Bear-ever Yours (3 page)

But he had a feeling this was no longer going to happen.

She pulled the sheets around her and pressed against the headboard. “What the hell is a shifter? And what do you mean, we’re safe? Are you crazy?”

She waited for his reply and an insane but obvious possibility sprung up before him.

His mate didn’t know she was a bear. Which meant she didn’t know she was his mate. She didn’t know why she was feeling the way she was, and he’d have to calmly explain it, when all his bear wanted to do was press her back against the headboard and take her.

He sighed. Best to get it over with. He gave her a wary look, and stepped off the bed to go into the living room. He closed all of the doors and shut the drapes.

Then he transformed into his bear.

And heard a scream from the bedroom.

L
eah tried
to take in breath, but she couldn’t. Whether it was because she’d just orgasmed harder than she ever had in her life, or because she’d just screamed at the fucking POLAR BEAR in the living room, her lungs just didn’t want to cooperate.

Calm down, she told herself. We’re hallucinating. Too much excitement, between almost drowning, being rescued by a hunk, and then nearly having the best sex of her life.

He said he was a shifter. Just what the hell was that?

But she felt that arctic chill again, and something about it seemed familiar. She put a hand to her head. There was something there, but she couldn’t remember. She’d been adopted when she was three, and she didn’t know her birth family.

Was it possible there was something she didn’t know about herself? Something to do with her attraction to this man, and the fact that he didn’t want to use protection and could somehow turn into a bear?

Fuck, things were confusing all of a sudden.

Then the bear turned and looked at her, really looked at her, and aside from the vaguely chilled feeling of snow falling, a distinct calm came over her. Like she knew him, really knew him, beyond just what she knew of him as a man.

There was definitely something between them, whether he was a bear or a human, or whether she was a human or a…

She felt her body stretching and changing. She tried to scream but nothing came out, and then she tried to scramble forward, but heard the tearing of sheets.

She stumbled blindly to the only thing that made sense at the moment. The only thing she had to go to. The bear in the center of the room. He growled and lunged forward, helping her and letting her lean on him as she felt her strength go out of her.

He gestured with his head in front of them and she looked up to see a mirror at the end of the hallway that probably led to the bathroom.

And in the mirror was the edge of a giant polar bear. Which made sense, because he was standing right beside her. But next to that was a smaller bear, a female grizzly bear. She screamed but only a guttural sound tore itself from her throat. She turned to him with wild, panicked eyes.

“Calm down,” he said. Her eyes widened. He could talk? “You’ll be able to verbalize if you just calm down and let yourself adjust. The first few shifts are overwhelming, and you won’t be able to hold your shape for long. But the quicker you calm down, the better it’ll be.”

She tried to calm her breathing. She inhaled slowly, held it, counted to ten, and then released it, like she was getting ready to do yoga, or trying to meditate after a bad conversation with Ignus. Which was every conversation with Ignus.

She heard a growl from the bear next to her and turned to him. “What?” she croaked out huskily. Phew, at least her voice was working again.

“Don’t think about another man when you’re with me,” he said.

“What…” She took a step back from him hesitantly, and he took a step forward.

“We polar bears have only one alpha power. Always the same alpha power. Evolved because of our need to evade predators. We can read the thoughts of our destined mate. When they are in bear form.”

She gulped. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Destined mates? Alpha powers? This is all completely foreign to me.”

Her body felt weak and started to tingle all over. “What’s happening?” she cried out, stumbling into him, letting his warm, solid strength steady her. His body was much bigger than hers, and it was reassuring at a time like this.

“You’re passing out,” he said. “Just let it happen. Being in your animal form is exhausting when you’re not used to it, and you’re the farthest thing from used to it. Go ahead and go to sleep, princess. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

And even though she wanted to fight to control her body, even though she didn’t want to fall asleep in a room with a strange man who had turned her world upside down, she found she had no choice.

She shifted back into a human and flopped onto the floor. He cushioned her fall with a pillow and then transformed and carried her to another bedroom in the house.

He had a lot of things to explain.

