by Dakota West
“Can you control yourself though? Or does instinct just take you over?”
Julius spun his wine glass between his fingers, watching the red liquid swirl. He wanted to lie to her, to tell her that every single shifter had complete and total control over themselves at all times. They all knew it wasn’t true, though.
“Yes, you can control yourself,” he said, slowly. “But it takes time and practice. You have to want to learn to control yourself.”
“Which most shifters do,” Hudson offered.
“But not all,” Quinn said. She sounded uncertain again.
“Not all humans can control themselves,” Julius said. He sounded more terse than he meant to, but he felt defensive. After all, the wild, oversexed, out-of-control shifter was something that people like Quinn’s parents loved to talk about.
She didn’t really seem to notice, though, and instead she drained her glass, then set it gently on the blanket, where it fell over immediately on the uneven ground. A single red drop rolled out and onto the blanket.
“What does going feral mean?” she asked suddenly.
Julius and Hudson looked at each other across the blanket. Julius could practically read his mate’s face: You answer, it said. You’re the one who knows what he’s talking about.
“My parents talked about it,” she apologetically.
“It’s what happens when a shifter stays an animal for too long,” he said, simply. “If you’re a bear for a long time, it gets harder and harder to shift back.”
Quinn’s eyes widened, but then she frowned. “Is that bad?” she asked. “Couldn’t you just... become a bear?”
“Even in bear form, we don’t think like bears,” Julius reminded her. “We’re a lot smarter, for one thing. And we still know things from our human lives.”
“People in their animal form for too long get a little crazy,” Hudson joined in. “They cause a lot of havoc.”
“Do you remember that lion that attacked a school bus full of children in Meriweather last year?” Julius asked.
“Of course,” Quinn answered. “My parents had a field day with that.”
“He was feral,” Julius answered. “He wouldn’t shift back for weeks. It finally took his mate, who he’d left, begging him to shift back.”
“He almost couldn’t,” Hudson said, quietly.
Quinn’s eyes narrowed just a little, and she looked from Julius to Hudson.
Shit, thought Julius. She knows there’s something.
I wish she were less perceptive.
“What else?” she asked.
The two men traded glances again.
“One of my cousins went feral,” Julius said softly. “Her name was Olivia.”
“That’s a nice name,” Quinn offered.
“It pretty much wrecked her family,” Julius said. “Her parents died a little while back, and her brother Kade is still...”
He trailed off, not really sure how to explain Kade.
“Kade is still working through some things,” said Hudson.
“Where’s Olivia?”
Julius shrugged. “She could be anywhere. Every time there’s an alleged grizzly sighting, Kade gets excited and tracks it down. So far they’ve all been real bears, though.”
Quinn stared at the blanket, slowly twisting it between her fingers.
“That must be awful,” she finally said.
Julius shrugged. “It is,” he said.
Then he stood up and stretched. Anything to break off the questions about Kade and poor Olivia.
“Anything else you want to know about shifters?” he asked.
Quinn leaned back on her hands, the serious moment over.
“Was Judge Wood a shifter?”
“Nope. Human.”
“Are there marine shifters?”
“Like sharks?”
“Right.”
“Nope.”
“Bird shifters?”
“Just hawks and eagles.”
“What does it look like when you shift?”
Julius grinned, putting his hands on his hips. These questions were much, much more to his liking.
“Do you want to see?” he asked.
Quinn gasped, and then clapped her hand to her mouth.
She’s adorable when she’s tipsy, Julius thought. Even though just being near her, knowing that she couldn’t be theirs and that she’d be gone before he knew it was torture, he couldn’t help but want her.
“So... yes?”
“Is that okay?” she asked. “It’s not, like, some secret thing?”
Julius just laughed.
“Of course not,” he said, and shrugged. “It’s just shifting.”
“Is it gross?” she asked, sounding more intrigued than disgusted.
For a moment, her excitement at watching him shift sent a pang through Julius’s heart.
What if she was someone else’s child? He wondered. If she’d had different parents, could the three of us be happy?
Quinn was brave and vivacious and inquisitive. Clearly, she was whip-smart as well, and everything about her, from her constant curiosity to her perfect ass, made Julius ache for her to be his.
It wasn’t going to happen, though. Her parents were going to try and have him killed, and then Quinn was leaving forever.
Maybe you can call her in a year, he thought. Once she’s out of her parents’ house.
“Not gross,” he told her. “Just... furry.”
Before she could ask any more questions, he whipped his t-shirt off over his head, then tossed it on a nearby boulder.
“Oh!” Quinn exclaimed, her cheeks quickly going pink.
“Grizzlies are much larger than people,” Hudson explained.
“Right, of course,” she said, looking down at the blanket.
Julius took off his pants before he got an erection, then balled them up, holding the crumpled jeans in front of himself. For decency’s sake.
“Ready?” he asked with a grin.
Quinn just nodded, obviously staring at his body. That was perfectly fine with Julius.
Then he shifted.
It felt like an itch that started in his bones and then exploded out as his body expanded and fur covered him over, quickly. His face got longer and, just like always, he grew claws and a short tail, landed on his front paws.
It was over.
