Authors: Sherry Wasson
It was another long day at the DMV. Emily wasn’t sure why she hadn’t found a different job yet. She liked the paycheck and benefits of this one, but she hated the job itself.
No, she knew why she hated replaced the job. She’d been so lost inside of her pain she hadn’t even noticed the work she was doing. She hadn’t had the energy to even think about changing jobs.
So why was she thinking about it now?
Anthony. He’d sparked something inside her that had been dead for a long time. He made her want to try.
It was a strange feeling, like waking up after sleeping for weeks.
Emily hesitated before she walked out the door. She peered through the glass to try to see into the darkness. She told herself she was being paranoid. Anthony would hardly be waiting for her outside her workplace. That would be insane. He’d probably left town already. He’d said he was only passing through. Seeing the sights, which he’d implied meant her.
Emily shivered. Paranoid again. He hadn’t necessarily meant that like it had sounded. It was ridiculous to think anyone could want to see her so badly. She was nothing special, she reminded herself. Just a woman who’d given up on life. There were plenty of more exciting people in the world.
Emily pushed through the door and headed to her car. She walked quickly and kept her keys firmly pressed into her palm. Her nerves were too jittery. She was likely to start screaming if she so much as saw a squirrel.
She unlocked her door quickly and pulled it open.
“Don’t scream.” Anthony was standing in front of her car with his hands held out as if to show he was unarmed. Like he needed weapons to hurt her.
Emily grabbed the door handle in a white-knuckled grip. “I’m armed,” she lied. “Don’t come any closer.”
“I won’t.” Anthony kept his hands held up in the air. “I only want to talk to you.”
Emily chewed on her lip. She should jump in her car, slam the door, and peel out of there. That would be the smart thing to do. The problem was, this crazy stalker was the first thing that had made her feel alive in months and she wanted to talk to him. “Why are you following me?” She swallowed. “Are you going to hurt me?”
“I would never hurt you,” Anthony said. “Not intentionally. I’m sorry I’ve frightened you. Your pain called out to me, and I needed to be sure you were okay?”
“My pain?” Emily brought her hand up to her throat as if she might have been screaming without realizing it. She thought she’d been hiding it so well. She’d shut herself down to avoid showing it.
Anthony’s eyes were shadowed in the light of the street lamps. “There’s something I should tell you before this goes any further. I’m not human.”
Emily started to laugh, then stopped. “Not human? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m a werebear. I’ve been hibernating all winter and I’m on my way back to my tribe.” He touched his forehead. “I can feel strong emotions. The stronger they are, the more they call out to me. Your emotions are like a gravity well. I can’t walk away from you.”
He was crazy. He’d escaped from an asylum and now he was stalking random women telling them he could feel their pain. It was the only explanation.
Unless he was telling the truth. Emily felt the agony of her family’s deaths deep inside her heart. He’d called her a gravity well, which she took to be a polite way of saying she was a black hole. She’d felt so strongly that she’d collapsed in on herself and now she was sucking out all the light around her, destroying it before it could so much as touch her.
“You expect me to believe that you’re a werebear? What is that, anyway?”
“It means my other form is a bear, but I can’t activate it until I, uh, release the tension I’ve built up from hibernation.”
“How convenient.”
“Not really.” He smiled at her and Emily caught herself smiling back.
He wanted her to believe he was a mystical creature, but he couldn’t prove it. She’d be an idiot to believe him. She really wanted to believe him.
“How do you release this tension?” Emily asked. “Do you need to go for a run? Do yoga?”
“I need to have sex,” Anthony said bluntly. “Usually I pick up a woman at a bar before I head back to my tribe, but I haven’t made it that far this time.”
“Because of me. Instead of getting some strange, you’ve been following around the depressed woman and now you need to get in my pants to prove that you’re magic. This might just be the most elaborate pick up scheme I’ve ever heard.”
“It isn’t a scheme.” He frowned. “I’m not asking to have sex with you. I can go find someone else.”
