Read Romance: Chosen By Her Bear: A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance Standalone Online
Authors: Ashley Hunter
Romance: Chosen By Her Bear: A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance Standalone (4 page)
VI.
The ring of fire was all set to host the biggest trial by combat Greenworld had ever seen. Damien and Jacob were surrounded by a huge circle of fire, around which were gather all the other inhabitants of this strange land. Jacob had overcome his initial hesitation and was looking ferocious and dangerous. Damien still had some blood on his face.
After a few moments, a huge gong sounded, unseen to me. The sound of it reverberated through the forest. At the same time, the moon that was previously hiding behind some trees, suddenly came up and bathed the scene in its magnificent glory. It made for a strangely ethereal scene.
I was looking at the moon and hence I didn’t see when both Jacob and Damien turned into bears. Jacob was a pitch black one with yellow eyes that shone like diamonds in the dark. Damien was lighter with red eyes. But at that moment, both looked to me like beasts of the wild.
Both the bears ran towards each other, the distance between them closing rapidly and when they collided there were a huge noise, and coupled with huge growling and the din of the crowd.
Damien and Jacob were rolling on around in the circle of fire. Jacob was on top and he had a strong grip on Damien’s neck with his teeth. Damien clawed at his face with his paws and Jacob was thrown aside.
Both steadied themselves and started circling each other, one gauging the next one’s move. Damien moved first but Jacob was too quick for him. He dodged the attempted bite by Damien and sank his teeth in the side of his stomach.
I closed my eyes and realized that my face was wet with tears. My beloved Damien, here he was, fighting for my life and in all likelihood, dying for it. I couldn’t look at it. I couldn’t see him die on my account.
I turned around, trying to drown out the thuds of the two animals fighting, rolling on the crowd. I tried not to think of the cheers of the crowd which surely meant that Jacob had an upper hand on Damien and was probably going to win the battle.
It had been less than two minutes when suddenly there was a loud thud and silence. In spite of myself, I turned around and saw Jacob on the ground, blood pouring from his body.
Damien, in bear form, stood limply beside Jacob. For a moment it seemed that Damien had won and all would be well. Then slowly, Jacob rose. He was tired, he was injured but he was not ready to give up. Jacob got up and lazily plunged towards Damien, who injured himself, was not quick enough.
Jacob’s teeth sank into Damien’s leg and he gave a huge howl, a sound you might expect from a wolf. Damien managed to extricate his legs from the strong teeth of Jacob and retreated few feet. The crowd was making more noise than ever.
They could see the blood, of both the fighters. They knew that the end was near. They would have to accept the decision of the stars, for better or for worse.
Damien ran towards Jacob who kept rooted to his spot. Just as Damien jumped, Jacob moved to the side but his injuries had rendered him much slower than before.
Damien’s long claws tore through his face and huge spurts of blood showered on the ground. Damien didn’t lose any time and sank his claws in Jacob’s body who howled in pain.
Damien kept his grip strong, but just when it looked as if Jacob might finally give in, he mustered every ounce of energy he could and attacked Jacob with his teeth. It was an attack that reeked of desperation, like a drowning man’s last stroke.
After a few moments, Jacob’s grip loosened and Damien extricated himself from his and he took tentative steps away from where Jacob lay, unmoving. Damien had barely traveled five feet when he fell down and didn’t move for a full minute.
The whole crowd, man and animal alike, was silent as if a single sound from them will anger the stars. Damien’s body was gently moving up and down as if he was breathing.
Jacob showed no sign of life. Few moments passed. I closed my eyes again and my knees gave away. I sat down on the floor and started sobbing.
Damien was dead and I didn’t care about anything else in the world at the moment. There seemed no point to anything at all. Whether I lived or died, it didn’t bother me for one second.
Then the crowd collectively gasped. I vowed to myself not to open my eyes again but I knew that I wasn’t strong enough. I knew that I had to see, that I had to look for myself what had happened; what fate the stars had brought on me?
I slowly opened my eyes and there stood Damien, in human form, in the middle of the circle of fire, towering over the body of Jacob, who had also turned human but was still not moving.
