Kodiak

by Delta James

  Rage fueled by fear and adrenaline flooded her system; she roared at him, making a bid for freedom through the front door. She stumbled as Josh managed to divert her away from her goal. Flynn felt something shudder and shift within her—great strength surged forward. She barely registered the sound of cloth being rendered. She brought her hand up to break his hold. When she lifted her hand to bat his hand away, she couldn’t believe her eyes. There, before her eyes, was the massive paw of a Kodiak bear... complete with razor-sharp claws. She watched with a kind of detached fascination as his flesh was torn apart as easily as the sleeve of the shirt.

  Her steps only faltered for a moment as she growled at him.

  “Flynn,” Alex said charging down the steps. “Stop it.”

  She galloped out of the main living area towards what appeared to be the kitchen. She barreled through the closed, exterior door, not bothering to stop to try to open it. Flynn crashed through the strong, wooden barrier as if it were no more than spiderwebs. She raced outside, turning away from the sea water, lapping gently against the pebbled shore. She galloped into the main square of the village. She could hear Alex’s angry bellow as she stampeded past surprised onlookers, sprinting towards the woods that appeared to surround the compound.

  Flynn was accelerating and thought she might be able to get away. Her hope and half-formed plan were shattered as a larger, more powerful paw swiped her hip, knocking her off of her feet. She tumbled along the ground but regained her feet, turning to snarl at Alex. She knew it was Alex. Something fundamental in her being would have recognized him regardless of the shape he was in. She saw a barely discernible shimmer as his naked human form shifted back into being.

  “Call your humanity forward and do it now,” he ordered.

  Her response was to roar at him, taking a swipe at his broad, brawny chest.

  Alex jumped back, just out of reach, “Knock it off, Flynn. Shift back or I will shift again and show you what it is to be mate to an enraged alpha male. You will not find pleasure in that. Now, Flynn,” he bellowed.

  Recognition that she did not know how she shifted and therefore did not know how to shift back spread across his features. Fear of what might happen if she shifted back flooded her being—fear combined with desire.

  “Calm your mind and call your human self forward. The bear will recede and relinquish her hold on you. I promise you will not like it if I have to force the shift back.”

  She wondered if he recognized the difficulty involved in doing as he said. Closing her eyes, she tried to slow her racing thoughts. She felt her bear begin to leave her conscious mind, but was reassured when she could still feel her. Glancing down, she watched as her paw became a human hand again.

  Flynn was quite certain she had never seen anything as arousing as Alex standing naked in the sunlight—legs spread, arms crossed over his chest and his cock rising to a state of readiness. It was as if she was mesmerized by the sight of him. She couldn’t look away. He was so enticing, so compelling.

  Remaining on all fours, Flynn crawled to him, nuzzling his groin as her small, pink tongue darted out to lick the underside of his cock. She wasn’t expecting him to fist her hair and drive his rigid shaft past her lips, driving to the back of her throat. She suppressed her gag reflex, relaxed her jaw and accepted his staff as he groaned heavily.

  Flynn began using all of her skill to please him as she licked and sucked his entire length. She took a kind of pride when he relaxed the hold he had of her hair and stroked it instead. Alex rocked his hips back and forth. He groaned and Flynn felt her own need begin to assert itself. She could feel his anger, rolling off of him in waves; her pussy quivered in response. She had no doubt about how this would end... precisely the way she wanted it to.

  “That feels good, Flynn. More than that, I can smell your arousal. That’s good because I have no intention of sending my load into your belly.”

  Alex closed his eyes and lifted his face to the sun as he grasped both sides of her head to still her movement as he slowly fucked her mouth. The surging ebb and flow of his cock and the appreciative sounds of male pleasure kept Flynn focused on the job at hand. Normally when she was blowing a man, she felt in control, but she was acutely aware that Alex was in complete and utter control of the situation. Alex’s controlled movements left no doubt as to who was servicing whom. His pleasure advanced her state of arousal—her nipples were becoming painfully hard and wet desire pooled in her core, awaiting his use.

