Luke (Bear Shifter) (New World Shifters) (11 page)

Was that movement on the other side of the river again? I shaded my eyes against the sun and peered in that direction, frowning. Whatever had caught my attention was gone, just like before.

But Bruno had caught me looking. He wagged his finger at me, scolding me as if I were nothing more than a little girl. “Just like at the bar, you’re really supposed to keep your eyes to yourself. Anything else is just rude,” he said, his lip curled in a wicked grin so sharp it looked like it could cut.

“Enough,” Luke growled. He flexed his biceps and rolled his shoulders, those bright blue eyes catching the sunlight and blazing brightly.

Even though I’d been waiting for it to happen, when it did I almost missed it.

They all Shifted at the same time. Bruno and the other two men growled and dropped to all fours. The crunch of breaking bones and the eerie sound of stretching skin filled the air for an instant as their snarls rolled through the forest.

Luke reared his head back and roared with enough power to shake the sky. His frame, usually lean and well-muscled, filled out and bulked up. A thick, glossy pelt pushed forward to cover his flesh. A moment later there was a nine or ten-foot grizzly standing beside me on its hind feet like the man he’d been just a moment before, waiting for Bruno and his cronies to attack.

Bruno howled, and the other two Wolves struck up the eager chorus. I felt a shiver go through me like an arrow and couldn’t help but let out a yelp when the smaller of the Wolves suddenly sprinted forward and pounced on Luke’s massive, grizzly form, only to be batted away by one of his heavy paws.

The second Wolf darted forward, faking another leap before slashing with slavering jaws and wickedly sharp teeth at the grizzly’s leg. Luke growled and swiped at the Wolf, missing by inches as the creature retreated, circling just out of reach.

I held my breath as I watched Bruno hang back. There was something in his eyes, some evil glimmer that made me suspicious enough to glance back over my shoulder across the river again.

What I saw chilled me to the core. There were five more wolves, all of them huge and clearly spoiling for a fight, sprinting toward us effortlessly across the ice of the frozen river.

I was certain Luke could take the three he was facing, but eight? I didn’t think so. Something told me that when the Wolves won these bloody battles, it was through deception and the sheer numbers of the Pack. They were dirty fighters, specializing in ambush and assassinations.

Just like this… I knew with certainty that they’d sprung their trap well. Luke would fall beneath their onslaught, and I’d be left to their devices, a captive of the Pack.

Unless…

I’d always been impulsive. You don’t get to be a pregnant seventeen-year-old without an uncanny ability to take risks and make spur of the moment decisions, after all. I’d never hesitated at jumping into a situation with both feet. Sometimes you had to be brave and bold, damn the consequences, and that was exactly what I needed now.

There was no way I simply couldn’t bring myself to stand by and watch something terrible happen to Luke. He didn’t deserve that. He’d been through enough, and it was probably my fault that the Wolves were even here right now…

Luke and I had been looking out for each other for weeks, even though I was only now beginning to realize it. Now, he needed saving. The big Bear didn’t know it yet, but the new Wolves charging across the ice were going to enter the fray like a ton of bricks and change the outcome.

I leapt to my feet. My decision was made.

It was much easier getting down the slippery riverbank the second time, particularly now that I knew which rocks would shift beneath my weight and which ones were sturdy. Once I was back down there, I did the unthinkable and stepped onto the sheet of ice that covered the river.

Gingerly, with as much care and grace as I could muster, I tiptoed quickly in the direction of the five new Wolves.

“Not yet,” I warned myself, whispering out loud as I narrowly avoiding losing my footing. I could already hear the ice shift and crack beneath my shoes. If I were to fall, I’d surely plunge through it to the deadly water below.

“Not yet…”

The Wolves saw me and picked up the pace and so did I, trying to get as far from the riverbank and into the middle as I could. I could see them swerve in my direction, and I welcomed the change. Anything to keep them away from Luke, to give him more time to deal with Bruno and the others. “Here, doggy doggy,” I called, doing my best to piss them off. “Come and get your little treat…”

They growled and drooled, and I turned and took one last look at Luke as they closed in around me. The Wolves he fought were bloody and ragged, though something in their body language told me they weren’t hurt as badly as they were making out. I wasn’t surprised to see that Bruno was letting the other two fight on his behalf, happy to wait for reinforcements without risking his hide.

