Alpha's Prey: A BBW Bear Shifter Romance

by Renee Rose

  The place reeks of mutant bear. This has to be the place.

  That’s when I hear her scream.

  Miranda

  My throat is raw and hoarse from screaming. I’m strapped to the gurney with a madman standing over me. He’s already taken my blood four times using dirty, unsterilized equipment. The fellow prisoners were right—there’s no real science happening here. Just a delusional lunatic who thinks he’s a real scientist. And enjoys inflicting pain. I scream as he shoves the needle under my thumbnail in deeper.

  “Shift!” the madman shouts at me, spittle flying from his mouth. “You have bear DNA growing inside you. Use it to shift!”

  I scream again.

  The other women are huddled in their cages, eyes closed, ears plugged to block out the horror of my torture.

  Suddenly the door comes crashing in, rent from its hinges. I hear Bear barking and the snarl of very real bear.

  Caleb.

  I knew he’d come.

  The madman whirls, his fake glasses falling down his face, his dirty lab coat whipping around his legs.

  An answering growl comes from him—demonic and furious. He transforms into his monster self, but Caleb’s already tackled him to the ground. Bear—my fearless, precious dog is circling around both of them, barking and growling.

  Caleb bares his teeth and roars like a dark god coming down to smite the devil himself.

  My captor fights like the madman he is, though. He has superhuman strength as well, and is totally out of control. The two animals roar and tumble around the room, smashing everything, knocking things over.

  Caleb picks up my captor and throws him across the room. He hits the wall and slides down it, but is instantly up, fumbling at the lab equipment.

  “Watch out for the needle!” I scream when I realize he’s filling one of the hypodermics. He can’t take Caleb prisoner, too. He can’t.

  Caleb dodges the needle and knocks it from my captor’s hand. It goes rolling and Rachel reaches through her cage bars to pick it up, meeting my eye and giving me a nod.

  I nod back.

  Caleb tackles our captor and lets out a terrible snarl as he slashes his claws across the man’s throat. A gurgling sound confirms his death. Caleb keeps slashing though, ripping open the guy’s chest and belly.

  “Caleb!” I scream.

  He shakes his great head and swings it in my direction. His lips peel back from ferocious teeth and he bellows again, even more furious than before.

  The women in the cages scream.

  He seems to see them for the first time, and roars some more.

  He slices his claws through the bindings holding my wrist, scratching some of my skin in the process.

  I gasp but quickly mutter, “I’m okay.”

  He rips the other side and I’m free. I sit up and yank the needle out of my thumbnail, screaming again as I do. Bear whines at my side, licking my hand and the bloodied scrape on my wrist.

  Caleb bares his teeth again, lifts his head toward the ceiling and roars his anger.

  I get up to search the body of our captor for the keys to the cage, but Caleb grabs the door of one of the cages with one huge paw and pushes his foot against the body of the cage and tears the door off from its hinges. Rachel lifts the hypodermic needle, ready to plunge it into Caleb’s neck.

  “No, don’t!” I scream.

  She freezes.

  Caleb snorts and bats it out of her hand.

  “It’s okay. He’s, um… he won’t hurt us.” I help her out of the cage.

  Caleb moves to the next cage, where he tears off its door, too. Then the next.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Rachel says, rushing through the door.

  Caleb plows through on all fours, knocking us out of the way, like he needs to go first.

  “It’s okay. He won’t hurt you, I promise,” I tell them, my brain already working overtime trying to figure out how to explain my pet bear to them.

  We go up a set of stairs—he had been keeping us in a cellar, as I suspected. Upstairs is a crude, filthy cottage. Signs of a man barely able to take care of his personal needs.

  We all rush outside, even though we’re barely dressed and don’t have jackets or shoes on.

  I grip Caleb’s furry shoulder. “Go get Caleb,” I tell him firmly, shivering in the cold. We need him in man form now. We need to call the police and maybe an ambulance.

  He shakes his great head, like he’s unwilling to leave me.