“
A
re you okay
?” he asked, as she opened her eyes warily, blinking against the darkening evening light. The sun must have just set. Great, she’d spent her first full afternoon here passed out in a stranger’s room. And now that stranger was looking at her like she was delicate, something that had to be handled gently.

She rubbed her head. “I think so.”

He pursed his lips. They were full and gorgeous and she wanted to trace one finger along the intense dip on his upper lip, see if it was really as defined as it looked.

“I…” She trailed off, wracking her brain for any memory of what had happened, and then, as she threaded her hands through her short, tight, unruly curls, it all came back at once, like a flash flood from hell.

She groaned. “Dammit, I remember everything.”

He sighed. “I thought you might.”

He was wearing a robe, and she realized she was wearing one as well. That’s right, she probably had ruined her clothes when she’d turned into a bear.

She hesitated, waiting to have a heart attack or go into shock or something at the knowledge that not only did bear shifters exist, but that she was one of them. But she didn’t. It was almost like she’d known all along, but very deep down, where she couldn’t consciously access it. It was weird.

But in all of it, the one thing that felt right, no matter how confusing it was, was being here with him. “I’m sorry,” she said. “This is all so new to me. You’ll need to start at the beginning.”

“Why didn’t your parents tell you?” he asked, looking sad for her. She straightened. She didn’t need this tall, sexy man to feel sorry for her. She needed him to explain everything, and possibly to make love to her until she couldn’t walk anymore, but she didn’t need his pity. For sure.

“I was adopted at age three,” she said. “So yeah, I know nothing.”

He colored slightly and ran a hand through his deliciously tousled hair. He looked like a man who’d been having sex, and her ‘down there’ responded immediately to him. “Oh, that makes sense. I’m sorry. I’ve been raised by two shifter parents, so I can’t even imagine what that’s like.”

“It’s weird,” she said. “So what are alpha powers?”

“Powers passed down from an alpha to his offspring. Wolves have them commonly. Bear shifters are rare, due to our inability to mate very easily, so we usually have only one power per family.”

“What about types?” she asked. “Why am I a grizzly? and so much smaller?”

“Well,” he said, laughing. “It just depends on your blood line. Most American bears are grizzly bears or black bears, and black bears aren’t very large. But all that really matters to me is that you’re my mate, and I’ll protect you with my life.”

She flushed, feeling her neck warm, trying to stop all the images of him touching her, kissing her, undressing her, from flooding through her mind. “I don’t know what to say to that.”

“Don’t you want to know what mates are?” he asked.

“I kind of feel like I already do. In fact, I could swear my body said that in response to you earlier,” she murmured. “But it’s all very odd, very new to me. There’s a part of me that’s like, mmhmm, it makes sense, and another part that’s like, run, this is terrifying.”

“Well, I’m here to help you figure it out,” he said, reaching out with an arm to pull her against him.

“I still don’t get why you’re so much bigger than me,” she said, not liking how easy it was to feel safe and at home in his arms. Things in life just didn’t come this easy. She didn’t want to get too situated in case this didn’t turn out happily. After all, even with this mates thing where two people were really attracted, she assumed one could still choose, could still get rejected.

“Well, we do sort of reflect the size of our bear,” he said, chuckling. “But don’t worry. You’re mine and I’m the biggest bear around.”

“Really? Aren’t Kodiak bears bigger?”

He raised an eyebrow. “You seem oddly interested in bears.”

“Well, it would make sense if I was, right?” she joked, snuggling into him. It felt right, so why not. She felt safe and warm for the first time in a long time. Why not savor it while it lasted. “So what next?”

“First, I set you straight about Kodiak bears, so that you know that your mate is the strongest and coolest of bears, no pun intended,” he said, with a dazzling smile that sent tingles straight to her toes.

“Oh, of course,” she said.

“We polar bears are bigger on average than the typical Kodiak bear, and on top of that, I’m a pretty big polar bear. So don’t worry your pretty little bear head.”

“Yeah, I got the small bear.”

“You got the perfect bear,” he said. “Perfect for me, that is. And I’m the perfect bear to protect you.”

