“Oh,” said Alexander. “Well, yes, I'm with a sleuth. I'm actually the son of one of its highest ranking members.”
“Damn,” said Chris. “So are you like, pretty good sized then?”
Alexander felt his face get hot. His mind was not in a place that made that question sound innocent to him.
He cleared his throat. “Well, there are a couple hundred of us in total. Kind of scattered around.”
“Damn,” Chris said again, shaking his head. “How is that even possible? I mean, a group of that size...It's gotta be a bitch for you all to stay hidden. I didn't think sleuths that big could even survive in this day and age without being found out. Hell, the biggest ones I've even heard about have only been able to sustain a few dozen members.”
Alexander nodded.
“The Sacred Sleuth of Warrior Bears,” he said with a kind of mock pride. “That's what we're called. Once we were the strongest sleuth to be contended with in all of North America. Well, I guess we still are really. But, it's different now. For us, staying strong just means surviving.”
“How do you even manage that?” said Chris, raising an eyebrow at him.
Alexander shrugged. “We just adapt, really. That's all you really can do. When hu—when certain people swallow up all your land and push you to the brink of extinction, you can either try to fight a losing battle against them, or you can accept that things have changed and do your best to blend into their world.” He'd almost said “humans,” but briefly caught himself when he remembered his present surroundings. Not that there really seemed to be anyone paying attention to the two of them.
“You integrate?” said Chris, seemingly impressed with this.
“As best we can,” said Alexander. “There's a whole enclave of us out on the east coast.”
“Damn,” he said, shaking his head. “Wish my tribe would have thought of something like that. But I mean, isn't it hard? Keeping things a secret, I mean? With that many of you, I would think it would be close to impossible.”
“Ah, you know,” said Alexander. “There are always risks. We've had a few close calls. Nothing's foolproof. But we've always done a pretty decent job of keeping a lid on things. We run a lot of different businesses, kind of gives us some nice cover. I mean that way we have a reason to be there, we aren't just hovering around and making people wonder what we're up to.”
“Smart,” said Chris.
Alexander nodded. He didn't really know if he believed it was smart. Again, with him it was a matter of whether continuously striving just to keep the group's head above water and survive was a better option than disbanding, and letting their race go quietly, peacefully into the night. He wasn't going to bring up such a pessimistic subject though, and so he digressed.
“Anyway, that's what brought me out here. Going out west to make a pickup for one of our many ventures. Antique business. There's a guy we deal with out west, a fellow shifter actually. He came across some bigger items that he thought we might be interested in, and the guy that runs the store wanted me to go out and take a look at them personally before we commit to purchasing. Plus, this way we can make sure it gets safely to where it needs to be and not have to worry about the stuff getting damaged or whatever.”
“Got an eye for that sort of thing?” said Chris.
“Yeah, I guess so,” he said. “I mean, I'm kind of a jack of all trades, master of none type of dude,” he laughed, then shrugged. “The only omega in my family, so I kind of get stuck with a lot of menial jobs like this. Like, not backbreaking labor or anything, but I don't really get to be that involved with any decision making. More than anything, I just run errands for people who are more important than I am.”
He meant to sound as if he was joking at this, but he could feel the bitterness creeping into his voice. The notion of feeling trapped was still fresh on his mind, and he could feel it coloring the implications of their discussion. He quickly changed the subject.
“What about you?” he asked.
“What about me?” said Chris, smiling at him, and still seeming to look far into the distance with those cool gray eyes of his.
“I mean...Are you alone? Do you belong with a sleuth, or—”
“Nah,” said Chris, shaking his head. “At the moment, I really don't belong anywhere.”
“Ah,” he said sympathetically, “I'm sorry to hear that. I can relate to that feeling sometimes. But, it's probably not the same thing as what you mean...”
“Well,” Chris philosophized, “it sounds like you at least have people that care about you. But that still doesn't always mean you feel like you belong. I get that.”
