by T. S. Joyce
“Okay, but Jenner, they’re coming this way.” She held her camera steady at her chest and took picture after picture of the two bears running toward them, their eyes unfocused as they glanced back behind them at Titus.
“I see them.”
“Jenner, they’re still coming. I don’t think they see us.”
“Heyayay,” Jenner said low.
Both bears swung their gaze directly at them before startling toward the left.
“Good bears. You see us? We’re not here to hurt you.” One curved toward them, ears flat, but Jenner called, “No no no no.” His gun was up now as Lena continued backing toward the woods. He let off a low rumbling growl in his chest, and the bear veered away, eyeing them warily as it galloped for the woods behind the other one.
It all made sense now, that growl Jenner could make—the one that sounded so real—the one that could turn her on one moment and electrify the fine hairs on her body the next. He’d learned that out here. He’d practiced it so he could talk to the bears. Jenner Silver had learned how to fit into the dominance hierarchy with some of the most fearsome apex predators in existence. No wonder he was such a sought-after guide, and no wonder he had such a high success rate.
Jenner was as close to a grizzly as a human could make himself.
As she passed through the tree line, Jenner’s hand clutching her jacket to keep her from tripping, a dark figure climbed up the river ledge. Lena gripped Jenner’s arm and jerked her chin toward the river. Jenner had been searching the woods for the runaway bears, but at her gesture, he slid his gaze to where Titus was climbing up onto the grassy flatland.
“Go,” Jenner whispered, pushing her behind a thick grove of evergreen trees.
She whimpered as the titan began to make his way in their direction. Jenner clapped his hand over her mouth and froze behind the tree cover. She couldn’t watch Titus stalking them, so Lena focused instead on the muscle in Jenner’s sharp jaw that twitched as he clenched his teeth. His eyes were fierce, intense on whatever Titus was doing, and there was no mistaking the color now. Dark brown, even darker than hers, and it wasn’t just his pupils dilated either. The black middles were pinpoints as his gaze arched slowly with Titus’s movement.
“Come on,” he said on a breath, pulling her backward and to the right. “He’s confused between our scent and the other bears. We have to go now. Fast but steady, okay?”
Jenner removed his hand from her mouth, but she couldn’t speak now if she wanted to, so she nodded.
Behind them, a bear roared so loud the birds flew from the canopy above them. The hairs rose on the back of Lena’s neck as she bolted in the direction they’d tied the horses.
The next two miles were brutal. With every step she grew more and more exhausted, and behind her, Jenner kept up constant whispered encouragement for her to keep going. The backs of her heels were blistered in her hiking boots by the time she heard the snort of one of the horses, and her limbs tingled like they’d fallen asleep. She blamed that on the adrenaline dump into her bloodstream. Any moment now, she knew Titus was going to appear beside them or she would hear his terrifying roar again.
Without a word, Jenner helped her into Gunner’s saddle, packed her horse with the supplies they’d brought, then untied them all. He swung up onto his own horse and nudged him into a trot through the piney woods. And unlike their ride here earlier, Jenner didn’t ignore her and trust her to follow. He looked back every few seconds, as if he couldn’t keep his eyes off her when danger was this near.
The farther away they traveled, the more her racing heartbeat settled. They were okay, and she’d gotten a batch of incredible pictures today. Even if this was all she got to take, it was plenty to complete her assignment. Relief flooded her, and finally, she could draw a deep breath into her lungs again.
It was nearly dark when Jenner pulled off beside a pair of trees. He hadn’t said a word since they’d left, and he didn’t seem inclined to talk now as he pulled a rope from a tie on his saddle and strung it between the trees. His movements were smooth, lithe like an animal’s, and he wouldn’t meet her gaze.
Lena dismounted and tied off her horses.
“Jenner?”
He had his back angled to her as he unpacked the saddle bags, but at his name, his shoulders went rigid. Had she done something wrong? Maybe she hadn’t run fast enough when he needed her to.
Steadying her trembling hands, she slid her palms up his back. “What’s wrong?”
