Bear Run: A Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Pine Ridge Bear Shifters Book 1) (8 page)

“This is better,” Alice said, as the door swung shut behind
them.

“Much,” Taggart agreed, and planted
his lips against hers, sliding his tongue between the seam of her lips.

She kissed back, hard, pressing her
body against him. This felt so good, it felt so right, she couldn’t imagine
she’d gone all her life without it.

It seemed to have taken forever to
get here, to this place. The Pine Ridge shifter crew was restoring not just the
main building of the ski resort but the whole complex, and that included a
large log-cabin-type lodge halfway up the mountain, meant to be one of those
ski-in-and-ski-out places for rich tourists. They simply called it the Lodge. The
previous owners hadn’t had the money to keep it in good repair and the roof had
half collapsed under pressure from wind and snow, so the bears had been laboring
to restore the building. A couple of them were even staying here; the place had
six bedrooms (only a few of which were habitable at the moment) in addition to
a large living area.

They’d cleared out for Alice and
Taggart, though, and the two had been given a room, a kind of honeymoon suite,
all to themselves until a more permanent situation could be found in town.

Now, as Taggart picked her up and
carried her to the large wood-framed four-poster bed that dominated the bare,
rustic room, Alice hoped they could stay here forever.

“This is so nice,” she said,
running her fingers through his black, wavy hair and staring into his gorgeous
blue eyes.

“Nice?” he said with a cocky smile
that made her heart flutter. “I’ll show you more than nice.”

She giggled as he laid her down on
the bed, unzipped her jeans and yanked them off. This revealed her
panties—already moist! Damn, he had her number—and she would have been
embarrassed save for the sparks in his eyes.

Delicately, not quite slowly but
not rushing it either, he pulled down her panties, and she rocked back and
forth, helping him.

“I want to see you,” she said. “If
I have to take it off, you do, too.”

“Needy human.”

Smiling, he unbuttoned his flannel
shirt and tossed it to the floor. As he moved, his well-defined pecs jumped,
and Alice couldn’t resist leaning forward and stroking his rippling eight-pack
with her finger. Taggart caught her wrist with a powerful hand and forced it
back. He was so strong. It made her even wetter.

“Did I say you could touch?” he said.

She bit her lower lip, admiring the
breadth of his shoulders and how his body tapered down to a narrow waist.
Grinning, basking in her obvious admiration, he sank down on his knees between
her legs.

“Oh my,” she breathed. “Are you
going to ... ?”

“You sure do talk a lot,” he said.
“Me, I’ve got better uses for my mouth.”

And he did. God help her, he did.

He bent his head forward and traced
the edge of her seam with his tongue. A thrill ran through her, and she let her
legs drape over those huge shoulders of his. As his tongue plunged inside her,
licking her crevice from the top to the bottom, in agonizing slowness, she
shuddered with pleasure.

“I’ve never done this before,” she
said, then amended, “Well, never had this done to me, before, I guess I should
…”

She trailed off as he thrust a
finger inside her.

“Ohhh,” she said.

He shoved in a second finger, then
pressed them deeper, deeper, and she could feel his thick knuckles do wonderful
things inside her. Even as they probed her, his tongue darted to her clit and
stroked it. She gasped and squirmed. Locking her ankles together behind his
bull neck, she moved against him. He licked faster. One of his hands ran up her
belly and cupped a breast, then gently squeezed. The other moved inside her, or
at least two fingers did. His tongue quit licking up and down and made circles
around that delicate nub of flesh, and she arched her back and cried out. She’d
left a hand tangled in his hair, and she gripped it tight. Her other hand
grabbed her other breast and squeezed the nipple. Pleasure ran through her.

“No,” she said, shaking her head.
“No.”

Confused, he drew his head back.
Her wetness glistened on his lips. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she said, panting. “I
want you inside me.”

He grinned. “If you insist.”

He stood, and she had to unlock her
ankles to release him. He grabbed them and widened her legs, and she saw that
his cock was huge and fully erect. He laid it against her belly, his balls
slapping her clit, and shoved up, then back. A tiny, pearly bead of white began
to gather at the tip. Feeling naughty, she scooped it up with a finger and
licked it off.

“Tasty?” he said.

“You know it.”

She gripped his cock with her hand,
feeling it pulse beneath her, and squeezed it once, then again. She slid her
hand up it, then down. Taggart made a low, vibrating noise in his throat.

“You like that?” she said, smiling
saucily.

“Mmm-mm,” was all he could manage.
His eyes closed, and she rejoiced at the expression of pleasure on his face.
She was causing that. She, Alice Cooper, small-town mountain girl, was making
this big sexy dominant bear shifter rapt with desire.