“I guess,” said Alexander, trying to downplay his words.
“In my case,” Chris continued, “it was already kind of like I was brought into the world on a sinking ship to begin with. Just a small circle of us, twenty or so, when I was born. Then it all kind of just went downhill from there. Disease. Hunger. People dying, leaving, or just up and disappearing.”
“God,” said Alexander, suddenly feeling worse about comparing his problems to Chris'. “That's awful.”
“If anything,” said Chris, “I guess maybe it strengthened me some. Surviving shit like that. It really changes a person. Doesn't make it easier really, but still, I survived for as long as I could. It got to the point where I was the only one left, and I kind of just lived in secret, looking out for myself and nothing else.”
“God,” Alexander said again. Here was a man who'd lived the very sort of life he'd so often imagined himself fleeing to. Alone. Untethered. Totally cut off from the rest of the world. He now looked at him with a mixture of pity and admiration, not sure which of the two was more appropriate.
He had survived it, though, hadn't he? Didn't that mean Alexander could too?
Then again, in the minutes that they'd so far known one another, Chris seemed as though he was a very different kind of man from himself.
“For the longest time it went on like that,” said Chris. “But see, the real problem wasn't with humans in our case. In fact, the place where we lived was so sparsely populated that it opened up a whole other can of worms for our people. A nice little place in the mountains out west with no one except for us—and a pack of wolf shifters that were able to proliferate in the absence of human competition.”
“Oh, God,” said Alexander, absently scooting his glass across the counter, the ice spinning around in the liquid as in the eye of the hurricane. “I've never dealt with wolf shifters, thank God, but I've heard they can be a real nasty piece of work. We tell a lot of stories about times when our ancestors were at war with them.”
“It's just their numbers, more than anything,” said Chris, shaking his head. “They reproduce so much more quickly, and their survival rate is so much better. If it was a one on one type thing, one of us versus one of them, it would literally be no competition. But, that was never how it was. In the end, it was them that got to me. They ganged up and swarmed me, and they would have ripped me to pieces if I hadn't agreed to leave. There were just so many of them...”
“I'm surprised they let you leave at all,” said Alexander, his brow furrowed.
“I don't know why they did,” he said. Then he smiled. “Hell. They probably just felt sorry for me under the circumstances. I must have seemed like one sad bastard the way things had gotten by that point...”
Alexander didn't smile back at him. He experienced a genuine hurt for this man, and all he'd been through.
“I'm so sorry that happened to you,” he said, and Chris surprised him by laughing.
“Ah, don't be. I wasn't trying to dampen the mood. Just telling you what happened. How I got here. That's kind of how I've taught myself to live. Don't get too dragged down by the past. Let things go when you need to. So, I just hit the road. Went on my merry way and didn't look back. I figured I would just keep going until something interesting came my way. Or else, maybe—someone interesting...”
Alexander sat up straight a
t this. His mind had been immersed in Chris' story, but his body was still fully aware of him, and responded to this last sentence accordingly.
He nervously cleared his throat and tried to stay composed.
“Yeah? How's that going for you so far? Made any...interesting connections?”
Chris smiled at him. He slid his ass from the seat and bridged the gap between the two of them, taking the seat directly beside Alexander's own. Alexander could feel the beads of sweat standing out against the heat of his forehead, rolling down into his eyes.
“You know, I haven't decided yet,” said Chris, his voice low, seductive. “Why don't you let me buy you another drink, and I can give you a better answer?”
Alexander was surprised when he looked down at his glass to see that it was in fact almost empty again. When the hell had that happened?
“Oh, um...I don't know,” he said nervously. “I've probably had too much already.”
Chris laughed. “So have I. But don't they say drinking alone means you're an alcoholic? If we quit now we'll both be putting ourselves at risk.”
