So Much To Bear: Shifting Devotions (Werebear Erotic Romance) (6 page)

Damon watched as Jennifer finished packing her backpack, stuffing in her laptop and looking around the room to make sure she wasn’t forgetting anything. After she’d finished her homework the night before, they’d taken a long shower together, touching each other, teasing until they couldn’t hold back any longer. Damon had held her in his arms, leaning against the wall as she rode him until they both reached another climax together. It felt good to use his strength. It felt good to be confident in who he was as a were-bear once more, no longer the only one of his kind. “I won’t be long,” Jennifer said, smiling at him as she slung the heavy pack over her shoulder. “I’ve only got two classes today, so maybe this afternoon we can go out and do something fun.” Damon nodded, though he had already decided that he wasn’t going to be kicked out by the housekeeping staff again; he would leave right after she’d gone to the bus.

As soon as Jennifer closed the motel room door behind her, Damon picked up the phone. Tanner had given him a card when he’d dropped him off, with a number scrawled on it. “If you decide to join us, call that number—I’ll come get you.” Damon contemplated the directions for dialing out for a moment and then punched the number into the old-fashioned phone, taking a deep breath.

“Who is it?” the man on the other line said the moment the call connected.

“It’s Damon.” There was a pause on the other end of the line and then the man chuckled.

“Decided to join us?” Damon smiled slowly.

“Yeah. Come get me.”

“Fifteen minutes. Be out front with your stuff.” Damon agreed and hung up. He found the stationary pad on the desk and scrawled a note to Jennifer.
I decided to join the gang,
he wrote.
I hope you’ll understand. I really need to be with my people—it shouldn’t be long. I’ll miss you. I’ll be back. I’ll be safe. They’re going to show me how to live in the city as a shifter—you know I need that.
Damon put the note where Jennifer would find it—but not where it could be intercepted by the cleaning staff. He grabbed his things and made his way downstairs.

***

Hours later, Jennifer had a sense of foreboding déjà vu as she came into the empty room yet again. “What the hell? I can’t leave a few hours without him disappearing on me?” She closed her eyes and hoped against hope that Damon hadn’t been tracked by the police, that he wasn’t in their custody right then. But, she thought, if the police had come into the hotel after her boyfriend, the front desk would have surely told her about it. Wandering around the room in a mixture of irritation and ill ease, Jennifer found the folded up piece of paper tucked among her toiletries. She recognized Damon’s handwriting immediately; as she read it, she sank down onto the bed, feeling as though her stomach had plummeted to her knees. He was going with them. He was going with a group of criminals who had busted out of jail. No good could possibly come from that. She felt her heart beating faster. There was nothing she could do but hope to hear from him—and watch the news to see if the police found him first.

Bethany Rousseau

The sequel to this story is available now!

So Much To Bear: Avenging Instincts (Werebear Erotic Romance)

With Damon slipping further from her arms and further from human society, into the beastly domain of the criminal werebear gang, Jennifer is determined to coax her lover out of the darkness and back into the light. But with his newfound fraternity planning more and more dangerous schemes, will Damon finally see the errors of his ways when the action moves closer to home? Will Jennifer succeed in her appeal for him to make the right choice after all?