Bearing It All (Alpha Werebear Shifter Paranormal Romance)

by Lynn Red

  Just in time to dodge a thick, low-hanging branch, I looked back in front of me, and then watched Ash just burst through. He snapped the thing off with his teeth and hurled it to the side. As he shook his head, I couldn’t look away.

  His golden fur was tinged with black, but only around his eyes that mimicked the tattoos on his face. I stared for a second, drinking in the brooding look on Ash’s face and the power that emanated from him with every movement.

  “You aren’t running,” he said. His bear voice was leathery, smooth and incredible. Every breath, every sound he made sent rumbles all the way from my head to my toes. “If you aren’t running how can I chase you?”

  “Oh! Right!”

  I blasted off.

  The pads on my paws lightly skirted the ground. When I get going – I mean really going – I feel almost like I’m flying. My feet barely touch the ground, I just go and go and go until there’s no more juice left in the tank.

  This time, I thought, maybe I’d want to run out sooner than later.

  I turned toward Ash and yipped when I saw him just watching me. He had a smoldering, penetrating look on his face. One side of his mouth was curled up in a grin that I recognized; it was a grin that made my deepest places ache for him.

  “What are you doing?” I called back. “What about chasing me?”

  I took a few more steps and then stopped.

  “Go on,” he growled. “I’m just giving you a head start.”

  I threw my head back, laughing. I liked how it felt to be so free – no, I loved how it felt. Reid or Lex, they never would have played along with me, much less started something like this in the first place.

  But more than that, I felt like I found someone who actually did like me for me, instead of just saying so to get between my legs.

  “Head start?” I asked. “I can climb trees!”

  With a deep throated laugh, Ash made my whole body, my whole soul, tremble with excitement. “You climb them,” he said. “I’ll knock them over. I ain’t letting you get away.”

  I was spinning on my heels by the time he said knock, and dashing through the woods by the time he said ain’t.

  Across the little stream I went, hopping nimbly from tiny rock to rock. When I was across, I turned to look, and giggled as he just barreled across the rushing expanse. He splashed through, making a huge wave as he came, relentlessly following me as I burst through some undergrowth.

  As fast as I was going, with leaves and trees disappearing into a blur, I couldn’t keep ahead of Ash. He was bashing through bushes, breaking off limbs, and basically destroying the ground underneath him like a tank barreling through the woods.

  It reminded me of those old war videos with a big, giant tank knocking down trees.

  Except this tank was really, really hot.

  I chanced another glance backwards and almost jumped out of my skin when I felt Ash’s breath hot on my heels. He was running, sure, but without even a hint of effort on his face. He was grinning, and flashed his eyes when I looked back with a glance that told me a thousand words.

  He wanted to do things to me, I saw in those eyes. He wanted to pin me down and make me his.

  I gulped as I stumbled over the second obstacle of the run.

  And I never stumble.

  He wanted to do all the things to me that I wanted him to do, but then again, I also wanted more from him than was possible. I mean, he was leaving the next morning. He couldn’t be mine – I couldn’t be his.

  And then, I stumbled a third time, and he was on me.

  I rolled through some leaves, laughing despite myself, and when I finally opened my eyes, Ash’s face was an inch from mine.

  His heavily leather, spicy, musky scent filled my nose, stinging and thrilling me.

  “You’re leaving, aren’t you?” I asked as my fur vanished and I didn’t remember until too late that I was completely naked. “After today you’re leaving and...”

  “Not right now, I’m not,” he growled.

  Before I knew it, his fur was gone and he was pressed against me. His muscled stomach and chest flexed deliciously with every breath he took. Never once did Ash’s eyes leave mine. His shaggy hair hung in a loose cascade around my face, and when he lowered his head to taste my lips, he took my breath with a kiss.

  Or at least I thought it was a kiss.

  When I opened my eyes, he had lowered himself until our lips were touching each time one of us took a breath. He was just hovering there, watching me. I ran my hands down his muscled arms, then back up along the taper of his shoulders.

