Romance: Bearilicious: BBW Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance Collection (Werebear, Bear Shifter, BBW Paranormal Romance)

by Ashley Hunter

  “I bought the yellow one with the spots after you tried it on, Kelly. It smelled like you. I had to have it, I had to smell you every day. That’s what love is, Kelly.”

  “Daniel,” she shouted, “please, my hands. You’re hurting me!”

  “The smell went away, but I kept the dress anyway. I kept it, because it reminded me of you. I slept with the dress every night, making love to it and trying to remember what you smelled like.”

  “Oh my God,” she muttered, trying to pull her hands free of his powerful grip. The knuckles of her fingers popped. He was going to break her hands!

  “Why would you lie to me, Kelly!”

  “I’m sorry, I was just trying to make you happy,” she screamed the lie, hoping her fear would help convince him of it.

  “You were being so sweet, and I felt bad because I didn’t remember. I just wanted to make you happy.”

  “Well it didn’t work,” he said, and threw her hands back at her.

  The second she was free, Kelly turned and tried to open the door, but it was locked.

  “There’s nowhere to go,” he said. “We’re miles from the road. Miles from anywhere. This time of night, it’s just you and me. If you run, I’ll catch you. Do what I say.”

  “And if I don’t?”

  “I’ll become very upset with you.”

  Kelly had little doubt that such a thing was best avoided.

  A push of the button unlocked the doors, and she was outside in a heartbeat.

  The forest buzzed with the sounds of night insects and wind in the trees, but there were no signs of life other than her and Daniel. The smell of the forest was stronger now that she was outside.

  The trunk popped suddenly, and she gasped and stepped away from it. Daniel exited the car and walked to the back, lifting the lid of the trunk.

  The head of an axe appeared to the side, and his hand landed on top of the lid.

  In his fingers, he clenched a spotted yellow dress that looked like it had seen the business end of a shit-stick.

  Nope.

  Daniel started speaking, but she was already running.

  “I said not to run!” he shouted behind her, his voice echoing in the emptiness of the forest.

  II.

  There was no chance in hell she was going to wait around to see what he wanted next.

  Kelly was a big girl, but her legs drove her through the bushes like a train. The Devil himself couldn’t have gotten in her way.

  The moon was bright overhead, and she could see just well enough to pick her path. The ground quickly turned into a slope, and she ran from tree to tree, her hands out in front of her, using the trunks to stop her momentum on the way down.

  There was a crack of wood snapping behind her, and Daniel cried out in surprise. His body tumbled past her on his way down.

  If he was going to be down there, than she wanted to be up at the top! Maybe he’d left the keys in the ignition? Could she be that lucky?

  Kelly pushed against the tree and tried to climb up the hill, but her foot slipped. It wasn’t detrimental, but when she tried again, it happened again.

  She tipped over on all fours and tried to climb, grabbing a nearby bush at the base near the root, but that came free of the dirt and she nearly tumbled after Daniel.

  The hill was too steep for her to climb back up. Kelly stood and balled her hands into fists as she spat some very unladylike words.

  She stopped and listened, but didn’t hear any sounds of Daniel struggling to climb up to get her. Either he was lying in wait to ambush her, or he was unconscious.

  Either way, she couldn’t stay here. He had passed her on the right, so she descended the slope at an angle to her left in the hopes that, if he was waiting to ambush her, she’d be too far away for him to take her by surprise.

  There was no way to go down quietly. Some things were just out of her control. So, since she couldn’t be stealthy about it, she made sure to be as steady and quick as she could.

  When she finally reached the bottom, a little bruised and scraped, but in one piece, there was no Daniel waiting to kill her. Either he was too far away, or he was unconscious. If she was really lucky, he was dead.

  Kelly couldn’t run anymore for the moment, her sprint earlier and then the hill having taken all of her energy out of her.

  Dress torn, the hair a mess and getting in her eyes, the only thing she was glad for was wearing flats to the charity dinner. Even though she couldn’t run, Kelly kept her pace up, wanting to put as much distance between her and that psycho as she could.

  “Kelly,” the night echoed far in the distance.

  She swore, but made sure to do it in a whisper. He was too far away to be an immediate concern. As dark as it was, there was the chance he didn’t know which way she’d gone.

  She could get away.

  Kelly kept walking quickly, conserving her energy in case she needed to run again. Daniel’s cries grew fainter as the night stretched on, and soon she didn’t hear anything.

  There was a moment of relief before she tried to think of what to do next. Yes, she’d gotten away from Daniel, but now she was lost in the forest, alone, in the middle of the night. Should she try to find her way back to the road?