She moved her hand down and gently
squeezed his balls, which were tight against his body, readying themselves to
unload.
Not yet, big boy
, she
thought.
Oh no, not yet.

Another pearly bead gathered at the
tip of his cock. This time she gathered it and used it as lube while she
stroked his huge shaft, greasing it up—not that he needed it. She could feel
that she was wetter than she’d ever been, and she knew (feeling her cheeks burn)
that he could smell it. She saw his nostrils quiver and knew he was scenting
her arousal. It only seemed to make him hornier. His cock throbbed in her hand.

“Quick,” she said, hearing her
voice go all raspy. “I want you inside—now.”

“I don’t know,” he said, teasing.
“Have you been a good girl?”

“No, and that’s why I need it—now!”

He laughed and planted his palms to
either side of her on the mattress, supporting his weight on them while his
butt reared back, then shoved forward (she wished this room had mirrors!),
positioning his cock at the entrance to her cleft. She could feel it pushing
against her, so huge, so thick. He was even more enflamed with lust than last
time, and his shaft was even thicker.

“Now!” she said, panting. “Now!”

“So needy.”

He slid into her, just an inch, and
she gasped at his width.

“Like that?” he said, with an
infuriating smile.

“Oh, yes.”

“Would you like it a little
deeper?”

“Yes!”

He shoved it in another inch, and
she thrust her hips, impatient to take him even deeper. He wanted to play his
game, though, and held back, taunting her with his immensity.

“Want some more?” he said, then
pushed in—but only another inch!

No
fair
, she thought. Then:
We’ll see
about THAT.

Smiling to herself, she wrapped her
legs around his middle, gaining leverage, and pulled herself onto his cock. She
cried out as it filled her, stretching her. It hurt, but it felt so good she
barely noticed.

“Naughty mate,” he said with a
growly laugh that she loved.

“No talk,” she said, moving her
hips, taking him in even deeper—deeper. Waves of pleasure washed through her
and fireworks exploded in her brain. His cock was hot and full inside her, huge
and thick, and she could feel every ridge and vein of it as she moved up him,
then down him, then up him again.

He squeezed a breast and tongued
her nipple, and she moaned. He pumped into her now, thrusting even deeper than
she’d taken him already, and she whimpered in pleasure. Opening her eyes, she
saw his face locked in bliss, his eyes closed, her essence still glistening on
his lips.

He thrust into her, slowly at
first, then faster and faster, and she arched her back and cried out as ecstasy
swept through, engulfing her and carrying her up to dizzy heights. He pulsed
inside her as she detonated around him, and he threw back his head and cried
out. For a moment she thought he’d come, but then she realized he was holding
himself back.

“I want to claim you,” he said. His
eyes opened, and she saw shifting colors there. His bear was in turmoil, she
could feel it.

“
Claim
me?” she said, still gasping—but not satisfied yet. She
wanted more. More more more! “You mean, like biting me—putting a mark on me?”

He nodded. His face was serious. He
still moved inside her, but slower. Thrusting into her in one long, slow movement,
he said, “It will put a bear in you.” Pulling back out (but not all the way),
he added, “You’ll be like me.” He shoved in again, and she moaned.

“To be a bear shifter …” she said.
Her ankles were still locked behind his back, and she pulled herself further
onto him again, rocking her hips up, then down lazily, but with purpose.

“Do you ... want that?” he said.

She could hear the longing, almost
desperation, in his voice. He wanted her to be like him. He wanted them to be
as close as any two people could ever be. He didn’t want their differences to
ever keep them apart again. They would begin a new life, not as different
beings, but as equals. Partners.

Bears.

“Yes,” she said, feeling him fill
her up. “Yes, I want it.” Gathering her courage, she said, “Claim me.”

Relief settled over his features.
His eyes still flickered, but more calmly now. “Let’s get in position,” he
said. “The bite should go on the back of your neck or shoulders.”

She nodded. Wriggling about, not
wanting to lose the feel of him inside her, she managed to rotate all the way
around. He helped, and in moments she was on her hands and knees on the bed. He
moved up, never leaving her, so that he was on his knees behind her. She
grabbed one of his hands and pulled it to her breast, and he squeezed it slowly
but firmly.

She shoved backward, pushing him
into her, and he pumped once slowly, then again, harder.

“Yes,” she said, meaning it, dizzy
with the thought of it. “Make me a shifter.”

“A
mate
,” he said.

She swallowed, feeling her eyes burn.
“Mate.”

He thrust inside her, hard, and she
gasped. He thrust harder, then harder still, and she could feel herself being
stretched more and more. She admitted him deeper, and it was as if they were
one body, one flesh, both of them suffused with love, joy and togetherness.
This was the way it was supposed to be, she thought. This is what they had been
fighting for, nearly dying for. And it was worth it. All of it was worth it.

