and rippling of their bodies the Shifts shrank down into themselves and shambled out the door behind her. She was left alone with the two werebears chained to the wall.

  They looked at each other, that silent communication they could do with their own kind passing between them. It was obvious she was scaring them. Good, she thought. Let them be frightened. It added flavor.

  She wondered briefly why they kept to their human forms. Why didn't they morph into bears?

  It didn't matter. Maybe they knew they wouldn't be able to fight their way out through so many Shifts. Besides the dozen that had been here in this room there were seventeen more crawling through the building. In the dead of the night like this, no one would be around to notice them. Especially since all of the security staff and most of the rest of the key players in the offices here were really Shifts. That was something she had never known before. She knew it now. She knew that, and so much more.

  So it didn't matter why they weren't changing into their bear shapes. She didn't need them to. She didn't need them to open the way between this world and theirs anymore. Before, only the Ursallin could do that. Not anymore.

  Licking her lips, she thought about what she wanted from them. It was good they weren't bears right now. They needed to be human for what she needed.

  They needed to be human for what she was goin
g to do to them.

  Stepping up to Max one leg at a time, she pressed the tips of her breasts right up against his broad chest. She could feel the way his muscles strained under his skin, held taut by the chains on his wrists. Her hands luxuriated over him, ever contour and curve, and she felt the heat rising within her to pulse in the cleft between her legs.

  "Nikki, what are you doing?" he demanded. "We have to go. Now is our chance!"

  "Shh," she hissed softly, putting one hand over his mouth. "We have time. We have all the time in the world."

  Something felt off about this to Nikki. Something was different. Maybe it was because she'd never had sex with a man chained to a wall before.

  That was about to change.

  With a mischievous giggle she forced her middle finger into his mouth, made him suck on her, while her other hand felt down his abdomen and into the curly hairs surrounding his crotch. He twitched and tried to talk around her but she could care less what he had to say. Her hand found the smooth length of his penis and she held him tightly, tighter than would have been comfortable, until she felt his cock flex.

  There we go.

  Sliding her finger out of his mouth with slow delight she arched back, her hips flush against his, her hand fit between them working on getting him erect. She took her wet fingertip and swirled it around her own nipple, sucking in a slow breath at the feeling of it.

  The feeling of it.

  That was what was different. It felt different to be touching him.

  "Nikki, stop," Max said to her. He didn't put as much force into it as he could have, and she knew why. He wanted this. Just like she did.

  That other thought nagged at her, though. Why was it different this time? What was missing?

  Of course.

  There should be electricity pulsing all along her right now from his skin touching hers. That was the way it had always been whenever she touched Max. Or any werebear. Something about them and her just clicked. It always clicked. But…not this time. Well, it was electric in its own way, and she was already hot and willing, but the intense sparks she always felt from touching any Ursallin weren't there.

  Her mind tried to hold on to that thought. She knew it was important. Such an insignificant thing to be worried about but she knew it was important. Somehow.

  It was there and then gone again. When she tried to remember what she'd been thinking about, she felt Max hard as a steel rod in her hand and thoughts of what she was going to do to him filled her mind and pushed everything else aside. This was what was important. Making sure she got what she wanted. All of it. Max. Arcan.

  The way into Gallandrian, the world of the Ursallin.

  All of it.

  Max was taller than she was by quite a bit. Grabbing hold of his shoulders she pulled herself up, sliding up his body, and then settling back down again, her toes braced against the wall behind them, and her sex sliding smoothly over his erection.

  Glorious shivers of pure pleasure arced through her. She had never felt anything like this in all her centuries of life. This was what it meant to be human! This was what she would take from every Ursallin in every world before making them suffer for what they had done!

  Nikki stopped, her ass cocked and her back arrow straight, the world around her suddenly coming back into crystal focus. It took her a moment to realize where she was, what she was doing. That last thought…that hadn't been her. Had it? It didn't make any sense. She was human. She'd had sex with Max before and it was always incredible but this wasn't a new experience for them. Well, doing it while he was chained to a wall was new.

  What was…going on…

  "Nikki?" he asked her, his face tight with the strain of her riding him, of trying not to hurt her, of trying to hold himself up while she pounded herself against him, to understand the same things she was trying to puzzle out.

  How had they all gotten here?

  When his eyes met hers everything came back to her in an instant's clarity. She was more than human now. She was something that was always meant to be. Donovan had shown her the way. Donovan knew.

  Donovan took her over again and she was lost.

  She pressed her fingernails into his skin and began moving on him again, bouncing herself on his cock and letting the pressure build and build until she knew she would have to release it all over Max. "Shut up," she ordered him. "Give it to me. Give it to me now!"

  "Nikki, no. Not like this. Uhn, uhn!" he muttered, grunting with his efforts to keep from being stroked off. He was powerless against her like this. He would be hers.

