by Kit Tunstall
She was in the kitchen when he opened the door, her gaze searching the night. He didn’t think he imagined the hint of wistfulness in her expression, nor the slump of defeat rounding her shoulders. It was obvious he had hurt her with his flight, and he had to explain his actions, to make it right. Somehow.
When she turned to face him, her eyes brightened for just a second, and the happiness in her expression took his breath away. A moment later, that pleasure faded, overshadowed by cool distance in her attempt to remain aloof. It failed miserably, though he wouldn’t tell her that. Instead of seeming withdrawn, she looked more vulnerable than ever, and he knew she had been hurt by others before him too.
“Would you like some coffee? There’s still half a pot.” Her voice sounded relatively calm, but there was a hint of shakiness underneath.
She was nervous or upset. Even with his in heightened sense of smell to analyze the pheromones pouring off her, his bear couldn’t decide which either. He put her suitcase on the floor and walked over to the coffee maker. “I brought your things.”
After pouring himself a cup, he turned back to her. “Most of them, anyway. I shoved what I could in this large case. I couldn’t carry them all.” His bear could manage the load easily, but someone would have to stack it on his back, and he wasn’t a pack animal. The idea of transporting cargo for humans was repellent. However, he would happily carry her anywhere she wanted to go, starting with his bed.
Now, growled his bear in the back of his head. Rafe did his best to block out the ursine voice demanding they claim their mate. Soon, he whispered in his mind, attempting to sound soothing. He hoped that was the truth. If she could accept him, all of him, he would claim her, but not until she knew the truth.
“Thank you.” Her voice was stilted, and she moved jerkily toward the bag. As she bent to pick it up, he intercepted her hand and lifted the heavy case for her again. Her eyes widened when he wouldn’t release his hold on her as he took her back to the bedroom, setting the case on the trunk in front of the footboard.
Only then did he turn to face her, ensuring her gaze locked with his. He didn’t release her hand, but he wasn’t forcing her to stand with him. He could sense her hesitation, but she wasn’t running for the door. “I’m sorry about earlier. I came on way too fast and too strong.”
Her sweet pink tongue flicked out of her mouth to run across her lower lip, and he barely bit back a growl at the site. His bear demanded he taste her, and he had to wrestle with the urge for a long moment before he had it in check again.
“It’s okay. It was probably just a moment of madness or something.”
No, he wasn’t going to let her get off that easily. Rafe shook his head, bringing his hand up to hold her chin when she would have looked away. “No, it wasn’t that at all. Actually, I suppose there was a hint of madness to it, but as soon as I smelled your arousal and realized how badly you wanted me, my desire came to the forefront. I couldn’t control the urge to touch and taste you. I barely managed to stop myself from pinning you to the house and fucking you like crazy.”
She gasped softly, but her expression didn’t betray fear. Instead, her eyes darkened, and he thought he read hope in her expression. “You really wanted me that badly?”
At his affirmative nod, she licked her lip again, provoking a growl from him. Her eyes widened at the sound, but she still didn’t seem afraid. Now, she was clearly on the edge of excitement. A deep inhalation confirmed to suspicion, and he could sense she was aroused.
“Why didn’t you?” It seemed to have cost her great effort to utter the question, and she tried to look away again as her cheeks burned scarlet.
“I didn’t because you’re special to me, Breanna. I know we haven’t been together here for long, but I feel like I’ve known you forever.” Ignoring his bear’s insistence that he reveal Breanna was their mate, he attempted a more human and rational approach. “Maybe it’s crazy, but there seems to be a connection between us, one that invites deeper intimacy than one would expect between strangers.”
Her eyes sparkled, and she nodded eagerly. “I feel the same way. I know we haven’t spoken much, but from the moment I was aware after waking up, and I saw you, I wanted you.” It seemed impossible, but her cheeks got even redder.
He found her shyness adorable, especially her ability to conquer it, though it seemed to cost her a great deal of personal strength. Before he could stop himself, he uttered the words that made his bear hum with satisfaction. “I recognized you as my mate the moment I smelled you.”
Confusion clouded her face, along with her first hint of uncertainty. Before she could start doubting his sanity, Rafe held up a hand. “I’m different from anyone you’ve met before, I’d wager.”
She nodded again. “You’re certainly different from anyone I’ve ever met, Rafe.”
“There’s a world that you aren’t aware of, just like most humans. An entire race of people, a hybrid species, if you will.” He was mucking this up badly.
She frowned, looking upset. “Let’s talk about this later. Right now, there are certain things I’d rather do to you. With you.” Her face was bright enough now to lead Santa’s sleigh, and he admired that she was fighting through her doubt about him to embrace her desire.
Still, he couldn’t take her in good conscience without revealing everything. “I have to tell you something first. I’m one of those people, Breanna, and I need you to know that and accept it before I claim you as my mate.”
After ensuring her eyes were on him, Rafe shed his clothing. She started to do the same, but he captured her hands in one of his for a second. “Hold off for a minute. Make sure you’re okay with everything, and you know what you’re getting into first.”
