This man was something else.
Something much more powerful than she had ever dared dream.
He pulled her up against him and grunted, and she gasped, a smile flashing across her lips.
He was so big and strong, she knew that if he wanted to break her, he could, and yet it turned her on more than anything.
She felt the danger and she was becoming addicted to it. Not only was he an amazing father, a genuine soul and a great ranger, he also had a sexuality that could paralyze any woman and stop them in their tracks.
He traced a finger down her jaw line and touched her bottom lip. Amanda gasped and let her hands graze his back, feeling the strong power underneath his shirt and wishing she could hold onto him harder.
When he leaned in to kiss her, it was as if nothing else existed. Her mind was blank, her vision blurred, and she had a warm, fuzzy feeling rocketing through her.
Their lips connected and when his tongue massaged up against hers she went weak at the knees. Her pussy was aching for him, and her nipples were erect and hard through the thin fabric of her bra.
He wrapped his hands up in her hair and cupped her cheeks, pulling her to him and pressing himself against her. She gasped and moaned, already on the verge of unravelling. Their connection was so strong, so natural and deep, that Amanda knew some other force must be at play. It was as if he had made her ‘his’ the moment they had first laid eyes on each other.
When their lips broke apart, she looked into his eyes and smiled. She saw the glint there and knew he was feeling all she was and more. For a girl who had denied herself love for so long, she had the feeling that Dean had been in exactly the same position, and she was determined to find out his story.
He smiled and nudged his lips up against hers again and then pulled her in close.
“You’re doing something to me,” he whispered in her ear. “Something I had long given up on.”
“And you’re doing things to me too…” she whispered.
He pulled her back and looked at her and smiled.
“We need to talk,” he said, and Amanda nodded in agreement. She needed to know what the hell was going on.
“We do,” she said.
“I will go and check Lil,” he smiled as he took a step towards the house. “Make sure she’s tucked in safe and asleep.”
Amanda nodded and watched as he went through the front door and down the dark hallway within the center of the house.
She turned on her heel and exhaled. Her heart was still pounding and she felt as if she were walking on air.
She looked at the woodland around her, at how beautiful the scenery was, and she knew she could never imagine going back home now she had experienced the beauty of a place like this. For all the years she had enjoyed her hometown, now she saw it for what it truly was. A place that had sucked her soul dry and made her give up on life. She had existed there, working through every day for someone else, never truly thinking about her own wants and desires, or her dreams for the future. Just a few days with Dean in Bridge Hollow had shown her the possibilities that were out there and what the world had to offer, and now she had had a taste of it, she was certain there would be no going back.
She wandered forward and stepped into the shadow of the trees. The light was already dimming, and the sun had long since disappeared down behind the mountain. The sounds of birds echoed around the forest and went deep into the woodland. She could hear the sounds of running water, as if there was a stream nearby, and a grumble of other wildlife as they went about their daily business.
The sounds triggered a memory and Amanda stopped and tried to bring it forward, before it clicked.
She thought back to what Lilith had said in the office. She had mentioned that town had been quiet lately, that strange things had been happening and that people were afraid.
She scratched her arm nervously and felt a chill in the air. She looked back over her shoulder, and she could still see the house, but she had come much further than she realized.
Lilith had said something about animals dying and about two hunters going missing. The chill came even harsher and she actually shivered. She looked down at the ground and on the crawling moss, she was sure that she could see what looked to be ice forming along the top of it too.
“What the…” she whispered as she bent down and touched it with her fingertips.
As soon as they connected with the moss and the earth she gasped and pulled them away. The cold was icy and offensive, it was so cold it felt like a burn, and she pulled her hand towards her mouth and blew on them to try and warm them through.
She stood up straight and looked around.
She couldn’t see anyone else or hear anyone else, but she had the overwhelming sense that she wasn’t alone.
She looked back to the house, and without even realizing, somehow she had managed to move deeper into the forest so that it was now out of sight.
“No,” she whispered. “This isn’t right.”
A strong sense of dread crept right up her spine and twisted inside her stomach. She breathed out and her breath seemed to catch on an icy wind and billow in front of her.
Somewhere to her right, a twig snapped and she heard a howl.
She screamed and jumped, pushing herself back against a tree and feeling her hands freeze in place.
“Ah,” she stammered. “He… Helll… Helppp…”
She could barely speak, and her words got caught and seemed to freeze as they were coming out of her. She felt a wave of nausea pass over her, clinging to her and pulling her inside downwards towards the ground. It was like vertigo when she was standing still, and she cried out in pain.
She was aware of movement, flashes of black and white coming from every angle, but they were creatures moving too fast so she could not see them clearly or make out what they were.
She groaned and felt her head becoming heavy on her shoulders. Something grazed her arm and she screamed again, wishing she could call out and shout properly so she could alert Dean and get him to come and save her.
