ROMANCE: Forbidden Bear Obsession (Werebear Shifter Taboo Paranormal Romance) (New Adult Contemporary Paranormal Romance Short Stories)

by Sicily Duval

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  FORBIDDEN

  BEAR OBSESSION

  By Sicily Duval

  I pushed the button on the blender and watched as the mixture turned

  form separate pieces of raw meat, milk and Exvino into a red mushy smoothie. The kitchen was spotless, with the buttery light making it look soft and homely in the early hours of the night. The only workspace that

  was dirty was the countertop I was using.

  Lashan liked his home clean and tidy. I worked hard to keep it that way.

  Lashan walked into the kitchen, the paper under his arm. I turned my head for a peck on the mouth, but he kissed me on the cheek. “Evening, honey,” he said and sat down, flipping open the paper. We weren’t going to have much of a conversation. We didn’t often anymore. I poured half of the smoothie into a glass for him. He took it from me, his eyes on the headlines, and took a sip.

  “Geez, Leanne, what is this?” he stared into his glass with a sour face, working his jaws in a circle.

  “Breakfast,” I said calmly, pouring a glass for myself and sitting down at the table with him.

  “I wish you’d stop using that damn substitute. I need real blood to function.”

  I shrugged. “If you’re going to make time to hunt, I’ll serve it. But I’m not going out there and killing those animals. You know how much I hate it.”

  Lashan shook his head and put down the smoothie. “I don’t understand why you’re going against your nature. We’re a vampire, for god’s sake. Blood is what keeps us alive.”

  I got up and poured his smoothie down the drain.

  “Don’t be mad,” he said, twisting in his chair to look at me. “I just don’t see why you have to be so different about it. All vampires kill animals. It’s natural.”

  “I don’t like it. You didn’t have a problem with my ways when we got married.”

  He exaggerated a sigh. “Your family had a different way of doing things… I accepted it. But you learn and grow when you break away from your parents. We have the money to eat whatever we want now.”

  “My family didn’t substitute blood because they were poor. They were compassionate.”

  Lashan kept quiet for a moment, the words he wouldn’t speak hanging in the air. Is there a difference? He always asked me that.

  “You know I love you, right?” he asked after the silence like that would erase whatever the problem was. I nodded.

  He looked at his wristwatch. “I have to get going,” he said and stood up. I didn’t move from the sink. Instead I leaned against the counter with my hips and folded my arms over my chest. Lashan scraped some papers together and stuffed it in his briefcase, and walked out the kitchen.

  “Love you,” he called from the front door before it slammed shut behind him.

  “You said,” I answered to the empty house.

  When I heard his car pull out of the drive I wiped down the counter with a wet cloth and rinsed out the blender, packing it on the rack to dry. Then I went to the bedroom to get ready for work.

  Lashan wanted me to be a housewife. He believed it was a women’s job to keep the house tidy, ready for him to come home to, and raise the children while he was out earning the money. Five years down the line we had no children, and I had realized a long time ago that it was impossible to keep him happy. So I’d gotten a job. I worked from nine in the evening until three in the morning. I clocked in an hour after he did and left an hour before, so that I was home to have his supper ready when he came home an hour before dawn.

  He didn’t know. I’d been doing it for four years. The money I earned I had in a separate account. I was leading a double life.

  I think the only thing that bothered me about the double life I led, was that it didn’t bother me at all. Having secrets from Lashan seemed like second nature by now, because he didn’t seem to care that he knew nothing of my life.

  I swapped my nightgown for a pencil skirt and button-up blouse. I pinned my hair up in a French Roll, and put on three inch black heels. A bit of make-up, mascara, some lipstick, and the transformation was complete. Last of all I pulled my wedding ring off finger, and tucked it away in my cupboard. I didn’t want to be Mrs. Lashan when I was at work. I wanted to get out from under the image that my husband forced on me. At work I was still Mrs. Herring, I couldn’t lie about being married, but at least I was Leanne. Independent of a man.

  Myself.

  At the office, the doorman nodded at me, giving me a smile that flashed straight teeth. It had taken me a while to get used to that. I worked at a firm where different creatures mixed. It wasn’t vampire only.

  Lashan always insisted that we only mix with our own kind. It was racial thing. But I didn’t see the point. Harley, the receptionist, was a werewolf just like the doorman, and they were both nicer to me than our social circle had ever been.

  “You look nice today,” Charlene said to me when I walked into the board room.

  “Thanks, I thought I’d try something different with my hair.”

  “It suits you.”

  I touched the back of my hairdo to check for loose strands. We both stood together behind the big table, waiting for the first directors to arrive. Charlene was a Personal Assistant to Mr. Ring, the CEO of the company. I was Project Assistant, which really meant I was just a personal assistant to the rest of the board.

  One by one the directors started filtering in. I knew all of them well. They took their seats around the table. Most of them were vampires. We were at the top of the hierarchy. But two of the directors weren’t. Mr. Spelling was a were-rat, an abomination of a creature if you asked me, and even in human form he had a sharp face and teeth that protruded from his mouth. I didn’t like him.

