Authors: Astrid Lee Donovan
Chapter Three
“What about this one?” Katu was pointing to the long-limbed brunette who lay on the couch in the renovated firehouse that served as the bears’ headquarters. It had been hours since the raid; the rest of the girls, nine in total, had been returned to their homes, one by one. Some would go to the police with the story of their kidnapping, but the men who’d orchestrated the whole deal were buried far in the Death Valley desert. They would never hurt anyone again.
“She’s in shock, and seems to have sun stroke,” Deck explained as he sat in the chair beside her. He’d been the one to lift her, carry her back to the van; carry her to the couch. And he hadn’t left her side since. This did not go unnoticed by the rest of his clan, who were exchanging meaningful looks.
“ID?”
“Not on her,” Deck said, shaking his head. “And not in the stack we found in Mikey’s pocket.”
“Should we wake her up?” Bond asked, scratching his head and looking at her like she was some alien creature. Females weren’t a regular experience in the headquarters. Even the bears’ mates knew to keep their distance. Get a bunch of alpha bear shifters together and things can get pretty weird pretty quickly.
“Are you kidding me?” Deck growled, sneering at his brother. “You don’t wake someone up when they’re sick. You let ‘em sleep.”
“For how long?” Katu asked, jutting his chin out.
“For as long as she needs, asshole,” Deck said, trying his best to keep his voice from rising. He could feel his bear pacing inside him. He wanted to protect her. Needed to. She was…
“Why don’t you take her to your place then, big boy?” Chief snarled. Deck’s head whipped toward the large man.
“Why the fuck would I do that?” he said, though he knew the question was ridiculous. It was clear as day that Deck was being called to this woman. But it was borderline unbelievable; most shifters were lucky to come across one true, heart-calling mate, never mind two. Deck had already ruined his chances with the one he’d been given. The universe was almost never so kind to give you a second chance.
“Don’t be dense,” Bond said, rolling his head impatiently on his neck. “You haven’t left her side. Your eyes are crazy. She’s yours. But you have to fuckin’ take her, you idiot.”
“She’s not anyone’s,” Deck growled, looking at the sleeping girl. She was beautiful, with sun-kissed skin and long brown hair that fell in graceful waves. But her skin was ruddy and red with overexposure to the sun, and her brow was furrowed as though trapped in bad dreams, and her body shivered savagely, then sweated; then shivered.
“Jesus Christ, Deck,” Katu roared, frustrated. “We watched you do this stupid shit once. Don’t tell me we’re going to have to watch you do it again!”
For the first time, Deck did leave her side. But it was to approach Katu, violently, his massive body nearly barreling into Katu’s equally impressive physique as the two men puffed themselves up. The problem with bears is that “alpha” didn’t mean as much as it did to wolves. For bears, the alpha was whoever happened to be stronger in the moment. And that meant there was no small amount of rivalry, of anger, of violence every second that the clan was together. Deck knew that this was no place to keep a sick woman, but he didn’t like being told what to do.
“You can’t just force someone to stay with you,” he huffed, holding Katu’s stare.
“This shit again?” Chief groaned, holding his head in his hands.
“No one’s telling you to force her to do anything,” Bond said, now stepping between the two bears to try prevent the blows they were surely about to come to.
“But we can’t have her here,” Katu said, backing down first. “And my mate sure as hell doesn’t need another mouth to feed or take care of.”
“Second that,” Bond said.
Deck knew they had a point. None of the bears in their clan – most of whom had already gone back to their homes, their mates – had any real interest in caring for a sick human. They weren’t that compassionate, unless it came to their own mates. And that left Deck. Deck who knew this human was calling to him, who didn’t have a mate to whine about taking care of her. Deck who wanted to lay her down in his bed more than he wanted to take his next breath.
“Fine,” he sighed, looking back at the haggard rising and falling of the girl’s chest. They’d called her Sandy. He guessed that was her name. “I’ll take her.”
“Good idea,” Katu said, rolling his eyes behind Deck’s back. “Wish I’d thought of it.”
Deck barely heard the snide remark. He was too busy gathering her slight frame in his arms and carrying her towards his car. As he moved, he saw her eyes fluttering open.
“You’re safe,” he said, instinctively. She moaned and shuddered, blinking up at him. Her body went rigid for a moment, but then, as though she was too weak to be afraid, she went limp again.
“Who are you?” she asked, her eyes foggy but seeming to take him in.
“Deck,” he said. “I’ll protect you. I promise.”
“Okay,” she said, and promptly fell back to sleep.
