by Connie Wood
Dane’s hands came up to her front and grasped the edges of her button up shirt. He tore it off with ease and roughly cupped her now naked breasts with one hand. She moved closer into him, pressing against him, wanting to feel his arousal. His arm wrapped around her back and she could feel the muscles in them tense as if he didn’t want to crush her.
He hooked his thumb into the waist of her skirt and started to pull it down. With a grunt of impatience, he took it in both hands and ripped it to shreds. The remnants of her skirt still around her waist held on by the elastic band.
Still they kissed each other, frantically, almost brutally. Lea ran a hand up his chest, caressing the heat of his skin. Dane moaned deep within his throat and Lea brought up her other hand, her fingers plying into the muscular flesh of his back.
Dane unzipped his jeans with one hand and lifted Lea up to him with one arm wrapped around her back. She moaned with anticipation as Dane’s arm flexed and lifted her up against him. She wrapped her legs around his hips and kissed him greedily. His arousal pushed up against her core, already hot and slick for him.
With one intense thrust, Dane pushed himself deeply into her. Lea finally broke their kiss and flung her head back in pleasure. In a frenzied rhythm, Dane pounded into her again and again. Tension built to an unbearable level and she started to buck against him with all her strength, desperate for release.
Dane wrapped both arms around her back and pulled her fully against him. For an instant, it felt as if they were one complete entity and then Lea’s passion broke. Waves of ecstasy, previously unknown shot through her, pulsating, through her body. She screamed out and Dane stilled for an instant before his bellow of pleasure mingled with hers. She felt him inside her and she pushed herself against him, wanting to feel his pleasure.
Panting, Lea placed her head against Dane’s shoulder as he continued to hold her against him. Playfully she nipped at the flesh there and Dane reached up and ran his hand gently across her cheek. Her heart sung at the tenderness of it.
Suddenly his arms tensed across her back and his head jerked up. She looked up at him, curious. A shadow from the dens opening crossed his face and with her back toward the door she suddenly felt vulnerable. Instantly, Dane turned her and in one fluid motion, he slid out from her and lifted her down.
Stealthily quiet, Dane inched toward the door, motioning for her to stay still. He scanned the open fields that lay outside his den, before stepping outside.
Lea stood shivering, naked, wondering what the hell was going on. She’d felt the agitation and the predator come to the forefront of Dane. But what the hell would make a polar bear shape shifter nervous?
Concerned, Lea stood at the edge of the doorway and cautiously poked her head outside. She squinted, almost blinded again by the light reflecting against the ice. Flat fields spread out to all visible horizons. Nobody was in sight. Not even Dane.
A man’s footprints headed around to the left side of the den. Assuming he was checking something on the other side, Lea stepped back inside to wait. She looked down as something dark sat against the whiteness of the floor. Confusion creased her brow as recognition hit her.
Lea bent down and pried the object out of the snow. She jerked as its ragged edge sliced her hand, blood instantly dripping to the floor. A fission of energy radiated around her and Lea blinked her eyes. She looked around.
“Damn it,” she ground out as she sat up.
Her bedroom was now shrouded in the darkness of evening. The outlines of furniture a slightly darker shade as her eyes adjusted to the different light. The room felt warm and stuffy after the cold open spaces of Dane’s home.
She closed her eyes and fell back onto the bed with a dull thump.
“Damn, damn, damn,” she laminated, slapping herself in the forehead in frustration. “Ouch,” she gasped, pulling her hand away. She tried to look at the palm of her hand in the gloom and shadows and only saw the outline of her hand.
Lea groped around the bed side table looking for the lamp, she flicked it on and was assaulted by an explosion of light.
Her house seemed desolate and empty in the cold harsh light. It had never felt like that before. Her stomach clenched, it was Dane that was missing. Ever since he stepped foot in her home, he’d left a footprint of his energy. His aura so overwhelming it left residue lingering for hours.
