by Reina Torres
“All the time when I was in Julliard,” she remembered the time well. “The bears were always my favorites, but I wished they were back in the wild. The area looked so small.”
“That’s what we thought when we first came to New York.” Turning, he started to move and she walked on beside him. “So, a few years ago, we made a few changes to the enclosure.”
“Made a few changes?” She laughed heartily. “Did you just sneak into the zoo and bring hammers?”
His hand smoothed up and down her arm, both comforting her and awakening other emotions inside of her.
“We became-”
“Sponsors of the enclosure. You did, didn’t you?”
He cleared his throat but she could swear she heard him laughing behind it. “We wanted to help.”
She covered his hand on her arm with her own, enjoying the heat he shared with her. “That’s what I love about you.”
Allegra swallowed and waited to see how he reacted. She hadn’t planned on saying the words, but they fell out on their own. “I don’t know why I said that,” she hesitated, worried.
“And you bring me light, Stellina. You warm my soul.” They walked along for a bit before he spoke again. “And that’s why I wanted to show you the enclosure. It has a feature that I think you would enjoy.”
“Really?” She held his arm closer to her side. “Just spending time with you is pretty high up there on my list.” She laughed and lifted her face into the night air to take in a deep breath. “So, tell me. What’s this new feature?”
“It’s a sound feature. It uses the natural acoustics of rock to allow visitors to hear the sounds that the bears make, amplified naturally. There’s a whole chamber where you can hear different sounds if you stand in different places.”
A yawn found its way out of her body, bending her back into a gentle arch. She tried to hide it but she knew the moment Valerio felt it as well. He gathered her close. “We can come back another time. It might be better for you in the day.”
“No,” she smiled, “no need to wait. Daylight won’t do anything for me after all.”
He held her closer, and brushed a kiss on her temple. “I didn’t think of it that way.”
She touched his chest, reassuring him with the gentle contact. “I didn’t think you meant anything by it, but I would like to visit the enclosure while we’re here. Do we need to ask the keepers?”
There was a hesitation.
“This may sound strange,” she began, “but it sounds like you’re smiling.”
That got her a laugh. “Not strange at all, love. I was smiling.” Another kiss to her temple and a soft growl from his throat made her feel warm and loved. “We don’t need anyone’s permission to go to the enclosure. The renovations added to the enclosure, the new additional space, the added budget for their care-”
“Came from you and your brothers, didn’t it?”
This time when he leaned down toward her, she was the one that gave him a kiss and held him tight to her. Rubbing her cheek against his, she heard a satisfied growl vibrating in his throat. Laughing, she leaned into his touch. “I hope that doesn’t seem weird to you, but it feels natural to touch you like that. Maybe I’m just marking my territory.”
That got a reaction.
Valerio picked her up, his hands on her hips held her effortlessly as he sat her on a rock wall and covered her mouth with his. His tongue plundered her mouth and rubbed against her teeth as his hands wrapped around to grip her backside and pull her tight against him.
When he stopped the kiss, his chest heaving, his breathing ragged, he still held her close. “I told you before, Allegra. You can mark me any way you want to and I would revel in it. Hearing you speak of it, that I am yours, makes my heart swell.”
She wiggled against him and sighed. “Not just your heart.” His growl was anxious, increasing in its need. “I bet if I could see,” she wondered, “if I could see your eyes turn black, Valerio. Natale told me that your eyes would go black when the bear wants to see through you, when he’s right beneath the surface.”
He nodded and gripped her shoulders. “Yes, he wants to see you, Allegra, but later.”
She gasped as an idea popped into her head. “In the conservatory,” she asked with breathless anticipation, “would you change for me there? Let me feel you under my hands?”
The growl that met her ears was more bear than man. “Don’t give him ideas right now, Allegra. It’s not safe here and if you keep saying those words, I won’t be able to stop him.”
She sobered in a moment, her hand on him more gentle than explorational. “What’s wrong, Valerio?” He didn’t answer immediately, but when he did he almost made her want to give him a slug on the shoulder, if she could find it without help. Instead she scooted over on the wall and slid down to the ground. “Let’s walk and you can tell me while we’re headed for the bears.”
He didn’t argue with her. Valerio wasn’t like that at all. He could be stubborn, but he meant it when she said what she wanted she would get.
Except-
“Is this about the mark?”
He tensed beside her, but he didn’t stop moving. “We spoke about that,” he reminded her.
“I know,” she continued to walk, “I know, but I don’t think you have to worry about anything bad happening because of the mark.”
“So, I’ve been told.”
She heard the tight twist in his voice and swept her thumb over the back of his hand. “Is that what your brothers said to you?”
“They expressed their concerns,” he answered back, his tone and enunciation stilted, “I gave them my decision. They understand that I will mark you as mine, I just want to wait until you can take time away from your work.”
Allegra laughed and heard some of the animals moving about in the dark. “Will it be so tiring, you think?” She sighed and swung their joined hands. “I think I could survive being loved by you.”
“You’re already loved by me, Stellina. That’s why I want to wait.”