Quinn was standing now, looking half-ready to run, her left hand clutching Hudson’s forearm.
That was a good sign.
He raised his snout and sniffed the wind. Even though he had an abnormally good sense of smell as a human, it was nothing compared to the scent rainbow he experienced as a bear. There was the sharp scent of pine trees, the damp smell of moss and rocks. Two deer to the north; three wolves about a mile to the east.
More than anything, though, there were two overwhelming scents: Hudson and Quinn.
YOUR MATES, his bear-brain thought.
“Can he hear us?” Quinn asked.
“Of course,” Hudson answered. Julius could feel his mate practically vibrating with just the touch of her hand on his arm, the wild thing inside him desperate to claw its way out.
“I mean, can he understand us?”
Julius grunted and nodded.
Hudson smiled.
“Yup.”
Her heart was beating furiously, and Julius could smell her anxiety. He didn’t blame her.
After all, grizzlies were very, very dangerous.
“You’re in control, right?” she asked, this time directly to Julius.
He grunted again.
Then she took her hand off of Hudson’s arm and took a couple of tentative steps forward.
“Can I touch you?” she asked, her voice getting smaller.
Her heartbeat was even faster, and her scent — wildflowers and musk and fear and, impossibly, even a little arousal — was so strong that bear-Julius could almost taste it.
Julius bowed his head. Quinn held her breath and stood perfectly still for a few mome
nts.
Then she closed the distance between them and extended one trembling hand.
She’s going against everything her parents have ever taught her, he thought. The thought gave him a tiny spark of hope, somewhere deep in his heart.
Give it a year.
Her hand reached the top of his snout, and with the pads of two fingers, she stroked the short, velvety fur there, so lightly that it tickled.
His eyes slid closed, and he gave into the enjoyment of letting him touch her. Even just on the nose.
She might do more, his bear-brain told him. She’s come further than you thought.
An image flashed in front of his mind’s eye: Quinn, on her back on the blanket, moaning as he buried himself inside her, her face flushed with pleasure.
Now her hand had made its way up past his eyebrow ridge, and she’d gotten braver, putting the whole flat of her palm on him, then pushing her fingers through his fur, over his ears, onto his cheeks.
Julius let out the slightest of appreciative growls and nuzzled her hand. For a moment, she froze, and then she smiled.
“You have softer fur than I thought you would,” she said. “It’s the same color as your hair.”
“It usually is,” said Hudson, who’d come up behind her. He reached out and scratched Julius’s ears, almost like the bear was an enormous dog.
Quinn looked over at Hudson, watching him just mess with Julius’s enormous, shaggy head like petting a grizzly was no big deal.
“So you’re sort of... light brown?” she asked.
Hudson grinned.
“Want to see?”
“Sure,” she said, her fingers finding a spot under Julius’s chin.
In a flash, Hudson was disrobing. Even as a bear, Julius thought he could see a flash of desire in Quinn’s eyes. Unlike when he’d shifted, she didn’t look away. This time she wasn’t afraid.
Good, he thought. My mate can’t be afraid.
Then there was an explosion of fur and Quinn gasped again. Hudson, in bear form, stood next to him. This time, Quinn touched him without hesitation, running her fingers through his surprisingly soft fur.
Hudson gave her arm a quick lick, and Quinn just laughed.
“This is the strangest thing,” she said. “You’re bears.”
Julius grunted again, then took a step toward Hudson and head-butted him.
Hudson swatted back playfully. Quinn took a step back, and moments later, the two bears were wrestling in the clearing, rolling over and over, swiping and biting.
“Oh!” exclaimed Quinn as Hudson fastened his teeth around the thick skin on Julius’s neck. “Oh, don’t hurt him.”
Julius snorted and shrugged Hudson off. His teeth hadn’t penetrated at all, and Julius retaliated with a claws-out swat. Hudson rolled off, going half into the clear, cold stream, and Julius splashed in after. The cold mattered significantly less when he was a bear.
Chapter Ten
Quinn
Watching the two grizzlies wrestle around the clearing, snorting, growling, and grunting happily, Quinn couldn’t help but smile. She stayed out of their way, just in case, but it was obvious that Julius and Hudson would never do anything to hurt her. They’d taken her to this special place, after all, and while neither of them had said it, she got the impression that not a lot of humans got to see a grizzly shifter actually shift, let alone touch a shifter in his bear form.
It had felt surprisingly intimate, at least. Quinn couldn’t think of a time when she’d felt more vulnerable than standing directly in front of a grizzly bear, her hand on his face, staring into its eyes.
The two bears splashed through the freezing creek, seemingly impervious to almost everything: teeth, claws, the cold.
No wonder they like being bears, she thought. Just shift if the heat in your house isn’t working or something. It’s probably pretty convenient.
Hudson came out of the creek, shaking himself off, starting with his head and then twisting his whole body until his fur stood out in wet spikes. Julius came up from behind him and gave him one more swat.
Suddenly, Hudson toppled over and lay on the grass, unmoving.
Quinn frowned. It hadn’t even been a hard swat. At least she didn’t think so.