  “I didn’t spend much time looking at these the first time we met,” I said, talking about his tattoos. “They’re beautiful.”

  The smile he gave me melted my heart and then melted me somewhere else. I felt him thicken and harden and move against me, and it was all I could do to keep my hands on his back. I allowed myself the indulgence of sliding them down to the top of his muscled ass and kneaded gently.

  “Not as beautiful as what I’m looking at,” he whispered.

  God, but I could have died. The heat from his body had me helpless underneath him. On either side of me, his massive arms flexed and relaxed in time with my breathing.

  “What are we doing?” I asked. “I mean, this is crazy. Tomorrow you’ll be gone and I’ll still be here and...”

  Then he did it.

  The kiss I thought I’d felt before finally enveloped my lips. Ash sucked my bottom lip between his and pulled back gently. His teeth clacked as I slipped out, and then he went back, harder than the first time.

  For a blissful moment, our bodies felt like they were one. He swelled against my softest place. I thought he was just going to slip inside, but he pulled back as his tip tested me.

  A soft sucking of his mouth leaving mine was the only thing I could hear in the entire world. His tongue back against mine was the only thing I wanted.

  “We’re doing what feels right,” he said. There was a deep earnestness in his voice, almost a hungry desperation. “I’ve never acted on these feelings before, Violet.” He paused for a second. “Actually, I’ve never had them.”

  With that, I threw my arms around his neck and clutched him like I was trying to keep him from running away, like I was holding on to him for dear life. Really though, it was more than that. Somehow my heart was already gone well before my brain allowed me to admit it was.

  “Is this what you want?” he asked. “I don’t want to be just a night of fun. I want this to be real. I want it to be real because I know deep down that it is.”

  My soul pretty much twisted itself in a knot when I heard him say that. “But how?” I asked. “You have to go, right? You’re going to leave early you said. How can you want more than a stupid fling if you’re—”

  He silenced me with another kiss, and a finger that slid down my body, between my breasts and between my legs. I let out a soft, muffled whisper as he slid it inside me and rotated it slowly. Ash rolled to one side and pushed my legs apart, going deeper.

  But then, he pulled away from me, his fingers slid out and left me yearning for more.

  “No one tells me what to do,” he said, with a dangerously thrilling hint of malice in his voice. “No one controls Crag Morgan. I might look like I’m all together and got my head on straight, but I’m just barely keeping this charade going. I’m just barely... barely keeping myself from ripping that asshole...” He shook his head. “Never mind. Not right now. Right now, we have each other and that’s all that matters.”

  I gulped and bit my lip. Reaching down, I felt how big he was in my hand. How big, and smooth and hard. But it didn’t matter. It hadn’t mattered since the second I saw him.

  “It’s okay,” I said as I stroked him. “You said it. We have each other. You make me calm, so maybe I can do the same thing for you?”

  For a second, he watched my face, and then when I squeezed his swelling tip, he let out a surprised groan. “Yeah,” he said, smiling. “I guess so.”r />
  “You caught me,” I said. “I ran, you chased me, and you caught me. I guess that means I have to give you whatever you want, huh?”

  That finger drove deeper, spun so good inside me that I couldn’t keep from letting out a yelp and then a moan. “I can’t wait anymore,” I whispered. “I need you. I’ve needed you since the first time I saw you. I don’t know why, but... Oh!”

  Deep, slow, and driving, Ash gave and took until he had somehow managed to get two fingers all the way inside me. All I could do was wrap my hand around his cock and pull, matching his speed, wishing it was him inside me instead of his fingers.

  Leaves crunched underneath us, scratched against the bare skin on my back. For a moment both of us were just breathing, just being. He pushed harder, deeper, and before I knew it, the crunching leaves started to scratch. They started burning, just a little, but not enough to hurt – just enough to bring the skin on my back to life.

  I started tensing, my muscles going rigid as Ash stretched me to my limit, then curled his fingertips sweetly against my sweet spot. “Is this real?” I asked. “Can it ever be real, or is it just a passing thing? Am I just a girl on the road for you?”