  The other director was Mrs. Nancy Star. She was a strange kind of shifter, changing into any kind of bird she wanted to. I heard somewhere that even though she could change into an eagle or a vulture, she preferred birds like hummingbirds or sparrows. She was out of place in a room full of predators.

  “Is everyone ready?” Mr. Ring asked. Charlene and I often joked that he was the Ring leader.

  “We’re just waiting for Crowe,” one of the other men answered.

  “Crowe?” I whispered to Charlene. I didn’t know the name.

  “They hired a new Marketing Strategist,” she answered back. “He was with Ring yesterday.”

  There was no chance to elaborate, because a man entered. I assumed he was Mr. Crowe, not because he fit in with the board of directors. On the contrary. The only reason I believed he belonged was because of his attitude. The atmosphere in the room changed when he walked in.

  “Gentleman, you’ve heard a lot about the man. It’s my pleasure to introduce Donald Crowe.”

  Donald sat down in the last empty seat, and Ring called the meeting to order. While he spoke, I only paid half my attention to what was being said. The rest of it went to Donald. He was a big man, thick in the shoulders, with a big chest and a trim waist. He looked like he could take out a football team. When he moved, however, he moved with fluid grace that didn’t match his appearance. He had a head of chocolate brown hair that was combed neatly to the back with a side parting, and his eyes were a dark, liquid black. His cologn
e was strong in the air to my sensitive vampire nose, but he smelled of something else too. Power. Money.

  Charlene elbowed me when she saw me staring. I couldn’t help it.

  When Donald smiled, I noticed his teeth were blunt. No fangs. He wasn’t a vampire. I wondered what kind of creature he was. His size suggested he shifted into something big. And his eyes told me it was wild. This man was a predator.

  Just as I thought it, his eyes locked onto mine as if he’d read my mind. His gaze pierced into my soul, and I felt raw and vulnerable. I forced my eyes away, and I knew I’d given in to the power play. I’d admitted him dominant. In the world where we were all half-animal, there was a code traveling in undercurrents. I’d torn my eyes away. I’d accepted his authority over me.

  Definitely a predator.

  I’d grown up in a neighborhood that ranked us at the bottom of the social food chain. Lashan may have had all that money, but I still didn’t have the confidence to challenge someone for dominance. I was a woman. I was a vampire. There were a lot of creatures out there much stronger than me.

  The meeting adjourned. Charlene and I waited for the others to filter out of the office before we walked to the door.

  “Oh my god,” I breathed.

  “I know, right?” she answered. She knew I meant Donald Crowe. “He’s a force of nature, if I’ve ever seen one. And Ring travels in big circles. I’ve seen a couple.”

  She slipped through the glass door and down the hall to Ring’s office. He would need her for his morning coffee and bagel. I dropped a file. When I picked it up, and straightened myself up, I was chest to chest with Donald Crowe.

  His presence took my breath away. His dark eyes bore into mine, and it felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room.

  “Excuse me,” I said and my voice sounded much thinner. I forced my eyes away from his. I didn’t want him to think this was a challenge.

  The human world, which we worked in, was a strange place for our animal behavior to exist.

  Donald didn’t move. Instead he leaned in closer to me, closed his eyes, and breathed in. It was as if he smelled my scent. It made me uncomfortable. I wasn’t available.

  “I have a mate,” I whispered. Lashan was protective. If he knew I spent a lot of my time in rooms full of males without him around to claim me, he would be livid. This would send him right over the edge.

  “You’re not wearing a ring,” he said, his voice so deep it was almost a growl.

  I couldn’t answer him. Not because I didn’t know how to explain why I didn’t, but because there was something about him that was ridiculously attractive. I didn’t want to step away from him, or leave the room behind with him in it. My skin suddenly burned with a yearning for him to touch me.

  I realized that he had the power to do that to me. Some shifters had the ability to use magic beyond changing appearance. And Donald had it bad.

  “Please,” I said again, my eyes on the ground.

  “I like you like this,” he said. That riled me up.

  “I’m a vampire,” I said, snapping my eyes to his and locking them. I wouldn’t challenge him, but this was about my rights. “I don’t submit to anyone. Only… my mate.” I didn’t know why it was so hard to say the last bit. Because the truth was that I didn’t even submit to him. He didn’t demand it anymore, which made it easier for me not to. But if he did, I’d fight it.

  “I didn’t mean submissive,” he said. His glaze slid over me, and it felt like he was physically touching me everywhere his eyes rested. My breath caught in my throat. “I meant the ache you have burning inside of you.”

  I took a step back.

  “What do you know? You don’t know me.”

  He only looked at me, his eyes smiling even when his mouth didn’t. I wished he would reach out and touch me. But he didn’t, and I scolded myself for being like a love-struck teenager. Instead he walked away. I was left in the board room, unbalanced, disheveled, and wondering what the hell was wrong with me.

  2

  It took half a day for the sensation to finally leave my body. I felt like a live wire. I struggled to focus on my work, and the day rolled by in a jagged line. By three I was only halfway with the deadline memos that I had to get out to the board. I knew I had to finish it up, but I had to get home if I wanted to be there before Lashan. I couldn’t afford being late.