  I show him the hypodermic needle I picked up after he batted it out of Rachel’s hand. “I’m pretty sure he’s dead, but I’m armed, just in case.”

  Caleb snorts and lopes away, his great strides taking him up the side of the mountain with shocking speed.

  “What. The hell. Was that?” Julia asks.

  “Um, my friend Caleb has a, ah, pet bear. I mean, he’s not really a pet, but they’re friends. He’s highly intelligent.”

  Julia, Rachel and Tracy all stare at me with disbelief.

  Damn, I’m a terrible liar. But I promised Caleb I’d take his secret to the grave, and I intend to keep that promise.

  “I don’t know about you three, but I’m not sticking around here another minute,” Tracy announces, walking into the snow in her bare feet.

  “No, no, no,” I call out. “Wait here. Caleb will come and bring help. I promise.”

  Tracy looks back, eyes narrowed. “Are you nuts? You told a bear to bring back your friend and you think he’s going to show? You’re as crazy at that guy down there.” She points in the direction of the cellar.

  “No, really. Did that bear just save our asses? He’ll bring Caleb. Trust me.”

  Her lips tighten, but she comes back and the three of us go back inside because we’re freezing our asses off. I find my clothing in with his dirty laundry and put it on. I don’t have any luck finding the rest of their clothes, but it’s okay, because Caleb’s truck tears down the dirt drive and skids to a stop. He’s out of the truck and running for me before I can even breathe his name.

  I rush down the steps and launch into his arms.

  “Caleb!” Suddenly, I’m crying. Bawling, actually. “I knew you’d come for me. I mean, I hoped you would. And you did. Thank you so much.”

  “Fuck, baby, fuck. I’m so glad you’re alive. I’m so fucking glad.” He’s spinning me around slowly, my feet not touching the ground. “I never should have let you leave here. Wait—that’s not what I meant.” He glances up at the three women standing in the doorway. “Nevermind, I’ll tell you later.” He waves a beckoning arm to my fellow captives. “Get in the truck. I’ll take you to the sheriff’s.”

  My heart’s still stuttering on the I’ll tell you later. He has something to tell me? About not letting me leave?

  We all squeeze into the cab of Caleb’s truck—Bear included—and he drives a couple miles up the road into the town of Pecos and tears into the sheriff’s building.

  It’s a small town, so people come out to see what all the fuss is about. Someone recognizes the women from the Missing Person posters and points and then everyone’s chattering, moving in for more information as we troop into the sheriff’s office.

  Caleb takes my hand protectively as we go in and my heart does a full flip flop. We tell our story five or six times each to the sheriff, who calls an ambulance to take all four of us down to Santa Fe to get checked out. Caleb stays by my side the whole time, my strong silent bodyguard. The sheriff speaks to him with respect, like they go way back. Caleb tells him my dog came to get him and that’s how he found us. None of us contradict him—the bear story was too fantastical, anyway.

  He doesn’t believe our story about the man turning into a monster, either, until Caleb and his deputies on site confirm it was true.

  The rest of the night is a blur of repeating my story a dozen times and getting checked over by doctors at the hospital.

  After we left the sheriff’s, Caleb took Bear up to his place, and I went in the ambulance to Santa Fe.
We’d only been given bread and small rations of water for the duration of captivity and Rachel passed out by the time the ambulance arrived. She’d been there the longest—eight months. According to everyone who heard the story, we’re all lucky to be alive, considering the mental state of our captor. The other women’s families were contacted and the hospital is trying to keep the media out for their privacy. I’m glad I was never reported missing—maybe I can stay out of the stories.

  Caleb waits with me in the hospital room. I’m sitting on the bed, he’s in the chair beside it.

  “Is there someone I should call? Your parents or someone else?”

  “Oh, um…” Disappointment hits me like a punch to the solar plexus. For some reason, I thought I’d be going back up to Caleb’s. But maybe that was the wrong assumption.

  He must see my fluster, because he picks up my hand. “I’ll be taking care of you tonight, of course. I just didn’t want to intrude. You know, if someone else should know what’s going on.”