  Ash closed his brown eyes tight after he stared deep into me for a second and leaned his head back. All the cords in his tanned neck stood out, taut and hard, against his perfect skin. I reached down and grabbed him like an axe handle, pumping a little harder than before, just like he was doing to me.

  “I told you I’d catch you,” he hissed. His words were punctuated by quickening gasps.

  Sweat ran down one side of my face, along the line of my jaw, and then down between my collarbones were it pooled.

  “When’s the last time a bear caught a fox and let her get away?”

  He pushed, I pulled, and we both squeezed tight. The muscles inside me tugged at his fingers, constricting involuntarily as he turned his fingers. I gripped him hard, all the way up, then all the way down. I wanted to feel his heat, to have him inside me.

  “I can’t stop myself,” I whispered into the cool night air. “You’re making me... you’re...”

  With one hand behind my head, Ash clutched me, and rolled over so I was on top. My clit ground against his bulge. He grabbed my hands, locking my fingers between his, and all I could do was slide my sex up and down him, leaving him slippery with my wet heat.

  Throwing back my head, I let out a purring, mewling sound – and I never purr.

  “Scratch me,” he said. “Drag those nails down my... chest... yes, yes... like that,” he moaned.

  Driving upward with each twist of my hips, Ash had me teetering on the brink. “I’m so close,” I said. “Are... are you...?”

  “Squeeze my hands,” he commanded. “And open your eyes.”

  I fell forward just slightly as he pushed against me, the underside of his cock hitting exactly the right place. He caught my hands in his. When I opened my eyes, his were burning and dark and stormy.

  “Does this feel real to you?” he asked. “Say yes or say no, but say something.”

  There was no hesitation in his voice.

  I chewed my lip, trying to push my pleasure, my ecstasy, back for one more second.

  “Yes,” I whispered. “It feels real.”

  He let out a half groaning roar and squeezed my ass, driving against me one last time.

  “Then it is,” he said.

  The tension between my legs exploded in a wave of heat that came from my center and went out in every direction, thrilling me all the way to my fingertips. I was quivering, trembling, shaking... and hadn’t ever felt so good in my entire life.

  We stared into each other’s eyes, our breaths coming in time with one another. He closed his eyes and I pushed myself all the way up him. His cock pulsed between us. Ash clutched me desperately, groaning as he erupted

  By the time we both started breathing again almost normally, reality came back to hit me right in the face. I collapsed on Ash’s chest, lulled by the rise and fall of breath filling his chest.

  His arm was draped across my back, his forearm so thick it felt like it went from shoulder to shoulder. He curled his fingers sweetly against my side. He collected the tatters of his flannel shirt, and gently cleaned our sweat – our sex – off my belly.

  “When do you have to leave?” I asked, immediately sad that I had said anything.

  Ash’s answer was a soft chuckle that reverberated through me somehow. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “For once, just don’t worry about it.”

  If only you knew, I thought. If only you knew.

  -9-

  Marlin Guatorre – Greasy, Grimy Were-croc

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m comin’, okay? Pipe down.” Marlin bit the end off of a cigar, spat the butt out the window to the dust-covered ground, and stuck the frayed end in his mouth. He swirled his extended tongue around it, swallowed the bits of tobacco he gathered, and then slid the cigar to the corner of his mouth.

  There it would stay until it started disintegrating in an hour or two. He didn’t have time to worry about that, though. Not this morning.

  His star fighter was nowhere to be seen, and worse than that, whoever had been delivering the loaded, unmarked envelopes hidden in candy boxes for the last month was set to meet with him today. He’d delivered four of the girls she wanted, but five was better than half of eight, which is what she asked.

  The fifth girl he’d only managed the night before – and without Crag around, that was pretty much the hardest job he’d ever pulled. He shot a glance and the trunk in the corner of his trailer that kept rocking every so often, and hissed “shut up!” in its direction.

  Marlin took a deep breath, hitched up his sky blue slacks, checked his fly and button one last time, and then pushed open the door of his trailer, squinting into the sun.