Now he was gone again and she’d woken up from their shared fantasies alone. Lea looked down at herself and was only half surprised to see herself naked. Her shirt was gone, her skirt left in tatters around her waist. Her body still hummed with the pleasure of having Dane inside her. She was both taut and relaxed simultaneously.
And the flesh on her palm was sliced open. She hurried to the bathroom, opened the cabinet and found the gauze to press against her wound. It wasn’t so deep as to need stitches, but now she was fully aware of it, the pain started to set in and she winced as the material started to turn red.
A crease wrinkled her brow as she tried to remember what had cut her. Some of their shared dreams were hard to recall on waking, the more emotion the foggier the memory. But she had always been able to eventually recall most, if not all of their dreams. Emotions and images filtered into her mind. Fear, passion, excitement, dread. Dane as a bear, fierce and cold, then as a man, intimidating yet breathtaking.
Dane’s words, “I want you too badly” and a sweet kiss and then with almost frightening intensity and clarity everything washed over her and she knew everything.
Lea scanned the floor. There it sat, small and innocuous. Lea picked it up off the carpet, careful this time not to cut herself. It felt heavier than she recalled, colder and more inanimate. There was no life to it, it had always been a part of her and now it felt different.
One side of the metal had broken off, leaving a jiggered edge that cut her. Though the slightly concave design would mean the raw edge wouldn’t touch her when she placed it back where it belonged.
What was it doing at Dane’s den? Did she lose it there during a dream?
The necklace slid over her head easily and the icy cold metal of the pendant hit her skin causing goose bumps to rise. She was glad to have found it, but a kernel of sadness buried itself deep within her heart. Dane had held the pendant as a piece of her and now he had only memories. Just as she did.
Chapter Fourteen
Dane bounded across the ice fields, the cold wind stinging his face. His heavy footfalls crashed against the hard snow, the impact rebounding through his body, urging him to go faster, harder. The early morning sun sat low on the horizon and he followed its course, knowing it would eventually lead him to the hunt.
He needed food, his almost insatiable appetite now a physical ache that gripped him. Usually he would take pleasure in the hunger, in the hunt and the kill. It would pound adrenaline into his animal half and his instincts would take over. But today his human mind lingered and even the love of the hunt wouldn’t appease the unease in his soul.
He wanted Lea.
The hunger for her was almost as strong as his desire to feed. She’d appeared in his dreams and stirred emotions in him he wasn’t sure he could handle. Here in his beloved ice fields, he knew what he was, an animal coupled with human form and increased instincts. The more he was isolated out here, the more his animal impulses took over, the human part fading into the background.
But Lea always made him feel like a man, a protector, a lover. Even a friend. Pain urged him on faster against the now rough snow. He was nobody’s friend.
Friendship was foreign and weak. In his world, only kin and survival mattered. Besides, friends didn’t selfishly desire the other at any cost. A protector shouldn’t want a woman even if it meant certain death. A lover didn’t yearn for her body to be pressed against his, shuddering in pleasure as evil lurked outside.
The evil stench had lingered around his den long after he returned to find Lea had disappeared from their dreams. The creature, unfamiliar to Dane, made him cautious. Had the animal l
urked as Dane made love to Lea? The thought made him see red, his vision momentarily blurred by pure rage. After he fed, he’d track the strange creature and make it pay for its trespass.
Hunger tore at his stomach and his legs buckled beneath him. Damn it, it had been too long since he fed. The need to kill, an unquenchable thirst for blood rose in him, giving him strength. He got up on all fours and scanned the horizon slowly.
A log cabin was visible in the distance and Dane changed his track and headed toward it. Deep snow impeded his journey, sinking into it he struggled to pull himself out, but his weight compacted the snow around him, crushing him in the vice of snow.
Silently cursing, Dane summoned his energy and transformed into human form. He shivered slightly, loose clumps of snow falling around him. Smaller than bear form, Dane managed to get some space between himself and the ice. Getting a foot hold in the side of the compressed snow, Dane heaved himself out.