Emily couldn’t stop watching the movement of his lips. She didn’t want him to find someone else. She couldn’t believe she was thinking about this. It would be completely insane to have a one night stand with a man who thought he was a magical creature, but she couldn’t sink much lower than where she was at now.
She wanted to feel alive again. She wanted to know what his sweat felt like, what those abs she could clearly see under his shirt would feel like pressed up against her skin.
“I sleep with you, and then you prove you’re a werebear?”
“That’s not normally how it goes, but I can make an exception for you,” Anthony said. Even his chin was chiseled. She wanted to lick it.
“How does it normally work?” Emily asked.
“Normally I don’t give away that I’m anything other than human. It’s kind of a secret. I would appreciate if you kept it, by the way.”
“Not like anyone would believe me, anyway,” Emily said. She wasn’t sure she believed it. Why would anyone who didn’t want to have sex with Anthony even consider it? “All right, I’ll keep your secret, and I’ll have a one night stand with you. But if I change my mind and tell you to leave, you leave, okay?”
“I agree,” Anthony said. “I would never impose on a woman who didn’t want me.”
Emily snorted. He’d followed her around long enough without asking permission. “I’ll drive.”
Anthony sat shotgun while Emily drove. He liked being able to watch her up close. Her face had so many expressions. She was an angry driver. He liked knowing that about her.
“Tell me more about you,” Emily said. “You said you have a tribe? Are they all werebears too?”
“No,” Anthony said. He settled into the seat and watched the trees flick by the window. “My tribe is made up of other shape shifters, but we come in many varieties. There was a time where we would have separated by species, but there are so few of us left now. It’s easier for us to stick together.”
Emily nodded. “Is your family there?”
“My tribe is my family. But my biological family… they’re long dead.” His parents had died years ago, but it still hurt Anthony to say.
“I’m sorry,” Emily whispered. Pain throbbed in her voice. So this was the source of her agony. She’d lost her family as well. She must have cared for hers far more than Anthony had ever cared for his.
“We weren’t close,” Anthony said. “My parents were not kind people. They were magical supremacists. They wanted to launch a war against humanity. It is for the best that they died in battle when they did.”
“But it still hurts,” Emily said.
Anthony paused. “Yes. It still hurts.” He wouldn’t say he’d mourned his parents, exactly, but he’d mourned the idea of them. It hurt that his parents had put their insane cause above their son. It hurt that they were his parents, and they were dead. It was nothing more than that, and yet Emily understood.
It hadn’t occurred to Anthony that Emily might be empathetic herself. Anthony had never agreed with his parents, but he had been raised by them to see humans as little more than short lived toys. He was used to needing to remind himself that humans still had feelings, but he’d never thought they were as deep as shifter feelings.
Emily was proof that he’d been wrong. She was in pain so vast he couldn’t comprehend it. Anthony wasn’t sure even he would be capable of surviving such pain, and yet she was moving forward and living. If all humans had this resilience, than he had vastly underestimated them.
“What happened to your family?” Anthony asked.
“It was stupid,” Emily said. She flicked the turn signal on and took a right. “A car crash. They were running out to the store when they hydroplaned on a puddle and crashed into a tree. My parents died on impact. I was out with my sister when we got the call. Something happened to my sister after that. She broke inside. The last time I saw her was at the funeral. Since then, nothing. She changed her number, packed up her apartment and left. I don’t know where to. I searched for a little while, and then I just gave up.” Her voice lowered to a whisper. “I gave up on everything.”
“No,” Anthony said. He hated to see Emily this devastated. The pain he’d been feeling from her since he’d gotten here was so strong he wanted to wrap her in his arms until it left. “You didn’t give up. You lived. You worked. You kept going.”
Emily snorted. “Hardly. I’ve been sleep walking these past six months. Meeting you is the first time I’ve felt anything.” She flushed and threw the car into park. “We’re here.”
They were back at the parking lot of her apartment complex. Anthony couldn’t bring himself to move. He hadn’t dared think he might matter to her.
