ROMANCE: Awakened by the Alpha Bear (Werebear Fantasy Billionaire Romance) (New Adult Contemporary Alpha Male Bear Shapeshifter Paranormal Romance Short Stories)) (42 page)

Chapter
Three

She eventually opened her eyes
to see him still staring down at her on the couch.

“Okay, I’ll be straight up with
you. Yes, I’m a reporter, and yes, I want to write a story about you,” she said
quietly, not wanting to provoke the situation.

Ethan began pacing up and down
the small lounge making Mia exceptionally nervous. This sort of behavior was
stereotypical of a caged animal, and for all intents and purposes, Ethan was a
caged animal right now.

He turned around quickly on the
spot and began pacing back toward the couch; Mia flinched as he quickened his
pace and almost lunged at her.

“There’s a fucking shock. Tell
me something I don’t know. So what’s your angle? Mad guy who shifts into a
deranged bear or how about bear savages reporter for writing a story?” he
yelled into her face.

Mia was trembling and close to
tears. What was she thinking? Was this story really worth being injured over,
or worse, losing her life over?

She was scared and in the middle
of nowhere with a guy who possessed the ability to shift at will into a
ferocious wild animal. Mia’s plan wasn’t well thought out at all. Actually, she
didn’t really have a plan. She’d known where to hopefully find Ethan and how to
photograph him and that’s where her plan making skills had come to an abrupt
conclusion.

“Can, can we talk about this
like reasonable human beings?” she stammered staring into his green eyes.

If he wasn’t such a jerk, he’d
actually be a hot guy. The fit body was there but the personality had gone
absent without leave. His green eyes were sexy and his short brown hair looked
as soft as feathers.  He was infuriating with his domineering attitude but this
didn’t stop Mia wondering how his hair would feel underneath her fingertips.

“For one, as you well know, I’m
not a normal human being, and I’m certainly not reasonable,” he shouted into
her face.

“If you’re going to finish me
off, then just get on with it already. Why waste time?”

He stepped back from her with a
look of surprise on his face, “Finish you off? Why the fuck would I do that?”

“Because we both know that you
can. I’m an annoyance to you and threaten your true identity so the easy
option’s to get rid of me.”

“You’ve got it all figured out
haven’t you? And how exactly would I finish you off?”

“Jeez, I don’t know. I’m not a
bear expert!” Mia said with a smile. She couldn’t help but see the amusing side
of the situation. Here she was planning her own demise by a bear shifter while
the said shifter stood next to her.

Ethan actually smiled down at
her, and for a split second, she saw warmth in his green eyes.

“How did you get me here
anyhow?” Mia asked.

“Oh, so now you’re interested
in the technicalities?” Ethan replied allowing his soft lips to remain in a
smiling position.

“Just curious,” answered Mia as
she attempted to sit up again, with more success this time.

“You were thrown over my
shoulder and I carried you, after first knocking you out with the tiniest
amount of Chloroform,” he replied moving back from the couch and sitting down
on the floor.

Mia watched as he skillfully
folded his long legs underneath his slim body and sat cross-legged in front of
her.

“You drugged me to kidnap me?”
she giggled.

“Yes,” he replied as he stared
up at her. He seemed to be a guy of few words with the occasional outburst of
more if you were lucky.

“So what, I’m now your
prisoner?” she asked as she propped herself up on the pillows behind her head.

He looked at her long and hard
before replying, “Not at all. You can leave whenever you wish, but good luck
with that Mia because you won’t get far in the wilderness.”

She felt tears starting to
prick at her blue eyes. Ethan had rendered her unconscious and kidnapped her,
and now, she was a virtual prisoner in his cabin. There was no way she could escape.
She knew only basic survival skills and had no idea where she was. They could
be miles away from the hotel.

“I won’t hurt you Mia.”

“No, you’ve already done that
by fucking knocking me out!” she cried.

“Calm down,” he whispered to
her as he got to his knees and crawled toward the couch.

  “Really? That’s all you’ve
got for me? Calm down,” she exclaimed as she started to shake uncontrollably.

He moved closer and she
recoiled away from him drawing in a sharp intake of air as she did so, he
stopped crawling toward her and raised himself up to his feet.