Her gaze darted to the door, and he realized she was contemplating walking out on him. His bear roared his displeasure at the thought, and Rafe couldn’t hold back the transformation a second longer. His bear took over, surging to the forefront, and he shifted in front of his mate, praying as he did so that she could accept him.
Chapter Five
Lord, he was too good to be true, just as she had feared. Apparently, her instincts making her feel that she knew him better than she did had failed her once again. She didn’t know what he was talking about, but he was rambling on about hybrid species when all she wanted to do was lose her clothes and jump into his bed.
If he said much more, she was going to have to deny her desire and embrace her discomfort with his words. As it stood, she could at least pretend he was normal until they were done having sex, but if he persisted, that would be the end of this tryst.
Abruptly, Breanna gasped and reared back as a huge bear materialized in front of her. Holy crap. She blinked several times, certain she’d had a relapse of concussion that had triggered a hallucination. It was only when the bear laid down on the floor, rolling onto its back to expose its belly, that she stopped blinking.
Her gaze met the bear’s intelligent green eyes, and she gasped again. They were the same eyes looking out from Rafe’s face, and the same pair she’d seen on the bear the night of her car accident.
She couldn’t truly believe the bear was a visual side effect of a concussion, and hesitantly, she reached out to touch the thick brown fur of the bear submitting before her. It was silky soft, with just a slight roughness that suggested wildness.
Without quite believing it, she sank to the floor on her knees and began rubbing the belly of the bear. Aside from being about a thousand times larger, and not dressed in goofy outfits, he was oddly like the dogs her parents had kept over the years, and she giggled at the thought of this huge animal curling up on her lap as she petted his ears.
A second later, Rafe was himself again. Her hand remained on his stomach, just a few inches above his cock, which was straight and hard just for her.
Her gaze darted to his face, and the uncertainty in his expression made her chest ache for a moment. He looked so vulnerable, but it wasn’t his posture suggesting vulnerability
so much as the openness of his expression, tinged with a hint of anticipation. It didn’t appear to be happy anticipation, but rather one of dread, as though bracing himself for disappointment. Clearly, Rafe expected her to reject him and run screaming from the cabin.
It was the safe, sane, and rational response to what she had just seen. If she had a scrap of common sense, she’d already be fleeing into the snow and trying to convince herself she’d just imagined all this. Instead, she licked her lips and asked an asinine question. “Does it hurt when you change?”
The uncertainty eased slightly from his expression, though he still appeared vulnerable. “No, not at all. It’s just part of who I am.”
“You can control it then? I mean, you can shift whenever you want? It’s not like werewolves, where they need a full moon?”What was with all the stupid questions?
Shouldn’t she be trying to find out how he had gotten into this situation, or better yet, requesting he take her to the nearest city as soon as possible? Perhaps she was still in shock, or maybe she was seizing an impossible chance to find out the answers to improbable questions. No, that couldn’t be it. No way was she together enough at the moment to really be approaching this with a scientific outlook.
His lips quirked to form a genuine smile of amusement. “Actually, wolf-shifters don’t need the moon either. For some, they feel the call more strongly during a full moon phase, and I hear it’s easier for them to shift, but like bear-shifters, they control their form.”
She blinked, for some reason finding it impossible to believe there were people in the world who could transform to animals, though her brain was rapidly accepting the idea that Rafe could turn from bear to human and back again at will. “Are there more like you?”
“Bear-shifters or shifters in general?”
Breanna shrugged. “Both, I suppose.”
He nodded. “Yes, there are. There are several bear-shifters, including my family, that I know personally in the Pacific Northwest and here in Idaho. I also know several animal-shifters of various types. Of course I don’t know them all. It’s not like we have a registry, or we all get together for tea and Girl Scout cookies to discuss the issues related to being transmorphic.”
For some reason, the thought of Rafe sitting around drinking tea and eating Thin Mints in his bear form, surrounded by wolves and all manner of animals, made her giggle. “This should be completely impossible.” She made that obvious statement as soon as the giggles had faded.
He shrugged again. “Not really. It’s simply a genetic divergence along evolutionary lines.”
She arched a brow. “Why aren’t there more of you then? I mean enough for the world to notice?”
“The population of shifters is much smaller than humans due to several factors. For one thing, our groups tend to band together to avoid shunning and dangers from humans who didn’t and don’t understand our type, so a lot live in rural communities and remote enclaves. We lost quite a few of our groups to ignorant humans in the past, particularly during the Dark Ages. Unfortunately, banding together limited the gene pool, and fertility is sometimes questionable in latter generations.”
“I see.” She licked her lips, wondering if she truly did see. If she hadn’t witnessed the transformation for herself, she would have dismissed his words as mental illness. As it stood, she couldn’t deny what she had witnessed, and she analyzed her feelings to determine her response. There was fear along with anxiety, but overwhelmingly, there was just pure lust, tempered with more tender emotions. She still wanted Rafe as much she had before, bear-shifter thing be damned.
“What did you mean when you called me your mate?” She wanted to hope it meant something besides a one-night fling, even as she acknowledged the complexity of entering a relationship with someone who could shift into a bear.