  He arched his back, fucking her face harder and making her gag. He ignored it and plunged deeper into her mouth. It was as if he was trying to shove his cock all the way down her throat. His fingers tightened in her hair and he bucked his hips harder. His staff twitched and swelled as his release became imminent. With no warning, he pulled out of her mouth, but held her in place on her knees, stepping behind her. He forced her torso down, spreading her legs as he knelt behind her—his cock nudging her labia as it sought the entrance to her core. Alex surged forward and Flynn moaned in response, teetering on the edge of orgasm.

  Of the men she had fucked before Alex, none had been so willing to ignore every social norm and barrier. It occurred to her to glance around, as they were out in the open and might not be alone. His hard thrusting refocused her on him and his dominant coupling with her. Nothing beyond pure animal lust drove them both into a frenzy of fucking as she arched her back, spreading her legs wider and offering him easier access to her cunt. His enormous cock impaled her as he thrust, stretching her repeatedly.

  She panted at the same speed and rhythm that he hammered her pussy. Flynn felt every ridge and vein of his staff as it ravaged her inner walls. She moaned as he took her, feeling her own orgasm rapidly approaching. Alex released her hair as he grasped both of her hips and drove into her with increased speed and power, grunting with every stroke.

  Her muscles seized as she tumbled into the void where no questions remained; just the certain knowledge that this man completed her, that she had been created for him alone and that regardless of what happened in the future, her destiny was intertwined with his. From the distance of the abyss of ecstasy she heard a scream of erotic pleasure and only barely recognized the voice as hers.

  Her pussy clamped down hard, trying to trap his cock as it pounded inside her. Flynn keened her need and satisfaction as her sheath shuddered all along his length. Alex gave a last, brutal thrust as he drove home, flooding her pussy with his hot seed. She felt it bathing her inner walls, coating it with its sticky substance as he spurted the last of it close to her cervix. Flynn collapsed, uncoupling herself from him. She was exhausted past the point of all reason. He fisted her hair as he stood, drawing her up beside him. She felt his semi-erect cock still wet from their mating at the apex of her thighs. He leaned down, tossing her over the apex of his torso, before standing up and striding back to their lodge.

  Flynn was only vaguely aware that she was naked, slung over her mate’s broad shoulder being paraded back through the village before the eyes of their clan. Mate? Their clan? When had she begun to think that way, she asked herself. The answer came swiftly—right about the time she went down on him and then allowed him to mount and fuck her on her knees in the dirt where anyone could have seen them.

  He entered the house and instead of going up the stairs to their bedroom, he strode into the kitchen, lugging her along as though she were a sack of grain. Alex landed a hard strike on her exposed backside.

  “Apologize to Josh; you clawed him pretty good.”

  “Oh, God, Josh! Are you all right? Did I hurt you too badly?” she cried, rising up from the position in which Alex had her, truly mortified at the damage she must have inflicted.

  “I’m fine,” said Josh in an amiable tone. “Kodiak physiology means we heal rapidly. All I had to do was clean it up a bit and it was well on the way to being healed. By tonight, you’ll never be able to see I was injured at all. Are you all right?”

  Her answer was cut off when Alex’s hand struc
k her again. “My mate is fine. She’s been well fucked and her cunt is full of my seed. I plan to spend the rest of what time is left before I have to leave doing more of the same.”

  Alex left Josh standing in the kitchen. Flynn wished she hadn’t looked up to see his face. She expected him to look shocked, disgusted, embarrassed, maybe even insulted, but no; the look on his face was one of all-encompassing amusement.

  “Help me!” she cried.

  “Sure, a friendly piece of advice. Don’t piss him off. He’s a nasty bastard when he’s pissed. I suspect fucking him long, hard, and repeatedly will do a lot to keep him in good mood for which all of us will be grateful,” Josh offered, trying hard not to laugh, but failing.