Jenner spun and dipped his mouth to hers. His kiss was tinged with desperation as he yanked the hem of her shirt up. Backing her against a tree, he pushed his tongue past her lips and tasted her over and over, more frantic with each stroke. And she understood now. He said so much with the urgency of his touch. He was a confident man—fearless even—but back there, he’d been shaken. He’d been worried about her, and this was him soothing that unfamiliar discomfort. This was him assuring himself she was okay.
His hand cupped her breast, and she arched back with a moan. She wanted him, too. Needed him to put the vision of that massive bear out of her mind. Titus had come after them and for what? He had plenty of fish. Whatever Jenner knew about that bear had upset him, and dammit, she wanted him back—her immovable Jenner.
Lena shoved his shirt upward, and Jenner helped, pulling it off and throwing it to the ground, and then he was back on her, fingers frantic as he pulled off her shirt. His hands were everywhere, creating fire with his touch, heating her to her middle. Fevered and needy for him, she angled her head to give him more access as he trailed biting kisses down her throat.
“Jenner, please,” she whispered.
“Fuck,” he gritted out, shoving her pants down her hips. “Lena, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t. I’m not.”
When he lifted his eyes to hers, she could see it there. His eyes were dark as pitch now, and it would’ve scared her if he didn’t look so vulnerable. Wild Jenner. Lena leaned forward and bit his bottom lip, then turned and gave him her back.
Jenner let off a long, shaky exhalation, and gripped her waist, drawing her ass against him. “What are you doing?”
“Giving you what you want.” Because this was what she wanted, too. She wanted Jenner to take her like he wanted—like he needed—right now.
Jenner’s lips were on her shoulder and she heard it—the jingle of his pants and the rip of his zipper, and suddenly she was filled with such anticipation, she couldn’t stand it. She bowed back against him. Jenner responded with a deep, rumbling growl, and she smiled. She’d done that.
Jenner yanked her hips back and slid into her from behind. He’d said she would be sore from last night, but she wasn’t. Or perhaps the pleasure of him filling her outweighed any pain. He bucked deep into her, and unable to hold his weight, she rested against the smooth bark of the birch tree in front of her. He eased out and slammed into her again, his powerful hips thrusting faster. Jenner’s arm wrapped around her middle, shielding her from the tree as he cupped her breast, and now his teeth grazed her shoulder blade. “Tell me not to bite you.”
“Why?”
Another snarl rattled against her back. “Because you own me woman. Tell me.”
“Bite me.” It was something he needed, and even if she didn’t understand it, she was lost to lust right now. Jenner was wrong. He was the one who owned her.
Jenner slid into her again. “Lena,” he gritted out.
He was slamming into her now, so deep, so fast, building pressure until she was blinded with how good he felt when he lost control. He was showing her what he was really like. His feral side, and she fucking loved it. Loved him. Loved every single thing about him.
“Do it,” she whispered.
Jenner’s teeth sank into her shoulder just as her orgasm throbbed through her. It was quick, and she gasped out at the pain, but the pleasure in her middle was greater. It was bigger, spreading through her as she pulsed hard around his swollen cock. Jenner bucked into her again and went rigid
against her back, yelling out her name, and then he pressed his forehead against her hair.
His seed flooded her in hot jets, filling her until it streamed down her thighs as he slid erratically into her.
Jenner’s breath was ragged against her hair, but his hands had turned soft, brushing up and down her ribs as his pace slowed and eventually stopped. In a whisper against her ear, he said, “I don’t like you out here where you can get hurt. If anything happened to you… Lena, you’re important to me. I feel…”
Lena lifted his hand from her breast and kissed his palm. “Me, too.”
Jenner let off a long sigh and ran a light touch over the sore spot on her shoulder. “Maybe you won’t scar. I didn’t go deep.”
“What does it mean?”
Jenner swallowed audibly. “It means you’re mine.”
She smiled off into the dark woods. “Then I hope it scars.”