Dane looked up and sniffed. The smell of roasting meat wafted across the plane. Smoke billowed from the little wooden cabin, similar to most that scattered the fields on the outskirts of town.
Hunger gnawed at him and he doubled over in pain, his breath now coming in short sharp bursts. He tried to slow his breathing, to control himself. He’d never been this long without feeding.
He straightened up and started toward the cabin, slowly at first. Then intent and instinct kicked in and he started to run. His human form was slower than the bear, but he didn’t transform. A different sort of instinct now had come to the forefront. Survival. And the human in him would do almost anything to survive, in some ways far more feral and deadly than the bear.
Dane could feel the adrenaline and excitement spur him on, his hunger for blood all consuming. This was the part of him that wanted anything, no matter the cost. He smiled as another hunger leapt into play. This part of him wanted Lea no matter the consequences.
As he approached the cabin, Dane slowed and crept along the side of the concaved timber walls. He once again attempted to control his breathing, this time he was successful. A cold, calculating calm took him. He wouldn’t lose this opportunity.
His insides clenched at the smell of meat cooking and his mind filled with visions of him feeding. Never before had he been so consumed with his base needs.
Silently sliding against the outside wall, he came to a window and peered inside. Saliva filled his mouth with anticipation at the sight of a man, woman and their offspring huddled happily around the fire.
Whether human or animal impulses, Dane didn’t know, but the thirst for their blood, the taste of their flesh consumed him. No sympathy or humanity stirred in him, only need and desire.
Dane clenched his fist and raised his huge arm to smash the window. Then one of the children laughed.
Dane stopped only inches away from the window pane. The sound of laughter shot through him like a bolt of lightning. He blinked.
What the hell had he been about to do? He wasn’t below taking human flesh. But it had always been a full grown man, usually when the victim had been out on a hunt. Dane gave his prey a fighting chance.
This was a family. Instinct told him to leave the woman, her cubs and their protector alone. Yet he was about to devour them all without a moment’s hesitation. Revulsion made him sick to his stomach. He’d always prided himself on his morals. But those morals had all but disappeared in the face of his hunger.
Dane stepped back against the wall and ran an agitated hand through his hair. He still needed to feed, the smell was overpowering and he could hardly think straight for hunger.
Dane tried to calm his mind and think. The meat they cooked had to come from somewhere. This far from town they probably had a supply shed.
Stepping back, Dane retraced his steps until he came to the back of the building. Ten feet away stood a small shed made from the same logs as the house. Usually he wouldn’t take a family’s meat supply, but then again, usually he wouldn’t dream of taking the family.
Trudging across the snow, he glanced quickly over his shoulder before snapping the lock off the supply store with his huge hand. Racks of frozen and cured meats swung from hooks from the ceilings rafters. Dane sighed in relief. Frozen meat would be hard and slightly indigestible, but the humans kept it solid so the scent wouldn’t attract wildlife.
Dane stepped inside, shut the door and transformed.
Time seemed skewed in the darkness of the supply cabin as Dane made hard work through racks of frozen, tasteless meat. Slowly his overpowering hunger abated, he wasn’t sated in the least. That would take raw, fresh blood and meat. But his mind became clearer, the aches that tortured his body lessened and a slow consuming tiredness engulfed him.
Time to retreat to his home front and sleep. Perhaps dream of his beloved Lea. A hot flush of excitement was extinguished by a quick cold dose of reality. In their last encounter he’d tried to scare her, frighten her away from him for good. He wanted her to see him as the dangerous animal he was. But she’d stayed, stood up to him, touched him. Would she have stayed if she saw him about to devour a defenseless family?
His appetite gone, Dane shivered in the darkness and opened the door of the shed with a gigantic paw. The smell hit him like a physical blow. The scent of a kill, of human flesh and freshly spilt blood wafted toward him on a gentle breeze. But there was nothing gentle in the harsh sunlight causing Dane to squint after the blackness of the small cabin.