“But your bear isn’t so understanding, is he?”
An answering growl told her how close the bear was to the surface, how demanding he could be.
“Then why can’t it happen tonight or tomorrow. We have the weekend to worry through all of these changes that I don’t think will happen. Valerio, please-”
A soft roar was heard in the darkness and Allegra slowed her steps.
“What was that?”
Valerio leaned closer. “A lion. We’re just a few steps away from the bear enclosure.”
“Good, I think we should spend a little time here and get home.” She felt his hand squeeze hers. “And then maybe I’ll convince you to mark me tonight.”
“Allegra,” his tone was warm but there was a warning in it, “let’s not talk of this anymore. My bear is close enough to the surface without you calling to it.”
She sighed and he answered it with a chuckle.
“It hears your words and…” he slowed a little, bending closer to her. She could feel his heat, especially in the cooling fall air. “He can smell your arousal.”
“Well,” she returned, “I bet he can since that’s all I can feel when I’m around you, Valerio. I feel like I’m a live wire just waiting for someone to complete the circuit and you’re holding back on me.”
“I’ve told you my reasons.”
“I know but I think you should-”
Valerio froze in place, his hand tugging her closer to his side.
Through his physical connection she felt the chill that rolled through his skin, but somewhere under it all she felt worry and fear in her heart and knew that they were his emotions, coupled with her own.
“Allegra?”
She opened her mouth to answer him but never managed to get the words out.
Valerio dropped his hold on her hand and wrapped that arm around her body, flattening her against his larger frame, moving her around to the other side of his body.
Be
fore she could ask for an explanation, a noise rushed from the darkness. An engine eating up gas from the sounds of it, but even that thought was a moment too late.
They were moving, and her head struggled to make sense of it.
An impact.
The physical impact sent a shock through their joined bodies.
“No!” She felt it, even though it was a ghost of its actual power because she knew that Valerio had taken most of the hit himself.
And down they went, like the old Coney Island rollercoaster when it seemed to drop straight down, but Allegra knew that at the bottom of this ride, there was only a hard stop.
And it was.
She landed atop Valerio, one hand trapped between them the other cracking hard against stone.
The impact wrung a cry from her, but she heard nothing from Valerio.
When she could summon up the energy to try to move a limb she turned her head so she could easily be heard, instead of face first in his chest. “Valerio? Say something.”
Silence met her ears.
And he lay still beneath her.
“No,” she twisted in his embrace and managed to pull her arm close enough to use it for leverage. “Don’t you go all stoic on me. Come on!”
Leaning her cheek on his chest she forced herself to remain silent until she could hear something in his chest. It was there. Deep down and very soft, but it was there.
“Come on now. Wake up, because I have no idea where we are, okay?”
Valerio remained motionless beneath her for a moment before she had a flash of something other than panic. “Your phone. Yes! Your phone.” She mumbled an apology in case she happened to touch something she shouldn’t. Grabbing at his coat she started to smooth her hands over the fabric and instead of admiring the cut or the work, she shoved her hand into one pocket after another and then closed her hand over his cell phone.
She found his hand and activated it with his thumb on the pad.
That was all good and fine and then she remembered she couldn’t see the screen to call anyone. Voice recognition might help but-
A sound reached her ears and sent her heart into overdrive.
When it happened a second time she began to quake. A growl. Twice.
And she knew exactly what kind of animal it was. She’d listened to enough of those National Animal Channel documentaries to know at least the bare-bones species. It was a bear.
A real-live, not-her-bear shifter kind of bear.
“Just my dumb luck.” Pushing at Valerio’s chest she started to pray out loud, interspersing it with begging. “Please wake up.”
And while she squeezed her eyes shut with her old habit, she pressed the power button to awaken the assistant.
How may I help you?
“Call Salvatore.”
No Salmon Torre found
“No,” she pushed at the button again as she heard some heavy shuffling moving forward toward her. “Call SAL-VA-TO-RE”
The phone went silent for a moment and then she heard a soft ring from the phone.
“Oh, thank God,” she crouched down beside Valerio and waited for the call to pick up.
The sounds from one part of the enclosure was joined with another from a different place in the dark. Two.
“Okay,” she whispered, “now isn’t the time to panic.”
“Pronto, Valerio.”
“We need your help.”
“Allegra?”
She didn’t bother with niceties, blathering out what she knew which wasn’t much. And then she didn’t need to say much more because she heard the distinctive angry growl of a pissed off wild animal.
“Allegra? Are you in the bear enclosure?”
She swallowed down a laugh because she really doubted that the bears would find it funny.
“Allegra?”
Heavy footsteps tromped closer, hesitant, but for how long?
“Yes,” she whispered in a rasp, desperate for help, “yes. We are, hurry…”
As soon as she said the last word she felt a puff of hot breath in her face and smelled an unfamiliar scent of fur and suspicion. That’s when she dropped the phone.
Chapter Eight
The phone made a tinny clattering sound, coming to rest somewhere away from her hand, but that was the least of her problems. The heated breath on her face disappeared, but she didn’t hear any sounds.
