Once Upon a Shifter (15 page)

“What happened?” Grace asked. Her memory was blurry.

“I bonded with you,” he said. His hand struck the water with blinding speed and he snatched another fish out of the river.

What was he talking about? She remembered him running up to her and the wolves just leaving after seeing him. Then she remembered him in the kayak, turning into a bear in front of her eyes. What was going on? She must’ve got food poisoning or something that was causing hallucinations. That couldn’t have been real.

Fucking Becca
. Grace had to get back to limos and satellite TV and cappuccino machines. This environment was not for her.

“How are we getting out of here?” she asked.

“We’ll sleep here and walk tomorrow.” He lifted the fish up to his nose and smelled it. “Mmmm,” he moaned with a smile.

This guy is a barbarian.

“We’re not sleeping here,” she said, crossing her arms. “Get someone to come get us. One of those speedboat thingies or a helicopter.”

He tossed the fish on the ground. They jumped and squirmed around desperately trying to find water. Edwin stepped up to a tree and began ripping off branches.

“Listen to me!” she said, gritting her teeth. “I’m the daughter of a Senator. I’ll have you arrested for kidnapping.”

Edwin stared at her blankly, his penis in full view.

“Will you cover that thing up?” she said, turning her head away. But the image remained in her head. His fit abs and his muscular legs. It drove her crazy that she thought of him in that way. She was high class. Sophisticated. She didn’t associate with people like him and people like her definitely didn’t sleep with people like him. But he was definitely the hottest guy that she had ever seen naked. And her body was letting her know that it liked it.

He looked down at his package. “But we’re mates.”

“Why do you keep saying that?” she asked. She glanced back at him, trying to keep her eyes above the equator.

Edwin dropped the branches in a pile and walked over to her. He squatted down in front of her. She turned her eyes away up towards the top of the trees. “This is highly inappropriate,” she said. “I am a lady.” Although she could have offered him her shirt to cover himself but she didn’t.

“You saw me change into my bear,” he said.

She whipped her head back around. “That was real?” No. It had to have been a hallucination. Food poisoning. Drinking too much river water. She’d even take schizophrenia.

He nodded. “I’m a werebear,” he said. “And I bonded to you. Isn’t that great?”

She closed her eyes tightly and shook her head. “A werebear?” she asked. “Those things aren’t real.”

“Yes we are,” he said with a smile. “And you’re going to have little, werebear cubs! A lot of them.”

She shook her head in disbelief. “What are you talking about? I’m not having anything. As soon as I can, I am out of here.” She yanked her hands away from him.

“No you’re going to stay here with me,” he said. His face dropped. “Aren’t you?”

“I have Coldplay tickets on Tuesday.” She glanced down at him one more time before standing up. “I don’t know your story. But you’re a freak. Just leave me alone.” She walked away from him and sat by the river.

She turned her back to him and stared at the water. This was all too surreal. Werebears? Hot, naked men? Shitting in the woods?

Her chin started to quiver.

I am going to kill Becca.

The sun was gone and the sky was getting dark. Her clothes were still damp and she was starting to get cold. She wrapped her arms around herself and rocked back and forth.

Edwin was breaking and snapping branches and throwing them into a pile on the ground. She gasped when she saw how fast he worked. There was enough wood to last them through the night.

He bent over the pile of sticks and in no time it was smoking. A warm, inviting flame erupted from it and Grace couldn’t help but head back over.

For the warmth of the fire and not the hot naked guy around it.

She was a lady. Sophisticated and proper.

Definitely not for the hot naked guy around it.

Edwin turned the fish on the stick that he rigged to hang over the fire. Grace stared at it like a dog watching someone eating a burger with the patty about to slide out of the bun.

He didn’t know what he did wrong. They were supposed to be together.

Connor will know. He’ll help me fix everything.

Edwin had spent so long as a bear that he forgot how to be human. It felt forced to be in his human skin, like he was wearing a disguise. Even now he wanted to phase. To become his bear. But that would just freak Grace out even more.

“Are you hungry?” he asked.

“Starving,” she said, never taking her eyes off the cooking fish. “Aren’t you cold?” she asked. He noticed for the first time that she was holding her knees and shaking.

He balanced the fish over the fire and sat down beside her. She flinched.

“Wow,” she said. “You’re like a heater.”

Edwin stared at the fire not knowing what to say.

“I’m sorry if I was a bitch,” she said, inching towards him. “I should have been nicer. Especially since you saved me. Twice.”

Edwin smiled. “Wasn’t it three times?”

She laughed, a laugh that made his heart skip a beat. He never made people laugh. People laughed at him, that was for sure, but he never understood how to get that ‘humor’ thing down.

“Probably,” she said.

A wolf howled in the distance. She jumped over and wrapped her arms around his. His bear purred, delighted to be touching his mate.

“Are they going to come back?” she asked. She darted her head around, searching the dark forest.

“No,” he said. “If they do they’re stupider than they look.”

She still hadn’t taken her arms off of his.

“They were so scary. I don’t like this place.”

“Really?” he asked. “It has everything.”

