Heart Of The Bear (Appalachian Shifters #1) (5 page)

Finally, Caleb eased off, and my orgasm began to wane. I was panting with exhaustion, and my whole body felt weak.

He climbed on top of me and began to nibble gently at my neck. His hand fondled my breast, and he pinched my nipple. It stiffened against his skin as he palmed it again, and I moaned at the feeling of his thick cock head pressing between my lips.

I reached down and grabbed his length and began to stroke it. He groaned and bucked against me, and as I rubbed his shaft, he began to hump against my hand. I wanted to suck him. I wanted to taste the little bead of precum that was glistening at the head of his cock. But I urgently wanted to feel him inside me. There would be time for sucking later.

Caleb took his cock from my hand and stroked it once, twice, and three times before pushing the head against my opening.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked one final time.

“God, yes!” I gasped. “Please!”

With that, he thrust forward. I stretched around his considerable girth, and he thudded against my cervix, causing me to gasp with a shockwave of pleasure. He began a slow in-out rhythm, and he bent his head to kiss my cheek. I could smell my sex on him, but I didn’t care. I needed his kiss, and I took it.

I could feel the hum of his groan against my lips, and then he dipped his tongue between them. Our tongues lashed together, entwining around each other as he increased the pace of his strokes.

My hands grasped his firm butt, and I savored the feeling of his muscles clenching with each thrust. I pulled him deeper and deeper inside me with every thrust he made.

“No,” he snarled against my mouth, and his thrusting ceased. “I’m not ready to cum yet.”

My pussy clenched around him, and he dipped his head to my chest and growled with frustration.

“Sorry,” I said, smiling slightly.

“You don’t make it easy to hold back, you know,” he told me.

His lips recaptured mine, and as he brought me back into the passion of his kiss, he started to thrust once more. My hands slid all along his body, feeling the way his muscles rippled under his skin, brushing over his scars, which made him tense momentarily, and up around his neck as we kissed.

“Do I feel good to you?” he asked me.

“God, yes,” I answered.

“Really?”

“Yes! Oh, yes!”

“Mmm,” he moaned.

Excitement was starting to build up again, and I began to pulse around his shaft. He must have felt this, because the moment I started to moan with orgasm, he began to rumble deep within his chest. His cock began throbbing, and I could feel each spurt as he shot off inside me, causing my orgasm to intensify to the point where I screamed so loudly that the whole of Gatlinburg must have heard me.

It wasn’t until the bliss of my orgasm began to subside that I realized he hadn’t worn protection or pulled out.

“Oh, shit,” I muttered.

“What?” he asked as his body collapsed weakly on top of me.

“We didn’t use protection.”

“You’re not fertile right now,” he said bluntly.

“Let me guess, you can smell that?”

“I can,” he confirmed.

“Figures.”

He chuckled as he rolled off me, and he snuggled up against my naked body and wrapped me into a tight embrace.

You might say that I rushed into things that night. Maybe I did. But I’d known Caleb for almost three months at that point. And the passion we had for one another was utterly undeniable. It was something that could not be contained, like a brushfire on a windy day. It spread with each gust of air from our lungs, igniting everything in its path. It couldn’t be bargained with or reasoned with. It was out of control, and we were both swept up in the inferno.

And as I lay there in his arms, I honestly couldn’t think of one thing about it that was wrong. On the contrary, it was very, very right.

We must have drifted off to sleep as the sun was setting, because I awakened to the sound of an owl hooting in the distance.

“What time is it?” I asked groggily.

“I’m not sure,” Caleb answered. “Three or four, maybe?”

“The others will be worried,” I commented.

“Highly doubtful,” Caleb said. “I would imagine they all know where we are and what we’re doing.”

I felt the heat rise in my cheeks at the thought of the whole pack knowing about our little tryst in the woods, but I shrugged it off.

“So…” I said.

“So.”

“So… what exactly was this?” I asked.

“What do you mean?” he asked, propping himself up on his elbow and looking at me with concern in his eyes.

“I mean… what was this? Was this a casual fling, or…”

“What was it to you?” he interrupted me.

“Magic,” I answered. “Bliss. Heaven. What was it to you?”

“Forever.”

My heart thudded in my chest.
Say what?

“Forever? As in marriage forever?” I asked.

“You said you were mine,” he reminded me. “You said you didn’t want anyone else.”

“I didn’t,” I said. Then I quickly corrected myself and said, “I don’t. I just… I didn’t know it was going to be forever right away.”