  Kelly looked around and tried to orient herself. She had no idea in which direction the road laid. If she just went in one direction, she’d find something eventually.

  Right?

  The trees and brush seemed to grow darker and closer around her. Branches tripped her, thorns snagging on her dress, the whole forest turning against her.

  Kelly became so engrossed in fighting her way through the wilderness, she didn’t see the large man until she bumped face-first into his chest. The smell of sweat and male struck her just before her face met flesh, and she screamed.

  Losing her balance, she almost fell back, but big strong hands grabbed her at the arms. Still in fight-or-flight mode, Kelly flailed her arms to try and free herself and run from the psycho killer, but the hands didn’t budge.

  She tried to drop, to make her considerable body weight pull her from the man’s grasp, but he just held her up.

  This wasn’t like Daniel’s crushing grip when he had her hands. Whoever had her knew his strength, and was careful not to hurt her.

  It wasn’t until she stopped struggling, stood, and looked up that the man released her.

  “Are you injured?” he asked, his voice like a bear.

  It wasn’t intentional, but relief washed over her in a torrent, and she bawled. The strength went out from her knees, and the big man caught her.

  Strong, safe, the man pulled her to his chest, tucking her head under his chin.

  “There, there,” he said. “Nothing will hurt you here.”

  “Please,” she said between sobs, “a man… chasing. Kill me.” She’d been so focused on survival that she hadn’t realized how much emotion had built up.

  “Not here,” he said. “There’s no one else around. You must have lost him. You’re safe.”

  In response, Kelly just cried harder. She couldn’t say how long she stood there in the dark forest, held by this complete stranger, but a significant amount of time passed.

  When she finally regained her composure and thought back on it, she was impressed and embarrassed with how long this man willingly comforted her while she was in hysterics. She tried to apologize, but he wouldn’t have it.

  Not ten meters away was his cabin, and he invited her inside. Offering her some hot tea and something to eat, she told her tale of the auction and Daniel.

  The man introduced himself as Tyler and promised she could stay there as long as she liked. He was alone here, living off of the land. No one would bother her here.

  At first, Kelly politely accepted his offer, thinking she wouldn’t be there any more than a day, two at most.

  Tyler was beautiful. That first night in the woods, it was too dark to see. The next morning, when she woke to breakfast, she couldn’t believe she’d miss
ed it.

  Long hair, beard, and built like a tank. No wonder he’d been able to hold her up with such ease! Legs, arms, chest, everything was built for raw power.

  In all her life, she’d never met a man that made her drool the way he did. Physically drool. He woke parts of her body she didn’t realize could become aroused.

  Her skin, her stomach, her chest, all of it grew sensitive to touch and achy. Every muscle in her body ached for him to touch her, to grab her and pull her to him.

  From then on, every morning when she thought she should find her way back to the road and to home, she looked at Tyler and found some excuse to stay.

  For his part, Tyler was quick with the reasons she shouldn’t leave yet. At first, he used dangers in the forest, like moose mating season, or the great beaver migration (that one was her favorite).

  As he showed her around the house, in his garden, and the small shed where he cured his meats, he began giving her things to do around the house to help.

  Days turned to weeks. Kelly’s life fell into a beautiful routine. Occasionally, she had worry for her friends, or her job, but that would all take care of itself. The thought of going back to that life, that insanity terrified her.

  The way Tyler looked at her was worth everything. When he spoke to her, he watched her face, her eyes, her mouth. It was as though every word she said was poetry.

  The best parts, though, were when he thought she wasn’t looking. The way he watched her walk, or bend over. The hunger in his eyes. It made her shiver.

  Though, as kindly as he treated her and as ready as he was to find reasons for her to stay, he kept her at arm’s reach. They weren’t small things, either.

  She’d tried to give him ample opportunity to take advantage of her, but he refused. He gave her his bed, and slept on the couch. When she brushed against him in the kitchen, she could tell it excited him, but he would leave the cabin entirely.

  There was no doubt in her mind that he wanted her, but it was as though he was denying himself of having her.

  This was the man for her, the mighty man that wanted her curves and lusciousness. So why wasn’t he taking her?

  III.

  On top of that, he never spoke of himself. As the weeks turned to months, she discovered surprisingly little of him. He would talk at length about the forest, home, and life, but when she asked him about himself, his past, he either changed the subject or shut up entirely.

  Tyler was not a man to be cornered and forced into an answer. When confronted, he met that force head-on and then left. The conversation would go the way he wanted it to, or it just ended. Period. Still, it wasn’t enough to make her want to leave.

  Tyler treated her better than she’d ever been treated, and she felt confident she’d crack the code on his silence eventually. A man like him was worth the effort.

