The Right to a Bear's Arms (A BBW Shifter Romance) (Wolf Rock Shifters) (16 page)

Zoe entered the house, her breath going short as she felt the prison close in around her.

“So then, what are we going to do about this little problem of ours?”
Drake asked, closing the door behind him and locking it.

“I don’t know,” said Zoe, turning to him. A defiant look was setting in on her face and she could see that it made him nervous. Last time she’d defied him, things had gone poorly for his chest.

“Maybe,” said Drake, picking up the phone off the table next to him, “I should just call the cops and have you arrested.”

“Fine. Be my guest. It would be better than spending time with you.”

This seemed to light a fuse within the hyena shifter and Zoe saw his body tense. It was, she thought, the ultimate insult to imply that he was awful to be around. But it was the truth.

“I think spending time with me is exactly what needs to be done,” he said, approaching her now. He put a hand on her cheek. “It’s going to take a long time to make up for ten grand.”

With that, he leaned in to kiss her, his hand sliding down to her breast.

So many times in her other form, Zoe had kissed thi
s man. Made love to him, even. But somehow that woman whom she had created purely to satisfy such a man was someone else, someone distant and unattached to who she now was. She was acting, she told herself, the entire time that she was Annette, and so his presence hadn’t been a violation. But this, now, was
her
body. This was the physical representation of her soul, and the only man who’d ever been allowed near it was Colson.

“No,” she said, pushing him away.

“What did you just say to me?”

“I said no.” I’m not your lover. I’m not your fucking slave. If you want to call the police, you do that. But there is no way in Hell that I’ll ever let you touch me again.”

With that, Drake’s eyes narrowed. Zoe didn’t have to guess at how hard he was fighting his inner animal. She suspected that he wanted nothing more than to attack her and to hurt her, and badly. But she didn’t care. She’d done what she needed to; she’d left Wolf Rock and Colson, and the man and town she loved were safe.

“If you want me to stay here,
Drake, I will,” she said. “But that’s it. You have no claim over me.”

“My claim is ten thousand dollars,” he yelled, lunging at her now. He tore at her dress, which came away in front, revealing more than Zoe would have liked him to see. When
Drake’s eyes settled on her plentiful breasts he became an animal in human form, pulling at her and trying to get his hands and mouth on her.

In one swift motion Zoe shifted. This time it wasn’t into the tiger who’d injured this awful man months earlier. It was into her panther form, which backed away, out of her dress, and laid its ears flat back on its head, snarling.

Drake followed suit and in an instant his hyena stood opposite. It began to pace back and forth across the narrow hallway in which they stood, waiting for a chance to leap at the panther.

Hyenas, Zoe knew, played dirty. She’d watched
Drake in action with other shifters and she knew that he didn’t have a kind bone in his body when in his shifted form; he was even more cruel than in human form.

She didn’t wait. She leapt at him, coming down at his body from overhead and digging her sharp claws into his flesh, pushing him to the ground. Her teeth sank into the back of his neck and she felt the salty blood begin to trickle as the hyena let out a yelp.

But Drake was quick too.

He twisted around, loosing Zoe’s grip on his flesh, and managed somehow to get under her, biting at her with razor-sharp teeth. They sunk into her left front leg, causing her to lose her balance and to come crashing down so that he could then get on top of her. This time he bit her shoulder and neck, seemingly trying to get a firm grip on her, to control her.

Streams of pain shot through her entire body as the teeth seemed to hit nerves; causing her to writhe in agony. She tried to twist and to turn; to gain the upper hand, but he was stronger than she knew, and he was determined.

Finally, he had her pinned to the ground. Zoe didn’t know what was in his mind but she could imagine that he wanted her dead. It seemed that he was spending a moment debating the consequences. After all, no one knew that she was there. He could probably get away with it. And in all the time she’d known him, with all of his ugliness, she’d never seen him so enraged.

She closed her eyes, her legs pinned down, preparing herself.

But a thought came to her. Control. Maddox had said early on that she needed to remain calm and that her shifting would be under control. And she was calm, in this moment. Much as she feared death, she was more at peace than she’d ever been in her life.

As Drake’s jaw came down on her flesh, seconds away from landing a fatal blow on her jugular, the panther disappeared.

Just then, the front door swung open with the force of a bear using his entire body as a battering ram.

The hyena, confused, turned to look just as the light-coloured bear lunged at him, his claws rending the animal’s flesh, teeth sinking into his back. The creature howled in agony and went still.

A field mouse, hidden in a corner under a chair, crawled out from its spot and shifted into a woman. Her left arm and neck wet with blood, she extended her right hand and caressed the bear’s face.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

Colson shifted then, too, and wrapped his strong arms around her.

“Oh God, baby, you’re hurt,” he said.

“I’m okay. I’ll be okay, anyhow. I can’t believe you found me.”

“I
had a little chat with a very unattractive ferret. He was surprisingly helpful.”

“Well, at least he’s good for something
.”

The hyena
on the floor flailed as he changed into a man below them. He writhed a little, moaning at the pain.

“
Drake, is it?” said Colson, standing over the battered man. Zoe quickly pulled her dress, which lay on the floor, over her body; the body intended only for Colson’s eyes.

“Who the fuck are you?” groaned
Drake.

“I’m the fucking banker.
And it’s your lucky day: I have a present for you.” Colson walked out onto Drake’s porch, not much caring that he might be giving the neighbourhood an indecent display, and re-entered with a bag in hand. He tossed it onto the floor next to the man who still lay there.

“There you go,” said Colson. “Ten thousand bucks. If you ever come near this woman, me, or Wolf Rock again, you won’t live long enough to spend it. Understood?”