Chapter Four
Corinne was having one hell of a dream. She was in a shower - the best shower of her life; a shower that wasn’t actually just her hunched over a sink, or nude at night under the foot-washing machines on the boardwalk. It was a real shower, with tile and everything.
She washed her hair for a long, long time. And then, she turned. There was a man there; a naked man; a beautiful, beautiful naked man. She didn’t mind him being there. His dark brown hair fell in deliciously saggy and wet bangs across his forehead. She went to him, and his hands found her waist, pulling her in tight. She could feel his cock throbbing against her stomach. He towered over her. Water ran down between them, finding the rare cracks where their flesh didn’t meet.
You’re safe, he said, though he didn’t really say anything at all.
Who are you? she said back, the question not really a question because it didn’t require an answer. His flesh against her flesh was enough - more than enough.
A growl from him seemed to shake the room, move the very tiles from their plaster.
Deck, he thought.
Deck, she mused to herself, looking up at him while water dripped from his hair onto her cheeks. Sweet, warm, clean water.
I’ll protect you, he thought. One hand shot downwards from her waist, his fingers pushing open the folds of her pussy, wet from the water and her own growing arousal. Her mouth opened in a gasp as he plunged two fingers inside her without warning, his face dominant, demanding. I promise.
Okay, she thought, trusting him completely as his fingers pulsed inside her, awakening a pleasure she’d never imagined possible. She suddenly understood: she was his property - his to protect; his to love and own and keep safe. And that made her melt into him.
She reached out and gripped his hard shaft, holding it firm. His fingers thrust upwards and she moaned, raised to her tiptoes, heat flaming on her cheeks.
That growl - it started again as she stroked him, wanting to give the same as she was getting. Their eyes were locked tight. Neither could break away without hurting themselves. His thumb rose and brushed her clit, making her knees shake and threaten to give way. He rubbed it, circled it, softly, then roughly, his fingers ever probing, steadily stroking until they curled; and pumped, finding someplace deep inside her and pleasuring it, making her vision fade to black, then white, each tender stroke calling forth some part of her. Deeper and deeper he stroked, his thumb unrelenting as it graced her swollen bud.
She did her best to return the favor, stroking him slowly but firmly, the blood pumping through his cock palpable through the vein underneath. The water that fell was almost painful, surrounding them in hard jabs of heat and warmth. Her nerves sparked to life, at first one by one, and then all at once, making her a brilliant lamp of pleasure that buzzed as his fingers found purchase and curled tighter, pressing deep and hard against her center as his thumb circled, faster and faster.
Her chest heaved, her face fiery with desire, her breasts pressed against his chest rubbing so that her hard, tight nipples were constantly favored by his coarse chest hair. She wanted more. She let her knees fall, slightly, lowering herself onto his hand until she was swallowed, utterly overwhelmed and tense with the need inside her, a need she’d never felt before, but now...but now…
She cried out as she came on him, his fingers pressing hard against her most sacred space as she wilted and bloomed at the same time, releasing a flood of juices across his palm, her thighs twinging and shaking as her muscles snapped with the release. His thumb pressed hard and steady against her clit, drawing out her pleasure until she could only call his name and beg for him to release her, the torturous pleasure seeming to be unending.
She fell forward, straight into his arms, panting and numb with pleasure. His finger were still insider her, and his thumb was light but steady against her clit. His other arm encircled her, supporting her, as she collapsed against him in that steadily blinding bliss. Her face buried in the rough hair of his chest, softened by the warm water. Her cheeks tickled with each strand, her breasts hovering over his gently sloping stomach - tight and all muscle. An incandescent thrill remained in her nerves.
Protect me, she thought as his fingers slipped from her sex and she lowered herself on unsteady thighs. His thick, impressive manhood met her face as she slunk further downwards. She’d never done this, in dreams or in real life. But now, it felt right. She wanted it. As her tongue pressed tight against the fleshy head of his cock, she wanted it more than anything.
Her face turned upwards, the water from the shower falling across her lips and into her mouth. She closed her lips around him and sucked hard, feeling his pre-cum and the water mingle in her throat and fill her as she deepened around him, taking more and more, until she couldn’t breathe and was utterly filled with him, every inch of him plunged into her ready and waiting mouth.
When he shuddered and groaned she held his thighs and kept him inside her, every sweet burst of his cum swallowed, every bit of him a part of her, their lives tangled like his fingers in her hair as he pumped forward…forward…giving her all of him…
Chapter Five
When Corinne awoke, she had no idea where she was. That wasn’t so unusual. What was unusual was how nice it was where she woke. And the memories that came in flashes – those were unusual. And the dream had been quite unusual.