“Then what
did
you think, Penny?” he demanded. “When you told me you were mine and you didn’t want anyone else, I thought that sounded pretty damned permanent!”

Caleb pushed himself to his feet and snatched up his clothes. He was already storming away as he was stumbling into them.

“Caleb, wait!” I called after him, fighting to wriggle into my own clothing. It was a challenge considering my skin was damp from the dewy ground.

It was too late. Caleb was long gone. I finished putting my clothes on and I headed back to Caleb’s house, which is where I’d been staying all summer. The front door was unlocked as always, so I let myself in. The whole cabin was dark, so I grabbed my cell phone from its usual place plugged into the one working power outlet, which ran on solar power, and I used it to find my way to Caleb’s spare room… which had become my room.

“Caleb?” I called out. There was no answer. I sighed.

I decided to take a quick bath and wait to see if he came home, but he didn’t. I finally curled up on the couch with a blanket to wait, and after a while I went to sleep.

A sharp rap sounded at the door, and then it flew open. Ivy stood in the doorway, backlit by the moon, her hair wild and her face frantic.

“It’s Caleb!” she said breathlessly.

“What?” I gasped, springing to my feet. “What’s happened?”

“No time, just come with me,” Ivy said, grabbing my hand and pulling me along.

I could hear him long before we reached the clearing. I’d never heard a bear roar before, but this sounded more like screaming.

“What is he doing?” I asked Ivy as we raced toward him.

“Issuing a challenge,” she answered.

What the hell?

“Does he do this often?” I asked.

“Only when he’s really upset.”

We entered the clearing to see Caleb in his bear form. He was standing on his hind legs with his front paws stretched toward the moon, and he was bellowing so loudly it made my ears ring.

“You have to stop him,” Ivy whispered. “I tried. He wouldn’t listen to me. If anyone shows up to accept his challenge, it could spark another territory war.”

“Oh, no,” I groaned.

I stepped into the clearing with my heart slamming against my ribcage. I had no idea how Caleb would behave towards me while he was shifted, but I couldn’t let him start a war because he was mad at me.

“Caleb!” I called to him. He continued to bellow.

I moved around in front of him and I looked up at him. All nine feet of him.

“Caleb!” I shouted. “Look at me!”

He stood his ground, but I noticed his eyes turn toward me and he stopped bellowing.

“Good, you’re going to listen,” I said. “Look, I didn’t mean I didn’t want to be with you, Caleb. I was just surprised, that’s all. But whatever is going on, you don’t want to do this. I know you’re in pain right now, but think of the rest of the pack. Think of what this could do to them if you go making a poor decision and it ends up causing another war. Is that what you want?”

He stayed upright, but his front paws lowered slightly, and he remained silent.

“Come home with me,” I begged him. “Please come home. We can talk about all this, ok? Just come with me, Caleb. Please.”

I extended my hand toward him and prayed he’d take it. I could see he was contemplating what I was saying. He lowered himself to the ground and walked toward me. It was then that I recognized him as the bear I’d seen at the crash site.

He stood nearly as tall as me even on all fours. His massive head brushed against my hand, and I scratched him behind the ears. A rumble of pleasure sounded in his chest.

“Let’s go home,” I said.

I turned to leave the clearing, and Caleb was on my heels. Ivy was waiting for us by the tree line. We were almost to her when she suddenly shrieked, and I noticed her eyes were trained on something behind us. I whirled around just in time to see a massive panther leaping through the air. It landed on Caleb’s back and dug its claws into the thick flesh there. Caleb roared and pawed at the challenger.

“No!” I shouted. “Stop! He was just leaving! We’re leaving!”

But it was no use. The panther clearly had no intention of backing down, and it was apparent that he was out for blood.

I saw blood spurting from a wound on Caleb’s shoulder, and I screamed and dove toward him, but Ivy grabbed the back of my shirt and held fast.

“No! You’ll get both of you killed!” Ivy hissed. I tried to wrench myself away from her grasp, but she grabbed my shoulders and forced me to look at her. “Listen. If you go out there, the panther will attack you. That will upset Caleb and he’ll lose his focus. There’s nothing to do but wait and pray.”

I tried to tell myself that Caleb could handle himself, but the truth was I just didn’t know. I’d never seen him fight, and I was honestly afraid for him. I dissolved into a fit of tears and sank to my knees in the leaves that littered the forest floor. Ivy kneeled beside me and wrapped her arms around me, and I clung to her.

