Secret to Bear (6 page)

“We only shot your lover there with a lead bullet,” he snorted. “That won’t kill him; it will only hurt like hell. Your kind recovers from wounds like that just fine. Of course, they usually get pissed off about it.”

He turned and knelt over Gage, poking at him as he lay helpless. Then Todd reached up and motioned to Garrett. “The knife please?”

My eyes grew wide as Garret pulled a long blade from his belt and handed it, hilt first, to Todd.

“No!” I screamed, squirming desperately, but I was unable to break free.

Todd looked up at me, held the knife high for me to see, and grinned. “That’s why we brought the knife,” he mused casually. “See, the blade is silver. You
know
this is gonna hurt! You bears don’t recover from silver wounds very easily.”

He grasped the hilt in both hands, his arms tensing.

“Wait!” I pleaded.

Todd hesitated, offering a quizzical glance.

“I’ll give you whatever you want,” I begged. “I swear it! Please, just leave him alone. He can’t hurt you now; you can see he’s helpless!”

Todd stopped, his eyes narrowing as he looked me over. “Anything?” he grinned. “And you’ll do it willingly?”

I gulped back on the hard lump in my throat, feeling the last of my dignity being eaten away. I nodded, unable to say anything at all, and refusing to acknowledge what I was agreeing to.

He pointed at my vagina. “Let me see,” he muttered coarsely.

I cringed at the burning tears, and looked away as I spread my legs. I felt the cool breeze bustling among the short hairs, and his eyes burning into my tenderness.

He didn’t speak, didn’t move. I looked back over at him. He was grinning up at me, relishing my degradation. He shook his head.

I screamed as he plunged the blade into Gage’s stomach, twisting it with wicked glee. Squirming and writhing I fought to break free, but the animals on either arm only stretched me harder and laughed.

The beast within me cried out, writhing with rage and anguish. I struggled to subdue it, to keep it contained, terrified of losing control right when I needed it most. I groaned loudly as I forced the creature inside deeper into the darkness.

It stirred helplessly and I gasped as I felt it, like a child, pleading for mercy. I sensed it, crouching in a dark cage, locked up and abandoned. Her heartfelt cry to be set free echoed through me, and I heard myself in her pleas, reminiscent of the little girl in the orphanage. I could feel her power, my power, looming useless and eager as she longed to protect Gage. She loved him, and she knew what she could do.

I stared in startled amazement at Todd. Judging from his expression, he misunderstood my look as fear or remorse, or possibly surrender, because his grin widened and he raised the blade to stab again. But it was the sudden, stark realization that he was about to die that caused me to pause, briefly, and absorb the moment. Things were suddenly very different.

The immense strength flooded through me, and I rose to tower over the wolves. As I watched their faces turn sickly and their bodies freeze in fear I felt a new sensation pulse through my veins, something new and unfamiliar, but exhilarating. Was it freedom, or possibly just a certainty that I would prevail? I couldn’t quite put a name to it, but it felt as though I was finally me.

I snarled, my glare fixed on Todd and the silver blade he precariously clasped inches above Gage’s heart. Rage and instinct swept through me, and my muscles tensed.

The crack of the shots pierced the night air, and I felt the burn of the lead beneath my skin. The ferocity exploded.

I pulled in behind my apartment building, the dark drizzle forming puddles in the broken asphalt. It had been raining since that night in the woods, and the streets were starting to flood.

I didn’t bother adjusting my rain jacket as I clambered from the front seat of the car and pulled the grocery bags from the back. The cold rain felt somehow fitting on my neck, and I let it run down over my red tresses. I lugged the heavy bags into the lobby and waited for the elevator. The front doors opened behind me, and I could smell the wet stench of Stan as he stepped up next to me.

“Hey Jo,” he said, his voice muffled in the damp air. “You look different today. Must be the clothes.”

I sighed heavily, and tried to ignore him.