He’d helped her. She’d told him herself. He’d given her relief from the pain. He’d never been so proud of anything in his life. He was glad now that he’d stayed in town for longer than he’d planned, glad that he’d waited and watched her. He hadn’t thought there was anything he could do to help her, but he had, and he would keep helping her by doing whatever she asked.
Emily stepped out of the car and Anthony hurried to follow her. They walked to her apartment together side by side. Emily was playing nervously with her keys.
“Are you afraid?” Anthony asked. There was another reason he never revealed his non-human side. Some women would find it frightening and think he was a monster.
Emily looked deeply into his eyes. Her blue irises were clear of doubt. “No,” she said, and then she opened the door.
Emily’s body was alive with excitement as she closed the door behind them. She’d never done anything like this before. She’d had long term relationships that had gotten intimate, but never a one night stand.
She wanted him so badly her panties were already soaked and he hadn’t even touched her yet.
Emily locked the door then took his hand and led him to the bed. Where his palm touched hers was pure electricity.
“You don’t seem very attached to this apartment,” Anthony commented.
Emily blinked. “What makes you say that?” She’d been hoping he would say something sexier, like
I want to fuck you so bad
.
“There’s nothing you here.” He waved his hands to indicate the apartment.
He was right. There was nothing but the clutter of trash and neglect in this apartment. She’d rented the place furnished, and the furniture was all plain. She hadn’t brought anything when she’d left home and moved here. She’d bought new clothes all in dull shades of brown and black and she hadn’t even tried to decorate.
She wouldn’t call what she’d been doing lately living. That changed tonight.
“I think I’ll move,” Emily said. Once she voiced the idea, it struck her as sheer genius. “I’ll quit my job and move. I should have done it forever ago. I hate it here.” She glowed. Even hate was an emotion she hadn’t felt in a while.
“Good,” Anthony said. He pulled her closer and kissed her shoulder. Emily melted against him. It wasn’t fair that he had this strong of an effect on her. There should be a law against having a body like his.
Emily ran her hand down his t-shirt to feel the line of his abs. Damn, he was ripped. Talk about a six pack. She wanted to rub her face all over him.
Anthony stepped back from her. Emily growled.
Anthony’s smile was slow and smoldering. “Take off your shirt,” he said.
Goosebumps pricked up on Emily’s arms. She’d never suspected that she would like a man who took charge, but she very much liked this.
Emily pulled the thin fabric of her shirt up. Her tits bounced free of it, then she tugged it over her arms and tossed it aside. Anthony’s hungry gaze took in every inch of her. Emily hated herself for having worn a bra today. She wanted to be naked in his arms, and it was going to take that much longer now.
She reached back to undo the clasp of her bra, but Anthony shook his head.
“Your pants,” he said.
Emily dragged her teeth across her bottom lip. She was so turned on she wanted to scream. She caressed the cool metal button on her pants before undoing it and letting them drop to the floor. She was standing in front of him in nothing but her underwear and she didn’t even want to be wearing that.
Instead of asking her to finish stripping, Anthony pulled his own shirt over his head. Holy mother, he was hot. Emily licked her lips. She could see the clearly defined contours of his muscles now. She had no idea how much working out it took to get a six pack like that, but she would bet the answer was
a lot
.
He took off his jeans even slower than Emily had taken off her pants. It took every ounce of self-control she had not to reach forward and do it herself.
Finally, he was in nothing but his boxers and she could see his erection jutting out beneath the single layer still covering him.
“I want that in my mouth,” Emily said. She grinned at him as his erection got harder. She’d never had this sort of power over a man before, and she liked it.
Anthony yanked off his boxers and his huge cock was finally free and exposed to Emily’s gaze. Now that she could see it, doubt flashed through her. He was
huge
. She’d never had a cock that big inside her before. She could hardly see how he was going to fit.
“Suck me,” Anthony demanded.
