Shifter Nation- East Coast Bears Collection

by Meg Ripley

  “And why’s that? Do you think I’m some backwoods kind of guy who only cares about cars and putting out fires?” I joked.

  “What? Oh, no. Come on—” She feigned obliviousness for a moment and then smiled. “Of course, that’s not why. I personally love country music. But I like classical, too.”

  “Would you like me to pick something out for us to relax to?” I asked, heading toward the shelf, but she grabbed me instead.

  “I don’t really feel like relaxing just yet.” She whispered in my ear and then licked the edge of it. I shivered; it was an oddly pleasing sensation, and I’d never had anyone play with my ears before. “So, how about you show me where the bedroom is, and I can show you a good time?”

  She didn’t have to ask twice.

  I led her up the spiral staircase to my bedroom, which housed a queen-sized bed with a mahogany headboard and matching nightstands on either side. I really loved the warmth that wood could bring to a living space, and my home certainly showed it.

  “Odd that you like to decorate with wood, one of the most flammable materials, and yet, you’re a firefighter. Aren’t you afraid of this place burning down?” She eased onto the bed, kicking off her shoes by the nightstand.

  “Actually, I have everything coated in a fire-proof stain, so my house could never burn down. I re-coat it every year just to be on the safe side.”

  She reached out her hand and pulled me toward her.

  “I guess you don’t need those strawberries after all, huh?”

  “Not when I have this…” She smirked up at me, stroking my rod through my pants again. She unzipped my fly and reached in, pulling my cock from my boxer briefs. Her eyes widened when it sprung from the fly of my pants.

  I smiled and playfully threw her back onto the bed, climbing on top of her.

  “Why don’t we see what you’re working with…” I grinned and moved down to her hips, snaking my hands under her skirt. I felt the waistband of her panties and pulled them slowly down her legs. They were black lace and completely soaked; I held them up and raised an eyebrow. She bit her lip and smiled, and I shook my head and lifted her skirt just enough to expose her womanhood.

  “Nice to see that the carpet matches the drapes,” I laughed, doing my best to get her back for all her jokes.

  “I deserve that,” she giggled, pulling down her skirt. “Well, I am Irish…”

  “You’ll have to tell me more about that later when I’m a little less distracted,” I said, my eyes connecting with hers.

  “Oh yeah? And what could possibly be distracting you?”

  “This.”

  And I dove between her legs, going straight for her pleasure center, my nose buried in her soft, ginger curls. My tongue lapped at her juices, which only made them flow more freely into my eager mouth. I teased her, flicking over to her entrance and thrusted inside, grabbing her hips and coaxing her further along the length of my tongue. She gasped and squirmed, but I held her firmly, quickly moving in and out. She soon moved along with me, riding my tongue as I dove deeper inside of her. I dragged my tongue up slowly toward her sensitive bundle of nerves, sucking it into my mouth, flicking my tongue over it, making her writhe and moan at my onslaught. I felt her shiver slightly and stopped immediately, which really made her whimper.

  “Please…don’t stop,” she whispered.

  “But I have something better,” I assured her, standing up to reveal my shaft at full attention. I lifted her legs onto each of my shoulders and pressed her knees to her chest. Unbuckling my pants, I let them fall to the floor with my boxer briefs and kicked them across the room before I positioned myself at her entrance and slid into her slowly.

  “Ah!” She threw her head back and moaned in ecstasy as my length filled her, pulsating as it plowed more deeply into her core. I felt the soft flesh of her cervix caress the tip of my member and heard a sharp intake of breath as I pressed against it, which made me even harder.

  I pulled out just as slowly, making her squirm before entering her the same way once again. I continued to tease her, thrusting in and out at an excruciating pace. I wanted her to feel every inch of me as it exited and filled her; I wanted the feeling to be burned into her memory forever.

  When I felt she had become best adjusted to having my rod inside her, I decided to pick up the pace a little, then a lot until I was plowing into her, the head of my cock ramming into her cervix each time. It wasn’t long until I felt her shudder beneath me, exploding in spasms of pleasure and screams.