“Did you hear about what happened up along the Quinton National Forest Trail?” he persisted. “They say it was some large animal that attacked those men. It sounds like whatever it was ripped them to pieces. It even decapitated a couple of them.”

My skin shivered, but I gave him a polite, albeit insincere smile. My wounds were aching, and all I wanted was a drink to dull the pain. “I heard something about that,” I mumbled.

His face brightened when I smiled, and I felt the tinge of remorse.

“They say,” his voice dropped even lower, “that the men may have been performing some kind of weird satanic ritual or something. Some of them were naked, and one of the naked men was actually killed with a silver knife in his chest, and not by the beast that slaughtered the others.”

I cringed, agonizing over the slow elevator carriage. At last the doors opened and I reluctantly stepped inside with him.

“I think they released a demon,” Stan continued incessantly. “And they regretted it afterwards. If it were an animal, I would have thought it would have eaten them.”

I retched a little at the thought of wolf in my mouth.

“Whatever the creature was…” Stan raised a hand for dramatic emphasis. “I’d hate to be stuck in a cage with it.”

“It may not like being trapped somewhere with you, either,” I grumbled bitterly.

He gave me a startled glance and fell silent, but only for a moment. Then he motioned with his head to my grocery bags. “Doin’ some shopping, huh?”

I gritted my teeth and nodded.

“What’d you get?”

“Berries,” I grunted as the elevator doors opened on my floor and I hurried out. “I like berries.”

I fumbled with the keys, and felt a wave of relief as I finally rushed into the apartment and locked the door behind me. Shaking the wet off I dropped the bags on the table and took a moment to stare outside at the misery that was pouring down. I took my jacket off and hung it up before stepping lightly, quietly, over to the bedroom door.

I leaned against the doorframe, and stared down at him. He was grinning like a schoolboy as he watched me walk in.

“You’re awake,” I noted.

“And I’m frisky,” Gage growled mischievously. “I don’t suppose I could get a naughty nurse type to change my bandages, could I?”

I laughed, tugging teasingly at my hair. “Maybe a bit later, sexy. My gut’s been aching this afternoon, though. I think I need to take it easy for a bit.”

“I can’t believe that dumbass shot you!” Gage chuckled. “You just don’t shoot a bear that size at close range and live to tell about it.”

I couldn’t conceal my beaming face as I recalled the moment. “I took his head off for it though. Literally.”

“You left a horrid carnage behind,” Gage agreed, still grinning. “And hey, what was that bit with stabbing Todd with his own knife, anyway? Wouldn’t it have been easier to simply gut him with your claws?”

I shrugged, my mouth curling into a wicked half-smile. “I wanted him to know I was killing him for you,” I explained. “I wanted him to understand as he died that it was because of what he did. But it was difficult to hold him down like that while working the damned blade in my teeth. I think I may have missed his heart even.”

Gage took a long, deep breath, letting it out slowly. Then he tossed the blankets off of himself and lay naked and exposed for me, his large hulking meat thickening as I watched. I grinned as his testicles twitched and drew up while his penis stiffened.

“Are you sure you’re that sore, nurse?” he pressed eagerly.

I felt the familiar urges well up inside of me. I slipped my t-shirt up and over my head, intentionally bouncing a bit as I did so to jiggle my breasts. “Hey, a medical emergency is more important,” I grinned. “Let’s see if we can get you feeling better, shall we?”

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Desiree loved a wolf once and he broke her heart. Still reeling from her experience, Desiree swears to never fall for another wolf again. But her world is turned upside down when the rogue wolf Avi takes a vested interest in her. 
Avi has spent the better part of his life looking for his Mate and just as he is about to give up the chase, he finds himself face-to-face with Desiree and being washed with torrents of emotions he never felt before. 
Desiree feels the same about Avi but her own past surfaces again and again to haunt her. Can she let down her guard just enough to let in the wolf she’s meant to be with or will her inability to let go push Avi away?

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