The panther was fast – impossibly so. Caleb, being a larger, heavier animal, was understandably slower. All I could do was watch in horror as the panther continued an all-out assault on Caleb. It was a flurry of swiping paws and gnashing fangs, and Caleb stood there taking it, hardly moving aside from the occasional slap of his paw.

“What’s he doing?” I whispered, my voice cracking. “Why doesn’t he fight back?”

“That’s how Caleb fights,” Ivy said. “He knows what he’s doing. He’s wearing him down. Once the panther is exhausted, Caleb will go in for the kill.”

I nodded, but I wasn’t convinced. I still didn’t know Caleb all that well, but I certainly didn’t want anything to happen to him. After all, he did save my life. And, if I’m honest, the passion we’d shared had really touched me. I wanted to know him better.

Caleb took a vicious swipe at the panther and sent him splaying across the forest floor with his limbs at awkward angles. The hulking black cat slammed against a tree and looked momentarily stunned.

I resisted the urge to cheer, swallowing down a yelp of excitement as I gripped Ivy so hard she grunted. The panther picked himself up and narrowed his eyes at Caleb. Instead of springing at him as I expected, he instead started slowly prowling around Caleb in a wide arc.

“What’s happening?” I whispered.

“The cat’s looking for a weakness,” Ivy whispered back.

“Does Caleb have one?” I asked quietly.

“Not that I know of,” Ivy said.

It offered very little relief, but I clung to it as I watched the cat continuing to prowl. His fangs were bared as his lips twitched viciously. He’d made two wide paths around Caleb before he apparently decided his adversary had no weakness, and he sprang toward Caleb in a black blur.

Just as the cat reached him, Caleb reared up on his hind legs and the two clashed together with both of them roaring so loudly the sound vibrated through me and made me nauseous. I gasped the moment they connected, and watched as the two huge bodies of fur and muscle rolled across the forest floor.

The panther managed to clamp down on Caleb’s throat, and I heard him roar with pain. I tried to pull myself away from Ivy to run to him, but she held tightly and refused to yield.

“He’s gonna kill him!” I cried.

“Shh!” she warned me. “He’ll be fine. Just watch.”

Caleb struggled, snapping his huge jaws at the panther but never managing to connect. The panther held on tightly with his teeth, and I could hear the flesh ripping from the edge of the clearing.

I was just about to scream with fear when Caleb managed to roll over on top of the panther, his superior weight dislodging the panther’s fangs from his throat. He pinned the cat onto the ground with his huge front paws and clamped his jaws firmly on the cat’s neck.

The cat began to writhe underneath Caleb’s vast weight, using his back legs to kick violently at Caleb’s underbelly. Caleb growled at the pain of his stomach being shredded, but he refused to release the cat. Before long, the cat began to show signs of weakening.

Still kicking his hind legs and tearing at Caleb’s chest with his front paws, the panther fought valiantly. But eventually Caleb prevailed. The cat gradually went limp, and when Caleb was satisfied, he relaxed his jaws and let the panther fall to the ground like a rag doll.

The panther lay motionless on the forest floor, and Caleb stood over him panting. He swayed slightly, and then fell to the ground with a thud.

“Caleb!” I shrieked.

I pried myself from Ivy’s clutches and ran to him, falling to my knees beside his great bear body and burying my face in the fur that covered his massive shoulder blade. I began to cry.

Ivy’s hands were on my shoulders, and I hadn’t noticed until she spoke.

“He’s fine, Penny,” she said. “Just give him a minute.”

I sniffled and opened my eyes, and I watched in amazement as Caleb slowly morphed from the hulking, furry bear into his human form right before me. I whimpered at the sight of him. His whole body was a mass of deep cuts and dangling flesh.

“My god,” I groaned.

“Help me get him up,” Ivy said.

She pulled Caleb’s arm around her shoulders, and I followed suit with the other one. We pulled him to his feet, and he swayed precariously, but he managed to stay upright.

Ivy pulled him in the direction of the den, and he managed to follow her. He was breathing erratically and clearly quite weak, and he kept stumbling every few moments. I was incredibly relieved when we managed to make it back to Caleb’s cabin.

Ivy and I lowered Caleb carefully onto his bed, and he grunted. He clutched his ribs and groaned in pain, causing tears to spring to my eyes.

“Is he going to be alright?” I asked.

“He’s a shifter,” Ivy reminded me. “He’ll heal quickly.”

“But…”