She could feel him pulsing inside
her, his cock swelling. He moaned and gasped above her, and the bed creaked.
Its posts thumped on the floor as it lifted up on one end, then crashed down.
The headboard slammed against the wall, and Alice half feared that cracks would
run out from the impacts.
Let them
,
she thought.
Let us tear this whole place
down if we have to.
Pleasure washed through her, filling her up, and at
last she could take no more.

“Yes!” she cried. “Yes yes!”

Just as the shining wave of her
orgasm started to overcome her, he exploded inside her. His hot jets filled her,
throb after throb. He cried out and bent over her, and she had just a moment to
brace herself before she felt his teeth sink into her shoulder just beside the
neck. He bit deep, into the muscle, and she screamed in pain. The pain felt
right somehow, though, and it was expected. The pleasure paused for just a
moment, then continued on, even greater than before. He continued to empty
inside her, one hot gush after another, and she trembled and exploded in orgasm
around him. She cried out and shuddered all over, and he wrapped his arms about
her and whispered in her ear, “Alice, I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she gasped.

Inside her something began to
change, she could feel it. A sort of ... power. She could sense the bear inside
her now, just blooming, like a flower, becoming aware of her and itself.
Becoming one with her, just like she and Taggart were now one.

“I feel it,” she said. “The bear.”

He kissed the side of her neck,
just beside the bloody bite. “Thank you,” he said, and she could hear the depth
of his emotion in his voice. “We’re truly mates now.”

His hot seed was spilling out of
her, running down her thighs, and she liked it.

“Mates,” she said again, smiling.

He collapsed onto the bed, and she
curled up beside him, sated and happy, fulfilled in a way she had never thought
possible before now. She traced his sweaty chest with a finger and smiled.
Kissing his rock-hard abs, she repeated it to herself, the thought finally
crystallizing in her: “Mates.”

Alice wiped sweat from her brow as she pounded the hammer
against the nail.

“Ready for the next one?” Taggart
said from behind her.

“Yep,” she said. “And maybe a soda,
too.”

The two of them were working on the
Lodge together, by themselves, nailing up some new posts for the back patio where
the hot tub was going to go. She couldn’t wait. The Lodge was too small for the
whole crew to live in, but it would be their place to gather and hold their
mysterious shifter meetings—in other words, get drunk, eat barbecue, splash
around in the hot tub and then Shift and romp about in the forest. But
repairing the Lodge was hard work, and harder still when it was just the two of
them. Sometimes Mike or Cort would show up—Cort never went far from the Lodge,
Alice was learning, and for good reason—and right now Alice could do with a
breather.

“No prob,” Taggart said with a
grin.

He bent down and kissed her on the
lips, and she leaned into him, inhaling the spicy scent of his sexy man-sweat.
She could smell so much better now that she had Changed. Taggart had a gorgeous
smell, if a smell could be gorgeous, and that mixed with the pine trees all
around and the scent of the resin-y wood of the planks she was nailing all made
for a heady brew, and she loved it.

“You hang here, and I’ll be right
back with some refreshments,” he said.

She murmured tiredly and smiled,
watching him disappear back into the Lodge. She loved to see that tight ass of
his as he strode away. When he was gone, she let out a sigh and turned back to
the forest, staring into its depths. There was something in there, she knew,
some secret the shifter crew was protecting. Mike had told her and Taggart that
much. Furthermore, he’d said that all questions would be answered very soon.
Just what could the bear shifters be up to?, Alice wondered. She knew there was
some reason they’d decided to take over the ski resort, something to do with
the mountain. It wasn’t because they loved skiing or anything, that much was
for sure. Apparently Mike was the best skier of the bunch, and he would act as
the ski instructor when things were up and running, but even he was only
halfway decent on a pair of sticks, according to him.

So what was the deal? Alice
couldn’t wait to find out.

Suddenly a strange smell reached
her. She sniffed harder, trying to figure it out. Then it hit her. It wasn’t a
strange smell at all, really—it was a
familiar
smell.
Very
familiar. It was only hard
to place at first because she’d never been able to pick it up with such
strength before.

Hairs shooting up on the back of
her neck, she spun about just as two figures rounded the corner of the Lodge.

“Damn you,” she said. “Why don’t
you just leave us alone?”

Pa and Bradley glared at her.
Bradley held the rifle this time.

“Really thought we’d just let the
demons have ya, did ya?” said Pa. “Hell no, honey child, you belong with us.”

“‘Honey child’,” she repeated with
a scoff. “Last time it was ‘cow’.”