  Alex swatted her again. “I’d listen to him if I were you.”

  She was jostled around, slumped over his shoulder as he trotted up the stairs and walked down to their room, opening the door and dumping her unceremoniously on the bed.

  “Now that your tantrum is over...’

  “Tantrum? You come barging into my life...”

  “If I hadn’t, you’d be dead, at least three times so far...”

  “That is not pertinent to this discussion.”

  His laugh caught her off guard as he pulled on a pair of jeans. He indicated a new tray of food. “Eat. Shifting takes its toll on your body. You need to replenish your strength especially since you are so recently recovered from a nearly fatal wound and going through the transition.”

  “What fatal wound?” she asked tentatively, as her mind worked to recall something at the outermost limits of her memory.

  “Try and calm your breathing, Flynn. Becoming agitated will not serve you well. As you recently discovered, if your bear feels you are in danger, whether or not your assessment of the situation is correct, and you let slip your control, she will come forward to protect you.”

  Fascinated, she asked, “Do I have to be upset in order to shift?”

  “No. You can learn to call her forward anytime you choose. For example, if you need to get from point A to point B over rough terrain, it is often easier to do so as a bear. Normally, you plan for it and remove your clothing, placing them into a bundle and taking them with you.”

  Her anger over his treatment of her reared its ugly head. “None of which negates that you imposed this weird kind of double existence on me. You gave me no choice.”

  “You’re right, I didn’t. But I had no choice either—you were bleeding out. The only way I could keep you from dying was to initiate the change and pray that it would save you, which it did.”

  “I... I was dying?”

  He nodded. “In the warehouse, Koto’s assassins shot you, which I might point out they would have been unable to do had you stayed up in our den.”

  “But you planned to do it before I was shot...”

  “Yes, to make you one with me. You are now Kodiak—stronger, more resilient, faster, more able to adapt to harsh environments, harder to kill.”

  “And now bonded to you as your mate...”

  He laughed again. “I think that bothers you a whole lot less than being Kodiak.”

  He stopped speaking and leaned back against the dresser thoughtfully, resting his butt on the piece of furniture and bracing against it with only his heels on the floor.

  Slowly, he began speaking again, as if measuring his words. “I don’t want you to think for even a minute that I wouldn’t have turned you without your consent, but I would have tried to persuade you and would have prepared you. But I didn’t have a choice. Simon said you would have died and that was unacceptable. As it was, we almost lost you. It was only the combination of Simon’s skill and the infusion of Kodiak blood that saved you.”

  “But why me?” she asked, dropping the hostility.

  He shrugged. “Because you are my mate. I knew it before I ever touched you in Seattle.” He snorted a derisive laugh. “I can assure you I don’t normally sidle up to a woman and finger fuck her in a crowded bar and then take her into the back to mate with her for the first time.”

  “But the second or third time would be okay?” she quipped, the first hint of humor and acceptance in her voice. “I guess there’s some comfort in that. What about my brother?”

  “What about him? Tell your brother whatever you wish to. I only spoke briefly with Ben, but I know he would never do anything to harm you, so I believe our secret would be safe. I don’t want you to feel like you have to keep any secrets.”

  He rocked back up onto his feet and came towards her. “You, my beautiful mate, call to me in a way no other ever has. In the past, the rut has always been, for me, an undeniable physical need once a year to spend a week or two fucking a wet cunt—any wet cunt. With you, my need goes far beyond that. There is so much more to experience as a shifter, and I want to share all of that with you... and only you.”

  She could see in his eyes and his body language that the admission had cost him. Part of her said she ought to leave him out on that fragile limb to twist slowly in the wind, but the better part of her knew he was her mate and she couldn’t do that to him.

  Rocking up onto her knees, she crawled towards the edge of the bed, reaching out to wrap her arms around his neck and draw him forward.