  I sucked down her neck, leaving a trail of wet kisses as I let her screams push me over the edge, spilling my seed deep within her with a growl. I clenched the sheets as my shaft twitched deep within her walls, body seizing against hers. After the spasms subsided, I finally withdrew myself and released her legs, slumping on top of her. I could feel her chest heaving from fatigue and exhaustion and mine was no better.

  “Hey.”

  “Hmmm?” I answered, ready to slip off to sleep.

  “You’re heavy,” she giggled, squirming beneath me.

  I smiled and rolled off of her. “Well, I suppose if we’re going to sleep, we should sleep the proper way, anyway,” I admitted. We were laying horizontally across the bed instead of with our heads at the headboard. Kathleen adjusted herself and slid over to the left side of the bed, while I took off my soaked shirt, throwing it onto the floor.

  “Are you usually this messy when you have a girl over, Drew?” she teased.

  “Only after extraneous activities,” I joked. I laid next to her and she curled up against my chest.

  “So, you’re Irish, huh? Were you born there?” I asked, stroking her curls.

  She groaned. “I was hoping you forgot.”

  “Nope.”

  “It’s not a pleasant story.” Her voice sank lower; pained, it seemed.

  “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. I just want to know more about you.”

  “It’s fine; I have no problem telling you. Honestly, I’ve grown mostly numb to it over the years. Yes, I was born in Ireland. I’m from Kinsale, a little town of only about five thousand people. Mom and Dad were making dinner one evening when I was thirteen and there was a gas leak no one knew about. There was a huge explosion and my dad threw me out the window to save me. By the time the town was able to put the fire out, my parents had been burnt to cinders, and I was left with gashes from the broken glass. I still have the scars from where the glass cut me.”

  She lifted the side of her shirt and showed me the section between her ribs and hip. I sat up to have a better look, and there were definitely at least three large scars going straight down. I reached out my hand to touch them, but she grabbed it.

  “Please don’t touch them.”

  I nodded and laid back down. “So, did you stay with relatives or something?” I decided to continue the conversation so things wouldn’t get awkward.

  “I had no living relatives. Ireland doesn’t exactly have the fostering or adoption system that the United States has, and apparently, Irish children are wanted here, so I was flown here and put into foster care. But I must have been too old or something, because I stayed at that foster home until I was eighteen. The day after my birthday, I left and have never gone back.”

  I could feel her shrug. I wasn’t really sure of what to say after her story. “Where do you live now?”

  “West Virginia. But I don’t have an apartment or anything. There’s this really great app called Couchsurfing where people offer free lodging to strangers for up to three days. There’s close to three hundred thousand people in the state on it, so I sort of just hop from place to place. Unfortunately, I don’t have a stable income, so I can’t really afford to get my own place right now. And with no family…”

  “But you can afford a vacation to Acadia?” I was merely teasing, but it did sound pretty odd.

  If she’s broke, what’s she doing here?

  “I…uh…. Actually, one of the hosts gave me the vacation.
I had given her some shitty gift from the dollar store and she was so in love with it. She was sick and said she wouldn’t be able to come and asked me if I would come enjoy it on her behalf. Her only request was that I take lots of pictures and send them to her when I get back.”

  She seemed a little too nervous for such a simple question. Something told me she probably wasn’t telling the whole truth, but I decided to let it slide. What did I care?

  “Well, then you should get to the park and start taking those pictures! You should have taken some last night, so you could tell her about meeting a handsome stranger here,” I joked.

  “You’re totally right, I should’ve. I would take one now, but I don’t think that little old lady could handle your super-hot bod.”

  I heard the laughter in her tone and it made me smile. I hadn’t had someone I could joke around with in a while that wasn’t Trent or Ramon, so it felt nice.