  He would be—!

  The sharp pain that blossomed at the side of her head was unexpected. Pain. So this was what pain felt like. Interesting.

  She found herself on the floor. Her crotch hurt from where she had slipped off Max so roughly and her head pounded and her ass ached from the beating the cold hard floor had given it. Looking up, she saw Arcan swinging on his chains and knew that he had managed to get the leverage to rock his feet up in a slanting kick. It had torn his wrists wide open, but he had planted a good strike to her temple. That was the impact she had felt. His bare feet against the side of her head.

  Getting to her knees, licking at her lips like the violence had aroused her more, she crawled on all fours back to the two men. "Don't worry," she said to Arcan. "You'll have your turn."

  "Don't hurt her!" Max suddenly yelled. "It's Nikki!"

  "No," Arcan said calmly. "It's not."

  Nikki blinked and paused in her sultry advance on the two men. What did he mean? Her mind spun. Not from the blow Arcan had given her, either. Something about what he was saying was right. She knew it was. That was crazy, though. Of course she was herself. Who else could she be?

  Max's eyes widened and she knew that he had figured it out, too. Sneering, her mind coming back full circle again until she knew exactly what he meant, she pushed herself up to her feet and began pawing at Max, and not gently. "Clever boys," she purred. "Guess I'll have to make this quick. Too bad. I was looking forward to the foreplay."

  She needed to get off on Max. That would be first. Arcan couldn't take her pleasure away from her. She wouldn't let him. Putting her hands back on Max's shoulders she rubbed her notch up and down his leg.

  With a mighty heave Max yanked against the chains, pulling them free from the wall as one long length connected by a chunk of concrete in the middle. Wrapping the hard steel around her neck, he pulled tight on them until Nikki couldn't breathe.

  "Don't say a word," he whispered angrily into her ear. "I will kill you if I have to."

  The best she could manage was a harsh whisper. Her throat was being crushed and she didn't doubt his words at all. "If you do that to me, Maximillian, then you will never see your beloved Nikki again."

  Arcan flexed his arms and morphed into his bear form, tearing the chains apart like tissue paper, shredding the rest of his clothing. He stood on all fours, a proud animal with sleek black fur covering a heavy body. Claws clacked on the stone floor. It suddenly occurred to Nikki that they hadn't morphed into their bear forms before because of all the Shifts. They wouldn't have stood a chance. They had waited for their opening. She had given it to them without meaning to.

  Clever little Ursallin. Very clever.

  Not as clever as her.

  "Make the portal," Max said to Arcan. "Let's take her back to Gallandrian. The Council will know how to fix her."

  Arcan looked at Max for a long time with those black bear eyes of his. Nikki waited, patiently, knowing the decision he would have to make. This was what she had planned for all along. Except, of course, that she assumed these two would be dead before she went to Gallandrian. Oh well. Their deaths could come later.

  She didn't mind delaying her pleasure when it suited her.

  "Arcan," Max pressed. "Do it. I can't leave her like this, and I won't kill her. She and I have mated. For life. You know what that means."

  If bears were capable of rolling their eyes, then that was exactl
y what Arcan did at that moment. It almost made Nikki laugh, except that she would have choked to death against the chains that Max held tight around her throat. Finally the great black bear turned away from them and reared up on his hind legs to slash at the air with his front paws.

  The motion opened the slanting line of light, the portal between worlds that spun into a circle and gave them entrance to Gallandrian.

  Yes! Nikki's eyed the magic passage hungrily. This was what she had waited for. Finally, the way was open.

  She had found her way into the home world of the Ursallin.

  It was time for them all to die.

  Chapter 14

  She opened her eyes to a world of darkness. Black, leafless trees reared up against a dark sky. The ground was a colorless stretch of darkness with tiny spikes of black grass crunching under her feet. Her own Black skin was paled in comparison to the dreariness of the world around her.

  This was not Gallandrian.

  "Uh, Arcan?" she heard Max ask behind her. "This isn't—"

  "I know." He had already morphed back to his human self, kneeling down on one knee, his left arm bent over the other, his naked Black body hard to discern against the backdrop in this world of night. "I couldn't risk bringing her to Gallandrian. She would rip through the Ursallin like paper dolls. You know she would."

  "I know she needs our help. She's not herself."

  Nikki smiled. The feel of the hard metal chain links against her throat was painful and it was turning her on more than she already was. She never knew she had such a masochistic streak. Until now.

  There was a lot that she was finding out about herself. Donovan was showing her the way.

  "Look at her, Maximillian!" Arcan shouted. His words echoed across the open spaces here and swirled around back to them before fading away. "She isn't our Nikki anymore!"

  "You mean my Nikki," Max growled. "She chose me, remember?"