by Kit Tunstall
The water hit with a bone-jarring thud, and the cold immediately overtook her. Shock and pain rendered her unable to move, and she opened her mouth to take in a breath without thought. Water flooded into her nose and mouth, creating panic.
She flailed wildly, knowing she was going to die in this cold water, and Kingston wouldn’t even realize she was gone for a while yet. Would they even find her body, or would she should be listed officially as a missing person, never to be found? She hoped they didn’t think Kingston had done away with her.
Abruptly, a shape caught her attention, but she was still too panicked to really take it in. Her frazzled brain processed it as long and white, and she was convinced for a second the panther had come to finish the job.
Instead, the animal folded her in a large paw and cradled her against its white chest before it swam with surety toward the surface. Seconds later, they were out of the water and on the rocky beach below the bluff. She stared in disbelief at the polar bear shaking off near her. What was it doing this far south? More importantly, why had it rescued her? Or had it simply captured her, planning to make her its next meal?
She let out a bleat of terror when the bear started to look sort of fuzzy, shifting out of focus for a moment. At first, she assumed it was a head injury, though she hadn’t bumped her head that she recalled. Seconds later, the fuzziness sharpened, but it was no longer a bear sitting on the beach in front of her. Instead, Kingston sat there, looking concerned and wary.
She stared at him, unable to take in what she was seeing. It penetrated her mind, even in her fuzzy haze, that he was completely naked. That made sense, she supposed. It would be difficult to turn into a polar bear with your clothes on. The idea was laughably insane, and she started to giggle. It didn’t take long for hysteria to take over, making her collapse into a heap on the beach even though she wanted to get up and leave. Her half-frozen limbs refused her urges to move.
“Are you all right?” He asked with a wary note in his voice, as though he expected her to run away screaming.
“Nope,” she said distinctly as she continued to giggle, the laughter taking on a shrill edge that betrayed the fear and shock underneath. “I’m about as not okay as you can get, Kingston. What the hell is happening?”
“I can explain.”
Her teeth started chattering, and her entire body shook with shivers. The icy water seemed to have seeped all the way to her bones, and she didn’t think she could ever be warm again. “Then do so,” she said through chattering teeth that distorted her words.
He made an impatient sound and came closer. Grace tried to flinch away from him, but he wouldn’t be deterred as he lifted her into his arms. “How do we get back up there?” It was an inane question, but she couldn’t seem to focus on or process anything too taxing at the moment.
“The stairs,” he said grimly, setting off in that direction. By the time he had mounted all the stairs and taken her back to his house, she was freezing and literally couldn’t move. Numbness had settled in her extremities, and she didn’t know if it was frostbite or just plain old shock, coupled with some lingering injury from hitting the water with such force.
He sat her on a rocking chair near the fire, and she started to take a blanket from the back of it.
“You need to get undressed first,” he said gruffly.
She shook her head. “No way.” Who knew when she might need to flee for her life—as soon as she could move that was?
He scowled at her before turning to toss wood into the fireplace, his irritation clear as he bent to fuss with the kindling. “You might have hypothermia, and it will just get worse and make it that much harder to get warm if you keep on wet clothes. I’m not going to hurt you, and I’m not going to jump on you, so take off your damn clothing before you get under the blanket.”
She glared at his back, not appreciating his tone, but allowing common sense to sway her. Unfortunately, her fingers refused to cooperate, and she ended up sitting in the chair, a huddled, frozen mess.
When he turned from the crackling fire a moment later and saw her still dressed, he sighed with impatience. “Would you really rather die than take your clothes off around me again?”
She rolled her eyes. “I tried. My fingers won’t work.” Her teeth were still chattering, and her words were still somewhat incomprehensible, but he seemed to be able to make them out.
His touch was tender as he undressed her, but with an air of aloofness that suggested he was focused solely on getting her warm, and not on sexual pleasure.
It was only after she was curled in front of the fire, wrapped in three blankets, and her fingers finally started to move properly, that she was able to broach the subject of what she had seen. “I was hallucinating, wasn’t I?” There was a hint of desperation in her words as she silently begged him to lie to her.
His lips tightened, and he shook his head. “No, you weren’t hallucinating. I’m a bear-shifter, Grace, and Ashley is a panther-shifter.”
Her eyes widened. “Ashley was the one who attacked me?” It sounded insane just saying it, but she accepted the truth immediately. She had realized the big cat was toying with her, and she’d also noticed strange resemblance to the woman who had been such an annoying nuisance the past few days. Still, it was quite a step up from spilling wine and nasty insults to trying to kill someone. “But why me?”
“Because she knows I’ve found my mate, but she thinks if she gets rid of you, I’ll turn to her. Shifters often take mates without finding the one truly meant for them, because no one likes to be alone, but she’s insane if she thinks I could ever settle for anything like that after having been with you last night.”
Grace stared at him in openmouthed shock, unable to decide what to address first. Was he serious? “You think I’m your mate? How the hell does that work?”
His lip curled slightly, but his tone was almost academic when he answered. “Our best guess is a biological connection. The animal inside recognizes compatible genetics through pheromone matching. Some shifters don’t even believe in instantly recognizing your mate, but I always did, and the night I met you, I just knew you were mine.”