  I knocked on the door that led to Mr. Ring’s office. Charlene beckoned me in. The office was divided up so she had an area that she could call her own, and it doubled as a waiting are for his clients.

  “I have to get going, and I’m not nearly finished with these,” I said. “I can’t get them out today.”

  “Don’t stress about it, I’ll send a memo around that this will only reach the directors tomorrow.”

  “You’re a star,” I said, giving her a quick hug.

  When I walked out the front door into the crisp early morning, I breathed in deeply. The cold hair burned my lungs. I loved it. Here, away from the confines of my own home, was the one place I really felt like was free.

  A strange sensation swallowed me before I saw him, and when he stepped onto the curb next to me I connected the dots.

  “You’re leaving early,” he said to me. We both stared across the street in front of us. Somehow the fact that we weren’t facing each other made me feel like we were more equal than before.

  “My hours are nine ‘til three,” I said, even though I didn’t have to justify myself.

  “I didn’t pin you for the type that would leave mid-project.”

  I frowned and glanced at him quickly before pulling my eyes away again. Mid-project?

  “Are you referring to the memos?” I asked. He didn’t answer. I was angry immediately. Who the hell was he to tell me who I was and what I needed to do with my time? He wasn’t my boss. He wasn’t anyone’s boss. He was too new for that.

  “I answer to Mr. Ring at the end of the day. I believe if there’s a problem he’ll address it.” Smooth. I was proud of myself for staying calm.

  Donald stayed quiet next to me for a moment. I hoped I’d shut him up. Being in his presence was unnerving.

  In the distance I saw the shuttle that would take me home. Two shafts of light fell on the road in front of it, lighting up the tarmac. Just as the shuttle pulled up in front of me, Donald put his hands on my wrist. His fingers curled and locked around me. I looked up at his eyes, and when I looked into the pools of black a shudder ran through my body.

  His hands were so big he could snap my wrist in half if he just clenched a fist.

  “Unhand me,” I said hoarsely, but the command came out more like a question.

  “You’re capable of so much more than you give yourself credit for,” he said. His words burned inside of me. What was he talking about? He dropped my wrist and turned on his heel. I stared after him, watching the way he moved. He carried himself with pride. His big body moved with languid grace, but I didn’t doubt for one second that if he had to jump into action he would be as deadly as he was regal.

  “Are you coming?” the shuttle driver asked. I nodded and climbed into the shuttle. When I sat down, I rubbed my wrist. I could still feel his skin on mine.

  The shuttle stopped on the corner, and I got off. It was a quick walk to our house. After changing into a floral housewife-dress, I cleaned up, swept, wiped down a counter or two, and prepared a meal. I made sure there was a lot of raw meat for Lashan. I’d stopped at the butcher the night before.

  When Lashan came home, he didn’t kiss me, not even on the cheek.

  “How as your day, honey?” I asked.

  He groaned and sat down at the dinner table. I put his plate in front of him and took my own seat across from him.

  “It was hell. The merger is a rotten mess, and they’re not budging on the negotiation.” I vaguely remembered him telling me something about his company merging with their competition.

  “What does Monroe say about it?” I asked. Monroe was his bos
s, and the one name that I remembered.

  Lashan took a bite of his meat. He opened his mouth to speak, but then glared down at his plate.

  “What’s this?” he asked.

  “Fillet,” I answered, cutting my own meat into neat little squares.

  “It’s not fresh.”

  “No, it’s not.” I was very careful not to look up from my plate. “I got it from the butcher yesterday. He’d slaughtered the day before.

  “Dammit!” Lashan dropped his fork on his plate. “I have a horrible day at work and I come home, hoping that my wife will understand. And this is what you give me?”

  “Lashan, don’t be—“

  “I’m going to the office,” he said, cutting me off. He left me alone at the dinner table, and disappeared into his office. I looked down at my plate. I had suddenly lost my appetite. I got up and cleared the plates, scraping the food into a container and putting it in the fridge. It would probably spoil long before Lashan decided my food was worth eating.

  My skin itched. I felt like it was too tight, shrinking against my body. I untied the apron around my waist and let it fall to the floor. I leaned against the window, pressing my cheek against the cold glass. The night was calling me. I looked at my watch.

  It would be sunrise in less than an hour. It was dangerous for me to be out that close to dawn. If I got stuck, I had a real problem. A lot of the creatures we mixed with could handle sun, but vampires weren’t that lucky.

  In the bedroom I dressed into my running clothes. I had to get out of the house. The walls were closing in on me. I felt like I was suffocating. When I broke free of it and ran into the woods that started at the perimeter of our property, I felt like I could breathe again.

  I ran, my shoes beating a muffled tattoo in to the mulch underneath my feet. I jumped between trees, reducing myself to the animal inside of me. I relished the open air, the trees that wouldn’t judge me. I ran until my muscles screamed and my lungs cramped and I became sufficiently numb. I ran, leaving behind a perfect life that didn’t want me.