  “Well, since you have to go to the park anyway, maybe you can come with me tomorrow and meet everyone? I can take you to see all the great sights it’s so famous for, so you can really give this woman a look at Acadia.”

  “I’d love that.” She cuddled closer to me. “How about you, though? Where are you from?”

  “Me? I was born in Detroit, Michigan. My parents had me late in their lives, when they were both almost forty and they’re both gone now. My dad died of prostate cancer when he was sixty-five and my mom died of a broken heart shortly after. They’d been inseparable since they were teenagers, so a life without him was just a life she couldn’t live, it seemed. I was old enough to be on my own by then, and they had left me the house, but I couldn’t live there with the both of them gone, so I sold it and moved to California. I’ve always wanted to be a firefighter, ever since I was a kid, so I made it happen. I originally worked for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in Los Angeles, but I felt like I wasn’t really needed there. They had to have a firefighter on hand and it was easy money to just patrol and get paid four thousand a month, but I wanted to go where I was needed. Acadia had a lot of random fires when I was hired on, so I was able to place safety precautions and take care of the fires which sort of restored my purpose. I’ve been here ever since. There aren’t many fires these days, but I really like it here; it’s become my home.”

  “Want to hear something funny?”

  “Sure.”

  “When I was younger, I used to wave at fire trucks that passed by. And they would always wave back if they saw me. I always thought of how nice they were and every time I think of firemen, I picture them as the nicest people in the world. Isn’t that silly?” She turned and looked up at me.

  “I don’t think that’s silly at all. I’m happy my brothers have given our occupation a good reputation.” I kissed her head. “So, you know what I do, but you haven’t told me what you do. You said you’re not making a stable income, right? Are you a freelancer of some sort?”

  “I’d rather not say, if you don’t mind.” She tensed in my arms and I figured it must be a touchy subject.

  “That’s fine; we don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

  That’s odd...

  “I’m getting pretty tired, Drew. I think I’m ready to go to sleep, if that’s alright.”

  Great, Drew. Look what you did. I scolded myself, but just kept holding her. She was such a fascinating, yet mysterious person; I just wanted to know everything about her. But she’d dealt with a lot of pain in her life and I knew I had to let her open up to me at her own pace. I decided I would make our day in Acadia a special one for her.

  4

  Kathleen

  When I woke the next morning, Drew had prepared breakfast for us. I was pleasantly surprised, and it was absolutely delicious. The Log Cabin had some fierce competition nearby.

  Drew said he had went out earlier and picked up some clothes for me to change into since I didn’t have any at his place. He figured that since he lived on park grounds, driving back to my hotel just to have me change clothes would be a little much. It was such a nice gesture, but a little odd.

  “You bought me undergarments?” I laughed.

  “Okay, I lied. I actually sent that girl Sophia I told you about, our medic and search and rescue specialist. She picked out the outfit and gave me an earful of teasing, so be prepared today.”

  I shook my head and headed back up to the bedroom to change, and I arrived just in time to catch my phone ringing. I checked it and saw that I didn’t recognize the number, but I answered the call anyway.

  “Hello?”

  “How’s the project going?”

  Oh boy. This clown again.

  “I’m going to the park today to meet the staff.”

  “Why didn’t you go yesterday?”

  “I got two flat tires on my way there. Someone stopped to help me, but I had to go to the mechanic to make sure the spares were on securely. Took all day.”

  “And the secretary of the hotel informed me that you did not sleep at the hotel last night. Where were you?”

  What? You’ve got to be kidding me. Nancy was a snitch!

  “That’s none of your business, frankly. As long as I get the job done, you have no say in what else I do.”

  “We know where you are. You shouldn’t get too close to those people.”

  “Why?”

  “You’ll learn…” And the line went dead. Could he be any more ominous? It wasn’t like Acadia was going to blow up any time soon. And what the hell did he mean by ‘those people’? What was wrong with people in Maine?

  “Something wrong?” Drew arrived at the top of the stairs wearing only jeans. “I came up to get a shirt. Did you not like the clothes?”