Alexander smiled at this. He stared into Chris' eyes, silver and milky, reminding him of marbles. He stared into that beautiful, rugged face, and couldn't help but imagine himself spending the rest of his night staring into it—tasting those immaculate lips, feeling the weight of that body on top of him, the force of it inside him.
He shuddered. He knew it was wrong. He knew he shouldn't be doing this, and that once he got started, he wouldn't be able to slow himself down no matter what.
But he'd been feeling so shitty until the moment he first set eyes upon this man, and now he suddenly felt so good, so alive. More alive and freer, in fact, than he'd felt in a very long time.
He was ready to surrender himself to the void. To fall inside and never look back again. Or, at least, he was ready to not look back until morning...
He sighed. “Yeah. That sounds great,” he said finally. He could tell his face was red. He knew that Chris knew he had him. But he found he had no real interest in hiding it from him.
Chris smiled, then turned to the man behind the bar.
“Bartender, another old fashioned for my friend here, and an Irish whiskey for me. Make it dirty!”
2
They were up in Alexander's room now. Chris' body was pressed up against his, holding him to the door, his solid musculature dripping with perspiration, seeping through Chris' clothes, and making Alexander tremble from the heat as it fully engulfed him.
He tasted Chris' lips, pulling back on the warm, slightly salty flesh. Chris pushed his tongue into the space between Alexander's teeth and rolled it slowly around inside his mouth. Alexander's tongue swept back up against him, and the two of them crashed together like a wave. It was like a violent, liquid flowing into one another. The two of them pushing from side to side, enrapturing one another. Driving so dangerously fast to the edge that Alexander didn't know whether he would be able to stand it.
It was all happening so quickly...The time between the bar and the ascent to his hotel room seemed like nothing but a blur in his mind. He never did shit like this whenever he was on the road. He always kept to himself. Kept his head on his mission and didn't jeopardize things with any kind of unnecessary interaction with the people around him.
It was all too dangerous, he knew. Entirely too great a risk for him to undertake— aside from his own very distinct circumstances, which made the whole damn thing an even worse idea than it already might have been.
He'd always been taught that there was only so much mingling with the world around you that you could get away with before you wound up putting yourself at risk, not to mention the entire group at large. Keep the blending to a minimum, and don't ever deceive yourself into believing you're a part of this world. Not really.
That was the thing though. Chris, just like himself, wasn't really a part of this world. But as Alexander dissolved so unreservedly into his arms, he couldn't decide whether that fact should terrify him more or less than if he'd been a regular human being.
In any case, it didn't seem as though Chris was about to afford him the luxury of giving him time to find out.
They pulled apart, gasping, for a matter of seconds. Alexander's heart raced, his teeth lightly chattered, and he could feel a devastating mix of hot and cold between his legs in response to what they'd just done, his cock unbearably solid against the front of his jeans, and the liquid of his precum as it dripped down along him sending shivers up his spine.
He took a hard swallow and tried to form words. He wanted—or at least, he had the urge—to tell Chris to wait a minute, to give him a chance to catch up with himself, and for the two of them to talk this through.
Chris, however, was too impatient, far too hungry for him to wait for the words to come.
He leaned into him again, hoisting up his leg, wrapping it firmly around his waist. Alexander gasped and felt another vicious spasm in his pants. Chris pulled him in and delivered another long, deep kiss, no tongue this time, but holding him sealed against himself for so long that it made him lightheaded.
At last, he pulled away, and Alexander was left standing there, his ears burning, his breath held as his lips tingled with the taste of the kiss. Then Chris leaned in again and pressed his mouth to the side of his neck. The remaining air left Alexander's lungs, and the stars he'd already begun to see flashing before his eyes intensified, doubling in their volume. He closed his eyes and pushed his shoulders up, as Chris tenderly sank his teeth into the flesh, rotating his tongue in slow circles around the bite mark, claiming him, totally and completely, as his own.
This possession, so thorough as it was, alarmed Alexander every bit as much as it titillated him. He thought he should reach out, try to push him away. Tell him, for real this time, that they needed to slow things down a little bit.