She turned to look up into his handsome face. “So, you’ve set me straight that you’re the largest and um, manliest of bears. So now what?”

“Now, I set about making you my mate,” he said, running a hand along her neck.

She shivered. She had a feeling she’d like what that entailed.

L
eah had thought
that Sky convincing her to be his mate would involve sexy times, but she was disappointed to find out that he was determined to take things slow and let her get adjusted.

He was also determined that she learn how to swim.

She struggled to stay on her back, trying to relax and float against his arm, but every time he removed it, she panicked and started to sink.

He laughed, and she resisted the urge to look up into those Caribbean blue eyes. She needed to focus. He removed his hand, she started to sink again.

“Damn,” she said. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get this floating thing.”

He laughed and helped her stand back down in the shallow water they were learning in. “Should we go back to scuba drills then? Now that you’ve learned basic swim drills, I’m less worried about you in the water. Besides in your scuba gear you have a BC, so floating isn’t really a problem. It’s just a skill I’d prefer you have, mate.”

She flushed at hearing that word again. Mate. It was all so new to her. And yet, for the past few days as they’d been working together, she hadn’t really questioned it. And learning to scuba and swim, to be a part of his world, that was an excellent distraction.

Except for moments like this, when she could feel his soft hands on her arms and all she could think of was the other day in the bedroom and how far they’d gotten. And how far they still had to go.

She avoided his gaze and swam to the edge of the eternity pool. They were at her suite today. The other girls hadn’t come back much at all during the day, so she had the place to herself. She wondered if they were getting up to trouble with the men they were spending time with as well.

She kind of hoped so.

He swam up beside her, tall and intimidating. She loved how fluid he was in the water, like he seemed to be a part of it.

“I wish I was as comfortable as you in the water,” she said.

“Well, you know the official name for Polar Bears, ursis maritimus, literally means maritime bear. We love the water. It’s our environment. People think we can’t live anywhere warm, but we can basically live anywhere there is water for us to cool down in.”

“Yeah, it surprises me that you don’t overheat out here.”

“Well, for one, I don’t go in my bear form a lot. For two, I don’t have the fat on me that a polar bear normally would to survive in the Arctic.”

She raised an eyebrow at him and then laughed. “No, you don’t.”

He sidled up and put an arm around her. “Oh yeah? So you’ve noticed?” He tickled her side playfully and she squirmed until he caught her up in his arms and tickled her sensitive tummy with his nose. She screeched and flailed but couldn’t get loose from the tickling onslaught. When he finally gave her mercy, she had laughed so hard she was tearing up, and she looked up at him, gasping, sharing a warm smile between them.

Damn, this felt so right. Not just the Caribbean breeze and the elegant hotel around them, but just everything about being in his arms.

He got a focused look and set her down in the water. “I’ll get us drinks. You probably need to cool down.”

She frowned. Did he mean cool down physically, or was he chiding her for her very physical reaction to being touched and held by him? She had to admit she’d never responded this way to a man before, but she’d never met one like him.

The men around her at home were both pushy and cowardly. Pushy about her getting them coffee, solving their problems, and taking care of them. Cowardly in that she sensed some of them would like to date her, but didn’t have the guts to ask her out.

Sky wasn’t like that. He knew what he wanted and he just went after it, and she admired that. Hell, she was turned on by it.

She loved the way their bodies fit together, hers small and curvy, his tall and muscular. The contrast of their skin tones. The thought of what their kids would look like.

That thought stopped her, frozen. How could she even be thinking of something like that? She’d never even thought about having kids. She’d always been so busy with her career, and now that she was in her thirties, and the right man hadn’t come along, she’d sort of given up on things changing. But she had wonderful parents. A pretty good job if you removed her boss from the picture.

She was happy.

But it wasn’t anything like how she felt here with Sky. He literally was like the sky. Broad and expansive and overwhelming. Everywhere she looked, all at once. She barely knew him and yet she knew him completely. There was something so natural that coursed between them.