“I love the city.” She squeezed his arm. “Give me lights, crowds, noise, cars, pollution, restaurants, nightclubs. That has everything.”

The fish was blackening on the stick. “That sounds scary.”

“I can take you sometime,” she said, taking her hands off of him.

Edwin shuddered. All of the people around, walking and talking, bumping into him. What if a stranger spoke to him? He wouldn’t last five minutes without phasing.

He stood up and took the fish off of the stick. He filleted it with a sharp rock that he found by the river as Grace watched.

“So that’s how it’s done,” she laughed. “I always just sit at the table with a big glass of Barolo and wait for someone to bring it to me. I didn’t realize where the meat actually came from.”

He handed her a piece and she gobbled it down. He slid the second fish onto the stick and placed it over the fire.

She had finished her portion in record time. She wiped her greasy hands on her shorts and smiled. “I was so hungry.”

“There’s more coming,” he said.

She shook her head. “I’ve never camped before,” she said. “I’ve never slept in the woods or cooked something over the fire and ate it with my hands.” She was smiling. “My Dad would think this was undignified and improper.” She smiled at Edwin, making his heart rate increase. “It’s kinda fun.”

He smiled back, unsure of what to say.

She looked serious. “Do
not
tell Becca that I said that.”

“I won’t.”

“It’s a nice change not having to worry about designer outfits and make-up and what kind of car everyone is driving. Everyone in my circle is so concerned about the most superficial things. Sometimes I find it just
exhausting
. It must be liberating to live like you do and just let it all hang out.” She glanced at his package. “Literally.”

Edwin did enjoy his life but sometimes he found it lonely. It wasn’t lonely tonight though. Tonight he was with his mate.

They ate the second fish and Edwin threw another thick branch on the fire. It must’ve been getting cold out because Grace was shivering. She laid down on the dirt in front of the fire and curled in on herself as her thin body shook.

Edwin laid down behind her and wrapped his arm around her. He was expecting another slap but she didn’t move.

“You’re so warm,” she whispered. She tangled her fingers into his. “Thank you for saving me.”

“Anytime,” Edwin responded, getting dizzy from the sensuous smell of her hair.

“I can’t believe you’re a werebear,” she said. “My uncle Pete used to tell me stories of werebears but I never believed him. What’s it like?”

Edwin wasn’t good at explaining things in words. “It’s like having a bear inside you.”

Grace laughed. “You should get a reality show,” she said. “You would be famous.”

The thought of fame made Edwin shiver. That would be the last thing in the world he would want. “I just want to live in the woods,” he said. “With you.”

Grace laughed and turned around. They were face to face. There was a softness in her eyes that wasn’t there during the day. Edwin never felt so lucky before in his whole life.

“You wouldn’t want me to live with you,” she said, smiling. “I’d drive you crazy with all of my complaining.”

“It will drive me crazy to live without you,” he said.

She leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips. His bear purred and Edwin melted with that kiss. If his bear form had bonded to her in the river. His human form had bonded to her now.

Grace laid on the cold ground and dreamed of her soft, warm bed. Hell she even would’ve taken the hard bed with the scratchy sheets back at the cabin.

Her body shook as the cold of the night pierced her thin arms. She was always cold. And tonight was worse than ever. She was wearing small shorts and a thin tank top and her bikini underneath had never really, fully dried.

She wondered where her big, fluffy sweater and thick jogging pants that she brought were. She pictured a big cat fish wearing them on the bottom of the river.

Surprisingly Edwin had turned out to be comforting company tonight. And not just to look at. She felt safe around him. If the sight of him could send a pack of wolves running than she would be okay.

She also felt strangely comfortable and relaxed around him. He didn’t care about her social status or bank account. Or what her family name was or who she hung around with. He was just happy in her presence.

It was hard for Grace. She never knew if guys were trying to be with her to get favors from her Dad, like Rick, or to leach money from her, like Charlie. Guys from her world always seemed to have an ulterior motive with her.

Edwin was different. And it wasn’t just the fact that he could change into a brown bear.

He was sweet and manly at the same time. She had never met anyone who could fight off a pack of wolves and catch a fish with his hands. He had a calming presence about him. A raw, sexual energy that she found appealing and that her body responded to.

It was scary being in the woods but Edwin was there to protect her. And that turned her on.

She leaned in and kissed him.

Why not?

Tomorrow she would be gone, back to her nose-up-their-asses circle and this could be her little secret. In the future she could look back at the time when she got fucked hard by the hot, manly naked guy in the forest when her stressed-out, overweight, investment banker husband was lazily sticking it in her on the couch between commercials.

Grace had taken some heat in her teenage years for what her Mom called ‘promiscuous behavior.’ It was improper. That was something that lower class sluts did. It wasn’t for a lady in her social position. She had conformed and changed her ways over the years but she still loved sex.

But tonight no one would know but her.

This guy lived in the woods. He was a recluse. He wouldn’t be gossiping about it at the Country Club or at the next charity event.

She kissed him again and this time slid her hands down his naked body. She brushed her fingers past his rough pubic hair, down along his shaft and he began to harden under her touch. He groaned and his body began to hum.