He let out a breath. “Things’re
gonna change, I promise ya, honey. I’ve had time to think on it, and I’ve come
to the conclusion that you were right. About some of it, anyway.”

“
Some
,” Bradley added.

Pa shot him a glare, as if telling
him to shut the hell up. “Anyway, Allie, I think it’s high time you quit this
pack of ungodly hellspawn and come back home with us. You do that and we’ll
leave that shifter fella of yours alone.”

Alice narrowed her eyes. “And if I
don’t? You going to kill him?”

“You can’t kill a demon,” Bradley
said. “Only send it back to hell.”

“That’s right,” Pa said, nodding
his head judiciously. “So, angel, what’ll it be? Come with us, all
peaceable-like, or come with us
after
we send that shifter back to the sulfur pit?”

She still held the hammer she’d
been using on the porch slats, and she had half a mind to chuck it at the two
idiots. She gripped it harder, and she could see that Bradley saw the movement;
he tensed, holding the rifle. With an aggravated groan, she tossed it to the
grass. He relaxed, just a little.

“I’m staying here,” she said,
moving toward them. “And Taggart’s staying, too—alive. It’s you two that need
to go.”

Pa’s face was hard. “We’re not
leavin’ without you, girl.”

“I’m not a girl anymore, Pa. I’m a
woman.” She hesitated. Should she tell them?
They might shoot me
. But it was time to own her new life, not deny
it. Gathering her courage, she said, “And I’m a shifter now, too.”

She braced herself.

They gasped and stared at each
other.

“You ... they put a
demon
in you?” Bradley asked her. He was
so shocked that he didn’t even raise his rifle to point it at her.

She nodded. Pulling her shirt collar
away from her neck, she showed them the red scar tissue of her claiming bite.
“I wanted it, and now I’m like them,” she said. “So, you see, I can never go
back with you. I belong with them now. With Taggart.”

Pa’s face had gone still. Now it
began to turn purple. “Why you stupid cow!”

Here
it comes.
Gone were the
honey childs
and
angels
.

“This is my place,” she said,
planting her feet. “And you don’t belong here. You’re trespassing, and I want
you gone. If you can’t respect who I am or what I am, then you can no longer be
a part of my life. Maybe someday, if you grow up, you can come back, but not
until then.”

Pa’s face had lost its color. The
rage was leaving him, replaced by what looked like sadness, even outright grief.
His eyes gleamed with moisture. Alice’s heart twisted, and she felt her own
eyes burn. The last thing she wanted to do was cause Pa any pain. But this is
the way it had to be.

“You’re ... you’re really a bear
shifter now?” he said, his voice shaking.

“That’s right.” She could hear the
rawness of her own voice. Suddenly giving into the feeling, she took a step
forward, meaning to go to him and embrace him if he would let her—and she
thought he would, judging by the way his lips were trembling—but just then
Bradley snapped the rifle up and pointed it at her chest.

“You hussy!” he snarled. “You
demon-loving harlot!”

“Point
that somewhere else,”
she growled, and it really was a growl. It came out
sounding like something a bear would say if a bear could talk, and an angry
bear at that.

Bradley’s eyes widened, and then he
started to squeeze the trigger.

Oh,
shit
, Alice had time to think.

Pa tried to rip the rifle out his
hands. “Idiot!” he said. “Would you really shoot your own sister?”

Surprised, Bradley struggled
against him. The weapon fired, punching a hole in the grass. The sound of the
shot going off must have alerted Taggart, as suddenly the door exploded open
behind Alice, and she turned to see an eight-hundred-pound grizzly bear charge
across the half-constructed patio toward her, Pa and Bradley.

Their eyes widened, and the gun
dropped forgotten to the ground.

“Run, you fool!” said Pa, but
Bradley needed no prompting.

Alice tore off her clothes,
Shifting as she did, and in her bear form she joined Taggart. She swiped at
Bradley’s ass, and he jumped two feet in the air and screamed like a teakettle.

Pa and Bradley ran, faster than
Alice would have believed possible, and she couldn’t help the laughter that
welled insider her. She couldn’t laugh on the outside as a bear, but she could
definitely laugh on the inside. Even as she and Taggart chased her stupid
family, though, part of her was encouraged;
Pa
had stopped Bradley
. In the end, he had decided to accept her as she was,
or at least stop trying to punish her for it.

Maybe, someday, far in the future,
he might loosen up enough to be part of her life again. But for now she’d enjoy
chasing him and scaring the crap out of him so that he’d never come back
again—not till he was ready.

Laughing with glee on the inside,
she and Taggart bounded side by side, huge tough bear shifters, united by love
and a new life together, in pursuing Pa and Bradley down the hill.

THE END