At the smell of fresh death, no temperate emotions remained as his human mind was pushed into the background as the knowledge of the kill sent him near crazy with blood lust.
Dane raised himself onto his hind legs and sniffed the air. His hunger growled, reawakening with renewed vigor. He sniffed again and Dane’s human mind and animal instincts hit the same conclusion. There was another scent here, something familiar, yet unseen. The creature that stalked the ice fields.
Dane crashed to the ground on all fours, uncaring about any sound he made. If the creature still lurked, it would have picked up Dane’s scent by now. He made short distance between the supply store and main house. He stepped up onto the wooden porch. The wood banister cut into Dane’s side, his polar bear form too big for the modest sized home.
The strong tang of blood filled his mouth with saliva in anticipation of what he knew he would find. Longing gnawed at him, his animal half wanted to feed, devour and be damned the consequences. He knew the whole family would be dead. Did it make a difference that he didn’t kill them, but took advantage of the situation?
Dane howled in frustration, the sound rocking the foundations of the porch. Gathering all his strength, he mentally pushed his humanity forward and he transformed. An image of Lea flashed through his mind the instant he became human, whether it gave him or robbed him of his remaining strength he didn’t know.
The window was destroyed, shards of glass jutted against the panels side, blood coating the edges. The wooden inserts of the windows sat splintered on the floor inside the cabin, covered in the remaining glass. A soft white lace curtain floated gently on the side of the window in the breeze that now abruptly entered the home.
Dane swallowed his longing along with his revulsion as he stepped closer to peer inside the now quiet cottage. He closed his eyes briefly to give him strength.
The human family that laughed and ate only hours ago lay strewn across the floor. Body parts only distinguishable by size, or small oddities of their lives. A small jumper wrapped around a bloody mess, a wedding ring on a dainty finger. Blood dripped from the walls and lay pooled on the floor in between the abominable mess left behind.
Despite himself, Dane felt the animal rearing in him and he attempted to push it away. This scene wasn’t right somehow and he needed the clarity of his human thoughts to understand what was happening.
Very few shifters came up this way; his beloved snowfields were purely his domain. Besides, he was alpha dominate, no versipellis who valued his life would dare leave this atrocity on his turf.
/> Why was it an atrocity? He was a cold blooded killer when he needed to be, so why did this scene affect his sensibilities?
Dane gripped the edges of the window pane, ignoring the biting pain of the splinters of glass and surveyed the cabin. He clenched his jaw tight to control his base urges as the kill hit his senses and made him light headed.
He sobered. The remains of the woman and children were slightly away from what was dismally left of the father. A shotgun clenched in his fingers of his severed hand. He was trying to protect his family, his love, his children. Exactly as Dane had protected Lea and if they were ever to have children, he too would give his life for theirs.
His heart soared and pound hot lava through his veins at the thought. Anger slowly seeped in as he continued to survey the scene. The ferocity of the kill surprised him, most shifters or animals killed quickly, cleanly with their strength and food as their main objective. This had been a massacre; hardly any of the flesh had been devoured, only chunks of meat had been bitten away.
No versipellis did this.
Dane swung around as the sound of a sword being unsheathed behind him awoke him to his entire surroundings. A large, muscular stranger with dark hair and bright steel blue eyes stood in the snow next to the porch. A roman broadsword held high in his grip, a look of deadly intent on his face.
Dane growled menacingly, deep in his throat. He gripped the wooden porch railing, ignoring a shooting pain in the cuts in his hands and jumped down onto the snow in front of the man.
The stranger stood in a warrior’s stance, his feet placed firmly apart in the snow, his body rigid, his sword held high in attack position. Dane realized with a hint of irony this must be the new venator stationed in his territory. He’d been six months without worry and now they sent him another enemy to contend with.
“If you’re waiting for me to make the first move, venator, you’ll be waiting a while.” Dane cocked his head. “What horrible deeds did you perform to get yourself sent you to the cold ends of the earth?”