Well, if this works Bruno won’t get the help he’s expecting
, I told myself. When the Wolves were almost on top of me I sucked in a huge lungful of air, crossed my fingers and sent a prayer to whichever guardian angel was looking after Jake to keep up the good work.

My little boy would have been proud of me. After running from the world for so long, I was finally ready to do the right thing.

Falling was easy. Hurrying on the slippery surface of the ice had been the difficult part. As the snarling Wolves howled their fury, close enough now that I could have reached out and touched them, I let my body slam on to the frozen surface I’d been walking on, bringing my elbow down painfully on the thin ice as hard as I could.

The cracks and crunches of a suddenly fractured, shifting surface filled the air like rifle shots. I had a fleeting moment to feel victorious before the frigid, surging water hit me like a fist in the gut. The howls of the Wolves turned to yelps, and the swift river current grabbed us and threw us down stream.

I wanted to scream, but I was smarter than that, choosing instead to clamp down on the air I still had in my lungs. I was moving so quickly though that I knew right away I’d miscalculated. The river was as wild as Luke and the Wolves, and its power and speed would sweep me far from here. In a moment I’d be trapped beneath the ice wherever I went, and sooner rather than later my air would run out.

That’s
if
the current didn’t break me against the rocky bottom or bash my brains out against a boulder first…

Desperate and at last afraid, lungs on fire, I reached out with frantic hands for the bottom of the ice layer above me, hoping to somehow make another hole and steal a little more air before the end.

But it wasn’t to be. The ice was sturdier than it looked, and with nothing to brace against I didn’t have the strength to break it. A big, flailing Wolf spun past me in the current, sending me whirling downstream even faster.

Finally, the panic fell away at the same time as my air and the feeling in my limbs did. The world above me drifted away too, and the sparkling sunlight that made it through the ice filled my heart with one last sunrise.

Jake. Stay strong. I’m so sorry.

I heard a fire. The sound called me back, and I was happy to answer.

The wood was popping and crackling. I could smell the sweetness of the smoke, just as I could feel the heat of the flames on my face and my shoulders.

I had the feeling that I’d been hearing those noises for a long time. Perhaps there had even been several fires lit and then burnt through before the fuel was restored.

At last I managed to open my eyes, despite the fact that it took a monumental effort. There was a tidy campfire a couple of feet from me, and I used its light to pick out the few details of my bruised and battered body that I was ready to cope with.

At least, I tried. I didn’t get very far, since I was tightly wrapped in a sleeping bag. The heat of the fire reflected off of the cave’s stone wall, and when I talked myself into angling my head to look upward ever so slightly I could see the mouth of the cave and the yawning darkness beyond.

Thankfully, I had enough of my wits about me to recognize where I was. This was Luke’s cave, and as sparse and barren as it was it sure felt like home.
Not quite
, I reminded myself.
Jake’s not here, and he’s what makes your life worth living
.

A noise at the mouth of the cave made me hold my breath in fear. Had the Wolves returned for me? Had they been the ones that brought me here? I was a fool assuming that Luke had been the one that pulled me from the swiftly moving river when in reality I could already be a prisoner of the Wolfpack and not even realize it.

“You’re safe,” Luke said as he strode in from the wilds beyond. “You’re also a brash, reckless, crazy fool who should, by rights, be a frozen corpse beneath the ice. But you’re safe.”

“For now,” I added with a smile that hurt my face a little to make.

He nodded. “For now,” he agreed. “Bruno got away, but thanks to you the rest perished. The river claimed the ones you tricked, and I smashed the two that were attacking me into pieces.”

Luke went to the fire, and I watched him stack thick, broken branches and split logs amongst the wood that was already in the flames. He was busy building the fire up for me, which gave me ample opportunity to watch him. The way he moved, the simple grace that his body conveyed in every action…

He was
enchanting
. I licked my lips, only realizing what I was doing after I’d already done it. I knew I’d been fighting my attraction to him, but this was starting to get ridiculous. I looked away, staring past him at the far side of the cave wall, only to see the clothes I’d been wearing when I took my wild, unscheduled plunge into the river hanging up to dry.

But if they were over there, what was I wearing
?

Nothing… My heart sank as I realized that was the answer.

Panicked, I dipped my trembling hand into the sleeping bag, running it across my body and hissing in pain as I discovered few things at once. Firstly, I was indeed naked, and secondly just about every inch of me hurt at least a little.