Her eyes widened with fear. “What does being your mate mean? I don’t understand. Are you going to lock me away somewhere?”
He gave a harsh bark of laughter that held little amusement. “No, I’m not going to keep you prisoner, Grace. You have the choice to decline me, and it’s much easier for you as a human. You aren’t influenced by extra senses, and you can’t smell my pheromones that may sway you to make a decision you don’t want to make. If you want to walk away, there’s not a damn thing I can do about it, and I certainly won’t try to stop you.”
She licked her lips, her head whirling. “This is just so much to take in. I half-think I just hit my head really hard, but I don’t remember colliding with anything.”
Kingston snorted. “If you’re having trouble believing your senses, talk to Breanna. She’ll confirm what I’m telling you.”
Her eyes widened, and she shook her head automatically. “There’s no way Breanna is a shifter…person…thingy. I would know, because I lived with her for two years as her roommate.”
Kingston sighed loudly, clearly irritated. “Breanna isn’t a shifter, but Rafe is. He turns into a grizzly bear, while I’m a polar bear. We met in Alaska one summer on a salmon-fishing trip.”
“In your bear forms?” It was a stupid question, but she couldn’t seem to help uttering those as she tried to take in everything he was saying.
Kingston grinned. “Occasionally, but we met on an official guided tour, and it was a summer trip from both our parents to celebrate our high school graduations.”
She cocked a brow. “Don’t most people go to Europe or something for that kind of trip?” Her parents hadn’t been in the tax bracket that allowed such indulgences, so she didn’t truly know.
He shrugged. “Shifters need to be back in nature on a regular basis. We’re not happy if we aren’t.
”
“Do your parents live at the North Pole?”
He laughed again, looking amused rather than offended. “Honey, we’re human too. You’re Homo sapien, and I’m Ursus sapiens, which gives us a few distinct physiological traits, but we’re not all living on the polar ice caps and hunting seals. We’ve adapted to live among Homo sapiens, and my family has lived in Seattle and the surrounding area for more than a hundred years. Rafe’s family is in Oregon, but he moved here after college so we could go into business together.”
“Let me make sure I have this straight. First of all, my best friend is now married to a grizzly bear, his best man is a polar bear, with whom I just spent an entirely amazing night, and I am on the hit list of that panther Ashley because you think I’m your mate?” Uttering it aloud didn’t make it sound any less preposterous, but for some reason, she found his matter-of-fact nod reassuring. “That all sounds completely nuts.”
Kingston laughed softly. “I know, and I wanted to wait a while longer before I told you, before I made you my mate completely, but Ashley has accelerated the timeline of events.”
“I’m still not entirely sure what this whole mate thing means?”
“Bear-shifters usually mate for life, Grace. This is one bear who plans to, and if you’ll have me, I’ll be the happiest man and bear around. It’s like being my wife, but in our culture, it’s called a mate. We can still do all the legal trappings of the human world, just like Rafe and Breanna, but mating is sealed just between you and me. It involves me biting you lightly on a regular basis to impart my pheromones onto yours, which is a way to protect you.”
She scowled. “You’re going to bite me to protect me? Am I going to turn me into a bear-shifter?”
He sighed raggedly. “No. We’re distinct species, and there’s no way to transfer your traits to me or vice versa.”
“What about children?”
His expression softened. “I’d love to have several cubs with you, but I don’t want to do that right away. I’d like to enjoy some time with just you and me for a while first.”
Was the perfect answer, except the cubs things scared the heck out of her. “Cubs, as in actual cubs?”
He shook his head. “They’ll be born looking as human as you, my darling, and the bear-shifter traits will come later, along with puberty. We suspect it’s a latent gene triggered by hormonal changes, but there aren’t exactly a huge group of bear-shifter scientists available to investigate our unique biology.”
She nodded, accepting the logic with equanimity. It was amazing how quickly her mind was starting to adapt and come around to everything that had happened this morning, and everything she had learned. She was still frightened, but not of Kingston. He was gentle, even when he was being a bit gruff and bossy, and she knew instinctively he would never hurt her. In fact, he had saved her life from that crazy Ashley—which reminded her. “What are you going to do about Ashley? She’s not going to like us mating, and I’m not going to live in fear of that crazy cat.”
His eyes sparkled with hope at her words, but he addressed her question. “We have our own justice system, and she’ll be answering to them. Most likely, she’ll be banished to a preserve somewhere, shunned from polite society, and forced to live with either other shifter criminals or perhaps pure panthers. Whatever happens to her, she deserves it.”
Grace nodded, feeling not an iota of sympathy for the other woman’s predicament. The crazy bitch couldn’t live among civilized people if she was going to go homicidal. “Well, in that case, if you’re certain you’ll be dealing with her, I think I’d like to stick around for a while.”
He nodded. “We’ll handle Ashley. I’ll hired additional security for now, and it shouldn’t take long to track her down.”
“You have trackers in your world?”
He nodded. “Like the police in human society, I guess. Now, may we change the subject to a more interesting topic?”
“What did you have in mind?” The peek downward at his burgeoning erection revealed exactly what he had in mind. “I’m open to all topics of discussion.”