Around her, whatever creatures were there with her in the forest began to circle and torment her. She could barely focus, the cold was thundering through her, and her vision was blurred, but she was sure that she could see eyes peering out of the darkness, inching closer and swirling up around her like a storm.
She sobbed and her head felt even heavier, she closed her eyes and tried to block it all out, the terror pulsing through her like thunder.
When she opened her eyes again, the first thing she saw was Dean. She saw him emerging through the forest, she saw him running, his teeth bared harshly, and a low, terrible growl coming from his lips. His eyes were wild and unnatural, they had changed from what they had been before, and he looked like a completely different person.
In fact, in that moment, he didn’t look like a person at all.
He looked like a wild animal.
He looked as if he were about to change into something else entirely…
Amanda’s head was still spinning, and she could barely breathe, but before she fell unconscious she kept her eyes focused on Dean as best she could. She watched him as he ran in her direction, coming closer and closer, and in a split second how his skin suddenly ripped and a dark, brown fur began to sprout in its place.
She saw his arms swell in size and claws burst out of his knuckles before his hands turned into big paws. She saw his nose elongate, his teeth flash with sharpness and anger, and his whole being turn so big and hulking that he was no longer Dean at all.
She thought of the statue in the middle of Main Street.
She thought of the way he looked at her.
And then she couldn’t think of anything else.
Around her the darkness descended, the eyes multiplied, and the dragging feeling pulled her further and further down.
The last thing she saw was the bear charging forward and she heard the wail of noise that swept up around him.
And th
en there was nothing but black…
14.
The dizziness was overwhelming, and she felt as if she were sinking into the ground below. She reached out and touched beneath her, expecting to feel cold earth, but instead it was soft and fluffy.
She couldn’t open her eyes, she felt as if she were still spinning, but she could tell she was no longer in the woods. She was somewhere safe and warm.
She moaned and rolled onto her side, trying not to let the nausea come over her again, and she felt a strong sense of confusion.
What the hell is happening… she thought. Where am I? What is this?
Her head was pounding and as she slowly started to come back to life, the dizziness started to fade, and she felt more like herself.
She reached up and rubbed at her temples. They were throbbing, but she felt as if she could finally open her eyes.
She made them open slowly and saw that she was in a dark, bedroom. Big dark curtains were closed across what had to be the windows, and she was wrapped up safely in a soft, luxurious bed.
At the foot of it, there was a fireplace with a large, roaring fire crackling away, keeping her toes warm under the blankets.
She pushed herself up onto her elbows and hazily looked around.
She was the only person in the room, but she felt the presence of someone else close by and she touched the place on her chest where she knew her heart was beating away beneath.
This had to be Dean’s bedroom.
She looked around and saw the boots by the closet and the ranger’s hat hanging up on the back of the door and she instantly felt safe and protected.
She smiled and rubbed her head again.
“Dean?” she managed to croak, her voice barely coming out.
She waited to try and hear any other sounds from coming elsewhere in the house, but there was nothing. Everything was completely silent.
She cleared her throat and tried again.
“Dean?” she called a little louder, and this time her voice came out normally.
She heard the sound of a door closing somewhere off in the hallway outside, and then the sound of heavy feet coming closer and closer.
She watched the crack of light at the bottom of the door frame, and as the steps got to their loudest, she saw two shadows appear underneath.
“Dean?” she asked again.
A knock came from the other side and her heart went up high in her throat.
Suddenly all she could think about was what if it wasn’t him… what if she had been taken somewhere and kept against her will.
“Amanda?” the familiarity of Dean’s voice sent a wave of relief rushing over her and she collapsed back into the stack of soft pillows behind her.
“Come in,” she said, as the handle started to turn, and the door slowly opened.
When Dean emerged, she felt everything all over again. She felt a rush of gratitude and affection, and she felt something else too…
She felt a deep sense of respect.
One that she couldn’t explain.
Her shoulders burned in the places where she was so used to feeling it now. A print made just by him, one that she would now carry with her for all time.
He closed the door silently behind him and stepped into the room, coming around to the side of the bed and sitting down next to her. As the bed bowed with his weight, she reached out and took hold of his hand. The moment her fingers grazed his skin, she felt strange and raw bumps and grooves that had not been there before, and when she looked down at them she saw why.
He was covered in cuts and scratches and he smiled sadly.
“Oh my God, Dean,” she gasped. “What happened?”
She looked up into his eyes and he smiled at her.
Her mind began racing again, and she tried to piece together what had happened.
She had come for dinner at the house with Dean and Lilith. They had eaten outside like they were on a camping trip and had so much fun she had never wanted it to end. Lilith had roasted some marshmallows, and they had all picked at them with sticky hands and eaten them one by one until they were gone. Lilith had said goodnight and then… and then…
Nothing.
She looked into Dean’s eyes.
“Are you okay?” he asked her.