Jenner slid out of her and turned her slowly in his arms, then did something he’d never done before. He hugged her. Just wrapped her up in his strong arms and rocked them slowly back and forth. “Tomorrow, I’ll take you to a cabin I know about,” he murmured. “You’ll sleep in a proper bed, and I’ll take better care of you.”
“But—”
“Woman, I know this is what you signed up for, and I know you can sleep rough. You’re the toughest person I’ve ever met. It’s me. I have this need to put you somewhere safe for a night and give my instincts a rest, okay?”
She nodded, her cheek pressed against his warm chest. “All right.”
“Titus is a roamer. I think we are out of his way, but tomorrow will be different. I’ll take you to another spot a couple of young bears have been hanging out at.” Jenner’s lips pressed against the top of her head, lingered there. “We’ll get you all the pictures you want, but we have to do it differently than this. I can’t protect you like I need to out here. A rifle is no match for bears like Titus, Lena. He’ll have you half-devoured before he feels any pain.”
“Maybe he was just after those other bears. Maybe one of them was in heat or something.”
Jenner shook his head and huffed a humorless laugh. Easing back, he lifted her palm to the half-healed red slash marks she’d nursed the first night she’d met him. She winced at how much it must still hurt him.
“Lena, Titus is a man-eater. We’ve had three hikers go missing in the last few weeks, and I’d bet everything I own if you opened up that bruin’s guts, you’d find them. He has a taste for people. I had plans on coming out here and putting him down, but I can’t with you here.”
“Because I don’t want you to shoot the bears? If he’s a man-eater, I understand the necessity.”
“A rifle won’t be the end of him.”
“Then what will?”
“Me.”
“I don’t understand,” she whispered.
Jenner looked sick as he rolled his eyes closed and sighed. “I need to tell you something. I need to but I can’t.”
“Why not?”
He opened those dark eyes, the ones that looked so out of place on his face. His voice dipped to almost nothing. “Because you’ll run.”
Up on her tiptoes, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hugged him tightly. She understood his want to hide the darkest parts of himself. She’d been hiding for years. “I won’t run, Jenner. I promise. Just tell me. Say it and let me in.”
His heartbeat was pounding against her.
“Please, Jenner.”
He hugged her tighter to him and whispered, “I’m a bear.”
Lena pursed her lips and stared at the moon through the tree branches over Jenner’s shoulder. Whatever she’d expected him to admit to her, that was not it. “Like a bear of a man?”
“No, I mean I’m a bear. Shifter. I’m both. A man and a bear. Shit.”
“Soooo…you’re saying you can turn into a bear. Like Titus. Furry with teeth and claws.”
“Yes.”
Lena pushed off him and stood at an arm’s length distance because she couldn’t hug him while he was saying such ridiculous nonsense. “You’re telling me you are a werebear.”
“No, a bear shifter.”
She blinked slowly and pursed her lips. Okay, sure that explained why he would be so growly, and maybe it even explained his changing eye color. And now his ridiculously heightened sense of smell was making more sense. “You bit me.”
“You told me to.”
“Am I a bear shifter now, too? Like with a werewolf? You bit me and now I’m a bear? Is that what you’re telling me?”
“What? No. Biting doesn’t Turn a person into a shifter. At least that doesn’t work for bears and werewolves. Other shifters have different abilities.”
“I was being sarcastic about werewolves, Jenner! There are werewolves now, too?”
“Yes.” He cleared his throat. “You’ve met some.”
Lena just stared. What else could she do? Jenner was the king of la-la land right now.
“Dalton and Chance are—”
“Don’t you even say werewolves to me right now, Jenner Silver. If you wanted to play a prank on me, you could’ve chosen better timing. For example, not right after you fucked me.” Lena dressed in a hurry, then turned and stormed off toward a pile of supplies. Oh yes, she was going to build the shit out of the tent, zip herself inside, and wrap her head around the douchebaggery that Jenner had just pulled. With a pathetic little snarl, she dumped the tent out of its storage bag and began spreading it out.
“You’re mad.”