Then he shifted back to human, shrinking and folding in on himself, until he laid there naked, still unmoving. Julius walked up and nudged at him with his nose, and then looked plaintively at Quinn.
“Hudson?” she said, panic edging into her voice. She rushed over to where he lay on the ground, kneeling down in front of his naked, tattooed form. Any other time, she’d have been a blushing mess this close to one of the hottest men she’d ever seen, but right now, Quinn was just terrified.
He didn’t answer.
“HUDSON!” she shouted, grabbing him by the shoulders and rolling him onto his back.
His chest wasn’t rising and falling. His eyes were still shut. Frantically, Quinn felt for a pulse in his neck and felt it beat against her fingers, steady and strong.
Why isn’t he breathing?
She put the side of her face above his mouth, trying to feel any faint breath that might escape his lips, as she tried frantically to remember how to do mouth-to-mouth.
Then Hudson’s lips puckered, dropping a quick kiss on her cheek.
Quinn sat bolt upright as his eyes flew open and Hudson grinned from ear to ear.
“Boo,” he said
“You asshole!” Quinn said. “You scared me to death, I was about to do mouth-to-mouth.”
“Damn, I should’ve waited,” he said. “It’s been a long, long time since I kissed a pretty girl.”
Quinn’s mouth dropped open slightly, but she managed to regain some of her composure, rocking back onto her knees above him.
She very pointedly made eye contact, determined not to let her gaze look any lower. Not that she wasn’t curious.
Or interested. Very interested.
“You could have just asked,” she said, still half-pretending to be angry.
There was a soft whump behind her, and Quinn looked up to see Julius, standing there, arms crossed over his chest, also totally naked.
Eye contact, eye contact, she thought.
She looked.
It was impressive.
“Okay,” said Hudson. Still lying on his back, he reached one hand across the grass and rubbed one of her knees softly with the backs of his fingers. “Can I have a kiss?”
Quinn thought her heart might beat out of her chest as Hudson sat up, leaning on one hand in front of her.
What does he see in me? she wondered. My parents want to kill his mate, I run a shifter hate site, and my thighs rub together.
Before she could lose her nerve, she leaned forward and planted her lips on his.
Even though he’d just been in the creek and his skin was cold, his lips were warm, dry, and firm against her own. Before she knew it, one of his hands was on her shoulder, just barely squeezing her.
His mouth opened and he moved his head just slightly, the faint rasp of skin on skin heightening Quinn’s anticipation even further. She wanted to melt into him, for him to lay her down on the grass and touch every single part of her, take her clothes off and...
She felt his tongue swipe against her lower lip and she opened her own mouth, letting him inside. Now his hand had made its way up to her face, his thumb gently stroking her cheekbone, and his tongue sought hers out ferociously.
Scooting forward, she pressed herself into him. She didn’t care any longer whether he was naked or not, because there was a heat rising inside her that was unlike anything she’d ever felt before, a spike of white-hot fire that burned straight through her core.
Hudson broke the kiss, looked Quinn in the eyes, then looked somewhere over her head. She turned to see Julius, standing there with a smirk on his face.
By the looks of his erection, he was impressed.
“We agreed, Hudson,” he said. He was trying to sound mad but wasn’t quite succeeding.<
br />
Besides, his erection was far too prominent.
Hudson grinned. “Oops?”
Quinn was breathing hard, flushed with desire, and she felt utterly fearless. She’d already touched a grizzly bear — no, two grizzly bears — and was alone in the woods with two naked shifters.
And she wasn’t doing a damn thing that she didn’t want to.
“Are you going to stay up there or come down here and join in?” she asked.
In a flash, Julius was behind her, leaning over her shoulder. He pressed his lips to hers, hard enough that she could just barely feel his teeth on her, and he pressed his tongue into her mouth without hesitation, finding hers and curling against it.
When they separated, Hudson was watching them, a hungry look in his eyes. Both men were breathing hard, and Quinn bit her lip as she finally let her eyes flick down to their erections.
They were definitely, definitely into it.
Hudson kissed her again and then the kiss was joined by Julius, tongue weaving through all three mouths until Quinn wasn’t sure who she was kissing or whose tentative hand was on her waist, just barely touching her through her t-shirt.
The fire inside her roared, burning hotter and hotter.
Something could go wrong tomorrow, she thought.
Lips — Hudson’s, she thought — moved to her neck, slowly making their way down her throat, sucking gently at the hollow there. She let out a soft little moan, her eyes sliding closed.
Just go with it now, Quinn told herself.
Without opening her eyes, she grasped the hand on her waist. The lips on her neck stopped, but she moved the hand six inches upward, placing it firmly on one breast.
She opened her eyes to see Hudson’s face surprised for one second, only for that expression to be replaced by total delight as he cupped her breast in his hand, running his thumb over her nipples through her bra, a groan making its way out of his chest.
Immediately, Julius’s hand was on her other breast, kneading and caressing, his thick erection firm against her lower back as he rocked against her.
Quinn felt like she might explode with desire. She wanted them, and now.
She whipped her t-shirt off, tossing it onto the now-abandoned picnic blanket, and looked down.
Shit, she thought. Why’d I wear the ugliest bra I own on a date?