Emily took a deep breath and went down to her knees in front of him. The end of his cock glinted with precum. Emily touched the end of her tongue to it. Anthony groaned and buried his hands in her hair. She wanted to make him go crazy. She wanted to make him lose control.
She dragged her tongue up and down the length of his cock. It was hot and pulsing in her hands. Anthony moaned her name.
“You’re so good,” he panted.
Emily was thrilled. He liked this. He wanted her. She took his balls in her hand and played with him. If she knew one night stands were this much fun, she would’ve had one forever ago.
She wrapped her lips around the head of his cock. There was so much of him, she wasn’t sure how far she’d be able to take him into her mouth. She slid his cock back along her tongue as he panted her name.
Emily shivered. There were so many feelings inside of her, she didn’t know if she could process them all. This was so much better than the emptiness that had haunted her for too long. She wanted to be alive. She wanted to feel every moment of her time with Anthony.
She could feel the pulse in his cock against her lips as he hit the back of her throat. She couldn’t take any more of him.
She moved her mouth back and forth over his cock, leaving a trail of saliva behind. Anthony dug his fingers into her hair and urged her on.
She knew he was about to cum, and she hesitated with his cock still in her mouth. She’d never let a guy cum in her mouth before. It had always seemed gross to her. Besides, didn’t guys take a while to get hard again after it happened? She really wanted to be fucked by that huge cock, and she didn’t want to have to wait for him to recover.
She tried to pull back, but Anthony pulled her back forward as he thrust his cock against her throat. She yanked her head back hard enough that his cock popped free of her mouth with an audible noise.
“I want you inside me,” Emily panted.
Anthony’s eyes glinted. “Werebears have excellent stamina.”
That was all Emily needed to know. She popped his cock back between his lips and let him cum in her mouth.
He shot out so much sticky cum that she couldn’t swallow it all. She had to spit some of it out when he pulled his cock out of her mouth.
Emily knelt on the floor and gasped for breath.
“Did I hurt you?” Anthony asked, his face crinkled with worry.
Emily shook her head and held up a finger to indicate she needed a minute. When she caught her breath she looked up at him and flicked her hair over her shoulder. “Now do that in my pussy,” she said.
Anthony tossed her onto her back and tore the remnants of her underwear off. His body was hot and heavy on top of hers. She dragged her hands up from his ass to his neck. He was nothing but muscle and hard male.
He pushed her legs apart and Emily had never been so wet in her life. He slid a finger between her legs and groaned. “You’re so tight,” he said.
“I need you,” Emily said. “I need you inside of me.” She pushed her hips against his hand.
He gave her a wicked grin as he pulled his hand away and pressed his cock against her entrance. “Are you sure? Do you want to change your mind?”
Emily swatted him. “Do it!”
He thrust into her and Emily’s world exploded with pleasure. His cock was so huge that he had to stretch her out inch by delicious inch in order to fit inside of her.
Emily screamed his name and dug her fingernails into his shoulders. She was going to leave marks on him. The thought thrilled her.
She had no idea when her orgasm began or when it ended. It was all a hazy mix of pleasure and desperation. He felt so good inside of her. He filled every part of her that had been empty for all this time. There was no room left for apathy with him pounding his hard cock into her soft body until she let go of control and let the pleasure have her.
She heard Anthony scream her name when he came, but she was too dizzy with her own pleasure to think about it.
It wasn’t until they were a sweaty tangle of satiated bodies on the ground that thoughts began to flood back in.
What did this mean? He’d said he needed sex in order to become a werebear. Did this mean he could show her his other form before he left?
Did he really have to leave?
Emily cradled his head against her breasts and felt the carpet scrape against her body. She hated this apartment, but she thought it might grow on her if he stayed.
She had to be the worst ever at one night stands. Here they’d just finished having sex and she was already getting attached. He was going to leave, and she was never going to see him again.
It shouldn’t hurt so badly. She barely knew him. Yet the thought of losing him was already tearing a hole in her heart.
He’d given her her life back, and she wished he’d stay around to help her decide how to use it.