Clinging to Valerio, she tried to shake him gently. She needed him awake, but not to scare or anger the bears.
The humor of the situation was numbing, riding her spine with claws as the rest of her turned cold.
“Hello?”
She rolled her eyes at her own ridiculous actions. As she took in a breath, she felt a stitch in her side and swallowed the pain-filled moan. She tugged at Valerio’s coat, pulling him closer to her and hopefully away from the bears.
“Please, Valerio. Wake up.”
She moved her hands up along his chest and shoulder and up to his face, placing her hand on his cheek. It was warm.
And his breath fanned out against her fingertips.
A growl, low and deep, reverberated from the walls, swallowing her in the sound. She’d spent years listening to sounds, using them to find dangers in the darkness, but the way they’d built this enclosure made it great for tourists and zoo visitors, but not for her.
Another growl from the same location. The same sounds pushed at her ears, washed over her skin. She prayed that it meant that the bear was in the same place.
And then, another noise. Nails on a hard surface.
Not nails, she reminded herself.
Claws.
Big bear claws came with big paws and a bigger animal.
“Please tell me they feed you well.”
A huff from one direction.
A scratch from another.
She tugged on Valerio and leaned down to his ear. “I swear to God, Valerio. If you don’t wake up soon and get us out of here. I’m going to start screaming and scare these poor bears to death.”
A low bellowing sound came from an unfamiliar throat.
“I’m going to die.” The words fell from her lips before she could stop herself. “I hope it doesn’t hurt too much.” Fisting her hands in his lovely wool coat, she leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his temple. “Please, Valerio. I swear, I’ll go on a diet if you wake up and get us out of here. I probably smushed you when we fell over the railing. It’s not like you have a lot of padding on top of all of those gorgeous muscles.” She gulped in a breath. “Not like I’ve ‘seen’ the muscles, but sleeping beside you… yeah, okay, so I did a little touching while you were sleeping. Sue me if you want. Just wake up.”
She froze when she felt something bump against her shoulder, rub along her arm, bend down toward the man laid prone before her.
“Don’t you bite him!” She winced back as the bear roared at her. She knew he had to be close because she felt wet spittle on her face. “Sorry, sorry,” she muttered back, but she didn’t back down.
“I know I’m crazy for doing this, but if I’m going to die, I’m going to go out doing something.” She huffed. “Yes, like talking to myself.” She tugged tighter on his coat and took in a deep breath before she moved, pushing herself forward and landing on the palms of her hands. She wasn’t prepared for the exact distance of the stop and felt pain radiate through her palms.
She heard movement in the space, from a few directions at once. Squeezing her eyes shut she sucked in a deep breath and let it out, using every ounce of air in her body. “Mine!”
There was a startled silence and then a roar; one side and then the other. Still the same two.
She crouched down over him, trying to cover as much of his body as she could. He may be taller and heavier, but she had a good amount of cover to offer.
Something nudged her thigh, pushing up against her. She didn’t move. Something at her other shoulder, a nose or something she imagined was a nose. Allegra shook her head. “Nope. Not movin
g.”
Teeth closed over the back of her calf, nearly breaking skin, but not. “You better stop that.” That’s right, talk to the bear, Allegra. It let go and she felt tears run down her cheeks onto her arm.
Pressing herself closer to Valerio she placed a kiss on his cheek. She knew that by the time his brothers got there it was going to be too late. She didn’t have a clue of what to do. All she knew was that she was going to make the most of every stupid second of her life. Turning her cheek against Valerio’s she closed her eyes one last time and reached into the darkness for his light.
Wake up.
His head ached.
His body was worse.
Something hit him, a vehicle of some sort, slow but hard enough to break bone. And then the fall. He’d turned, putting himself on the bottom.
On the bottom to absorb the impact.
To protect her.
Allegra.
He felt her holding him. He heard her mumbling at him. Mumbling to herself.
His woman could talk.
And he loved every word, because it meant she was alive and awake.
Wake up.
She was pushy too.
He loved that about her.
And hopefully when they mated, she’d be pushy and tell him what she wanted. He’d be more than happy to follow her instructions as long as she was his.
Wake up.
He drew in a breath to answer her back. To tell her to wait just a moment.
But when he took in that breath he stopped short.
Bear.
His senses came alive, energy pulsing through his body like his nerves were on fire. He opened his mouth to talk and only heard the bear bellowing out a challenge.
Allegra was his!
The bears needed to know and move away, or suffer for their mistakes.
He felt Allegra loosen her hold on him as his body began to shift. He wanted to tell her to move back, to give him room, but he didn’t have his own voice, only the bear’s roar as it ripped through his throat.
One of the bears made the mistake of moving closer instead of backing away.
The bear pushed through, making the rest of their shift in the space of a heartbeat.
Valerio felt muscle tear and reform, bones cracked and reset in a different configuration. His heart pushed higher volumes of blood through his body as fur covered him like a cloak had fallen over him.