“Dean,” she whispered. “What happened?”
His eyes locked in on hers and within an instant she felt a jolt. A rush of memory nearly knocked her off her feet as she saw the deepness of the forest, the cold and the darkness. The power that was hidden within the trees and the negative energy that had sprang free.
And then she saw the bear.
The bear that haunted her dreams. The bear that had followed her subconscious around since the moment she had come to town.
The bear that had been in her thoughts since the moment she had neatly knocked Dean down with her car.
She gasped.
Dean broke her gaze and the memories began to fade.
“You…” she whispered. “What are you?”
Dean smiled sadly and placed his hands on her bare shoulders and she almost collapsed with pleasure. Feeling his hands there after she had been craving his touch, was practically sending her over the edge into an incredible release. She moaned and sank down into the bed.
“You know what I am, Amanda,” he whispered. “You saw the documentary about here…”
He trailed off and she wracked her brains. She knew there were legends, tails of Big Foot like creatures lurking in the woodland of Bridge Hollow, but she didn’t know much more. The paranormal apparently lived there, and it was on a magical fault line, but how was she to know if any of this was true or not?
“Because you saw me turn…” Dean said as his eyes caught hers. It was as if he had heard her thoughts, read her mind and answered her questions.
“What?” she whispered.
“You saw me Amanda… You saw me turn into the bear…”
As he trailed off and kept holding onto her gaze, she felt her heart race again. None of this made any sense. In fact, it was downright crazy, but somehow she just knew that he was telling the truth.
How else could she explain all that had happened?
She wrapped her fingers up in his and squeezed his hand.
“The moment we first saw each other,” he began. “I imprinted on you…”
Amanda didn’t know what this meant, but she didn’t need to, it made perfect sense.
“My kind always have another half somewhere, someone to complete them. We only find it once…” he began. “I thought I may have found it with Lilith’s mother all those years ago… before she started drinking and left us here without a word… She abandoned us here, and I have been doing my best ever since. But things haven’t been easy, and I know I’ve run away from trying to find significant connections.”
The sadness sprang up behind his eyes and Amanda couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Lilith’s mother had walked out on them… she had left them behind and disappeared…
“But the way I felt about her, it doesn’t even come close to this,” he smiled. “I knew the moment we locked eyes. This is more than love, Amanda. This is fate. This is what the stars have written for us.”
Her heart started to dance inside of her, and her stomach was tight with nerves, but she loved hearing him speak and she wanted to hear more.
“We were meant to be together…” he continued. “You were always supposed to me mine.”
She thought back to her dream, and it started to appear in her mind in technicolor. She had been saved by a bear, a bear who had told her that she was his. Had she basically seen into the future? Had her dream shown to her the true path she would take?
She had thought it was a warning, but now, when she looked at Dean she realized it was anything but.
It was proof.
Solid proof.
Proof that she was meant to be with him for the rest of time.
Her shoulders burned and she ached for his touch again. Dea
n gripped her hand and his eyes glistened as he looked into hers.
“What are you Dean? And what happened in that forest?”
He looked away and down at the floor, before he sighed and seemed to take a moment to think on what he was about to say.
“I’m a shifter, Amanda,” he said finally. “My body is both man and bear combined, and sometimes the bear wins.”
“The statue…” she whispered.
Dean nodded slowly.
“But I’m not the only one,” he continued. “There are many of my kind here, we live in secret amongst the locals. The mass hysteria that has surrounded Bridge Hollow has done us all some good, helping us to hide in plain sight. If anyone ever sees one of my kind turn, they are instantly dismissed as attention seeking tourists and no one listens to a word they say.”
Amanda laughed.
“Wow,” she said. “So the legends are really true?”
Dean nodded. “Some of them.”
“Lilith said you would tell me the true story,” Amanda smiled.
“Because she could see what was between us,” Dean admitted. “Lilith isn’t like me, she can’t shift, but she has some very special powers of her own. Powers that we don’t fully understand yet.”
“And what about the hunters and the animals that died?” Amanda asked with wide eyes. “Why is town so quiet, and what is happening out in the woods? What happened to me tonight?”
“Our fucked-up history has come back to bite us in the ass,” Dean said with a half-laugh, but she could tell that he wasn’t amused by it at all, he almost looked completely weary of it.
“What history?” Amanda urged him to continue.
“It goes so far back,” Dean sighed. “Around a hundred and seventy years ago…”
Amanda felt her eyes widen and she sat up to give him her full attention. He still gripped her hand tightly and she pulled him closer, urging him to climb up next to her on the bed.
“This place was a mining town,” Dean said. “And way back then, around the gold rush, so much stuff went down, you wouldn’t believe.”
Amanda knew the vague stories of the mines in the area, but she was certain she had never heard this one. This was something else entirely. She stared into his eyes and Dean paused before he continued.
Alpha Daddy Bear Page 10