  “You might have led with that... mate,” she whispered, before allowing her body to meld with his and kiss him with the quiet intensity of a distant storm.

  Alex groaned as he returned the embrace, pulling her close and seizing control of the kiss. The kiss was different from the few he had inflicted before. While still passionate and dominant, it was more of an exploration of her response. Instead of demanding, it was coaxing... and all the more compelling because of it. They stood for several minutes doing nothing more—or less—than kissing before he broke it off.

  “You are far too enticing,” he said quietly.

  “Is that such a bad thing for one’s mate to be?” she asked seductively.

  “It is when you really do need to eat. I think it would be better if you got dressed and we joined the rest of the family for a meal. I fear if I stay up here with you naked and willing, you will prove too tempting.”

  “Family? Oh shit, Alex, your nieces could have seen us.”

  “No, I knew the girls were out with their mother and that the only one home was Josh.”

  “Hmm, yes, Josh. You won’t be angry if I hit him over the head with something for not helping me.”

  He chuckled. “While I applaud the thought and can see your point of view, I would point out that you did open up his arm when you clawed him. I think you should call it a draw and be thankful I don’t punish you for such behavior.”

  “I would think you’d be far more interested in fucking me than spanking me.”

  “First, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. I assure you there will be many times you get fucked with a red, swollen, painful bottom. Second there are a variety of ways other than spanking that I can punish you.”

  She searched his face. “Damn, you’re serious.”

  “Very. If you behave downstairs, I will consider that matter closed as well as all of your previous misbehavior. We can start with a clean slate. Agreed?”

  She got off the bed and walked to the chest to rummage through them, pulling on a pair of leggings and one of Alex’s sweaters.

  “No shoes or socks?” he asked.

  “No, I’ve always preferred going barefoot, which I suppose is a far more appropriate and applicable term than it was two weeks ago. And Ben is safe?”

  “He is. You can call him if you like.”

  She nodded, throwing back over her shoulder as she opened the door and went out in the hall. “I’d like to do that before we return to Seattle.”

  “We won’t be returning to Seattle... at least not for some time. I will leave in the morning to deal with Koto...”

  “I’m the one he tried to kill,” she said as they made their way down the stairs.

  “And almost succeeded in doing so,” he said, leaving
no doubt in her mind that he considered the matter closed. “You will remain here where our clan can keep you safe.”

  They entered the dining room just as food was being laid out.

  “He hired people before, what makes you think he’ll face you alone?” she asked.

  “He has no choice,” he answered. “The Komodo Tribunal, their governing body, has decreed this to be personal between Koto and me. The Komodos want no part of a war with Kodiaks. They indicated they would advise his clutch not to back anything he might want them to do. I agreed if the tribunal and the clutch stayed out of it, I would confide my justice to Koto himself.”

  “And if he wants peace... you know, let bygones be bygones?”

  Alex shook his head as he held out a chair, indicating she should sit between him and his eldest niece.

  “Too much has been done. Henry almost killed Josh; Kevin and David tried to kill you. The Kotos don’t get to do that and live.”

  “What about just regular justice—like with cops and lawyers.”

  “Koto has too much money; he’ll just buy himself an acquittal.” He leaned down to give her a chaste kiss and whispered, “No, Koto will die.”

  Dinner was a lively affair. Flynn could easily imagine Ben sitting among them at the holidays. She knew Alex would demand that she rearrange her life to suit him, and oddly, that didn’t bother her nearly as much as it should have.

  After dinner, they remained downstairs and Flynn took the time to get to know her two new nieces and their mother.

  When Josh and Alex took the girls out for a kayak ride, Allie and Flynn both begged off.

  “Can you tell them apart yet?” asked Allie. “It took me a while, but then I didn’t get to see them together a lot at first. Alex used to scare the hell out of me.”

  “He can be a scary sonofabitch when he wants to be, but yes, Alex is a couple of inches taller, carries more muscle, and his features are more angular.”