I had an overwhelming sense of relief wash over me, like when someone steps into a warm shower for the first time. Damien took a few steps towards my cage, limping a little, but his face smiled, amid all the blood and wounds.
Then I was engulfed by darkness.
VII.
I woke up in a clean and tidy room, and for once it was light when I woke up. As my eyes got used to the light, things were thrown in sharp focus. I suddenly realized that I was in my apartment.
How did I get here?
My heart sank. A crushing possibility reared its head from the gallows of my soul:
it was all a dream.
Everything, from Damien to the bears to the pit of fire to the evil bear king, everything was a dream.
Now that I thought about it for a moment, I realized it
couldn’t
be anything but a dream. I chided myself for being naïve enough to believe in something as far-fetched as half-human, half-bear hybrids existed.
Then the door opened and Damien walked in, his face covered in cuts and bandages but otherwise he looked fine. I was too stunned for words and it seemed as if he was too. Without saying anything, he leaned in where I was sitting up on the bed and kissed me hard on the lips.
I closed my eyes.
It was all real.
I was reveling in the concreteness of all this, his touch, his scent, his body against mine, He broke the kiss, though I was very reluctant.
“I had been waiting to do that for some time now,” he smiled.
I grazed his face with my fingers, as if to convince myself that it actually was him, here in flesh, in my arms.
“What happened? How did I get here?”
“Jacob is gone,” Damien said in a low voice.
“I know. I remember that much, though for a moment there I thought it was a dream.”
“It wasn’t,” he said, soft still and I knew that he was thinking about the fight and it scared him too.
“Well, I was coming to get you but then you fell down. Apparently, all that had happened drained your energy. Your body just gave up but your mind, now that’s a different story.”
“How long have been I out?” I asked, now worried as to what had transpired that I had fainted for so long.
“Oh, don’t worry. Not long. 24 hours or more maybe. It just felt like an eternity to me. That’s all.”
I smiled and without further ado, kissed Damien. I was still smiling when I kissed him and the sensation was much different. Soon the kissing got way out of proportion as our hands started moving on each other’s body. Damien had his hand on my breast but he suddenly stopped.
“We can’t, baby,” he said, slightly out of breath and red all over. “The doctor will be here any minute.”
“I don’t care,” I said and pulled him to me again, pressing his hand against my breast.
I will never get used to this feeling.
His other hand was roaming on my waist.
“The curves…of your body…rewrite history,” he said, his sentence punctured by the intense killing. He was now lying on top of me, both of us still clothed, which was looking more and more like an inconvenience.
“Hey, you stole that from
Dorian Gray,”
I laughed.
“Everyone steals,” he said and we resumed our kissing.
He had unbuttoned a couple of buttons on the front of my shirt and his fingers were travelling on my bare flesh. I moaned, my teeth biting into his hard shoulder.
“Baby, baby,” he said. “We can’t. Really. The doctor is
really
coming.”
I sighed.
“Let him look at me like that. It will be evidence enough that I am healthy.”
He looked at me for a second and burst out laughing.
“You’re funny,” he said and started kissing me in earnest while removing his shirt.
It never got old: the view of him removing his shirt. I gawked at his body like a teenage and placed my hands on his abs. He took my hands and kissed them, his eyes pouring into mine.
Soon, our clothes were thrown on the floor and this was where I felt most at peace: in his arms, looking into his eyes and his lips smashed against mine.
He moved his lips to my neck and I felt goose bumps rising all over my body. I moaned against his skin and sunk my teeth into his shoulder. It felt good, his hard skin against my lips. He gave a small sound, but I knew I loved it when he did that. My teeth left a small mark against his skin.
“You’re feisty,” he said, his voice all musky.
“You bet,” I said and continued my attack on his body.
Just as the passion was at its peak, the whole mood was killed by a doorbell.
“Boy, you weren’t kidding,” I sighed.
He looked at me and started laughing. Then I did too. It wasn’t funny but we laughed nonetheless.
He got out of bed and my eyes followed the muscles of his naked body.
“Get dressed,” he said, throwing my clothes to me as he picked up his own. “I want you in your best condition tonight. It’s going to be a long one.”
He winked at me and turned to open the door.
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