  Happiness seeps back in. “Oh. No, I can worry my parents with the story later. They’re going to freak out completely, but it can wait.”

  He nods. “Good. I’m bringing you back to my place tonight.”

  Contentment flows through me like an easy river. Back to Caleb’s. Where I spent two of the best days of my life.

  He cups my chin. “Listen, Miranda. I didn’t like the way we left things.”

  I lick my lips. “Wh-what do you mean?” My heart is beating hella fast. I just survived being kidnapped and tortured. Talking about a relationship with Caleb shouldn’t make me break out into a cold sweat, but it does.

  “I mean…” He runs a hand down his beard. “I want to see you again. I don’t want things to end. I know you have your career—”

  “I don’t want things to end, either,” I blurt, then feel my face heat.

  Caleb wraps a large palm around the back of my head and pulls me to stand, claiming my mouth with all the aggression of a wild animal.

  I surrender happily, letting him plunder my mouth with his tongue, moaning when he drags my lower lip through his teeth.

  “Then we’re agreed,” Caleb breathes when he breaks the kiss.

  The nurse clears her throat from the doorway. “The doctor signed your release papers. You can check out at the desk.”

  “Great.” I beam at her, taking Caleb’s hand and letting him lead me out to his truck.

  Caleb

  Miranda and I need to talk but I’ve been too busy fucking her brains out. I had her in my bed. On the living room floor. Over the couch. Against the kitchen counter. On the bed again. She’s there now, a limp rag doll, panting as she recovers.

  I was gentle at first, feeling terrible about the torture she endured, and the gash I gave her with my claws. But then I lost control and had to take her roughly. In every position imaginable.

  I pretty much kept her up all night. Now that I’ve decided I can have her, I’m ravenous. My bear wants to claim her permanently.

  It’s strange for a bear to get the urge to permanently mate. Even stranger that I’ve had it twice. Of course, I can’t mate Miranda. She’s not a shifter. But the fact that I want to is a delicious conundrum. I feel more alive than I have in years. Anything feels possible.

  I stroke her thick red locks back from her face, marveling at how pale her skin is. The black bear and the red-haired science goddess. She’s a warrior in her own right. Saving the Earth with her dogged determination to catalogue and report on climate change.

  “I have to go back today,” Miranda sighs.

  “Yeah. About that.” My throat goes dry. I don’t even know what I’m asking. Or at least, I’m ambivalent about it. I want Miranda and she lives in Albuquerque. But I’m a bear and I belong in the forest.

  Miranda turns big questioning greens on me.

  I swallow. “I could go down with you. Make sure you get there safe and settle in.”

  Miranda smiles the brightest smile ever seen. “That would be great. I would love that. You could stay as long as you wanted. I mean, if you don’t need to get back here or anything.”

  Something releases in me and my eyes sting. I’m really going to let myself have this. Have her. I’m really going to move past my tragedy and live again.

  I roll on top of her, leaning on my forearms to protect her from my full weight. “I don’t like to be away from the forest, but I also don’t want to be away from you.”

  Her breath catches, a sheen of tears glints in her eyes. “I don’t want to be away from you, either.” Her lips tremble.

  I drop kisses across her forehead. Her temples. The bridge of her nose. “So I’ll come to Albuquerque. Make you breakfast and keep you safe. We’ll see how the bear does in captivity.”

  Tears spill from her eyes. “I don’t want you to leave your home, but having you in Albuquerque would be incredible. Promise me you’ll come back here as soon as you get itchy. Or you get sick of me.”

  I thrust my hips against hers, showing her how quickly my need for her returns. “You think I’d ever get sick of this?” I spear her with my erection and she whimpers, sore from all the sex we’ve had.

  I take mercy on her and pull back out.

  “Besides, I have a newfound interest in watching you tromp all over the competition in trivia. I’m thinking of bringing you to Burbank to compete on Jeopardy.”

  She laughs.

  “I’m serious. You should be playing for the big bucks.”