Luke looked toward me, but at least I had the presence of mind to snap my eyes shut and grimace in pain, doing my best to try and make it look like I’d just had a wave of pain come over me.
Don’t be embarrassed by the fact you’re not wearing anything
, I told myself
. If you need to worry about something, you may as well be embarrassed by the fact that he’s already seen the goods
...

“Everything okay?” he asked.

I nodded slowly, letting my eyes open back up. “I think so. I just took a rough ride, I suppose.”

“You’ll heal quickly,” he assured me. “I had a look at your wounds, and they aren’t as bad as they probably feel. You’re incredibly lucky, Zoe.”

“Yeah. I noticed I was pretty bare, under here… That must have been when you were doing your looking.”

At least he did his best to look apologetic, though I could see that he was on the verge of breaking out into a grin. “Couldn’t be helped,” he said. “Would it make you feel better if I told you I tried not to look?”

“No,” I told him, glaring at him. “Not unless you could promise me that it was true.”

“Oh. Well, I better shut up then…”

I sighed, trying to still make him think that I was annoyed at him. I wasn’t though, and I think it showed. “Did you at least like what you saw?”

He smiled, and a moment later I saw a shadow of regret flash across his face. He was fighting his attraction to me too, and the guy had the willpower of a saint. I could tell that it was frustrating to us both, and it was starting to make me think that maybe I should just give up.

“You should rest,” he said.

“I am.”

He nodded, staring into the fire to avoid meeting my gaze. “Good.” He stretched before the fire, rising up on the balls of his feet. I saw the bottom of his shirt crawl up over his chiseled six pack and muscled lower back. The play of rippling muscles danced with some old wounds and a few new ones.

In fact, here and there I caught the unmistakable slice of a fresh cut or bite, and, though his movements didn’t slow due to the pain, it was obvious the more I studied him that some damage had been done to him by the Wolves.

Luke stretched even further, cracking his back with a satisfying series of pops and letting out a very bear-like grunt as he turned to face me. “Forgive me,” he said.

“For what?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. A lot of things, I suppose. For letting you see me Shift, for a start. Your life can’t go back to the way it was, not now. The Wolves know you, and their howls travel far. They’ll chase you to the ends of the earth, if they have the chance.”

I made a face. “Let them try. I killed more of them than you did, remember?”

That got a laugh out of him. “You did indeed. I’m sorry for what I said back there, too…”

“About you loving me?”

Luke nodded.

“Don’t be,” I told him, rolling my eyes at him and making a show of laying my head back down on the folded up clothes he’d made into my pillow while I’d been out cold. “If you want to be sorry about something, be sorry about the bullshit you’re trying to sell me about why we can’t be together.”

“It isn’t our destiny.”

“So I’ve heard.”

He growled deep in the back of his throat, and I heard the Bear in there, like a dark shadow. “I don’t expect you to understand.”

“Good,” I snapped. “Because I don’t. It’s crap, and you know it. If you want to try and convince yourself that it’s in our best interests not to act on the feelings we both obviously have for each other, that’s one thing, but be a man about it.
Own
it. Don’t tell me it isn’t in our stars, or whatever. Kiss me or miss me, Luke, but make a decision and stand by it!”

I realized I was panting with the force of my emotion, and I could hear my own heart thudding in my chest and pounding in my ears. I closed my eyes and tried to block out the world, angry at him for not accepting responsibility for a choice that was going to have such an impact on each of us.

I could handle rejection, but this was far worse. This was a level of angst I’d thrown off in high school right around the time that I found out I was pregnant. I didn’t have time for childish things then, and I sure as shit wasn’t going to drag them out of the hole I’d buried them in now.

Eyes shut tight, I heard him pad softly across the cave and circle around behind me. This near to him, my body shivered uncontrollably with desire. It didn’t matter that I was pissed off with him. I needed his touch. Maybe things would change if I told him that? After all, I’d sort of left him hanging when he’d confessed his love for me.

I opened my mouth to say something brash, something heartfelt and not very well thought out, but his voice cut me off.

“You’re still cold.” It didn’t sound like he thought I should have been, and I didn’t like the worry I heard in his voice.

“A little,” I admitted. In truth, it felt like I was laying on a sheet of ice, even though the cave was very warm. Part of me could feel the heat radiating off of the stone, though it wasn’t really penetrating to the core of me. I knew, on a logical level, that the fire was blasting heat but my body wasn’t able to hold on to any of it.