The bed was huge, but the room itself was massive, and decorated sparsely, a soft white carpet on the ground and light blue walls. As her eyes travelled, she was shocked to see a man sitting in a chair by the side of the bed. She was even more shocked to see it was the man from her dream. Looking too damn good to be true, she might have added.
“You’re awake,” he said simply. She wondered how long she’d been asleep, how long he’d been sitting there at her side. Considering what she had just endured, she was surprised at her calmness. The dream had left her with a pleasant buzz. Or maybe it was the afterglow from whatever she’d been given.
“Who are you?” she asked, feeling thirsty as soon as the words left her mouth. He seemed to have anticipated this, and offered her a water bottle that had been sitting beside him on the floor.
“I’m Deck,” he said. “And you are…Sandy?”
She shook her head.
“Corinne Oleander,” she said before draining half the bottle of water. The memories rushed in vividly after that. The man on stage had called her Sandy, but it wasn’t her name. She wondered who had dreamed it up to call her that.
“What was the drug?” she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“Drug?” Deck asked; his brow furrowed.
“Yeah. I mean, they must have given me something. I was tripping hard,” Corinne said, now cradling her knees to her chest, wondering why she wasn’t freaking out more. It was almost as though this man was radiating comfort. She knew she was safe. She just didn’t know how she knew that.
“I don’t know what that means,” he said.
“Tripping, like, on drugs? Like, when you see shit that’s not there and…” Corinne raised an eyebrow. What kind of modern-day man didn’t know what acid was? She had never done hard drugs, but life as a vagrant offered all sorts of opportunities for experiencing the stranger side of life. Pills and coke were dangerous, but she’d always felt more or less in control when she was on a hallucinogenic drug. And the hardships of her life as a runaway had made the occasional escape to Wonderland very appealing.
He was looking at her like he was debating something. And, indeed, he was. Deck had wondered how to deal with what Corinne had seen that night. She was offering him an out. He could say she was “tripping”. But he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to lie to her. He could barely stand the way she was looking at him, in his bed, all trusting and seemingly planning to stay, at least for a while. Lies were no way to start a relationship with a mate. And if he was going to pursue this – and his bear may not let him not pursue it – he would need to tell her eventually.
“You weren’t on drugs,” he finally said, stiffly. “Everything you saw was real.”
She laughed. Like a child, she rolled back slightly and laughed.
“Sure,” she said. “I saw bears eating horses and men turning into wolves. Okay. What are you, working for the guys who manufacture the shit?”
He didn’t respond. He just looked. And Corinne started to feel a bit uneasy for the first time since waking up.
“You saw a bear attack a horse. You approached a bear, and you said hello. You made eye contact - for a long moment. Then he laughed, and you fainted.”
She could remember all that. How could she forget? But if it were all a hallucination…then how would he know? A chill shook her.
“I’m not…I’m not following you,” she said, stuttering slightly. When he stood, she was reminded of her dream. Vividly. Enough to send an unwelcome jolt of arousal through her body.
“I was that bear,” he said. “I’m a shifter. All those men at that auction, they were shifters. Looking to buy human mates. There are many species, all very different. Bear shifters, we’re like…the police.”
She was looking at him with her mouth hanging open. He sighed.
“You don’t believe me,” he said.
“No,” she retorted. “I don’t believe that you’re half man, half bear. Dude, I have been told some crazy lies since I hit the road, but…”
“I’m not lying,” he growled, and for a moment she believed him. That growl was certainly less than human. And his eyes…
“I’ll never lie to you,” he said, then, softly. “I’ll never lie to you, Corinne.”
“Okay,” she said, believing him – but not believing the circumstances. Not one little bit. It was a tough pill to swallow. Even if she trusted what she’d seen that night…
“Look,” he finally sighed. “I’ll show you.”
She watched with interest as he turned around. When he removed his shirt, she stifled a gasp.
Damn, was all she could think. He was cut. Beefy as a steak and twice as edible looking. And when he dropped his jeans to the ground, her eyes grew wide as saucers. His ass was…well, it was cut from marble, just about. Normally, a man getting naked in front of her would raise all sorts of alarms in Corinne’s mind. But now, she sensed that he was only trying to prove a point. How he aimed to do that, when it was impossible for a man to turn into a bear, was beyond her.
Her heart stopped when his back crunched, violently. His shoulders seemed to dislocate. That beautiful ass sprouted thick, brown hair. His thighs seemed to explode. A roar ripped through the huge bedroom and suddenly there was no Deck. There was only a massive, brown bear. It took up the entire half of the room not taken up by the bed. Corinne gaped as the bear turned its face to her.
Those eyes…
Holy shit.
Holy shit.
Holy shit.