“I’m sorry Mia. Okay look I
hold my hands up. I panicked. I heard via a rumor what you were planning to
write about me and I literally flipped out,” he said softly.

“And you don’t think resorting
to kidnapping was a touch extreme?” she asked feeling a little more relaxed now
that he’d calmed down.

He blushed and she saw a shy
smile playing on his soft lips, “Ummm, yes, looking back now it was, as you
say, a touch extreme but I seriously panicked Mia.”

“How about simply talking to
me? That could’ve worked,” she answered enjoying the fact that at that moment
she was in control.

He dropped his gaze downward to
the floor and then looked back up at her, “I was going to try that approach to
begin with but I went for the kidnapping approach instead, thought it’d add
more drama.”

She felt herself smiling, which
soon broke into a fit of giggles. His tone was so serious that she couldn’t
help but poke fun at him.

“Yep if dramatic was the angle
you were searching for Ethan you cracked it!”

He looked at her with a serious
expression on his face that soon altered into a smile.

“Forgive me Mia, I went about
everything all wrong, as usual,” he whispered quietly staring right at her and
smiling.

“You’re forgiven,” she muttered
as she swung her legs off the couch and placed her dainty feet on the carpet.
Her red fluffy socks were trying desperately to cling on to her feet as they
were nearly hanging off, she bent over quickly to pull them up and felt
lightheaded and dizzy.

Mia held her head, “Shit what
the fuck?”

“It’s the Chloroform Mia just
sit back and let me pull your socks up,” Ethan said sternly.

She didn’t argue and sat back.
He walked closer and knelt down before her. He gently lifted her feet on to his
knees and began pulling her socks up. His fingers touched her bare skin briefly
and she shuddered. For a guy of 6’2”, his touch was incredibly delicate.

He looked up at her from his
kneeling position as he finished fiddling with her socks. She felt him gently
massaging her feet between his strong hands and she sighed softly resting her
head back against the soft couch. She began giggling and pulling her feet away,
he was tickling her.

He reached for her feet once
again and carried on massaging them gently. Mia squirmed and looked down at
him; he was staring up at her with a massive grin across his face.

“You come across as the big,
hard, dominant male and yet look at you now,” she smiled down at him.

“It’s been a long time since
I’ve had the pleasure of a woman’s company here,” he said as his smile faded.

Now, she felt guilty. She’d
upset him. Mia reached out and gently touched his arm.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to
pry,” she said quietly, and for once, she meant the words.

“What? A reporter not meaning
to pry?” he smiled.

He placed her feet on the
carpeted floor and stood up slowly. She could see the smooth power of his
muscled arms and his wide broad chest. He was only wearing a t-shirt and jeans
but the fire was keeping the small cabin warm. Mia could see the steely contours
of his physique as the flimsy material of his t-shirt betrayed his attempt to
cover them.

Ethan was simply the epitome of
a perfect guy, tall, muscular and overwhelmingly sexy. He was reminiscent of a
lithe and agile animal, which brought her back to her earlier reference of his
stereotypical pacing behavior.

She kept forgetting that he
actually was part animal, part bear. Was he a loner or part of a sloth of
bears? Would more be joining them in his small cabin?

He was pacing again, and once
again, his behavior was making Mia nervous.

“Why don’t you sit down?” she
asked.

He stopped pacing momentarily
and looked her way, “I’m good, thanks. I need to walk.”

Was this a bear trait or an
Ethan trait? He was certainly a complicated individual.

“Can I ask you a question off
the record?” she asked.

“Do you do off the record?”

She glanced down at her feet as
she felt the warm glow of embarrassment glowing on her satin-smooth cheeks.

“Yes, of course. I can be
respectful of privacy. I’m not all bad,” she replied.

The next words from his lips
took Mia completely by surprise and caught her off guard.

“I can see you’re not all bad
Mia. Only the reporter side of you, the actual human element is quite
pleasurable,” he said as he smiled down at her.

Was that a compliment? Mia
assumed that it was and decided to graciously accept it.

Perhaps the powerful Ethan
wasn’t so bad after all, but she wasn’t prepared to drop her guard just yet. 

Chapter
Four

She looked up at him from the
couch and asked, “Are you on your own?”