Then he felt Chris' hand slipping up beneath his shirt. Pushing the fabric upward, caressing the bare surface of his washboard stomach. His fingertips rained along the sinewy muscle, pushing into ridges, fingering his six-pack, his pectoral muscles, pinching on his nipples. Deep sensations rushed to Alexander's very core, leaving him utterly breathless.
“Yes...Yes...Yes...” he begged, his voice practically an airless whisper, unable to properly give voice to any kind of real words.
Chris pulled back on the skin of his throat, then softly released it from between his lips. He kissed the side of Alexander's face, then slid his hand all the way down along the front of his body. He jerked it back up hard between his legs, cupping his balls and the shaft of his cock through the denim, and Alexander's eyes widened, certain as he now was, beyond a doubt, that he'd become putty in this man's hands.
“The taste of your skin makes me so damn hard,” the alpha male whispered into his ear, squeezing on his groin, applying just the right amount of pressure to make him squirm with delight. He nibbled on Alexander's earlobe, then came back around and planted another long kiss on his lips.
At last, Chris pulled away, giving Alexander room to breathe for the first time in what felt like an eternity. Alexander stood there, thinking that his mind would finally manage to keep pace with his pounding erection, and at last he would be able to get the words out and tell Chris what was on his mind before things went any further.
Once again, though, Chris beat him to the punch. He stepped back, giving him space, and fixed the innocent young omega with hungry eyes. Then he let out a deep roar and began to tear out of his clothes—literally.
Alexander hadn't been expecting this, and he certainly wasn't prepared for it. The man he'd been kissing disappeared before his eyes, enveloped by a coat of dark brown, nearly black fur. His frame expanded, becoming impossibly large, and jet black claws pierced through the tips of his fingers—or rather, paws at this point.
He stood looming over Alexander, staring down at him with his intense gray eyes. The intensity, the urgency of his transformation excited him beyond what words could describe. See
ing him in his animal form excited him, awakened something primal deep inside—so massive, so virile, so formidable.
He knew, from the look in his eyes, that Chris wanted him to do the same. To show him what he was hiding beneath the skin, and reveal the secret bond that united these two perfect strangers.
He considered this, trying to decide whether he should trust the impulse. He only had one other set of clothes with him and wanted to take these off first instead of just tearing through them as Chris had done. But the way the alpha transformed had been so damn sexy, and so urgent, it somehow felt imperative that he match his actions with his own.
He took a deep breath, pushed past his fears and surrendered at last to his impulses.
He transformed and felt the fabric ripping from his body. His frame expanding. The fur bristling through his skin. An enormous power seemed to course through him, energizing him from the tops of his ears to the tips of his claws.
Transforming in a human environment was often strictly out of bounds, and especially so when those humans lurked within shouting distance, separated only by thin hotel walls.
Alexander stood there, exposed and vulnerable in his bearshifter form. His body was considerable, yet it paled in comparison to the form of the alpha grizzly towering over him, gazing down first with approval, then with lust in his eyes.
After a moment, Chris leapt forward at him, as though attacking him. His body crashed into Alexander's, knocking him to the carpeted floor with a loud thud. His instant thought was that someone would hear them, their massive weight shaking the room around them, but he pushed this thought aside, realizing his partner's intentions.
He was trying to establish intimacy with him. Playful wrestling being a way for bear shifters to get to know one another, he was obviously doing what he could to try and make Alexander more comfortable, making him feel safe enough to surrender in his arms.
It was already working.
Alexander played along, pretending to push back against the considerable weight of his alpha. He bit lightly at Chris' hide, as though trying to ward him off. Chris lightly tapped a single paw against the center of his chest, and it was more than sufficient to knock him down onto his back, his head very lightly jerking back against the floor.
Alpha Liberation: A Bear Shifter Mpreg Romance (Feral Passions Book 1) Page 3