“Fuck you,” said Drake.

“Good. Just so we’re clear,” said Colson, taking Zoe by the hand.

“Hang on,” said Zoe.She ran to the couch in the living room and grabbed a blanket.

“Here,” she said. “Wrap yourself in this.”

They left the house and Zoe saw it: an old, beaten up station wagon.

“Colson?” she said. “Where’s your truck?”

“I sold it.” He was smiling at her, but Zoe felt like her heart would break.

“But you love that truck.”

“Not as much as I love you,” he said.

“Oh my God.” She threw her arms around him. “I love you too,” she said. “So much. But you shouldn’t have done that.”

“Zoe, I don’t know what you did with that money and I don’t want to know. But money doesn’t matter to me. It never has. I’ll get another truck someday. But there’s never going to be another you.”

Several days later, when her wounds had healed, Zoe asked Colson if she could borrow the station wagon.

“Sure,” said Colson. “Why?”

“There’s an errand I need to run. I have to pick up something kind of big.”

“Okay. I’ll see you later.
And don’t do anything dangerous, baby. I don’t want to have to come looking for you again.”

“I won’t. Probably,” said Zoe. She kissed him and left, returning several hours later, unharmed and happy.

The following morning, Zoe guided Colson to a road not too far from their treehouse. His red pickup sat, pristine, parked in the same place where he usually left it when he was coming home for the night.

“What’s that doing here?” he asked. “Or should I even ask?”

Zoe slapped his arm gently. “Silly, it’s yours. You know that.”

“You never spent the money,” he said, slightly dumbfounded. “You had it all along.”

“Well, I did in fact spend it. On a shiny, slightly used truck.”

He turned to her. “You didn’t have to, you know. I was never going to ask you to.”

“I know. And that’s why I adore you.”

He walked over and put a loving hand on his truck, the smile on his face worth a hundred thousand dollars.

“Let’s go for a ride,”
Zoe said, a smile on her own face.

She directed her mate as t
hey drove into the mountains, windows down, leaving the small town behind.

“J
ust a little further,” said Zoe as they approached a small gravel parking lot.

When she told him to pull over he did so and they got out. Zoe lifted a basket from the back of the truck.

“Is that…?”

“A picnic basket? That’s exactly what it is,” she said. “Come on.”

The two hiked up a trail some distance until they came to a rocky outcropping overlooking a green valley. The air was chilly but the warm sun made the day quite bearable. Zoe put the basket down as Colson took in the view.

“This place is beautiful. How did you find it?”

“Kyla told me about it. It’s far enough away from everything that you seldom run into anyone up here. Especially in the middle of winter.”

With that, she walked up to her man and undid the top button on his shirt.

“Seldom?” he asked, smiling.

“
Seldom. Hardly ever. Well, rarely. Hopefully not today,” she said, working her way down the shirt so that his chest was bare. She put her hands on him and leaned forwards, her lips searching for the softness and warmth of his own.

He kissed her back, tongue searching to taste her. Zoe could feel the roped muscles of Colson’s arms as he held her tight, and her hands slid around to his back, fingernails gently scratching their way along his flesh.
She felt her pussy respond to the contact with his flesh in the way that it always did, much as one salivates when delicious food is presented. Her body never failed to dictate what should happen next when this man was around.

Eager to have him inside her, she reached down to unbutton his pants. He took her hand in his own and pulled it away.

“What is it?” she asked. “Don’t you want to…?”

“Of course I do,” he said, in between kisses. “Of course I want to fuck you. I want to be inside you. I always do. But first…” With that he reached for the base of her shirt and pulled it over her head in a swift motion, revealing her bare breasts and round belly.

“First,” he said again, “I want to do this.”

He knelt down before her and licked the very tip of her left nipple, which responded by tensing and firming into a bright pink bud.

“Second, I want to do this.” He imitated the action on her right side.

“Then this again,” and with that, he pursed his hot lips around the left, sucking as his fingers encircled her breast, as though feeding himself her body.

“Oh my,” said Zoe. “That feels…”

Colson unbuttoned and unzipped her pants and tore them down, along with her panties. He pulled them over her boots and she stood mostly nude before him.

“Lie down,” he commanded.

“And what if I refuse?” Zoe smiled.

“Then I’ll keep sucking your perfect tits,” he said, “until you can’t stand it anymore.”

“Okay then, I refuse.”

Colson sucked again at her nipples and Zoe laughed.

“You win,” she said, her hands in his hair, pulling him gently away. “I’ll lie down. As long as you promise to eat me.”

“I think we can arrange that,” he said.

Zoe sat on the cold rock beneath her, squirming with delight at the idea of what was about to happen. A cool breeze seemed to be hitting her in all the right spots, hardening her nipples still further and touching all the sensitive places between her legs.

Colson knelt before her and leaned down, his warm hands sliding under her ass.

“I don’t know,” he said, kissing t
he strip of hair above her mound, “if I’ve said this before.” Again he kissed her; this time at the top of her right thigh. “But I really, really like your pussy.”

He dug in then, raising her hips up so that he could bury his tongue deep inside her as Zoe writhed in pleasure. Colson moaned at her taste and her wetness. Her body was his playground and every time they made love he found a new corner to enjoy.

He eased his right hand out from under her and slid his index and middle fingers inside her swollen channel. Zoe thrust her hips forward, pushing him deeper inside her and making him smile with delight. Colson stroked her then with his tongue, tiny flicks on her hard pink clit, then exploring the shallow crevices to either side, just teasing her lips with the gentleness of his caresses while his fingers continued to pleasure her opening.