“As a bear, you mean?” he
asked. Mia didn’t really know there was a difference because surely if you were
with someone as a bear shifter you were with them as a human too. You were with
them completely.

“Yes, I guess I mean as a bear,
or basically let me put it another way. Is there anyone in your life right
now?” she rephrased her prior question to hopefully make it easier for him to
answer.

“No there’s nobody Mia. As you
can probably ascertain, my life’s somewhat complicated even for me to deal
with, let alone anybody else,” he looked awkward as he replied to her question
and she wondered if she’d overstepped the boundaries by asking such a personal
question.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry,”
she mumbled.

He sniggered, “That’s twice
you’ve used those words to me now and yes you did. You’re a reporter Mia.
Prying and snooping is in your blood!”

She felt hurt by his comment
but then heard him laughing and guessed he was winding her up, “You’re probably
right Ethan. It seems to be an inbuilt skill we reporters have. We can sniff
out a good story from miles away and we also have tremendously thick skins!”

Mia giggled as she added the
bit about having a thick skin. She’d been told to beat it, scram, get lost,
piss off, and fuck off more times than she chose to remember. The names she’d
been called throughout the years had been colorful too, ranging from sneaky
bitch right up to blood-sucking motherfucker.

“Well you must either enjoy it
or, like you say, have a very thick skin because you keep doing it,” he replied
smiling down at her as he actually stopped pacing for five minutes in front of
her.

Mia thought for a moment and
then said, “How do you know I keep doing it?”

“I’ve followed your stories for
several years now Mia. You caught my eye back along when you reported on that
Bigfoot story from Montana. I was intrigued as shifters, vampires, and
creatures always keep an ear to the ground for local reporters discovering
stories similar to their own,” he said quietly.

She smiled up at him, “So you
read the outcome then?”

“Yep, and I’ve got to admit
that it made me smile for a considerable time,” he laughed.

She rolled her blue eyes
skyward and smiled, “You and the whole news team!”

They laughed easily together
and it felt comfortable to Mia, not awkward or strained, just comfortable and
relaxed.

Ethan sat on the edge of the
couch next to her and whispered, “Hey I never intended to actually kidnap you.”

“Of course you didn’t. You just
happen to carry a bottle of Chloroform around with you, don’t you?”

She could see he was squirming
as his green eyes shot down to the floor, “The Chloroform was my last effort. I
tried in vain to come up with an idea to entice you back here with me.”

“How about, Mia as a reporter
would you be interested in my unique story? Come back to my cabin and I’ll tell
you about it,” she laughed, watching him squirm even more.

“Yeah, yeah okay you’ve got me
but if I’d said that, you may not have joined me,” he answered as he smiled
into her eyes.

“Seriously that’s like a red
rag to a bull. A chance of a story to a reporter is like the chance of a flame
to a moth,” she said.

“Too shy perhaps. That approach
would’ve meant talking to you.”

“Yeah, yours was much easier,
knock the girl out first prior to talking her,” she smirked as she held his
gaze with hers. He lowered his eyes first and she could tell he wasn’t used to
the company of a persuasive female. Mia found this to be charming especially in
a guy like Ethan who commanded respect and appeared so domineering.

He had a vulnerable and
enchanting side to him, which she assumed many people didn’t get the
opportunity to observe very often.

This was the angle she needed
for her story, the rare side of Ethan Roberts not displayed to many, not put on
public show. To present his unguarded side to the world would be exposing him
to every reporter and every single happy clicking photographer out there. Could
she do that to him just to catch the story of her life?

Had someone asked her that
question a few weeks ago, she’d have readily answered yes, and taken every inch
of his humanity, and shredded it for the world to see.

Now that she knew Ethan a bit
more, she wasn’t so sure of her reply. He seemed domineering yes, but he also
possessed a deeper hidden side, a side that she was being drawn to more and
more.

“As I explained, I didn’t
premeditate the kidnapping part, I truly didn’t. I’d not thought any of it out.
I just knew I couldn’t have you exposing my true identity as it’d ruin me Mia,”
he said as he looked straight into her eyes. This time it was her that broke the
stare first.

“Well, we seem to have found
ourselves in a tangled mess don’t we?” she asked as she nervously smiled at him
while running her fingers through her short blonde hair.