  “Well, we can come back here on the weekends. I can rearrange my schedule to work three day weekends. Although you may have to get WiFi. Is that a possibility?”

  “If WiFi keeps you here, beautiful, I’ll get it. I want you happy. And with me.”

  “Is it okay? For you to be with a human? I mean, is it against the rules?” She turns pink in one of those blushes I’ve come to love.

  “It’s not recommended. Yeah, kind of against the rules. I don’t give a shit.”

  She grabs my cock and guides me back in. “You can’t tease me like that and then just leave me hanging.” Her sultry tone washes over me in shades of bliss.

  My teeth punch out to mark her. I groan, but I can’t push away the pleasure. It floods me like a powerful drug. “Miranda, I have to tell you something.” It’s a struggle to even form words.

  She stops rocking her pelvis and looks up at me. “What is it?”

  “Bears don’t usually mate for life. Many are polyamorous. But sometimes they do.” Heat spikes at the base of my spine, my balls are tight.

  “Okaaay.” She sees my teeth and her eyes widen.

  “I’m having a hard time keeping my bear under control, though. He wants me to mark you as my mate.”

  She eyes my sharp teeth. “What does that mean?” It’s no more than a whisper.

  “It means a bite. A love bite. To embed my scent in you. Keep the other males away.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay?” I didn’t expect her to agree. I was just trying to explain that I was having a hard time keeping the teeth from descending.

  She nods, practically glowing.

  “Baby, it could scar. It will definitely hurt.” I can’t stop rocking into her, can’t stop my eyes from rolling back into my head in pleasure.

  “Where will you do it?”

  Will I do it, not would I do it. She’s accepting this without any protests. My independent feminist wants my claiming bite.

  “Oh fates.” I can barely hold back now. “You tell me, baby. It’s usually at the nape, but I can bite your thigh or somewhere that won’t show. Fuck, Miranda, I can’t hold back.”

  “Bite me!” She arches up, throwing those big, wondrous tits in my face.

  My jaws snap and I’ve claimed her before I even have time to pull back. My teeth are deep into the meat of her shoulder, right in the middle of her pretty tattoo.

  She screams, but I swear to fates, she also orgasms.

  I come, too. Hard.

  I’ve already
come a half dozen times in the past twelve hours, but there seems to be no end to the essence that flows out of me now. I fill her, forcing my jaws to release and licking away the blood as I still pump into her.

  She wraps her arms around me, crying a little. Laughing a little.

  “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, babe. Tell me you’re okay.”

  “I’m okay. It hurts, but it’s not that deep. I’ll be okay.”

  “I’ll let you mark me any way you want,” I swear, wanting to offer something back.

  She gives a watery laugh. “Yeah? Would you tattoo my name on your pec?”

  “Whatever you want,” I promise.

  “I’m just kidding,” she says softly. “All I want is you.”

  “You got me, baby. I’m here.”

  I keep licking her wound because the serum in my mouth should help it heal faster. I hope to fate it heals soon because I’m going to feel like shit every day it hurts her.

  “Caleb?” Her voice is soft and tentative.

  “Yeah, babe?”

  “I will always honor the memory of your wife and child by your side. I don’t want you to ever feel like it’s not okay to talk about her or celebrate what you had.”

  My eyes burn and I drop my head into the crook of her neck. This woman is too much. Too good. She doesn’t make me choose between past and present. “Miranda,” I choke. “You are my salvation—you know that? You brought me back to life.”

  “You gave me me,” she answers.

  “What does that mean?”

  “I mean, you helped me feel okay about who I am. About my body. My brains. I don’t have to prove anything to you. You celebrate me just as I am.”

  “That’s because you’re already perfect,” I tell her.

  Her lips find my neck and she plants soft kisses there. “I love you, Caleb.”

  “I love you, too, babe.”

  Epilogue

  Miranda

  “Bear! Get back here!” I race up the mountain trail, rounding a boulder just in time to see the fringe of my dog’s tail disappear between two trees.