  “Oh, it’s not that; I haven’t even had the chance to look at them yet. I just got a phone call from Mrs. Q.”

  Did he hear me?

  “Mrs. Q?” He looked confused but went over to his closet and pulled out a red tee shirt.

  “Yeah, the old lady who let me take her vacation. She has a really weird name, so she lets me call her Mrs. Q.”

  Damn, is this lie getting elaborate.

  “Oh, okay. Well, I’ll be downstairs whenever you’re ready to head out.” He kissed my forehead and left the room, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  I hated lying to him. He seemed like such a nice guy and I just knew this was going to end up biting me in the ass; I just didn’t know how else to go about the situation. It’s not like I could tell him I was a hacker who got in trouble with the government and was now working for them as an informant. Lying to him was better than being killed in front of him, which, according to Hanson, would happen in a heartbeat if I decided to tell anyone anything.

  I opened the bag Drew had given me. Sophia had picked out an orange tank top, a pair of jean shorts and a pair of combat boots—along with a lacey bralette and matching thong. I rolled my eyes at the undergarments; I could see what Drew meant about her being a jokester. Regardless, surely, he’d be enjoying the looks of them later.

  I got dressed quickly and headed downstairs. We arrived at the park in minutes and a man waiting at the gate gave us a friendly wave, so we parked and walked over to meet him.

  “Hey, Boss,” Drew greeted the man. “This is Kathleen. I’m here to have her meet everyone and then I’m going to show her around.”

  “Nice to meet you, Kathleen. I’m Knox, the Head Ranger here at Acadia. Drew knows his way around, but if you have any questions he can’t answer, feel free to ask.” Knox was likeable and handsome, but not really my type. He had a military style cut, happy eyes, and a fit physique. He sounded genuine and I couldn’t pick up on anything sketchy about him. I made a mental note to jot down everything I observed about each Ranger so I could report back to Hanson later.

  There was nothing to report, though. When the day ended, I had met everyone, and I had nothing ill to say about a single one of them.

  Drew had taken me to the holding lodge to meet Trent Bailey, the Law E
nforcement Ranger of the park. He was kind of a hard ass, but still playful, and I could see why he and Drew got along so well. He had short hair and it seemed that all the men in Acadia were muscular. And then there was Ramon. Ramon had been a sweetheart and told me how beautiful I was when he knelt to kiss my hand. He had cropped black hair and was quite handsome; his Spanish accent was thick and I liked it. I felt like my Irish one had mostly disappeared, but at times—or if I’d been drinking—people said they could hear it in certain words.

  I got to meet Sophia, who definitely was suggestive, to say the least. I remember her mentioning something about marriage and children, but I laughed off most of that conversation. She was gorgeous, though, with her flawless caramel skin, a long deep brown ponytail, and hazel eyes with a fit body. I guessed that all park Rangers had to stay in shape. Maybe it was part of the job description, or you just got fit from all the hiking.

  I got to meet Hannah, Knox’s fiancé; Blanca, Trent’s fiancé; and Min, Ramon’s fiancé, completely by chance. They were having a picnic by Eagle Lake when Drew was showing it to me, discussing their upcoming triple wedding. They were all gorgeous women and I felt a bit intimidated by meeting them all at the same time.

  “Maybe you’ll be one of us soon.” Hannah had winked at me.

  That was a nice thought. The park was lovely, and I enjoyed being shown around. I took lots of pictures to support my Mrs. Q lie, and next thing I knew, Drew was dropping me off at the inn.

  “I hope you enjoyed our day at the park. I’ll have to go back to work tomorrow along with everyone else, but maybe we can have dinner afterward?”

  “I had a great time and I would love to.” I gave him a soft kiss and smile.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow then. Oh, could I possibly get your number? I realized the other night that I didn’t have it.”

  “Sure!” He handed me his phone and I added myself as a contact before I headed to my room.

  I glared at Nancy as I walked past the reception desk and she seemed to cower slightly.