He returned with drinks, big frothy frozen pina coladas, and they drank them while they rested their elbows on the edge of the infinity pool and looked out at the ocean.

“It’s so beautiful here,” Leah said. “I don’t know how I’ll ever leave.”

“So don’t,” Sky said.

“What? But my life is there.”

He shook his head. “I’m trying to go slow with you. Win you over. Show you I’m in it for the long run, not just for the sex, which I’m sure would be incredible. I want to spend my life with you, Leah. I have to spend my life with you.”

Her heart pounded and her jaw dropped, but she said nothing, just remained there, stunned. She hadn’t known he’d been feeling that way the whole time they’d been standing there. “Then why don’t you come back to New York?” she asked. “If you want to be with me so badly.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You’d rather live in New York than here?”

“I have to make money,” she said.

He shook his head. “I have plenty.”

“You’re a dive instructor.”

His eyebrow arched higher and he took on a haughty look. “Um, that’s not all I am.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

He turned back to the ocean. “Maybe I’ll show you later, when you have a little more faith in me.”

“I have family back in New York,” she said quietly.

“Then what if we spent half our time here and half there?” he asked.

“I have a job there…”

“But if money were no option?”

She bit her lip. It shouldn’t matter. She should be able to say it was no big deal. That she could just quit her job if needed. But she couldn’t. A swift chill coursed through her. “I’d still have a job there. I can’t just walk away.”

He turned toward her and his blue eyes turning an icy green. So she hadn’t imagined it before. They really did change colors. “You know, when you aren’t in bear form, I can’t read your mind. But because you’re my destined mate, I can still kind of feel your moods. Why are you afraid, mate? There shouldn’t be anyone in the world who can make you feel afraid when you’re with me.”

She opened her mouth to tell him about Ignus and then stopped. She didn’t know what to say, how to approach it. Her boss had a hold on her. She couldn’t explain it to others. Maybe because he’d held her job over her head for so long, maybe because he’d been so demanding, so close to the edge of verbally abusive.

But she just wasn’t ready to tell Sky about it yet. Not if it would ruin their time together arguing about it. She’d figure out what to do about Ignus later. “It doesn’t matter,” she said.

He turned to her, stroking a curl off her forehead. “It matters to me. No one is allowed to threaten you when I’m around.”

She flushed, feeling her body heat at his touch again, and faced out to the ocean. “When do we go on our first dive?”

“We have a few more water sessions, but could probably do it as early as tomorrow if you wanted. After all, I’ll be with you the whole time, since it’s a private session. Why, you nervous?”

She nodded. “And a little excited. I mean, it seemed much scarier before I realized how closely regulated it is.”

“Follow my instructions and stay close to me and nothing will go wrong. Even if something does go wrong, I’ll be there to fix it.”

She nudged him and leaned in and didn’t complain when he wrapped an arm around her. “You just want an excuse to keep me close,” she said.

“Always, mate,” he replied.

She shivered. Why was it so right? “So, tell me more about you. I guess I should know more about you if you’re really going to be my mate.”

“I hope to be,” he said. “What do you want to know?”

“What’s your life history? What was your childhood like? How did you come to be here?”

He rested on the pool edge and sighed. She had an urge to run her fingers through his hair but restrained herself. “I moved here when I was ten. My parents had separated.”

“Were they mated?” she asked, interrupting.

“Yes, but even with mates, things can happen. If a couple makes mistakes…”

“What kind of mistakes?”

He raised an eyebrow. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t want to tell you everything that can go wrong when I’m trying to win you over.” He flashed a wry smile. “Suffice to say, I’m not going to make those mistakes.”

She nodded.

“Anyway, my mom left my dad because she was tired of the cold. He moved here, I think hoping she would one day come back, but she didn’t.”

“She just left you?”

“Well, you have to understand, in the wild, bears aren’t very social animals. Some of us are more on the human side of things emotionally, some are more on the animal side. In the wild, bears tend to split up so they don’t have to share food and territory.”

“Ah,” she said.

“But as you can probably tell, I’m more on the human side of things emotionally.” He nuzzled his nose in her hair and she laughed and swatted at him playfully.