  Kelly had lost track of time. The days bled together into a sort of natural bliss.

  Tyler left early that morning to check on a section of the forest that had caught fire a week ago, leaving Kelly alone in the cabin. By now, she knew what animals roamed the forest, how they traveled and what attracted them.

  Kelly didn’t fear anything in that forest anymore. So when she heard a scratching on the door, it was with a fearless heart that she unlocked and opened it.

  Daniel looked up at her and grinned. Eyes wide, bloodshot, his teeth grinding audibly.

  “I’ve missed you,” he whispered.

  "No,” she said, shaking her head. “You can’t. Why.”

  When he stepped forward, she stepped back. She should’ve slammed that door in his freakish face, but panic and reflex dictated her movement.

  “You don’t call, you don’t write. What’s a man to think?”

  Metal scraped wood as he dragged the axe behind him when he followed after her.

  Kelly moved to keep the couch between them, but he just stepped over it.

  “Go away,” she said. “You better leave now. When he gets home, he’ll kill you.”

  “What are you talking about? I’m here, Kelly. I’m home.”

  “Leave me alone!” she shrieked, backing away.

  “All I wanted was to love you. Why don’t you love me, too?” Even as he asked, he raised his axe over his shoulder and swung it to decapitate her. Kelly ducked, the axe chopping into the wood of the wall.

  Feet planted, Kelly charged, shouldering Daniel out of the way and ran.

  “Not again, Kelly! Not this time,” he called behind her.

  She didn’t need to look back to know the sound she heard was that of the axe coming free.

  Legs pumping, Kelly burst out of the cabin, and slammed the door closed behind her to give Daniel something else he had to do to continue chasing her.

  “TYLER!” she screamed with all the power in her lungs. The name of her savior echoed through the eerily silent forest. It was as though the animals and insects knew evil when they saw it, and hushed themselves lest Daniel know they existed.

  She continued to run through the forest toward the burned section, all the while screaming Tyler’s name.

  Behind her, Daniel was chewing the distance between them like a shark. His legs were longer, stronger. Daniel was a born killer, and she was his prey.

  When she felt that familiar, shaking hand on her arm, she flailed again.

  “You can’t fight it,” he said as he struggled to hang onto her. “We were meant to be together, Kelly!”

  “Get off of me! Tyler! Help!”

  Tears stung her eyes as she saw Daniel bring the axe up above his head. Those eyes were impossibly wide, his yellowed teeth dripping with saliva.

  His hold on her arm was too tight, and she couldn’t get out of the way of the falling axe. Kelly closed her eyes and screamed.

  IV.

  A bear’s roar drowned her out, and suddenly Daniel’s fingers tore free of her arm. The psycho shrieked as the largest bear Kelly had ever seen bit down on his shoulder and shook him.

  With a great twist of that massive neck, the bear slammed Daniel against one tree, and then back against another.

  Bones snapped. Rearing up on its hind legs, the bear threw Daniel to the ground, and then slammed both front paws down on his body before mauling him, and carrying the body into the forest and disappeared.

  Kelly stood holding a tree, struggling to catch her breath. She was still there when the bear returned.

  The giant head swung back and forth, and then focused on her. She knew she should’ve been afraid, but the way the bear looked at her, the softness in the eyes…

  “No,” she said in a soft breath.

  The bear reared up again, though this time not threatening. It shrank and slowly turned into Tyler, naked. His skin glistened with sweat and dust.

  “I came as quickly as I could,” he said, keeping a distance from her.

  It was clear in the way he held himself he didn’t want to frighten her.

  “This whole time?” she asked, stepping toward him.

  “I’m the Warden of this forest,” he said.

  “I lived in that cabin to seclude myself. I had no time for love or any of the distraction it brings. I had a job to do. I’m a soldier and a protector. But that day you appeared in my doorstep, I’ve wanted to tell you. You woke something inside me.”

  “I knew there was something, but I couldn’t have come near to guessing this.”

  “You’re not afraid of me?”

  Kelly stepped closer, and pressed her face against his hairy chest.

  “I love you, Tyler. I’ve loved you from the beginning. All I could think was how to make you love me back.”

  “Oh Kelly,” he said, wrapping his arms around her and holding her to him.

  “I’ve always loved you. Bears like me aren’t complete until we find a mate, but I was afraid of what that would mean. I thought it would get in the way, but then I’d found mine in you. I need you. I need to make you my mate. Be with me, forever.”

  “Yes,” she said, re
aching up to hold his face in her hands.

  “A thousand times, yes.”

  Tyler lowered his head, bringing their lips together for the first time.

  All of the ache Kelly had held in her body for these long months burst with sensation and she kissed him back with a starving passion.