“You could say that yes!” he
replied seeming to relax in her company at long last.

He stood up from the couch and
stretched his powerful arms skyward showing Mia the sheer defined strength
within them. She was transfixed on his forearms and imagined them wrapping
around her slim body, protecting her and making her feel safe.

Suddenly, he held a hand out
toward her, and as she glanced up, he was smiling down at her nodding his head
as if to tell her it was okay to reach out and take it.

She did just that and held his
hand tightly, sighing as her small feminine hand was swallowed completely by
the sheer masculinity of his.

Mia lost her balance and
accidentally fell against him, but he was ready with lightning quick reactions
and caught her instantly.

“Whoa thank you,” she smiled up
at him as she melted into his warm embrace enjoying the feeling of his
powerfully strong arms wrapped around her. It felt better than she’d imagined
it would.

His finger was delicately
tilting her chin up while an arm remained around her holding her close to him.
Mia smiled nervously up at him as he bent his head slowly forward and captured
her trembling lips.

Her soft pink lips responded by
welcoming his slow, tender lingering kiss. She gently kissed him back, almost
sipping his unique taste from his swollen lips. Mia felt the tempo of his kiss
changing from deliciously slow to intoxicatingly long with his lips pressing
her mouth harder.

His tongue swept inside her and
Mia moaned softly as it explored the very wetness of her mouth stroking and
teasing it to ecstasy.

She clung on to his warm hard
body with her arms firmly wrapped around him as the hand that was titling her
chin was now holding the back of her head, pulling her into his mouth.

Mia pulled away quickly and
breathed, “Is this your ploy to halt me in my tracks on your story?”

He looked crestfallen as he
gazed down at her and replied, “No, jeez, no Mia. That’s how low your opinion
is of me?”

“I don’t know Ethan. I hardly
know you after all. All I know is you’re desperate for me not to write my story
so….” her words trailed off into the distance as she saw how hurt he looked.

“I don’t want you to write your
story. That much is true Mia, but I’d never resort to emotional blackmail like
this; you’ve got to believe me,” he implored.

She wanted to say she really
did but what if this show of affection was simply a ruse to lure her in to
persuade her not to run with the story? What if he didn’t even find her
attractive and this was literally a distraction to throw her off the scent?

As if to prove his feelings to
her, he pulled her closer again and as his lips sought hers the doubts inside
her mind dissolved.

She felt his hands running up
and down her slender back as he kissed her deeper and harder. Mia trembled all
over as she stood in her red socks reaching up to kiss him.

In his arms, she felt shielded
in a way that she’d never experienced before as though she were safe from all
the harm in the world. His kiss became softer with its feathery lightness
lingering on her pink lips.

Ethan held her at arm’s length
now, and in a whispering tone, he said, “I sure could use a drink about now, do
you want one?”

She smiled up at him almost
glad of the lighthearted question between their shared intense passions.

“Yes, wine would be good if
you’ve got any,” she breathed quietly.

He guided her back toward the
couch and ensured she sat down safely before leaving her to fix the drinks.
Mia’s mind raced reminiscent of a car whizzing around the track at Nascar.
Ethan’s touch had sparked a deeply buried desire within her sexy body, which
she’d hidden a long time ago.

She hadn’t planned on it being
discovered now or in the near future, passion and desire complicated things too
much. If you also threw love into the mix, it really complicated the issue.

Perhaps she was rushing ahead
of the game slightly as they’d only kissed one another, not gotten engaged or
anything. He did not declare his undying love for her; well, at least not yet
anyhow. Mia heard him coming back into the room and looked up to see him
approaching with two glasses.

“There we go, white wine,” he
smiled as he handed her the glass and sat down beside her on the couch.

“Thank you,” she mumbled as she
took a sip of the pale yellow gold liquid and welcomed the feeling of its
warmth comforting her throat.

She set her glass down on the
table beside the couch and sat back curling her legs underneath her. Mia raised
an arm above her head and started to remove an arm from the thin white
sweatshirt.

“Here, let me,” Ethan said as
he took the sleeves from her hands pulling it gently the rest of the way over
her head.

Mia ruffled her short hair with
her fingers and smiled at Ethan. She bit her bottom lip provocatively as she
tried to anticipate his next move.