“Yes, I can see that. But you can still be quite a bear when you want to be,” she replied.

“That’s a compliment, sweetheart.”

“Argh, you’re driving me crazy,” she muttered.

He turned to her with a surprised look on his handsome features. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, we almost had sex a few days ago, and then I learned we’re both bears, and yes, everything has been overwhelming. But I mean, why haven’t you even kissed me again yet?”

His beautiful eyes that were blue again widened in response. “I didn’t know you wanted me to.”

“You’re my mate, right? Why wouldn’t I want to?”

“I didn’t want to rush you,” he said, turning her toward him, running his hands over her shoulders, which were still wet with water.

“It’s not rushing. After all, what if we only have these two weeks together? Won’t we have wanted to do everything we could?”

He growled low in his throat. “Honey, it’s never going to be two weeks.”

“But could you really go to New York?”

“If that’s what it required, yes.”

“But you love the ocean,” she said. And looking out at it, at the waves tossing and cresting in white foam, at the birds swooping low to feed, at the dock swaying with the rise and falls of gorgeous blue swells, she loved it too. It was just that…

“I do. But you seem to love your job.”

“It’s not that, it’s just…” She trailed off.

He brushed her hair back and studied her face. “Why do I get a sense that something back there scares you?”

She brushed his hand away. “That’s silly. It’s just a little stressful back there. But they depend on me.”

“So, is it just the job then?”

She nodded. “The job has kind of become my life, if I’m honest.”

“You can be honest.”

“I mean, I had kind of given up on meeting the right man. I was happy as I was, at least, I thought I was. But now…things are complicated. But in a way, they are finally right. But that doesn’t mean it’s all easy sailing from here.”

“But you want more physicality,” he said, looking down at her lips.

Hell yes she did. She wanted to press his beautiful body against her and take everything she could, see if they were as sexually compatible as she suspected they were.

“I’ll tell you what,” he said. “We’ll make love again after we go on our first dive. If you love it, I see no reason not to move further.”

She laughed and put her hands on his chest. She meant to playfully shove him, but once she touched his warm skin, she just wanted to caress him. He tightened under her hands and she sighed. “So, you just want me to like scuba diving?”

“I just need some more time to get my head on straight. And I know that after I dive with you, after I go under water with you and share my world with you, I won’t be able to let you go ever again. Not that I could let you go now, but it’ll be final then.”

She sighed. “All right, I can wait then.”

“But I can give you a taste now,” he said, leaning down to catch her waist and pull her up to him. He lifted her easily and caught her mouth with his, their lips fitting together seamlessly, as if they were made from the same mould. Her whole body heated and then melted in response to his touch, and as his tongue stroked every sensitive area in her mouth, her toes curled in the cool water, and the smell of salty ocean and coconut-scented sunblock blew around them.

And then another scent, one that was uniquely his. Cold, arctic, fresh and clean. It made her want to stand on a mountain with him, or dive into an ice cold stream. Or stand on a lone ice floe.

She clutched his back, loving the feel of his strong, capable muscles. Muscles that would protect her, that much she knew.

The kiss went on and on, and it felt that time was stopped for them. There was only this moment, this kiss, this melding of bodies and feelings, and she never wanted it to end.

And then a loud ring sounded from inside the suite. She pulled back as a bit of nervousness sliced through her automatically.

He sensed that the mood was ruined and started away from her, as if he meant to get to her phone before she could.

“Sky,” she said, but he was already going. “No!” she cried out, trying to catch him.

He turned, exasperated. She flushed when she saw the evidence of what she did to him pressing proudly against his swim shorts. His long, powerful legs stood shoulder width apart on the deck and he folded impressive, tanned arms over his toned chest as he faced her. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t answer that phone and tell whoever is scaring you to go to hell. You’re taken.”

“It’s not like that,” she said. “It’s just my boss. He’s…bossy.”

His face relaxed slightly, but held a look of confusion on his handsome features. “What do you mean? A boss shouldn’t be scary.”