He was quiet, and just as I was about to ask him what my coldness meant, Luke crouched down behind me and lifted the sleeping bag away from my body, exposing my bare skin to the air and to his hungry eyes.

I froze in place as Luke gently lay his hands on my injuries, and the warmth that spread out from wherever he touched seemed to seep into my bones. I didn’t know if he was healing me. It was too hard to concentrate on something as minor as my flesh and blood, what with the flames of desire he was igniting up and down my limbs.

Finally, when I thought he was finished, he surprised me once again by pausing behind me. I thought I heard his clothes hit the ground, and then Luke climbed into the sleeping bag with me and drew it up tight around our bodies.

I couldn’t help but grasp at the touch of his naked, achingly warm abs as they came flush with the small of my back. My body took over and my brain stepped aside, and I found that my ass was grinding up against him. I shuddered involuntarily when I felt the heat of his cock, and I slid my thighs apart and-

“Careful,” he said in my ear, his voice so low it may as well have been underground. For once there was none of the scolding tone that had filled it for most of our previous conversation.

“Sorry,” I whispered, more to myself than to him. I was going to get hurt. I could tell. I’d been telling myself that it would be easier to take the rejection if I was the one to dish it out, but that had been a lie. Besides, the tables were turned now, and I’d just proven that, while I may not have been able to say the ‘L’ word, I wanted him too again.

“Don’t be. It’s my fault. This really is the best way to keep you warm. It would almost certainly lead to other things, if…”

I sighed out a lungful of air through gritted teeth. “Is this that destiny crap again? You know that’s a cop out, right?”

“Not for Shifters.”

“Bullshit,” I hissed.  “Everybody tries to find the one that’s meant for them. You guys aren’t any different, and the only person you’re fooling by pretending you are is yourself.”

“There are certain people, Zoe…”

I shook my head and let my body press back against his. “You said you loved me. That’s enough. I could tell by the way you said it that you meant it. I’m willing to throw caution to the wind despite what it will no doubt cost me. Are you?”

“We should stop,” he said, although his hips pushed back against me. I felt the hot slide of his cock on my inner thigh, the thick tip of him poised deliciously.

“You’re probably right,” I murmured as I did my best to control my body. It wasn’t working. I couldn’t make my hips stop the slow grind against him they’d already begun. I wanted him too badly to bring an end to this, especially when he was so close to filling me.

“Destiny,” he whispered. “Fate. Those things should be stronger than the lust I feel for you.”

“But they aren’t, are they?”

His hands grabbed my hips, and I felt his cock twitch against me. “This is dangerous. We have to fight it.”

“I can’t,” I moaned, the rolling sound of my desire reverberating through my body and the cave around us.

To my surprise, Luke chuckled, the strength of it rocking my body as it rubbed his cock against my clit. His hips pumped once, then twice, and I felt my naked body mold to his. “I don’t have the strength to resist you,” he said, rolling me over so that my breasts were smashed against the sleeping bag and my ass was up in the air, ready for him.

He didn’t make me wait. Luke grabbed my hips hard and dragged me back against me. In one slick, fluid motion his cock split my pussy. The sheer joy of being filled by him made my thighs tremble. I threw my head back and he grabbed a handful of my hair, using the additional leverage to fuck me even harder.

I grunted as his hips crashed into my ass. I’d been cold before, but now it felt like there was a fire in me. The heat of his big cock rolled through me, and with every thrust and stroke he melted the ice that felt like it still clung to my bones.

I closed my eyes and let the emotions crash through me. Relief that he and I didn’t have to fight our feelings anymore. Apprehension at what would come next.

And, above all of that, love. This felt
right.
It felt like our passion was embraced by the world. Far from being forbidden, we were finally doing what we should have let ourselves do all along. He and I were meant to be together, and whatever nonsense he had in his head about destiny and fate was proved wrong as I shuddered and came hard against Luke.

He let one of his hands slide up to grab my breast. I felt my stiff nipple drag against his calloused hand, and that was all I needed for my first orgasm to quickly blossom into my second. I felt my pussy clamp down hard on his cock as my muscled spasmed uncontrollably, and a moment later he finished inside of me with a roar that echoed off of the walls of the cave and made my ears ring.