“Just what it sounds like. Several shifters from all the races believe we’ll recognize our mates at first sight…or smell, as the case may be. Our sense of smell will always find our mate, supposedly. His or her scent will be almost overpowering, they say.” He shrugged. “It appears to be true.”
“I stink in a certain way to tell me I’m yours?” She didn’t know whether to laugh or be offended.
“No, of course not. You smell divine. Somehow, my sense of smell is attuned more keenly to you. The nose knows.” He winked.
Breanna shook her head, unable to believe what she’d heard even after seeing his shift.
“The belief has superstitious roots—that the gods had orchestrated it to be so, to make our lives easier and compensate for the hardships of shifter duality. The newer theory is we recognize pheromones that are ideally suited as a match to our own. Maybe it’s a combination of both superstition and science.”
He shrugged. “In all honestly, I didn’t really believe it would or could happen until I met you. All it took was one sniff to know you’re my mate. My bear recognized it right away, though I fought him a little bit to start with. It just sounded crazy.”
Rafe closed his eyes for a second before opening them again, looking like he was bracing himself for battle. “I know it all sounds crazy, but the simple truth is you’re meant to be my mate. You have to know everything before I claim you and mark you as mine. It wouldn’t be fair to you otherwise.”
Her brow furrowed. “Mark me? What does that mean? Are you going to turn me into a bear-shifter?”
He looked slightly annoyed. “Of course not. If you bit me, would I become only human?”
“No?” she asked tentatively, and he nodded with apparent satisfaction.
“Right. It doesn’t work that way. You were born Homo sapien, and I was born Ursus sapien. You can’t get infected with one or the other, and no one can change between the two. I am what I am, and I hope you’ll be okay with that.” He closed his eyes, looking like he was in pain. “I sincerely hope you’ll be okay with that, because it’s taking all my control not to mate with you right now.”
“If I say no, your bear will just let me walk away?” God, that sounded insane, but it was a sincere question. She had to know if she was safe and could still make her own choices.
There’d been enough people trying to control her life over the years, and she wasn’t going to accept it from her mate. The word should have been jarring, but it resonated with her on a deeper level, and she knew right then she had already surrendered to the pull between them, no matter what answer Rafe gave her.
His eyes widened. “Of course we will. It will be hard for us to let you go, especially since bears mate for life, and I’m unlikely to ever meet another match your equal, but I would never hold you against your will or force you to accept something you don’t want.”
Her smile broke free spontaneously, and she reached out to stroke her hand down his hard shaft. “It’s a good thing I’m quite willing then, isn’t it?”
With suddenness that made her head spin, Rafe issued a growl and flipped their positions so she was underneath him. He was clearly surrendering to his bear side to dominate her, but in a sexy way she couldn’t object to as his hands tore frantically at her clothing, literally ripping some of it from her body in his haste.
Even as he removed her clothes, his fingernails turning briefly the claws to rip the resisting fabric, he was careful not to hurt her. Not even the tip of his claws grazed her skin, and she felt no fear in the face of his desperate wildness. In fact, it stoked her own, and she spread her thighs wide once her clothes wereoff, ready for him to take her right then.
Apparently, her mate had other ideas. Instead of his cock filling her, his head dipped between her legs, and his tongue surged inside her wet slit. She cried out as he licked her frantically, his tongue rough but also gentle. It was a strange juxtaposition of sensations, to have him devouring her while treating her as though she was the most precious thing in the world to him, and she might shatter at the slightest roughness.
She’d never made love like this before. Men had tasted her, of course, but none of them had done so in
such an intense way that made her feel so desired and needed that her heart cried out with equal fervor for him.
As his tongue swirled around her clit, two of his fingers surged inside her again, and she accepted them easily, already accommodated to their girth, but still longing for all of him. The size of his cock was intimidating, but not so much that she was afraid to try taking it.
When he flicked the tip of his tongue lightly under the hood of her clitoris, her world dissolved, and she cried out as a climax swept through her. She was still shaking and convulsing, her sheath contracting with the force of her release, when Rafe moved between her legs.
The head of his cock sought out her opening, and he surged inside her with an animalistic growl that raised the hairs on the back of her neck and sent shivers of excitement racing down her spine. Breanna embraced her lover, wrapping her arms and legs around him as he sank into her.
There was a brief instant of resistance as her tight sheath adjusted to his large erection, and then he was fully seated inside her. For a long moment, they stared at each other, just lost in the bliss of being one.
Slowly he began to move, and she matched his pace. Unlike when he’d used his frantic mouth greedily on her folds, he made love to her slowly and tenderly, as though in no rush. She was thankful for that, enjoying the connection even as she felt the compulsion to crash against him to increase the rhythm. Their thrusts naturally sped up, and they pressed hard together, seeking release without ever wanting to let go of each other.
Rafe twined her fingers in his, holding her arms above her head, the backs of her hands pressed into the soft carpet. The lower half of his body arched against hers with rhythmic thrusts that sent spirals of pleasure shooting throughout her.