“Good.” He said it with a growl, as he leaned closer to pluck her from her spot on the floor and settler her on his lap. Her blankets fell in the process, but she was amply warmed by that time, especially when his arms settled around her, imparting the heat of his body.
She ran her hands down his chest, smiling slightly. “For a bear, you’re not very hairy.”
He laughed. “I’m not very hairy for a human either, but I hope that’s okay?”
She grinned before nodding. “That’s fine. It’s not the hair that makes the bear, or something like that.” Her voice turned sultry as her hand drifted lower to stroke his cock. “Maybe it’s something to do with the size of your erection making the bear? If so, your name is apt. This guy is king-sized.”
“If you keep that up, you might meet my inner bear.”
“You don’t mean to… While we’re…” She couldn’t hide a shudder of distaste at the thought.
His arms tightened around her, and he growled again. “Of course not. I have excellent control over my bear, and I would never shift in the middle of being intimate with you. I rarely shift except on weekends when I come here to the island, so you might get glances of me pawing around in my bear form, but whenever we interact, I promise I’ll always be human if that’s what you want.”
She had a mental picture of lying on the floor near the fireplace, her body supported by a large polar bear as he napped underneath her as she read a book. Strangely, in her little flash fantasy, her tummy was large with their child. It was a sweet image that resonated with her, and she shook her head. “No, I don’t mind hanging out with your bear sometimes, just not during intimacy. That’s the only time I want to make sure you’re all Kingston all the time.”
Before dragging her closer for a kiss, he whispered, “Honey, I’m always Kingston all the time, bear or not, but I’ll make sure my human Kingston is around when we’re making love.”
Satisfied with his promise, she cuddled closer and lifted her mouth to his. Her hand continued to stroke his shaft as the kiss deepened, while his hands went to her breasts. He stroked her nipples and thumbed them in slow circles that were tortuously delicious. She retaliated by dragging her hand slowly up and down his sensitive cock, pressing the palm against the underside to elicit a gasp from him. They were both soon worked up and ready, and she was thankful he was as naked as she was.
In seconds, she sat on him, guiding his cock inside her wet sheath, which took him greedily, wanting all of his thickness. As she clutched his shoulders, his arms wrapped tightly around her back while they pressed against each other. She wanted all of him. Staring into his blue eyes, she was mesmerized by his perfect male beauty and the idea of spending the rest of her life with him.
She had the strangest urge and gave in to it, stretching forward and arching her neck so she could bite him on the shoulder.
He purred, sounding like a cross between a human and a bear, which she supposed was an accurate description, and his thrusts increased in intensity, as his cocked twitched inside her. A moment later, his teeth grazed her shoulder, biting deeper than she had. It caused a sharp start of pain, but only enhanced her pleasure, and it was the final thing she needed to trigger her orgasm. As her channel tightened around him, Kingston’s erection hardened inside her and spasmed before he let loose a stream of warm release that spurted against her insides.
In the aftermath, she leaned against him, still holding him tightly, and didn’t have to ask for clarification. The bite, while she didn’t completely understand it, was clearly significant, and it had been the final step to making her his mate. He hadn’t asked her if she was ready, but considering she had bitten him first, he’d clearly realized she had fully accepted everything he was offering.
It was crazy and bewildering to realize there was an entire group of people that she had never realized existed, the kind who could shift into animals at
will. It would take some getting used to on an intellectual level, but emotionally and instinctively, she had already accepted the shift to a new reality.
She could accept anything, no matter how daunting or crazy, if it meant keeping Kingston in her life. He’d said bears recognized their mates, and she had the strangest sense she had also recognized hers, even as a human lacking his special senses.
Chapter Six
Ashley had been surprisingly difficult to find, and it was going on two weeks with no sign of her. Grace was trying to settle in to her new life as the mate of a polar bear-shifter, while dealing with the upheaval of moving from Calgary to Seattle, finding a new job, and welcoming her friend back from her honeymoon.
Breanna had come back with a surprise that she had whispered in confidence to Grace the day after they’d returned. According to Rafe, she was expecting their first baby, and though her body didn’t know it yet, his bear senses did.
Before learning about Ursus sapiens, she would have feared for her friend’s sanity, or at least her husband’s sanity, but now she believed him. How could she not, when she knew Kingston had increased senses too?
Just because she wasn’t focusing too much on Ashley didn’t mean Kingston had forgotten though, and she was reminded of that again when her two bodyguards followed her from the elevator into the waiting room where she was interviewing for a records clerk position at the local hospital. She nodded to Jared and Sully before parting ways with them to sit near the door to wait to be called back for the interview.
She knew they didn’t like waiting in the waiting room, but she couldn’t explain their presence in the middle of an interview and still hope to keep a job. Or even acquire a job. Keeping it would be another matter, and she would have to decide how to handle security when she got a new situation.
She knew Kingston wouldn’t like it, but she was probably going to insist on his staff waiting outside the building for her on a daily basis, rather than walking her in and babysitting her for hours at a time as she worked. It would be too unwelcome a distraction to both her and her coworkers to have bodyguards underfoot.