“Damn straight, I’m mad! I thought you were going to be serious, Jenner! I thought you were going to open up to me. I hope to God you don’t actually think you can turn into a bear. I fell for you! I did! And now the words that are coming from your mouth are insane. You get that, right? That what you’re saying isn’t real?”
Jenner hooked his hands on his hips and arched a dark eyebrow. “Do you want me to Change so you can see I’m not making this up?”
“Sure, Jenner,” she muttered, driving a tent stake into the ground. “Turn into a werebear.”
“It’s just a bear.”
“Whatever.”
“I won’t hurt you so don’t take off running. It gets my instincts all kicked up when I see something running.”
Lena rolled her eyes and moved to the next tent stake. “Don’t worry. I won’t. And don’t be growling and clawing up your hands trying to scare me either, Jenner, or I’m going to kick you right in the dick.” Silence. “Jenner?”
“I’m here.” The jingling of his pants sounded, and she cast him a pissed-off glare over her shoulder. It was getting darker by the minute, but she could definitely make him out as he undressed.
“Are you serious right now?”
Jenner cracked an obnoxious grin, straight teeth white against the shadows. “I don’t want to rip my pants when I let my grizzly out.”
“Oh, naturally,” she muttered, returning her attention to the next stake. She couldn’t freaking wait until she was inside so she could scream into her sleeping bag and draw mustaches and wonky eyes all over her last sketch of him.
“You should know I’ve never shown Bear to anyone but my brothers.”
With an irritated sigh, Lena stood and crossed her arms over her chest. “You call yourself Bear?”
Jenner’s irritating smile still lingered at the corners of his lips, and she wanted to claw it right off his stupid face right now. This wasn’t funny. Not even close.
“I do because that’s what he is. Are you ready?”
“For you to wiggle around and pretend to turn into a bear? This is all of my dreams about my perfect man culminated into one moment, Jenner, so yes, I’m ready.”
Jenner hunched forward, but relaxed again and said, “First, I should set some ground rules.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? Okay, what?”
“One, I was serious when I said you shouldn’t run. Bear likes to chase critters that give him their backs. I
t’s instinct.”
“Fine. Check. Go.”
“Two, no shooting at me.”
“Why would I shoot at you? The gun isn’t even anywhere near me. It’s still in the saddle you pulled off your horse you dumbass—”
“Whoa, okay, but just the same, don’t shoot me.”
“Fine! Can we get this pantomime over with, please?”
“Are you in a rush to get somewhere?” he asked, eyebrows high and eyes dancing.
“Yeah, for you to cook my fucking dinner, Jenner. I’m hungry and irritated, and I’m about five seconds away from breaking rule number two. Now shimmy!”
A snap echoed through the woods, and she hunched down, scanning the immediate area. “What was that?”
Three more rattling pops sounded, but it was throatier than a twig breaking. “Jenner,” she whispered, heart hammering against her sternum as she turned in a slow circle.
Another volley of pops sounded, but now the air was growing heavy and too thick to breath. A great weight settled across her shoulders and fear nearly froze her in place as she slowly turned her attention onto Jenner. She didn’t understand what she saw. He was hunched forward, heaving breath, but with each inhalation, he jerked and grew bigger. And bigger and bigger until he threw his head back with another pop.
Breaking bones. The sound was breaking bones. Lena clapped her hands over her mouth as she arched her gaze up and up, following Jenner’s transformation. Tears stung her eyes as fur that shone silver in the evening light covered his skin in a wave. Eight-inch white claws shot from his fingers, and his mouth elongated as curved, razor sharp teeth replaced his own. In the span of a few seconds, it was done, and Jenner stood on his hind legs and rattled off a long growl. That sound—as familiar as her own heartbeat by now because it had been constant since she’d met him. His eyes were dark brown, and so familiar still, but she didn’t know this Jenner. This Jenner was massive, as big as Titus, and now he was stalking closer to her, dragging his weapon-like claws through the earth with each powerful stride.
Don’t run!
Jenner hadn’t lied. He hadn’t been teasing her or making something up to push her away.