  At the bottom step leading up to the center of his grand empire – which consisted of eight trailers, six tents and a couple of equipment trucks – stood a woman.

  A very stern looking woman, who was wearing a black bonnet, a black shawl, and a black dress that left only the tips of her black boots sticking out from underneath. Marlin placed one hand on his belly, and watched her for a second.

  She, in turn, just watched him right back.

  Completely still, totally stiff, this woman’s eyes were fixed on Marlin’s. He stared, she stared, and finally Marlin blinked.

  “Humph,” the woman scoffed. “I expected far more than a fat carny.”

  Her mouth barely moved when she spoke. The thin line between her lips revealed no red, not even a shade of pink to the woman’s mouth. When she spoke, her voice was thin, rattling, and obviously very old. Even with her age, he knew there was some incredible power emanating from the black clad figure standing before him.

  “I, uh...” Marlin, who was never much for being speechless, found himself standing at the top of his steps and moving his mouth like a beached hippo. “Hello? Do I know you?”

  “You know my money,” she said. “And you seem to be familiar enough that you don’t mind taking it without giving me my due.”

  She ascended the steps, and somehow, just pushed him aside.

  “Hey, hey,” Marlin protested. “What’s the big idea here?”

  “You’re a foul creature,” the woman said. “You look like a clown in those trousers. Why can’t people like you ever dress reasonably?”

  “People like... me?” Marlin watched as the black clad woman walked to his desk, swept a pile of papers off and to the floor. She wedged another of the envelopes – the fifth – in between his ancient, off-white computer, and his 1980s-style mobile phone.

  “Ten thousand dollars,” she said. “That makes... you tell me, how much I’ve given you, wretch.”

  “Wretch?” Marlin asked. “I, uh,” he swallowed hard, suddenly finding it hard not only to speak, but even to breathe. He’d never had this tightness in his reptilian chest before, but his father died of a heart attack, so maybe it was that? He shook
his head. “What are you doing to me?”

  How he knew it was her doing, Marlin wasn’t exactly sure. He grabbed his chest again, and she squinted. When she did, the tightness heightened. It felt like his lungs were on fire, like he had just run a mile and a half trying to get away from a half-crazed Crag Morgan who hadn’t been paid for over a month.

  “You don’t,” he paused to fill his lungs, but barely managed to pull in any air. “You can’t do this... to me... I’m... I don’t believe in this... bull... shit...”

  “Oh!” the woman gasped, still without any expression on her face. “Familiar enough to try and cheat me as well as being fresh enough to use profanity.” She shook her head and tsked at him. “You should know better by now. Leota Barlowe doesn’t tolerate failure,” she further narrowed her vision. Marlin was squeezing his chest so hard through his shirt that the third button – the first that was actually fastened – popped off. “And she doesn’t tolerate profanity.”

  “So... rry,” he gasped, raising a hand defensively. “I’m... I’m sorry, please. Don’t kill me, you need... me...”

  Leota pursed her tight, white lips. Then, she let out a sigh and relaxed her narrowed eyes.

  Marlin fell to the floor in a decidedly inglorious heap. “Fine,” she said. “Fine. As much as it pains me to admit, I do need slime such as yourself. Get up, worm. You have no idea of my power, of my willingness to do whatever it takes to get my way.”

  “Marlin,” Marlin said. “You ain’t called me anything near my actual name yet.”

  “Pointedly so,” Leota said. Her voice was as tightly controlled as the rest of her.

  She clasped her hands and let them hang down limply, where they rested on the front of her formless dress. That was the first time Marlin noticed her fingernails. Where the rest of her was impeccably kept, perfectly pinned, and devoid of anything remarkable except her unremarkableness, her fingernails were yellowed and longer than they should have been.

  “You’ve not managed to do anything I asked of you,” she said. “Calling you by name isn’t my concern. Nor is respecting you, nor is making you comfortable. I was referred to you by a colleague in the coven who has used you before. But now that I find myself in your entirely unimpressive presence, I’m not sure if it’s me whose been duped.”